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Billosophy101
Stacy Salpietro - Babb / Witch
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William interviews Stacy Salpietro - Babb Tarot card reader and professional Witch. Stacy sheds light on the ways and crafts of the Witch while overturning misconceptions.
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Welcome to a place where we're thinking together and thinking deeper about who we are and what we do in this world. Welcome to the philosophy podcast.
William Forchion:Hello, I am William Forchion. And I would like to welcome you to the Billosophy 101 Podcast. Today, my guest is
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I am Stacy Salpietro Babb, and I am a tarot card reader and professional Witch,
William Forchion:wow, okay, my jaw drops, even though I know who you are. To hear you say that you're a professional, Witch, is, there's so much in that there's a pictures of what a witch is. And for those of you since we're on the podcast, you can't actually see Stacy in front of you. But I would say you are not the media depiction of a witch.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Oh, the the green faced and the warts and the all of that.
William Forchion:All of that, yes, all that I don't you're not wearing a hat. You know, I don't, I can't see your feet. But your boots, you know, you don't have to lace up boots to go.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I have a lot of lace up boots. I just just full disclosure. I'm currently wearing slippers actually.
William Forchion:So, but we're gonna just go there with the with the professional, Witch part of this as a professional, Witch, I mean, there's been so many things, one of the things because I'm a professional clown, and I have to deal with more of the negative parts of that than the positive, which is, you know, clowns are mirth makers, and a Witch is, you know, if I put things clown and which you are the, you're depicted as the opposite, there's, you know, dark magic and magic and spells. What does it entail to be a witch?
Unknown:To actually be a witch? Well, you know, for me, it's a, it's a series of Crafts you know, which ... it's called witchcraft, because there's a number of crafts that all come together to create the witch. But the thing is, is it's different for every, you know, for every witch, and, you know, we're a stubborn group, and we don't have any, you know, central organized system or anything. And so, you know, let's say most witches will be seers of some sort, well, they're, you know, they'll, they'll read cards, or they'll do runes, or astrology or, you know, herbalism, or, you know, there's a lot of different ways that witches work too, to help the world and I guess some of our skills are a little or a little obscure, but um, you know, but really, it's a bunch of crafts that come together. And and I think there's a certain spiritual witchcraft to that part that wants to help people and that wants to think around corners, and, you know, and find ways to find solutions for people who are struggling and such, you know,
William Forchion:Do you when you go out in the world... do you identify and you say, Hey, I'm a witch? you know, some people go, I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer. I'm a do you say that?'Cause I under I imagine that you will get some pushback or some cheeky offhand remark.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Oh, yes. Well, I have been saying, I've been very publicly a witch since since 1996. And that, you know, right now, I work in a world where, you know, luckily, everybody expects me to act like a witch now, because that's what I do. That's my lifestyle. It's my job. I'm a witchcraft teacher. I you know, but I was publicly a witch, when I worked, let's say in the mental health system, I'm a I have a degree in psychology and counseling. And so I and that caused all sorts of chaos. I mean, I taught my first Tarot class was to teenagers in town, right? And I was only 23 years old. I was I was kind of, I guess, unaware of some of the pushback that I would get, you know, you're teaching all the kids witchcraft, which I'm like, what was be so wrong with that? You know, and I think part of it is that people don't know what witchcraft is. But I have gotten any number of difficult reactions, actually. I mean, some people like just straight laugh at me, which is an interesting reaction, but I always say I laugh back at them, because I'm really happy. I enjoy my life.
William Forchion:You get the do you get the comments of like, oh, no, really? What do you do?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:If you would be surprised if you saw some of the things people say to me, people will say like, so do you eat children? Like I'm a vegetarian, first of all, like, you know, so I've had people ask me some pretty outlandish things over the years, and there's a lot of fear of witchcraft. I mean, recently, I was teaching a Kitchen Witch, witchcraft class. And while advertising for it, somebody got in touch with me to ask if the class would be overtly witchy Which, I mean, it was called into the cauldron kitchen. We're gonna you know, I'm pretty overtly witchy no matter what I do, it's kind of like, I mean, I don't turn it off or on and that way, you know. And she said she's afraid of witches. So she wasn't okay being taught by a witch and really wouldn't hear anything I had to say, would usually, to be honest, I have in my life been able to, I guess, talk a lot of people around corners and out of some of their stereotypes. And people will say like, well, like, you know, the things you're saying makes sense. You know, I mean, most witches are pretty practical.
William Forchion:Right? Well, it's funny because I, I will use the same with being a clown is. So often people say I'm afraid of clowns. And then I'll say, are you afraid of me? And I was like, because everything that I'm doing right now is the clown. It's just who I am. It's not because I it's not because I punched a ticket at nine o'clock and stepped into the job and said, I'm now clowning. It's who I am.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yeah, I don't know how to. Like when when people it's funny. Sometimes people will say, Well, you know, are you gonna, you know, Halloween is coming? Are you gonna, like dress up like a witch or which kind of witchcraft things? I mean, I that's what I, this is just how I dress. This is just do like, I do this all the time. It's not, you know, but I consider that to be a luxury actually. Because a lot of people I work with and teach say that they can't be really open about who they are. And they do have to, like, kind of take it off and on in a way that I don't I don't have to, you know, right. But let's say I really kind of an answer to the question you had asked I really stubbornly as a professional was very vocal about being a witch. It got a lot of different reactions. Some people definitely had a problem with me like, why do you want to teach kids black magic was one of my favorite questions. I was like, I don't that would be stupid. I believe in black magic. Beach, a bunch of teenagers black magic, like no, that's not, you know, um, so I got a lot of really negative reactions. But I think to be honest, the most hurtful one is either just being laughed at or not believed in where people say, Oh, well, I don't believe in witches. And it's like, Well, hey, like, that's what I am.
William Forchion:It's like saying, I don't believe in air. I can't see it. I don't believe it's here. It's not real. This is not air.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:like clowns. It's like, well, that doesn't change the fact that clowns are so strange reaction, but it's the one that gets to me the most. And I think what people are saying is that they don't believe in the stereotype of witches. They don't believe in the witch riding around on the broomstick and castling and, you know, throwing you know, potions at people and cursing them, you know, that they don't believe in that. And that's good, I guess.
William Forchion:I mean, when you said before about teaching the kitchen, which kitchen witchery class, and I got to be over overtly witchy what were they expecting? Were you going to be teaching, like, recipes and cackling and recipe, you know, like, I'm going to take house pets and make a stew or, you know, what is what is overtly witchy?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:That's a valid point, because I kind of just laughed at the time because it was like, that's a really strange question. Like, you're, you're on a page called Path of the witch, looking into a class called kitchen witchery into the cauldron. There's going to be some witchcraft going on. But it didn't. It didn't occur to me to actually wonder what she meant by that. Because, right, maybe she meant that, you know, we were going to be, you know, taking the claws off of cats, and, you know, eyeball them, putting them into our cauldron. Yeah, it's it's hard to know what people's stereotypes are. And, but it has been a funny thing all these years being kind of unwilling to hide being a witch. I walked around carrying a pentacle at really professional jobs. You know, like I said, stubbornly. So just right, just like, This is who I am. And I don't think there's anything wrong with it. And I, you know, it's nice now, though, like, hide that in any way. And like I said, it's the first time a long time anybody's actually asked me if I was going to be overtly witchy. It's like, people like it when I do that. Kind of
William Forchion:know, you as a professional which you spread your, you're an ambassador for witches, period. And were in the I'm trying to form this question in a way that makes sense. There are people who say, Oh, I'm afraid of witches are afraid of witchcraft. Are there places in everyday life where we use witchcraft, or spellcasting? Or that we you know, that the normal person wouldn't even identify it as witchcraft?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Well, take the fact that every day of the week is connected to a planet, right? We have Sunday, right? The sun we have Monday, that's the moon actually Tuesday's connected to Mars. And, you know, so on Saturn's day, you know, Ray is that, you know, so there's all these old there's a lot of magic first of all, moving in with the different planets, and you know how to work with it well that we could say, well, you know, today is Thursday, also known as Thursday, which is connected to the planet Jupiter, actually, which is the planet of luck and expansion, maybe that's why we're talking today, right? You pick something and evolve it and grows that. So there's definitely that. But I would also say, um, you know, I'm a really practical, which I think of, you know, let's say everything we do is a spell if we consider it correctly, you know, let's say, if you want to sleep well at night, well, it's smart to set up your setup your bed, well set up your space, well have it be clean and calm and have it smell nice. And, you know, so you're setting up the spell for good sleep? You know what I mean? And if in the morning, sleep, well, then you need to adjust your spell, what did you need to do to, you know, to tweak that, you know, I think a lot of magic is action, you have to actually do things. So I think it's a, it's a bit of a mindset, that, you know, that you that you kind of look at things with, but I would say, people are casting magic all the time, you know, even with like intentions and such. And, although intention out actions don't get you much
William Forchion:different. And this is this one just popped up in my head as well. How different is spellcasting and prayers.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I mean, as far as I know, um, prayers would be a request, usually, which spellcasting has as an element. And it's a cooperation, which I think also has, um, I guess with spell casting, we add in little fun elements that maybe don't get added in with prayer, you know, being like, you know, potions and powders and such. That sort of, you know, where there's kind of more things added, I would suppose it would probably be directed in different ways, right? You know, a lot of times if I'm casting spells I'm considering I'm working with kind of the spirits of my home and the spirits of the land were usually prayer be more to a deity of some kind, right? Okay. Which some witches, Some Witches are involved with another witches aren't. The funny thing about witchcraft is that we don't agree. You know, there's, I always tell people in my classes, the first thing I say is like, if you ask three witches for an opinion, you're going to get four, right? No, anything. And that's fine, because it's core witchcraft is that everybody has their own individuality and way of doing things, then there's, you know, to just differentiate, then there's Wicca, which is more of that, that would be the more organized form of witchcraft that came about in the 1950s. So that's more of a tradition where there's an organization and rules. But when people are saying they're a witch, it's complicated. They can mean any number of things, I can usually guess that they practice a number of crafts.
William Forchion:And do you as a witch, you know, like, with any profession, do you have a specialty? Is there something you enjoy more like one part of aspect of it more than others? Or do you just kind of feel it out? And
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:so me or everybody, would you say,
William Forchion:you personally,
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I am. So I was drawn into witchcraft by by SEER ship by predictions. So I was always fascinated from the time that I was a kid. I was, you know, I was the kid that was reading everybody's horoscopes at them and making everybody take the tests and the the quizzes and all the kids magazines, the teenage magazines, you know, I was always interested in understanding people in that way. And so when I was 12, actually, my mother got me the Encyclopedia of prediction, and in it was everything from palm reading to Taros, to runes, dream interpretation, and I, I still have it, it's falling apart. And I just loved it at the time, I wanted to learn everything, you know, I wanted to learn all of it. And, and ironically, Taros my specialty, actually, but ironically, that was the one thing in the book that I said, Oh, that looks too hard. Like I'm going to learn palm reading. I'm going to learn astrology. I'm going to learn graphology which is interpretation of handwriting, which is really fascinating. But I look tarot and thought, oh my goodness, that's it. 78 cards, you know, I mean, I'm not going to be able to that looks complicated. was my first instinct but so see, your ship has always been my specialty. I I did get to the flip. You know. Now when I look at that book, it's like, like, Yes, I did it. I learned how to do every single thing in that book from tea leaf reading to palm reading, you know, Taro is my specialty though. That's, that's my, that's my comfort. I have a tarot deck front of me.
William Forchion:I was at the wayfarer deck. It is. You actually created your own tarot deck. You and a partner, an artist Tell me about that.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I worked with Margaret Shipman, who is a who is a good friend and local artists and she had taken I teach a class called 78 days of Tarot where we spend a day with each card and really kind of sink into the meaning Of the of each card and she had taken a 78 days class and at the end of it, she approached me and asked if I wanted to create a tarot deck. And my background is that I, I love tarot, I always wanted to create a tarot deck, I am really creative book, if I had created this deck, it would look really different. I am not terribly artistic when it comes to kind of fine art that that sort of thing. I wouldn't even attempt it, I had always wanted somebody like Margaret to come along. And of course, her art is just is just beautiful and fantastic. So we kind of went on this, what I would call kind of almost a mellow journey together to create this, you know, we didn't really push each other, we would just get together and talk about cards and talk about how that might be depicted in a picture, you know, teros and it's a picture language, you know, so would have a concept and how are we going to put this out there? So it's yeah, she created 78 works of art and I wrote the guidebook to it
William Forchion:is no is that a daunting task to step into making your own tarot deck because there are other decks out there. There are some that are pretty, I would say ancient. They've been around for quite some time. And you're you're making a new version of that with imagery. And meaning that has been passed down from the ancients.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yeah, well, tarot. So what I think of as a living tradition, it's kind of you know, so So we've got our old decks, I have a 14th century tarot deck that I love working with, you know, so we have our really, really old tarot decks. But that, you know, there are literally 1000s of decks out there. And as we change as people, as our culture changes, and shifts, you see those shifts in the deck. And that's like, let's say where we went with the wayfarer Taros we wanted to make it a little bit more approachable. Like, you know, we made our hero fun, which is usually a pope, we made him into a professor, you know, because people don't have a local hero fan that they go talk to you anymore. You know, that used to make sense. And like the 14th century, people were like, oh, yeah, the hero fan, you know, whereas now that means, like the keeper of knowledge and wisdom, I mean, that, you know, so we were trying to make it more relatable to the, to the modern reader, so you could look at it and read the symbolism and have it make sense.
William Forchion:And how long would process is it to create your own deck working with Margaret, was it five months was a two year?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:No, I think it was four years. It's I mean, it's 78 works of art. Margaret had the hard part of it in my opinion, you know, I mean, she you know, if you look at the spec and like quickly pull a couple cards, but like she she created everything from like kind of drawings, I'm sorry, this is the star that I held up and then I just held up the the aid of air and I was just showing the difference because she created some of the cards as paintings and some S Pen drawings. Um, you know, so So anyways, hurt for a job was much more daunting than mine, I wrote the book, kind of over the course of teaching a lot of Tarot classes, because would focus on a car today. So I kind of wrote along with that. And then kind of did it all at once in the end and had like, a really stressful six months. But the, you know, the work that really came into effect was I mean, Margaret worked on this for four years. And so
William Forchion:this is a great spot for how if somebody wanted to get one of these decks, where would they find what are they available in stores? Or that you have a website? Do you have a way of getting one of these
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Wayfarer taro calm is where you would find where you would find the ducks in the guidebooks. And I know that we have decks in Keene, New Hampshire. Yep. I'm sure. And then like, there, it's kind of we have we went to a trade show the New Age trade show in Boulder, Colorado, and we're spread out all over the country. You know, and it's funny there's, we have we have less stores around here that carry us than we have out west, we have a lot less that carry our, our stuff
William Forchion:in your teachings of witchcraft. Is there anything that you do teach that that isn't being taught?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I, I mean, there's there's a lot of teachers out there. So it's hard to say. You know, I think one of my specialties in witchcraft teaching that not a lot of people touch as much on is, is working with familiar spirits and spirits of the land. A lot of witches don't really don't really talk about that as much in witchcraft. And it's interestingly due to, from what I gather an argument between two old men a long time ago, so it's like this repeating theme in the worlds but it was Harold Gardner when he created Wicca, right, which became kind of known as, you know, witchcraft. He was kind of taking all these disparate elements and putting them together into some sort of form. He left out or didn't really emphasize whatsoever, the witches familiar. And that was a big part. If you if you look back at historical witchcraft, though, it was always the witch and her familiar, you know, she always heard of a spirit that could go out and travel in her stead, etc. And he left that out and it was a big part of witchcraft and so there was this other old white man Cecile Williamson who argued that he said, Why are you leaving us out? That's a big, you know, that's kind of the witches connection to her power. So if you felt that that's the that's, you know,
William Forchion:dig a little deeper, because I imagine that I don't know anything about witch is what is the witches familiar?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Well, that would be some, you know, again, like ask three witches for an opinion and you'll get four I have to put that out there. But um, the witches familiar would be a spirit that the witch works with and usually shows itself in some sort of an animal form. Right? I am kind of the bird girl and hang out. Oh my god, like all the all the birds at the museum because I have a, I have a focus on working with animal spirits.
William Forchion:Do I? Do I hear a bird in the background? Right?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yeah, I have parakeets. They're there. They're endlessly chatty.
William Forchion:Okay. All right, just to make sure so that when we're hearing people, or maybe in the podcast, we'll hear the chirping that's going on just a bit. That's
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:not That's not owls and eagles. They don't sound you know, but it would be working with like, let's say, you know, so if I can work with a hawk and get to understand hawks, right, then I can learn how to use the eyes of a hawk and the Hawk can see miles like a mile away, the Hawk is able to be in detail, you know? So how can I learn something from what's wild? You know, we have a real big disconnect with nature. Some people work with live familiars being like, this is my cat, she is my familiar. This is where which is really it's a if you put this up, which is we'll argue about this, there's little things which we'll argue about. And I don't work with living familiars I work with with, with spirit familiar, so let's say I'd see owls in my dreams. And so I got to know owls in reality, so I could see what that was about, you know, why? Why was I seeing this? Well, you know, and then you start to learn from the actual creature itself, you know, like, wow, elves have this incredible hearing, like, do I have to sharpen my own hearing? So it's kind of about like trying to get your your wild skills back, we don't really have as much connection to
William Forchion:so with your spirit familiars, is that like a spirit guide?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:You know, it's funny, there's a, it's complicated. It always is, right? Because there's a lot of different words out there and cultures that are kind of mixed together and confused. Let's say a lot of people talk about totem spirits. And they asked, so is it kind of like a totem? And it's like, I'm not sure I can't really speak to that I, you know, I'm not a part of that culture. Spirit guides, I think is kind of like a broad term, you know, for like, kind of any sort of, like, kind of spiritual energy that's working with you. And people could mean anything from like, a familiar to ancestor to different people, you know, to, you know, your grandmother who's died or to, you know, like, some kind of spirits that watch over you, you know, yeah.
William Forchion:If you could demystify anything about witchcraft, what would what would it be?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I mean, I don't know, I kind of like the mystical side of witchcraft. So I don't know. There's things that simply aren't, aren't true that I would try to take away you know, and seriously, like the, you know, the cackling witch putting children into ovens and such, it would be nice to see that sort of stereotype go away like that, that like is kind of tiring by this point. So can we stop having, you know, right. But there's a lot of confusion in witchcraft, a lot of things are confused in terms of the history of witchcraft. You know, let's say, take, as a word, you know, people didn't identify themselves as witches. Until really recently in history, you know, we're looking at different crafts and saying, like, Yes, that sounds like witchcraft to me. But the people of you know, the 1400s. They didn't walk around calling themselves a witch, they were accused of that. You know what I mean? So there's a big confusion about what witchcraft is in the history. And there's a lot of what we call fake lore, woven in
William Forchion:and is, is witchcraft. Hopefully, I'm not offending you by mentioning this. But you know, the Harry Potter series, which became one of the more famous of them, there's many different books for young adult fiction for on witchcraft. But from that, there's this idea that some people, it's past within them that they're witches in lineage, are there is that something that we're all accessible to is? Witchcraft and the witchiness or whatever that is?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yes. And in fact, one of my one of my pet peeves actually is the you know, a lot of which is true or false like to have a long story like oh, the, my grandmother taught me witchcraft from from long ago connected to the old age of witches and I don't know I think like a lot of people have made some stuff up. To be honest, and it's kind of it's kind of confused things. If you think about it, you know, I mean, so I think what happens is that people think, for example, that Tarot is a gift, right? It's some gifts that was just blessed upon me. And it's like when people say that, I always laugh because it's like I obsessed about Tarot. That's why I'm good at it. I studied it obsessive. Oh, other like, you know, this person might have studied carpentry. I studied Tarot that as as a teacher, I think it stops people from from learning because they think that they just have to be perfect at everything. When they start, they pick up a deck of tarot cards, and they're like, I'm not good at this, like
William Forchion:you're saying, it's just like, if I wanted to be a stellar athlete, I would apply myself and I would do the work that was necessary. Being a witch is the same thing as that you take the skills and the techniques, and you work at them to gain proficiency and mastery.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Right. So you know, I didn't start off being a good tarot card reader. You know, I mean, I had to learn that I had to learn the cards, I had to practice reading. So I had to stumble through it, I had to be really basic at first and grow it I mean, just like you would with anything else. But people have this myth that it's this, that it's this gift, I think it stops people from learning because they don't think that they're good at it.
William Forchion:I need to say I at this point, I have to say, you have read done a tarot reading for me on multiple occasions. And the first time I did not know you, our kids were at the same preschool together. And you did a reading for me. And I, my socks came off, I was blown away. Because you are reading wasn't, it was so in depth. And it wasn't without it was without question. It wasn't that you question and you pulled from me? The answers that you were giving is that you saw within the reading information that to me was remarkable that no stranger should have about me
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:of that moment. I have a picture of that that somebody had taken of you looking at me a little bit like I was terrifying.
William Forchion:As if you had two or three heads.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:You're giving me quite the look. Whoa.
William Forchion:Yeah, I was absolutely floored. And each reading you've done for me has been similar. It just I'm just like, what, how are you seeing this? How are you knowing this?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I blame it on the tarot cards, you know, honestly, it's not and then talk about another place of controversy, because a lot of people would say that it's me, and that my cards are just, they're just a tool, you know, but let's say I just did a reading right before this call for a woman. She said she wanted to know about her relationship in the cards right away. I mean, it only took a second to be like, Okay, there's something wrong here. What's wrong with the relationship? There's a problem. And then it you know, the card showed me it was like it was the devil, the guy had an addiction, you know, this woman was in a whole different place, it was showing the woman as the son, right. And him as the devil. The cards are being really clear. So my cards helped me right, because that showing me it's like, well look, this woman's like, full of this energy in life. And then she's with this person who's draining her energy because he's got this problem, right? I didn't know that. You know, picking up the phone and talking to her. I knew that because the cards gave me that hint. And I think once work really well with the cards they work with you or any skill that you're working with. For Sears ship, it works with you kind of seamlessly. And so my cards just, they lay it right out on the line. They're like, look, this woman's in a relationship. It's draining her she needs to walk away from it looks like the person has an addiction. It's not good for her. It amusingly said, if she continued on the path, that she would gain the skill of patience, you know, so they're a little snarky. They make her laugh. I'm sure she will gain patience. Taro, that's very funny. Have you you know, but it's, it's giving. It's the cards that are telling me this. It's not I didn't walk up to this woman with like, you know, instincts about her life. And in fact, some people will do that with me. They'll be like, I just met this guy. What's your, what's your instinct on that? And it's like, I don't know, you know, I can pull it out of you. I mean, cuz that's, that's how I work.
William Forchion:Are you familiar with the book, The Golden Compass, and it's about a girl and she has an Elisa ometer, which is like a compass, it looks like a compass. And when she sees it, when the average person sees it, there's ways that they can read it. And people have told told, Oh, this means this and this means that and that means that and she says, when I see it, I see that's the that's the first level and then there's another level and then there's another level and then there's another level and she has to then decide on which level she is reading from in order to discern what the information is that that is necessary in that moment. Is that how you read your tarot cards? Are there level like is there like, if I go deeper, I see this and I see this and superficially This means one thing, do you read it with a levels or do you just come to you?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I read it in levels like I will See, that's really accurate. I really like that as a description actually, that she has there it, I read it in different levels here, here's a good example is the reading that I just did. I was, I was helping the woman out, you know, she, it's not my job to tell somebody what to do, right, it's there. Um, she already had other people telling her what to do in the cards were clear about that. So she got from me, um, what she needed was like, some sympathy, some understanding, and like, hey, like, maybe there's some ways for you to not get so drained through this, like, you know, I see a stay with the sky like, alright, so like, is there ways to protect yourself? She said to me after she said, you know, our reading sometimes more mean than this. And I said, I could have read this in a completely different way. I could have said, Get the hell out of this relationship. It's draining your energy. And it's stopping you from being able to accomplish the things you're wanting to accomplish. Like don't do it, right. But I'm looking at it at a way I'm looking at it like, because I'm looking at the person run is hurting. Right? And I didn't feel like it was my place to yell at her or tell her what to do, though. Like, I'm looking at the cards, like, you know, what's the answers? You got to get out of this, it's not going to work. He's not going to change, right. But I could look at it from different angles and different levels, depending on how I looked at the situation. But I had to look at her first and see that this is a hurting person, you know, how can I help her given where she's at? You know, and so I think in different levels in that way, but it is true, like every card I call them projection holders. So there's the the image and there's the meaning and then like it's like a doorway, right?
William Forchion:If you like what's going on here on Billosophy101, you can become a subscriber through Patreon. It helps support what's happening here. So we have more interviews, and there'll be more things you can also generate, where the interviews go, Who Who do I interview? What do I talk about? That's Patreon. Only available to Patreon subscribers. If you also would like to donate give to see more of this stuff happen, because that's how independent art happens. You can through Venmo or Cashapp, both of them Billosophy101. I am talking with Stacy Salpietro - Babb which, yes, which one? That one? And I know I've known Stacy for years, and just amazing person with an amazing family. You I mean, there's so many things witchcraft teacher this year, and predictions aspect of things there. I want to go there. I also want to talk about the average everyday person in which there is the witchiness of every every everybody. There are certain things that we do on an everyday basis when we have gut instincts or we can we have premonitions or deja vu moments. How much of that can be honed in or trained through witchcraft?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I mean, I think that I think that a quite a bit of it. Actually, you know, I mean, because it's all about taking, you know, what I tell my new witches is witchcraft is about finding the thread you're supposed to follow and then following it. So let's say for me, it was Taro. And so I followed that, that particular thread to get to where I was going in witchcraft, but other people have different things that they follow, you know, they're like, I've always been intuitive, or I've been able to talk to the dead my whole life. So they go in in that way, or I've always been a person who wants to make herbal, you know, concoctions for my friends to heal them. Or, you know, you know, a lot of people say that they feel like they were always a witch. And for me, a lot of the things that I learned about that were witchcraft. It's like, jeez, I thought those were just weird quirks of mine. Let's say take animism, a lot of witches, some not all are animists, which means that you believe that there's a spirit to things other than people, right. So there's a spirit to animals, there's a spirit to trees, there's a spirit to a storm. I always thought that as a child and thought it was just a weird quirk of mine that I, you know, let's say worried about food that hadn't been eaten, because it was being wasted. And I felt sad about that. And, you know, um, so there's a lot of stuff I think that that people have is like hints that they might be interested in practicing witchcraft. But witchcraft does it as its own right is a is a real specific path. And in fact, I get a little grumpy sometimes when, like, they say, well, all women are witches. Because it would be like saying, All people are clowns. Right. Now, like you did a lot of work together. Everybody's a martial artist. And it's like, you know, because they move and it's like, well, not really like. So I think that there's there's some inner witchiness and everybody that they could choose to follow, and then they could choose to follow that path and that that could become what they are. But it's always funny to me at this time of year when all of a sudden everybody is Which, right? So for me, it's a practice. It's a craft. So when you tell me you're a witch, I say, Well, what do you do? Like what do you like? Do? Are you an herbalist you make potions? Do you make magical powders? Do you, you know, work with the seasons and the moon cycles? And you know, what do you mean, when you say you're a witch has ever been something kind of different?
William Forchion:My other question for you is, tend to gender which, which is our women? Are their male witches? Are there men who are witches?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:There sure are. In fact, one of my best friends is a is a male witch in the middle of Kansas, I guess that's stereotypical to witches. But yes, I've worked with quite a few witches who are who are men, I usually just call them which, if that's what they identify themselves, as other people call themselves warlocks. Instead, I've heard that although not as commonly, to be honest. And then there's people who do the same practice I do. And they call it the cunning craft. So they'll call themselves a cunning man, or a cunning one, and cunning as meaning, you know, it's not a nasty kind of connotation, I think in our culture. But what cunning meant, historically was what I call the ability to think around corners, right? If somebody has a problem, you're automatically like, How can I help? What can I do? Can I make something can I give you something? Can I give you a reading? Like that's kind of the cunning mind that's always kind of ticking and working? Right? And that I've heard a lot of men who practice witchcraft call themselves a cunning man. And honestly, probably because they have to do a lot of annoying explaining to people who are like, What do you mean, you're a witch, you're a guy, you can't be a witch. But you most certainly can.
William Forchion:As you said, there are many different voices, every every witch has their voice, which is the voice of witchcraft. But the the, the when you just mentioned cutting the cutting man, and it's talking about witchcraft, I think of when people use the terms to to describe somebody, oh, that person is very cunning, or that person is very crafty. And all of a sudden, it has a very different meaning to me when I think of, you know, are you sliding them by say, call them cutting and crafty? Are you honoring them by calling them cunning and crafty? Because both of those have, you know, the idea of cutting was like, Oh, he's sly, he's cutting.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:You know, but if you're manipulating things to work better, right? Yeah. I mean, what's wrong with that? You know,
William Forchion:and also both, both of them are slights in that if you call somebody crafty, you know, oh, they're very crafty. It's not like they're skilled, or masterful, they just managed to get through that with a craft.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Interesting, because, you know, it's funny how we hear words differently, because I would hear that as being artistically skilled, right, yeah. Some sort of craft or be skilled in some sort of a different way. You know what I mean? So it's funny how different words have different meanings. The cunning one really got me actually because I automatically thought of that as a negative rating. But if you're, you're coming to think around corners to solve problems to you know what I mean to make to make things a little better unity in the world around you, however you do it.
William Forchion:I think that's a bad just like, boom, I am coming. Thank you. That's,
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:you know what, I think a lot of the the compliments that witches get are kind of funny, though. Like, let's say like, somebody told me today that I was I was in a compliment for him that I was creepy. And she meant that my Tarot reading was good. I have a strange job. So being creepy is actually a compliment. It's like,
William Forchion:creepy and being that wait a minute, you were just inside my head.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yeah, I take it as a compliment. I don't I don't hear it is bad. But like, think about how many I mean, if somebody tells you, you're creepy, it's like,
William Forchion:no, no, thank you. There's so much meat here. There's so much and you're a vegetarian. Sorry about that. There's so much here that to work with him to chew on. What if I one of the questions I ask each of my guests. If you could go back to yourself in the past, which you probably can. But if you could go back and tell yourself pass on some information to just help her along at any any point in time where this young girl teenager in your 20s new mother some point in time of your life, that you can just say I want to I want to hand this to you, just to get you through this hump or get you through this time. What words of advice would you give yourself? Well, I
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:have some that come to mind around around witchcraft, if that helps. Um, when I was a new witch, I remember saying that I never wanted to, to work with any kind of large groups, right? I didn't want to work under any, any famous witch or anything like that. And later, I changed my mind and I chose to work under some famous switches. If I could go back, I would tell myself to keep doing my own thing. To not go out. Yes and not go following some famous person to not go following somebody tradition or way. I've been happiest as a witch doing things my way. And in fact that kind of defines witchcraft is doing things your own way. I mean, if you think about it, the Witch back in the day was the old woman with one eye on the field on the woods, like refusing to do things everybody else's way.
William Forchion:Right, right. And I hear you in that because I studied in San Francisco under a master in Chinese acrobatics, and I was so dead set on doing it exactly as I was taught and passing on that information because I was passing on a lineage, and it was being paid and even handed down from him to me, and I was gonna pass it on. And I knew about the regimentation very much like martial arts. And when I got to Vermont, I continued to do exactly as he had done, he came to visit. And this is not a common thing. But he came when he came to visit, he said, What are you doing? And I said, I'm doing it exactly as you taught me. And he said, why? And I said, because that's the way he said, No, the way he says change, and it needs to evolve, and that evolves with you, I've given you the information for you to change that information on how you present it.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:Yes, my friend, Margaret, the creator of the artists of the Tarot deck, she always says, You have to learn the, let's say, as an artist, you have to learn the skills of the master so that you can learn to break the rules, you learn the you look at all the different artists masters, and what they've done, and then you figure out their way you get comfortable with it, and you break the rules and find your way. And, in fact, it's interesting that you bring that up, because I think that that's, you would ask, like, what I offer that's different. And I when I teach, which is, I have no ulterior motive. As a teacher, I don't have a tradition that I'm trying to make them follow. I don't want them to do things my way I am specifically trying to help people find their way. We're gonna like, kind of help them find their threads. And then to follow it. I don't you know, I guess, you know, I worked under people who had a book to sell. So everybody does things this way. And I don't do that I, you know, let's say a lot of my witches are interested in crystals, I'm not much further with. But that doesn't mean that I won't teach somebody what I know about, like how to work with crystals, if that's their thing, I'm not going to try to teach them to be me, I want them to find their way. And I think that that makes me different as a witch because I don't or as a witch teacher, let's say because I don't, I don't have an ulterior motive. I have people go in directions all the time that I would never take. And that's fine. My path to take that's theirs. And I'm just watching them, like, you know, kind of excited to see what they find. It's not about me and what I'm trying to make them learn.
William Forchion:Before we finish up with the world, the state of the world, and we're in an odd state, there's upheaval, there's, there's separation, there is bully tactics that are being passed on as the way that we need to move. What insight what information could you share with the world? If you were you're now just made the leader of the world? And you could say something that would bring us together again? What would you say?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I mean, you know, from a witch perspective, you know, what I say? Is that, like, it's a really funny thing, how we've all drawn these imaginary lines between ourselves between countries, and we've called ourselves something different. Whereas really, what we are is one, I mean, not to sound Ultra hippy on you here. But we're one planet here, right? Like one organism back to animism, right, who I was talking about, I believe that the Earth has a spirit to it too. Right? All of us. It's everything all together. And I think that that spirits a little challenged right now, let's say because we're all fighting with each other. But it's one of that when you look at the Earth on a larger perspective, how silly it is that we're this little dot right in the middle of the solar system, battling ourselves, just growing the planet. I mean, we're a mess. You know, and I think we've gotten that we're all you know, that everything is connected, you know, and that nature is important and that it matters. If we take care of the planet around us. It matters with the footprint we put out into the world is, you know, so I guess like, my only wisdom is that, like, we've forgotten that we're all a part of the same thing.
William Forchion:We have forgotten. We've forgotten who we are, we've forgotten our connection. And I'm so grateful for you in my life. I'm grateful that you could share what you have your wisdom, your insight, your opinions with this, the philosophy podcast audience. It is I mean, I'm, I'm just I mean, the folks who are watching this video could see I'm hugging myself. So it's fantastic to have you here. And it's so fantastic. That you are following your witchy ways and you are guiding others on a path. If someone wanted to take one of your courses, how would they find you?
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:I'm keen I'm most easily found on Facebook. To be honest. I've a page called Iris X readings That's Iris x as a separate letter their readings and I also have a page called Path of the witch. And at this point I've become friendly on my personal page two, which is Stacy sell Pietro Bab you know so any of those ways you can connect with me I also have a an email account that makes me pretty easy to find too. So our effects Tarot that@gmail.com.
William Forchion:Okay, that you've just said, Thank you so much. And Stacey cell Pietro Bab, thank you so much for just for taking some time with us for sharing what you have to bring to the world and your your wisdom, your insight and your offerings. Thank you so much.
Stacy Salpietro - Babb:You're quite welcome. Thank
William Forchion:you for having me. You're welcome. And thank you all for joining the Billosophy 101 podcast. Remember, to move forward with passion and purpose. And every morning and every night. Look into the mirror and say I am enough and know it, because you are enough. I am enough. Thank you very much. I'm William Forchion. This is Billosophy 101.
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