A conversation with celebrity Tarot Reader and Psychic, and author of Sober Magic, Sarah Potter about sensitivity as power, intuition as a daily practice, and sobriety journeys for witches. We talk about learning to live without numbing out, reframing recovery through Tarot and witchcraft, and building tools that let you stay present with what you feel and how you know. It’s also about showing up for each other—through community, reparations, and choosing repair where it’s needed most.
https://www.missingwitches.com/ep-289-sarah-potter-sober-magic/
Sarah Potter - Sober Magic
[00:00:00] Speaker: Hi, this is Amy
[00:00:01] Speaker 2: and Risa from The Missing Witches Podcast and Coven.
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[00:00:17] Speaker 2: by contributing incredible prizes for our draw, donating, and signal boosting. We all make a hopeful wave of repair together.
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[00:00:34] Speaker 2: donate, share, or come become part of the coven. We believe community is something we build together.
[00:00:40] Speaker: We built missing witches because we were missing you.
[00:00:44] Speaker 2: So check out missing witches.com/reparations.
[00:00:48] Speaker: You aren't being a proper woman. Therefore, you must be a witch.
[00:00:51] Speaker 2: Be a witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch. You must be a witch.
[00:00:58] Risa: The book is called Sober Magic. The guest is Sarah Potter.
Hello. We're
already in the podcast. Welcome. It's called In Medias Res in a book. You're in it. You're here. You're with us,
[00:01:10] Sarah: Welcome,
[00:01:11] Risa: welcome.
Catch up.
We're just surviving.
[00:01:20] Sarah: I feel like that's a multidimensional, multifaceted place to be.
[00:01:24] Risa: I mean, I'm super thankful to be surviving.
[00:01:27] Sarah: Right. That's what I was thinking too. I was like.
Surviving a lot of stuff, but thankful that I'm on the journey.
[00:01:38] Risa: I'm really thankful to get to hang out again.
[00:01:41] Sarah: Me too. It's
[00:01:42] Risa: been like three years.
[00:01:45] Sarah: Wow. That's wild.
[00:01:48] Risa: It doesn't feel that long and also feels like an eon, which is maybe part of being internet friends.
[00:01:55] Sarah: Totally. Totally. That makes sense.
[00:01:57] Risa: Yeah, exactly. We've touched each other's lives in multiple braided internet wave ways many times, I went to look back 'cause I was like, I have this memory of talking about color especially and feeling Yes.
This like wave of your brightness and your vulnerability and your strength and I just, you have like the feeling to me of a butterfly, so delicate, so bright, and then this like really deep strength. I was like, when was that? What did we talk about? Because reading your book now, I feel like a lot closer to you, which is that sort of weird parasocial thing of reading each other's books.
[00:02:32] Sarah: That's lovely. It is, it is. Thank you. That, that everything you said just meant so much to me, and it is, it's really fun. Like I, I've joked around with some friends who I'm like, Hey, like if you have $18 you want to spend, you can hear about the hardest year of my life.
And it's like really? It's really wild to contend with. I think it was shock or something because I had this like dissociation from my book. It's like wild to hear like a complete stranger speak to me about, uh, something in my book.
And I was like, oh yeah. It's not like I don't understand it's out there, but it's like a really, it's really surreal. It's really surreal.
[00:03:19] Risa: Yes, I completely relate and I thought about it a lot while reading your book. I think to a certain degree I. Hold that you are a person who has come through that all the way and like integrated what you went through to be able to tell it.
But I think also like we go into kind of a fugue state when we write and we,
[00:03:45] Sarah: yeah,
[00:03:46] Risa: I don't remember a lot of what's. In my books. Wow. Because when I'm writing it's, it just translates into language and story and sharing, and then when people reach out about it, I'm like, oh yeah, this very intimate part of my psyche.
[00:04:05] Sarah: I feel like. There were some days when I was writing where I would just write for maybe an hour, and then there were some days where I would write for 10 hours and it was just like a channel. And it was really funny. This, the timing, I don't believe in any coincidences, but I'm trying to remember when it was maybe like two, three months before my book was due.
HBO. Put this TV show on streaming an older TV show where Courtney Cox plays an author.
[00:04:40] Risa: Hmm.
[00:04:40] Sarah: And basically. Like she gets possessed by a demon who writes her book for her. And so, and I was like, that is awesome. I was like that. I really, I like what's happening here.
Any beings that wanna come through and help me write this book. I just, I kept talking about it. I was like, I just love this. This is like the greatest ever. And, and so I, I could really relate to that, like channeling of it.
[00:05:05] Risa: And that's part of what you talk about in the book, and I guess. I'll pull back for two seconds and say, the book is called Sober Magic. The guest is Sarah Potter.
[00:05:16] Sarah: Hello.
[00:05:16] Risa: Hello. We're already in the podcast. Welcome. Well link to the past episode. That's your homework. No. Yeah. I mean, what one thing you talk about in sober magic right off the bat is that part of why you were drinking was how intensely sensitive you were to the information and spirits and the vibes.
[00:05:44] Sarah: Yes. Yeah,
[00:05:45] Risa: and I wanna talk about that so much.
I think so many people in our coven relate to having to navigate that maybe through alcohol or maybe different ways of masking and numbing that we're like, how do we live this?
[00:06:02] Sarah: It's hard. I really something that, there's so many things I'm grateful for about recovery and shadow work and healing, but to really gain that.
Understanding of, I think whatever you're doing. For me, the drinking was not good for me, but to really not just remove the substance but understand why I was drinking. And one of the reasons was just not having the tools to be a sensitive being in this world. And that's what I started really thinking about when I was writing this book, is I absolutely want this.
To be something for people who have turned to substances and see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. There's another way to live. There's tools to access but I was really thinking about, I'm like, I'm writing this book for anyone who feels really sensitive, who feels really deeply, and I think that so many people can relate to that.
I think so many witches can relate to that. And I do think that the world is getting to be more understanding, but I think we still have work to do. I just think like this, I hate to say it, I just don't think this world is really built for deeply sensitive people who are feeling so much.
I don't think we as humans have fully caught up to the evolution of technology. So we're just getting all of this stimulation and information, and there's something really beautiful about how expansive our world is. I mean, even. When you mentioned earlier in this conversation, like we're internet friends and we have this connection, and that's something I love about technology is the wider network of bringing people together.
How you can create a coven all over the world that's beautiful, but it is a loud world and I think that being so sensitive. It's a lot to contend with, it's just a lot.
[00:08:09] Risa: It's a lot. Yeah. There's like being so sensitive and then there's like the cognitive dissonance of the things that you know or sense versus what the world is telling you is possible for you to know or sense.
[00:08:31] Sarah: I'm like starting to laugh because it cracks me up. But I think that it's my Virgo son. I wanna understand things and I wanna know how things work, and I want to present the astral in a welcoming, practical way that makes sense, so that people feel invited into it and welcomed.
But something I've learned in sobriety is. There's a lot I don't know. And there's something I think really wonderful to admit. Like I don't know how my brain works and I don't know why I can do what I do, but there are other people in my family who have had the same experiences. There are other people that I speak with who can relate and.
There's so much that we don't understand yet, and I think that's okay. I think there's so much that's unseen that I think is very valid and true, and I feel like something I love about being a witch is being tuned into the cycles of nature and animals and children and just valuing every being as.
Important and getting to learn from nature and others. And I think about how animals and children don't need to see something physically, tangibly to know it's there. And I think that if you really think about it with others, we have these. We have an our intuitive sense, we have feelings that are giving us information.
So I think it's okay, not, it's okay not to understand it, to know that it's real
[00:10:29] Risa: Yeah. But dancing with that, especially like in early development years, I think leads a lot of us too. Masking or addictive. Or protective behaviors. Right. Because it's like, how can I tell you?
I don't know why. When I met when I was 14 and I met a 17-year-old cool girl with black eyeliner who was so tough at the Moonbeam cafe and she was smoking and she was pissed at everyone, like, I don't know why I knew the things to say to her that I knew.
[00:11:08] Sarah: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:08] Risa: About her. Or why she suddenly knew me or I never understood why those things would happen.
And I ran from that a lot. And that's just like a tiny version. And you describe so many, so many really clear ones of I know I need to ask this person about their first love, or I know this person's grandparent needs to tell them this. And that's a fucking lot to carry in a world that wants things to be very clear.
Cut.
[00:11:37] Sarah: Well, I appreciate the acknowledgement and how you see me. That feels really lovely. And I also feel like I don't know any other way through this world, right? Sometimes I, and I think finding that self-acceptance and love for who I am, because there was, for a very long time I was like, I don't want this.
I want to be normal. Whatever normal is, I laugh thinking about how I defined normal at different times in my life and it's just, that's not, those aren't the cards I was dealt. This is what it is trying to stuff it down or kill that aspect of myself that's not working. So what if I just embrace it and understand boundaries, understand.
That I can talk about these things. I feel like now there's no one in my life who's not going to be accepting of who I am and I can have conversations with people I love just, this is a lot for me here. Like this space is a lot. I'm. I gotta go. And usually my friends are like, I wanna go too. Or the people I love are with me.
And, or it's really funny that my, the, my closest loved ones, they can see it in my face when we're somewhere and they're like, and they're like, how are you doing? And. Why do we get outta here? Which is sometimes it's nice to have someone see that and offer that to me and just working with it instead of being like, oh, there's something wrong with me and there's nothing wrong with me.
It's just I'm moving through the world in a different way. And I think a lot of us can relate to that. Just this is the perspective I have, and I understand not everyone's sharing that with me, but it's real for me. So.
[00:13:40] Risa: Deal with it, everybody.
[00:13:41] Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's, and I feel, and I do think there's something that when we accept these parts of ourselves that feel.
I mean, so wide ranging, like inconvenient. Yes. There's times when that feels very inconvenient to me. There's other times it's felt shameful and embarrassing and, and just like such a wide range of emotions. I was like, well, now it's, I feel like it really gives me a, my dream life and I really, I just love helping people and this allows me to help people and working with it, and I really feel.
I'm so incredibly grateful to be in a place where something that I just hated about myself, I can now celebrate. And it's still tough sometimes. I mean, I think I understand why people fear things they don't understand, and sometimes something about you. Shows people that they have to question a story they've told themselves, and that can be really scary.
And maybe the first instinct is to push it away or act like it's not happening or say it's not true. And whatever it is, there's something I don't know. To me, I'm like, I'm okay with being wrong. I'm okay with not understanding something I'm okay with. I like having these new experiences. I like hearing new perspectives and tell me how you move through the world, but.
I understand that and like fear is, oh, it's can really do damage. But so it, and all that to say it's like I don't love it when people speak from that fear and say things that honestly, I mean, still make me feel bad about myself sometimes, but it's all right. It just doesn't have the effect it used to.
And I just feel, it's okay if you don't understand this, but. Maybe keep it to yourself. I dunno. Like that's all. I'm not coming into your job and demanding to know how, I don't know the spaghetti is made. I don't think that's the phrase, but like,
I
mean whatever. That,
[00:15:54] Risa: it's a good one. How is the spaghetti make, I wanna ask you about, I wanna get more into this knot of like fear and intuition.
And so I'll tell you a story that this is where I'm coming from with this question right now. So. I, I think you know this, but shortly after you and I met for the first time I was diagnosed with cancer, I spent the last couple years like in, in mad treatment stuff, and I have a kiddo who now is seven and that has been like obviously really traumatic for her.
These like constant waves, infection again back, mom's back in the er, like this whole thing is really so hard on her nervous system. Mm-hmm. It adds complexity to a message that I want to give her about listening to her intuition. So the other day, me and her dad went for like a hike near us and we're walking and the snow is really high and it's formed like a 'cause there was rain and then it froze.
There's like a crispy ice layer. So there's these huge boulder rocks out over this wetland, but there's this crispy ice layer. So normally we have to be very careful and we know there's like crevices and holes, but we're walking above it on the ice, literally walking. Floating in the air on this ice. But we know it's safe.
Like we can tell it's hard, it's safe. Mark and I are like, this is okay. And little 7-year-old kiddo suddenly freezes and doesn't wanna go any further and says, my intuition is telling me something bad is going to happen. Something bad is going to happen. And I, I thought about this coven made of ours who.
Said once in a circle when we're talking about trying to piece out what is intuition versus what is. Screaming anxiety, like what is telling me? Yes. And she said, urgency is a trauma response. Mm-hmm. If you feel like it's fucking has to happen right fucking now, then that might not be your intuition talking.
I couldn't really explain that to a 7-year-old, but wanted her to feel safe and didn't wanna override her intuition. At the same time. We navigated our way through it ended up playing on the ice and stuff, but I just wonder your thoughts about that. Tangle and how we can unpack it as people who carry fear and trauma, but also know that our intuition is in there.
[00:18:22] Sarah: I think what you're speaking to is so complicated and something that like, I really agree with what, like you said, was a cove mate who said that the urgency be related to a trauma response and gosh, like trauma, just the way it affects our brains, the way it affects everything ugh.
So complicated. I can't even properly verbalize how I feel about that, but it's like all of this compassion comes up.
I think that when you're in that heightened state, what I'm about to say is challenging, but I think it's observing the feeling and something that I like to think of Strengthening your intuition as a form of play and being able to. When I say play with the feelings, it's be in it and experience it, but I don't think that's something that can be done in a state of urgency.
Something that's helped me when I'm in that heightened state is to, is to stop and breathe and check in with all of my senses and observe the feeling. And honestly, I mean, I'm just gonna tell you what I do is that when I'm feeling that, I don't always act on the feeling.
And I have to say like I've done a lot of work on my own trauma. That's helped Meer discern that in ways where I don't feel like I get that feeling as much so, but. I really understand how that fear that comes up with that urgency. And so what I was gonna say when I was like, okay, this is what I do, is that there have been times where I've left situations like that, where I've just been like, okay, like I don't need to, I stick around and see what, how this unfolds, but then unpack it later in a safe place. The other thing is there's something too that I feel like getting older and having more time on this planet and more of the wisdom of experience that has helped me to discern what feelings are telling me, and that's been really helpful. I think that's something that is really challenging for younger people is there's something that I think that our intuition grows with us.
I would really encourage a sense of play with your intuition in a space where you feel safe. And I think about, I, there's a lot of exercises I like to do. I mean, when I was a kid, I grew up on the Jersey Shore and I love going to the ocean and going to the boardwalk, I would. Sit there and predict who was winning Boardwalk games.
And I would do it over and over and over again and I'd, when I was a teenager, I'd go to the horse track with my friend and do the same thing. And just recognizing the feelings I would get. And that I think is helpful too. I think there's. So many different sensory ways to recognize your intuition, to understand what you're drawn to.
Like I think about through music and listening to songs and seeing how they make you feel, and a song you really, if it lights you up, there's something about that feeling that reminds me of an intuitive hit . I just feel like I think it's really challenging to untangle the anxiety and fear that can come in with intuition and survival mode and discerning that, and that's why I think it's also good.
If you are a really sensitive person to understand how to settle your nervous system and to add those kind of tools to your metaphorical toolkit, but also understanding, I just think really showing yourself compassion because, uh, ugh, I just, for myself being in a trauma response, like it felt like I was in.
Such extreme danger.
[00:22:56] Risa: Yes.
[00:22:57] Sarah: When it's coming over me and, and not understanding it. Now I don't have those feelings as often as I used to. But when I do have it, I feel like I can recognize it and understand, okay, I think this is happening right now. And to me it becomes this heart versus head battle of honoring the feelings, but then also coming in and being like, okay, like actually I am safe.
But I also feel like even speaking to that experience of being outside of one's comfort zone, I just feel like there's so many reasons why people might be on high alert right now. Yeah. Have a lot of compassion for yourself because it's a lot to move through and to, oh, to discern that feeling that's so primal related to survival and safety.
Yes. One has that for reasons and I think finding ways to soothe yourself, but also feel empowered. And it's just, it's, I feel like it's a lot to, there's a lot of layers here to go through, but I do feel like if you're looking for a practical approach to it in a space that feels spacious and comfortable and safe.
I invite you to play with your intuition in, a low stakes environment and let it be a practice. Let it just become like we're not doing it just today. It's ongoing.
[00:24:39] Risa: I think that's really delicious and fun, and she'll really love that. And it was so layered. That's why I bring it up, not to get a diagnosis for that one moment.
[00:24:49] Sarah: Yeah.
[00:24:50] Risa: But because it reflected a lot of the things I'm thinking about as a parent and in my own practice, like how do we notice the feeling? Check in. Are there people here I trust who have assessed is this safe? Especially as a kid, like you have to do trust your parents sometimes, and then relaxed and played.
And we slid on the ice like penguins and she could see that I was okay. I was just in the hospital like a week ago. She needed to see me play and she saw us go out ahead. So she knew the ice could hold 'cause we are bigger than her. And she moved through it and she played and we had a blast. And then on the way back it was like the exhaustion hit.
[00:25:34] Sarah: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:34] Risa: Of having to go through that whole feeling. And you could see it was connected to a million other things. It was a really short walk. Yes. And suddenly. Whew. All the energy drained and Yeah. Caring for someone who's going through that reflects back to me on what my own inner child is going through in this time.
Yes, and I really felt a lot, there's so many resources in Sober Magic by Sarah Potter Magical Witch Resources for doing that work. Like it's so beautifully framed. The 12 steps against the major arcana and through the entire deck that not just for dealing with addiction, although that's the focus, but for any underworld journey to have a lot of witchcraft resources, a lot of spreads.
A lot of spells for every part of the journey to be held. It's a really super rich offering offered in such as you say, practical like, friendly, practical way.
[00:26:36] Sarah: Thank you. I just think that one thing I did wanna add is I just love how you validated your child's feelings. Oh, thanks. Because that, I think is so healing, especially I still thank my mom for validating my feelings when I was a child.
So healing to feel like. It's okay to feel what you're feeling. And then we discern how to act upon those feelings. And I think about that a lot through recovery and 12 steps. And I tried to write a book that I wished was there for me when I was feeling so lonely and at the depths of the deepest, darkest hole and thinking, I don't know how I'm gonna get outta here, but I can't live at the bottom of this hole.
So. I'm gonna claw my way out. And I really feel like witchcraft and tarot were such allies to me at that time. And I tried to just think of who did I need at that time? And I'm going to embody that and put it into this book. And I think that, I don't know, there's just something I think that's so lovely about 12 Steps providing a framework of how to.
Peel back the onion of pain and growth and provide steps that. You don't come in and do step 12, you come in and you do step one, and then you don't even need to think about step two until step one is done. You. There's no reason to jump ahead and this kind of framework that helps you get to where you're going and that reminder, being able to slow down and take things step by step.
I just found that to be so supportive and helpful, and I wanted to reframe it in. Language that I understood and specifically the Pagan lens and 'cause I know that, I mean, this was not my first rodeo of getting sober. I've had many rounds of getting sober and relapses and, but. If there was something like, I think there's so many ways I could tell myself like, oh, this isn't for me.
Even though it was something I so desperately needed. There's a lot of fear and vulnerability around stepping into that and. Changing my identity, changing who I was, changing how I coped with things. There's a lot of change I was looking at, I think, whether it was conscious or unconscious, and I felt like, all right, I understand.
For us witches, there's so many reasons why going into a room where the language isn't appearing to be. Our pagan language. So there's something, I've been really lucky. I haven't been ostracized for being a witch in a recovery room, but other people have shared that they have. I have, be honest, like most people don't know I'm a witch.
Like I don't I, but I feel like in a space where I need help and you have to be vulnerable, just everyone should be welcome. And so I wanted to, I. If that's what's, if the language is what's keeping you out of there, then I was like, well, I'm gonna offer you another way to look at these steps. So I hope you feel like it's for you, because if you think it is, it absolutely is.
[00:30:13] Risa: Yeah. I think it offers such a way in, for me, it was something that I, I like. Debated internally for a long time, whether my relationship to alcohol and marijuana was on the addiction side of the. I, I wouldn't have used the word party girl, but I related to that phrasing of it in your book, the way that I lived my life, it was so core to all of what I did.
Like I was always at shows or at restaurant openings or at galleries, and there was always. Wine and I and beer, and I was always biking through the streets of Montreal with glorious girlfriends, slightly high, and I don't regret any of those years. Those were blast.
[00:31:06] Sarah: Yeah, it was fun. Yeah.
[00:31:09] Risa: Yeah. But it was hard to have a day go by where I didn't do it.
Hmm. And I would feel the, like the part of me that is a community organizer turned towards like, where are we going for drinks instead of how are we coming together to do something delicious? And I navigated that for a long time. Even moving out to the woods where that wasn't an option. My partner and I navigated it together and then had quit drinking.
And then was diagnosed, and so I had to reconcile the fact that I think one of the biggest contributors to my cancer was that I didn't catch it earlier, that the drinking and the weed and smoking and stuff. I mean those are like really big factors. Not everybody obviously, but, so I had to, I still have to do the, I still have to do all the exercises in the book because, do you know what I mean?
[00:32:05] Sarah: I understand.
[00:32:06] Risa: Yeah. I still have to like go through that part of the journey because I was forced to do it in pieces I think.
[00:32:12] Sarah: Healing can be so exhausting. Unpacking everything is so exhausting. I feel like I did a lot of healing before I wrote this book. I did a lot of recovery. Yeah, did a lot of rounds of the steps and something that I came to understand through writing this book was like I was having these experiences of dredging up these memories and I thought I could look at them as just.
I dunno if clinical is the right word, but I was getting so upset. I was getting so sad. I was feeling all these feelings. I was exhausted. Yes. I would like, and I would have to sometimes spend like a day or two resting and I was like, I don't understand this.
I thought I healed this. Like, why am I feeling all these feelings? I came to understand that it's just, it's still, it's work and it's exhausting and it's just because you heal something doesn't mean it's gone. And I think the feelings shift and change. But what I'm really trying to say is that I think it's always helpful to show yourself love and compassion and kindness through these journeys, healing can look different every day and even doing a little something is something, and you have the book, it's not going anywhere you can, it's
[00:33:35] Risa: go around. It's fine. Yeah. That's part of why I really love the framing of the 12 steps into the wheel of the tarot and that this isn't linear.
[00:33:46] Sarah: Yes.
[00:33:46] Risa: This is something that witches, know. We don't. Go from A to B and check it off, and we've fucking knocked it off and we've resolved it. We live in spirals and it's all in your body. They're spinning helixes of your experience, and you just aren't gonna escape them. But maybe you can learn something on each round.
[00:34:04] Sarah: Exactly.
[00:34:05] Risa: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Try to not be so knocked out by it this time around. Writing my way through what this, these last two years have been like and things that I thought I had like really moved through. Just telling the story of it. I feel it in my body all again.
Mm-hmm. It's so wild. The relationship between words, memory, body.
[00:34:25] Sarah: Oh yeah. It's really. I mean, I do, I find it fascinating the way these experiences exist, oh, being a human is so hard.
[00:34:37] Risa: It's
[00:34:37] Sarah: tough, it's really cool, but it's tough. And we do so much to ourselves.
Sometimes I'm like, Ugh, that is not helping.
[00:34:46] Risa: it helps me understand though what I think is happening when. Someone like yourself, you use the phrase intuitive hit or psychic hit, or when you feel the presence of an ancestor or a relative and you feel like a message coming through. I feel like when we talk about the intensity of story, like as an energy, as a wave that is,
something we tap back into and it moves through our bodies again. That kind of helps my rational brain understand what's happening in those moments somehow. Do you understand it that way?
[00:35:22] Sarah: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And,
What's funny too is it makes me think of, I'm almost like, I think I've all put it down that it's like, like I'm just. Maybe I'm not gonna understand how it got here, but the experience is very real and I understand that and, and I feel like, 'cause I feel like I had just, I had so much, I think it's like existential angst, especially as a teenager and young adult of like.
Why are these experiences happening? What is this telling me? Why? Just so much questioning of like why, and I had this, mentor that I learned so much about energy and metaphysics from, and I would just think I'd go to house and be like, oh, like I'd have all of my questions of like my existential angst of the week and be like, why?
And then he would just be like, it just is. And I'm like. No I'd be like reading these, I don't know, like, like these like complex philosophical theory, like the answer's in here and like I wasn't finding these answers and then it's just okay. It just is.
[00:36:35] Risa: Yeah. Just is, it's not maybe fur. I wonder if it's not for somebody who experiences it so strongly to have to do the work of understanding the, the physics of it.
That's two things.
[00:36:51] Sarah: Thank you. That actually sounds really freeing to hear. It's very freeing. Oh my gosh. That's not my responsibility. So
[00:36:58] Risa: maybe people who like don't feel it so much, can do the objective studies on it or something.
[00:37:05] Sarah: Thank you.
[00:37:08] Risa: We gotta get, we gotta get together with those people, but
[00:37:12] Sarah: I agree. I'm gonna let them do their job and why they're here. Share their gifts with us.
[00:37:17] Risa: Yeah, exactly. You have other things to do. You have a lot of people talking to you.
[00:37:22] Sarah: Thank you. I really do.
[00:37:25] Risa: Sounds like it. It's really fun to, I think especially because your book isn't framed as, let Me Sell My Psychic Abilities Hotline book.
Do you know what I mean?
[00:37:38] Sarah: I do. Yeah.
[00:37:40] Risa: It's not really what you're trying to do in that book. You're just like, incidentally, this is what fucking dragged me through the underworld and how I got back out and here's some bits of how it is for me. Deal with it.
[00:37:53] Sarah: Yeah.
[00:37:54] Risa: For refreshing way to hear those stories.
'cause I don't feel like I'm being sold that anything really.
[00:38:01] Sarah: Oh, that feels really good to hear because I feel like. There was something, I think it was like my journey through the underworld and recovery and work, where I realized, I was like, oh, it's not my job to convince people that I'm right. That's what
[00:38:17] Risa: it feels
[00:38:18] Sarah: like.
Yeah. You nailed that. Thank you. Yeah. There was something I was like, I am not gonna, I'm actually like, I'm done. I'm not gonna convince anyone. I'm psychic. I've, I've done events. And I really, I, I've done so many events, I've talked to so many people and I notice the patterns I've had people be like, this isn't real.
All have to share their opinions of me. And I'm like, okay. I mean, I don't behave like that, like where I go in and tell people what I think of them and how they make a living. That's not my business. And there was just something like, I used to feel like I had to prove myself and I had to prove, look how psychic I am.
Yeah. Right. How accurate I am. And I was like, actually, I was like, you know what, that's not my job. My job is to give the best reading I can for people who wanna be here with me. Mm-hmm. And if you don't wanna be here, that is so fine. But like I've, I've done events where. And it's so rare this happens, but every once in a while where someone will be like, I don't believe in this, so prove me wrong.
And I'll just like giggle and just be like, you know what? It's fine if you don't believe in this, but there's someone behind you who does. So I'm gonna see them. Thank you. Thank you. And it's just, and that, and what I've come to notice is I actually feel that a lot of these people who take that have that mindset.
They wanna believe in magic more than anything. Yeah. They wanna believe in the as, they wanna believe in this. And, and I sometimes feel like they're like, eh, come on, witch, put on a show. Razzle dazzle me. And, and I'm just like, Ugh. I no thanks. I mean, and I just realized like I am not here to convince anyone that this is real.
It is real. It's real for me. And when I let go of that part. I could really focus on what I'm here to do, and I'm just, I'm not gonna convince anyone that they have to work with me. And I just think it's, I feel like I've, I do feel like I've shown the evidence of. What I'm capable of doing and not, and I know what I can't do, and that's it.
So it's, if you don't want a reading, that's totally fine. That's fine. And a witch isn't for everyone. I don't wanna be pressured into something I don't want to do. So like, why would I do that for anyone else? If you need a reading, I'm here but.
I'm not doing a hard sell.
[00:40:40] Risa: It's so antithetical to witchcraft. Like we're, the whole thing is like, we're not trying to convert anybody.
[00:40:47] Sarah: Right.
[00:40:48] Risa: Please, please go do your own thing. That is what's cool. We wanna see everyone do their thing and tap into their unique universe and share their universes with us and show their unique, beautiful power.
Please go do that. I will do my thing over here and that will be great.
[00:41:06] Sarah: Absolutely. ,
[00:41:08] Risa: We don't believe the same things. Anyway,
go and make your own relationship with something or somebody? Okay. What are you working on these days? What is exciting and fruitful in the universe to you?
[00:41:23] Sarah: I love this question.
[00:41:24] Risa: Interpreted broadly
[00:41:26] Sarah: well. So I have things that are like sparkling in the ether, but this is the first time I think in my life that I don't have a clearly delineated goal that I am striving towards, which was a little terrifying, but also pretty.
Freeing and cool and exciting. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, what a cool place to be in. And I am, I have been working on what's going to be my next book. I love writing books. It was so funny, like I thought, like writing this book was a spiritual initiation. I was like, wow, I.
Sacrificed for this book. I lost things that I loved and wanted, but I also gained so much, and it was so hard, but then I was like, oh my gosh, I can't wait to do it again. I like how I am when I'm writing a book and when I'm inspired, I feel like the closest to my truest self.
I love being inspired. And so like I, I have an idea and a vision of what my next book will be, but I'm enjoying playing with it and I am really excited to, I'm always excited when I see the ocean.
[00:42:56] Risa: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:56] Sarah: And that just always makes me feel like. Lit up and connected to the divine. So I'm always excited to be there and honestly like just having some human experiences and spending time with some friends, and I'm enjoying leaving my home and traveling, promoting sober magic and finding new ways to stay inspired through it.
And I feel like that's like what I'm feeling really excited about and I'm very inspired by my inner teen and I feel the, I don't know, I call it Y 2K witchcraft and playing with what that is and thinking about how I can bring that energy of my earliest witchcraft. Practices into the present. So that's been feeling really fun to play with and I always love thinking of how to bring enchantment and ritual into spaces where it might not be thought of to be.
And working with my clients and brands and collaborators in that way. So that's been feeling really inspiring and exciting and I think that's, that's what I'm thinking about. I'm really excited to see flowers blooming soon. I feel like this was such a long, dark, cold winter and now there's signs of spring in my neighborhood.
I feel like I. Emerged yesterday and noticed that the FIA was blooming in my courtyard. And that always makes me really excited because that means spring really is here, and that just feels really good. Went out a lot last week and enjoyed art and music and things that I really love and I want some more of that.
And. I'm just like doing some like little trips. I'm gonna go to the h. I never go to the Hamptons, but I'm gonna go to the Hamptons next month twice, which is once for work and one for fun, and that feels really silly. And I'm going to Montana and San Francisco, so I just just feel inspired by having some human experiences.
[00:45:28] Risa: That's delicious. My foria is under a solid six feet of snow. Oh. You just can't see the bushes at all. Yeah. And it's exciting to hear. I mean, from here, looking into America, it feels so deeply shell shellshocked.
[00:45:47] Sarah: Mm-hmm.
[00:45:48] Risa: Terrorized.
[00:45:50] Sarah: Oh
[00:45:50] Risa: yes. And shellshocked. So. It's exciting to feel that people are still weaving their magic and living delicious lives in resistance, and we were so thrilled and excited when we reached out to Sarah about our reparations fundraiser.
[00:46:15] Sarah: Yes,
[00:46:16] Risa: and so we're so excited. Do you wanna share like why that felt like good for you to participate in? Would that be okay?
[00:46:24] Sarah: Oh, absolutely. Well, I feel like when people I believe in ask me for help and to support, I wanna say yes. And I was honored. You asked me, I believe in what you guys do, and I believe in this cause and I'm so happy to donate a reading and to donate a copy of Sober Magic.
And you know, something that's really helped me in that when I was talking about existential angst, I feel like since I was a child, I felt like. Sometimes I just felt like the weight of the world and the weight of pain and fear, and I remember just being so little and asking my mom, asking all these things like, why do bad things happen to good people?
And like all of the atrocities of the world and how overwhelming and paralyzing it can feel, but. Then it's, I mean, maybe this is like a recovery thing too. It's, well step by step we can make changes and sometimes I think when the world feels really overwhelming and things are so much is out of our control, what is it that I can control?
I feel like I can be kind and I can put my time and energy and efforts into what I believe in, and I really believe in the power of community and. Something. So I'm happy to donate my time to causes and I really think that doing what you can without burning yourself out. Yeah. 'cause I feel like I know for me, if I burn myself out, then I can't help and helping is really important to me.
So feeling like doing what you can with what you have is powerful and putting your energy into the things you believe in. It might, and all those little things add up and add up, and that's when we make change. So I try to just think about what I can do and I can absolutely do this, so I'm happy to participate.
[00:48:26] Risa: It's so exciting. Some whoever wins that prize one-on-one with the Sarah Potter will be so thrilled and lucky.
[00:48:34] Sarah: Woo. I'm so thrilled.
[00:48:36] Risa: Like get made. It's be so rad to get to share that with people. I think that'll really help us spread the word about our reparations work too. 'cause people will be excited to get to connect with you, so that's so nice.
I love, so the framing of reparations is so important to me because I think it goes back to what we were talking about with the fear and trauma at the core of things, you know? Mm-hmm. That there is this sort of like original trauma wound, and that's
[00:49:02] Sarah: Yes.
[00:49:02] Risa: Colonialism and so we can't fix everything. But there's something about directing witch love right at that heart with repair that feels really loving and potent to me.
So I'm excited to do that with other witches.
[00:49:18] Sarah: Oh, I completely agree and I love how you framed it. I think that's really so true.
[00:49:24] Risa: Let's do it together.
[00:49:26] Sarah: Yay.
[00:49:28] Risa: Yay. Thank you and thanks listeners, and bless it. Fucking be
[00:49:38] Speaker 2: Hi, it's Risa
[00:49:39] Speaker: and Amy from Missing Witches here to invite you to join a reparations movement.
[00:49:46] Speaker 2: Every year we pay forward our coven membership dues to the native women's shelter of Montreal and invite you to join us in raising funds for indigenous led organizations.
[00:49:55] Speaker: Getting involved is easy. Make a contribution of $10 or more to your local indigenous LED org, land protectors, water protectors, housing justice repatriation.
Take a screenshot of your receipt and email it to which reparations@gmail.com.
[00:50:14] Speaker 2: For every $10, you get one entry into a draw for fabulous witchy prizes. So $50 is five entries, a hundred is 10. So on.
[00:50:24] Speaker: Plus everyone who joins the fundraiser will automatically get a discount code from House Witch in Salem.
So you literally can't lose
[00:50:32] Speaker 2: the missing Witches reparations fundraiser runs through the month of May. Go to missing witches.com/reparations for all of the juicy details
[00:50:41] Speaker: because it's not a gift, it's a debt,
[00:50:44] Speaker 2: and it's not a donation. It's a reparation.