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In Episode 6 of Living Tarot, I speak with Winifred Tanetta-Costello, Visionary Healer, Reiki Master Teacher, Tarot Reader, Mentor and Witch. She is the founder and facilitator of The Witching Well, an online magickal community for earth-centered seekers who are ready to grow their spiritual practice in meaningful, tangible and accessible ways. Winifred and I discuss how embodiment brings magick into reality and how Winifred embodies the High Priestess.

Winifred shares how she “decided” to be a witch and what becoming a witch really looked like – from playing “witch” with neighborhood kids to running her own Magickal community.
She discusses how intuition led her both to open her brick and mortar store, Awentree, and how it also ultimately led her to release that physical space this year.
The importance of teaching from a place of compassion and humility when connecting other with their own intuition.
We discuss the challenges around listening deeply to intuition, and how knowing something is right for you, and intuitively guided, doesn’t always mean that it’s easy.

Connect with Sheila:

Book a Tarot or Reiki session at starsagepspirit.com or find her on Instagram instagram.com/starsagespirit.

Connect with Winifred:

https://awentree.com/ or instagram.com/awentree

Check out this episode!

Transcript:

Sheila M 0:05

Welcome to living Tarot. I’m your host Sheila Masterson. I’m a tarot reader and teacher, an energy healer and medium and creator of Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives. Each week on this podcast, I’ll share my own experience of embracing and growing intuition and interview guests about how they heard the call of intuition, embraced the adventure and embodied the Tarot along the way. Join us and learn how you can stop second guessing., Empower yourself through intuition and live intentionally with the Tarot.

Welcome back to Living Tarot. Today on the podcast I am hosting my wonderful friend Winifred Costello. Winifred is a visionary healer, Reiki Master Teacher, tarot reader, mentor and witch. She’s the founder and facilitator of The Witching Well, an online magical community for Earth centered seekers who are ready to grow their spiritual practice in meaningful, tangible and accessible ways. She also founded Awentree, originally a brick and mortar witch shop in 2006, and recently transitioned her store to be fully online. She views witching as a mystical path, and craft that facilitates deep healing and transformation through direct encounter and embodiment practices. Winifred identifies as an earth which she has experience and training and Goddess traditions, Old World witchcraft, fairy seership folk magic and Tarot. She’s a national guild certified hypnotherapist, past life regression facilitator, and currently studying neuro linguistic programming. Winifred is an avid outdoors person actively hiking, backpacking, camping and organic gardening. She lives with her husband, dog and two cats in western Massachusetts. Winifredis a friend of mine, from a business group that her and I were both in this past year, we got to know each other online, really loved talking about Tarot and business. And in this interview today, we really talk about how she’s kind of worked through different, different stages of her life and how the Tarot has kind of come into play through different experiences, and how she brings a lot of that embodiment practice into her daily life, what her intuition looks like, and how she really embodies the High Priestess card. So I hope you enjoy this week’s episode. Let’s dive right in.

I am So excited to have you here with us today when a friend so let’s just start off by telling us who you are what you do what you bring to this world.

Winifred Costello 3:09

Awesome. Hi Sheila. I’m excited to be here as well thank you for the opportunity to talk about nerd out on all kinds of spiritual Tarot stuff that I’m super nerd about that stuff I’m very passionate about. And she wants to know what what do I do in the world? Yeah, so I am. My biggest thing is about being very public and out of the broom causes closet hopping out of the broom closet around what it means to practice an earth centered spiritual tradition. I in particular, do identify as a witch, although a lot of folks that I find in me that practice these traditions, maybe don’t use that word that’s maybe not a word that works for them personally. So whether someone’s pagan, Wiccan, a witch, I’m just really looking for a spiritual path that feels accessible and relevant in really speaks to their soul. And is recognizes the earth is sacred and cycles of the seasons and the moon and the shifting tides. I’m very much driven to provide real tangible information, hands on skills, Authenticity, like support them and empowering them and embracing their spiritual agency around that. I’ve been called to this work since very young and it was all the some mentors on my journey that really empowered me and I know for a fact that mentors I met when I was younger, I’m really I was very much seeking healing in a very active way through my 20s. And the healers and mentors I met, like literally directly impacted my life by empowering me and my life, like very much in a very positive and different direction than it would have if I had not met them and gotten to know them and work with them. So I kind of see I’m passionate about making pagan paganism and witchcraft. accessible and helping stop the misinformation that’s out about around those traditions, but also about empowering people to be able to reclaim their personal power and step into their healing and embrace the personal growth and transformation much as my mentors helped me do that.

Sheila M 5:15

That’s awesome. I love the way you said that too. And because I think that often when people hear witch or witchcraft, they go to a very specific place where, you know, they see you know, the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz and have this idea or, or Salem, you know, and I love how you talked about kind of taking apart some of the mythology and stuff that is around that and some of the negative connotations and also even within the industry, trying to make things more accessible and more personal for people, because I think that’s so important. So I know that that was kind of brought about by by your own journey. And your own mentors along the way. Tell us a little bit about like baby witch Winifred like, what were you like what kind of got you into all of this?

Winifred Costello 6:10

I love this question I get asked it a lot. So I usually start with like, like most folks who come to these traditions like practicing witchcraft and paganism at an earlier age. So I got into this stuff is like for sure. I was definitely aware of what it was to be pagan and choosing to be pagan. By the time I was like in ninth grade. But prior to that, I was definitely an unusual kid. Like most people start off. And I had some pretty interesting experiences and encounters, mostly with a very intense dream life. I used to have very, very intense dreams. I used to call them visitations. And was this not unusual kid. I was just like, you know, trees were my friends. I did things different than other kids. And somehow in elementary school, I I got in my head this idea of like that I’m gonna be a witch. I have no idea. We didn’t really watch a lot of TV. I’m a 70s kid. There was some witchy stuff out there on the in TV Land. But we didn’t really watch like we our our TV was very controlled back in the 70s like you watch Saturday morning cartoons and I think mutual Omaha the animal show on Sunday night or something. So it’s not like I remember seeing something on TV necessarily. And this is before the internet before video games. I don’t know where this idea that being a which was something one could be but it popped into my brain. It definitely bought like fifth and sixth grade. And I remember this one summer where I decided I was going to be a witch we really had no idea what I was doing, which is really it’s very sweet and lovely. But the the truth of it was that it was very much through nature. And my my idea around witching was that it was about being outside and plants and nature in the moon and So I was compelled to make my little neighborhood friends play a game I called witch with me.

Sheila M 8:09

This is amazing.

Winifred Costello 8:10

And the really funny thing is that, so I grew up something called unchurched. So my parents were really, they’re really neat, unique people. So in one sense, they had conservative politics, but in the spiritual sense, they were super progressive way ahead of their time. So my mom is Irish. My dad is Italian. It’s I call it the Boston mix. And it’s the Boston I love it. And so they made a conscious choice when they would marry not to practice a religion, which in the when you consider They married in the 50s. That’s really progressive. Um, anyway, yeah. So we were raised not in any religion. And I didn’t step foot in a church until I went to a wedding like in my teen years, so but we weren’t raised without A sense of spiritual spirituality. But we were, I was really encouraged to have a very independent approach. And my mom used to my mom was really unusual, like, I look back on her life. And so she never referred to God as God, he she only referred to him as the good Lord. And she was very adamant that if you wanted to connect, right, you wanted to connect with God that you went outside in the backyard to the tree and talked to the tree. And that’s how you talked to the good Lord. So I always tell people like is it kind of curious that the, I ended up being sort of drawn to nature as representing divinity. You know, so a lot of interesting things sort of kind of contributed to that. But my neighborhood friends, like I was the only kid that did back in the 70s. Everybody in the town I grew up, you went to church or you going to synagogue, nobody didn’t do one or the other. I was like, literally the only kid. It kind of ended up meaning that I was pretty isolated. And I didn’t have a lot of friends because a lot of parents would let their kids play with me when they realized we didn’t belong to any church. thought that that was very odd. So I, it’s really weird, but this is like a suburb of Boston and like I was born in the late 60s, I believe it is, um, you know, so there was this one neighborhood family that allowed they were very devout Catholic, Irish Catholic, and they allowed their kids to play with me, but they were always proselytizing to me. They saw me as like the little uncouth even child, because I remember being like schooled by them on because I didn’t know anything like they like I didn’t I didn’t know anything like, like I was raised in a very secular spiritual, the Earth is the spirit, your spirit or your spirituality. We live so. Um, yeah, so I had a really unusual start. It just sort of organically fed me into aligning as a pagan later as a teenager.

Sheila M 10:48

Yeah, it’s, it’s so fascinating to me because my experience was so opposite. Like I was raised, very Catholic and very conservative I didn’t even meet anybody. I mean, I’m sure I met somebody at some point. But like, I didn’t have friends who weren’t Catholic until high school. Like I didn’t even I didn’t even have awareness. Really. I knew other religions existed. Obviously, Jesus was Jewish. So, um, so I knew something about that, but but I didn’t have like a different experience. Other than that, until I was like in high school and college. And so, I had kind of like, the opposite experience, which I think was isolating in like, a different way because I always felt like two different people because I didn’t connect. I didn’t connect with like, the religion that I was brought up in, even though my family like, we would leave church and I would look at my parents and like, they clearly got something out of it. Like they felt the way that I feel about the work that I do now. So I’m like you, you know what I mean. But like, I thought I was the weird one, because I just wasn’t I didn’t get it, you know. And so I always felt very divided like I was that person and also, you know, from the time I was really young I got all of these impulses and stuff and didn’t know what was going on. Like I was reading people without realizing that I was reading people and and i would say i was like listening to the air to hear who is going to come upstairs next to my house, but I was literally hearing energy. Right And so, so it’s very interesting to hear about the complete opposite experience. And I didn’t have any real awareness about excuse me about witches in general. until probably like when the craft came out, which I don’t know what year it was, but I think I was in like, eighth grade or ninth grade or something and like, then we all want it to be witches like so bad and then it was like, being a witch like had like a moment, but it’s very interesting to me to hear about like a background Where you weren’t kind of you were left kind of open and available to whatever want it to come in for you. So I think like, kudos to your parents, first of all, because I think that requires a great release of control.

Winifred Costello 13:14

Right? Well, it’s, it’s really ironic because in other ways my, you know, my parents were very sheltering and they My mother was very conservative and her political views we did not see eye to eye, we actually butt heads a lot. But she raised me to be a very independent thinker. That was something that was really important to her. And she raised me based on my father and her had encountered things that didn’t really make them feel really great about the church, and each in their own different respects. And so they, but they were spiritual people. So they felt like it was most important for one to have a direct relationship with divinity and then it’s really just instilled that in me and then I think I also had as a very young Girl I was very connected to animals. I had a really, really deep we had, you know, we always had pets, we had a dog. I always had a deep relationship with animals. And I’m just I would I would find myself at a young age arguing with people about animals have been sent in and having a soul. And like I said, I was definitely odd, like people thought I was a strange kid. And I remember when I was in high school, and I had, like I said, Everyone went to most people went to church or synagogue. So I had some friends that were very in very devout families. And so they were really disconcerted by the fact that I identified as pagan. So there was a I went through this time period when they tried to convert me to be Christian. And my question was always, do you believe animals have souls or sentience, and it was something that was just how I felt about things and when I would hear the responses from, you know, what Christian leaders are pastors or preachers, it just didn’t jive with me and then a couple of them brought me that like, in High School couple friends brought me I went to two Christian services because they felt like I couldn’t decide to be pagan if I’d never been Christian before, which is like as an adult is really strange. That’s a strange idea. Um, so I was like, okay, and I went to these two different church services. And after they were all very curious as you I felt anything, and I said, it seemed very nice, and the people are very friendly, but much like what you’re saying. I said, but beyond Ruby, I appreciate everyone’s very friendly and welcoming, but no, nothing really lit up in there for me. And then I would ask the animal soul sentience question and I’d be okay. I’m out. Like,

Sheila M 15:33

yeah, yeah, I think I’m one of the things that I see kind of over and over with. A lot of a lot of my guests on this show. And a lot of my friends who do spiritual work is that sense of a greater sense of autonomy. I think then other people had like, okay, like, that just doesn’t work for me. You know, like, I’m gonna go in this slightly different direction

Winifred Costello 15:59

right now. No, I was grown up, okay, many years forward in my spiritual path. I understand that I somehow organically as a child as a teenager, I was an animist, but I didn’t have that word or the vocabulary when I was young, but I knew that that’s what I was seeking. Like, I was seeking to find a path of spiritual practice that aligned with my just how I felt about the world, which was like an animus worldview. And I, like I said, it wasn’t much older than I even heard that term. And but when I heard it, I was like, Yes, that’s it. Exactly. Yeah.

Sheila M 16:31

So you kind of got on this path from an early age, you had mentors that helped you and helped you develop your practices and everything. And then you recently decided to close your physical location of your metaphysical store Awentree. And I know I kind of listened to your whole I listened to another podcast before we met personally. He talks about like, how much love and care like went into the design of the store from putting crystals in the wall and, and just like a true labor of love and a very intentional setup to the store and everything. And what inspired you to really want to open the store in the first place? This is kind of a, I know a long story question, What inspired you to want to open the store in the first place? And then what inspired you to like kind of release and let go of something that had been such a huge labor of love? Like, how was that kind of guided by your intuition or spirit?

Winifred Costello 17:36

Um, so it’s a great question. And I say lots of words. Let me see if I can be succinct. So I met the woman who became my Reiki Master Teacher, my Reiki Master Teacher, she had a beautiful spiritual and spiritual inspired magical shop, New Age metaphysical witchy shop in a town nearby and I met her Her in my mid 20s and she’s in my Reiki training with her I learned a fair bit a fair amount of astrology training with her and most importantly she really helped me step into my power my first like claim my power and my healing stand in my truth like claim my voice and stand in that the truth of it. And she really helped me get out of my own way as a tarot reader, Tarot teacher, as a healer, she she really did everything from personal empowerment like really about like, how can like she was an amazing mentor and her greatest gift she’s still around She’s a friend of mine. Like we call each other cosmic soul sisters so I was always as a mentor, she was never let above you. She was always like, you too can do this. You can do this too, was always like what’s possible for you like, like, I would have a lot of admiration for her. And I easily could have put her on a pedestal but she was very much Nope, this is possible for you to and that was really tremendous. And she had a store and when I met Her went into her store, I went there actually, to get my Natal Astrology chart read. I was working with another healer at the time who recommended a reading with her. And the second I walked into the store, I was telling people, I just knew something clicked. So I always had this idea that there could be some sort of work other than that, what I would call mainstream work, but I’d never really seen anyone doing it. So I couldn’t even describe what it was I knew I was meant to do, because I hadn’t actually seen anyone doing it, but I knew I would know when I thought it’s like a very strange kind of mystical paradox. So I walked into her store and I met her and the second we met, I was like, like, this is like a new a new It was like a new car. So like I knew our souls, had a contract to me, that she like would be an important influence in my life. And I was very directly inspired by her in her store. And I always used to tell her would one day when you retire, that’s going to be my time to open my store. And she would always be very sweet. She’s like, if you have a vision, just go ahead and do it. You know, don’t don’t wait on me and I was like, No, that’s just I just know intuitively that’s the timing. And you know, fast forward 10 it was like 10-12 years later before I actually opened and created an open entry. From that moment it was maybe it was like 12 or 13 years later was the right moment arrive. I always saw a tree is a great like the daughter of the granddaughter of her store Apogee that’s not her store close to now. And I really wanted to create a hub like I really wanted to create an oasis where seekers could gather where witches could gather pagans, spiritual folks, mystic seekers could gather and it was in and it was like, okay, it was okay to come in and say, I have these intense dreams and then they they come true or they’re, or they my soul speaking to me my dreams or I have these intense psychic moments or healing, or I feel drawn to, you know, practice witchcraft are all the things that kind of go with all the All of what it is to practice an alternative spiritual path or alternative living where you’re more about listening to the earth and listening to others. I really wanted to create an oasis, a space of inspiration and access, like a almost like a resource. Yes, it’s a it was a business. So you know, like, you know, for business, you got to bring money in to stay afloat. It takes. I just tell people, it takes time, money, resources and energy to create a space like that.

But I really wanted to offer what, what what I had experienced when I met my mentor, but also I didn’t meet her tools in my mid 20s. And I started seeking in my teen years, and I felt very blessed. I even met my mentor. But I have wished I had met someone like that sooner. And so I also wanted to provide a space where people could get access to resources and teaching materials and spiritual supplies and healing and readings. Were the folks when I was a Taurus sun Scorpio rising, so we’ll kick it till it’s real. So I’m very much into like, like, let’s be unpregnant I’m a pragmatic earthy, which you know, like, let’s get real. Let’s not just like, I love this. I love Salem, who doesn’t love Salem? If you’ve been to Salem, Massachusetts, it’s it’s awesome. But there’s not this isn’t bashing on I know wonderful healers and readers in Salem that are amazing folks that do amazing work there. So this sounds like a weird generalization. I really don’t mean that cuz I know some amazing folks there. But um, I didn’t want it to only be like, the external part of what we see a lot of times depicted in witchcraft, like they’re really like now he’s seen on Instagram, like the curated picture I wanted. Yes, that’s very powerful and beautiful, who doesn’t aspire to that in their practice? But I know that that’s what where we start and I wanted something that was very real and raw and help people practice everyday magic in their life, right where they are right now with what they got. So that was what

Sheila M 22:55

I love that so much. I love that you kind of drilled on that, because like you’re saying there’s there, there’s absolutely a time and a place for everything else. And like you said, just because people are reading there doesn’t mean that they’re not for real. But I think there’s kind of this kitchiness to that environment that leads to just kind of a surface level understanding of things and also because I know we’ve talked about it a lot because we are friends. Kind of bringing these things into everyday life and and a practicality to it that it doesn’t need to be like a whole big ceremony and like you can have respect and dignity in what you’re doing without it being like a perfectly timed and organized and resourced offering because not everybody has all of those resources.

Winifred Costello 23:51

It’s true and I also a big thing and people stepping into these, like when we are claiming your own spiritual agency. It is on us on a lot of ways to claim that and I think what happens is we run into a lot of self worth issues, and permission issues. And so we get in our own way. And I think we can put a lot of excuses between ourselves our spiritual practice. And the more excuses like I don’t have the right tools, the right although the right clothes, the right timing, those things are wonderful. And when we can do those things, are we going to get bigger transformations and sure for sure that’s going to happen and there is a time and a place for them. But at the same time, there’s nothing more powerful than then reaching for your magic right where you are in the moment you’re in with what’s right around you like folk magic is a very powerful magic that’s I people I don’t really like low and high magic I like more like raw, like raw magic versus curated magic, more than low and high. That puts it is one of the things about how I practice witchcraft and paganism and all these kinds of things is also trying to pull the hierarchal energies out of it and habit me and become more circular because I think that these are like More Earth circular traditions and not that linear hierarchal states. So that’s another secret part of my mission, I guess are not so secret.

Sheila M 25:08

Yeah, yeah. And I think especially important now, as like, accessibility is having more more of a moment I think in, in the spiritual world in general, and people are needing to be more accountable to the languages that have been kind of passed down from, from very, even though this has kind of been a more fringe thing. There’s still a lot of patriarchal and white supremacist things that do get mixed in. And I think it’s really interesting, like you’re saying about trying to teach in a way that is not hierarchical, because it happens a lot. And I and even in your description of your relationship with your teacher, how you always felt like, you were kind of on the same level and you were like learning together and she wasn’t trying to be like, I’m like, I’m in charge and I’m better you know, like it. No Yeah, I really like resourcing you well,

Winifred Costello 26:03

Right? Like the guru the Guru is I call it the guru thing. And then like, um, yeah, so I just wanna say we’re always all unpacking like you know our like our baked in supremacy, white supremacy and patriarchy. That’s something we’re always working on to clear and heal and you know, deconstruct, but at the same time, I think my best all my best mentors didn’t do the guru thing. But I have and I have encountered witchcraft teachers that very much did the guru thing. And and New Age teachers and things like that, too. I mean, it can be anywhere. It’s not it can’t you have to keep an eye out. I think for that. pitfall. I once heard a great phrase, do not confuse your spirituality with egoism. I think it’s how it goes like and what is very important one knows the difference. My being spiritual right now or my being about ego, which I heard that line long, long time ago, not saying I always get it perfect. I’m a human I certainly have, I’m always still learning myself on how to better embody these things and how to unpack my own unconscious bias and baked in white supremacy and patriarchy, we always are faking that, like trying to take the encoded stuff out, you know, but yeah, yeah, definitely a resources now to help us do that work.

Sheila M 27:21

Yeah. And I think that’s one of the things you know, it’s one of the things I always try to do, and I’ve always connected with teachers who do that as well, because even even my own experience with when I kind of started seeing and hearing spirits and stuff as an adult I did as a kid, but I kind of blocked it out and forgotten about it, you know, like a lot of people do. And then when I was really kind of going through my second awakening, so to speak, I was talking to my Reiki teacher about it, and he was very intentional about Like not doing the work for me, well, he knew what was going on before I knew what was going on. But he also respected the fact that I might not be ready to recognize that yet, and did not just say like, hey, you’re a medium like, this is gonna happen, you know, he kind of said it in a gentle way that I did not pick up on it. And then I came back to him and I was like, Hey, I think this is what’s happening. And he was like, Yes. And I was like, Well, why didn’t you just tell me and he was like, you know, you really it’s your path and you really need to be the one that decides and ultimately me telling you that you have an ability First of all, it doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to do . And second of all, doesn’t it kind of takes away your ability to really learn and and be participating in your own learning process. If I’m just telling you You are like labeling you, you know and I think that’s something that I really strive to do in my teaching and when I work with people is really teach them how personal it is. And even though because even with clients who come in I, I hear people say to me all the time like I can’t do what you can do and I’m like yes you like we all can everybody has this experience.

Winifred Costello 29:23

So it’s about empowering is what you’re saying and also to like not denying them their destiny, their own destiny of discovery around coming into like, you know, claiming their own skills I was telling you you have to be a spiritual detective. That’s what I tell my students be steered natural detective in your own journey.

Sheila M 29:42

I love that that’s that’s so perfect. Because I think that’s so true and, and so much of everybody wants like the answers like they want to skip to the end. But if you don’t, if you miss the middle part, then like, you don’t Know the why and you don’t have the same, like the same experience of the journey and you don’t have the same appreciation for it. And you feel doomed by your like initial judgment of the outcome. So rather than like understanding the why, through experience, you just kind of cut to the end and then you’re like, Okay, well, this isn’t what I wanted. And so the whole time, you’re just like, this isn’t what I want. This isn’t what I want. This isn’t what I want, instead of like, exploring and and being like, Well, what do I want? You know, and and figuring that out? Because I think it takes like you said it disempowers people if you just kind of like give them the answer,

Winifred Costello 30:39

right, totally. And I always say to people, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how many candles you burn for a spell. If you haven’t done the work that needs the pre work or your homework or your soul work that needs to, like come before you. Like put that flame that match to the candle. The maybe you’ll get lucky and the candle spell will work but maybe you’ll just burn a bunch of candles and still be in the same place. Because you haven’t done the work that you the foundational work that really needs to happen. Because really when you finally ignite the candle in your candle spell that should be like the period at the end of the sentence should be backing up all the work you’ve done leading up to that moment, preparing to be ready to create real transformation in your life. And then the actual spell is like, kind of a combination of it. I mean, yeah, the spelling does the work, but you have got you can’t skip can’t skip that stuff. You’re talking about like those steps before and during and even after, you know?

Sheila M 31:32

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Winifred Costello 31:34

And so, I didn’t answer your other question. Yeah. Um, so um, alright, so I found it all entry. I actually found it with my which my best my best friend. We’re still best friends. Um, so we co founded the short stories. We co founded in 2006. We literally built the store from scratch, like literally, it was a raw space. We built the walls. That’s why as you were in the other interview, like You know, we ship crystals into the wall, we do symbols before we seal them up and painted. Like we hammered the nails, we paint, we help with the paint. The whole process on from the ground like inside is inside an old hundred year old brick building but from the inside from the ground up, we built it with our pants like this one crazy summer in 2006. And I bought her out when she moved away in 2009 to marry her husband and start a family. So I’ve been the sole proprietor since 2009. And then the store was has experienced incredible growth and been done many through many phases. It’s almost like a like a child. If you think back to who you were when you were a child to a teenager or to your 20s to 30s it’s almost like the store has I can see that the store has been on a similar journey of growth. And the last few years were like this, just unbelievably blessed there. Like it was just really an amazing time to be to be part of this. To be part of the town of very much in the early wave of the restoration of a really sad Street and that was the store was was a very magical process from our entry as a brick and mortar to the whole neighborhood to everything. And I love, love, love our entry, the brick and mortar at everything we built in did there. And at the same time, I started to outgrow the physical limitations that a brick and mortar inherently has, like you have a lot operations you have to be there. taking time off becomes complicated. There are a lot of other projects that have become like available for me to work on and do. And as much as I adore my store. It was no interesting. And it was incredibly successful in an interesting way. It was almost like a becoming like bigger than I could really do. I couldn’t do it all I couldn’t do all that the physical store required because the physical store was growing very busy even with team members and lean into my own personal projects. Like I I have an opportunity to write a book on Oracle deck I’ve helped create. I didn’t do the artwork I just helped create co create, like, what’s the system of the deck? And what’s the structure? And what kind of like how many cards and what will the cards be about. And I’m my bestie, who I co founded the store with. She’s an amazing visual artist. She’s the illustrator and the cards are completed. And the only reason we haven’t wanted that because I need to write a book. But what I was in like, which I’ve got 2000 words in on the guidebook, and there are other I’ve had invitations to teach him more and more locations and it was just starting to almost like it’s like I literally outgrew the store. I’m in the way it was like having the brick and mortar. And I was like straight I guess we would say like 120 20 strategizing with my team member like how could we support winter Fred continuing to grow and these other arenas and like, I’ve initially were thinking we would just grow heart my team member to be more and more like a manager of the space. So I could, you know, be a little more free from the physical day to day operations. But then along came COVID in, like, in COVID happened. And, um, and, you know, there’s, there’s just like, which is, you know, obviously COVID is a huge, not good thing. But there’s also no accident to the timing of things. And so I really think that, like the writing was on the wall that as much as I love everything about my brick and mortar, and I will always love it and cherish it, and I will miss it in that incarnation. I think it was time. I think it had long since become time for me to be willing to listen and open up to like, what, what’s next? What next possibilities could How can our country go forward in a different model that supported me in a better way? So I could say yes to these other really exciting projects that I’d like to say yes to you, but also still honor the mission of one I wanted the impact I wanted to make and why I opened the store in the first place. So when COVID happened, it forced to shut down like I’m in Massachusetts. So we had a more strict shutdown like than some other states had. So we had a profound shutdown. So the store was shut down profoundly for over two months. And I had to go 100% online. And the hidden blessing in the tragedy or the not awesomeness of COVID is those spirit in a weird way gave me an opportunity to step into another potential vision that kind of secretly go along with and wanting to, to create so when the building changed ownership, and it just kind of it just got live – spirit spirits always writes the writing on the wall for me.

Sheila M 36:48

Oh, yeah, I can completely relate and we talked about this for a second before we started recording, but I tend to be the type of person that needs to be thrown like thrust forth into things by spirit, rather than somebody who can gracefully let go of things and just allow, and I really, really struggle with that tower card energy. So yeah,

Winifred Costello 37:08

I always feel I’m a Taurus sun sign so I’m like, loyal to a fault. But in the end, I’m also a Scorpio. I’m a Scorpio rising, I have a lot of Scorpio in my chart. So in the end, when it’s time, like, I will hang on, I will hang on, like white knuckling something till it’s long past, like, long past time, like go, because that’s just my nature. But then, in the end, when the writing’s on the wall, and it’s in spirit, it’s like a neon sign just like there was a neon sign it was time to open and then there was just as loud and neon sign as it was time to let that physical location go. I wonder hasn’t gone anywhere but in the mission and the vision hasn’t gone anywhere, but just the location. But man, it was like, it was like Bang, bang, bang, like it was like a clue. My one teacher I know it calls it Kubrick’s like the spirit like throws a cubic right at your forehead. It became really clear SoI I closed the brick and mortar July 31 of this year just shy of its 14th anniversary.

Sheila M 38:10

Hey there, I want you to be the first to know that I am offering a free training Tarot for Real Life – Get your Shit Together with the Tarot on Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 12pm eastern time, this workshop is extremely powerful. It talks about the top mistakes that new Tarot readers make, we will cover the neuroscience of Tarot and how it can stop the anxiety cycle, and the exact steps to follow to start reading effectively and efficiently for yourself. This is where the spirituality of the Tarot meets real life situations. And my goal is to have you leave that workshop, either with a reboot to your tarot reading or if you’re a brand new beginner With a good idea of how to get started, so you can sign up for that free workshop in the shownotes today or if you already know that you are really interested in signing up for a tarot course, I will be opening the doors for my Tarot course for the last time for 2020 the course is called Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives. It is a seven week Tarot course that takes you from a brand new beginner to tarot reading Pro, and helps you learn how to bring that practice into real life, how to use the Tarot to help you make complex decisions effortlessly. So if that sounds good to you, you can sign up for the waitlist in the show notes today.

We really met like just before COVID kind of became big and then we’re both working through an incubator course together and during like the height of COVID and the anxiety and From the beginning, it’s funny because when you have like, a bunch of witchy people together I feel like everybody kind of starts to pick up on stuff. And what was funny is from the very beginning when you were talking about the store, I can’t even remember what you said the one day but I was like, she’s gonna close that store. Like, I could, I could just like feel it and I was like, it’s just time for that like transition, but again, from the outside, much easier to say than when you’re on the inside. Like you said white knuckling and being like, this is my baby. I created this, you know, right.

Winifred Costello 40:33

It’s hard but it’s my baby but it’s also that I very feel I’m very much feel like a priestess in service to the mission. Yeah, that is always been like the burning light. And it is not easy to own a brick and mortar. It is not. Hey folks, if you’re thinking of owning a brick and mortar, it is the most rewarding, awesome thing and hardest thing you’ll ever do. Especially once the internet it’s great. The internet is so amazing. It brings a lot of really opportunities that weren’t there before. But it does make it trickier to run a brick and mortar successfully for many years. And I weathered Lehman Brothers shortly after opening, so I have weathered a lot of things. And I and the mission is always what drove me I always felt like very much like a priestess in service to the mission. And so I didn’t want to turn my back on the integrity of the mission and that was a big reason why I wanted to be absolutely sure. It was the right decision. And so I was impressed on people it was not reactionary, it was very much responsive. And I I spent all of that locked down on many long five and seven mile walks and meditating and reflecting and pulling cards and I got readings from others and they all said the same thing. So I did and in my own inner voice, and I feel like the store I wondering has is very much his own higher soul and all the things I’ve weathered the store Always was like, nope, you’re meant to be here, hang in there, it’s gonna turn and then and it was. And I remember those days questioning, like, should I stick with it like with Lehman Brothers and some of those early days like, Oh my gosh, I keep the storage I keep the store. And, um, and spirit was always like, yeah, nope, keep the store keep the store. And that was really interesting because when the higher soul, the oversold our entry, the other spirits that live there and our support and service to the mission. When when the exec counsel, like all of a sudden that was a super clear, they’re like Stein is just time time to let it go. And I’m like, okay, we’re on. We’re going. Yeah, often very quickly. It happened, like within three weeks.

Sheila M 42:39

Yeah. So let’s talk about that for a second because you’re in this huge transitional time now. And I’ve, you know, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to kind of witness you from the outside kind of going through this process, with, in my opinion, a lot of grace because I i understand that impulse to Like, I don’t like I don’t want to let it go, like I want to serve, serving everyone that I’ve been serving and I feel like this responsibility almost to have communities. So can you talk a little bit about kind of how your intuition has has played a part in that and also, how it shows up for you whether it’s like, you know, physical clairaudience, clairvoyance, whatever it is that like really kind of sets and I know for a lot of us, it’s multiple things, but, but kind of how do you know like, how did you know for sure, like you said, like, how did it become really clear?

Winifred Costello 43:37

I think, well, I’m very kinesthetic. I’m very I am visual, very visual, and I do hear things. My husband always says, you know, that makes you sound crazy. And I’m like, Yes, but you know, a lot. So, this was very kinesthetic, though. Like I my strongest operating system for receiving information is kinesthetic, and I just felt it in everything. I just woke up and just felt it in every part of my body. Like I just felt they felt like it’s like it felt aligned. It just was like it was it was this almost like a calm came over me and I was like this I’m making the call and I’m in it and I didn’t feel alone and I didn’t feel I felt calm and that’s how I knew if it wasn’t the right decision, I would have a nagging or an anxiety or a spinning and it was it was just as calm and assured I just felt calm. And it’s a big decision. So how calm I was also as an indicator it was the right thing. And also for me, I have like a I would call like a spiritual court of allies that are I feel very blessed and grateful for that. And they stand I always call reference them as they stand behind me. Like and I call you might call them a committee or council but and then the store has its own spirits that kind of, like you know, operate to and they were just like in a big circle behind me. And, and they were just all very calm and supporting it was not you. It’s hard, a little hard to always articulate these kinds of things. But it was just clear like they were just they were like felt very unified. There wasn’t any one particular guide kind of going I don’t know about this, it was just like, a very unified, like, this is right, we got you. We’ve worked this is orchestrated, and then someone wants that to me recently as this was happening, it happens so like all the strange things that mitigating factors like the fact that the building changed hands like literally the pretty much the week Kovats, like right before a shutdown happen, and, and it wasn’t on the market. Like this was like a behind the scenes as an investor approached the owner, like the fact that happened like that, like the whole bunch of factors came together quickly. And my experience is always when, when you’re going one way and then a bunch of factors suddenly, almost like you’re blindsided, that’s not really the right word. But suddenly, like The car gets spun around and you’re clearly going into different like your, oh, I guess we’re going this way now and you’re calm and aligned and it feels totally right. You know spirits got like mother or mother fate or destiny has her finger like mother fate has their finger on the pulse of, of what is happening, and they’re in good hands. It’s kind of how I feel. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Sheila M 46:21

It does. It totally does. And actually, it reminded me of, so Gosh, what years, two years ago, I guess. November of 2018. I had I woke up one day and I never so this was back when I was at my corporate job and I was doing Tarot and and teaching yoga and Reiki on the side but I’ve kind of been going through this whole thing and again, once again, I felt like I was being two different people like I was being like, work business and nobody in my life really other than like my my partner really knew what was going on. Like I was coming to private about everything, even though I had clients and stuff, I wasn’t really fully being open with everything with my friends and people I was close to. Because again, I was worried that, like you said, everybody was going to think I was crazy. And and so I had this experience of, I almost never took a sick day, at my last company for seven years, almost never took a sick day. And I just woke up in the morning and I was like, I can’t, I can’t work today, and I work from home. Like I worked from home then too. And I was like, I can’t go in today. And that happened three days in a row. Like I just had this like I took three sick days, which like, like I said, I’m not taking a sick day and like seven years before that, and I was like, okay, like something is shifting. And it was like during those three days I did like a lot of meditation and a lot of yoga, a lot of going for walks like you said, and I just I had this like realization on the third day it was like, Yes, it’s time to go like it’s just Go, you need to make a plan. And that’s when like, that was literally when I made the plan. And it took me I think six months to actually do it. But I was like, Okay, this is when I think I need to make this move. And it was very similar. Like you’re saying it was like, it wasn’t. It was scary once I decided, but like, in that moment, it was like a call, like, yes, this, this is the right thing. And it just, it feels so obvious. It feels like the decision has already been made, which I think was something like you were articulating there too. And I think it’s so interesting that that’s how it felt to you. And I do want to stress to people that it’s not like, I decided and then I was like, Okay, great, like, everything’s fine. And I think the same for you like it’s still it’s very emotional. There’s second guessing there’s a lot of different things that come in, even when you are coming from a place of being very intuitively aligned with the right thing. It does not mean that it’s easy.

Winifred Costello 48:57

Totally thank you for saying that. That’s really amazing. important stuff to point out. Because I think there are a lot of misconceptions. And, um, and Awentree has an online presence and has an online aspect to the business that has been growing. And it allows me to be able to reach more people and work with more people and to break free of the location based restrictions. And there are so many people seeking support around Earth centered spiritual traditions, and they may not live in the northeast, like where I am, they might be a lot of many of them live in areas where it’s dangerous to be out of the closet, or you could lose your job or, or other kinds of things. So like, I have always want like, like I said, I’m still being true to the mission of really providing that center in that oasis. Like, in many ways, it’s become more possible, like online because I can reach more people in locations where they don’t have maybe a progressive community or a local store or something like that. It just opens up It frees up. And it also frees me up to maybe go to other communities and have been requested to come in and teach and, and it just, it basically expands the container by by shifting the model, but I know but you’re right. Like it isn’t like, Oh, I just snap my fingers and I want like one does not walk away from a 14 year business that they built that was very successful, pre COVID. And it was it was hanging on through COVID. But it was clear that it was clear that this was creating the opportunity for me to step into the next thing that I really, for the last year or so have been really kind of percolating in my heart to do.

Sheila M 50:37

Yeah, yeah. And I, I do think that’s really important because I think, you know, the doubt can come back in fear can come back in just the general kind of chaos of shifting into something else is, I think even when you do know that you’re on the right track and have that kind of, like you said spiritual team cheering you on and Still not always like a simple decision and not always like every day I wake up and I’m like, yeah, this is it like this is okay. Right.

Winifred Costello 51:09

Well, and to your point, that’s a really good point. So I did also get readings with other folks. So I’m a reader. Can I read my own cards? Absolutely. Did I read my cards during that? Yes, I did. And it was saying the same thing as the readings I went and got with others. But I had one of my spiritual elders, read my cards. At the end, the one of the traditions I’m in, you get a reading at the start of the year. And it was really interesting because they didn’t even before COVID was even on anyone’s radar. And I can and it was really interesting, because they brought up the summer in July, and that there would be this like a blip on the radar was kind of because that that’s kind of how it came through. But that everything would be fine. Like, like I would have to make a decision that might seem frustrating and upsetting and causes stress, but that would be but it was the right thing. decision, I’d be fine on the other side of it, that actually, it would open up a lot of things that had not been able to be opened before. And then I got a reading when things were going down. And, and, you know, COVID the new owners and I knew that there was tension and I got a reading with another different another trusted mentor. And they had this they picked up on that they were saying the same thing. So you know, when you like, I always say to people, like, why, why book the reading with the other person, if you can read your own cards, and there’s a phrase like you can’t be and see ya at the same time. And also, if you’re too emotionally close to something, it’s good, like I know, you read for for folks, it’s good to get reading to somebody when you feel too close to a situation or too emotionally invested. So it’s always good to get that Self Checker by having another trusted reader read for you. And it was very curious to me when the second reader started saying almost summer verbatim, and they didn’t know each other they were not they read in two different modalities like one reads with cards, one reads was channeled Like they don’t even use the same tradition. And they were saying some of the same sentences and the same timing of July and and July hadn’t even come yet. You know what I mean? So that also was really helpful for when those moments when we’re doubting and guessing, having spiritual tools that you can work to work, like reach to having spiritual practices that ground and anchor you. Like, I did not lean into my spiritual practice this hard in a long time. And I’m so grateful for them. Yeah, because, because I, they, they’re there for a reason. And they’re our practice and our anchor and our core foundational practices for our reason. And I think we can have a tendency folks have a tendency to abandon or run away from their spiritual tools or their practices, whether it’s meditation or exercise or yoga or getting a root whatever it is you do. I think when crap hits the fan, people can run away and drop it like kind of let go of this. It’s like you’re in the car at cars getting out of control and dependencies that look like a steering wheel. It’s like no steer into it, like lean into practices lean into your tools. And that really in those moments, I was like, oh man, am I doing the right thing? Like, trust me, my husband asked him like, I think 1000 times Am I making a mistake? And I was very grateful for our my witch knowing and also my spiritual practices and tools and that I had other readers I trusted I could go to to like check in on.

Sheila M 54:25

Yeah, I love that you brought that up too, because that’s one of the things that I talked about. And I’m probably going to do a whole episode on it like when to get a reading even if you are a reader, because one of the things that I think people who read do is like put a lot of pressure on themselves to like have the answers and there are so many things that I can read on and and see very clearly but like you said, whenever it’s like a huge decision, and there’s a lot of emotion kind of wrapped up in it, it can be really challenging to see clearly and one of the things I talk about in my course is you To be ready to ask a question and hear the answer that you don’t want to hear. Yeah. And that’s really hard. Because I think, you know, sometimes I was I feel that where I’m having that moment, and I’m like, I’m not ready. I’m not ready to hear no to this thing right now. And so I don’t think I can read on it right now. So I’ve had very similar situations where, and that’s actually what happened again, when I kind of knew that I had to leave. Then I also went and got readings from people that I trusted, and verbatim. I mean, they said the same phrase, verbatim, that like is not a phrase that people say like they were all like, Oh, well, I guess it’s time to put your shingle out. And I had never even heard that phrase before. Right. In two weeks, three different readers to me, and I was like, Are you kidding? This is validation, right? Yeah. And that’s the thing is, I think it can be so powerful to validate how you’re feeling and you don’t you don’t have a that emotion sitting on top of it, it’s still an emotional experience. But you don’t have all of that emotion trying to like sit on top of you while you’re doing a reading. Even if you’re great at clearing things out, compartmentalizing, it is really hard when you’ve invested so much. And also when you feel such a sense of responsibility. And you know, like you said, you still have this whole online component, you weren’t ready to be done with our country as a whole. So to be like, let me just let this go is a huge decision. Especially I think, because you were successful, it wasn’t like you were letting it go, because it wasn’t like you weren’t doing well or whatever. Like you were, you were a successful brick and mortar business. And you were saying, Okay, I think that this is not the right thing anymore.

Winifred Costello 56:47

I think it was very much like the like I said, like we literally had some of the best months ever and to start a 2020 before the COVID head like oh the irony, but at the same And the whole point is about being in service to the mission and it became very clear that the best way I could you know really keep invest continue to invest in our country and the vision and the mission and be in the best alignment to be able to serve that and the ultimately the mission was to let the story not – it would be foolish to hang on out of fear. It was clear it was time to let go and trust and and and trust that spirit knew like was guiding where we were headed next. Not that you give up your own authority you’re still listening and partnering it’s like a collaboration co creation. But yeah, like at a certain point when is holding on actually choking off the very energy that you are seeking to receive. And that’s pretty clear. I want to say I know your Tarot. So it was very much like an eight of cups.

Sheila M 57:47

That’s literally what I was gonna say I you were at like this very like eight of cups moment where you were making a decision that’s best for you. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not hard and that there’s not like grief with it. Like you’re Kind of seeing it there and knowing. But like, knowing that there’s something better ahead if you can, like, let go of what’s there,

Winifred Costello 58:08

right? They always tell people yeah, run it cups. If you look at the person in the classic card, they’re not look their back is they’re not looking at what they’re leaving behind. They’re looking at the path that’s ahead of them. And they know that there’s more to be there’s more, there’s more to the to the path that lies ahead. It’s they just know when it’s when something’s complete and full. And it’s time to let like let go of what’s done and open to what the next leg of the journey hold.

Sheila M 58:34

Yeah, yeah. And I think it’s so funny because I think I always kind of think about these situations in life as like the energy of a card and literally when you were talking earlier, it’s so funny that you said that because I was like, I was like, Oh my god, this is so eight of cups, like, like knowing it’s the right thing. It’s still a really challenging thing to leave behind. Because again, it is it’s like your baby, you know, it’s a it’s an emotional thing and it’s it’s the thing that you’ve cultivated and it’s more than just the store itself, it’s the community, and that sense of, of creation. But knowing that, like you said, moving forward is allowing you all of these different opportunities and this ability to reach people who would not be able to reach these kinds of resources necessarily where they live or in their community or in secret sometimes, you know, and I think that’s really important. And so I love that you brought that up, which kind of transitions us into our next thing and what’s funny is I don’t know if they’re going to come out in this order, but I I started doing interviews and I kind of like accidentally set them up in in like, card order, which was very not intentional, but I was like, I really see you like personality wise, as like the High Priestess card because you do so much of spiritual work, but also specifically in how you teach with, like helping to connect people with their own authority and their own agency and their own sense of intuition. And you do it through a lot of different modalities. And I think that that’s what like really kind of drew me in on that because I was a little, I was having a hard time narrowing it down at first because I was like, She’s so many things. But I do think that like what you do in your business, and the wishing well, which we’ll talk about a little bit more in a second. But what you do with all of these programs is kind of like, set people up with their own sense of authority and to connect on their own and to really trust that wisdom, and you also live it, which is like what you’re going through right now is the perfect example. And even though that’s kind of like an eight of cups situation. It’s that high priestess sense that’s guiding you through every step of the way. And also, I feel like how you kind of present in your business. So it’s really funny because I was like, Oh, I did. I did. I’ve interviewed one of my friends who was a fool and then another person who is the magician. And then I’m like, Oh, this is like so weird how this is working out?

Winifred Costello 1:01:08

Yeah. It’s no accident. There’s no coincidences. It’s all some sort of divine synchronicity. I so that’s really interesting. I always that’s a really good point you’re bringing up so I think of our our souls evolution, our healing, like that. First of all, I think that healing is our everyone’s birthright. Like by being born onto the planet. I kind of see I kind of aligned with the idea that the earth is sort of like the school school for spirits. And we incarnate here and we have work to work on, lessons to unpack evolution to either say yes to or not to free will, I believe it’s free will. free will and choice is also in play. So I always like in one’s spiritual journey or the whole enchilada. That’s an okay word to use is like a, like a circle. everything to me is very circular. So I feel like it’s like a wheel and we stand in The center of the wheel. So that’s sort of like a high priestess stance in the center of the wheel. And it’s a mini spokes wheel. And how many spokes your wheel has is personal to each is to each individual. And you know, one thread like one spoke with the wheel could be a healing modality one spokes of the wheel could be a divination tool, like Tarot or some other art or astrology. One tool could be like herbal medicine, or you know, functional medicine once one spoke B, just being a mom or being in a family or having pet like doing your, the, like the Dharma, like the actual being on the earth plane, the physical reality. So I feel like it’s our work to claim our personal power and claim ownership of standing in that center of the wheel, and deep listening and doing our inner work and the inner knowing so that we can understand at what point in time when we encounter something happen unfolding or manifesting in our life, what spokes Do we need to sort of like reach out to and Access in any given moment to help empower us to either show up for our life and enjoy it, or move through a transition or manifest a new project or solve a problem. And it might be in a myriad of those folks like you might be one might be three might be all eight of them. Like, each individual knows what’s ultimately best. I really believe like, like, there is no problem that we encounter that we don’t have ultimately have the solution to there is we have all the tools we need within us at any given moment. It’s about understanding how to recognize and access them and giving ourselves permission to to claim them for ourselves. And that’s not about stepping on other people or power over. It’s very much about standing in your truth and sourcing power from within. So I hybris is perfect because I kind of think we’re all like working on being your own high priest or priestess or priestex like whichever word works best for you.

Sheila M 1:03:52

Yeah, and I i absolutely. I see that 100% because I do think that like ultimately what you’re doing Teaching is for everybody to be their own High Priestess or priestex. Like you said, I think it’s really important because we spend so much time and I talked about it in my high priestess course, actually, that we spend so much time from the time we’re born learning from other people rather than learning from ourselves. And we’re all like, we’re kind of programmed to get information from outside of ourselves rather than from within. And so I think it’s so interesting that that’s you have all of these different modalities. And in all of your work, that’s kind of like what you’re doing. Even with the story, it was kind of like you were like drawing people in and giving them all of these resources. So I know that you’ve transitioned the store to be online, but also simultaneously while you were running our country, the physical store and now into the online store. You also have a monthly membership called The Witching Well. Can you talk to us like a little bit about that program and what you do in it, and how It kind of plays into this whole High Priestess vibe for everyone?

Winifred Costello 1:05:04

Um, well, I’ve community is my jam, I think I finally can claim that I’m always I’ve always been known for creating communities and being very involved in community like when I had a corporate job that was a big thing I was known for. And like in coaching, like having a coaching an organic like a sort of a coaching approach to life. I also you know, have some training like in NLP and other things help support that. And The Witching Well is, I call it the uncoven, so this is not to bash on covens covens are wonderful, amazing spaces when and when you can find the right coven, it can really be an incredible experience. Um, but at the same time covens are often location based, they can be complicated, like or just have a lot of structure that may or may not fit the modern witch or the modern pagan. And I also so the witching was I call it the uncommon experience. Or collective. So we functioned like a collective, and we gather around core values and a mission rather than, like a like a coven. It’s a lot of the you know, ethics and core values that one would want in a coven are there and the benefits of what’s in the coven, but we don’t have like the structure of a coven. Because we’re not one tradition. It’s more about opportunity for me to mentor and empower folks to claim their spiritual agency and to understand what tools are in that that wheel that are speak to them mostly that are available for them to develop that they can then be their own High Priestess. You know, ministering to themselves or to others if that’s what they’re called to do, as well as family or other professional. So that witching well is it can be a magical collective or magical community for Earth centered spiritual seekers that want to grow, grow and build spiritual, like a pagan Wiccan witchcraft, like Earth centered traditions that are relevant, meaningful, accessible and tangible to them. That’s what we do there. I love that.

Sheila M 1:07:02

I love that that’s so beautiful. And I know you’ve been doing it for a while. So you also have kind of this collective experience that grows in in like how you structure things. And that this transition has also opened you up to have more time for like this community and being a little more creative. So I know you have the witching well, which is opening soon. And I’ll have information all about that in in the show notes for this episode and everything. So there’s people are interested in kind of checking it out or maybe dipping a toe, they can get a little bit of that experience with you. And I also want to talk about you mentioned it quickly earlier, but your Oracle guidebook I know you kind of have an idea in line of when you want to release it, but can you talk to us maybe just vaguely as much detail as you’d like to share about kind of what what type of Oracle deck it is and what you’re going to be doing with it.

Winifred Costello 1:08:01

Yeah, so I have I am co creating the Oracle deck with visionary artist and illustrator of Melissa Pandena , too, so I can’t give her credit for, you know, for the visual artwork. We co created this. We’ve known each other for a long time we met on a Halloween Eve which so like, yeah, we met at an Irish session and in a cool Irish pub on the thundering rainy Halloween night. So it was it doesn’t get much richer than that.

Sheila M 1:08:28

Yeah, I mean, matters. Like, Witch level 100

Winifred Costello 1:08:32

Yeah. Um, so we co created and founded Awentree together. And she’s a massage therapist, that was kind of like some of the artists that some of the things she was bringing to that. And then as I said, I bought her out because she married started her family and she’s been more into our art career in recent years. So she approached me about let’s choose, like, I think that our next thing to do together is this Oracle deck, and so it’s very much revisionary healers. Which is seers mystics that would like to have an Oracle deck if you think of like a lot of old European witch traditions, when you went to the witches edge of the forest she might cast bones or some other augury or divination method as part of like working in a healing session with you to get that like a lot of times like the healer will want to kind of like converse with spirit on your behalf and with you to sort of see how can they best help you or serve you in your healing that you’re seeking. Um, and if you think of it, like from a spiritual prescription, I know prescription is kind of a touchy word in this world. But um, but so like, like how do you get the right soul medicine for what you’re seeking? And so we wanted to create a deck that could really speak to that worker that that spirit worker and so it has like, it has a like a upper world middle world underworld coming ponent it has like a lot of her and I have similar backgrounds. So it really brings together an integration of a lot of our traditions and has like elemental energy has like that wheel energy. It has like a cloth that you can use it with, like you like that adds another layer to it. So the deck is all painted. It’s these about 40 to 45 cards that are really pretty amazing. So Melissa power drew all the paintings and I’m working on creating a guidebook that will help you understand the system and also be able to like, you know, have some readings and how could you apply the guidebook like Okay, so I’m at that visionary healer, how can I best maybe work with this as a tool in my box when I’m on either for myself or if I’m working with a client.

Sheila M 1:10:43

Brilliant. My gosh, that sounds so cool. I love I love how you described that to like the finding the witch in the woods. He’s gonna, you know, all of the old school, you know, things that I think have kind of fallen out a little bit and really bringing that kind of have older wisdom into the modern day, which is like, perfect for what you do. So I’m so excited about that. So that’s expected in winter of next year? 2021?

Winifred Costello 1:11:12

Yeah, we’re hoping it’s really waiting on me to finish up that book. So now that’s one of the projects I can have. I can have time now to get going. Um, I’m like, you know, about 2000 3000 words in on a 20,000 word project book. So, but I’ve put a lot of, like structural, like, you know, it’s not like I haven’t thought about the book for a long time and been taking notes on it. But now I need to like paper to pen to paper and bang it out. So we’re, um, I know, Melissa is chomping at the bit to have it come out in 2021. Yeah, so kind of our target date.

Sheila M 1:11:46

Very exciting. Oh my gosh, it’s so cool.

Winifred Costello 1:11:49

It’s pretty it’s kind of overwhelming and it’s exciting. This I haven’t I haven’t really been able. It’s one of the things that when I love my store, don’t get me wrong. I love every bit about our country. It takes a lot of emotional, mental, spiritual and physical bandwidth to have a physical store. So it was hard to have the bandwidth that I wanted for these other projects while having the store. So I’m very excited that now frees up so much of that for me to get things other things happening in the pipeline.

Sheila M 1:12:16

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s so important to, to keep from like that. Like, there is a level of I think like spiritual burnout and stuff that can happen when you are doing a lot of this work. And I think having something that really inspires that creativity and that like intuitive connection to creativity, that is really exciting and keeps things fresh and keeps you innovating. I think both in your personal practice, but also like I’m sure in your teaching and everything as well, because everything that you’re doing is kind of like setting that up. So I think that’s really exciting. Thank you. I’m excited. Yeah, so I like to kind of close things out, I have just kind of like one more question, which is a little bit of a loaded question. But if you could give one piece of advice to people who are struggling to connect with their intuition or struggling to trust their intuition, what would you kind of say to them? Maybe they’re a baby witch maybe they are a person who is in an environment where they’re not really encouraged to be intuitive, what would you say?

Winifred Costello 1:13:25

I think most importantly, if you’re really questioning or self doubting your own intuition is to anchor it into the physical in some way. That could either be by having a pulling a card every day and writing in a journal. Or if you have a different whatever your divination tool is, whether it’s pendulum work or augury or Omen walking, just that you do it a few times a week if you can’t do it every day, but that you documented it – one, it could be dreamwork anything that you’re so our soul is always speaking to us. And the reason the intuition those intuitive arts are so quiet Because that’s the vehicle that our soul kind of kind of get direct access to have a conversation with us. And so the more you can get in the habit of writing down what you’re receiving, and making notation so that as months and time pass, you can look back and go like, Oh, right, this event’s happening today. And Geez, that dream I had, that dream is pretty much was telling me or that reading or that moment I used the pendulum or the birds were flying a certain pattern that just had a feeling the more you can document and observe and record your own journey. And look, have it as a resource of yours, how your soul is talking to you. So I think that our souls, every one of us has to learn the energetic language of our soul. And the best way to do that is a – through practice, b- that practice needs to bring it into the physical earth plane in some way and c- documentation so you can have something that you can look back to over time to validate to give you that validation that Oh, right. So one of the biggest things I discovered through keeping like a dream journal was that It literally took me five years to discover what exactly was going on when I would dream up black bears. And because I kept the dream journal when it finally enough, because those dreams didn’t happen that often because they were related to very specific giant events in my life. So I had to have like, literally years go by for enough documentation to occur or light bulb could finally go on. Yeah, and that was a huge breakthrough for me. So again, I think people aren’t patient enough. And so I think we can document because it can take months, the way the soul speaks, and the spirit operates, as you know, and I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I know you know, all this, but spirit has its own timeline, and it’s very different than us here. And so it can take a long time for something to really come forward. So I think people end up doubting and the best, that’s the best way to develop your confidence.

Sheila M 1:15:48

Yeah, yeah, I think that’s so important and and a really beautiful way of saying it is kind of bringing that physicality because it’s easy to write things off, I think, especially if you’re not kind of seeing I’m writing repeatedly. And I know that was my experience of everything happening in the beginning, you know, so I’m really cool. So I will I will have this all in writing and in the show notes, but where can people find you online? How can they work with you? Where should they go to look at all of your awesome offerings.

Winifred Costello 1:16:19

It’s pretty easy. It’s Awentree. So it’s everything I want you so it’s Awentree.com. It’s @Awentree on Instagram, and there’s a page Awentree on Facebook.

Sheila M 1:16:28

Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much for being here today, Winifred. I appreciate it so much. I am I’m happy to have somebody who is both and a friend of mine and also somebody whose work I admire so much and, and really like you’ve shared so much of your journey and I know that it will connect for the people that it’s meant to connect for. So I’m so I’m so appreciative of you being here today.

Winifred Costello 1:16:52

Thank you, Sheila. I’m so excited to be here. This is super fun. I could talk well, we’ve already talked a long time. I could talk to you all day like you’re I love nerding out with other healer-type folks and witchy readers?

Sheila M 1:17:03

Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. Thank you so much.

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