Podcast Q&A Part 1 - Baneful Tips, Spiritual Hygiene, Spirit Discernment and Communication, Inspiration for Coming Up with Spells/Oils, and more! (Patreon)

Hi moon babes! Happy Monday. I'd asked for your suggestions on this Podcast Questions post and you guys had some great questions. I recorded this juicy episode and Dylan joined me too. We answered a bunch of your questions. I transcribed it as well if you want to follow along below, please excuse any errors as the transcribing isn't perfect!

Some of the questions we answer are

• Who is Dylan? (1:40)
• Tips for protecting yourself when doing baneful /baleful work (9:42)
• How do you make the most of low energy slash bad health days when you want to keep up on spiritual hygiene and spell workings (12:27)
• How much is spiritual hygiene tied to personal literal hygiene? (14:21)
• Additional tips on manifesting a specific career at a specific company? But if they don't have an office near you, any other suggestions? (16:59)
• Custom oils - picking your intention (25:58)
• Favorite interaction with a customer preferably in person (27:29)
• Are you adopted? (32:40)
• What's your inspiration to come up with a spell /  ritual / oil? (41:14)
• Do you have any go to spirit discernment skills you rely on more than others? What herb blends for spirit communication? (50:25)
• And much more!!

I have other videos and podcasts too like the  End Heartbreak Spell and Tutorial, and also How to Create Sigils. These are just some of the podcasts Baneful Divination Ward - Podcast Episode, Ghost Stories with Paulina - Whaley House Podcast Episode, and more all available for $15 and up Pateron tiers.

Anastasia Bonnett  0:10

Hey guys, happy Sunday. Welcome back to another podcast episode. We haven't done one of these in a long time. But I'm here with Dylan, my fiance and baby. And we are going to we're going to test this out. We haven't recorded a podcast like I said in a while. So today or I guess yesterday, we asked some questions on Instagram and on Patreon. Just trying to start this off. We didn't really have a podcast theme in mind. We're just going to answer some questions or I guess Dylan's gonna ask me some questions. We'll go back and forth. We're starting off with the well I guess introducing one of the first questions on ticked or Instagram today was who's Dylan? Because I was like, Dylan's gonna be asking me some questions. So we'll lead in with that. Who is Dylan?

Dylan  0:55

I'm your fiancee I love you we've been together for almost 10 years

Anastasia Bonnett  1:01

yeah

Dylan  1:03

I'm when it comes to moonlight and sage your support system in the background? I Oh, are you I'm doing to them. I'm your

Anastasia Bonnett  1:16

fiancee super villain. Yeah.

Dylan  1:19

Yeah, I don't practice any of the spiritual stuff or witch stuff, but I'm intrigued by a lot of it. And this is I'll just want to say this is just a really elaborate way for me to have a conversation with you and be able to say you

Anastasia Bonnett  1:40

just wanted to sit next to me Yeah, literally. He's like, can we record this anyways? So that's who Dylan is he's my fiancee. Well, technically I did hire him he is she is an employee also at moonlight and sage. What are we what is your position there?

Dylan  1:54

What are we operating? Yeah, I just helped manage operations and finance and so yeah, he deals with all up until a few weeks ago I've just been doing it for free.

Anastasia Bonnett  2:05

I wouldn't necessarily say for free as you know, we do have a joint bank account well that to be said though, people did ask about finances a little bit later which obviously we won't get into like too nitty gritty but with that being said the business stuff does have its own bank account, and then you know, I have my own bank account. Dylan has his own bank account and then together as a couple we do have our together because we get asked that a lot like how do you separate everything and as a business I do think it's not financial advice, but I do think it's good that you don't have all of that mixed in with yourself and maybe your partner's everyone

Dylan  2:39

else because people do it either one of two ways. Either everything's in a big pot and that's how my parents do it. They say you know, we just have one bank account or really yeah, all everything's together It's our money and then other people say just have their own and then some people do it like us where which is what I prefer. You have your own I have my own Yeah. And then when it comes to joint expenses, like rent, and groceries, whatever stuff like that, yeah, we both

Anastasia Bonnett  3:07

contributed I can't imagine this is so not on what he taught Kant concepts but if you guys want to just hear about like relationship you have questions we can do this for like the next podcast because I do I could not imagine us having the same just one bank account we would fight Oh, yeah. Are you kidding? Yeah. Like my money habits and yours are so different. Yeah, that's not that's not realistic. You're like,

Dylan  3:29

what was this did Nordstrom again, Kim, do you think we could bring that down? I

Anastasia Bonnett  3:34

literally have a tab open with Nordstrom right now. Yeah, so no, yeah, if you can hear Lunas running around crazy in the background but so that's a little bit of a lead up. I'm going into Patreon questions we had for Martina we had a couple questions that were really great. Luna is crying in the background. Her first question was go to spells the ones you'll always find yourself coming back to I'll give this over to you so you can start asking me um I would say always go to spells for me you guys see me do something every single Friday. It's I love an Aphrodite I love a love or any type of like, in the thing is with love. I feel like people will so misunderstand of spells. It's not always about and although I do love it good, dominant, working or like that kind of energy, a siren vibe. I do think that love is so different. There's so many different types of love, friendship, romantic mom, like family. I self love all of those different things. I love a love working a sweetening working anything like that self care. But then also outside of that anything that I can do with my ancestors, which just literally boils down to simply lighting their candle and giving them an offering. It's just like some of my favorite things. I think it's like it's the root of my practice. And I think that's why everything works. The way that it does for me is because I love my ancestors so much and they take care but yeah, simple like an ancestor candle. I love to just put their candle together like make a little coffee and keep it going. That's something that we do a lot. Coffee. I

Dylan  5:04

feel like you do a lot of cleansing. I hear that a lot. Oh, yeah. Well,

Anastasia Bonnett  5:07

yeah, we always like I cleanse the house every day and we make sure everything's good. So spiritual hygiene, but yeah, cleansing.

Dylan  5:13

Okay, you call that? I

Anastasia Bonnett  5:14

wouldn't say yeah, I wouldn't say that. It's necessarily Can I wouldn't necessarily say that, like, cleansing is my favorite thing to do. But it's something that I do every day.

Dylan  5:23

So I have a question. Your baths? Yeah. What are those? Are those spells?

Anastasia Bonnett  5:29

Um, they're like little there for sure. I take like ritual baths almost every day for sure. Like, Dylan will be calling for me around the house. He's like, where are you? Where are you? And I'm always in the back. I mean, for like, hours at a time to, um, I've always been that way. I just have to be around or in water. I just don't feel

Dylan  5:47

it's such a. You do use it to destress yourself. Yeah, calm down, come home from work. And you almost run to the bath. You come home and you drop everything. Everything gets thrown.

Anastasia Bonnett  6:02

That's crazy. It's not thrown all around. It's in a chair. We have like one chair there.

Dylan  6:06

You go upstairs. You immediately start the water. You get everything ready. You start like and this is the first thing you do when you come home. Yeah, it's fun to watch. Grass. I feel like most people probably

Anastasia Bonnett  6:18

know I say hi to you first.

Dylan  6:20

Oh, it will of course. But most people will usually like ease back into their like home life. You know, like kind of get settled and know you're gunning for the bathtub. Yeah. And then I come back and check on you and you have like, one or two like bags in there. It's like a dark tea. You know, there's like a candle you're like, you're like very like exhaling kind of just kind of like breathing. Okay, yeah, it's all good.

Anastasia Bonnett  6:45

To have to get Yeah, I come home. I take baths at least five times a week if not every single day didn't take one yesterday but I'm different types of spiritual baths, aligning with whatever I'm working on that day and always like grounding and trying to center because I come home from work worked up wound up. Yeah.

Dylan  7:02

It's almost like when someone see something traumatic or when they see something. And then, you know, afterwards they have that expression on their face. Like they just saw Oh, you're like looking around. You're just like, Oh,

Anastasia Bonnett  7:21

I think it's like the time for me to take everything in. If I like missing anything, or like, you know, when I came out, I came out of the bath that I was like dissertation. Like, I was like, That's my work. I think about the things during that time I take that time to like really like digest everything that has happened.

Dylan  7:36

I've just sit next to you and we have to talk about your day. Yeah, sometime and you just go you're like looking off. He's just killing 1000 yard hectic. It was hectic day, and then you have to tell me and fill me in on everything. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, I

Anastasia Bonnett  7:50

love a good bag.

Dylan  7:51

I think I don't know. I mean, you told me Does that count as a spell? Does that count as

Anastasia Bonnett  7:55

well the herbs that I use in the bath have already been prepared and spelled so like I make those either at work or I'll make them over here. I put all my oils in it and stuff. And I put like prep it on my altar, and then I throw it in. So they're ritualized baths. But not necessarily every single time. It's like a full spell. I feel like they're a little bit different.

Dylan  8:15

How is it different than because I always joke, it looks like it looks like if you made a giant pot of tea in a bathtub. Yeah. And they look like tea bag. Big tea bags are soaking your salt.

Anastasia Bonnett  8:28

Yeah, that's why it works too. Because you have to fully experience really, a lot of times you'll see people just like throw the stuff into the bath and like not really let it heat up. But spiritually, like the way that I've always been taught is like you heat them up on the stove. And that's what makes it so good for your body and your skin. That's what like the the herbal remedies conference room like you have to cook it and like either you let it cool and like you make pour it over yourself or you pour it into the bath hot. So yeah, it's super dark teas like, so we can draw whatever like sometimes if my stomach hurts, then I'll make like that blend that like soothes my stomach or like a little stiff bath or my butt or something like that kind of vibe and you compare that to a riff bomb. Oh well bath bombs are just I feel like the bath bombs those are made with like blood baking powder and stuff and baking soda. It's a different those are just like fun. Like that's a fun bath to relax in versus maybe it's like a ritual bath with all of my herbs. I'm going back to Yeah,

Dylan  9:24

do you want me to keep going down from the same person? I think like bounce around a little

Anastasia Bonnett  9:28

I mean bounce around, but I think like they had some really good questions.

Dylan  9:32

So I'll stick to these just for a little bit. So if we don't go to like Randy,

Anastasia Bonnett  9:36

also Where does it say like a time around here like okay, because podcasts usually like 30 or

Dylan  9:42

40 minutes. Tips for protecting yourself when doing Baleful logic.

Anastasia Bonnett  9:45

Tips for protecting yourself when doing mate, painful magic. My biggest proponent and a thing that I will always say for something like this was would be to divine and make sure that you're checking in with your spirits before you do the work to make sure that That This spell is lined up correctly that you're using the correct whatever it is, whether it be herbs or tools, effigies, whatever the fuck you are using that it is of the spells highest good not obviously it's not going to be the person that you're casting against because it's painful, but you need to make sure that like, your spirits will say hey, like there's this needs to be replaced or like, Hey, this is not the time or place to do it or the situation. Other than that, I think that cloaking your energy and tethering, it is like very important. So if it is not, or if it is clocked like someone sees what you're doing, and wants to reverse it, if it's cloaked correctly, they don't know where to reverse the energy to or you could tether it to something. So if it does, if the person wants to do a reversal spell rather than just cleanse it off of them, it goes back to the tether rather than to yourself so yeah, that's an tips for painful I don't teach enough painful on here.

Dylan  10:54

I have to two things What's that? I hope she comments or he whoever asked that and says no I met Bill full well Baleful I

Anastasia Bonnett  11:04

don't know what they mean by that. And then second

Dylan  11:05

I would how do you how do you check with your ancestors before

Anastasia Bonnett  11:09

you so like a really easy way that I like to do it just depends on how you commute doesn't have to be ancestors but I say ancestors because that's who I work with mainly or who would keep me in like the most check quote unquote so

Dylan  11:21

before you even start anything because the first thing you do is check so how do you how I

Anastasia Bonnett  11:25

like to do it and how I would recommend it depends. I like to use Tarot or oracle cards I also have bones that I use quite frequently with my ancestors however you like to divine you literally could meditate on the sitting in front of all the like stuff for your spells meditate on is this the correct time place the all the things you can meditate on it and see if you get anything you could sit out and let the bird speak to you. You could like listen to waves like however you want to divine and communicate. Some people only do it through dreams other people use cards whatever charms like however you divine check with them that way. You I think that's there's a very good and a very specific need to have a good like divination practice done before people start doing spell work. And the divination tools doesn't really matter. But you need to be able to check in with either your highest good your spirit guides or whomever you're working with. Even if it's just a spirit of the fucking herbs, whoever you're working with to make this manifestation come true. It needs to be checked up on so yeah, Taro or Oracle divination tools. Anything.

Dylan  12:27

Okay. There's a second one from brainy, brainy, sorry. How do you make the most of low energy slash bad health days when you want to keep up on spiritual hygiene and spell workings? I'm also a fellow chronic illness curly. This is interesting, because I didn't even read this question. But we just talked about the baths. Yeah, like that is that for you?

Anastasia Bonnett  12:54

It is because for me, like you will hear me like talk about spiritual hygiene all the time. Because I think that like a hygiene really, to me really just means like something that you can keep up even when you're feeling really, really low. Or like if you're feeling really low for a while you've kept up your spiritual hygiene. So really, it's not a big deal. If you don't have you take a few days off or whatever. But for me, I think a bath is a very easy way to sit around those herbs like you can you can, whatever your illness is, like, you probably could find herbs that can aid in either the pain relief, it depends on what your illness is, right? But you could you could probably find some herbs slash there always is herbs that you can use to aid with those ailments. So for me, I like taking baths because I can prep them in big batches when I am feeling good. Or if it's if I'm not feeling good, I have like a you know, I have a list of herbs that I know go to we're gonna wait for. Usually, it's really loud when i You should, it'll pick it up. Usually, like if you if you have a book of shadows, or a Grimoire or something, keep a list of your go to herbs or when you are feeling very good. Prepare things in bulk. So let's say you maybe you want to drink a tea, or take a bath or you want to do a candle spell when you're not feeling the best but you don't have obviously you don't have the energy for it when you're feeling good. Prep those things for when you're not gonna you have to kind of prepare for when you're not feeling great.

Dylan  14:21

Can I may I? Yeah. So I'm curious. Because you know, the question is sort of about spiritual hygiene. And the answer is sort of about baths. So this might be silly, but how much is spiritual hygiene tied to personal literal hygiene,

Anastasia Bonnett  14:39

if at all? Well, I think that that can be kind of like a talk maybe my mind just going to toxic because I feel like sometimes like physical hygiene can be linked to like with depression and stuff. So like, if you physically and slash, if you're feeling sick, like the days that I'm really really having flare ups. I don't I can't physically take care of myself, right. So I think I'm done. There is something too physical like clutter leading to spiritual clutter, because it literally is energetic. So people will say like cleanse your clean when you want to cleanse your space, make sure it's actually physically clean like you want to clean up your desk will do say that yeah, like always think about like functional waste or like, even with like a money tree, like you'd want to keep a money tree like in the main center of your home, because that's like where you're doing most of your energy, lots of businesses going on, maybe put in your office, right? But like, if you wanted to draw in more business, like you're not you're going to clean up your room and make sure that the office that your clients would come to looks good, right, like, looks good. So it'll feel good. While I think spiritual hygiene is important to make sure like you're physically cleansed. I don't know how necessarily like, it's hard to say that you need to be like, physically together to spiritually be together. Well, I don't I do think spirits also take like, they understand depression like you want they understand like you are a human living a human experience. So sometimes, physically, it's harder to take care of yourself.

Dylan  16:01

I don't know how. I don't think this has anything to do with being linked like spiritually, but I know like, after a shower or something. For me. I just feel you.

Anastasia Bonnett  16:13

When you feel better. You feel refreshed. Yeah, you feel clearer. Yeah. lightheaded or lighter, clear mind? Yeah, I do think that's important too. And I see a lot like where people will talk about if you if you even if you are going through depression, just like try to sit in the bathtub for a little bit. And like, you don't even have to clean yourself to sit in the bathtub and get out. Like even that aspect of the water being on you is I think is important. But I don't say necessarily going back to the low spoons thing. It doesn't always have to be a bath. But I think when you the real thing is like finding things like what's realistic when you are feeling low, and not push yourself past that. Because then you're just going to make yourself either more sick or like deeper into your auto immune like trigger or whatever is already going on. Don't push yourself past that. Because you'll you'll just end up more tired and more sick.

Dylan  16:59

More bueno. Do you want to jump into the next one? Oh, let us know how the audio sounds? Yeah, this is the first one with our software and microphone. So if it needs to be louder, let us know. Let us know if you can if it's even picking up any of the background noise. Yeah. So next question is from Taylor Swafford. Any additional tips on manifesting a specific career at a specific company? I know you have a video on tick tock using a business card. But if they don't have an office near you, any other suggestions? Thank you for always including us in your content.

Anastasia Bonnett  17:37

Oh, no. I mean, you guys are the reason I mean like I like jokingly put that little emoji of like the salute. I'm like I'm here to serve. But like this is the whole point. Like I need to be answering your questions. And especially if they're asked nicely, there's no reason not to cater my whole entire I'm curious what

Dylan  17:51

you think about this because I have some non spirituals,

Anastasia Bonnett  17:55

too. Oh, well, and then I think that's good, too. I think we should do both. That's why this is neat. Because you're just not normal versus mundane or magical versus Monday, Monday. I wouldn't call it mundane, I think well, it's what we call it. Okay. Oh, okay. Toggle like a day or

Dylan  18:10

I have muggle perspective. But I think it's I know can I say really quick and I'm I'm not but I'm like totally but you

Anastasia Bonnett  18:17

have a business like you love a business mindset. We are burning a I think we should have said this at the beginning of the podcast. We should do this like incense of the day, because Delon really does love an incense, but he never goes to grab them. He likes it when they're burnt, but he never picks out

Dylan  18:32

when you lay them. Yeah, it's like a special treat. And then every time I walked into the store, if anyone's ever been in our store, you're hit with it. I just I do and I, I know a lot of people don't like it. They're like, I just don't like to smell that. I respect that or whatever. But like, for me, I'm just like,

Anastasia Bonnett  18:48

I think like also really good ones. I'm very specific about when I didn't like Well, that's we don't play around. We will get rid of them so fast. If they smell there's a couple scents that we've had that were like, oh, no,

Dylan  19:00

you shouldn't let me smell them. So I can see if I like yeah, okay, I'll let you anyway. So so we're burning right now it's manifesting a career in a specific company.

Anastasia Bonnett  19:08

I talked about this a little bit on a live stream just a couple of days ago, it was me saying like, if you couldn't get a business card, or let's say you can't go down there and literally get dirt or anything from them. You can go on to like, let's say it was I think moonlighted say I mean, we have a LinkedIn, I'm not sure if it's like actually filled out. But most companies have like, you'll be able to see their CEO, their CFO, like hiring manager, their HR person, like they will all be tagged within their LinkedIn. And usually you can find their full names right? I would go on to the company's LinkedIn and grab this the hiring manager, the CEO, the HR anybody's full name like that and write their names in your petition on your bay leaves and stuff like that. Get a little bit close to petitioning the people that actually would have anything to do with hiring you. As well as just like you can literally petition their name so I think that's, that's a little bit better if you can't get with the business cards and those kinds of things out sight of you could just do I posted on here. It was a transmutation spell. But just you could go ahead and use all the herbs and all the candles and stuff, write their names on the candles and add some sweetening, add some honey, add some sugar, add some coffee and ginger to speed it up, instead of writing the transmutation that you want to gain that job. Any tips from?

Dylan  20:22

Yeah, I think it's interesting. You mentioned LinkedIn, I was probably going to bring up LinkedIn as well. I think you've you're first of all, I'm curious what the specific company is because every company's so different, they are every every company is going to have their own way of doing things. And there really is like cultural culture and cultural values. Yeah, at each place, each office is different. So I always like to point out the differences between my job. And then when I go into moonlight stage and help out. And the dynamics are like very different. Yeah. But we're both highly productive workspaces. But there's so

Anastasia Bonnett  21:05

different. There's like so many things that I literally don't accept in my office that like it's so fine with, but I also think it has something goes both ways. Yes, sir. Yeah. Does

Dylan  21:14

that mean like that just wouldn't wouldn't fly. But I'm curious. You Yeah. I mean, if you're trying to get with a specific company, I guess my thing would be to be patient. And, you know, keep looking for the job postings. And, you know, go to the interviews, I guess re I don't even know if this is the right way the word rate word for re ascertain, ascertain is a good word, why you're a good fit. And yeah, make hone in on that.

Anastasia Bonnett  21:44

And also, I would say from like, we've been interviewing a lot of people over the last year or really two, we've hired a good amount of people. We have like, we have 11 people team, which is crazy to think about it makes me stressed out often. Love everybody on my team. That's not what the stressor is a stressor is that's like I'm in charge of 11 people's like salaries. So that is a whole thing. But what when we are looking at, we've gotten to the point where it's like sell us as to why that you think that you're a great fit here. It's not really like tell us anymore, it's like because you really should be selling people on why they should hire you whether they're your perfect fit for the exact job. You'll get along great with the sales team, whatever it is, I think it's like, don't sit there and tell the interviewers what you want them to hear. I hate that when people do that, because you can see it.

Dylan  22:32

Well, it's like you're saying sell yourself, especially if because we hire retail associates, if you can't sell yourself, you have to talk about the positives of yourself, then you have what's giving us confidence, you're going to be able to sell a bath kit or an oil or whatever it might you can't if you can't like do that to

Anastasia Bonnett  22:58

articulate yourself in the interview, I think it comes across. So and I would say with that though, it doesn't make as like, when we're interviewing people, we don't care if people are nervous or shaky with their voice or anything because we understand that. So I would say take your time answering the questions. If you say we hear there's, there's somebody that we just literally offered a job to and they were they were slower with their responses, they were like, give me a moment please to think about this. And that's totally fine. Like if you need to, I think like if you need to think about how you're going to word something, it's way better than just like saying something that you know that they want to hear or tailoring something just for that specific interview. And it helps you more so in the long run to, I would say please look up the job, look up the company if you're not saying like you need to know everything about them before going in. But I think it makes it a lot easier for yourself to know what you're getting yourself into. And also the interviewers, if you get the opportunity to talk to them, they'll be impressed that you took some extra time to look into the company and maybe how they work.

Dylan  24:00

Don't be a fan of the company. Approach the interviewer as like a free agent who you have other options, but you would really like to work there. And you know, you'd

Anastasia Bonnett  24:09

be you're gonna benefit them a lot. I would say that that because we've

Dylan  24:12

had people who you know, they just they love they really want to work at a store like ours, but they just might might not be the best fit. And they might just be too I don't know. I don't know where I was going with that.

Anastasia Bonnett  24:31

Luna got you distracted.

Dylan  24:33

Are we doing some from?

Anastasia Bonnett  24:34

Yeah, I think so. Wait, let me start. I think this started at this was the first question. Yeah, that's what I was like. That's funny is

Dylan  24:39

Dylan.

Anastasia Bonnett  24:42

Who is that guy?

Dylan  24:43

You don't you never post anyone named Dylan. He's not any of the content anymore. There used to be a series

Anastasia Bonnett  24:49

well, you've ever done your

Dylan  24:54

favorite type of custom oils to make and your RX on what kind of custom to get

Anastasia Bonnett  24:58

Hi stop crying. Um, I Okay, so I guess custom oils is in general, I love doing custom work because it's just fun getting to connect with people specific needs and energies and like whatever they want. I don't want to pick favorites because it's like a whole picking child or whatever, but I do love stop crying so much. She's annoyed that we're not giving our attention. I really a door making wedding type of oils, like when people trust me to make their wedding day sent or like maybe they just got engaged or I had somebody do her, what would that be the groom's the whatever, the bride oil and then all of her bridesmaids. And that was really cute. I love the I love intuitive ones because they just like I get to just pick on whatever spirits saying, but I don't know, I just love an oil

Dylan  25:49

witch. So what should someone get? If someone says, you know, I want a custom? Well, how do they how do they? How do they answer to themselves what it is that they should give?

Anastasia Bonnett  25:58

I think a lot of people already have like a very specific need. And it usually stuff like we maybe we have it in the store ready. But like it is there is something to making a custom oil specifically like I could make a love oil for like anyone that was in the room like a broad love oil. Versus like, if I were to make olive oil just for your energy would have different herbs and it would have different energy. So I think a lot of times people come and they're like, oh, I want the siren and Aphrodite together. Or I'm looking for Oh, you don't want her. Luna is trying to get his lab. So I would say maybe take some time and see if you're working on something specific in your craft right now. That's always really fun. Or if there's like a hardship,

Dylan  26:45

should they be looking at their problems they might be having?

Anastasia Bonnett  26:50

I think it depends on how people do magic and use the

Dylan  26:53

custom as an antidote? Or should they be looking at it as something to enhance something that's going well

Anastasia Bonnett  26:59

either? It depends. It depends on like, because some people it's more is it offense defense, are we looking to manifest something? Are we trying to like shield yourself from something? I get a lot of shielding. I like I need a lot of protection from specific situations. Maybe it's a person or a very like hate or hate someone with a lot of hate. We have a lot of those like can you protect me from do usually family members? Like there'll be or I'm like I just newly pregnant and I'm getting a lot of nasty energy from my babies, moms. Where my baby's father's mom like I need protecting from that. So I think it depends

Dylan  27:29

I think we're accustomed to you can comment, you can combine all it's like yeah, some pizza. Yeah. So like, let me for example, you said you do the wedding stuff, but then you're also party. So it's like, Hey, I have a wedding coming up and my mother in law's a bit. Yeah. So I need both. Yeah, I need like I'm trying to do the wedding, the fun romantic stuff. And I also need protection from the family or something like that. You can take you can take lots of different things and put them in. Okay. Do you want to move on? Yeah, let's ask. Favorite interaction with a customer preferably in person. I know exactly what port I would go with this one

Anastasia Bonnett  28:06

would then answer the grand opening. Yeah, but one customer so hard. There was we met so many people that were so cool. Yeah, go ahead. I'm gonna think of my it's hard for like I said, it's really really difficult to pick up like a one situation because I've met so many cool people, like so many cool people. And so many people that I've learned things from the opening was like a whirlwind because it was just like, everybody at once I met so many of the people that stand out. I had a huge community of dancers from Vegas come down. And that was so cool. The girls were sick, like, Yeah, and you know, yeah, I think like, I met this girl she comes down from San Francisco, San Francisco, maybe like once a month. Maybe her parents are down here or something. But she lives up there. And she goes swimming in the harbor and I we have conversations about it every single time. I'm like, you're so bold and brave for that. Like not only it's just cool, I just feel like the story isn't that stuff that people tell me are sick. The the daddy, the dad and daughter duo from Tennessee that went to go meet Landon sick like they were so cool. It's just I think it's really difficult. Yeah, I know that this is not what you wanted to hear because it's just really a blessing to talk about like any people. Why? I just like didn't I think I was like, it wasn't shocked was in the right answer because I make all of this spicy dominance, whatever. Like, I guess that's more of my vibe. But I was just like you like Ah, yes, like the fuck like that. They'd all come down. They're like, I've been making all this money from like, I just hadn't thought about it. I never thought about the type of people that my content was reaching. And so getting to see them I think is just like really like

Dylan  29:51

the idea of, you know, one of your oils being passed around the like the changing club.

Anastasia Bonnett  29:56

Yes. Like, they start doing that. Like she's like one of the girls told me that like this one girl used so much oil that the pole was like slippery and they got honor that night because they were like, Bitch I understand we're trying to make money but the pole slipper you can't use as much fucking oil on your body. They have like the best night though they've been making money or like I got an email from someone literally on like Tuesday or Wednesday saying that they use my fast luck and money oil on the same day close to $45,000 deals like bitch. And I just think that it's cool because it's it's cool to see like the magic manifesting in people's lives differently. So I just feel like those are always really cool stories because I don't know, in my mind, and it's still this way I post and it's just like into the ether. And I never think about really people like I there's always the same like 10 or 15 commenters like I recognize like my girl sees on here, you'll you'll hear right? Like I recognize, like in my mind. We're friends like I know these people in my mind, but I never see them physically. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're like with my friend Andrew. Like he was my best friend, but I just never met him physically, you know? So it's just interesting to see people in real life. I think that's just a really cool aspect of it. Or like we're at a hotel and someone's like, oh my god, I see you watch you on Tik Tok. I'm like, Ha, like, what is going on? Oh,

Dylan  31:11

yeah, we were at a hotel in Virginia. Yeah. And someone just was making her drink. And she goes, I follow you tour all

Anastasia Bonnett  31:21

over my view. And I was like, boy, you know, it's just interesting.

Dylan  31:27

I met on your grand opening weekend a guy who he's, uh, he's in consulting. And I asked what Ford he said, the marijuana. agriculture business was growing, growing. It was like a couple from Arizona. Oh, cool. Okay. And I was just like, whoa, do tell me all about that. And give him my card. I wanted to. He was like, I want to know, did he not? Did he ever gonna see that guy? And he was just like, Who is this guy asking me questions, but I was really interested in and then he wasn't even really there. It was his wife and daughters were the ones

Anastasia Bonnett  32:07

the mom and daughter do. I was great, too. I love that. That's so fun.

Dylan  32:11

And I think it's neat meeting people from like, all over the freaking world. Yeah, like people will be like, Yeah, I'm, you know, from blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The east coast. Yeah, I wanted I just wanted a trip and I thought why not come to Oceanside and see your store? And then they enjoy Oceanside to

Anastasia Bonnett  32:29

dice que I feel like people don't realize I mean it's a cute small beach towns that are left in California that are actually like pretty small and cute. So

Dylan  32:40

did I read somewhere? This is from Luna and Lotus magic shop? Did I read somewhere? You were adopted? I am I would love to know how you connected to your ancestors because you have

Anastasia Bonnett  32:54

Yeah, yeah, this is a this could be its own podcast episode and maybe we do because I'm only really truly genuinely like I am connected with my birth birth parents side but not the way that I work with my adoptive parents ancestors. And I don't know why that is like when I call my ancestors down when I say like my Haitian ancestors come down with the fucking sweat like I don't even I don't even I can't even and they're not blood they're not my blood ancestors. And I'm like this was something for years I was like This is so fucking weird like why why are they the ones that come down the fastest and I still don't don't really have the answers than that every single person that I've gotten readings from and I mean like from close practices like like the the one person that was initiated into voodoo that read me was like if you don't stop this disrespect with your those ancestors like questioning them like why they're here why you're able to do this like why you would be allowed all of these things like it's I don't know. Um, so I think it's also here's the thing my mom just texted me saying that my Nanos like 19 year death aversary is coming up on Monday. I did wasn't a spiritual or didn't was not interested in anything like that until my I think I talked about this and like briefly in a tick tock video once I was in the room when my Nana passed and I remembered like distinctively the flatlining happening and then seeing her sit up in bed like she was dead she was dead and gone and I remember her flat up sitting up and like looking at me and I didn't know what like a like the flatline men I was like six or seven. I literally was in second or third grade. How old were you? I don't know. I said I was in second or third grade. So whatever age that was, but that said I was young. And I remember going back because we you know, I left school she passed. Well, wait, why would I have gone back to school afterwards if she passed it? I guess the school isn't out yet. Anyways, I remember going back to school and like running to my teacher being like, I talked to my Nana right after she died and like everyone thought it was funny but she one of the teachers literally brought like called my mom and was like your daughter told me this like, is she okay? Because you know some kids handle grief weird but like I wasn't sad about it because my my nan had told me like everything was gonna be fine. Like she had a whole conversation with me and my brother Andrew was also in the room. We are the only spiritual people in my family. So the two people that were there when she passed like so happened to hold on to that. That for me, like kickstarted everything in my spiritual stuff I from then was able to like I was seeing people I dreamt like I had the weird dreams and everything, but every single time, I felt weird, I would like ask for my nan to help me because like, the I would pray to God, let me tell you, I used to pray to God every single time I would get on my horse Bella. And nothing happened, what actually what would happen is she would throw me off like that horse didn't give a fuck. And I would be praying, I'm like, please, like, I can't, I cannot handle getting thrown off of this horse again, because she's going to she ended up hooking me up several times. So I would pray and pray and pray. And the only times that I would I would never get answers, but the only times that I would feel safe and secure is when I would pray to my ancestor. So I think that I got really close to that side because I physically knew a lot of the ancestors that like I knew them in life, and I would call upon them afterwards like uh, you hear me talk about my pop all the time like he is my go to and I knew him in life. So I think that they also knew me like there was something like one of my parents my mom always like joke that they did something with me when they adopted me and I'm sure there was some sort of like weird like ritualize thing right? And my ancestors were very much ancestors as in like not in Papa in life they were in Florida and very much alive. So just like this type of protection that your your ancestors or your grandma and grandpa have for you in life they do in death so I think for me when I call upon them it's very easy for them to come forward because I've been mad at venerating them and giving them energy I physically see them when I call them versus my birth parents. I don't there's such a question mark there. I do put their name on my candles I make prayers to them. It's just like I the way that I would say for my birth parents that I don't know like those ancestors the wording is of my highest good and same moral standing so people that because I mean my birth father does not have anywhere close to the same morals as me like nowhere which means like there's other spirits that are attached to him that similarly don't but that doesn't mean that they're not there's not someone there

Dylan  37:23

so you're connected with them very easily and fluently and it's because you were raised by these people Yeah. And you were with them growing up

Anastasia Bonnett  37:37

and that's also where like the the type of spirituality that I have comes from too

Dylan  37:42

and you don't have to have so you don't you don't have to have the blood connection.

Anastasia Bonnett  37:45

No, no I think that's also like when people this is maybe not a great way to explain it but like when you will see the dough I guess this is so I can practice voodoo because of my birth parents lineage. Because Qatif is brought up was brought up by slave trade father, yes, my birth father was brought over by slave slave trade versus like my papa. He's Haitian while he was he was not. He smuggled himself out of there was smuggled out of the country. But he wasn't brought to United States by a slave trade. And he was the grew up in Haiti. So the connection, I don't even know what I'm trying to say here. The connection that I have, and everything that I learned was through watching what my mom did, which she didn't even know is spiritual. Like she was just doing these things. That's where like the hoodoo and like the Voodoo of at all certain aspects. Just literally like we think now my papa was for sure practicing like for sharp practicing. He just wasn't saying it. Those kinds of things. So much in like, black households. You think it's like superstition when really it's like that spiritualism. So,

Dylan  38:51

superstition, I remember. Your mom would boil like lemon peels and orange yells to make the house. Yeah, good. Yeah. And I was listening. I had never seen that before. But I was just like, Yeah, whatever. Like what a cool trick like the kitchen smells great. And then like, I just remember you telling me like no, that was like, it's witchcraft. Yeah. Oh, she doesn't.

Anastasia Bonnett  39:14

Like that was just in her. Like, if the vibes are weird, like, yes, it was a smell thing, but like, she'd be like, Oh, the vibes. Alright, let's put this together. So yeah, that sorry. That's a long winded way to answer that. But um,

Dylan  39:24

so essentially, it's you are always connected. There's mutual mutual love. Yeah, it was mutual because you know, your family really took you in Yeah, they really because my family

Anastasia Bonnett  39:37

would never think like the word adoption doesn't really get brought up unless I'm talking to a doctor and

Dylan  39:43

most people something like that most people don't even I was immersed like family you were adopted because you like much like

Anastasia Bonnett  39:50

you have seen and there's videos of my my adoptive mom. I look like her so much. But it's also like we're both similarly mixed with kind of the same things and But with that being said, I do. My my struggle is every single time I try to connect with my Irish ancestors, I just saw and cry. So there's something there. But it's also there was a lot of adoption on that side of my family. So I come from a bunch of orphans like my birth, mom's mom was adopted and like her brother, there's just a bunch of people on that side of the family that have been adopted and kind of given up. So I think there's a lot of healing to be done there.

Dylan  40:26

Let's go back to Patreon.

Anastasia Bonnett  40:28

Let's go back to Patreon questions.

Dylan  40:29

The patrons or

Anastasia Bonnett  40:31

patrons are paying they're here. They're saying listen, this is what we want to hear. Yeah, this is what's going on. They might know better than anyone to they do they know the truth T. They're here. It's stifling hot. You know what we'll do next time. We'll do it over tea time. Okay, we do this thing where we make like a whole elaborate tea. It's like a whole tea time we'll make tea we cut fruit we make dates.

Dylan  40:50

I want I want a lot of feedback from everyone. I want to know what it's like. I'm really curious because I thought it'd be interesting to have me who doesn't know

Anastasia Bonnett  40:58

anything any of this you say that? You know a little bit more. Yeah, but I'm

Dylan  41:03

also can like a pretty good media like moderator for this stuff. I feel like she's onto your so back to Patreon. Macarena.

Anastasia Bonnett  41:13

Okay,

Dylan  41:14

back to the first first person What's your inspiration to come up with a spill slash ritual slash oil?

Anastasia Bonnett  41:24

Um, I think okay, so this I feel like a psychopath. I think I said this on Tik Tok a little bit ago, sometimes for the A lot of times, for spells. My thing is a dream. Like I will dream about something. And I asked one of my friends and I don't know if Ashley is going to be listening to this. I was telling her about this like two years ago, and I will just have dreams of me doing spells, but like from above, like, you know, like an aerial view. And my pop is there with me. Sometimes he's sitting like over to the side, just like with his little pocket book and just like chillin others, he's like watering the

Dylan  41:56

pocketbooks in his pocket. Where are they? Now?

Anastasia Bonnett  42:00

My mom says she has one of them. But I don't know. And I'm like, How the fuck would you all not catch every single? She has all of this stuff. And she's like, slowly releasing. Yeah, but I almost like when they were going through the house. I was just like, there was a lot of like turmoil and drama with the family. But like, there was so much that we shouldn't have given away. But

Dylan  42:16

if we open up one of those pocketbooks, it would look like all of your

Anastasia Bonnett  42:20

Oh, 100%. I know it, I know it. My papa would sit at it. Sometimes I see him sitting next to me. Other times, his hands are like literally Overmind. And he's like showing me how to do the spell. And so I always like that, because it just like for me feels like very homey. And it feels like I'm spending time with him. And it literally feels like he is in the room with me. Right? And I was telling that to one of my friends actually. And I was like, sometimes I feel like I don't need to cast the spell because it's just like I did it at night. And she's like, Oh, it's because you literally are like you're using you're using, you're using all of that energy, you're with your ancestors, they're like taking care of it for you. They're taking care of it. But sometimes I'll wake up and I'm like, No, this seemed like a fun ritual. Maybe I didn't finish it. Or sometimes I'll just get like visuals of like a sigil. And kind of go from there. Outside of that, well a more realistic viewpoint of like, how I would start a ritual would be like, Okay, what is the what's the main focus here? Like, okay,

Dylan  43:14

I was gonna say, I think I think a lot of it is just from your life experiences. And some of it is sort of reactionary to the world around you. Yeah. For example, two examples here. The academia oil. Oh, yeah. Because I have really bad test anxiety thing. And I get really good grades. But when exams roll around, I'm just I get freaked out and I don't have like anxiety other like parts of No, it's really it's really just school that and I was like, Look, I need everything I can get. And I was like, I'm you know, I'm not very practicing spiritual person. I was like, Babe, what do you have for me here? They have anything, anything and she's like, I'll make you an oil. So she so she did that. And then that became our academic oil.

Anastasia Bonnett  44:03

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's yeah, I will say 100% There's a lot for the oils, I have a Grimoire like a personal book of shadows and a Grimoire with a bunch of recipes of stuff that I've just like, either made myself made friends, whatever, just written down because I wanted to make it and oftentimes like I said, I will make them for friends and they just never make it onto the page because there's I don't know how many even oils we have now we might have like close to 30 or 40. And I you can make oils for literally any specific intention situation reason, and a lot of times they might like cross over each other like oh, you can use the club dominance for money and luck and all of these other things, but I made it to dominate over a situation. Similar Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Okay, so yeah, it just depends or like a lot of times there will be gaps like I don't know why the fuck I didn't release for in my mind because I had the reversal oil and I think the transmutate or The antenna hex breaker. I've had that in my book of shadows forever. And I don't I didn't realize that I never released it. You know what I'm saying? But in the line in spiritually like it makes there's no reason not to have a hex breaker oil. Like, how will we've been doing this for the last three years kind of

Dylan  45:15

what if it's something's hex proof?

Anastasia Bonnett  45:18

That's like bold. That's a bold claim to say, there's that would be that just be a little bit too much to say that like, Oh, I'm the baddest bitch like this one oil is hex proof because you could hack someone a million different ways. And to cover that overarching, we would almost be like, what kind of ego ego Do you have that you're saying that this one product can fucking block every hex to go through? That's why it's a hex breaker, it's gonna break anything that they want to send to you. You could I wouldn't be multiple words to protect yourself.

Dylan  45:46

You've I've come in to the store sometimes. And just, like purely confused, because I just see like a jar filled up with a bunch of random stuff. And there's like stuff in a circle. Oh, yeah. I'm like, what's happening? What's going on? What is this? And she's like, What chapter? Yeah, very frank. Don't don't move it. Don't touch it. The landlord's playing with us again? Oh, no. And I'm like, Okay, I'll leave it alone. And she's like, he's got me fucked up. Yeah. And there's and I'm like, This is good.

Anastasia Bonnett  46:23

This specific traps that people will literally walk into. It's crazy.

Dylan  46:28

Yeah. So, so Okay, so just tried to like very, like, deliberately answer the question, you get the stuff from excellent experience experience. Yeah, surround.

Anastasia Bonnett  46:40

I also, I love creating oils. So if I can't, or an oil or a bath to me, if I can, if I can get something specific that you need help with, I want to make an Euler event. So that's my

Dylan  46:51

go to facilitated by ancestors, you Oh,

Anastasia Bonnett  46:54

yeah. That's always round, it will always, every single time, like any singular working, you will ever see me do rounds back to my ancestors or the ocean every time. Every time. Which I mean, the ancestors and my notion kind of go hand in hand to so that's

Dylan  47:11

where you get the inspiration. Because yeah, it was the word. And then it's facilitated through otherwise. And I don't know how I mean, if if you're asking for how you would come up with those things, like if a patron was yeah, how would we answer

Anastasia Bonnett  47:24

that? So my thing is like to teach people how to go and I know that sorry, these are so long winded, but I mean, it's a podcast, it's a podcast, this was for animals. Um, I think like a good way if I were to teach someone how to start making things from scratch, like let's say you wanted to make an oil and you're just like, what, how do I even do this different because you can make a protection oil million different ways right on Pinterest right now, you could say protection, oil or witchcraft protection, herbs, and, uh, we'll have a list of like, 50 of them. My thing is, what do I have readily available? i That's like every single Friday that I do those, like those elaborate spells that you see, I'm like, Okay, what is my main ingredient that I want to work with? And usually, it'll be like a crystal or a specific herb right? From there, what will lead similar energies to lead me to the same result? So it's like, okay, if I'm doing a protection oil, and I have black pepper in my cupboard, bitch, I probably have chilies. I'm sure I have salt. I might have garlic, like, what do you have in your cupboard? You kind of look around and see what you have from there. Okay, well, it's just like all matching the same energy and the same, like thought and intention of my spell. Cool. Let's see what we can like, Can I do a bath? Am I going to grind this into a powder, whatever it may be? And then from there, you can kind of take it to do you want to add crystals? Do you want to add other elements? Like do you want to do it on a specific day? What moonphase? Is it? Like? Do you want to take all of those into consideration? Maybe Maybe not, doesn't really matter. Some people really do want on the planetaries to be in line, they want it to be a specific hour, they want all these specific numbers and colors to be involved. It's up to you whether you want to involve that or not, you don't have to do so yeah.

Dylan  48:58

It's neat. I was just thought you could do you really ever incorporate you incorporate it in cooking and food sometimes? Yeah. And then you eat it, which is fun. I feel like there's got to be like a chef out there who like the way you go through things with baths, that they're probably like cooking, like, you know, he's like cooking his probably

Anastasia Bonnett  49:20

no, that's very for him. So that's like a whole type of quote unquote, kitchen witchery. Yeah, a lot of and I can only really speak on Like, who do an ATR is, which is African traditional religions, that just broken down. A lot of people and like going back to slave trade, like that's what people would do like their masters, like they would lay tricks, quote, unquote, to make them sleep through the night. Like they would put specific things in their food.

Dylan  49:43

Maybe it makes prayers, so well. Well, you

Anastasia Bonnett  49:46

totally can. But that's where that kind of started. It's like, how are we going to make the Masters sleep through the night? So maybe somebody can get away or like, how are we going to like, Are they sick? Like are we going to make them a little sicker, or our masters are doing well and they're taking care of us so like maybe they're paying As to make them like not as sick which would happen. Or they're doing Yeah, like a lot of times the food stuff was like, what was making people survive crazy. So now you can like tricks that like, like I say with tea time I had a whole spell on here. It's like, oh, here's a really simple little tea that you can make and give someone and it's a binding tea or it's a sweetening tea or, you know, it's like certification tea. Okay.

Dylan  50:25

Are you ready to jump into it? Yeah. Marquis Butler, are keys. I'm a huge spirit guy. And I was wondering if you had any go to spirit discernment skills you rely on more than others. Oh my god. Also, if you had any specific herb slash herb blends that you use for spirit communication and dedication. I picked this one for one word, why you know the word faco know what? Discernment? Yeah.

Anastasia Bonnett  50:54

Oh, cuz like, yeah, discernments been a word of I was gonna say weak, but it's been kind of like a word of the quarter. discernments a very good fucking word. Because here's the thing, if you're working with spirit, some people, there's some states, there's tricksters. There's energies that just want to spy in. There's just like, anytime that you raise any type of energy, like think of moths to a flame, like that kind of shit happens. Like you're at a campfire, there's gonna be fucking bugs going to the flame just to see what's going on. Like, they're stupid. They're gonna fly right into it. They

Dylan  51:22

don't smoke. No, they

Anastasia Bonnett  51:24

don't. They do not. I will. Okay. So discernment is important. And that leads back to having some sort of divination technique that you're, you're not necessarily extremely good with, but you feel comfortable in being able to communicate with your spirits on and pass that knowing if you're looking for specific spirits to bring into your space, knowing the lore behind them, and what they will act like when they come through, whether that be land spirits, what are they offering you? How do they what kind of responses are they going to get? What do they feel like energetically?

Dylan  51:59

So the discernment skill you would rely on more would be knowledge.

Anastasia Bonnett  52:03

It's a first start for sure. Because like, you can say, you could say going into it, how do you feel what would be the next step, what's happening around you how the candles flickering and stuff, but you should know, like, if I'm going to the beach, and I'm trying to catch like a fetch, or if I'm going to or like Sorry, that's very specific. If I'm going to the beach, and I want to work with the energy that comes with the ocean, it will feel way different than the energy that would come with like, Oh, we're gonna go to the canyon and see if there's any, like, maybe there's some whatever, Kenyans I don't work with those kinds of spirits, but their spirits over their land, spirits and stuff. Knowing what the spirit that you're trying to bring in is very important outside of that, going to the like offerings and stuff, I will always offer a spirit some sweet tobacco every time every single time you're gonna see me with some tobacco, because it's a good base level tobacco, wine whiskey, some sort of alcohol. Now the type of alcohol that spirits will like, it depends on like Pantheon, what kind of spirit is and that kind of thing. Like goddess says, I will probably usually go towards some sort of red wine and then pass that yes, not every goddess likes wine, right? But like, it's, it's more respectful to approach them with things that they would like versus just like giving them something to give them. Although I will say if you just have, you know, not everybody has everything readily available. And I think that there's a certain level of like, this is all I have, this is still an offering like this is something to me, so it means something to spirit, but I think always coming with a glass of clean, fresh water, some sort of tobacco is really great if you can get your hands on it, if not mugwort is really bond, they love mugwort and Molin.

Dylan  53:41

So it's basically about having the background knowledge, and then coming prepared for that, yes, but

Anastasia Bonnett  53:47

then also being prepared, if it's not the spirit you want, if I would say, to knowing how to banish before getting into that kind of stuff, because you're gonna run into a spirit that you didn't mean to talk to you. And that happens, you just need to learn how to banish them from your space. So I also will say you can use a lot of like spirit calling herbs to call them down if you're looking for that. And I think that that that's really like so you're hitting every skill, because I think it's important

Dylan  54:12

because like whoa, this is like which ones do you rely on? And then you

Anastasia Bonnett  54:15

kind of have to and I'm leaving stuff out but you will if you're trying to call spirits down I promise you you will call someone you didn't mean to down and that's it's just literally part of it. Not necessarily say it's like gonna be a terrible spirit. But like you're just like shit, and I don't mean this like creepily but there's going to be something like just kind of like peering into like what you're doing because you are raising so much energy. It's interesting to them. It's also like spirits or whatever entities might be lots of people don't people, things whatever it might be even plants, whatever. Don't pay them any mind they so as soon as someone's like actively calling out towards them, they're like, oh my god, someone's remembering like someone hears me someone sees me someone remembers me cool, and you might not want to give them energy. So don't just learn how to cleanse and banish. I'm sure you already know how to if you're trying to

Dylan  55:04

do all right, coming up on an hour. We'll do one. Anyway, let's

Anastasia Bonnett  55:08

do one more question. We'll do one more. We can always do a part two next week,

Dylan  55:11

we're gonna answer the rest of the questions a different time. If people

Anastasia Bonnett  55:15

want another, you guys want another part two with Dylan? If

Dylan  55:18

you're sick of me, then just tell me and we'll you can do you can just

Anastasia Bonnett  55:21

facilitate most well, I don't know who that would be. You could just like, what did they call to?

Dylan  55:26

If they produced that you could just do it for me just give feedback. If it's like, don't retire that bad. We don't want them. Next one's from Christie.

Anastasia Bonnett  55:34

Oh, yeah, I was about to say this actually looks like a good one.

Dylan  55:36

So Christie asks, how has it been since opening the store for a year now compared to how you started? And how was the journey etc. First of all, Christie, thank you for the question. Let us know how the audio is I didn't see your question until now. Because it's it's at the bottom. But you always give good feedback on the technical side of things. So let us know if the anything needs to be changed. And how's the journey been?

Anastasia Bonnett  56:04

It's been a journey. And I honestly am shocked that it's been a year. I was looking back at tiktoks Like tick tock does this thing now it reminds you like what did you post lat this time last year kind of thing. And this this time last year, the store wasn't even put together. We didn't even have the curtains up. We didn't have anything to put together and Carmen was reminding me she was like, because we didn't know we were going to be open this time last year. Which is crazy because we open our one year's in a month.

Dylan  56:28

Well, I want to I have a lot on this.

Anastasia Bonnett  56:29

I do too. I think we could talk about this for a while. This could have been a whole time that you really could been like because and maybe we do talk about like we can go between like because I think a business podcast like talking about that kind of thing is interesting towards some people, especially because even I was talking with Laura or our bookkeeper and she was trying to say like oh well like what other businesses are like yours that you can compare yourself to and they're different aspects and I don't know a single one and I don't mean that in like an ego way I mean it in like the not even just the spirituality aspect that's its own thing. There's lots of spiritual stores Yes. Like you throw that

Dylan  57:03

out of the window leaves the spirituality yes and no other business that has as many different products as we do. So to inventory really like Not a small inventory.

Anastasia Bonnett  57:15

The inventory is a lot the there's a lot of different aspects that go into our business. I think that like lots of people do not know because we I do a bad I like thing of showing it. But as a small business it it kind of stuck. It's not small. It really is small. It's a small because it's like what under 25 employees less than a third but we have 11 people that we have to look after. We have multiple different parts. We have E comm which is I think like E commerce, moonlight and sage and retail, moonlight and sage are two separate, they feel like businesses, they feel like entirely two separate things. Like yes, we sell the same things. But the way that everything moves is entirely different, like prices are the same but like it's totally different. So

Dylan  57:56

when I when we had to get insurance for the store, I had to call a deal with an insurance broker who had to call around these companies. No, I let insurance what kind of story like, like retail cool, what do you sell? And then I would like have to explain it and they're just like, that's like not even a category that makes

Anastasia Bonnett  58:14

sense. Yeah, there's no category for an even like trademarking. Similarly, when you trademark things, you can own trademarks for specific categories. So somebody else could have moonlight and sage and they're selling like bakery goods, or whatever, and they could have it, but when we were trademarking things, like we fall under multiple categories and stuff, so yeah, it's like annoying in the business sense of like getting your thing insured, because you have to ensure your company up to like $2 million, or something like that. We had to get like insurance for the store. Um,

Dylan  58:42

I want to this is the biggest part of I want to say about this question. Sorry. I know I know we both go back and forth. This is the biggest part we opened the store but moonlight and sage was

Anastasia Bonnett  58:55

had been a thing for two

Dylan  58:56

years for that. Yeah.

Anastasia Bonnett  58:58

So it was but it was it Yeah, so I think for us online is easier there's big hurdles with online that we deal with, but it is quote unquote easier than opening the store which makes in my mind no sense because it was a lot to get moonlight and sage from an apartment studio to an apartment and then from the apartment to the first store or whatever. Well, I don't know what we call that place that we were

Dylan  59:22

room first. It went from our kitchen pantry. Yeah. And I you know, I'm like, Okay, we used to keep food here. I guess it's just like herbs now. Yeah. And then we you know, we had a one bedroom apartment.

Anastasia Bonnett  59:34

And but it was basically the size of a studio and Cole

Dylan  59:37

was helping you get out or I was helping you get out orders. You're like I need you know, so it literally just it's it's snowballed from just giving selling it to friends through Etsy that you met on Tik Tok to

Anastasia Bonnett  59:54

Okay, and it's taken into a second bedroom. So

Dylan  59:57

then we're like, Alright, we're gonna move into a bigger apartment and then we're going to Use the spare bedroom to run the business or run the business. I outgrew that almost immediately, like six months. And then we're like we needed an office. So we get a small office and like applying

Anastasia Bonnett  1:00:08

for the office and stuff was its own feet for sure. Because like we had to get business insurance and along the lines of like moving and stuff we had gotten like the LLC, and like all of the wholesale license and all of those kinds of like those things, which seemed like a lot at the time. But even when we moved into the office, it seemed like a new feat. It was super exciting. But none of those things that we ran into were nearly as big as when we tried to open the store. Yeah, so this time last year, I don't know if you could like if anyone cares to look back at the tiktoks, you'll see me standing in the front room, and it's empty. Because we didn't like we started renting in January. But we had so much issues with the compliance of my studio like was rented a space that was not compliant up to city code or anything like that I do to my landlord and such. And it got we've kept pushing back the opening and kept pushing back the opening because we literally didn't even have compliant doors until like, April or May. And then in May, I kind of was like just so stressed out about it, because you had to understand you're paying for rent in a downtown San Diego studio to run a business that I was not able to open because of the code compliance that the landlord had. So it was getting to the point where it was very expensive to have this space that we couldn't use, obviously, and I kind of just got to the point where I was like, okay, my birthday is July 3, if we're not open by my birthday, I'm gonna lose my mind. It'll be half of the year here in this space that we can't use. So I don't know some way through May we decided to open and the opening was the stress most stressful part of my life. I'm not even kidding you. I don't think I've ever been more stressed like ulcer, my stomach stress, like I'm losing my mind.

Dylan  1:01:48

Well, yeah, I was gonna say, specifically the journeys had some super stressful moments. Yes, the calendars.

Anastasia Bonnett  1:01:58

Oh, well, the calendars was was for we, the calendar went so much better this year.

Dylan  1:02:03

I know so much smoother, but the but those moments of like highly induced stress. Yeah, where you're working until midnight. And then it pays off. Yeah, it's worth it. Every time I think you really like get fulfilled from giving people the products they want. Well, that's

Anastasia Bonnett  1:02:21

what it is for me too. Because if it's not right, it's not right. And I think that's why I'm always like on it, about certain things. So um, there was a, there was a large feat to open the store. And I think that was very, very stressful within itself. But then with that came the new having retail employees and doing new schedules and dealing with like, it's a different job entirely selling to live people rather than filling orders. And like answering customer support, we have to separate teams. So if you ever have ordered online, the people that you will deal with online is entirely different than the people that you will deal with in person and interact deal with. I mean, I don't know. But you know what I'm saying? Like, the interactions are two different people. So correct. There are also two different personality types. Someone who wants to pack orders and like answer questions is way different than someone who wants to Yeah, you can be more introverted. And I think they're extroverted within themselves, but it's a different type of person that wants to like be on the sales floor and like selling,

Dylan  1:03:17

it's pretty much just different of what they expect from a job. Yeah, what do you like some people there, you know, but that's not it's, if they're at work, they might want to just put on headphones and just work for eight hours and then go home and they can be extroverted in their social life. Yeah. And then other people who worked in retail in the store, you know, they're just happy to talk to people and help them find what they need in the store. And they don't mind being more social during work.

Anastasia Bonnett  1:03:45

No, but it's the the last year also since the store has been open. I think the biggest struggles that we've been having really have been with the space rather than like, I think if I look back on this, even like a year from now, all of the qualms that I will have had from the first year or the big ones are still boiling down to the space not being up to par. Because literally up until last month, we have had to been still dealing with lawyers and stuff. And I think that's been my biggest hold not hold that it's just been our biggest it's been very expensive. It's been like kind of stuff that I would never have thought that I would deal with owning a business. And it's only really come up because we've had the retail. Yeah, so it's been the journey has been great. Like we've always said it's a learning that's learning lessons after learning lessons after learning lessons. I feel like as a person I've had to grow a lot. I don't know in which ways entirely yet. We'll have to think about that at the end of the year.

Dylan  1:04:45

It definitely doesn't feel like we've settled in anything. No feels like no, we're still figuring stuff

Anastasia Bonnett  1:04:52

because we're out of space. Like let me tell you we moved into that space and the E commerce could have taken over the entire space and the retail store and we would have still outgrown it I think it's just like

Dylan  1:05:03

aside from the real estate

Anastasia Bonnett  1:05:05

yes the

Dylan  1:05:05

We Still as a whole we're still figuring stuff out we always I think we always will be figuring stuff out going away yeah

Anastasia Bonnett  1:05:13

I feel like I'm always constantly kind of drowning but in the best way like I would literally I should have said that at the beginning I any of the stress that I have taken the stress the anxiety or ulcers or whatever have you what is 100 times 1000 times we'll take it over then my like any other my old position I would take this a million times and three times over and especially because none of the issues that I have is ever with the spiritual stuff it's not what the business it's just like genuine running a business. I think it's also running a business as a woman like we could talk about that not talk we probably won't and that's one we can talk about it later. I have been so undermined, disrespected. looked over Welcome to the show, babe. Yeah, welcome to the goddamn show. Y'all know it's way worse for me. What are you talking? I mean, like I had someone look at me I had somebody that I mean I don't mean to say this but I probably have more money than this dude this man this grown man looked at me in front of my employees and told me that I was probably broke didn't know to home and had a lot of debt and couldn't afford the space that my space is like that we have right

Dylan  1:06:14

now. That same guy lives in a fucking attic. Yeah, he's

Anastasia Bonnett  1:06:17

he's a piece of trash. Let me tell you he's trash like all around like gross. He did a lot of things that were against whatever it doesn't mean

Dylan  1:06:24

you underestimated us good. Yeah,

Anastasia Bonnett  1:06:26

he grossly underestimated do that. But I'm also mean like, I've just like as the last year has grown, I've really realized that, as a young business owner, people will take advantage of you. And I think leading up to this year, I didn't expect that. I don't know why I didn't expect that because people will take advantage of you and all things but like, I think I've learned a lot in the last year there's no like just trusting people. There's no like good business and being nice. There's no There's no like I will be a bit like if it's the literal Nikki line of like, If a man said this, it wouldn't be a bitch. But like if I say this, I'll be a bitch like it kind of having to turn the the growth of not everyone wants the best for you. In terms of business aspects, not unlike customers. I'm not speaking about customers at all, because like, the customer experience has been nothing but great. I'm also mean like the the men that I've had to been dealing with have just been

Dylan  1:07:18

so mad. It's better to keep your guard up. Yes, entirely. You've learned that Yeah. 100% No, you

Anastasia Bonnett  1:07:24

have your guard up was all business relationships,

Dylan  1:07:26

I'm not going to end now cast like this on a positive positive note

Anastasia Bonnett  1:07:30

is the thought that I mean, with all that being said, we are thinking about a second location, so we can't be going to do it again. I feel like even if we did a second location, it'd be stressful, but nowhere close to as bad as it was.

Dylan  1:07:43

But the on a very positive last note the journeys been fantastic. I feel like Klein by Miley Cyrus reach you've made getting to people and the impact you've had on them is been fantastic.

Anastasia Bonnett  1:07:57

Yeah, if we can think about it, if we can talk about the customers and the people that I've met over the year, it's been insane people that people have been enjoying

Dylan  1:08:04

appreciate the content and the product. Well even

Anastasia Bonnett  1:08:07

just like meeting with them and just getting to hear people's point of views on anything spiritual. Just having spiritual conversations with people in real life is so cool, like hearing about what rituals they're doing or like, what it's unique. It's like to hear what people are working with, or the deities that they've contacted or like, where they are spiritually versus where they were even like a week ago. It's just cool to see I do that and a lot of other No, no. And I just like also think that the type of energy that we have, like people come in, and it's like a place of solace for them. They know that they can find the things that they might need, or like no one's gonna judge them for. I mean, it's cuz sometimes I even say shit that I'm like, This sounds like I sound like a psychopath. But like, there's none of that at the story. I'm just like, whatever you have to say, let's get it out. Because I'm here for you. I do. I really appreciate that aspect. So it's been great. It's been really great. Yeah, the journey has been really, it's been also fun as hard as it's been. It's been fun. I feel like I've learned a lot. It's cool now because some of my friends that want to open businesses and stuff come to me and they're like, I've seen you go through god damn near at all. And I think that's something I didn't do a lot of good of showing last year with some of the stuff that we went through. But I think it was also like me, like treading water with like 100 pound weights on my feet trying to make sure I was still at the top. The mermaids were pushing me up like helping me while people were dragging me down kind of thing. But I it's cool to be able to look back at all the growth that we did, and see that where you have a business that's still thriving. But those 100 hour work weeks were worth it.

Dylan  1:09:39

Let them know what to expect from the next. If there's going to be a next

Anastasia Bonnett  1:09:43

next podcast or store. Yeah, podcast. Oh, well, we could if we want to we let's have like an open forum and the comments below. We can either make it a couple. Like if you want to talk about a couple topics, maybe we can put the topics below and we'll vote on them if we want to just like Talk about like two or three topics for the full 45 minutes or an hour. Or if we want to keep it open like this where we're just kind of asking questions like you guys, let me know. If you'd like to feedback kind of hearing the mundane with a magical having Dylan here. How often

Dylan  1:10:13

would people listen to this? Like, if we did it once a month, or once a week? Definitely. They

Anastasia Bonnett  1:10:18

listened way more than once a month. You think so? Yeah. Because when I used to do them with like Paulina, and Landon and everybody, people were like more. And I don't know if you have any, like spooky stories, but we've never we used to have a series of what we would do spooky stories.

Dylan  1:10:35

Would we upload on to? Oh, does anyone want to see video? Oh, yeah, I was like, I can do video easily. And she's like, I don't want I just didn't want to get ready today. You know what I'm saying? So if you want video, we can do that easily. And then we could do Patreon and then put it on YouTube and like, a month or a year, whatever. Yeah. Or it's a shorter version on YouTube. Yeah, something like that.

Anastasia Bonnett  1:10:56

You guys, let us know. We're going to try to bring these back more frequently. But we want to make it into a format that you guys would care to listen to. I think this is perfect, because I love podcasts when I'm cleaning. And so we're

Dylan  1:11:08

just alive. Like we could just also just do this on a

Anastasia Bonnett  1:11:11

live stream. You can do lives on on Patreon, but I don't know because one everybody has on a different time. So yeah, and then it would be I don't know if you can save it for them to watch afterwards. If the people missed the live would be like different we had. I like a podcast too. It's I just feel like lives are always difficult. My brain is all I

Dylan  1:11:29

got to talk to you for an hour. Hour. 12 minutes are going to cut this down a little bit. How am I going to talk to her for an hour? We asked her to do a podcast.

Anastasia Bonnett  1:11:39

Anyway. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. I appreciate the questions. If I didn't get to your question. There's no shame with it. We'll be back answering more. I really do appreciate all the feedback you guys give us and just honestly the support it's been a wild ride but a fun one. And you know, yeah, we could come back. I feel like we could have so many more topics to talk about. We could talk about tea, we could have a tea time. I think we should. Okay, love you guys. Talk to you guys soon.