TGGC #17: Becoming magical, deepening your desires, & raising your "havingness" level with Carolyn Elliott.

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Carolyn Elliott is a bad bitch with a bodhisattva vow. She's a life coach, a writing teacher, and a legit witch. In this episode we talk about her recovery from addiction, how she got seriously interested in magic (and you can too), why her deepest desires go way beyond a 4-hour work week, the problem with most personal development content, and so much more. Carolyn is not afraid to go really deep and I found our conversation to be absolutely life changing. It might be my favourite interview yet!

In this episode we talk about:

  • What Carolyn's life looks like as a full-time writer in Bali
  • What to do with offerings on your altar after they've sat there for a while
  • Carolyn's definition of "magic" and what it means to be magical
  • Why she was forced to dress up as the Egyptian God Thoth as a child
  • How Carolyn's relationship to and understanding of magic changed over time
  • Her favourite books for anyone who is interested in learning about or starting to practice magic
  • What led Carolyn to transition from teaching poetry to working as a life coach
  • How Carolyn overcame crippling depression and major internal resistance to make this huge transformation
  • Her experience with shadow work and what that looks like in practice
  • What most personal development glosses over
  • Why Carolyn decided to celebrate her poverty and how that allowed her to create more wealth for herself
  • Why gratitude is an excruciatingly painful thing to feel
  • Carolyn's deepest desires - and why they go way beyond a 4-hour work week

Links mentioned:

Where to find Carolyn:

Sarah Starrs

I’m definitely needing #freeupmyinsta with @allison_sadler_ and @bettymagazine this week as I couldn’t take a photo I thought was “worthy” of posting today. 📸 But here we go: looking up at the wee baba while we do play airplane. ✈️ And a few outtakes in my stories for good measure. 👌🏻
Today’s to-do list: bake banana bread. 🍌 Go for a walk. 🌳 Send photos to @grrlgangart for our custom babywearing illustration. 👌🏻 . I’m experimenting with adding a *teeny* bit more structure into this flow-y new mama life. We’ll see how it goes. 🤷🏻‍♀️
What a perfect autumnal weekend we had! 🍁 Canalside weekends into charming Hebden Bridge. 🦆 Wandering around cobblestone streets. 👌🏻 Drinking chai lattes and eating apple strudel. 🍎 Bundling up in blankets to drink our tea on the porch. ☕️ And while I couldn’t find a pumpkin patch to visit, we did have a stroll around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, admiring the art and the changing leaves. 🗿 Have you made an autumnal bucket list? 🖋 It’s fun thinking of ways to soak up the seasonal magic. ✨ I think that’ll mean lots of baking for me this week. 🌰
I think Hebden Bridge is my spiritual home. 🏘✨
I think there’s a general sense that living a magical life takes a lot of time; it’s definitely a question that came up from podcast listeners a lot: “How can I fit it all in?” I get it because you see all the Instagrammable trappings. The elaborate rituals. The crystals. The daily tarot pull. The beautiful altars. And those things have their place. They help us crystallize our intent and communicate it with the universe. . But if there’s anything that pregnancy and mamahood have taught me it’s that you don’t need it. It’s all icing. Magic happens when we’re in our bodies. When we feel our feelings. When we listen and trust what’s coming through us. When we honour our ebb and flow. . I’ll always love a beautiful ceremony but right now I just don’t have the time or energy. But I can daydream about the life I’m creating while I hold my sleeping babe. I can whisper to him about all of the things I’m grateful for while he nurses. I can get really present when he’s smiling up at me. I can think about my intentions while I drop a tincture onto my tongue. I can infuse my body with plant magic by making a pot of herbal tea. I can talk to mama moon when she shines through my windows during sleepless nights. . The tools are wonderful when they help us tune in. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed by them all. Or to use them to spiritually numb out instead. So all I want to say (in this very long winded way) is you don’t need them. Magic will fill every crevice of your life if you let it. 💫
The best thing about autumn is that everyone’s core desired feeling simultaneously becomes “cosy.” And all I ever want is to reach peak cosy. ☕️🍁
Four years ago today, for no particular rhyme or reason, I moved to the UK - only planning to stay for a year or two. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the magic that would unfold. #happythankyoumoreplease
This week I’m grateful for @heradventuringlife and her willingness to chat about the tough stuff. I have to admit: I find a lot of what is said in spiritual and self-help communities really gross. It can be victim blame-y and completely blind to the realities of systemic oppression. So I’m trying to wrap my head around the very real experiences I’ve had with manifestation + positive thinking + the law of attraction and the reality that not everyone has the privilege to want more, to expect more, to actively design a different life. . I can completely get behind the fact that I’m the creator of my own reality. But what about those who have never been exposed to the fact that a different life could be possible for them? Or for whom expressing a desire for change could result in death? Ignoring the way our society is set up to benefit some and disenfranchise others by pretending we all have equal access to the powers of creations doesn’t sit right with me. . Today I was going to share a whimsical caption about bubble baths and writing and cuddles with my family. But as much as Sunday is a day of rest, it’s also a sacred day and these are the sacred questions I’m contemplating right now. . For the witch-y among us, is this something you’ve thought of? What has helped you create a more nuanced understanding of these sacred laws? I can’t claim to have it figured out at all but I’m grateful for anyone who’s willing to get in the muck and puzzle it out with me.
I get excited thinking about our witch-y, hippy dippy, with-it families raising bubbas who are clued up on their own worthiness, and the Law of Attraction, and the magic of the moon. 🌛💥These little babes who will be practicing yoga, and meditating, and growing gardens, and making their food their medicine - if they want to that is, but at least they’ll have been introduced to these healing modalities. 🔮📿 There will be this new generation of women who have always known the power of their menstrual cycle and of men who respect the cyclic nature of the feminine. 🌈💖 What kind of ripple effect will it have on the world for bambinos to grow up knowing their own magic and respecting their connection to the Earth? 🦄🌍 I know that we won’t be perfect parents and that life will mark our children with their own battle scars because that’s part of growing up. 👶🏼🙏🏻 But I have a lot of hope that these wee ones are going to be epic world changers. 🌸✨#fridayfacelessportrait
To be honest, before we moved to Liverpool I thought it was going to be a dingy, kind of depressing place. 🙈 In reality, it’s dynamic and colourful, vibrant and friendly. 🌈 It’s full of beautiful parks and beaches and museums and galleries to explore. 🌳 There are so many people making their creative, small business dreams come true here. 💖 It’s got tastes of everything I love about London but in a more manageably sized package, and at a more human pace. ✨ What places have surprised you recently? 💋 #whpdynamic