In this week's episode, guest expert Erica Feldmann of HausWitch joins us to talk about using your office space as a tool for mental clarity, finding ways to cultivate focus, developing community as an introvert, and getting back into your body through dance, yoga, and power naps. We wrap up with our best tips and advice for developing a practice of balance in your life and for creating space in your home or office that supports mental clarity and at the end we'll have an assignment for our listeners- in honor of witches and Halloween, do something for yourself and share your story on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and tag us @university_of_venus on IG and @UVenus on Twitter or post it on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/UVenus/ and we will share, retweet, and amplify! Find University of Venus on Instagram @university_of_venus , Twitter @UVenus , and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/UVenus/
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Music Credits: Magic by Six Umbrellas
View from Venus Episode 2
Mary Churchill: [00:00:00] Hi everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the View from Venus. Today's co-hosts are Mary Churchill, Meg Palladino, and Leanne Doherty and today's guest expert is Erica Feldmann, owner and founder of HausWitch a company devoted to helping people heal their spaces and love their homes. Since this episode is airing on Halloween, we wanted to go with the theme of the day and when Leanne recommended we get in touch with Erica, we jumped on the opportunity and we were thrilled when we found out she was available. In today's episode, we'll be talking with Erica about her master's degree in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons University;, starting her own brick and mortar business, HausWitch, in Salem; her book that came out this last Spring, HausMagick; and her tips for creating space for clear thinking.
You will walk away with our best tips and advice for developing a practice of balance in your life and for creating space in your home or office that supports mental clarity and at the end we'll have an assignment for you. So without further ado,
Erica Feldmann: [00:01:01] Hi there.
Leanne Doherty: [00:01:03] We're so glad to have you. Erica, you're the owner and founder of HausWitch. You're a Chicago native and you moved to Salem Massachusetts to study witches and the sacred feminine in the Gender and Cultural Studies Program at Simmons.
The knowledge you gained their combined with your innate talents for interiors came together to form HausWitch. We've asked Erica to join us on the View from Venus because we love her focus on reclaiming the identity of a witch as a radical feminist move. HausWitch is a modern metaphysical shop in Salem, Mass that blends magic, activism, and deep community
Here at View from Venus, we are all about building community and creating space for mental clarity. Earlier this year. Erica published a book, HausMagick, and we'll be talking about that with her as well.
Meg Palladino: [00:01:47] So, let's start with something fun. If you could describe the general mood in your office or home by comparing it to an animal, what would it be?
Erica Feldmann: [00:01:57] Oh, wow, that is such a good question. I mean I carry a lot of feline energy in particular big feline energy. So I mean what popped in my mind first is a white tiger, but like I don't know if that describes the store. We're very playful at the store. So I guess maybe something more like a monkey.
I do have several work spaces. So I think my home my home office, I would say a white tiger and for my shop, I would say a bunch of monkeys.
Mary Churchill: [00:02:35] I love that. Leanne, do you have anything on that? What's yours?
Leanne Doherty Mason: [00:02:40] Me? My animal? Oh my goodness. I would say. Oh, that's a really good question, Mary and one I'm not comfortable with because I'm not creative. I guess like a sad hound dog kind of, you know. I kind of always want to be in the other place. Like if I'm in the office, I want to be home and if I'm in the home, I want to be in the office. So, yeah, I just kind of like smooth, you know, but I'm getting better about it. Space doesn't - and Mary, you know this but Meg, this will be something to learn about me - Space doesn't have much place in my world and I'd like to learn more about how space can be an effective tool for me because I'm not committed to space.
Erica Feldmann: [00:03:28] Yeah. I want to get into that.
Leanne Doherty: [00:03:29] You know when I was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences here at Simmons, I had to do a lot of big moves for people and I just didn't understand why people were so upset that they had to move. I was like it's just an office right and I've grown from that and learned. I'm like, oh this really is something I could work on that might be helpful.
Mary Churchill: [00:03:55] You know, when I think of this question, I think I would love to say something like a horse or when you said the white kind of tiger I would love that but I feel like it's more something slow moving like a turtle or something, but maybe like a furry turtle. I try to have it be really chill and low-key. Something like a sloth that would be my animal.
Erica Feldmann: [00:04:22] I like that
Meg Palladino: [00:04:23] For me work is...Sorry, you have to talk about home?
Mary Churchill: [00:04:25] No, oh home. Oh, no. Train station.
Meg Palladino: [00:04:32] Okay. For me, I think work is like we're like a bunch of bears where we like to stay in our caves and we come out if there's some good food and chit chat and go back into our caves. And at home, I think we're just like a pile of puppies or something.
Leanne Doherty: [00:04:47] I want to amend my sad dog who's hungry space. Yeah, she's always hungry. But you know, what are you gonna do?
Erica, I know you went to Simmons for a degree in the Gender and Cultural Studies program. I know pretty well. How did this relate to you reclaiming the title of witch as a way to re-center and stay grounded? You know, what prompted you to study this topic?
Erica Feldmann: [00:05:26] Well, it was you know sort of a happy accident.
I mean, it's one of these things throughout my life. Like there's always been the sort of constellation of interests around me. I'm a Gemini. So I just I'm like interested. Ooh, we have another Gemini.
Mary Churchill: [00:05:47] Geminis in the house
Meg Palladino: [00:05:48] Leanne, are you a Gemini?
Leanne Doherty: [00:05:49] No, I 'm a Pisces.
Meg Palladino: [00:05:50] Oh, me too.
Erica Feldmann: [00:05:51] I have a Pisces moon and my moon is in my fourth house which has to do with homes so it actually makes me very sensitive to spaces and homes and so forth. But so I love that. So we're like split Gemini with my sun and my moon signs here. So that's awesome. But. So I've always kind of had this weird constellation of different interests around me and what really happened, you know, sort of I had gotten my undergraduate degree in history. And towards the end of my, towards the end of undergrad, I did a study abroad in Cambridge, England and there was a course called witchcraft in early modern England and you know, I took it and I read Witchcraze by Anne Llewellyn Barstow which is sort of like the I don't know if it's the first but I think it was like the most prominent feminist analysis of the European witch craze and it definitely lit a fire in me and no pun intended.
That sounds horrible but so what happened is that I found this and I'd always been interested in witch, probably since I was a kid. So it's sort of was the nexus of all of these interests for me. History, feminism, and witches and you know, once I sort of found that as a path. it just every kind of, everything in my life made sense all of a sudden and so what ended up happening with me finding the Gender and Cultural Studies program at Simmons is that you know, because it's so interdisciplinary and so kind of like choose your own adventure you can take courses and all these different disciplines that it really allowed me to study you know, witches from so many different angles that. Again, like my Gemini interests which are all over the place, you know, it was really the perfect program for me. So I did take courses in the History Department. I took courses in media studies. I took courses in the English Department and you know again for a jack-of-all-trades type of person that was really the perfect way to do it.
I, you know towards the end of my time at Simmons, realized that I really didn't want to go on to a PhD and I think part of the reason is that I just kind of couldn't pick an angle, you know pick a track. So I and you know, I'm honestly very happy obviously because of my store. You know, I carry everything from academic tracts about the witch trials to Silvia Federici's work to you know more pop culture stuff to the latest and greatest and sort of like woke millennial witchcraft. So I always kind of joke when people say like, oh, you know, would you ever go back for your PhD? I'm like my dissertation is this store and that's truly how I kind of express my you know, what knowledge I've accumulated over the years in academia. Did that answer your question?
I also because I'm a Gemini I ramble so just.
Meg Palladino: [00:09:03] You just said that your business was sort of your dissertation. So how did you kind of take the work that you did at Simmons and start HausWitch in Salem?
Erica Feldmann: [00:09:14] Yeah. I mean, it's actually again this totally fated journey because my first clients for HausWitch which you know started out as a blog about redecorating your home without a lot of money.
And you know sort of the idea was that magic and witchcraft took the place of money and so my first clients for that were from my cohort at Simmons and one of my professors,Suzanne Leonard. So the network itself just of who I met at Simmons was totally crucial in starting my business.
And so, by the time it was time to open the store, you know, I actually didn't know entirely what the store was going to be. I just knew that I needed a job I didn't want to quit and you know, we would go from there and honestly, you know, I definitely included feminist queer makers from the beginning but it was after the election of 2016 that I really think that the store got its identity as being sort of this like very openly political, very openly radically feminist, anti-capitalist, anti-white supremacist witch store and you know, I just remember waking up the day after that election and going like okay I have, you know, I don't know how many it was then but probably like ten thousand Instagram followers.
I have this platform. I'm like, what did I go to school for right to educate people on these issues and now I have this platform and I have this literal space that people can come into to be, you know, sort of educated even if they don't know that, you know? It's come in for the coffee mug, but stay for the feminist literature kind of situation and you know, I think in a in a consumer…
Mary Churchill: [00:11:16] And the community. I think you've developed community there very well.
Erica Feldmann: [00:11:19] Yeah, absolutely and that also just kind of happened on its own and it's truly a testament to what happens when you just are sort of putting a really authentic vision out there in the world. You know, I think that the misnomer has always been like don't get political with your business.
I worked in hair salons all through college and grad school and that was definitely one of the things they always would tell stylists in beauty schools. Like don't talk about politics with your clients. And you know, I kind of flipped that and honestly it has like helped me gain a much more loyal customer base because I think that people really respond to authenticity and they respond to somebody who's going to put their neck out for their values.
And so, you know, it's done nothing but really help my business which of course I mean is so gratifying because all I ever wanted to be was a feminist history professor at a community college, you know, like I truly just like wanted to talk to girls about how empowering being a witch could be. And so the fact that I get to do that and I really get to say what I mean when it comes to pretty controversial topics like white supremacy and you know being an anti-capitalist and still, you know, and my business still thrives is truly it's what's really made convinced me that magic is real.
Mary Churchill: [00:12:46] That’s awesome. So I want to ask you a couple questions about your book because I want to read it. I read parts of it and it sounds great. So it's on order. In your book, HausMagick, you write about two types of comfortable homes, which I love. I have a 14 year-old who is always on screen so and when I think of our listeners - mostly people who are working in higher ed, I think about how much time we spend in our offices and I wonder if this- kind of two types of comfortable offices this framework - can be applied to our offices as well as our homes. And what do you think about that?
Erica Feldmann: [00:13:23] Oh 100% you know and I think that if you do spend a lot of time in your office, you should think of it as I mean, you may not want to think of it as a second home, but that might be the reality, you know, and just embrace it and you know, make it feel as good as you can while you're there.
Mary Churchill: [00:13:45] Do you think there are things that are specific to offices that people could do, just small things that people can do in their offices to make it that comfort that's not numbing but that comfortable that kind of puts you in your good, most productive, and most awesome self, I guess?
Erica Feldmann: [00:14:02] Yeah. Definitely. I mean, I think there's two different angles you could look at here and the most important thing about all of this though is literally it just starts with setting an intention. And so, you know, the first part of all of this for me is how do you want to feel in your office?
Do you want to feel -do you feel like you have no problem being productive, but you'd like to feel more calm or more relaxed or maybe you know, you feel really scattered in your office so you'd like to feel more productive, you'd like to feel more focused and then you can kind of go from there, you know.
We have a kit. We just came out with a spell kit this year that I mean I can barely keep in stock called Focus Pocus and it's all about dealing with ADHD with tools that aren't speed, you know, basically, So, and the main thing with that kit is that it all comes in a little pouch and the first direction is put your phone in the pouch and zip it up and put it away somewhere.
So I think if you're trying to cultivate focus, you know, you really have to just kind of look at what is taking away from your concentration. For me, it's a thousand percent my phone and then you know just having allies that support you. I have tons of crystals that I find to be helpful to have around me and tinctures and you know. I am a person who I won't say suffers but I mean I cope with pretty severe ADHD. So and I've noticed that scent is something that really brings me back into my body and really brings me back into the present moment. So I have a bunch of different smells. I have little bottles of oils and candles and all sorts of stuff.
And so I find that when my mind wanders if I just grab one of those and give it a sniff. I'm like, okay, I'm back. So, you know, there's stuff like that. And then I think that's the calming for me, again scent is such a huge thing. So, you know have a candle in there or have a room spray that you know, really brings you back into your body.
I know lavender is a huge relaxation scent for people. I also really love like a clove cinnamon really Autumnal scent. I find those to be really relaxing. So yeah, those are some things.
Mary Churchill: [00:16:28] That's awesome and you know, it's funny when I first started grad school and I was presenting papers, I remember I used to, Rescue Remedy was my tincture of choice, right?
Erica Feldmann: [00:16:40] Yes. We use Rescue Remedy at the shop in a couple of our concoctions. That's a great one.
Mary Churchill: [00:16:47] Yeah. No, it was great.
Leanne Doherty: [00:16:48] So I'm listening to you speak and I'm like, I like smells. Why don't I have more smells in my office?
Mary Churchill: [00:16:54] In my office, right? I have them at home, why are they not in my office?
Leanne Doherty: [00:17:01] But I remember Mary you saying like you could have a scent. A scent would you know, I'm not getting. I'm a political scientist, I don't do scents. We're dead inside and angry.
Mary Churchill: [00:17:11] Stop. Stop
Meg Palladino: [00:17:12] I'm always trying to please like all of my senses. So I always like to have a good scent, and something good to eat and nice music and something nice to look at, comfy chair. If I hit all those things, I'm in a good spot.
Erica Feldmann: [00:17:28] Yeah, exactly and you're not dead inside as a political scientist.
You're so important. So important for you to tap into your life force energy. It's so much in this world right now.
Leanne Doherty: [00:17:41] Oh Erica. I'll be down in like an hour. Is that all right? To Salem from Boston.
Mary Churchill: [00:17:50] I know I know
Erica Feldmann: [00:17:51] Please take care of yourself. I mean we actually we do have tinctures in the store specifically for people who work with you know, I mean, we have a few that are for people who work with sort of like with energy. So therapists or counselors or teachers, you know, whatever. But then also ones for dealing with the oppression of capitalism and white supremacy and neoliberalism and colonialism and all of these things. Yeah, you'll have to come and check it out
Mary Churchill: [00:18:27] dealing with today's headlines. Yes.
Erica Feldmann: [00:18:30] Yes, you know. I mean, it's it is real. This is one of the things that I really feel passionately about talking about with our customers and with our community is you cannot discount how much the energy of our world affects us and right now the energy of our world is a hot mess.
You know and why wouldn't that affect us. We all on some level are feeling the Earth is in deep trouble, you know, and the people on it too and we absorb that you know, whether it's conscious or not we do and you know, so one of the things that you know, and that shows up in a variety of ways.
Mary Churchill: [00:19:12] Yeah. Now I think of.. It's funny because you were saying this and I think every night I do this whole like wind down. I'm going to sleep because I'm a total insomniac and like a true Gemini right I can't turn my brain off right and so my husband, so I go to sleep very early. My husband goes to sleep late. So he's just getting going and he comes in with headlines. I'm like. No, it's over. After seven, you can't talk to me about the news at all, right?
Erica Feldmann: [00:19:41] It's really important to have those kinds of boundaries it really, yeah.
Mary Churchill: [00:19:46] I love boundaries.
Erica Feldmann: [00:19:48] Oh my gosh, I do too. My wife and I were just this morning talking about if there could be one subject in like Elementary School that was taught that you could choose. Like what would it be and I said boundaries
Mary Churchill: [00:20:03] That's awesome.
Erica Feldmann: [00:20:05] Like oh my gosh, if we taught kids like grounding and boundaries and empathy, that would be my trifecta, you know, but I think we would change the world just by teaching people about boundaries at a young age.
Mary Churchill: [00:20:20] Exactly. I love that. I read that you identified as an introvert and that you found kind of online and HausMagick and I mean and HausWitch as a way to connect with a larger community and that it's really important for introverts to build and connect with community. And a lot of folks in academia are introverts and they are self-identified introverts. I think maybe we attract introverts. So I don't know if you have anything to say about introverts and the need for community and how it’s you know, I guess we assume that extroverts are the ones that need community, but I love...
Erica Feldmann: [00:21:00] I mean extroverts attract community, right?.Introverts, you know isolate themselves from it. And I mean, I totally do that. When I opened the store, I knew that I did want to host events, right? And so I was lucky enough that a friend of mine, you know a stranger then but a dear friend of mine now came along and offered to start hosting moon meditations and I was like, okay, you know, I'm a little freaked out about this.
But that's what I said I wanted to do so I'm going to do it and you know, I have to tell you at the first one I was sitting back in the back of the shop, which is where the cash register is watching all these strangers come in and I was so freaked out. I was like what I've invited all of these strange people, they weren't strange people but you know all of these people to my shop I could just be home alone right now, but I'm going to have to be social and… And you know, what was funny was that it ended up being one of the most beautiful nights of my life and there were so many introverts there. You know, we always would go around in the circle and kind of say why we were there or what our intention for being there is and there were so many people that were like, you know, I tend to really, I have social anxiety and so I tend to not do stuff and this sounded really cool. And so I challenged myself to do it. And you know, I have to tell them by the way - same and watching you guys come in tonight was one of the most terrifying experiences I've had so I mean, this is your community, you know, and so it is the sort of community of introverts.
You know, I mean after I answered the question about what animal we would be at the shop. it's the other animal we would be is a bunch of house cats because that is the true vibe. But, in that the fact that we have managed to come together as this kind of gang of house cats, it has allowed us I think to open up to you know, this idea of community and like I said, the people that came to that first meditation are among my truest and best friends and among the best people I've ever met in my whole life.
And so, you know, that was kind of enough to convince this introvert that, you know, definitely stepping out of your comfort zone every once in a while when you know, it's going to be a safe space, you know, which we really try to encourage you really try to make known that you know HausWitch which is a safe space for everyone, you know challenge yourself to do it because it truly can lead to, you know, the most beautiful experiences and having the coolest people in your life.
I think introverts, you know, with other introverts can be just so rewarding.
Mary Churchill: [00:24:07] Oh, that's awesome.
Erica Feldmann: [00:24:09] Did that, you know, did that answer your
Mary Churchill: [00:24:12] yeah. No, that's great.
Leanne Doherty: [00:24:14] I'm trying to think if we've already asked this question.
Mary Churchill: [00:24:16] I think we have and so we have another question that that kind of got discussed, right?
Leanne Doherty: [00:24:21] So do you want to go to takeaways?
Mary Churchill: [00:24:23] Yeah, so we want to wrap up with takeaways which is like all of us making kind of our top tips or recommending our top tips for creating comfort and mental clarity like kind of you know, what are your tips? Especially if you think about academics, right?
You know, it's a life of the mind and it's so mental and so what are your tips for creating that clear space in your head so that you can do as you said whatever it is you want to do but how do you get to that space of clarity? What are kind of top tips that you would say?
Erica Feldmann: [00:24:58] Yeah, I mean, okay. So top tips for me would definitely be getting back into your body. Again, Gemini who you know used to be in academia, I a thousand percent know how much you're in your own head. So it is about putting some effort and intention into getting back into your body. So one of the most game-changing concepts that ever came along to me was doing grounding meditations and literally just connecting your root to the center of the Earth and feeling supported by the Earth and feeling like you're connected to something much bigger and more solid than you.
I also - a 20 minute power nap is pretty crucial to my general operations. And it's the 20 minutes. You know, people are like, oh I can't nap or oh, I feel groggy afterwards. But truly, if you lay down, close your eyes, and set an alarm for 20 minutes. You may not even fall asleep. I mean I find I just get into.
Sometimes I definitely do fall asleep, but a lot of times it's just this kind of meditative state that as an ADHD Gemini maniac, I can't really get into with traditional meditation. I have a really hard time with traditional meditation. But I think if I call it a power nap, my body resists it a little bit less. And also dancing. Like, I know when I am just truly, you know, wound up over something whether that's something with work or even something with my wife or something with, you know, just life in general if I just had a decent dance session, you know in my kitchen while I'm cooking or something else. I feel like a different person after that. So yeah, and again I would go back to the scent thing. Just anything that gets you back into your body.
Mary Churchill: [00:26:53] I love the dancing. I dance in my kitchen too when I'm cooking dinner.
Erica Feldmann: [00:26:58] The other thing about dancing as witchcraft is that you know, people talk a lot about clearing spaces and everybody wants to burn sage and you know, unfortunately that is not the most ethical way. You know white sage is being over harvested.
It's also part of an indigenous ceremony and culture that you know would be you know would get in trouble and face legal troubles for burning sage and now, you know, it's totally okay for white people to do it. And so. We encourage other methods and at the store and we have sprays. And spells is a great one.
But dancing is the other one because really what you - I think a huge goal of, you know, any kind of new-age or witchcraft practice is to keep energy in motion. Really where I think people get stuck or spaces get stuck is when it's literally stuck when the energy is not moving and so, you know with meditation or with you know, any of these other methods to get energy moving is really important.
And so I think if you set that intention that I'm going to put on my favorite album and I'm just going to dance around my apartment that is going to get that energy moving and it really is going to clear any old or stuck energy out of the space. Bonus points if you can clap and dance at the same time. But you know, it's stuff like that, but it's free and you don't have to take anything from the earth and you don't have to, you know, risk setting off your smoke detectors. You know, just dance.
Meg Palladino: [00:28:36] Yeah, I'm not much of a dancer but I always go outside every day like I make a point, no matter what's going on to just take a walk or if I really can just go to find some woods or go to the beach.
Leanne Doherty: [00:28:48] I need people. I'm the biggest extrovert in the history of the world. I need people so the woods scare me like where are the people?
I think I think 2016 is a stepping point or moniker or pin point for all of us, but I have found my socializing has become more concentrated and intentional. That’s interesting for me because usually years before socializing was just part of everyday, you know for me and engagement in that way, but it's become more about who are you around?
Right? And like what's you know, I'll say it, what's the energy that's being
Erica Feldmann: [00:29:33] Wait. What energy are you bringing in? A hundred percent.
Leanne Doherty: [00:29:36] Yeah, and what are you tired afterwards? Right? Like I used to just allow that to happen and I think that that's been really interesting for someone like myself who's so engaged with people’s feelings then like I generally get, you know, the dead inside is a long-running joke.
I'm the opposite of that right, you know, right. I've really thought that the self-care for me is being around people. I actually am not tired after I'm with them and you know, my husband has done that his entire life. But yeah for me it's been, you know, really eye-opening about how that all plays out as a form of self-care, like who are you hanging out with?
Erica Feldmann: [00:30:15] Oh my gosh, one hundred percent and honestly one of my favorite products that I sell and that I totally push on everyone that comes in is called Boundaries in a Bottle and it's made by this amazing queer Jewish witch out in Western Mass named Dori Midnight and it just has all of these helpful plant and gem essences in it and I just spray it over myself as I'm putting on my jewelry in the morning or just right before I leave and again just even setting that intention of, okay, I have some protective boundaries around me is. I've used it every day for seven years. I literally don't leave the house without it. It's so important and yeah, that's exactly right. I mean just all of these different energies that are coming at us good, bad, or ugly. Like, you know, we believe even really like you still need to have boundaries around positive energy too if it's not yours.
So yeah, that's really really important.
Mary Churchill: [00:31:16] I like to call those pink meetings. Leanne. Like you know, I like to make sure I'm like if I look at my meetings and I'm like all these are all bad. These are all draining and I'm like, where's my pink meeting? Where's my good meeting? That's going to be the one that I'm like, I love these people I get so excited, I have so much fun with them.
Yeah. So too many of the bad meetings stacked one after the other can just suck the life out of you. Even if you're an extrovert right like. So, you know, it's interesting that you mentioned kind of getting into your body. So I've been - for the last year doing almost every day - yoga in the morning because it has really helped and I have a hard time with meditation too. It's a hard time sitting still but I love the idea of a power nap.
I can do that. That's easy. Well, this is wonderful. I'm going to wrap up now if there's anything else you want to say Erica before I wrap up.
Erica Feldmann: [00:32:11] No, I mean, you know come see us at HausWitch home and healing and Salem probably like wait unless you are like a Halloween super fan because it is wild right now.
But yeah and just I don't know think about all the ways that capitalist hetero cis patriarchy informs your daily routines and maybe push back against that. That's my, that's my big takeaway. I hope
Mary Churchill: [00:32:38] oh, I love that. So we've got a weekly assignment that we do at View from Venus.
And so this week in kind of honor of witches and Halloween we're asking folks to do something for themselves. So whether it's being in community, creating a space of comfort in their home or office or even meditating or taking a long walk or dancing while you cook, getting out in nature. And then, we're hoping that listeners share your story on Instagram Twitter or Facebook and tag us at UVenus and we’ll retweet, share in our story, and post on Facebook.
Meg Palladino: [00:33:12] And as always thanks for joining us and we'll be back next week with tips for how to raise your profile on campus.