by Andi Grace
The untortured, unshamed body is of little use to capitalism.
If my body is never threatened or shamed it will be difficult to get me to work for sub-poverty wages. It will be difficult to get me to sign over my property. It will be difficult to get me to put your family before my own.
What does shame require to stay alive?
What is the antidote to shame?
What is my value as a subjugated body?
What might my value be as an empowered body?
What do I value?”
– from “We Were Witches” by Ariel Gore
Recently I raised the price of all my magical offerings.
In making this choice I’ve felt deeply emotionally and politically conflicted.
I’ve felt bounced back and forth between the values of my blood family (who often don’t see my work as valid) and the values of my community (bad-ass activists, fierce femmes and queer magical creatures) who highly value accessibility.
In the worst moments I felt like I was failing in the eyes of both groups. I earnestly wondered where I would turn to for safety and acceptance.
In short: I’ve felt triggered as fuck.
And I know I’m not alone.
I know countless witches, healers and artists who are reflecting on the worth of our skills.
We see hunger for the skills we offer and we see our kin struggling under the undeniable weight of oppression.
We know our work supports the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the communities we belong to.
We know everyone deserves to heal and we also know we can’t continue doing the work we love, with the people we love, unless we learn how to get paid well for what we do.
We know that if we don’t figure out this balance we will simply burn out and not be able to offer our genius or care to anyone.
So I’m sharing my process with you.
This is what I’ve learned from reflecting on my worth, and the value of magical labour.
1. I’m responsible for honouring the value of my emotional and magical labour.
Just like I teach in my online class “Hawthorn heart – boundary skills and protection magic for fierce femme witches”: I am accountable to myself for upholding the boundaries I need to feel well and nourished.
My new boundaries, reflected in my raised prices, allow my work to be charged with abundance, bravery and self love, rather than obligation, guilt and scarcity.
I care deeply about accessibility and solidarity and I believe there are healthier ways to create access to my work than giving my genuis away for less than it’s worth.
I don’t want the price of my work to be rooted in scarcity because unlearning scarcity is one of the main goals of my work.
And what kind of teacher would I be if I didn’t live what I teach?
2. It’s not just my labour that deserves to be valued, it’s all magical and healing labour.
When I charge lower prices I’m demonstrating poor solidarity towards other magical healers and creators because I am undervaluing our wisdom.
Prior to this shift I was charging vastly below the industry standard for my offerings. I wasn’t genuinely honouring my own needs and I was contributing to a standard of care and value that was based in scarcity.
Capitalism is a fucked up system that is degrading in so many ways.
And the reality is: capitalism is the system we live in.
We are working to create something new but it’s misguided to think that living in ways that don’t acknowledge our true needs will end or undermine capitalism.
What I know for sure is this: witches deserve to cultivate financial abundance and meet our needs without shame.
When I ask for more we can all ask for more: and we fucking deserve it.
3. Witches are powerful beyond measure. We don’t need to live in scarcity to honour each other.
Witches of all walks of life have fantastic manifestation powers.
When we want to do something we find a way to make it happen. It’s part of our resilience and our magic to go after our dreams and heal ourselves in creative and interconnected ways.
Witches who choose to work with me feel the fire in our bones to transform our trauma into bad-ass boundaries and bold creative expression. If you feel called to work with me I trust there is a way to make it happen.
I have faith in our capacity to call in abundance and my new prices reflect my faith in our abundance.
I trust that we can hustle in whatever ways we hustle.
I trust that we can manifest what we need to take care of our witch-selves and our magical healers.
I trust that if we can’t come up with the money we need on our own we can ask for help and our communities will support us.
I trust that asking for more benefits everyone, not just me.
4. When we support one witch, we support all witches and whole communities.
When my needs are met I give generously to community.
This is true of all the witch healers I know.
We take our loved ones out for meals. We pay each other’s bills. We give each other herbs and cast spells and keep each other in our prayers.
We donate to people we’ve never met who are in need.
We give in solidarity to qtbipoc folks, indigenous land defenders and those fighting for disability justice because we know our liberation is wrapped up in theirs.
When I know my rent is covered I’m much more likely to pay for the artistic and healing work of other witches. I gift generously to my loved ones and I spend more one-on-one time with all my creature and spirit kin.
In short: my magic is more potent when I’m not funneling all my energy into basic survival.
Magical and emotional labour is the back-bone of the communities we are nestled in.
When you support the witches you love our health and wellness ripples out to support whole communities and this creates greater abundance and healing for everyone.
5. Higher price points encourage deeper engagement from the people receiving our skills, which leads to more life changing results from the work.
The witches who engage with the healing, magical and creative process I lay out in Hawthorn heart learn skills to transform our trauma into boundaries that make all our relationships healthier and more nourishing.
We connect with our voices, our truth, our ancestors, our magic and vibrant femme magical community.
The key ingredient that allows the work to take root in our lives is whether we value the work and choose to show up for it.
When we pay more for healing services we pause and think deeply about whether we are ready to make this kind of commitment to our healing.
I believe in creating price points that are accessible to community, but I also want you to stop and think before sign up for my offerings.
Ask yourself: am I ready to commit to this healing process?
I don’t just want my lovingly crafted work to land in your inbox for you to not read it. I want you to engage! I’m handing you a piece of my heart anytime you receive an offering from me. I want you to hold it in your hands and integrate my love into your magic.
There is an alchemy when we heal together and I want you to feel ready to show up for that magic.
Because believe me witch: healing is possible.
And I believe you in. I believe in all of us.
I really fucking do.
P.S.: I credit much of the shadow work I’ve done on my relationship to money, to skills I learned from Carolyn Elliott’s bomb-ass business course for online witches: THRILL. I also have a stripper inspired Jupiter altar with cards from the Slutist Tarot that I work with to call in money. I learned how to work with Jupiter in Carolyn’s class on practical magic: INFLUENCE. And I also work with Cognac and Conjure’s 24K money drawing oil.
IN CONCLUSION
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