Chats with Aunt Jacki

Jacki Smith
  • 5.0 (1)
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I’m Jacki Smith, but you can call me Aunt Jacki. After thirty years of building a life around being a witch, I’ve learned that magic isn’t an escape from your reality—it’s the way you master it. Chats with Aunt Jacki is a space for honest conversations about how we navigate today’s world using the tools of the magic. We’re talking about the real stuff: the Akashic Records, conjure, candles, and the grit of spell crafting. I’m sharing my own journey, the struggles, successes, and the "notes from the field" I’ve gathered along the way, to help you listen to your own intuition. Each episode, I’ll tackle the topics on our hearts and minds, sometimes joined by fellow practitioners to compare notes on how we stay grounded while working with the unseen. Practical magic for the life you’re actually living. Pull up a chair. You’re already more magical than you think.

  1. 1d ago

    Moon Magic, Manifesting, and the Work Nobody Talks About

    Manifesting has gotten weird. Somewhere along the way, it became less about intention, action, self-awareness, and magic—and more about perfect thoughts, high vibes, expensive coaching, and making a vision board pretty enough for the universe to approve. In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I’m talking with author, tarot creator, professional witch, and speaker Jen Sankey about moon magic, manifesting, desire, shadow work, and the part people tend to skip: the actual work. We talk about what happens when you realize you are manifesting what you think you should want instead of what you genuinely desire, why magic works better when it fits your real life, and how the phases of the moon can offer structure without becoming another set of rules. We also get into gratitude practices, rest and integration, working with the dark moon, reclaiming the parts of yourself you may have labeled as “too much,” and learning to recognize your own natural rhythms instead of forcing yourself into someone else’s version of a magical practice. Jen also shares the story behind her book Manifesting with the Moon: A Lunar Guide to Magic, her tarot decks, and the way she has used lunar work as a practical framework for navigating change. If manifesting has started to feel performative, complicated, or just a little ick, this conversation is for you. In this episode: • Why manifestation requires action • How to tell the difference between desire and “should” • Building a magical practice that fits your actual life • Working with the different phases of the moon • Gratitude, rest, and integration • The magic of the dark moon • Shadow work and reclaiming hidden strengths • Why you are still the most important magical tool you have Learn more about Jen Sankey and her work at StardustWandererTarot.com Find Jacki Smith, book a reading, and explore more blogs and episodes at AuntJacki.com.

  2. Aug 31

    Sound Shifts Energy: Music, Magic & Protection with Sharon Knight

    What if you don’t need a stronger energetic boundary? What if you need a better song? In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I sit down with musician, songwriter, magical practitioner, and longtime friend Sharon Knight to explore how music can shift our energy, support protection work, and become part of a magical practice. We talk about singing as an embodied form of magic, rhythm and trance, drumming when words aren’t enough, singing bowls and resonance, and the music we use to focus, release emotion, or change the way we move through a room. We also get into the difference between protection that supports us and protection that turns us into full-on porcupines, why you do not have to be a good singer for singing to matter, and how a song can become an energetic container you carry with you. This is a conversation about music as vibration, expression, protection, communication, and magic—and about becoming more intentional with the soundtrack you bring into your life. Featuring Sharon Knight.

  3. Aug 24

    The Ancestors We Carry: Roots, Place & Everyday Magic with Emily Bolander

    What does it mean to carry your ancestors with you—even when you no longer live on the land they came from? In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I’m joined by my longtime friend Emily Bolander for a conversation about ancestry, place, memory, and the everyday ways we stay connected to the people who came before us. Emily shares how growing up in Central New York shaped her spiritual life, what it was like to leave a place where her family roots run deep, and how ancestor work became a way of carrying that connection forward. We talk about graveyards, family objects, handwritten signatures, food, ancestor altars, grave dirt, cemetery water, and the strange little ways our dead sometimes make themselves known. We also get practical about ancestor work: how to begin an altar, what to do when you don’t know where your ancestors are buried, how to work with complicated family histories, and why relationship matters more than doing everything “perfectly.” This is a conversation about roots, belonging, remembrance, and the magic that can happen when we stop treating our ancestors like history and start recognizing them as part of our living story. Guest Bio Emily Bolander is a longtime magical practitioner, tarot reader, Reiki Master, teacher, and spiritual consultant. For nearly three decades, she has worked with tarot, candle magic, folk traditions, ancestors, saints, Hecate, crossed conditions, and the energy of place. She has also founded and led a coven for many years, bringing deep experience in magical practice, teaching, and community leadership. Guest Contact / Links Email: Pineridgewitch@gmail.com Instagram: @HaggithaHawthorne Those are the two contact methods Emily gives at the end of the episode.

  4. Aug 11

    The Sacred Hustle: Magic, Money & Opportunity with Jason Miller

    This is a special extended episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki. What happens when magic stops being something you do on the side and becomes part of how you make decisions, build opportunities, and earn a living? In this episode, Jacki talks with author and Strategic Sorcery founder Jason Miller about the real intersection of magic and entrepreneurship. They get into money, pricing, opportunity, prosperity, spiritual practice, growth, and the very unglamorous reality of having to build something sturdy enough to hold the success you keep asking for. They also tackle deservingness, manifestation culture, magical “vibration,” the fear many practitioners have around charging fairly, and why magic works best when it is woven into practical action instead of used as a substitute for it. Along the way, Jacki and Jason share stories about magical business, financial set points, missed opportunities, sacred hustle, and one central idea that runs through the whole conversation: Magic is real — and it works how other real things work. We went long because the conversation was too good to cut short.

  5. Jul 27

    Life Gets Lifey: Ancestors, Healing, and Real-World Magic with Wendy Mata

    Life gets lifey—even when you are deeply spiritual, doing your healing work, and trying to stay connected to your magic. In this episode, I sit down with Wendy Mata, author of Bruja Curandera: Spells and Rituals from a Mexican Healer and Witch, to talk about ancestor work, limpias, spiritual bypassing, and what it really means to become a magical person. We talk about building a reciprocal relationship with your ancestors, setting boundaries with spirits, calling back the parts of yourself that were lost through trauma, and using cleansing work to release what no longer belongs to you. Wendy also shares why magic works best alongside therapy, medical care, practical support, and the very human process of feeling what you feel. We also explore cultural appropriation, closed practices, and the difference between respectfully learning from a tradition and claiming authority you have not earned. This is a grounded conversation about healing, responsibility, ancestry, and remembering that you are the magic.

  6. Jul 8

    Tarot, Fearlessness, and the Flawed Human Condition with Shavonne Readus

    What if confidence is not something you either have or don’t have, but something you practice one honest choice at a time? In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, Jacki sits down with Shavonne Readus, also known as V of Red Light Readings, author of Tarot for the Flawed and Fearless: 22 Keys to Master Self-Confidence. Together, they talk about tarot as a mirror for self-trust, not a crutch for avoiding the messy parts of being human. Using the Major Arcana as a path of growth, Jacki and V explore The Fool, The Tower, Judgment, and The Star as cards that can help us understand new beginnings, collapse, forgiveness, hope, fear, and the courage to keep becoming ourselves. This conversation is for anyone who has ever wondered how to trust themselves again, especially when life is changing, old patterns are crumbling, or the next step feels uncomfortable. Because fearlessness does not mean you are never afraid. Sometimes it means you finally stop letting fear be the loudest voice in the room. Find Shavonne Readus / V at Red Light Readings: Instagram: @redlightreadings Website: redlightreadings.com Facebook: Red Light Readings Find Jacki at AuntJacki.com for readings, blogs, and more episodes of Chats with Aunt Jacki.

  7. Jun 22

    When Family Patterns Surface: Shadow Work with Adult Children

    The hardest family pattern to recognize may be the one where we realize we are part of someone else’s story. In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, Jacki Smith explores family patterns, shadow work, ancestral healing, and the uncomfortable moment when we stop being only the child trying to understand our parents — and become the parent our adult child may be trying to understand. After teaching about inherited beliefs, family legacies, ancestral contracts, and healing family patterns through the Akashic Records, Jacki reflects on the humbling truth that our children may not experience us the way we experience ourselves. This is especially tender in mother daughter relationships, parent and adult child relationships, and any family dynamic where love, grief, boundaries, repair, and old wounds live side by side. We know our intentions. They know their experience. Both can be true. This episode is an honest conversation about motherhood, adult children, impact versus intention, emotional healing, spiritual healing, distance, repair, grief, humility, and the magic of asking better questions before we defend the wound. Because family patterns are not museum pieces. They are living things.

  8. Jun 8

    Are you Making it up? Understanding Akashic Records, Intuition, and Inner Knowing

    Most people imagine the Akashic Records as a giant cosmic filing cabinet — distant, mysterious, and only accessible to the extra-special spiritually attuned. That is not how I experience them. In this episode, I’m talking about the Akashic Records from lived experience: what they are, what they are not, and how they can help us understand the patterns, fears, blocks, and old stories shaping our lives. I share how I first found myself working in the Records, why consent matters deeply in this work, and how to tell the difference between anxious mental storytelling and true Akashic insight. We’ll also talk about intuition, psychic information, mediumship, imagination, grounding, and why the Records are not here to help you spy on other people or bypass common sense. They are here to help you understand yourself more honestly. Because sometimes the wisdom you need does not arrive as a lightning bolt. Sometimes it feels like memory. Sometimes it sounds like a strange symbol. Sometimes it starts with the question, “Am I making this up?” And sometimes, that is exactly where the door opens. You can learn more about my work, book an Akashic Reading, or find my book DIY Akashic Wisdom at auntjacki.com. Until next time, trust your magic and keep your candle lit.

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About

I’m Jacki Smith, but you can call me Aunt Jacki. After thirty years of building a life around being a witch, I’ve learned that magic isn’t an escape from your reality—it’s the way you master it. Chats with Aunt Jacki is a space for honest conversations about how we navigate today’s world using the tools of the magic. We’re talking about the real stuff: the Akashic Records, conjure, candles, and the grit of spell crafting. I’m sharing my own journey, the struggles, successes, and the "notes from the field" I’ve gathered along the way, to help you listen to your own intuition. Each episode, I’ll tackle the topics on our hearts and minds, sometimes joined by fellow practitioners to compare notes on how we stay grounded while working with the unseen. Practical magic for the life you’re actually living. Pull up a chair. You’re already more magical than you think.

Information

  • Creator
    Jacki Smith
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Jacki Smith