00:00 Episode Preview

00:19 Opening

00:55 Introduction

02:52 Interview Begins with Gabriela Herstik

03:33 The Duality of the Devil & Lovers Cards

08:52 Embracing Sexuality & Spirituality

12:58 Integrating Sacred Sexuality Into Everyday Life

17:40 Understanding Sex Magic

19:20 Sensuality vs. Sexuality

22:49 AD – Join our Tarot for Alchemy Course https://learntarot.mysticmondays.com/

24:55 Overcoming Shame & Reclaiming Pleasure

35:26 Working With Goddess Energy

39:25 The Role of Trust in Sensual & Sexual Exploration

43:11 Making Peace With Your Shadows

45:57 Fast Five Questions

48:05 Collective Reading from the Goddess of Love Tarot by Gabriela Herstik

52:17 Closing Statements

52:50 End of Episode – Make Sure to Leave a Podcast Review!

54:06 End Card

Welcome to the GRACED Podcast! A space for everyday magic for your everyday life. We do this through rituals, aligning yourself to your soul’s purpose, and creating Alchemy to heal our mind, body, and spirits so that you can bring in more love and joy, manifest your desires, and believe in your dreams.

Listen and watch over at graceduong.com/podcast and on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and all the places you can find me on social media.

Now let’s dive into today’s episode.

💖 Introduction

Grace: Welcome to the GRACED Podcast, a space where we talk about everyday magic for your everyday life.

Today’s guest is Gabriela Herstik, who is an author, columnist, and witch based in Los Angeles. She is also the creator of the Goddess of Love Tarot deck, which I have right here.

The theme of today’s episode is the Devil Tarot card, and we draw similarities between the Devil card and the Lover’s card because in numerology they are connected, and we do talk about that inside today’s episode. The Lover’s card and the Devil card are both about union making choices and values.

The Devil card also happens to be the very first card that I illustrated inside the Mystic Mondays Tarot Deck. And if you’re watching the video, you can see the poster behind me over here.

For me, the Devil card is all about the mental traps that we can get stuck in, whether that’s self-sabotage, experiencing doubt, and frustration, and obsession with our life circumstances, especially once.

That we can’t seem to get past. However, the door is open in this image, it is always open to break free from those shackles, especially if they are self-inflicted. In today’s episode with Gabriela, we explore Sex Magic, healing from shame, finding your pleasure through exploration, and the intersection between the erotic and esoteric.

Also, I do wanna mention, if you like the Devil Tarot card, we do have the Devil Tarot card collection on Mystic Mondays dot com where you can shop prints, t-shirts, and other merch featuring the artwork of the cards.

And we are doing a giveaway of Gabriela’s deck the Goddess of Love Tarot deck on Instagram. So check out the @grace.duong and @mysticmondays Instagrams for all the details.

Now let’s dive in to today’s episode.

✨ Interview Begins with Gabriela Herstik

Grace: Hi Gabriela. Welcome to the GRACED Podcast.

Gabriela: Thank you for having me.

Grace: Yeah, so excited because this does feel like a full circle moment in a lot of ways. When I started the Mystic Mondays Tarot, even as a Kickstarter, I remember reaching out to you or the publication or whatnot. And you actually covered like one of the very first articles about Mystic Mondays.

Gabriela: Oh my God! I didn’t realize it was one of the first, and I was like, I feel like I remember the Kickstarter, which is crazy. It’s amazing to see like all the things you’ve created, the decks and the podcast, so it feels, yeah, it’s like six, seven years is a long time, so it’s an honor to be here with you.

✨ The Duality of the Devil & Lovers Cards

Grace: Yeah. Wow. It really has been like a stretch of time, for sure. But I also wanna talk about like you and all of your creations, because I feel like you’ve really blossomed as a witch, as a creator, as an author, as a columnist, and so I’m super honored to have you on today to talk about themes of the Devil card, and you’re also the creator behind the Goddess of Love Tarot.

And something that I tie into the Devil card is also the Lover’s card because numerology wise, the Devil is number 15, and if you break that down, one plus five equals six, which. Ties into the Lovers card, and I feel like with your work, you tie in love, there’s lust, there’s eroticism and esoteric work that you have all tied in together.

So I’d love to hear about your inspiration and your background and how you came into this world.

Gabriela: Ooh, I love it! And I love that you connected the Devil and the Lovers like that ’cause I always think of that. I really consider them shadows of one another down to the ways the cards are constructed in like the classic Smith Waite deck, so I love that.

Yeah. I’ve always been really drawn to the duality of like life and spirituality and like the unseen aspect of reality. And when I discovered witchcraft, I feel like I was able to connect to something that I had a feeling for, but no words for. And when I discovered witchcraft and magic and the Tarot and all of that.

Stuff like I was going through my bat mitzvah. When you’re “an adult” in the Jewish community, you’re not an adult, I’m sorry, you’re 12 or 13, you’re not an adult. You go through the rite of passage, have your bar/bat mitzvah, you read from the Torah, which is the Holy Book in Judaism. And even going through that, like I knew that I was a witch and I’d found these different faces of the goddess, and it’s like I came home to part of myself that I have not had that feeling since then, like 17 years ago of coming home to myself, and I’ve been a witch since then.

It’s always been part of my path. And my path has been very intimately connected to the divine feminine and to different expressions of the goddess. And I have always been really intrigued and fascinated by and enamored with having a body like being in a body, dressing my body, feeling in my body, moving my body.

Like I did ballet growing up and dance growing up, and I studied fashion merchandising in college and had a fashion blog for years and was also very spiritual and eventually began to tie my connection to spirituality and self-expression together. I had a fashion blog and I did a series of outfits inspired by Tarot cards in like 2014 to 2016 or something.

And I kind of started to find the different ways that like the different parts of myself came together. And after I moved to LA, for an internship with Vivian Westwood, who it was just her birthday the other day and she’s a forever icon of mine who really inspired me that fashion can be merged with activism and with like intention.

And I moved to LA to intern with her and started writing more. And I also started to weave in my connection to glamor and to sexuality and to the goddess of love. ’cause I moved to LA and officially devoted myself to Venus, who is the Roman goddess of love and sex and beauty and sensuality. And when that happened, I also started exploring things like kink and Sex Magic and working with the taboo, which is very Devil card, right?

Like working with the things that are shocking as a way to break free or working with the things that we have shame around. I started incorporating these more. Subversive topics like sexuality and self-expression, and not that self-expression is taboo, but like the highly stylized self-expression that is very erotic and very feminine.

That combined with my spirituality and my exploration of like sexuality and kink and those things are just things that I’m drawn to as like a Scorpio and Aquarius Stellium. It’s like I’m here to be who I am, and all of those things coalesced. I began leading rituals that were kinky in nature. I continued writing my books.

My first book came out five or six years ago, and. I started writing about Sex Magic and the Goddess and I had a book called Sacred Sex come out, and then the Tarot Deck and now Goddess Energy. So I feel like one of those things where I was lucky enough to allow what I feel connected to in this life to guide me with my work.

And I feel like the Devil card and the Lover card and that duality is very much just like my whole vibe. I’m a Scorpio Moon, a Libra Rising, and I was born on February 2nd, so 2/2. I’m a twin. We were born at 10 o’clock at night, which is 22. So like I feel like duality is one of my biggest teachers and paradigms.

So I feel like for me that includes spirituality and sexuality as well as like the divine, feminine and magic. So know those are long Ted talk, so hopefully I answered your question.

✨ Embracing Sexuality & Spirituality

Grace: Yeah, absolutely. So within the Lovers card and within the double card, I feel like there’s this theme of union and making choices.

And also I heard that you went through your own rite of passage with your religion and your background, but also, what would you call your own rite of passage when you discovered this is my path. I want to not only explore kink, but also like be a leader in that space of sharing sexuality and taboos.

And what was, I suppose your, the light bulb that went off that was like, this is my thing.

Gabriela: Yeah. I feel like for me, like the light bulb and the initiation maybe came separately when it comes to kink, like. I think for myself, when I was first exploring kink, it was with someone was ordering another power dynamic and we were seeing each other and then we stopped and they were like the first person that I had like actually a person to explore kink with in a intentional, safe, risk aware, consensual container.

And after that ended, I realized I think the light bulb was like that. I could either wait until I, maybe I found someone who lived where I lived and had the same interests that I did and same desires or I could embark on a journey of giving myself what I wanted and exploring what I wanted and becoming my own lover and exploring kink by myself with an intention of offering that to Venus.

So I did that. I like intentionally for like a year, became my own lover, and I explored kink and I offered it to Venus. I took classes and I read books and I learned some simple self ties and I worked with my sexual energy as an offering and worked with wax play with candles, I charge and I drip the wax on my body and like I started giving myself the experiences I wanted to be involved with instead of waiting for someone else.

And that kind of like shift in recognizing that my sexuality was my own, outside of other people was really powerful. And it’s something that’s informed a lot of my work with sacred sexuality. I always say this, like your sexuality is sacred the moment you decide it is, the moment you have that reverence for it, it’s not that it has to look a certain way or that you have to be with certain people or be with people or whatever.

So I think that was like a big light bulb moment. And I think for me, like the biggest light bulb moment that kind of weaves all of the webs of my truth together is just that like I am my Sun, Venus, and Mars in Aquarius. I have always felt very different in terms that I’ve just known that I’m just who I am, I’m unique as we all are.

But when I was really young, I realized that I could either try and be like other people and probably feel like shit about it, or I could just be myself. And I realized that was gonna be easier.

And as I got older, I realized that like I have a Scorpio Moon, she’s Conjunct Jupiter, she’s there, she’s loud, I love it. But like jealousy and envy are big teachers for me. And going along with the unique thing, I realized like, okay, there’s always gonna be somebody who’s like cooler, better, hotter, more successful, like more, right? There’s nobody else who’s me. So I was like, I just have to be me and the more that I’m in my lane, the more that I’m like, nobody can even try. ’cause like if I’m being authentic, then like people who try to be me are just gonna fail miserably.

And I feel like those two things together, like recognizing that like I’m unique as we again, as we all are, but like that I felt different and that’s okay. And that like I just have to be myself, allowed me the inner strength to carve my own path because the thing with like the work that I specifically do, which spans just writing about kink and stuff, or Sex Magic or the goddess, there’s nobody else that’s done this the way that I’ve done it. Like I’m my own blueprint and realizing that and giving myself permission to sometimes feel isolated in that, but also just be grateful for it.

Like I think that was a light bulb moment for sure.

✨ Integrating Sacred Sexuality Into Everyday Life

Grace: Yeah. And there’s so much duality within the Lovers card and the Devil card. However, I feel like with the Devil card there’s like shame involved and in the traditional Rider Waite, they’re like in chains and there’s like this sense of enslavement and there’s such a wide spectrum of how sexuality is experienced.

There could be very traumatic experience of having sex, and whereas it could be like a transformative, like Kundalini awakening type of experience. And so if someone would want to have sacred sexuality more integrated into their life? Like what could that look like in terms of whether that’s a ritual or like working with Venus?

Like how would you recommend someone go about that?

Gabriela: Yeah. I think it’s important to recognize that heart of being on its spiritual path means you have to walk the path for yourself and like I’m very much like a Western gal in the fact that I don’t belong to single lineage, and I don’t think that one thing works for everybody.

And when I teach any kind of spiritual practice or magic, ceremonial magic, or witchcraft, or Sex Magic or a goddess devotion, I’m always like, it has to fit into your life first. So if you wanna integrate sacred sexuality into your life. The first thing that I suggest doing is just kind of doing a little vibe check, getting your journal and your Tarot cards or lighting incense, and seeing where in your life you already have a connection to your sexuality. Where in your life do you already have a connection to pleasure?

What are you doing to integrate sensuality into your every day? And start there because it will naturally evolve to being ritualistic, but if you don’t really have even an awareness of the ways these energies are already present, then it’s gonna be harder to cultivate them.

So like what brings you pleasure? What is sensuality to you? Are you able to enjoy like a delicious cup of coffee in the morning before you work and just like breathe? Can you walk around the block with the Sun on your skin? Can you take a nice shower with some like peppermint oil in there or like eucalyptus to make it a more essential experience? Are you having beautiful sex with your partner or like having a really sweet cuddle with your puppy or your baby?

Just kind of seeing where those things are and then like seeing what the things are that bring you pleasure. Like what kind of sexual experiences or not sexual experiences are meaningful for you? What are the things you remember?

Finding those webs allows you to form your own kind of correspondences or like your own connections between the feelings of love, lust, and magic and experiences and actions. So like if you know that cuddling is really like a time when you feel really intimate and a time like if you love cuddling and you recognize that, then like that is something that you can bring into intention in your life.

If you have like a sweet friend or a partner that like you can cuddle with, you can like do that as a way to connect with your spirituality because you make it an intentional experience. If you’re somebody, for example, that like loves like dancing and meditating, then you can bring that into your spiritual practice by offering that to your own sexuality, to the goddess, to the universe, to the Lovers card.

I think it’s about just shifting your mindset to like allow the things that bring you joy, and pleasure, and ecstasy, intimacy and connection to like be a part of the spiritual practice and like be the spiritual practice. If you are living with a partner, what if you just like close your eyes and breathe together and just put your hands on each other’s hearts?

What if you just pull a Tarot card before you have sex, right? Or like meditate on the Lovers card and see what comes up before you masturbate.

There’s a lot of different ways to begin that exploration, and I think that instead of feeling like we’re not doing enough, we can begin by seeing the ways that these energies are already woven into our life, and then we can have more compassion for ourselves when we begin the practices.

And not to plug my own book, but my book, sacred Sex is a really good, like I wrote it for this purpose and each chapter in there. Is guided by a different Tarot card. So each chapter is kinda like a path of Sex Magic. So the Lovers is the path of divine union. So like if you are in a relationship and you want it to be a conscious relationship where you’re able to practice Sex Magic and honor each other’s divine, like that card would be an archetype for that.

Whereas the Devil card is connected to the path of the Dark Goddess, which uses kink and BDSM as a way to honor the shadow self. So that book really kind of dives into these practices in like a way more, in a deeper way than I can in like a podcast interview.

✨ Understanding Sex Magic

Grace: Yeah. So for anyone that doesn’t know what is Sex Magic?

Gabriela: Yeah. Sex Magic is really working with sexual energy for a desired outcome. In the simplest way, it is really bringing a spiritual intention to your experiences of sexuality. That can mean literally orgasming as you’re focusing on something you wanna heal, manifest, banish, or transmute. So thinking of making a hundred dollars as you’re coming or filling your body with light as you come so you can heal your heart or sending your orgasm to Venus as an offering. All forms of Sex Magic.

But I would argue that forms of Sex Magic also include like meditations where you’re moving your sexual energy up your spine, or dancing as you’re breathing and shaking it out and in your body and in your sensuality, or taking a bath and feeling your heart and touching your body with nice oils like.

It’s bringing a spiritual awareness to your sexuality, and it’s bringing your sexuality into your spiritual practice. It can be as simple as a quickie with yourself or your partner as you focus on something you want as you come, or get as close as you can to like a climax. It can be as involved as a whole ceremonial ritual or witchcraft ritual where you’re calling the elements and casting the circle and calling on a god or goddess and invoking them and practicing Sex Magic.

Sex Magic is not dogmatic. It is really just the use of sexual energy for a desired outcome. And it’s really powerful and it feels really good and it’s fun. So it’s like if you masturbate anyway, if you’re fucking anyway and you’re spiritual, like it can be a part of your magical practice.

✨ Sensuality vs. Sexuality

Grace: Yeah. So what I’m hearing from you is that there’s definitely like sensuality interrelated to the sexuality.

So for you, what is the definition between sensuality versus sexuality?

Gabriela: I feel like sensuality is more of a embodiment and a sensation of pleasure and sexuality is like that in connection to yourself, in connection to another person. Yeah, I would say sensuality is more of the experiences of eroticism within you and sexuality is like how you connect to that.

Whether you’re raising the energy, you are connecting to somebody else, you’re flirting or you’re transforming like that sensuality into something like a little bit more active like

I feel like honestly like sensuality is like water and sexuality like fire. They’re different manifestations of the same energy.

No one has ever really like asked me that, and I feel like that’s, yeah, I feel like sensuality is the watery aspect and sexuality is the fiery aspect.

Grace: Yeah. And I also feel like sensuality can feel a bit quieter. I feel like it can be a very internal process where you’re noticing like, oh, like the feeling of flowers on my skin or just like, kind of like a internal processing. Whereas I feel like sexuality almost feels like a charge, like an electrical charge perhaps, where that fire element is involved. That could be with yourself, could be with other people. But yes, there definitely feels like there’s more action behind it, like you were saying.

So you’ve been working with Sex Magic for a while now, it sounds like and I was wondering what were some of the most powerful desired outcomes that you’ve had when working with Sex Magic?

Gabriela: I’ve had this conversation with other magicians and other witches who work with Sex Magic, and I do feel like with witchcraft and magic in general, like there comes a point where you’re like, manifesting isn’t like the end all be all.

So a lot of my experiences like Sex Magic has brought a lot of like tangible things into my life. It’s brought like my apartment. I did a lot of work on myself that went along with the Sex Magic to bring things into my life. I definitely think my current boyfriend is somebody that I manifested because I both was doing the work and doing the healing and just, we manifested each other for sure, but like definitely that.

But I think the biggest is that Sex Magic has allowed me to form a more profound relationship with my sexuality. It’s allowed me to know myself more intimately and it’s helped me like live the kind of life that I’ve wanted to live like.

When I first started practicing Sex Magic, I wanted to like have power dynamics and like, have like partnerships and experiences and like a life where I could write about the things that I’m passionate about that are unfortunately taboo. And I feel like Sex Magic has allowed me to like, like I feel like my career honestly is like the biggest thing, writing my essays, leading the classes I lead, doing the work that I do, writing the books that I write, like all of those things center sex witchcraft and the goddess.

And I feel like Sex Magic is like the vehicle that I inhabit, like what I use to power the things in my life. So I feel like, honestly, like my work and my purpose are very intimately tied to the Sex Magic that I do, because it’s a way that I relate to myself and the world around me.

So, yeah.

Grace: Yeah, I feel like it’s a channel of energy in a lot of ways, right? So. It can be like a concentrated amount of energy within intense focus in that session that you’re having with yourself or with other people.

✨ Overcoming Shame & Reclaiming Pleasure

Grace: So how can we bridge the gap between shame and self-love? Because I know that sometimes sex, unfortunately, is tied to shame sometimes if we’re not feeling completely comfortable with our bodies or with sex as a topic because of societal standards and religious upbringing and whatnot, like how can we come to terms with what we feel shame around and embracing that for ourselves?

Gabriela: Yeah, I feel like the first step is to just like do again, some more self-exploration. Unfortunately, the path of the seeker, the mystic, the slut, the witch, is one where a lot of self inquiry is involved. And I think the first thing is to like notice like what’s the shame? Just like getting curious because a lot of the time it’s not even from us and if the call is coming from inside the house, it’s like the seeds were not planted by us, right?

Like is the shame coming from your family? Is it coming from like the religion that you grew up with? Is it coming from the messaging you got in sexual education in school that was telling you you were “dirty” for having sex and you’d get pregnant and die or like worse get an STD? Is it coming from your doctors who don’t know how to test for like STDs and STIs and make you feel like shit?

Is it coming from the media that tells you that you’re a whore? If you have sex and you’re a prude, if you don’t have sex and you should be having more sex, but if you’re having too much sex, then what’s wrong with you? Is it coming from somewhere else like a partner or is it coming from the time that you got bullied in school for being a slut or for being a prude?

Like there’s so much messaging around sexuality and recognizing that a lot of the time it’s not you makes it a lot easier to release. I work a lot with, or in sacred sex, I include ritual, kind of a two-part ritual where we work with the Tower card as a way to like just rid ourselves of shame. Those foundational beliefs around shame and guilt are not serving you.

They are inherited from a westernized Christian nation that we live in. That tells you that having autonomy over your body is wrong and not enjoying sex is wrong. But the thing is that sex and Spirit have been united since before Christianity was even a thing. Every major religion, including nos, including Christianity, including narcissism, including Mystic Judaism, including Sufism, including Hinduism and Buddhism, all have different.

Beliefs that honor sexual energy as sacred and divine and spiritual. And there’s all practices for connecting that, for seeing the divine through the ecstasy of pleasure and of connection and of intimacy. So I think first, like just allow yourself to not believe those thoughts, your thoughts. You do not have to believe all the thoughts in your head and those thoughts of shame, like when you just recognize they’re not yours, you can just begin to cut those chords and release it.

So you can do that through meditation, visualizing these chords of belief and cutting them. You can work with affirmations that replace those beliefs with more positive ones, and then do your own research. Look up different traditions of sacred sexual texts, like read the Kama Sutra or about, I don’t know, Nazi Christianity or whatever it is of the goddess religions like.

There’s so much, and I think that more than anything, just reminding yourself that if you’re doing something with a consenting adult, it does not fucking matter what other people think and that you are a human, you are a divine expression, like you are God, and you are goddess like you are spirit in a physical body because the divine does not have a physical body, but it wants to experience what it means to be human.

Goddess can’t fuck, or eat, or run, or sleep, or scream. So like it’s up to us to honor that, honor her, honor the divine by like having these full human experiences and like, sorry, but we wouldn’t have G spots and clits if it wasn’t supposed to feel good. I just feel like allowing yourself to walk on that edge a little bit and to notice what feels like maybe like a little bit s.

Scary. And to go through that, whether it’s like going on like a dating app or like exploring kink consciously, or exploring your queerness or deciding you’re non-monogamous or like masturbating for the first time. Like we’re all gonna have shame around something and it’s never gonna go away. But the more that you just accept it, it’s like a spiral.

You start low and then you would just like work your way around. So by the time you come back to that point that you were at originally. It’s not like the shame’s not there, but you’re a little bit higher up than you were before. On the spiral, it’s a little bit less and you keep going and like shame just gets less and less because you realize that like what other people think doesn’t matter and you’re allowed to enjoy what you enjoy.

But it definitely is a lot easier said than done.

Grace: Yeah. So what were some things that you’ve had to release to really embrace your path of sharing this? I think teachings, right? Because some of it, like you’ve mentioned, it’s like sacred teachings that aren’t necessarily talked about that much, maybe because of the shame and societal conditioning and whatnot.

So what were some of the things or limiting beliefs or anything that you had to release and leave behind?

Gabriela: I think for me, I’ve always done things my own way. I’ve always, especially when it comes to like sex, I got my nipples pierced and like sexted before I’d had my first kiss and my first kiss was like naked in a hot tub of like French punk bands.

Like I did everything. In my own way, and I developed late in high school, like I didn’t have my first kiss till I was 18, and then I got like slutty and I’ve had to release the beliefs of being prudy or slutty. Like I’ve just had to release the beliefs that I’m too much or not enough, which I think is something that like everybody has, we all feel like we’re too much. We all feel like we’re not enough. So that was a big one.

And I think like for me, I also do sex work. I do online and in-person sex work and like that is something that I’m now just talking about after like four and a half years of doing this kind of work because it’s still stigmatized and I have a lot of fear and like I just came out to my parents about it like a week ago.

Like that was probably the biggest one because. I mean, as any person who is a sex worker or queer, or even non-monogamous. ’cause I had to come out to my parents about that too. When you’re in the closet and you’re hiding who you are, it’s very draining. Not being open with what you’re doing is not fun.

And the limiting beliefs I had around that were about my career getting shut down or getting fucked up or having book deals dropped or getting disowned or whatever. Like those are valid fears. ’cause we live in a society that is homophobic and that is obsessed with the aesthetic of sex work and the idea of sex work, but like doesn’t actually prioritize.

Sex workers voices, their experience or their life. And if they do, they’re white women like me, cis bo, cisgendered, able bodied white women.

So I didn’t wanna take up space that wasn’t mine to take up. And I think that the limiting beliefs are all that were just too much, that were gonna be too much and that, or that were not gonna be enough for other people.

I think those are the ones I keep coming back to. ’cause everything else. Again, I’m a Scorpio Moon. I have a Scorpio and Aquarius  Stellium. I’m gonna do what I’m doing ’cause it’s what I’m meant to do. But I think those beliefs that we have to fit into a certain box to be loved is just like the most annoying one and probably the biggest one.

I’m constantly moving through.

Grace: Yeah, so I actually have an Aquarius Stellium too. So it can relate to carving your own path and wanting to do it your way because there truly is no one else like you, right? And I feel like you speaking up about doing sex work and teaching your practices and whatnot, actually encourages other people to share their stories and to be more comfortable.

So I just wanna acknowledge you for that because you gotta do your thing, right? It’s your life. And so for the stigma around sex and our bodies, how would you recommend someone become more comfortable with sensuality and sexuality?

Gabriela: I feel like it kind of goes back to what I was saying before with like introducing these aspects into your life.

I think the first step is to like. Acknowledge of the pleasure in your life and start inviting pleasure in. And a lot of the times that means slowing down, breathing into our bodies and seeing how we’re feeling because if you’re not breathing, you’re living from like here up, which is totally fine. But sensuality of the goddess like sexuality and beauty and sensuality, art, embodied experiences.

If you’re not in your body to feel them, you’re gonna be thinking about it and you’re not actually gonna be in the experience. So taking time to slow down, even if it’s for five minutes, even if you have to make like a Google Calendar invite for yourself. Prioritizing this exploration with yourself and slowing down and doing something that invites pleasure into your life for five minutes.

Can you have a cup of tea and put honey and just pick out a pretty like cup or mug that you like and put some music on and just be with your tea or can you sit out on your balcony or take a walk and sit under a tree for five minutes and breathe? Can you masturbate and really allow yourself to feel pleasure? Can you do your face mask at night and just feel how good? It feels like nice, thick moisturizer, like on your face. Can you wear something or like put on a robe or sleep in sheets that just feel really good against your skin?

Sensuality is about being present to pleasure and to beauty, and it can be as something as simple as like noticing where your favorite flowers are when you’re walking your dog and like saying hi to them and forming a relationship with those spirits.

It can be wearing something really sexy or taking a nude of your body. It can be creating antar to pleasure and love, or meditating with a Tarot card like the Lovers. Or it can be a prayer to the goddess your higher sexual self. Pleasure and beauty are, and sensuality are the paths. And when you notice and you allow that to be enough and gratitude, it kind of weaves the web.

But there’s a lot of different ways that you can go into creating practices that are specific to you into what works for you. Like maybe you don’t like affirmations, but you like listening to music or writing poetry or reading poetry, or playing guitar or painting. I think art and creativity are really.

Important in magic and sex. They allow us to like create our own realities within these things.

✨ Working With Goddess Energy

Grace: Yeah. So you mentioned working with different goddesses. I know you mentioned being devoted to Venus, for example. Do you work with any other goddesses and in what ways do you connect with them?

Gabriela: Yeah, so I do work with other goddesses.

The pantheon of goddesses I work with, or like the group of goddesses I work with are old goddesses of love. So I work with these different goddesses through prayer. I work with them through lighting candles for them in my altar through meditation, through offerings and by forming a personal relationship.

I’m always talking to the goddess. I’m always relating different things in my life to her. I’m always offering her different experiences. I’m always working with the pain and the tough aspects of life as part of the practice of devotion, of asking my goddesses for support when I’m going through something or praying to them when I need something or offering them or talking to them like it’s a relationship.

So it depends, but it’s really about, for me, like connections, prayer, relating and embodying. Like I see myself as a vessel for the goddess of love, and that is a responsibility that I don’t take lightly.

So my life is a container for that deeper than just a prayer. It’s like the ways that I move through the world, it’s all in honor of her.

Grace: Yeah. And you talk about being in relation to the goddess and also in relation to yourself. And when I think about relationships, I also think about reciprocity and so like the giving and receiving of a relationship. And so how do you see the relationship between you and the goddesses that you work with evolving or even the relationship with yourself evolving.

Gabriela: Since I wrote my book Goddess Energy, which came out on March 19th, I started writing that in like 20, early 2020. And that was like 2020 was really when like I realized that like I specifically am devoted to the goddess of love.

The three goddesses that I work with that I’m devoted to, our Venus, Babylon, and Isis. That is when those connection to those goddesses really started. And when I got really clear on that it was like a vortex. Like I got Goddess Energy, I got the Tarot deck, I got Sacred Sex.

But more than that, I feel like for me, like the goddesses are getting adoration. They’re getting love. They’re getting energy. They’re getting like somebody who thinks about them and serves them and shares their beauty and magic and like I get to live a life in devotion to the goddess of love that is like sexual and kinky and inspiring and artistic and like filled with deep reverence and gratitude for all kinds of connection and sexuality and devotion.

All the webs of my life, the writing I do, the classes I lead, the way I relate to people, the way that I move my body, the way that I adorned my body, the way that I like have sex. And I’m intentional about like the ways that I do that or what I wanna explore, like my spiritual practice. All of those things are shaped by the goddess.

My life has meaning and purpose. ’cause it’s in devotion to something bigger because I’m just like a channel. I feel the Aquarius thing is like, we know we’re special and unique, but we’re never gonna get like an ego about it. It’s not about me, it’s about the goddess. It’s about the work and like by being myself and authentic in that, I get to inspire other people to live their truth.

Which is a huge gift, but the goddess, I do feel like it’s a two-way street. She holds me and supports me when I need her, and she brings me art and beauty and magic and connects me with people who are on this path. And I gotta live a life that’s like everything I dreamed of.

I mean, don’t get it twisted business is hard and it is like the worst economically it’s been for everybody that I know recently. So it’s definitely still like, it’s not like it’s all peachy keen, but it doesn’t matter because like I trust and my deep intimacy with the cosmic force of love and lust out there like allows me to trust in the death and rebirth at the Goddess Springs.

She’s everything. I’m just here to have a good time.

✨ The Role of Trust in Sensual & Sexual Exploration

Grace: Yeah, and I think safety is also a huge aspect of really enjoying oneself. In their sensuality and sexuality. And I think that also involves trust, right? So like trust within a relationship with another person and trust within oneself. And so if someone is struggling with trusting themselves or the moment or the other person or whatever it is, how would one cultivate trust?

Gabriela: Yeah. First off, like fucking say no. Like you do not have to do anything you do not wanna do, ever. I know that’s not what you’re implying, but I just wanna remind people that I always encourage people to start a relationship with themselves in terms of like Sex Magic and sexuality before they do that with anybody else.

Because the more that you’re comfortable with what sexual energy feels like in your body, the more comfortable you are with your own desires, the more you know it feels good for you. The more you have, you feel at peace with your body, the easier it’s going to be to communicate that with somebody else.

The easier it’s going to be to know and to trust your own body because your understanding of your experiences. So I say go slow. Like don’t do Sex Magic with somebody else just because you can. Go slow, take your time. You don’t have to have sex with yourself right away. You don’t have to do that at all.

Maybe your Sex Magic is just a self massage and like touching your belly and your breast and like putting your hands on your womb. Doesn’t have to be penetration right away. It doesn’t have to be penetration at all. And you do not have to do this with somebody just because they want to just wait and it’s like dating, you know what I mean?

Like once you feel safe and comfortable with somebody like. I don’t think, then you can go farther, further depending on your, how you feel comfortable. But like I wouldn’t suggest doing Sex Magic the first time you’re having sex with somebody. I would suggest getting to know each other, trusting each other, seeing what the vibe is like.

And then if you have that connection going into that, you wanna trust somebody. You want to have love. You don’t need to be in love, and you don’t need to trust this person with your life, but you wanna feel safe. And especially as women, especially as people with wombs, our bodies like, unfortunately, like the world is not necessarily safe for us.

Like it shocks me sometimes how much men don’t understand how it is to like live life as a woman. And I’m like, there are so many different factors that relate to how women move through the world, obviously. On a level, I think we all understand what it’s like to live as a woman in this world. We can’t walk to our cars without being aware of what’s going on around us.

We can’t be places, we can’t like just be off. We can’t be offline the same way a man can simply because it’s not safe for us. So when we’re putting our bodies in these really vulnerable positions, it’s gonna take us time. It’s your body. If it’s telling you that it’s not time, then it’s okay. Like part of the path of like the goddess is just like intuition is feeling in your body and trusting that and knowing that, like when the time’s right, it’ll be right.

And I feel like allowing yourself that also like the power of desire, and tension, and teasing, to help build up energy is so powerful. Like it’s like cosmic edging when you’re getting close and stopping, getting close and stopping like it builds up. So like there are ways to play with it even if you don’t feel like you can open up right away, like take your time.

There is no rush. And if somebody’s rushing you to do something, they do not respect you and get the fuck out. They can wait because your time, your energy, your sexuality is a gift. So don’t feel like you fucking owe it to anybody, and if you do feel comfortable with somebody, that’s totally fine. Like it goes both ways.

It’s what’s aligned for you and you’re deserving and worthy of feeling safe in your sexual and sensual experiences. Period. And if somebody’s like being weird or dumb about that, then they can get the fuck out.

Grace: Well said. You can go!

✨ Making Peace With Your Shadows

Grace: So how can one make peace with the Devil within themselves?

Gabriela: By embracing it?

Like what are the things that you feel the most shame around? And like what would happen if you free yourself around those things? What if you like actually secretly love the feeling of feeling shame? What if it actually feels kind of good to like be transgressive? What if you actually like being able to complain about shit that you don’t wanna be like involved with?

Like playing with those things, accepting those things, recognizing your autonomy and owning it are so powerful and the Devil is like allowing us to explore our own powers in that way. So I think it’s about just like recognizing that you’re never gonna be all love and light. Like that’s actually really dumb.

And if you wanna live the full range of human experiences, it means embracing all aspects of yourself. And it’s all about balance, you know? Like you can take those chains off whenever you want, but sometimes it might feel good to know that you’re connected to something. It might feel good to have that balance, but you can step away and re cultivate that sense of equilibrium within yourself.

But like your desires, your shame, the parts of yourself that feel. Sticky and dark. That’s the key to your evolution. It’s like the Devil and then the Tower, and then it’s the star. It’s like playing with that darkness at a found and then transforming things at a foundational level, going from the Devil to the Tower.

That allows the rebirth and perspective of the star. So I think it’s all about just like not getting too caught up in the woulds and shoulds and just like embracing all aspects of yourself.

Grace: Absolutely. And the Devil card is associated with the astrology sign, zodiac sign, Capricorn. So, you mentioned like the building up.

I feel like it’s also a building up of oneself and one’s resources and one’s foundation and understanding one’s pleasure and understanding oneself by exploring, right? Because how do we know we’re, even if we’re told things, that doesn’t mean we know. I think. We learn the most through experience.

Gabriela: Exactly.

And the Capricorn and the double card are ruled by Saturn, which is the planet of containers. It’s the planet of growth. It’s like Saturn is daddy. It’s, you are good for Saturn, they’ll reward you. But like Saturn’s gonna punish you if you don’t like honor it. If you don’t like honor your word. If you don’t honor, like I’m in the midst of my Saturn Return.

So I know him. I know you daddy, I know you know, I feel you. But it’s like when you’re able to like do be a good girl for Saturn, be a good boy for Saturn, like the Devil is like smiling at you. You’re able to like build again. Like you said, you’re able to climb them mountain and like the goat, you’re able to adapt to see your land like the seagull and you’re able to like create something that was stronger than it would’ve been in the first place.

✨ Fast Five Questions

Grace: Yeah, for sure. So now we’re gonna move into our fast five questions. And I know you mentioned throughout the interview what your Moon Sign was, but what is your Sun, Moon and Rising for everyone?

Gabriela: I’m an Aquarius Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Libra Rising.

Grace: And how do you resonate with that?

Gabriela: Oh, I’m like so about it. I feel like I’m always like being myself is my main thing in life pretty much. But like I feel like I’m either dressed like a succubus or a bimbo, which is like, to me, like my Moon and Rising. So I definitely feel that duality in me, in myself.

Grace: Yeah. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Gabriela: Just like keep being yourself. It’s safe to be yourself. It’s safe to be yourself. Yeah.

Grace: I love that. How would you define everyday magic?

Gabriela: Everyday magic is living a life in devotion connected to your mysticism and your spirituality and your intuition, and allowing it to be the web of your everyday life and not just something that you do.

Grace: Yeah. So having that deeper meaning within the little things. Yeah,

Gabriela: it’s like seeing the magic in everyone and everything instead of just when you’re doing a speller ritual for the Full Moon.

Grace: Yeah, I love that. What are some of your favorite rituals?

Gabriela: My favorite rituals are praying to my goddesses and meditating, smoking a joint, and writing in my journal.

Taking walks around my neighborhood with my twin sister on the weekends and like being under the Sun, maybe getting a coffee and reading a book. My favorite rituals are having sex, taking baths, spending time with my friends and connecting, dressing myself in something that makes me feel sexy and dancing my ass off.

Grace: Yes, yes to all of that. What are you looking forward to in the near future?

Gabriela: I’m just looking forward for, to all the different parts of my work and my life coming together. Like I feel like there’s a lot of different parts of, and streams coming together and like I’m looking forward to sharing more visually and sharing more in my like writing and to just continue being like an esoteric bimbo and sacred slut. Yeah.

✨ Collective Reading from the Goddess of Love Tarot by Gabriela Herstik

Grace: Love that. Yes. And so we’re gonna wrap our interview with a collective reading. From Gabriela and her goddess of love Tarot deck, and she, she’s already got the cards set up and there was like a beautiful ritual that Gabriela did offscreen.

Gabriela: I’m just gonna shuffle now, so I’m just gonna do that and I’m just asking what we collectively need to know right now.

Let’s see.

Ooh, I got the Four of Swords reversed. So I think this is like, I wanna say it’s like Moon in Libra or something, but the Four of Swords is really about like waiting. Like when I think of the Four of Swords, I think of the time to like kind of just integrate.

It’s not necessarily a time where you’re like taking action. It’s more of a time when you may be kind of like putting yourself in an anxiety spiral almost. It’s like a little bit of thinking of a lot of stuff. Four swords is Jupiter and Libra, so finding abundance in balance. In this car you’ll see that there’s like both butterflies and chrysalis.

It’s kind of representative and like a pathway. There’s a door opening for something, there’s flowers there, and the moment of rest and the importance of that rest before you’re beginning something anew. Grace and I are recording this. Two days after the eclipse, like the total Solar Eclipse, and I don’t know how it was for you, but it was fucking crazy over here.

Everybody I knew went through it. Yesterday morning before 10:30 AM I saw two fires, like a hou, like a building was on fire. Something on the overpass. Freeway was on fire. I know so many people who’ve had deep anxiety the past few days. Eclipses are intense. They are like New Moons on steroids. They are a time when we’re clearing things out to make room for the new, and whenever there, there’s like a vacuum, the universe is going to fill it.

That traction happens. It’s scary. Like we naturally want to stay in the comfort. Of what we know if we know we’re gonna grow. Because growth requires us to be in the unknown and we just subconsciously don’t wanna do that. So this coming up reversed, I think, is the fact that like we have been in that process of integration and we’re almost done.

Like the fortification is not happened yet. We’re still in the chrysalis. The conscious go is turning more into something solidified. We have, I think another, like one more eclipse right in like Taurus or Scorpio, maybe the Scorpio Full Moon eclipse. I’m not quite sure. I don’t think we’re out of eclipse season yet, but like this is really just like a time where we’re also doing a lot of like mental transformation beneath the surface.

That is not quite finished yet, but it’s almost done. Like I know this for myself, my other friends who have businesses like. If you’ve been struggling, if you’ve been rebranding, if you’ve been kind of just like thinking on how you can make these shifts, how you can shift these patterns, it’s like it feels like right now we’re not doing anything, and it feels like right now we’re like in the dark night of the soul, but that kind of contemplation and that stillness that we’ve given ourselves, those things are going to manifest tangibly.

It’s just like not the time yet. It’s just continue like journaling, doing the affirmations, talking to people, taking baths, being in stillness. And if you feel like things are almost coming to a head, it’s ’cause they’re, but it’s definitely a weird time right now.

Grace: Yeah. The cosmic energies are swirling for sure.

And I know over here so much like anxiety and I was like. Physically feeling like my stomach was queasy all of last week. And then I just kept hearing sirens like all throughout the weekend and I was just like, what is happening?

Gabriela: Oh, and it’s like there’s so much Aries energy right now too, and Aries is like, not only are they the first Zodiac sign, there are fire signs, so it’s like combustible energy.

I think of Aries, it’s like the Fool, but it’s also like if you think of like an engine where like little explosions, it’s like Aries is like that. It’s combustible and it’s chaotic. So it just like think when there’s a lot of Aries energy, especially with Mercury Retrograde.

We’re just like high strung right now and that can definitely manifest physically. So I feel you.

Grace: Yeah. Yeah. Well, fingers crossed we make it for the rest of the year invoking goddess energy in all of the deities that wanna help us mere mortals along our path.

Gabriela: Yes, exactly.

✨ Closing Statements

Grace: Yeah. So I just wanna thank you so much for coming onto the podcast and sharing your unique wisdom, your unique perspective, and for being you, right?

Because there’s no one else that can be you. And I loved hearing more about your journey and also like that our paths have crossed again. How cool is that?

Gabriela: Yeah, no, thank you for like having me and there’s no one like you either, and I just really appreciate the questions and how deep you got with me.

So thank you for making the time.

Grace: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Until next time, bye!

Gabriela: Bye.

✨ End of Episode – Make Sure to Leave a Podcast Review!

Grace: Thanks so much for tuning in to today’s episode with Gabriela Herstik. Gabriela’s unabashed ability to be herself no matter what is an inspiration, embodying oneself through sensuality and sexuality.

The Devil card can also speak to facing one’s fears, whether that be looking at old patterns that keep us stuck, shame spirals, and how we can free ourselves from our perceived limitations.

We did talk a lot about sex today, and it’s such a taboo subject, very Eighth House, but this can apply to any other blocks that you might be experiencing in your life. Creativity is often linked to sex, especially in the sacral chakra, and it could be interesting to explore one’s relationship to our sensuality.

How you feel about it and what it brings up for you. You have all of the resources to unlock all of the mysteries and what greater mystery to discover than your own soul.

And as a reminder, we will be doing a giveaway of the Goddess of Love Tarot deck on Instagram. You can also check out the deck unboxing of this deck on the Mystic Mondays YouTube channel.

Until next time, my loves. Sending you Grace today and every day.

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