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Maritza Schafer

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I accidentally discovered the cure for feeling “behind”

My partner Jeff and I have been going to this Rueda de Casino dance class for over a year and a half now. If you’ve never done it, imagine salsa… but with a whole circle of people, constantly rotating partners, moving as one organism, barely catching your breath before you’re spun into the next hold. It’s joyful chaos. The first time we saw it, we were like:Absolutely not.We came here to learn how to salsa, not audition for a Latin dance flash mob. But we stayed.Because the teachers are...

The fact that I teach about the cycles of life—how everything is born, grows, dies, and is reborn— doesn’t mean I always remember it in my own daily life. Human nature is funny that way.We forget so we can remember.We stumble, not because we’re bad at this, but because remembering is part of the curriculum of being human. Case in point:I know that I can’t harvest from a seed I just planted.I know that fruit takes time to grow.And still, when I plant the seed, part of me wants the fruit three...

This Halloween, like many Halloweens, I didn’t celebrate in the way most people do, with costumes, candy, or parties. Last year, I was home with a few witches, deep in ritual, when a little kid knocked on the door yelling, “Trick or treat!” We froze. I looked around at my sisters and said, “It’s gonna have to be trick… because I’m a really bad witch and I have nothing prepared.” We laughed, but the truth is, Halloween for me tends to be a working day. A time when the veil thins and spirits...

When I teach my students how to cast spells, I always begin with one simple question: What do you want? What do you actually want to see happen in your life?What would make you feel happy, fulfilled, like, yes, this is it? That’s where the spell begins. But here’s what usually happens: as soon as they start naming their desire, the mind jumps in with a loud “But how?” How could that possibly happen? How would I afford it? How would it ever come together? And I’m like — well, yeah.If you could...

I got an email the other day from a student wondering if Liberation Magic could help with limiting beliefs. In general, people think of limiting beliefs as things we hold to be true (and may or may not be), but that get in our way of moving towards our dreams. And while that’s true, these beliefs are not a bad thing. A limiting belief almost always starts out as a survival spell.It was a small act of magic you cast long ago to stay safe.To protect your heart.To make sense of a world that...

Hi Reader, Last week, I started Liberation Magic, and one of the first witchwork assignments was to spend some time in nature everyday. This is the most basic practice, being outdoors and remembering that for most of human existence, we didn’t think of nature as out there, but rather, we were truly one with it. And still are, whether we realize it or not. Dwight Schrute from The Office, played by Rainn Wilson A couple of days later, Dwight from The Office, Rainn Wilson, published an op-ed in...

Hi Reader, First of all, let me thank you for your attention and time in reading the extra Friday emails I sent out the last couple of weeks. They were about my program Liberation Magic, which started yesterday with the fantastic folks who are ready to learn the ancient technology for transformation. (If you’re on the fence and want to be one of the stragglers coming in before the end of this week, you can still join us here.) This week I was talking with a colleague who was facing a horrible...

Hi Reader, This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of not giving a flying fuck. Which, if you think about it, is pretty intertwined with not having fear. Or maybe it’s courage: having fear and doing it anyway. I bumped into this idea three times in totally different ways. First: Jeff (my partner) and I were on a hike, and we ran into this older couple wearing umbrella hats. If you’ve never seen these (which I had not), I’ve done you a solid and found a picture: Yes, a tiny umbrella...

Hi Reader, Energy is contagious. You know this in your bones, even if you’ve never named it that way. You’ve probably felt it before: the friend who leaves you feeling like you need a nap after coffee with them, the coworker who somehow spreads their pessimism with just a sigh, or the relative who you dread to see on Thanksgiving. Most of us know what it’s like to be in the presence of “energy vampires.” But by the same token, we’ve also had the opposite experience. The people who light us up...

Hi Reader, I genuinely believe that we’re each the curators of our own experience, even though I forget it all the time. I don’t mean curator as in “only look at my apparent fabulousness on social media” sort of way. I mean the deeper way I get to choose where I put my energy, my attention, my focus, my love… I can decide what story I tell myself, who I hang out with, what I eat. Every little decision shapes my life, and curates my reality, if you will. Reality is layered. There are thousands...