In this episode of Spirit Box, I’m joined by psychic, teacher and ceremonial magician Raya Thorne to explore psychic ability, trauma, the subconscious and the difficult question of how we distinguish intuition from the workings of our own minds.Raya discovered her psychic abilities as a child. For years she suppressed these experiences because of the fear of being judged, before eventually beginning to explore them seriously during the lockdowns in New Zealand.We talk about how her abilities developed, the discovery that psychic experiences run through her family, and the different ways psychic information can present itself, through images, sounds, words, sensations and intuition.From there, we get into the relationship between psychic development and ceremonial magic, including Raya's work with spirit guides and the subconscious. We discuss why she believes psychic development isn't simply about learning to receive information, but about learning to observe and understand your own mind.We also explore trauma, the different parts of the mind, the fear of being seen, spiritual bypassing and the importance of discernment when seeking help. Raya explains why she is wary of practitioners offering magical quick fixes for psychological problems, and why anyone exploring psychic or spiritual practices needs to develop the ability to question their own experiences as well as embrace them.Along the way, we talk about my own experiences with psychic phenomena and magic, my family's relationship with these subjects, and why exploring the strange and uncomfortable parts of human experience can sometimes lead us towards a more authentic version of ourselves.It's a conversation about psychic ability, but also about the mind, trauma, magic, intuition and the uncomfortable process of figuring out what we're actually experiencing.Show notes:https://www.rayathorne.comhttps://www.instagram.com/rayathornehttps://www.youtube.com/@rayathorneKeep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason

In this episode I sit down with Aidan for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with a personal catch-up and somehow takes us into animism, anarchism, mutual aid, sustainability and the possibility of creating a very different kind of society. Now this was recorded a few month ago (I've had a lot of life admin!) so some of the work Aidan mentions is out of date but you can find his latest offerings on his Patreon, the links to which are in the show notes.Aidan talks about his forthcoming book, Spirit and Stone: Animism in the Old Lines, his trance courses and his recent work within the pagan and occult community. From there, we get into the bigger questions about where we are as a society — and where we might go from here.We talk about Aidan’s After the Fall project and the idea of imagining a future beyond what he describes as “empire”: a society based more on care, cooperation and shared resources, rather than accumulation, scarcity and authoritarian power.We explore animism and mutual aid, community gardens, food sharing and the informal networks that already exist around us. We ask whether cooperation might actually be more fundamental to human and ecological life than the competitive model we've been taught to accept.We also get into some difficult territory. Why do people continue defending systems they know aren't working? Why have we tied so much of our identity and self-worth to money, work and material success? And how do we respond to scarcity, polarisation and the concentration of power without simply reproducing the same structures we're trying to move beyond?For me, one of the most interesting parts of this conversation is the question of whether we can actually imagine something different and whether imagining it is the first step towards making it possible.From ancestral “old lines” and trance work to permaculture, mutual aid and alternative ways of organising society, this is a conversation about awakening, resilience and the long, often difficult process of creating change, one person, one community and one generation at a time.Show notes:https://www.patreon.com/cw/aidanwachterKeep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason