Victoria Raschke 0:00 [Ambient music plays] Welcome to WitchLit a place to talk about the craft of writing and writing the craft. I'm your host, Victoria Raschke, author, publisher, witch, and nosy Scorpio. You can support WitchLit and the serious book habit it requires at kofi.com/witchlitpodcast, and you can be part of the show by sending in your own death, sex, religion, politics, money questions for our guests to Victoria@witchlitpod.com. If you like what we're doing here, please subscribe and give us a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts. It really does help other witches find the show. Here's to never getting to the bottom of our to be read piles. Aliza Einhorn is an astrologer, astrology blogger, poet with an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop, tarot reader, tarot teacher, and student studying psychoanalysis. She's the author of two books, The Little Book of Saturn from Weiser and A Mystical Practical Guide to Magic: Instructions for seekers, witches and other spiritual misfits from Llewellyn. She recently finished her third book, a memoir and is agent hunting. Aliza makes her home in Brooklyn and is on the verge of getting a dog. Aliza Einhorn, welcome to WitchLit. Aliza Einhorn 1:22 Hi, Victoria, thank you. [crosstalk] I think that's the first time we've had that long bio. Victoria Raschke 1:27 I was gonna say these are so Hudson would laugh, I read their bio is great. Aliza Einhorn 1:34 writing bios is weird. Victoria Raschke 1:36 It is weird. And I hate it. I'd rather write a book. So our first question for everyone on the show is, you know, in this age of social media and video Tiktoks And all that why still write books? Why write? Aliza Einhorn 1:50 Oh, man, what, that is? That question is very meaningful to me. I think it's essential. It's more important than ever. And now, if you watch the news at all, or you see the news on your phone, there's all these scary articles about AI. You know, whether it's good or bad and what it means. Well, I think writers we can't not write we have to write. So the rest of it actually doesn't really matter. If you're a writer, if you're a real writer, you're gonna write with an audience without an audience, success, publishing, whatever that means to any particular person, you're, you're still going to do it, you can't not do it. But I do think it's bigger than that. That we can't, and I was gonna say, Have we already? Have we already devolved into a world of like, you mentioned TikTok. Reels, Reels and tweets. I'm not sure maybe there's room for everything. I don't I don't know the numbers on this. But small publishing independent presses. They're, they're flourishing, aren't they? And I? Maybe Maybe there's room for it all. But it it terrifies me to think that writers would stop writing and also that writers that that books would be just books of tweets or books of glorified blog posts, rather than I'm trying to think of a non-condescending word. Yeah, it will just I think more thought about and I don't know. Yeah. Organized or more organized. Maybe. Like, when we were before, before we started before you started recording. INow I forgot what I was gonna say, Oh, you were you were saying something about my, my magic book. And how it was I forget the words you used, it was woven together or thread through or something and I was saying to you, I did that on purpose. Like whatever you see, there was not. I mean, of course, inspiration happens. But it was thought through, it was planned, like storyboard kind of planning. There's nothing accidental except for grammar errors. In that book, it's completely I have a Virgo moon I have a lot of Virgo in my chart. It's very organized very thought out. So it made it made me happy that you noticed it. Victoria Raschke 5:08 Yeah. And for listeners who haven't read your book yet, and I hope they will go read it because it is lovely. There, it is a book on what I would think is like kind of a practical approach to magic with this mystical underpinning of tarot, and astrology that's woven through all sections of the book. It's not just here's my section on Tarot. Here's my section on astrology and then we move on to the next thing it's like you set up those two like underpinnings for all of the work in the book and then use them throughout and I think I said it's like a tapestry Yeah, yeah, I it really shows and I'm not surprised to find out that you have a lot of Virgo energy my partner and my son and I both Virgos and I'm steeped in it all the time although I love me some Virgos. Aliza Einhorn 6:02 always say hashtag too much Virgo. Yeah, I've got reminds me I have a client with Virgo just just a Virgo rising and she always says to me like she wishes she had more. She wants more Virgo placements kind of. Victoria Raschke 6:19 I admire the I don't it's not even like single mindedness of Virgos because they're not quite. They're not stubborn in the way I think of like Taurus people, because I have Taurus rising and I can be stubborn. [Yeah, we're not. They're not like you.] Yeah, they're much more. They're much more methodical. And like, everything is kind of based on reason. And if you approach them with like, well, this is why I think your reasoning is flawed and give them an actual reason. They will be like, oh, yeah, you're right. I mean, they will readjust. Taureans I think just like bulldoze through on their opinion. Unknown Speaker 7:00 Yeah, Taurus puts their foot down. And that's it. [Yeah.] There was a time. i Sorry, I'm gonna go ahead. I was just gonna say I had this Taurus friend, she was a mega mega Taurus. And whenever I had to, say, call the phone company to argue about a charge, you know, some kind of uncomfortable, miserable phone call. I would ask her to do it. Because she would just be this impenetrable wall who would not take no for an answer, and would just sit and she did it for me. She would just sit there on the phone like, no, let me talk to someone else. And just and be a wall. Yeah. Virgos not the same kind of wall. Victoria Raschke 7:39 Yeah. Yeah. If you give them a good reason, they'll back down. But if they know they're right, and they have facts to back it up, they're not gonna back down. which I appreciate. Yeah, because my husband is the person who does the make all the phone calls, uncomfortable phone calls for services and stuff. Because he's like that. He's like, no, no, no, here's all the reasons. So yeah, I appreciate that. Aliza Einhorn 8:05 And you know what, it's not a reasonable world. That's where Virgos get mean, again, I'm not a Virgo sun, but I, I'm, I'm, I'm on their team. But it's not a reasonable world. So we get disappointed, or we get we get frustrated. Because we, because we are reasonable. And then we're faced with The World, which is something else. Victoria Raschke 8:32 No, I was talking to my son yesterday on the phone, and I can't even remember what we were discussing. That was something like I was like, but and gave all these reasons for whatever we were talking about was insane to me. And he was like, Mom, you're bringing logic to a stupid fight? Yep, yep. Yep. Yeah, no. But yeah, on on the [unclear] I suspect you and I will be tempted until a lot. But I feel Aliza Einhorn 9:01 it already. I feel my brain going in these because your water sign on the waters. I feel it already. I feel though. Victoria Raschke 9:07 We're Yes, free. Exactly. But I do like because you've published two books already. That, yeah, probably, I'm guessing did not immediately come out of doing an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop. So you published Unknown Speaker 9:26 Decades in between. Victoria Raschke 9:29 Yeah. So what did that what did your arc of being published look like? Unknown Speaker 9:33 Oh, my God. Yeah. So I got that degree when I was really young. So I'm a I'm a, I'm a couple years older than you. I'm not going to reveal the number on your show Victoria Raschke 9:44 I have revealed the number on the show, so people will be able to guess. Aliza Einhorn 9:47 Alright, so maybe they aren't. They're not thinking about it. So I'm, I'm a little I'm a smidge older than than you are. And I got my MFA in poetry in my early 20s. So that was really long. Long time ago, Victoria Raschke 10:00 I've been in Iowa with friends of mine that I went to undergrad with. Yeah, because i had several undergrad friends go to Iowa. Yeah, we'll have to chat about that later. Okay. Aliza Einhorn 10:10 Yeah, we can. I'm curious now. But I, I was a frustrated poet. Later on in my 30s, a frustrated playwright, always trying, you know, trying to, and I did, I had some I had some poems published in journals. It was my entire identity. It was my entire world. I had no skills. You know, I like I was just a poet. I was just a trying to figure out what that was pre social media. And this is a long time ago, though. I mean, there were no cell phones. We're not when I got my MFA there were there were no, I think they were word processors. My mother had bought me this typewriter that was a little different than an electric typewriter. Like it had some other special feature to it, you know, it's a completely different world. Anyway, so I was trying to figure out how to do that. And I kept trying, I'm leaving details out of my life story for you for the sake of brevity, and to keep the audience from the listeners from falling asleep. So fast forward, I'm in my early 30s, I'm living in New York, I'm still, I'm still a frustrated poet, less frustrated playwright, actually, I had more success with that, with getting my work out there. But then I fell in love with astrology. And that was this turning point. And I thought, You know what, forget about this. I'm not going to write anything. And this was when blogs were new, like blogs were the thing. There were some astrologers on YouTube, but not that many. Instagram didn't exist yet. For sure, TikTok didn't exist. Social media was a different place, then. And I made this decision. Alright, I'm not going to bang my head against the wall anymore. I made the crazy decision to become an astrologer. And I thought, I'm only going to write my blog. That's it. I'm quitting this other stuff, because it's just not it's too frustrating. But I, I loved astrology so much. Like committed to it. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. And then, but then it was still years later before I did the Saturn book. Many years later? Victoria Raschke 12:30 What prompted it? Aliza Einhorn 12:32 So I was fairly, I'm less active on Facebook. Now, I was fairly active on on Facebook and I would post weekly forecasts or just thoughts, you know, if there are big astrological events, basically blog posts, public blog posts on my Facebook, and I had actually followed Judika Illes, who's quite famous. In the writing world, witchcraft, world, I had followed her I think in 2014, just because I was a fan. It's like, oh, this this lady is cool. So I had followed her and then in 20, was it 2016 Out of the blue, I must and I must have been liking her posts. So I showed up in her she, she's an Aquarius rising. She's got a lot of friends on Facebook, but somehow posts of mine had showed up in her feed. And I think it was in 2016 Out of nowhere, she sent me this message, which said Aliza, do you write and you know, the heavens open that it was just like this. Oh, my god you to get it was wrote me. And she just wrote me asking if I write and I, you know, it's like, oh, shit, what is? So that was the beginning because they were looking for. I think they abandoned that plan. But they were going to do a series of astrology books, you know, little book of such and such planet. And she said, what we talked about or said, Pick a planet write a proposal. And maybe, maybe you'll write a book for us. So it was just out of the blue like that. [Wow.] And I remember it was around the Eclipse time, because it was an eclipse post. So she just and that was her job to was to look you know, acquisitions editor to go around looking for Victoria Raschke 14:22 Yeah, I mean is I don't know I think you know, a lot of us you can I did my I did an MA in poetry. And I do think that there is a lot of this frustrated poet. I mean, when you're talking about just being a poet, I'm saying so my boyfriend Unknown Speaker 14:42 I couldn't get a book out. It's just I would enter contests and they would sometimes get good feedback. There was one like really nice reject you know, nice rejections you pay for your wall with nice rejections so then I just quit after why, like just I couldn't. I couldn't take it anymore. Victoria Raschke 14:59 Yeah. Yeah, and I just I don't know, there was like a disillusionment too. I think because of that for me. I believe there was a disillusionment for me and I was like, I can't do this. My boyfriend at the time when I finished my undergraduate degree in creative writing, as a graduation present made me business cards that said Unemployed poet poet on them. Yeah, I was like, yeah, that's kind of true. And I had a kid. So like, I had to figure out how to feed us. Yeah. And so yeah, I just kind of got disillusioned and then honestly, I didn't write anything but blogs for like, 20 years. Aliza Einhorn 15:32 So oh, so we had a similar path, then. Yep. You know, I needed a yes. I needed a yes. From the universe. Like I got more of a yes. With my plays much more of a yes. And I didn't know if I was gonna get a yes doing astrology work, but I did. And then it was also money, like, it wasn't in clients would find me because they liked my writing. They would read my blog, and they were attracted to that. And sometimes you just need a Yes. And you need to know when to I'm gonna say to quit, but to do to do whatever you're doing a little differently. Victoria Raschke 16:11 Yeah. Redirect, redirect. Yeah. [Yeah.] Yeah, I do think it's really easy to go down that sunk cost fallacy. I instead of playwriting, I went to culinary school like an idiot. And like, just burns. [Why do you say that?] Like, that's not a great way to make money. Make money. But I loved it when I was doing it. But it just like burnt my body out. It's just it's a rough. It's a rough game. And it's hard on you. So yeah, it was like, I can't, I can't do this forever. So. And then writing came back and just like my son graduated from high school. And then I got this little like, interior knock on the doors like, Hey, did you forget? Aliza Einhorn 16:59 We can't not write I mean, I'm still thinking about your first question. Writers we that's that's how you know, Oh, yeah. I think you can't not write even if it's painful, even if it's crushing you, you have to do it. Victoria Raschke 17:13 Yeah, I just changed. I just decided I wasn't a poet anymore. And now I write, you know, contemporary fantasy novels. Yeah, it was just, you know, just to change up. I think you're right. I think that. I don't know, it's, it's so hard. Because there is this sunk cost fallacy of like, I went to graduate school for this, this is who I like, he said, this was my, this was my identity as a person as a poet. And then you're like, maybe that's not who I am. Maybe. [I bet it shows up in your writing.] So I've had, I've had people say that. And I appreciate it. Because I'm like, well, at least it wasn't for naught. Aliza Einhorn 17:54 And suddenly, I'm, I feel like I'm mothering you. I apologize. Because I'm talking about to like, nurture you like, well, it wasn't for nothing. Like you had an experience it probably formed. For sure. It formed you in ways then, and now. Victoria Raschke 18:16 Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely. I mean, in in the work itself, and in the people and experiences I had, I mean, I, one of the main things that came out of this and you may have something like this too, in your experience in grad school. In undergrad, I actually went to Slovenia, with a group of writers and, like, that experience. And then I went back and did a year abroad in Slovenia. And, and now my books are set in Slovenia. Like, I have lifelong dear friends and like this, like part of my, you know, heart is always there. And, you know, yeah, it's just, I mean, that, I think changed and shaped me a lot as a person. And that was as much about the writing as it was about the experience. Yeah, so I'm guessing you are a person that introduces yourself as a double barrel person. Is that your your [double double barre?], your double barrel person, you're a you're a writer, and you're an astrologer, or a tarot reader. That is, Aliza Einhorn 19:26 I never know, how Victoria Raschke 19:28 do you separate them out? Aliza Einhorn 19:29 I never know how to like depends who like who you mean, I never. I never know how to. Now I'm thinking like, is there ever cause for me to introduce myself? You know, these these days, like if I just met, I don't know, just some random person. I probably would say I was a student because that's easy for people to grasp. I'm a student. I'm older. I'm a non traditional student. I've gone back to school, but I probably, I probably would say I'm an astrologer, and a writer or astrologer and an author, I don't tend to specify the Tarot part. Although Tarot is in everything I do, it's it's just like in the book, it's completely integrated. And in a way I think I want to say it's surpassed astrology, but when I when I do a reading I they're, it's both. I do them both and there's I think you'd get to a point if you're deep in with astrology or Tarot you start to think in it and then it's like I don't have an arm you know, it's a it's a Tarot, tarot machine. I don't have a hand. It's it's a tool to hold a deck of cards. It's such a part of me. Victoria Raschke 20:58 Yeah. [And I think that's one of the thinking it.] Yeah, it's one of the ways I love in the book that it's a different the way I think you approached her when the book is different than the way like when I was getting to learn tarot, there was all these like, big elaborate spreads. And you had to learn like, not only with the card meant, but with that position in the spread and all this. And I like this approach of like, asking a question, and we're turning a card over to get an answer. Like that is like this much more. And that's much more how I used tarot now but initially. And it was like all about that Celtic cross spread and what it meant and you know that now I'm like, that's, that's a lot of work. Like, I just want Aliza Einhorn 21:42 [crosstalk] to do those now. Yeah, I fell, I fell in love with that spread kind of late. I was a little. Now I enjoy working with it. And with my students giving them I want them to create their own spreads. But yeah, I do tend i There is a part of me, maybe that's the Virgo side that thinks of the deck as a, like, it's a book, you can open for an answer. I mean, it's really your intuition. You're really tapping into a stream, whether you call it the Akashic records, or the collective unconscious, there's a stream, and you can float along that stream and you can get your answers and you, you open the book, you open the book of cards. And you, you might only need one, one card, or two. I tried to strip it down for people. I mean, that's how I do it. But I think I think it takes some of the the mystique away, like it leaves, the mysticism is still there. The mysticism, or the mystery is still there. But it takes away the like thinking that you need anything other than yourself. Like you don't, you don't need any education. You don't even need a Tarot book, you can you can know nothing and just be responding to the images. Victoria Raschke 23:04 Yeah, I mean, I've always kind of had because I've had people I mean, I don't do readings for people very often, I mostly just use them for myself, but I have done some public reading, you know, like for charity kind of stuff. I'll do that. Or friends will ask occasionally. And I'll do it. But the thing that people always ask in those settings is, well, is this you know, is this magic? Do you believe this is like? Are we talking to spirits or whatever. And I was like, you know, I'm like, I am a skeptic at heart. But I still believe in, you know, something that I can't explain or understand. And I said, I don't know that it matters. To me if [that's a good answer,] or it's or if we're talking about you said, if you're tapping into the collective unconscious, or whatever I said, you could just be having a conversation with yourself, and you're finding out things you couldn't get to without some exterior prompt. So which is kind of the same thing Aliza Einhorn 23:56 [crosstalk] I could see that like, that's, that's one way to read. But then there is this, then there is the other way, which is the stream. Yeah. I mean, I call it the stream. Because say like, if you if you're the kind of person who gets readings from different people, and they're telling you the same or similar things, it's because they you know, they're, they've just they've tapped in and they and I'm talking about predictive things. And they're seeing, I tend to believe in fate more than freewill. And we have this sort of like little bit of wiggle room, which I don't I don't think it's a particularly fashionable viewpoint. Victoria Raschke 24:35 Seems like it's more fashionable these days. Maybe it's just who I'm talking to. Aliza Einhorn 24:42 I'm not in the loop. So so much, but at least there was a time where people are very into free. We have thinking thinking they have more control than than they do. Yeah. Which is so Victoria Raschke 24:57 I don't know I think I hold both the things in my head at the same time. I think some things are just bound to happen. And then I'm also like, chaos theory is a thing that you know, every every decision we make changes the path we're on, like whether or not to get up at a certain time or whatever. So I think they overlap a little bit. I like the Doctor Who approach is there, there are some things that have to happen in time. They're a set point in time, and then things can kind of wiggle around between those things that have to happen. Aliza Einhorn 25:26 And that's true. I think that's true. Victoria Raschke 25:30 Yeah, Doctor Who as a life philosophy. No. Aliza Einhorn 25:34 I never watched it. I never I never. I mean, I know I know, of the show. But I know, Victoria Raschke 25:39 I watched from, you know, early years, it's Tom Baker on PBS when it was the only channel we could get in our tiny little town. So. Yeah, it's um, yeah, I think I love that approach. And I do think it's interesting for people who who do get readings for other people to go to different to different folks and get get multiple insight. I mean, I've had readings, I thought were really good. And then I've had some, like meh or whatever. But there's a couple that came to me. And I'm like, oh, yeah, he was 100%. Right. And I didn't listen, you know, like those kinds of things do stay with you. So you have these multiple threads that you're weaving your tapestry with now as a writer, and Astrologer and Tarot reader and teacher, and a student of psychoanalysis, and I can't help but feel that became a student of psychoanalysis might have come out of those things. Aliza Einhorn 26:41 Seen it? That's what when I was enrolling when I was I was just starting some a couple people associated with the school had said similar things like to them it made sense. Like it was a natural outgrowth. But I didn't make the connection. Now. Now I do. Now that I know more now that I've had a miss just one semester, we're starting spring semester, in a couple of weeks. But before I knew anything about it, I thought they were completely different. I mean, other than I talked to people, for a living now, doing readings, and if I finished the training, get licensed and become an analyst, and I would continue to talk to people for a living. But I didn't, I didn't see what they saw until I knew more. Because you know, what's funny is this work that I do now, it is all about the intuition, which I try to teach in the book. You know, tarot can make you psychic, you just have to practice, you just have to be very practical, and you're going to grow that muscle. And it's not so mysterious. It's just, it's, it's practical. And to me, that's normal in our world, like our world of astrologers, and card readers and witches and all that, you know, it's sort of like, oh, yeah, intuition. No, kind of no big deal. Even though there's this. There's a variation, you know, whose intuition is really spot on reliably, and, and then there's people where, you know, they're, it's not their thing. But it's, you know, what I'm saying? Like, it's still just, oh, yeah, intuition, no big deal. But when I started, I wish I could remember exactly, but I got the feeling from just listening to conversations among students or others associated with the school like this, like intuitive like yes, intuition. Like it wasn't. I think for us, it becomes more commonplace or every day. And for them, it's more special or like a little bit. You know, intuition is not evidence based, not that they talk about things being evidence based so much, but it we don't, we don't usually talk of mental health professions and the importance of intuition, you know, here were these people saying, Oh, yes, intuition, we need to bring that in, or I forget, and I'm thinking, that's what I do. Every single day, and you're telling me that's valuable to you guys, too? Okay, I guess I'm in the right place. But I've already what I've already been doing. Victoria Raschke 29:21 Yeah. So do you feel like now that you've kind of had that realization that there is that connection? Is that? Has that changed? Like how you looking at psychoanalysis or is it changed how you look at your work with astrology and tarot or is it just kind of now? A piece? Aliza Einhorn 29:38 I think I don't know what it means yet. Yeah, it's a piece it was. It was a nice piece to discover. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how it I don't know how it fits in yet. Because you know, I'm so new. I just I keep saying I don't know anything about this. I just had two classes and I'm learning and I just I had it was a preconceived notion I, I didn't think that they thought intuition played a part or that it even did, you know, I was thinking, analysis, the Virgo part. And then to find out that it's and also there's different orientations or, you know, schools within psychoanalysis today? So some may talk about that more than others or might come into the, the conversation. I mean, I think if, if you're going to talk about emotion, intuition is not that far behind. But, you know, I don't, I don't know how it all fits in yet. And I often joke or not really joke that, you know, I don't know if I'll live to finish. It's a long program. It's really long, really, like, if I, I always say, if, if, if, if I stick with this, this is the rest of my life. This is the path of the rest of my life no matter what else I do. [Yeah] so I don't, I don't know yet. Victoria Raschke 31:06 So we'll have to keep having this conversation a couple years now. Aliza Einhorn 31:12 All the questions that you're asking are still in my brain, like I'm still thinking about first one about writers. And now this one, they're all, They're all on the stove. They're all simmering. Victoria Raschke 31:23 Well, and I do think that is it's like part. I mean, I don't, I have had encountered people who think writers are magical unicorns. I don't think we are magical unicorns. I think that we just have a different [Wait a minute. Wait, wait] I think we have a different perspective. I don't think that they mean, what I mean by that the person who has like, Oh, I could never do that. Or that's just like, [maybe] like weird, like these weird anomaly people in the stream of people they've encountered in their life. And I'm like, I guess because I've known so many writers and realized that we are all very different, you know, people always like, Oh, the brooding writer in their garrett, we already know. And I'm like, you know, yeah, but I have writer friends who are like the most outgoing, extroverted people I know, among writer friends. So it's like, there's not like a type in the people I know who are writers. But I do think that there is a perspective, that when you when you become a writer, or when you are a writer, however you look at it, because I've had people argue for both sides of that, that you just tend to then look at the world differently. You look at the world differently. You're either trying to find the thread or the story, or something sparks your imagination. And, and I think that other artists have that same experience. Ours we just do with words instead of paint or a camera or whatever. But But yeah, I do think that it's hard. The older I've gotten, and looked at things that way, to not eventually realize that all of these things I kept in separate buckets, you know, my writing, my witchcraft, my spirituality, because somehow I managed to separate witchcraft and spirituality. I don't know how I did that. And, you know, my relationships, everything's in a separate bucket. And then at some point in my 30s, I just realized, Oh, that is not working. It's not, it's, it's all, you know, it all weaves together and comes together. And I think the older I've gotten, the more that's been true for me is that it's like the things I tried so desperately to keep separate. I was like, oh, no, it's all connected. You can't keep the it's it's a tapestry. It's, it's not, you know, like, plumbing. Aliza Einhorn 33:43 Yeah, yeah, it's all of a piece. It can make it hard to market then. Or to write a bio. Yeah, because of that. Yeah. Like I never I could never I. Yeah. I just because I, I could never figure out how to describe what I do. Like on my website, you know, specifically, and then I figured it out last year. But it took me a decade to find some words that made sense to me that were accurate. [Yeah.] It because of all the threads. Victoria Raschke 34:20 Because I have that same question when people ask me what I do. And I've gotten better about just saying I'm a writer, because it even though it's something that people don't always know what to do with, it's, it's an easy thing to say. Because like, I'm a writer, I have a little publishing business with my husband, you know, I do a podcast I, you know, also do you know, this weird embroidery thing on the side. And then I do like, I have a day job, a little tiny day job, but I still have a day job where I work in data for nonprofits. So like, you know, I am all of these things, but what I've decided is all of those feed the writing And that's the easiest way to introduce myself is I'm a writer. Aliza Einhorn 35:04 So you don't even say writer and podcaster? Victoria Raschke 35:06 Not usually because, oh, you have a podcast, and then I tell them what it is. And they just stare into space at me. So, yeah, and honestly, I'm such a hermit these days. I don't meet that many new people after that, than through the podcast. I appreciate that people are going about their world, but I'm really desperately trying not to get COVID. So I'm still pretty, pretty much a hermit. Aliza Einhorn 35:34 So you haven't had it? Victoria Raschke 35:35 I have not, and unfortunately, oh, wow, my son had it and has long COVID. And that made me even more paranoid. Oh, yeah. So I've just been really trying to avoid it. So I mean, we do stuff we, you know, we, I go to museums, we go on hikes, we do stuff or not really, my husband is not a hiker, we go on walks, I will say. But I don't really encounter a lot of new people. Because I'm not really putting myself in positions where that happens very often. Which is one of the things I enjoy about the podcast because I do get to meet new people. Aliza Einhorn 36:12 Yeah, and you don't have to. We don't have to leave our houses. Victoria Raschke 36:15 No, no. Then I can talk to anybody in the world, which is kind of amazing. I mean, I think about we were talking about when you went to grad school. Yeah. When I was in grad school, like, I did weirdly have a cell phone. I had a bag phone in my car. Because I was commuting almost an hour to grad school and my son was a baby and my mom wanted to be able to call me. I had a bag phone in the car, like a weird, you know, 70s Detective or something. So Aliza Einhorn 36:43 I vaguely remember my mother having some kind of I don't even know what year this is some kind of phone in the car, but I don't I don't remember what she called it. Or anything about except that was big. Victoria Raschke 36:58 Yeah, it was it was like the size of like a desk phone in office now but it was just like a zippered bag with a big antenna and Aliza Einhorn 37:06 plug it into the ash. Not the ashtray. The the lighter. Victoria Raschke 37:10 Yeah, yeah. plugged it into the lighter for power. Aliza Einhorn 37:13 Okay, so my mom had one of those. Yeah, we should just call Victoria Raschke 37:16 him I think about now, you know, it's like, because I have my phone is basically palmtop computer. Back in the day, it was this, you know, you could make calls on it. And it was the size of you know, your MacBook? Yeah, in your car. So yeah, it's crazy to think about. Yeah, things have changed a lot. And it's just, it's weird to think about, like, how that I think it's interesting to me as a writer to to think about technology. Like it? I don't, I think it shows up in poetry, too. But it really shows in fiction, this idea of, like, how many novels from before the time of cellphones could the plot basically be solved in the first 10 pages if someone who had a cell phone? And then how do you change that, you know, in a, in a world where we're connected all the time, you know, how do you how do you tell those kinds of stories? So, Aliza Einhorn 38:12 you know, I think there's going to be a movement, I keep predicting it. A movement of, of people who back away from the tech, as the tap gets more and more and more, whatever, it's going to become more AI-ish, or whatever's whatever's in store for us. And I think that's where I'm gonna be, I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'll still have my cell phone, but I'm going to be one of those people that doesn't. I don't, I've never even used TikTok. And then sometimes I think, Oh, I really need TikTok for this. Usually, it's a complaint though, if I want to complain about a or or the government like, gee, maybe I should, but I never think of it for what I what? I don't know. Yeah, I might have to embrace it at some point. But there's a lot of resistance in me with that. Victoria Raschke 39:08 Yeah. And I think as you know, in this world of, you know, writers that basically have to be their own marketers, because that's how it is now, it's not like the old days where you would get plane tickets to your book tour. And it's just a very different world. And like, I have a incognito, catch only, as my friend says, TikTok account which I have deleted from my phone. I just it's it's a time suck. And I I don't I didn't feel like I was getting enough useful things out of it to add that to what already existed Aliza Einhorn 39:48 Your daily life. [Yeah] it's not like other people's lives. [Yeah.] It's like, why I'll feel if I'm just on, you know, some other platform and I'm, I'm doing that scroll. looking and then also I'm like, Why? Why am I looking? As I said in the bio, I'm thinking about getting a dog, right? But but other people's German Shepherds, how many reels can a person watch it just? Yeah, get the dog don't get the dog, but stop watching people with their dogs. Victoria Raschke 40:24 I mean, I have a cat and I still watch reels of other people's cats. So yeah, it's, I mean, it is like, it's a time suck. And I just kind of realized, I think probably for Christmas. This past year, we had gone to see my son. And we came back. And I was just like, I had been on the plane. And like, I had this great plan to get so much work done. And then I wound up just kind of like not doing anything productive on this, like, you know, five and a half hour flight. And Aliza Einhorn 40:53 the brain is hungry. Oh, sorry. Victoria Raschke 40:55 Yeah, no, I was talking over you. I don't know. Well, I mean, it's, you know, it's Aliza Einhorn 41:01 the brain, the brain is hungry, the brain is hungry, I realized this with the school break. I mean, I was I was still reading, during the break. papers that I didn't, I didn't get a chance to finish or other psychoanalytic stuff. But I was scrolling more. And I and then when the new syllabi came out, and I started choosing my classes and, and I realized it, it's the same thing. Like my brain is it wants it wants it wants. So okay, let me, let me really give it some food instead of this. [Snacks]What it is exactly, yeah, it's not even. It's not even that good. It's, it's not even good snacks. Victoria Raschke 41:45 Like, straight sugar to a vein. Yeah. Aliza Einhorn 41:48 And I sound really, I sound really anti but I mean, I love YouTube. I'm always because there's amazing. There's amazing, amazing teachers, spiritual teachers. There's so there's so much good on on YouTube. Victoria Raschke 42:03 Yeah. I think that's what it came to for me. It's like, I There are value in these things. But I have to curate what is actually value. Like just scrolling a feed doesn't serve that purpose. Like it has to be intentional of what what I want to get and I otherwise if you're just scrolling the feed, you know, I could fill that with my never ending to be read pile which will fall over and murder me someday. Or, you know, like podcasts. I'm gonna I obviously love podcasts. I'm addicted to them. I listen to podcasts all the time, it got to the point where I listened to more podcasts that music, which still surprises me, and I'm sure 20 year old me is screaming somewhere about it. But you know, I, I love hearing what other people have to say about something in a more nuanced and deeper way than you can get in an TikTok video, like, but YouTube is a great source for that. And there, like you said, there is amazing content. People use YouTube to make programming that really no other traditional media source is going to pick them up and do let them do that. So I really appreciate the stuff that people are doing on YouTube in other places like that, and in podcasts and so yeah, I mean, there's, there's, I just feel like, you know, there's so much content out there, I need to be more intentional. And that was kind of the when I deleted TikTok off my phone. Aliza Einhorn 43:32 See and this and this is why writers need to keep writing, we have to keep writing books, because what we do is, it's not YouTube, it's different. It's completely different. It's a different brain process. Victoria Raschke 43:49 Yes, that's true. I agree. So in the expeditiousness of time, because I feel like you and I, this could be like a 10 part podcast, I could just see it happening. I want to give you an opportunity before we do our our final question because I think you and I are gonna go for a while on that one, I'm gonna give you opportunity to tell people where they can find you. If you want to be found, and what's coming up for you. Aliza Einhorn 44:23 I'm really easy to find. Okay, um, I feel like I'm really easy to find, but maybe I'm not. I'm probably most active on Instagram. But it's not. It's usually not filled with marketing. I mean, I do make my living as an astrologer. But every post like it's not buy my class, you know, buy this by that there's not a whole lot of that. So if people follow me on Instagram, where I am, what the hell am I there, Aliza of Brooklyn. There's pictures of New York. There's stray thoughts. There's these days only an occasional selfie. There might be stuff about school with you know astrology things or Tarot thing so it's it's sort of a loose, LoFi raw daily life kind of thing but not not even daily. so I stress that it's like for people who want to avoid the buy-this type of thing which to me is everywhere and I'm an I don't like that you know I don't I don't follow anyone that's all just selling so even though we all need to make a living you know this like selling selling selling gives me a headache. I'm also on Twitter but Twitter I'm not so active there and it has changed a lot since the changing of the guard [yeah] that I don't even I don't even know exactly what the changes are but I can feel them but I'm what am I Moon Pluto NYC on there. I always forget my, my blog because I am I'm still blogging but less than I used to, which is Moon Pluto Astrology.com. And there they can get information about getting a reading that they can, you know, DM me on any of those places. I'm I'm still on Facebook under my real name, but I'm not. I don't post there so much. Content. Oh, I have a patreon too [cool] which is a is a good thing. A good thing in my life. Victoria Raschke 46:26 Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll make sure links for all that in the show notes and people can link to that. Aliza Einhorn 46:30 I getting anything? Victoria Raschke 46:33 Yeah, I guess. Let me know. And we'll make sure we add Aliza Einhorn 46:36 The blog, or Instagram. Yeah, Instagram, I check regularly and honestly, I don't even know why. Like, there's not that much going on there. But yet, I feel the need to check it. Victoria Raschke 46:48 Yeah, Instagrams kind of my main. Like, that's my main output on social media. Weirdly, I, yeah, I kind of haven't. I also deleted Twitter from my phone. Thanks. So I just kind of like in this lull of social media. And I'm kind of enjoying it. Like, I feel like I'm a lot saner as a human being right now. But yeah, so we'll put links for all that. And if you think you've anything else, let me know. And I can add it to it. And then we'll do our last question, which is a tiny game of chance. And we already pointed out that, you know, raised a southerner. So there was this idea that there were things we were not supposed to talk about in polite company, which are as a Scorpio, my favorite things to talk about. Aliza Einhorn 47:33 I said no politics. Yeah. Victoria Raschke 47:36 If you get if you get a four, I always say there's no rules to this game. You can say, I don't want to answer that question, reroll. So I like to be a little bit of a chaos person too I will roll a die. And depending on what number I get, you'll get a question about death, sex, religion, politics, or money. And if I roll a six, you get to pick which one you want. Excited, you know, one, death. Oh, definitely not politic [topic, my topic.] Yeah. So I was thinking about this because you're a poet. And because in the book you recommend in your suitcase, at the end of each chapter for readers who haven't read the book yet. Aliza gives you a sweat she carries in her suitcase on that topic. And one of the chapters you talk about poetry and you specifically talks about Another Republic, which is one of the books I continue to read throughout my life. [It's a great book.] It's a great book. And, and having spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe with Eastern European writers like I really, that, you know, feeds my soul in a special way. So I wanted to ask you this question about assuming that you would like someone to read a poem at your funeral or memorial service. Is there one that you've already thought about? Or one that you would think that you'd want people to read and why that poem. Aliza Einhorn 49:01 That's a really interesting question. Because I, I'm probably I'm going to answer it in a tangential Cancerian kind of way. Because I think about death a lot. I think about my death a lot. My parents died young. And I and as I get older, you know, as I was saying, I'm just a couple of years older than you. So I, in fact, right before COVID I was thinking, oh, I need to get a cemetery plot. I need to get a you know, I need to get a grave. It's going to happen at some point. And then COVID happened, which was weird. Those two things so close together. But no, there wouldn't be any poem. No, no, no, if it's up to me. And I don't know if it would be. If it's up to me, I would have a traditional Jewish funeral. So there wouldn't there wouldn't be you know, I love Rilke. There wouldn't be any Rilke or anyone from another Republic. Yeah, so it'd be no poems, it would be as vibe the book as strictly orthodox as possible. Victoria Raschke 50:21 I've only been at Aliza Einhorn 50:21 Every single one ritual to a tee. Victoria Raschke 50:25 I've only been to one Jewish funeral and it was reformed. And the thing that so that would be very different. Yeah, the thing I took away from it is we went to the grave side. And people were invited to come and, and put dirt on the gray, but to hold the shovel upside down to show the reluctance of saying goodbye to that person. And it was just so incredibly moving. To just the way Aliza Einhorn 50:52 Just dirt just dirt no poems. Victoria Raschke 50:54 Yeah. And I was like, Yeah, that. Yeah, that was, that was one of those things that I felt very lucky not to have lost that person, but to have been invited into that space that I was unfamiliar with. And to see the beauty of that service felt really special. Aliza Einhorn 51:15 So some of us are, some of us are close to death. But I mean that in, like, doesn't freak us out. Going, going to a funeral. Or taking care of a dying person, or you know, there's all kinds of ways that can show up. Yeah. I think they're the magical unicorns, too. Victoria Raschke 51:39 Yeah, well, yeah, no, I do kind of the death, people might be magical unicorns. Aliza Einhorn 51:44 Because if because if someone wants to take me to a funeral, I'm fine. In fact, and I had a friend recently who has, she has her death issues, like she won't talk about it. We had, she'll never hear this. So I'm just gonna talk about it without saying her name, but we had a mutual friend die. And she didn't tell me because she just talked about those things. And I didn't, I didn't know two weeks later, and he was a traditional religious guy. And there was a Shiva, which is this. Just a lot of Jewish ritual, and I was so, I was so upset that I didn't have the chance to do that. To be part of it, to be part of this, this death ritual. Whereas if I had missed someone's wedding, like, I really wouldn't fucking care, like, oh, yeah, I missed a wedding. But there's something about, I could explain some of it. Astrologically. But yeah, so back to the original question. Yeah. No poems? No. Victoria Raschke 52:47 I do think that's, I mean, that is it. That's a thoughtful thing. And all of itself, that I mean, clearly, it is not something that you shun thinking about, I have lost both my parents as well. One when I was fairly young, and when I was older, but it is, I think, having my sister described this. And I think about it a lot, she went to a friend's like parent's funeral, I think. And, you know, in the south, a lot of funerals are also church services, where sometimes they including having like an altar call to save you at the funeral kind of thing, which that has always unnerved, me a little bit. But, um, it's a whole, it's a whole thing if you haven't experienced it, but she said, the minister who is doing the funeral was, was particularly attuned to the fact that there were lots of different kinds of people in the audience. And so it wasn't as, I guess, that kind of way that sometimes southern funerals can be. And he, the thing that she took away from it was he said, You know, when you when you've lost your grandparents and your parents, and you're the person sitting on the front row at the funeral, is when you start to realize that, you know, for some people, that's when they really realized that this is the progress of life is that you too will eventually will be the one that funeral is being held for. And, and that gave me chills. Yeah. And I was like, what? Aliza Einhorn 54:16 I wonder if I'll even have one. I don't know. Who knows. I don't know. You know, I don't know who's gonna remember me or, or make plans like, Victoria Raschke 54:25 yeah, and I mean, I would be just as happy for people to have a party. Whatever you feel like you need to do to make you feel better, I will be gone. So do what you need to do. It's kind of my thing a little bit, but Aliza Einhorn 54:39 I look forward to haunting people. That's my big plan. Victoria Raschke 54:41 I do kind of hope that I get to haunt people. [Well you will. That's gonna be fun.] That's like, yeah, and I do that. I mean, you know, whatever people say about Scorpios aside, I mean, I, I have always been drawn to that too. Thinking about what happens after we die and rituals. And you know, it's just and people find that really morbid. And I don't know, I find it life affirming in a different way, I guess. Aliza Einhorn 55:12 Yeah, it's it's fun and juicy. And yeah, I was I was just thinking that, thinking reflecting on what I was just saying like, Oh, people are gonna think this isn't morbid, but whatever. Victoria Raschke 55:25 I don't I mean, yeah, I was a good little goth girl and 80s But you know, it wasn't. But to me it was like, yes, because this is I don't ever want to just have one emotion. I want to experience them all. And therefore I want to experience everything. You know, grief is not my favorite emotion. But it has its purpose. And it can be incredibly healing to let yourself grieve. I mean, a lot of people can't let themselves grieve Aliza Einhorn 55:55 yeah, we have to. Victoria Raschke 55:59 If you can't even talk about death, it's gonna be really hard to grieve. Aliza Einhorn 56:02 Yeah, that was a shock with that. It taught me a lot about that friend and who she was. You think you think you know someone until you until you know someone? So, so on that note? Yeah. Death talk with Victoria and Aliza. Victoria Raschke 56:28 New podcast coming when Aliza finishes her psychoanalyst program in 20 years. Aliza Einhorn 56:36 Yeah, for real 20 years from now. Victoria Raschke 56:39 Well, Aliza, thank you so much for being on the show. I've enjoyed our conversation. And I really enjoyed your book. And I hope you find an agent for your memoir. Aliza Einhorn 56:49 Amen. Thank you. Yes. That's my only goal right now besides just main, well, for my it's my my main wish, dream. Hope. Victoria Raschke 57:01 I will send good energy out there. And anybody who's listening, if you want to pitch in, please send it all. [Good Energy.] Awesome. Well, when that comes out, we'll have you back and we'll talk about memoir writing. Aliza Einhorn 57:13 Ooh, that'll be fun. Okay, intention set. I'm gonna do it. I feel like you just sealed it. You just sealed like she will get an agent because he's got to come back on the show and talk about Victoria Raschke 57:25 I like it. I like Aliza Einhorn 57:26 Witing a memoir. Yeah. Victoria Raschke 57:30 Thank you. Aliza Einhorn 57:32 Thank you too Victoria Raschke 57:35 WitchLit is a production of 1000Volt Press. Our intro music is Cosmic Glow by Andrew K. And our outro music is Voices by Aleksander Senekar. Transcripts and all our previous episodes are available at witchlitpod.com and you can follow us on Instagram @witchlitpod. Thanks for listening and for reading witchy. Transcribed by https://otter.ai