The Crystals and Beyond Podcast

THigh in the winter sky, at the point of the Bull's face, one star burns a deep orange-red — Aldebaran, the Eye of Taurus, one of the four Royal Stars of ancient Persia and the sky's great Star of Victory. In this episode we explore its lore and its Mars-natured fire: what "victory" really means in this tradition, which isn't conquest but the courage to rise to the thing in front of you — the promotion you must ask for, the contest you mean to win, the leap you've been holding back from. We talk about the felt quality of the star (a heavyweight ally at your back, a locomotive force hard to stop) and the condition the old tradition places on its gift: power aimed upward, at worthy aims, held with integrity, never pointed at a rival. The warrior-king star, for everyone with a thing to win and the courage it takes to reach for it.  The podcast has an accompanying blog post: Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull: The Warrior-King Star of Victory

Rising in your work — whatever your work is — comes down to three things: believing in yourself enough to do the work, being seen by the people who can lift you, and the door opening. We dig into the science of the first: self-belief predicts performance better than goal-setting (across 21,000+ people), while fantasizing about success drains the drive to earn it. Grounded belief joined to action, never idle wishing.  The podcast has an accompanying blog:Career Growth Spells: Rising in Your Work, Whatever Your Work Is

Protecting the job you have isn't one thing but four: steadying your own fear, shifting how decision-makers see you, turning timing your way, and shielding against anything aimed at you — strongest when used together. We dig into the science of the first front: the fear of job loss is itself a documented stressor, and it quietly undermines the very work that keeps you employed. The way out is a restored sense of footing — stay engaged, stay visible, and be the person they keep.  The podcast has an accompanying blog: Job Security Spells: Protecting the Job You Have

t's the best year of Seb's life — a full barn, a fine calf, money put by at last — and he can't enjoy a moment of it, because a man who has known the thin years knows that everything good can be taken. So he braces. In this episode we use the tale "The Good Year" to explore a genuinely surprising piece of psychology: the Contrast Avoidance Model, which found that chronic worriers worry on purpose — staying in a steady dread so that loss can never blindside them. The trouble is, it's a trade that never pays: you give away the good thing in advance to avoid losing it later, and so you never really have it at all. We talk about the quiet way out — Wyn's way — accepting that everything ends and choosing to have the good thing anyway, while it's still warm in your hands. A conversation about worry, presence, and the small, radical act of letting yourself be glad.
The podcast has an accompanying blog: The Good Year - A Tale from Crosshollow

You've planned everything but the one thing you can't control: the sky. In this warm, honest episode we talk about wedding weather spells — what they really are (a respectful request, not a command), why so many couples cast one, and the real reason it brings comfort. It isn't a promise of sunshine; it's the peace of having done everything in your power for a day that matters this much, so that whatever the weather brings, you meet it without regret. We talk about the gentle logic of it, the difference between wishing and earnestly asking, and the lovely old traditions couples do alongside. A reassuring conversation for anyone with an outdoor day they're hoping the heavens will bless. The podcast has an accompanying blog: Good Weather Spells for Wedding Days
 

Can a spell really change your luck — your timing, your odds, the outcome you can't control? In this episode we take the skeptic's question seriously and give the honest, three-part answer. We start where everyone agrees: pure wishing doesn't work — and the research shows it can even make things worse. Then we look at what genuinely does move an outcome, and the documented science behind it. Then we draw the honest line: what magic for luck and timing can't prove, and why we say so out loud — and why physics itself gives us reason to stay humble about a universe that keeps turning out stranger than we thought. It comes down to one distinction: the difference between wishing and earnest asking. A grounded, honest conversation about luck, effort, and the things we can't command.  The podcast has an accompanying blog: Can Magic Really Change Your Luck?

There's a man Liss won't speak to. There's a little girl whose dog has gone off by himself and won't come when she calls. And there's a baker who has watched the whole quiet business from behind her counter and said nothing. In this episode we sit with the Crosshollow tale "The Bakery" and the strange, ordinary thing at its heart: how a person can carry a wanting around for months without ever letting themselves name it — and what happens the moment they finally do. We talk about hiding inside vagueness to avoid choosing, about the difference between chasing a thing and leaving the door open for it, and about the quiet way the world seems to turn toward a person who has truly made up their mind. It is the same idea our companion piece takes up plainly — that a focused intention reaches into the world and moves it — here wearing the face of a woman, a bakery, and a single clear want.  The Podcast has an accompanying blog:  The Bakery

Almost everyone gets magic wrong in one of two ways: they think it's make-believe, or they think it's some far-off supernatural force with nothing to do with them. In this episode we take the question seriously — what is magic, really? — and find an answer that's stranger and more grounded than either. Magic, it turns out, is the meeting of two real things: the inner world of a person, and the real forces of the world that inner world can reach. We talk about the documented science of how belief and ritual change us, the honest place where that science runs out, and the line that divides white magic from black — which is not the power, but the intent. A conversation about what magic is, where it's real, and why the hand that holds it matters. The podcast has an accompanying blog post:  What is Magic? And What Makes it White?