Sweatpants, Estate Sales, the Eclipse Aftermath and the Ick of Social Media

Eclipse season hit many of us like a cosmic tsunami, bringing unexpected challenges, revelations, and a general sense of unease. If September left you feeling shaken or exhausted, you're certainly not alone. As we collectively emerge from this intense period, we're greeted by the balancing energy of Libra season and the grounding presence of autumn—both offering exactly what we need to recover and reset.

The Queen of Wands appears as our guide this week, reminding us that our confidence and personal power remain intact despite recent turbulence. With her black cat familiar and sunflower symbolism, she represents the perfect balance of feminine strength—connected to nature, comfortable in her authority, and radiantly self-assured. Her appearance suggests that we're moving from chaos into a more centered state where we can access our inner wisdom again.

Libra season invites us to beautify our surroundings, but that doesn't mean breaking the bank. Estate sales offer hidden treasures at fraction of retail prices—from vintage Halloween decorations to quality clothing and home goods. These sustainable alternatives to fast fashion and mass-produced décor allow us to express our style while honoring our budget and the planet. Meanwhile, autumn encourages us to slow down and become more present through simple practices like mindful walks to observe seasonal changes.

For those feeling the drain of social media, consider alternatives to mindless scrolling: keep poetry collections nearby, create mood-boosting playlists, or rediscover hands-on crafts like knitting, drawing, or beadwork. Remember that hobbies don't need to become side hustles or areas of expertise—they can simply be activities that bring joy and presence into your life. As the veil thins and October unfolds, may we all reclaim our Queen of Wands energy and move forward with newfound wisdom from the lessons eclipse season taught us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Eclipse Season Aftermath
• 5:24 Embracing Libra Season & Fall Energy
• 8:54 Queen of Wands Tarot for the Week
• 11:41 Budget-Friendly Beautification Tips
• 18:35 Upcoming Projects & Partnerships
• 24:37 Social Media Reflections & Alternatives
• 35:51 Journal Questions & Closing Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Welcome to the Cozy Coven Chats podcast for the week of September 28th. I am your hostess with a most, Jenny C. Bell, and I just have to start with eclipse season shook me. It rattled me. I am still in recovery. I don't know about anybody else. I really went in not feeling like it was gonna be great. And it wasn't. Everyone I talked to has had just strange things happen during eclipse season, but also last week. So technically we were in like the eclipse shadow or kind of like processing point last week. And like, okay, just weird things like people having homes or cars broken into, I've heard stories, people getting having weird confrontations with other people, uh, people dropping huge truths that nobody saw coming, people um getting sick physically or just feeling really tired and foggy headed. I mean, it kicked my ass personally. I don't know about anybody else. I like I even had a friend who's like learning astrology. It was like, please tell me what's happening, please, because I know, I mean, just everyone I know. I have not talked to one person that was like, oh yeah, September was so easy or like super chill, or no. Everyone had something seemingly out of nowhere happen to them or seemingly very extreme. Um, we also had Mars move into Scorpio. I mean, it was I mean, what I am still processing. I really am. It was not easy for me. I had some of the things I mentioned prior happen to me personally. And so let's just start with the best advice. If you went through it, is we move forward now, right? Like honestly, that's the best thing, is we are living a slow life where we're trying to be more present and mindful. But I know that if you went through something traumatic or had someone reveal a truth that you were not prepared for, it's you don't want to be there, right? Like you don't want to be in the present moment. You want to escape that present moment, and it could really set us back. And I understand, and all I can say is we need to move forward this week. We need to allow the dust to settle, allow the lessons to start to get learned and make sense of whatever the hell we went through. May October be easier for all of us. Um, I welcome the veils thinning because, like dead people, I have no problem with dealing with them. Um, bring them on. It's the living that give me trouble. Anyway, that's a good one. You should quote me on that one. Maybe I should quote myself on that one. That was a good one. But yeah, so that was last week. Uh we're not, we should not, we probably are still feeling the effects, but there's no actual like astrolog astrological reason for it, other than if you got shook or rattled, then you are. So that's we're jumping into the energy. Okay. We are in Libra season, which usually I love, and I'm hoping that the eclipse is settled now, and I can love Libra season. I love it because it just always feels like a time to be social, but not like Gemini season where it's like hyper-social activities. It's like social isn't like going to an art gallery, you know what I mean? That kind of thing. Uh chit-chatting with friends. It's a time usually that I want to beautify my home or buy new clothes. And I have done that. Um, nothing crazy, but I've just been on the lookout for uh I'm a Taurus and a Cancer Rising. So I've been looking on the lookout for really good sweatpants. And you may think to yourself, well, what does that even mean? So many things have plastic like polyester in them. I'm just really trying to find some breathable material. So if you have recommendations, please tell me wherever you connect with me. Um, give me the good recommendations. I want them. I love sweatpants, I love sweatshirts, I love to be comfortable. I love a stretchy waistband. Okay, so yeah. I'm looking for that. I am also uh just kind of looking forward to sprucing up things. I've already decorated for Halloween. And I, oh, you know, speaking of well, let me not jump ahead. So back to the energy. Um, we're also in the autumn energy, whether it's like 100 degrees by you or not. I'm sorry if it is. It was in the 90s this week too, which also added to like all the weird energy. You know, when people are hot, they're not nice, and there's there's more likely to be anger and confrontation. It was just a week for everybody I talked to, I'm telling you. And yeah, so it was really hot this last week, which I don't love. We're supposed to get some rain, supposed to cool down this next week for us here in the PW, or I'm in southern Oregon. And I'm looking forward to it. I'm a fall girly. Like, I want to do all the basic fall girl stuff. Like, I can't drink coffee, but I'm gonna put pumpkin spice in my black tea. I want to wear boots, I want to wear sweaters, I want to go look to pumpkin patches, I want to touch all the fall leaves. Like, I want it, but I want to do it when I'm not like a million degrees and overheating. Um, I'm also in my 40s, so perimenopause is weird. I'm always I run, I've always run hot my entire life, but I am definitely like a little sweaty. So I feel like I've overshared a lot in this podcast already. Um, hopefully you're still listening. So, anyway, we are in the autumn energy, which is the energy of letting go and the energy of shedding, and I feel like eclipse season, people really let go of some truth and maybe even some good decision making. Because, like I've said, I've people had break-ins and whatnot that I've talked to. Um, concussions, lots of accidents, too. A lot of accidents. I got into like two near car accidents. Thankfully, I was okay. Um, they were almost car accidents if I wasn't looking behind me. You know, living in Southern California for so long, I became a very defensive driver, and I'm grateful. Um yeah, just people are weird right now. They were weird last week, and I'm hoping this week they're better. But yeah, back to the hopeful energy of next week. So we have energy of Libra where hopefully you're wanting to beautify some things, and hopefully you're in the energy of fall where you want to slow down, maybe journal a little more, maybe take walks, maybe look for leaves. One of my favorite things to do, if you're little kids, this is really fun, is to just take a walk and try to notice signs of the of changing of the season. And so I actually we went on a hike and we went and collected uh elderberries, and we noticed all these changes. You know, it's like leaves changing, the elderberries being in ripe is a sign of fall for us here. Um the way the lighting was more golden. We saw massive barrapoos, so we know they're in their fattening stage, you know, it's just like different things, acorns falling. And my oldest didn't go with us, and so when she went for her walk later, I was like, hey, look for three signs of fall and report back to me. And she's a teenager, but she still did it. She humored me. But it's such a fun thing, just and if you don't have kids, do it for yourself. Like part of the slow living is becoming tuned in with the seasons, tuned in with nature, living present. And so you taking the time to notice the seasonal changes brings you to the present moment. And it's like a walking meditation, it's quite beautiful. Okay, so that's kind of the energy. Let's look at a tarot for the week. Uh, no one's giving me feedback on whether or not they like this, but I'm gonna assume you do, so I'm gonna keep going. Um, I read tarot on Etsy for people, and I read tarot in our coven every month. Um, very excited for the October reading, which comes out today in our coven because I got to use all of my Halloween decks, and I have money. Okay, so we got Queen of Wands. So I associate myself with a tarot card, and I have done so since I started working with Tarot. And for the longest time as a young woman, I every time the strength card came up, I was like, that's me. That's me all the way. Then as I got a little older, I was like high priestess. When that card comes up, like I'm in my flow, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. But this year, my card has been Queen of Wands because I have a black cat. And I'm not a Leo, but I do I am a Leo enthusiast. Most of my friends are Leo, my children are Leo Rising, Leo Sun. Um, but I love her. So if you have a like a Queen of Wands in a deck, um, if you don't, like if yours isn't very traditional, look up like the Pamela Coleman Smith art. Uh, I just love her. She is like who I want to be. She's in her power, she's beautiful, she's obviously connected to animals because she's got the black cat, she's connected to nature with her wand and her sunflowers. Like she's uh, you know, we always associate divine feminine with the moon, and yet she's got all this solar energy with her, with the sunflower and the lions and the Leo imagery, and so she's so balanced, you know, she's like a woman in balanced power, and I love that. And so, you know, I would look at her as confidence. You know, she's confident, she's passionate, she's a boss babe, but yet she's loving. You know what I mean? So getting her for the week makes me feel like maybe my life's gonna get itself back in order personally. Maybe for you too. I feel like most of my listeners are women, and if you're not, you're obviously welcome here. Um, and I love that you're here actually. But yeah, I feel like a lot, you know, a lot of people in our coup in are women. And yeah, I just feel like this is a sign of balance, power, feeling confident. So may it be so. May we feel this way this week. I love that. Okay, and we'll have some journal questions connecting to her at the end, like as always. So a couple things I wanted to chat about is first, I wanted to talk a little bit about Libra season, wanting we often want to beautify like ourselves or our space. And I know that money is like for some is really hard to come by right now, and a lot of places have really raised their prices, but yet wages haven't been way raised, so it's really hard. I went into Goodwill um last weekend, and they had this like Halloween town sweatshirt, which is like it was a really cheap sweatshirt material. Again, I'm a Taurus, I really like cotton. It was like all polyester, it was seeming like I've seen, I think it was like from Timu or Shein. It didn't have a tag, right? Or Sheen, however you say it. It was giving cheap, right? And they were selling it for$10.95. And I was like, oh my gosh. And then usually, you know, there's some knick-nacky type stuff that they used to sell for 79 cents. I'm not seeing that, and I know like Dollar Tree raises prices, like it's rough out there. So I have a website I want to share with you. It's called estatesales.net. So E-S-T-A-T-E-S-A-L-E-S.net. And it's really fun. So you put in your zip code and it tells you where all the estate sales are. And I personally really enjoy estate sales. I get much better deals. Um, around here, what usually happens is the last day of the sale, things are either half off or something like that. And so my friend recently found an estate sale. She texted me, she's like, You gotta go to this estate sale, like it's so good. So I went that day with um my husband and my son, and it was as good as she thought. Like, I saw Christmas decorations in the back in the garage and I made a beeline. This is like where there's Christmas, there could be Halloween, and there was there was some really cute 1980s style Halloween stuff that I took home. Um, I got I have a th I have to, as I've told you, I have a thrift wish list, and one of the things on my list was a button-down denim skirt where like the buttons go all the way down. I found that. Um I found uh what else did I find? Oh, I found this really old glass decanter, small, so maybe it's like for oil or perfume, but it was a wedding gift, and it said the name of the couple and the year they got married, and it was a wedding gift in 1900. What? And so then the next day I went back with my daughter, everything was even cheaper. She got a ton of really cool 90s celestial jewelry, like sun and moon type stuff, like stuff I would have worn as a teenager. She also got a 100% cotton sweater because she is my child, so she knows to look for that. So we know the sweater was old. Um, I got a brass bowl with little feet on it, and then they had a big free pile, and in the free pile was a bunch of candles, and I was like, hey, any candle that has not been lit, we're taking home. Because I mean we're witches, so we use candles for all kinds of things. So we did that. Anyway, estate sales, garage sales. We have a local city here where they do a citywide garage sale, so like the whole town has a garage sale. Look for these things near you. In California where we live, there was a mountain town that did a citywide garage sale. Uh look for estate sales. It's definitely worth the drive to like the nicer neighborhood or the wealthier area to go to an estate sale because they're gonna have better stuff, right? So, just a suggestion if you're looking to beautify, but you're on a budget and you're not feeling like the price hikes at certain things. Garage sales. Um, I know a lot of people go on Facebook Marketplace. I just don't have the mental bandwidth for that. I'm like, I can't. It's too much. There's a lot of free cycle stuff, you know, and also little free libraries. Please check out little free libraries. Um, I don't know if that's a.com or.net, but there is a website for them, and some people uh have them anyway without being like listed, those are great resources for books. Um, we have a big book exchange here at our metaphysical library, and my daughter just found an entire series that she was looking for, so and it was free. And honestly, books, it's nice when books are free. And like I said last time, if you're not you don't have a library card, please get one. But yeah, so if you're looking for beautifying the house in a cheap way or in an expensive way, but nice quality estate sales, garage sales, definitely. And check out, I'm sure you have local charity shops. So we have here a shop that is a nicer thrift store for sure, and all the money goes to a local hospice, and so that's awesome. So it's nice when you know, like the money is going to this charity, and yeah, so I love that kind of stuff personally. Um, and this is also the time of year when I look for planners and calendars. For many years now, I've been buying the Wii Moons, that's all one word, um, planner, and we were talking in our coven about just different options. There's so many different calendars and planners out there, so start looking. And we're having a big discussion in there about like you know which planners we're all gonna get. And and also almanacs. I'm in the Llewellyn Sabbath's almanac this year, and I have a whole section on Bell Tane, so that's exciting. And then speaking of our coven, we are reading right for October, we're gonna be reading Tarot Every Witch Way, Unlock the Power of the Cards for Spellcraft and Magic by Lilith Dorsey, and the forwards by Silver Ravenwolf, which, like, if you if you're a 90s witch, Silver Ravenwolf, right? We all had her stuff, and then um, so reading that, it's we're doing kind of like a divination theme since the veil is thinning in October. And so this book is like a real deep dive into the tarot, including recipes for each of the major arcana, which I think is really cool. And then um, I'm personally reading The Witching Stones, The Lore and Craft of the Essential Crystals, Gemstones, and Minerals to Empower Your Magic by Nicholas Pearson. Nicholas Pearson is probably one of the nicest humans I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know. Um, such a nice person, like truly how he seems online is how he is. And the book is really fascinating so far. Like, so well researched, such a deep dive into just like what we know as just regular stones, so not so much crystals, right? So so far I'm on the hagstone section, and just like what is a hagstone? How have people used them throughout history? You learn the geology, you learn the history, you learn lore, and then he gives you like actual like witchcraft to do with them. Really cool, really fun. Um, while I'm kind of like listing things, I'm gonna go over all these important dates that I have coming up, and then we'll get back and talk a little bit about some other things. So um, I'm really excited. Next Saturday, so on October 4th, on YouTube. I am a part of a series called As the Veil Thins. You want to go to Belief Being and Beyond's YouTube channel, it's Granddaughter Crow's channel. She also has a podcast, and you will be able to hear it after it's live on the fourth. But um, we're gonna have this kind of live discussion option, and it's so fun. So this whole series is just about like Halloween, Sowin, Day of the Dead. I get to kick it off, which I thought was really fun. It's a deep dive into Sawin and what that means and how to celebrate, and so so fun. She's so asked the best questions. She's really happy, positive energy, and I always feel so good after talking to her. Um, so that's that day. We also get Granddaughter Crow in our coven as a guest on October 14th. She is going to teach us about shamanism. So she wants us to ask questions, it's gonna be very interactive, and I'm very excited because she is a witch and a shaman. So, like so much knowledge there. We're gonna have a great time with her. She's our first guest in our coven. And then, oh, my audiobook comes out on October 14th. So I know that I I know that most people like to read nonfiction as audio, and I get that because it's just easier to digest, you know, and also we can multitask, like you can take a walk or you can clean while you listen to my book. So my book comes out and they changed the title for my book for the audiobook. And can I tell you something? I honestly think it's a better title. So this title is Spirit Crystals: The Secret to Discovering Your Crystal Guide for Healing and for Healing, Evolving, and Stepping Into Your Power. And it's available on October 14th. You can pre-order it now, um, but that's when you'll be able to actually listen to it. And the narrator, Leslie, has got such a beautiful voice. And she actually read the book and she went through and found her spirit crystal. Like, she's so cool. Totally totally excited to have bring that to people. Um, oh, I have an Etsy shop called Heal with Jenny, and I created a couple of printables talking of calendars and stuff. I created a Wheel of the Year one, and so the beginning of the Wheel of the Year is Salwin, so it's a good time to get it. Um, I in the printable, it tells you the key energy of the holiday. There's notes about like what stones and incense and what to put on your altar and what kind of spells to do. Then there's a page for manifestations, there's a page for like doing um like drawing or doing like flower pressings or something, and then there's note pages as well. And yeah, it's gonna it's really cute. It's a cute, and there's a oh, and the first two pages are like color yourself. So you get to color like the cover and the belongs to page. Um, and right now they're on sale, so they're 50% off, and they're print at home. The code is soin, which is S-A-M-H-A-I-N, and it's heal with Jenny as my Etsy shop. Um, and then I also did a moon journal, which is really fun, and it's just about like really tuning your energy into the moon, and it's also a coloring cover as well. I also have uh two new classes on Udemy, and for a limited time they're free with the code NUCLASS N-E-W-C-L-A-S-S, and it's Witch's Guide to Abundance, and then the other one is crafting protection jars. So, one, the Witch's Guide to Abundance is about daily habits to open yourself to abundance, plus an attunement with Archangel Chamuel to clear any energy and open you to abundant abundance, and then there's printable affirmation cards, and then crafting project protection jars is a deep dive into like what is a project protection jar, how to cleanse a jar, how to prepare a jar, what to put in it, how to get it ready, and then how to use it for protection, plus a little workbook on um creating your own. And so the code on there is new class, all one word, and it's on Udemy, U-D-E-M-Y, and just look up Jenny C Bell, you'll find me. And then I joined Substack, and I am Jenny C Bell at Substack. So I put out my first article about why I call myself a witch, and I plan on just putting things there that I don't put anywhere else on social media, so it'll be unique. And then last thing is I partnered with Sea Witch Botanicals, which by the way, they make beautiful incense and candles and lovely beauty products, everything is high quality. I partnered with them to give you 13% off any of their Sowin products, and I have their incense and candle, and the code for that is JBell13, J B E L L 13, and that's 13% off at seawitchbotanicals.com. C as in the ocean, so S-E-A, Witch Botanicals. And if you're like, what, Jenny? That was a lot, just go to jennycbell.com and sign up for my newsletter, and then you'll get all this information all the time. Okay, back to what we were talking about. So we were talking about the books we were reading in our coven and all of that, and I want to talk about before we get into journals, I have um one more little thing I want to talk about, which is social media. I needed a drink of tea. Um and where I'm kind of out with that. So let me be honest with you. I was resistant to social media, I had a MySpace, obviously, because I'm of that age. Um, but then after that, I didn't want to join any social media. I was actually even really resistant to getting a texting phone because they didn't love the idea of people being able to talk to me all the time, if I must be honest. Um, but then when I had my child, I was like, well, I have family that's not here. I want to be able to share pictures of her, so I got a Facebook, and then that was it. I just had a Facebook that I used sometimes, and it was mainly to keep in touch with former students, and that was really the end of it. And then I left teaching and was like, I'm gonna start a blog. My first blog was called Broken Better, it was all about how my life was broken apart, literally, and then I was putting myself together better, and I because I had a blog, I'm like, I need to be on social media, so I joined Instagram and YouTube at the same time, and like I actually have been on YouTube a long time and just haven't been successful, and that's okay, and so I was on there, and then my friend, like I've talked about this before, I had a friend and a former student, were like, You should really be on TikTok because that's really where you're gonna thrive. And I did, like, I have over 40,000 followers on there. Um, I did though, in past tense, like I did thrive. So I don't know. Ever since we had that weird little shutdown of TikTok and then everything came back, um, it hasn't been the same. And my videos usually get out top out 180 views, sometimes 200, unless I have linked a product. So if I'm selling something, my videos can get like 20,000 views. But if I'm just trying to teach you about witchcraft or the moon or answer questions or talk from the heart or share about a book I'm reading, nothing. And it's actually really kind of sad because I really am kind of I'm an idealist. That's actually like I would describe myself that way. I've taken personality tests, like I'm an idealist, and I I love the idea of free information, I love the idea of social connection, I love the idea of the world seeming smaller because of social media. I love that, I love all of it. I don't know if that's the case anymore, though. I don't really know, and so that's part of why I joined Substack. That's part of also why I started this um podcast because I do want to share from my heart, I do want to help people, I do want to connect with others. I love having a witch community. Um, but I just wasn't getting heard anymore. And at least not when I was speaking from my heart. And that's also why I started our coven. I mean, I'm in there every day. I post almost every day because I want to. I don't feel obligated to. I don't have like a, you know, I had a person in there for a while, like, you do too much for us. I'm like, this is what I want though. Like, I'm a cancer rising, I'm a very mothering, nurturing person, like, and I'm a Gemini moon. I like to talk. So what do I like to do? I like to nurture through sharing. That's and I'm also a wolf. Um, that's my one of my animals is a wolf, and wolf is teacher. So I love teaching and sharing. I always was a teacher. I could not be a classroom when I was originally a classroom teacher. I was not one of the teachers that could just do my job. Like I had a I wanted to help the kids. I wanted to like find things for them, like find scholarships and charities and jobs, you know what I mean? Like I was a I don't know, I don't know how to just like not be that way because I like it, I find it rewarding. I like connecting with people, I like helping people, I like teaching people, I like seeing people on our cover and be like, oh yeah, I get this, or aha, or feel confident to do a reading, or be like, oh, I love the way you describe this to really help me. Like, I enjoy that. That gives me purpose, it gives me joy, and it feels good. It's not out of some weird like validation or people pleasing. Like, I've done a lot of soul searching, it's got nothing to do with that. It has to do with I feel my purpose in this life is to teach, is to help, is to nourish, is to guide. And the best way to do that is through social media because you can only do so much in your own community. I haven't had a lot of luck connecting with other people here in the community where I live. And so TikTok really was that at first. Like, you know, like last year, the year before, I was getting so many good questions from beginner witches. We're having really good discussions on there. Um, it was honestly really fun. And uh now it's not, and I'm gonna stay on there um and until whenever. And it's just not. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about that, just kind of you know, that then there's like it's so there's really ugly parts of social media. There's such like intense hatred and division, and there can be like strong cancel culture and you know, just some nasty stuff out there. So I always go off of social media every year for two weeks around Christmas. I don't like to start my new year on there. Um, not in our coven, that's different. So let me be clear. Our coven, and I'm also part of a private yoga group called the Find What Feels Good app. It's through yoga with Adrian, and that's also a private community. Those two I don't take breaks from because I don't need to. They're fun and they're uplifting and fulfilling. Like I get go in our coven, I don't feel drained. And I go into the Find What Feels Good community, I don't feel drained. I feel uplifted, I feel connected. Um, other social media not so much. So I just wanted to share that I think social media, I don't know if it's dying, it's definitely changing. I've seen astrologers talk about, you know, we're just like there's so much planetary change and shifting, there's just so much going on that none of this is really that surprising to them. Um, and so as we go through that, really be conscious of your social media consumption. And I wanted to give some alternatives to being on social media. So I feel like um as someone who identifies as a neurodivergent, that I definitely was using social media as like a dopamine history. Like I'd get really tired, and instead of like resting, I was just like go on TikTok and scroll because it was like stimulating, right? So let's talk about alternatives, neurodivergent or not. So if you feel yourself reaching for doom scrolling, couple things. One, have a book around or take with you wherever you're doing this kind of mindless scrolling, that is either an art book or a poetry book or something that's like a look-through book. So not a book that's like a novel or a book learning book that you'd read cover to cover, but a book that you can just pick up and flip through. Reading poetry or looking at art is so uplifting and fulfilling. And that's what you know. A lot of times we go on these in these places to look for quotes. Well, pick up Sylvia Plath, Ariel, right? Which is based on the tarot. Do that, read that instead. Um, Robert Frost is always so like easy, easygoing, seasonal, beautiful. Emily Dickinson, Joy Hardjo is my favorite poet of all time, forever and ever. I've have all of her books. I've read every single one of her books. Um, love her. So poetry or an art book. And these you can get at the library. Um, I would love for you to create some playlists, music playlists that you really love. And as like maybe one specifically if you have a dopamine thing that like pumps up your dopamine. You're just like, oh, this song just makes me want to dance and gives me energy, right? So that. Um, so playlists of music, right? So so far we have poetry, we have art books, we have playlists, we have going outside and looking around and noticing things, talking to trees, talking to birds, right? I think another reason why we end up on social media is because we're lonely and we're looking for like some kind of social connection. So if that's you, take a walk, maybe call a friend, text a friend, um, talk to your pets. You're looking for social connection, go and browse at a store and just interact with the people in the store, right? It's I get it. I definitely get that. Use go through your cards. Like if you're reaching for your phone, you have a new deck of cards, a new Oracle deck or tarot deck, grab it and just start flipping through it. You don't have to read the book, you don't have to do a reading, just flip through and like look at the cards. That's very relaxing, that's very much like scrolling. Right? Some alternatives, some more alternatives are um knitting and crocheting, which are two things. Like I one of I don't know which one yet, but I want to pick up one of these because sometimes we would just want to do something with our hands. Drawing, we have Inktober coming up, so drawing, doodling, coloring, getting those grown-up coloring books, um, or not. They're so complicated. Like, just because I'm a grown-up doesn't mean I want to color tiny little mandala pieces. So a regular coloring book's also fine. Um, beading, any kind of craft that you can just like leave and come back to, right? That maybe you're the type that scrolls while your kids watch TV at night. So then maybe you need something else to do with your hands, like knitting or braiding a bracelet, or and you know what? You don't have to make anything that you're gonna sell. We don't need to like commodify everything. We just have hobbies, guys. I don't know if we're and I don't know if anybody knows this, okay? But we can just have hobbies that we don't need to turn into side hustles or make money from or become experts in. We can just have them, and we can be not good at them, and that's okay. Like, you know, it's so many people like they join a hobby and then they get like all the high-tech gear and they watch all the YouTube videos, they become like an expert in the hobby, and it's like, oh yeah, I have to have this type of shoe in order to run and this and that, or it's like, yeah, I started crocheting and now I'm selling them on Etsy and I can't keep up and it's overwhelming. It's okay to just have a hobby. That's part of slow living, right? We have we try out hobbies, maybe we're not good at them, and then that's okay, we try something different. Um, needlepoint, cross stitch, you know, bring back the granny hobbies. You know, like that's it's why not? Like, we're we need to do that, we need to have these skills, and I think about it too. Like, that's why I want to pick up knitting or crocheting. If I start doing that now in my 40s, by the time if and when my children have children, I can make stuff. I'll be like, I'll have like a good amount of time under my belt and I'll actually maybe know how to do something cool by that point. Or maybe not, who knows? So, yeah, so just some alternatives. I personally have been having a hard time being online lately, other than our cub in, obviously. Um, it's just not been fun. It doesn't feel safe, it doesn't feel good. Um, I'm trying Substack. So far, I I like it. It's a little more chill, seems a little more pure for now. Who knows what will happen? Um, let's end with our journal questions. So, looking at the Queen of Wands, ask yourself this week what gives you confidence? And when do you feel in your power? And then you might want to ask yourself, what is one way you can re replace some social media scrolling? Like, what's one thing you can do or one thing you can learn? And then thinking about eclipse season, what are some lessons learned and how can you integrate those lessons? All right, as always, thank you for listening, thank you for connecting. I really would love some feedback. Um, I get it in our coven, which I really appreciate. Those of you who are not in our coven, um you can find me like on YouTube or you can comment uh wherever you listen to this and just let me know some things. I would love to know who you are, who's listening, um what you like about it, and anything that's made you go, aha, that makes sense. So thank you. As always, have a good week.