Mary Maksoud: The Steminist Witch

Megan (00:00)
I'm Megan Hamilton, and this is the Embracing Enchantment podcast. I can't remember exactly when I came to learn about today's guest, but as she blends science and witchcraft, I was so intrigued. And then I learned she lives in Canada, even in my province. So we started to chat. She's a witch of Phoenician-Lebanese descent. She's focused on ethics and literacy, and she founded the Debug Your Bind.

Method. Please welcome Mary Maksoud, aka the Steminist Witch. Hi Mary.

Mary (00:36)
Hello.

Megan (00:37)
Welcome to the podcast.

Mary (00:38)
Thank you for having me.

Megan (00:40)
I'm so thrilled. It's always so fun when you meet another witch who's closer to you. 'Cause I don't know if you feel this way, but I often find people that I really enjoy following and then they're usually American.

Mary (00:53)
Yes, yes. I

did find someone else though who lives west of me, Danielle. Yeah, I'll I'll make the

Megan (00:59)
Okay. Okay. Neat.

Mary (01:01)
introduction. She has a book. I found her through her book and we're also Instagram friends.

Megan (01:05)
neat. fun okay. Instagram

is so helpful for helping everybody find each other,

Mary (01:12)
Yeah.

Megan (01:12)
So as I explained to Mary earlier, and as my listeners know, I like to pull a card at the beginning just to set the tone and see what wants to come through, whatever sort of is in the unconscious right now, let's just say. And as I'm shuffling, I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your journey from STEM to witchcraft.

if they were ever separate, maybe they never were, and how you came to where you're at today.

Mary (01:45)
Yeah. So they were separate, but at the beginning they weren't. So I've been intuitive all my life. but I grew up very Christian, which basically kind of sucks the intuition out of you, for lack of other terms.

Megan (01:58)
huh.

Mary (02:02)
and I was very scientific. I've always been able to recognize patterns and I thought, well, everything lies in science.

until I had a personal experience where I had meningitis and a stroke. And they wanted

Megan (02:16)
And a stroke?

Mary (02:17)
yes, so my the right side of my face just stopped working completely. and they wanted to drill into my brain, and the scientific me was like, Hell no, that's not gonna happen. and I had at that time started reading about basically a lot of

Deepak Chopra, which I don't like right now anymore. But at the time,

Megan (02:37)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mary (02:40)
like the book was very impactful. and it was a lot meditation and how you can use your own brain and your own energy to heal yourself. So I refused the surgery and I started doing my daily meditations and I did a full recovery, which the doctor then called basically Mother Mary healed you.

because they can't explain it any other way. It was a miracle to them. and that's where I started diving into understanding, well, how are they related? Because they're definitely related. And at that time

Megan (03:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (03:15)
I remember having been very excited about quantum physics when I was in school. And quantum physics talked about energy. So I started linking those dots and then I started doing a deep dive. And then once I really started

actually reading much so much about quantum physics and following people who talk about quantum physics, it became very apparent to me that quantum physics is basically what's running the world and Newtonian physics is just basically a very narrow way of looking at science. And I

Megan (03:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (03:47)
understood that our energy and our life force and everything that we see around us and the way that the world spins is technically scientific. And the magic

is also scientific.

Megan (03:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (04:00)
the other layer to it was also when I started doing research and realizing that everything that we label science was magic just the night before we started calling it science.

Megan (04:10)
Yeah.

Mary (04:10)
So that's kind of my journey in a nutshell into how I got to really go from being very scientific to, I'm still scientific, but I'm also a witch.

Megan (04:24)
Yeah,

I love it. It's so interesting, isn't it? How I I've had this conversation a lot lately where

What we think magic is going to look and feel like is so divorced from reality, but then when you start to realize how much magic is intrinsic even in just everyday life, Then you start to see the parallels between science and magic and how, you know, as you say, they're one in the same or they operate within the same let's say frequencies.

I think, you know, what we might be on the cusp of, and I hope we are, is different ways of exploring how we gather data and how we measure elements

Mary (05:12)
Yeah.

Megan (05:12)
through the research because we're limited by the tools we have available to us. And what I love whenever I meet

you know, somebody who's a doctor of quantum physics is that they are very familiar with the fact that we're limited to how we can even measure things. And so if we're using the scientific model, we have to say research doesn't back this up, but often that's because there's no we don't have the tools to measure what the thing we're talking about is meant to be showing.

And I and I'm hoping because there's lots of people who have been at the forefront of this, right? Who have

Mary (05:50)
Yes.

Megan (05:51)
been sort of noticing and quietly acquiring as much as they can research and data let's say around even ESP or psychic abilities, which is not measurable with our current methods.

Mary (06:07)
No. And the CIA has actually worked on psychic abilities.

Megan (06:12)
It's so bananas, isn't it? It's like, you guys can do it but everybody else is a quack? Yeah.

Mary (06:16)
Yeah.

And there's university department, I think it's the University of Virginia, don't quote me on which university, but they have a department to study past lives. there's a doctor that I just recently talked about, I forgot his name, who has dedicated the last 50 years to study near death experiences and how actually people when they go to the other side

They come back more intuitive, they come back virtuosos, they they like it is wild, but also the brain activity at that point of death, which is supposedly when it should shut off, is actually the complete opposite. So we can't pretend to know. And science, I personally, and I get a lot of hate for this, I don't believe in facts. A fact is

Megan (07:06)
Mm.

Mary (07:07)
something we know today that can be very different.

Tomorrow. We thought smoking was good for you. There were adverts everywhere. go smoke a cigarette. It's going to help you. And you know, like it's always a trend. And the facts that we have are really just a representation of what we know right now. Until

Megan (07:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (07:30)
we know better, until we have better tools, until we can actually make more informed decisions.

Megan (07:36)
Yep, agree. And so many of the the quote unquote facts are averages. Right? And so they don't take into account the anomalies. They don't take into ac they in fact they necessarily average them out through, you know, the way that they're they want to express the greatest example of of XYZ.

Mary (07:59)
And it's it goes beyond that, even with science, like with the research that I do, because the reason why I call myself steminist is because I'm a big feminist. And they they have not studied women, they don't do drug trials on women, they don't do any clinical trials on women.

Megan (08:08)
I figured. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

Mary (08:16)
Actually, until the 1920 something, women were not even allowed in clinical trials, they were banned. So

Megan (08:24)
Uh-huh.

Mary (08:25)
when you want to study something.

But you don't want to study the complex one because our hormones make it difficult for them to study us. We are too complex. And then you call it actual results that apply to everyone. You are missing the mark on what you are actually calling a result and how it impacts women and how it impacts the pain level of women. So again, it's a flawed system to begin with.

Megan (08:52)
Hmm,

it really is. okay. I am going to pull a card and see what wants to come come out into the into the

Well

that's fitting the moon.

Mary (09:05)
Ha ha.

Megan (09:07)
So as we're recording, we are just on the cusp of the new Virgo moon, which is happening in our timeline tomorrow. So the moon asks us, it's that's it I mean, why I don't know why I'm surprised every time. How long have I been reading tarot? Twenty six years. But the moon asks us to trust our intuition and

to work through the murkiness even when we can't see the quote unquote facts, even when we can't see things perfectly, right? We're illuminated by an eclipsed moon here. And I don't know about everybody else. But this last eclipse season was something else. And it I feel like I'm still I I was just talking about this with somebody yesterday. Is it

I was very close to the surface yesterday with so many things, physically, you know, like constant tingles in my body, feeling lots of emotional release and just trying to figure out like what the heck. And I I said, Is it the end of the eclipse season? Is it the the pre new moon? is it the moon shadow? Is it, you know, like the state of the world? Is it perimenopause? Is it fatigue from a very busy summer? Who knows? But

I think the thing that the the what the moon gives us is the opportunity to explore not knowing perfectly, and by perfectly I just mean empirically and factually, and still moving forward, anyways. Moving towards almost an intuition or a belief and trusting

the forward momentum is is the direction we're meant to be going, even if we can't see it immediately. The moon asks us to reconcile our wild side, represented by the wolf, as well as our domesticated side, re represented by the dog, which means, you know, we have to live together. And so we ha we have to be accountable to our urges to our

emotions to our frustrations to our anger, we are still accountable for how we process and how we show up in our emotional and intuitive state. And I think we're also responsible for leaning into our intuition and our own trust and our own sovereignty over ourselves, our bodies.

and our continual growth. that feels like a good one. Any anything you want to add to that, Mary?

Mary (11:44)
I'm just gonna piggyback on your eclipse season. This eclipse season was absolutely earth shattering,

Megan (11:51)
It was so

Mary (11:53)
butt kicking, I don't know what to call it. All I know is that yesterday as well, like you, I I had very big emotions and I couldn't rationalize it because I was like,

Megan (12:06)
interesting.

Mary (12:07)
I'm not in my Ludial phase, I should be fine.

Megan (12:11)
I

know. Yeah.

Mary (12:11)
What the hell is going on?

and I thought also maybe it's the new moon. I just feel like lately the energy has had a very big shift and there's just been so much it all goes to show like we try to really kind of say, the universe is happening and we're separate from it. And

Megan (12:31)
Yeah.

Mary (12:31)
that is one of the biggest mistakes we probably made as humanity.

Megan (12:34)
Hmm.

Mary (12:35)
Our ancestors knew better.

Megan (12:37)
Yeah.

Mary (12:38)
We

think we're smarter, we think we're more advanced, and what we're being shown by a slap in the face is that no, we're not. Because we are part of this whole cosmic balance and we're just refusing to play along. and hopefully this energy and hopefully, you know, we start understanding more how much we are connected to the moon. because if the moon can move the tides the way that it does

Silly us thinking we will not be affected.

Megan (13:07)
I know. And even I mean, I remember when I was going into the hospital to give birth and or I was having the tour. It was it was one of the two and I remember the nurses saying, because my daughter was going to be born somewhere around a full moon, you should be okay because we'll have extra staff on the floor that night 'cause we always have extra staff during a full moon. We don't know why, it just kinda happens that there's more people that come to the hospital in a full moon and I was like

Seriously? They were like, yep, we can't explain it, it's so fascinating that so much of this lore is backed up by science.

Mary (13:45)
Yeah.

Megan (13:46)
But there's still this poo-pooing on the old ways of understanding or intuition or you know, as we were just talking about earlier, data and research that doesn't conform to the modern possible tools or facts, as you mentioned, there's still this kind of like discrepancy between

this is the pseudoscience over here. These are the people we don't really we're not really gonna trust them. But over here we're gonna be studying ESP. We're gonna be studying, we're gonna use the CIA to look into paranormal activity and you know I I can't remember what the name of it is, and I started to kind of go down a rabbit hole a few years ago, and then I was like, I just can't even touch this. It was the

the codes, right? Was it the light codes? I can't remember what the heck it

Mary (14:33)
yeah.

Megan (14:34)
is. But like, you know, they're used by the CIA. And you just it feels like fucking patriarchy in in in its absolute purest form of we're going to slam all of you.

Mary (14:51)
Mm-hmm.

Megan (14:52)
gonna do the exact same stuff, but we're gonna call it a different name and it's gonna have more money.

Mary (14:56)
Yes. And it's gonna get funding. The way we

Megan (14:58)
And it's o Yeah.

Mary (15:00)
want whatever we think should be at the forefront, we will fund. I don't know if you saw the post I put up about, you know, when they killed herbalism. So yeah,

Megan (15:10)
I don't know if I did.

Mary (15:11)
so they killed herbalism literally because they couldn't patent plants at the time. Now they're patenting seeds.

which aga is a whole different rabbit hole conversation. but they couldn't patent plants, they could patent petroleum based compounds. So they went and they decided that okay, every university that is still teaching in their well physician training anything related to herbalism will not get funding anymore. Rockefeller were only fund

anyone who starts teaching petroleum based science and that's how verbalism died. It literally died at the hand of well, two men. There's the other men who did the assessment, but then the men who had the money. So it it when you dig deep enough, you I am getting

Megan (15:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (16:00)
to a point where I look at this world and I'm like, none of it makes sense.

Megan (16:04)
No.

Mary (16:05)
It just does not make sense and I don't understand how it's still holding up.

Megan (16:08)
it's it's all of the things. It's all of the isms, right? It's the racism, it's the i it's the capitalism, it's the patriarchy, it's it's the absolute control.

Mary (16:19)
Yes.

Megan (16:20)
And and for what? I mean that's what I mean I saw we don't have to go there, but I saw, you know, some of the stuff that came out from the UN about the climate change and

It's like what you know this, I know this, and I know my listeners know this, but what is all of this about? What is the point?

Mary (16:38)
Yeah.

Megan (16:39)
If at the end of everything there's nothing left?

what do we what do we do this for and and and so, you know, are we now at the mercy of very, very

messed up from power brains that people d aren't able to recognize because I you know, the people who are controlling everything at this point, we know because well we've got data and research that shows that power corrupts the brain.

There's there's quantifiable evidence of this. And yet all of these folks are running the world, anyways, it's it it it starts to just become, you know, what do we do? So I mean, then maybe I'll ask you this, and this is a very big question, what do we do? Because I find witchcraft is my grounding, it's my empowerment.

It's

my screw you to the systems that don't work. and it's my way forward of staying hopeful.

Mary (17:44)
Yeah. And that's a that's a great word, hope, right? I so I'm a witch, but I don't practice Wicca. So my form of

Megan (17:54)
Yeah, same.

Mary (17:54)
yeah, so my form of witchcraft is literally energy work. I do energy work and I have the biggest emphasis to everyone on intention. And there is a study that has stuck t in my mind since I learned about it. So

There were two scientists on different islands faced like opposite sides of the world. I don't remember which islands. I do remember though they were observing monkeys. one of the scientists taught monkeys how to peel a banana a certain way. And as soon as enough monkeys on that island learned how to peel bananas in that way, the scientist who was observing the other monkeys saw them start to peel bananas.

That way, without even having knowledge or any form of connection, again, we're talking islands of the

Megan (18:45)
Mm.

Mary (18:45)
other monkeys. That is the power of the collective consciousness, and that is the power of intention. And that is my hope. Like the reason why I do what I do, the reason why I'm so vocal, the reason why I want people to understand what energy actually is at its core, and that it is the essence of everything, is because

Is because if we as a collective all have the same intention, we can change this. We do have the

Megan (19:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (19:13)
power to change this. There are studies about people who have meditated for peace for a few weeks, and then the crime rate came down, and things actually

Megan (19:20)
I love that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mary (19:26)
changed, and they they made a measurable dent in the frequency, and they made a change. So

Megan (19:33)
huh.

Mary (19:33)
And

that's just we're talking a few hundreds. Imagine

Megan (19:37)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (19:38)
if we had millions of people with the same intention of actually getting us out of the shitshow that we're in. Then we will be out of the shit

Megan (19:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (19:47)
show that we're in.

Megan (19:50)
Yeah, yes. And you know, what's funny about all of that too is we now have the most sophisticated way of organizing them we've ever seen in all of humanity, right? We have the internet. We are able to reach people instantly. We are able to see people even though we're not in the same room. And yet it's also been one of our biggest downfalls because now we're facing so much

misinformation. We're facing so many

people who are literally out to cause confusion, to cause chaos. It's you know, it's part of their MO. and so we're battling, you know, like what is true, what is right. Is this AI? I mean the other day I saw something, I'm I feel like I'm pretty good at sniffing this stuff out. And I was like, I looked at something and and Audrey's like, my daughter just said, mom, that's AI. I'm like, I I really don't

think it is. She goes, Mom, it's totally AI. And I'm like, I anyways, it was. and it fooled me and I would have thought at this point I would have said, I'm really good at detecting when something is false.

Mary (21:08)
And that's that's a whole other rabbit hole, right? Like I I

Megan (21:11)
It it really is.

Mary (21:13)
I work in tech and I talk a lot about the literacy and like I lead the ethics piece and I I can recognize the advancements that machine learning has brought to the world because AI is machine learning at its core. And I studied about AI when I was in university fifteen years ago.

What we're seeing right now, the rise of the LLMs, that's the problem. AI,

Megan (21:34)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mary (21:36)
machine learning itself is not a problem. It has actually brought a lot of good things to humanity, especially in medicine. And if we're talking about, some like all the microsurgeries that we're doing. Wouldn't be possible if we didn't have this technology. But the LLMs and the garbage data that we're creating.

The people who are using it as a therapist, the people who wake up in the morning is like, Good morning, Chad GPT, my friend. That is the problem. Children growing up to this is the problem. The fact that they

Megan (22:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (22:07)
ruled that people are allowed to have pornographic videos of AI generated kids on their computers, as long as they don't resemble the kid 100%, that is the problem. And yes.

You go on social media and there is so much crap. And that used to be my reservation around going on social media. I was like,

Megan (22:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (22:31)
I don't want to be this person. That's why I cite my sources. That's why I always have like, this is where I got this from. This is where I've done my research. If you don't agree with the research I'm looking at, that's fine, but it exists.

And that's mostly

Megan (22:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (22:45)
the comments I will get. Well, that I don't like that research. There's another one. I'm like, yeah, great. There's a million research. But

that research exists.

Megan (22:53)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (22:54)
the bigger problem with social media also is well addiction also if I don't know if you remember the movie, I think it was called The Social Engineer or whatever. But it talked about how they actually use social media to feed you information that agrees with you, like basically increases your bias. They are able to rig elections

by showing people exactly what they want them to see, like it is a big problem. Yes, we have access

Megan (23:24)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mary (23:27)
to a lot of information, but where is that information coming from? Who is actually providing that information? Also what is the agenda behind that information?

Megan (23:37)
that's the big one, right? It's it's it's this idea that humanity is an experiment for a few people to mess around with.

Mary (23:45)
Yeah.

Megan (23:46)
it's it is it's just infuriating and and, you know, the people who

are the most susceptible you cannot change their minds. You know, they they you've they have, as you say, have been fed such a huge amount of misinformation for so long that it's it's impossible to to try to to make any headway. okay

All

right, I'm gonna pull us back out of the weeds a little bit because I'm really curious about your practice and you know, can you lead us through sort of what a day might look like with your with your practices?

Mary (24:26)
Yes, absolutely. So one thing I swear by is meditation. meditation changed my life and it has changed my clients' lives. So one thing I do every single day is I give myself at least ten minutes with music that is in four thirty-two hertz. because that is the actual music that is healing, not the four forty that we're being fed. that being said.

I don't always am not always able to do this in the morning. So let's start. I wake up in the morning. I have a five year old. So our mornings are rushed. I will wake up

Megan (24:58)
Huh.

Mary (24:59)
and get him out of the door to go to school. then I always come and I light a candle. Sometimes scented, sometimes not scented. I just light a candle with intention. I set the intention of my day. We go back to I re I'm a very big believer of intention.

So I set the intention to my day. I start my day. I start work very early. I'm still in corp for now. The plan is to not be in corp later. at 7 30. Then I will do my yoga practice around lunch. So I will do a vinyasa and then I am very adamant to have those like at the my Shavasana at the end, around like five to ten minutes.

so on the days that I do my yoga practice, that is my meditation. And on the days that

Megan (25:42)
Hmm.

Mary (25:43)
I don't do a yoga practice, I just make sure to get a meditation before lunch because after lunch I will fall asleep because I had food.

Megan (25:50)
Uh-huh.

Mary (25:51)
I cook with intention. That is something that also I am very big on. I will clear the energy from the ingredients I bought because I don't know how other people have handled them.

I don't know what happened in the soil, especially with everything that's going on, who was shelving them, all of that. So I will clear the energy from the ingredients. And then when I'm cooking, I will try to pair the spices the way my mom would, or like the way ancestors would, because some spices work together to actually create some form of magic. and I love to call it magic, but you

Megan (26:23)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (26:25)
know, sometimes it's just relaxing, sometimes it's invigorating. But that's the magic of

You know, using those spices. So I will do that. I know.

Megan (26:31)
Yeah. Magic is very unsexy sometimes. It's

it's right, it's like smelling lavender and feeling better.

Mary (26:38)
Yes.

Megan (26:39)
But it it works. Mm-hmm.

Mary (26:41)
And and

I think I saw something on Instagram once where, you know, she was like, What do you think I look like? Like wearing a flowy dress and sitting and you know, and usually I'm in like a very messy bun and in my workout clothes and I'm just like doing my Yeah. So

Megan (26:53)
Yeah. Yeah. Yoga pants, yeah.

Mary (26:57)
cook with intention, make sure that we're well nourished. I think we have such a problem with diets in general. so

It has been very intentional for me to try and get the family back on very whole food diet. my afternoons, so my son come home, my son will come home. I actually love walking in nature, so I generally tend to try and get a walk in nature before he comes back.

We spend a lot of time outside. My kid will go hug the trees and be like, this tree is calling me. I am raising a very energy aware kid. So that is also part of my practice is to ensure that my child knows that energy is real, it exists, that we are able to actually harness it and manipulate it and work with it.

so that's part of what we do. And him and I also in the afternoons, they're mostly dedicated to him.

So part of that practice is we listen to music or we listen to an audiobook while we're doing Lego or while we're playing a game. and he loves to read. So he's been reading with me. And then before bed, I have this little ritual that I do, which is basically very funny, but it's very positive affirmations to myself before I sleep.

I will talk to myself in the future form. It's more like

So I have a vision for what I'm doing and I will basically reinforce that vision to myself. Because when you talk to yourself like that during the night before you sleep, your brain will go in the evening and it will run that loop while you're sleeping. And your unconscious mind will actually be very happy and it will like be empowered. I think that's the word. Like it'll be empowered.

There is one thing I always tell people to do before they sleep. We tend to run the day. I tell them, ask your unconscious mind to find what worked today. Every single positive thing you've done.

Megan (28:47)
Hmm, yeah, I like that.

Mary (28:50)
that way, when you're sleeping, your unconscious mind is empowered and is looking for all the positive things that happened.

the last thing that is very much my practice, but is weird, and I don't know how mundane or not mundane it is.

I get my inspiration for what I want to post on social media in that liminal space before I fall asleep. So yeah, I think you know what I'm talking about. Like I put my head down, and as soon

Megan (29:12)
I do. Yep.

Mary (29:15)
as I feel like my body relaxed, it's like the channel is so clear and things

Megan (29:21)
Yeah.

Mary (29:21)
start coming through.

And then most of the times at this point, because I don't want to get up, I'll just hit like a record button on my phone and I'll just say, This is what came through today, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then I'll deal with that in the morning. that's a typical day when I'm not working with a client or when I'm not actually doing like heavy energy work that I do. It's really

Megan (29:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (29:44)
just having a lot of intention in my day.

Megan (29:47)
Yeah, and I mean I've said this as well, and I I agree, I feel like so much of magic work is is just intention. And that's when I started working with the moon cycles, I enjoyed releasing on the full moon and welcoming in on the new moon. I mean, you know, that's a very high overview, but because it forced me to

connect with myself of what do I want to happen? What do I want things to look like? Therefore, what changes do I need to make in order to get there? Because we don't always spend the time, you know, especially as parents, especially if you're growing up as a w like with as a woman or a non-binary person, you're there's a lot of expectations. There's sort of taking care of everybody and you don't you kind of can get away from

Who you are and what you want. And so the moon cycles for me is just straight out out of the gate were helpful to anchor me into being present, being intentional and making choices based on having thought things through instead of just sort of constantly walking around and and trying to make big decisions sort of in the moment when I hadn't had the time to to connect.

But I wanna go back to what you were talking about, the hypnagogue state, which is that one, you know, between waking and sleeping, 'cause

Mary (31:10)
Mm-hmm.

Megan (31:10)
we are we do tend to be really receptive at that time and as you note you start to get a lot of ideas. I'm the same, but I can't sleep with my phone in the room anymore because I will just be on it and and I made a commitment to myself to read more and

That was the only way I could think of. So I will actually get out of bed and go and like, write it down and then come back. Otherwise it's gone and and I just don't want to lose it. I mean if it's if it's good. If it's like kind of good, it's like I'm sure I'll come up with something else and that's fine.

Mary (31:37)
Yeah.

Megan (31:39)
you also practice you have training with hypnotherapy and the hypnagogue state is is the state I mean I I I'm not

claiming to be a hypnotherapist. I took a three part program. I'm very, very limited, but that was one of the states that we try to get folks to is that state of receptive know, it's kind of guard down, which is really difficult for a lot of people because they also have to really trust the person who's the practitioner. But can you speak a little bit to that kind of work that you do?

Mary (32:09)
So I I love that you asked this question. So first of all, my meditation, when I do my meditations, that's the state I go into. It's the theta state. and at this point in my practice, I can just do two breaths and then I'm out. but speaking about the trust, when we talk about trust, people don't realize that in hypnosis state.

You are more in control than you are in your conscious awake state. there is so much stigma around hypnosis, and it's because of all the stage hypnotists and everything that people read. practitioner can never make you do something against your values. Ever. I explain that to everyone who works with me. I tell them if I ever give you a command and that command is against your values, you will wake up.

Even if you were in a super deep hypnosis where you are technically asleep but just talking to me, you will wake up.

Megan (33:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (33:05)
There has to be so many different factors for someone to be able to control you. And obviously it's the CIA who did that research, so we know it exists. there has to be torture, a distortion of time, and hypnosis, and that is how you can control someone.

If you come to me and you're like, I want to do a past life regression session, for example, yes, we do the hypnosis, you go into a deep state, and then we guide you. Like we just work together for you to get what you need to do out of what you need to get out of it. and oftentimes people don't realize that when they ask for a session that is just hypnotherapy,

They are also releasing a lot through that session because when you do visit those spaces in your unconscious, it takes you to where it wants you to learn something so that you can actually move on from that trauma or from whatever happened there. so I studied hypnotherapy, well, hypnosis seven, eight years ago. I did the first level and then the master level.

and I incorporate it in all of my practice. I always tell people when you're working with me, you're in a trance, and it really depends on where we are in the work. Some work is a light trance, so when we are doing any form of energy release, it is generally a very light trance. And when we are doing more of, well, someone wants to quit smoking or someone wants to actually go and visit their past lives, we go into more of a deeper hypnosis because

we need to access the unconscious mind very directly and remove the filter of consciousness from the conversation. So yeah, I do that, but I don't do it independently. So I do it through my method of debug your bind. It depends on what people want to work on, but it is within a program.

Megan (34:58)
Yeah, so so talk a little bit about that.

it's it's a way of working through mental blocks. It's essentially helping folks get to goal or a place that they want to be that they're feeling blocked from getting there. Is that i is that accurate?

Mary (35:14)
So, yes, and it's more nuanced than that. So, what as we grow up, we accumulate trauma. We also create limiting decisions and limiting beliefs about ourselves. at some point, we create an identity that is not us, but we associate it to ourselves. That is what I work on. Like I work with

Megan (35:35)
Mm.

Mary (35:36)
someone to figure out.

What is that identity that you have created for yourself that does not serve you, obviously? always like to give that analogy. It's like a Jenga. And you have so many limiting decisions and limiting beliefs that you've attached to yourself. But there is that one piece of the Jenga that when you take out is going to erase all of them because it's just gonna break.

all of that structure that you've created. So that's what I do. That is what we do. Yes, we

Megan (36:07)
You find that one piece.

Mary (36:09)
find that one piece, we release it, and then after that we release all the trauma and negative emotions that people have attached to their bodies. Because also people feel that like they heal from certain physical ailments. Because again, we go back to it is not mainstream, but actually

emotions do attach in the body in different places in the body depending on the people. So

Megan (36:37)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (36:38)
we do that and then I offer support through the transition afterwards, creating your new identity, which is actually who you are, and how do you install strategies and how do you create practices and rituals in your daily life that allow you to maintain that identity and build upon it and then reach your goals.

Megan (36:58)
I love it. It's so interesting. I mean, from a very again, smaller scale version of this with the hypnosis studying that I did, we worked on

figuring out so every once in a while I'll use this with clients and that it's only if if I bring it up and they want to, but it's going back to a traumatic event or something that especially in my realm of public speaking, it's figuring out so I use a combination of shadow work and and other methods, but it's going back to t try to figure out what was the kernel that set the wheels in motion for this idea that you're not good at it or you're, you know, all of the different things you can imagine.

limiting beliefs and blocks and then we work you know you go back to that state and then we alter it which i i know you know but what my point is that so powerful and effective and sometimes

Mary (37:49)
Yes.

Megan (37:50)
solves the problem immediately

You know, and you n you n you you don't want to say that necessarily because that would be a hard to believe and you don't w like it it doesn't work the same for everybody, but sometimes you see it feels like a miracle where there's something that somebody couldn't do beforehand and then all of a sudden they can do it and you're just like, That's magic. Right? Mm-hmm.

Mary (38:12)
It is magic. It's changes

instant. And again, you look at it from the lens of quantum physics. There are an infinite number of timelines. The next frame of your life is an infinite possibility. It just depends on the frequency you're operating in that you bring in what is coming next. And when you do this kind of work, so you call it, for example, shadow work, I call it energy work, because again, we go into their deepest, darkest places in their

psyche and we unlock those through a combination of hypnosis and energy work that I've learned in Hawaii and the neurolinguistic programming that I've learned and years of mentoring and coaching. But

Megan (38:53)
Yeah.

Mary (38:54)
it is instant. I have clients who literally like their life changed the next day. Like the it the next day.

Megan (39:02)
I know.

Mary (39:04)
And yes it's hard to believe but it is there. It has happened.

W you have witnessed it, I have witnessed it, it it

Megan (39:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (39:11)
it happens.

Megan (39:12)
It does happen. And, you know, just just to be very clear, it doesn't happen every time. And there's, you know, there's all kind there's so many different variables. but it is it is kind of wild sometimes to see things unfold that the way that they do. and it is it's a

pleasure and a joy to to witness that and to to be along on the journey with somebody, right? Like that I for me, that's the basis of of why I love the work I do with other people so much is it is true

Mary (39:43)
Yeah.

Megan (39:44)
joy to experience somebody's transf transformation Okay.

I

want to make sure that we're that we that we keep this within a certain amount of time because I feel like you and I could probably talk for hours.

Mary (39:56)
Yeah.

Megan (39:58)
So as we close up, I'm wondering how do you think our connection to spirituality can keep us hopeful while we're living through an extremely stressful time?

Mary (40:08)
you know when you mentioned that I remember like my best friend texted me today and she's like I just left Costco and holy shit everything's even more expensive. We are living in I feel like we're in a pressure cooker. it's it's it's very difficult. But you know what? When I think about the hope that

Me being a witch gives people the hope that when I tell people, if you work with intention, if you change your life, things around you start shifting. I think that by having a connection, and for me, spirituality is very broad. it is connecting

Megan (40:48)
Mm.

Mary (40:49)
with the earth, it's connecting with the elements, it's connecting with other people, it is being

A kind person inside and not a nice person, a kind person. That's very big distinction

Megan (41:01)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (41:02)
for me because when you lead from kindness, you are just bringing beauty and joy into the world. You are also

Megan (41:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (41:10)
accepting of everybody else. And that is spirituality to me. It is coming together as a collective. It is having hope that by having more people like that.

it becomes infectious and contagious and it just tips the scales. That's

Megan (41:26)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (41:27)
how I think spirituality should be a beacon of hope for people. It's also when you stop and you for me it's the small things you were saying. Like I stop outside and I just watch the crows and I nod

Megan (41:38)
No.

Mary (41:38)
to them. Or I watch the birds or even in this in the winter here in Canada because our winter is long, it is seeing the sparkle

every morning on the snow that that like I cry the first snow when I'm taking my kid to the bus and I see like the snow sparkling like diamonds. I always cry. It's that

Megan (41:56)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Mary (41:59)
it's touching it and being like, okay, I'm here and I want to be here and I want to create this connection with the land, with everything around me, with my pets. I talk to my pets. yeah.

Megan (42:10)
I talk to everything.

Mary (42:12)
Yeah. But that's it, like recognizing that this is all alive. Even buildings are alive. My house is alive. my house is very much alive. That is the hope. Finding life and light in this very dark moment. Because when you are in your light, the dark can't penetrate the light. It's usually the other way around.

So the more light you shine outwards, the more you can remove the darkness.

Megan (42:39)
I love everything you just said and I'll add to it that the dark and the light are together. There's

Mary (42:47)
Yeah.

Megan (42:47)
there's that they work together. We you know, and and I know I know you didn't mean this, sorry, I know this isn't what you were s you were saying. It's just we're not overriding the dark. The dark has lessons for us, the dark is is where things grow. the shadow

and the light together. And that's I mean, going back to our moon card, that is that's that's the balance, right? That's the

Mary (43:09)
The balance. Yeah.

Megan (43:11)
two towers. We have the eclipse, we have the moon, we have the dark and the light together. And that that is truly not only is it the principle of magic, right? Which is to be holding two opposite seeming things to be true at the same time, but

Mary (43:25)
Yes.

Megan (43:26)
it's also

it's also the way through. It's also the way that we integrate and we recognize the the magic of being alive. well listen Mary, I have absolutely enjoyed this conversation with you and I really thank you for coming and spending time with me today. it's been a

Mary (43:41)
me too.

Megan (43:43)
really nice conversation. before we part, I know that you have some retreats coming up. Do you want to tell us a little bit about them?

Mary (43:51)
I have booked a place in Ireland for June next year. So I have not released the details on that one just yet. but it is going to be during the solstice.

Megan (44:03)
nice.

Mary (44:04)
Yes,

and this is why this one is on the eighteenth because it's right before the equinox. I really believe in those pivotal energetic moments.

Megan (44:10)
My band is releasing music

on sp very specific dates because of that. Yeah.

Mary (44:15)
Yeah.

So that that one is find your purpose, find your voice. I will help women release and find their purpose in the first one. And then the next one is going to be a little bigger than me. So I have other practitioners who will be there as well. And it's going to be a lot of feminine bonding is what I'm hoping for.

Megan (44:35)
Sounds tremendous. so you can find all of the information and takeaways from today's episode in the show notes or at embracingenchant.com. Please subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a review or a voice note. You can find out more about Mary and where to follow her in the show notes, and I'll be sure to link to whatever information we have about her retreats or at embracingenchant.com. Make sure you check out our backpack.

If you're new and hit subscribe because we have some very exciting episodes coming. Until then, here's to building an enchanted life. And thank you so much, Mary.

Mary (45:12)
Thank you.