Rissa Miller is an editor, author, herbalist, seer, and storyteller.

Her storytelling expertise stems from extensive research into the area of esoteric history, including ghosts, witchcraft, cryptids, and folklore. Rissa believes  the most enduring stories teach us not only about humanity’s past, but also give reason to reflect on our own present beliefs and realities. She often leads ghost tours and gives lively history talks. 

It’s rare to find Rissa without tea. No matter where she is or what she’s doing, a mug of green tea is her constant companion. Tea is one part of her love of plants. She holds a deep reverence for plants and the answers they offer, whether as tasseographs in a teacup, smoke in the air, a healing salve for the skin, a plant on the windowsill, or nourishment for the body. 

In addition to adoring tea and herbs, her love of plants is made complete by the fact she is a vegan of 28 years. She’s also a published author and poetess, and has had several plays produced in the mid-Atlantic area.

Website: teaandsmoke.com

In this enlightening episode of Deepest Spirituality, host Sunshine with guest Rissa Miller  delve into transformative dialogues that bridge ancient practices with contemporary spiritual growth. Rissa invites listeners into her world of tea leaf reading, sharing how this time-honored tradition informs her personal and spiritual evolution. Sunshine immerses in her story, probing the nuances of Rissa’s calling and the ritual’s profound integration into daily life. The conversation shifts towards deeply introspective themes as they unpack personal tales of trauma and healing, underscoring the pivotal role of self-discovery and authenticity in life’s journey. They eloquently emphasize the need for curiosity and historical awareness, especially when exploring the realm of witchcraft. This episode stands as a testament to the power of spiritual exploration and offers listeners invaluable insights into harmonizing past wisdom with modern personal growth.

Sunshine   00:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to deepest spirituality, you are here with, you know your one co host today sunshine, the fiecare of psychic medium, hopefully we will have RAM, the self proclaimed builder of bridges and breaker of mold joining us I’m not quite positive where he’s at. But we we do have a spectacular guests here today. So before we jump into that, as always want to remind you, if you’re hearing this podcast for the first time, and you really love what you’re hearing, please go check out the other episodes, we always have some pretty fascinating guests on and some really great conversations and topics you’re not going to want to miss. So that being said, we’re going to always start with our opening ritual. So dear friends, if you can, if you can be safely and can close your eyes, we would encourage you to do that, right. So if you’re driving or you’re walking, keep their eyes open, you can still do this. And we’re just going to start by taking a deep breath in through our nose. And just exhaling it out through our mouths. Feeling yourself to settle in, just allowing yourself to be right here be present. gift yourself just this moment. While we connect, taking another deep breath in, and exhaling out I want you to imagine at the very top of your head, the crown of your head, a bright, beautiful white beam of light, extending upward, upward past maybe the ceiling above you. Maybe through the trees, whatever’s up there, just above your head, extending all the way past the clouds through the upper atmosphere of the Earth below exits the Earth atmosphere and continues past the moon. past all the planets, we just keep going. You know, imagine just like maybe even scrolling out on a mouse and you can just see how far it continues to expand reach beyond all of the galaxies all the way to the far edges of the universe. And as you notice that bright white beam of light always extend to the point that it almost can’t go any further. I want you to take notice that on the very end is a beautiful bright white star. That star may be twinkling at you or maybe jiggling a little or turning. I want you to notice that star though because that star represents your higher self. That part of you that is connected the entire collective consciousness. And as you settle in on your star, I want you to notice that not too far is the feller star. But that stars pink. And that star itself is just waving and dancing and twinkling. That star represents me my higher self. And as you take note of your star and my star, you watch as two silver threads begin to extend outwards from the center of each until they reach all the way in the middle. Now that your star and my star connected by that silver thread, you finally look around and you watch as all of these other stars begin to appear around the left the right front of you, behind you. All of these stars represent all of the other souls that exist every other soul represented as part of that collective consciousness. And just as you take in the very last glance you watch now is all of those stars begin to connect in the same way with that silver thread. Connecting to you to me to each other. Taking another deep breath in and exhaling, I want you to settle in on the thought that all of these stars that are connected the representation of collective consciousness, the fact that we are all one. Again, another deep breath in and exhaling out, I want you to return back and notice your star. And now that we’re all connected here, ready to engage in this amazing conversation, I want you to slide all the way back down that white beam following it past through the entire cosmos, all of the other galaxies continuing to follow it into the Milky Way past all of the planets in our solar system, past the moon, path, the upper atmosphere of the Earth, through all of the clouds, the trees, through whatever ceiling or surface might be above you all the way back down to the crown of your head. Taking another deep breath in, and exhaling out. I’m gonna count back from three to one. And when I reach one, we’ll all be right here and ready to start. Three. Open your eyes now if you haven’t, to look around and just notice where you are. And finally, one. All right, my dear. My guest here today, I’m going to ask you to say it one more time, say your name for me. So I can introduce you in this Rissa. I’m super excited. I have a another amazing psychic as well as it sounds like many other things here. Rissa Miller is joining us. And we found a whole slew of really great questions and things to dig into. But as we start all of these podcasts, the very first thing you stumbled across us our podcasts and decided to apply what what, what interested you about the deepest spirituality podcast?

Rissa Miller  07:23

Actually, it was you mostly? So when I remembering finding you and looking through your website, actually, you know, some of us still enter things in the old school way. It was you it was you talking about your vision and how you see the world and the fact that you called yourself that take care of psychics is so cute. I really liked all of all of the personality that you put into the writing website.

Sunshine   07:54

Oh, you’re so sweet. I appreciate that. I, I definitely. I definitely enjoy being able to have the time to share those kinds of stories. Well, that’s, that’s incredible. And you know, I know our listeners have heard my story. So we’re not gonna go back there. So why don’t you share some of ours like you? You know, we were talking a little bit before we really started but I would love to hear about your own personal journey, and how it has landed you here with us today.

Rissa Miller  08:27

So yeah, wow. Start where start there. So you know, I think I’ve always been destined for this particular spiritual journey. And I can think of so many incidents, even in my childhood that were just a little different. As a little girl, I was very aware of ghosts energy I could I saw them, I was very aware that most of them were not bad. And that they kind of just wanted someone to talk to. I actually, I have a shirt that says ghosts get lonely too. So I think that I it took me a while to find my way to the path perfectly. If such a thing exists, because I was sideways on so many things. You know, I grew up in the 80s. It was a time there was a lot of fear in society. And I was always told like, it’s fine that you can see and talk to spirits, but don’t tell anyone. And I also grew up in a family where terror was part of our tradition. It goes back several generations, but it was a secret. I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. Because you know, there was all this fear in society because of Satanic Panic and all this stuff going on in people’s communities where basically it was not altogether different than historical witch hunts. So and you know, I also I would say, my parents took me to a lot of historic places. And it was it boring to me because I kept thinking like, how do people live this way? How what was it like? So all the things that I am, I kind of always was, I just didn’t see it right away. So, as far as my actual, like, true spiritual path, you know, there were points in my life where I felt kind of lost spiritually. And I felt like I was so alone and didn’t belong anywhere with anyone, and was really different. And I didn’t realize that a lot of other people felt that way too. So it, it was such a revelation to realize that I was not alone. And there were lots of people who felt just like me, and they knew that most of the mainline religions weren’t for them. But they didn’t know what was. And it the, the not belonging part was difficult for me at certain points in my life. But then as I got older, I, I became skeptical. Actually, when I hit my 20s I, you know, I also have this background in journalism and research. And it’s very fact based. So I was like, I’m just gonna go all this way. I’m gonna, you know, there’s, there’s always going to be a balance, right? So, you know, you can swing too far in any direction. And that’s exactly what I did. I was just like, well, this path is let me down. I’m going to go this way. So that’s how I lived for a while. And you know, I, I loved my career I loved I still love research. It’s a great pleasure for me to research on. However, over time, I found that that wasn’t the answer to everything. Facts can only take up so much space in your heart, really?

Sunshine   11:48

I love that quote. Right. So much like that. I don’t know. Is that yours?

Rissa Miller  11:53

I just made it up right now.

Sunshine   11:54

Oh, god, that was beautiful. I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s so hope, right? That is just so potent. Because you’re you’re spot on with that. But please continue. Please continue.

Rissa Miller  12:05

So yes, I after realizing that, indeed, facts can only take up so much space in your hearts, that the rest has to be filled by something a bit more ethereal. I decided to gradually start finding myself again. And I don’t even know that it was a moment where I was like, This is what I’m gonna do. I think it was something that I just naturally started to gravitate towards. Because I needed to I felt ungrounded and unglued all the time, I was physically sick a lot. And I needed something else, my life had to change. And that was really all there is to it. I mean, the the pragmatic parts of life you have to do, right. But then there’s so much more that is, is there to to fill all those nooks and crannies. And I was missing all of that. So I started to find my way back to who I had been before. And I feel as though society has changed enough that it felt safe, or maybe I’m older and more competent, and I just felt safe. So we’re both maybe, but I picked up seaweed breathing again. I picked up my tarot cards again. And actually I do have my grandmother’s tarot cards.

Sunshine   13:21

So I love that beautiful thing. Yeah. So what kind of cards are they?

Rissa Miller  13:25

They are Terra de Marsay.

Sunshine   13:27

Ah, yeah, I do know. I think a lot of the families that that’s the one that they use. Yeah.

Rissa Miller  13:34

Well, I mean, the teratoma say is so much older than the Smith Coleman. You know, hammer, rather Coleman Smith deck. Yeah, tech wasn’t even drawn until the early 1900s. Yes. So and it wasn’t widely circulated until the late 70s. So so here I am being a historian.

Sunshine   13:54

I love it. I think that’s great. So you, you went down, I you know, I’m just I’m just curious. I mean, so you said you weren’t feeling what was there anything? Was there like a pivotal point? Was there a turning point? Was there one thing that you can kind of, or was it just this you know, kind of energetic of displacement.

Rissa Miller  14:19

I was one misfortune after the next each time I thought I had fallen to the lowest I was not there yet. And a lot of that kind of, I mean, there was so many things that layered on top of each other, losing a job, the pandemic. My grandparents dying. A good friend dying, like these things just kept falling on stacking on top of each other. My dog got cancer, like it was like thing after thing after saying every time I thought I had hit the bottom, I had not hit the bottom there was more space to go down. And it also made me realize how much I had really not much. I always appreciated the people and the things in my life, but maybe I didn’t realize how great they were until I started losing them. And it became a spot where I had to decide to either do nothing or do something. And for me, it kind of became, I need to find myself again, I need to find a my strength and be my willpower. And from that, who am I, because I couldn’t have told you at the time, I had no idea. I almost everything that I had to find myself by was gone. And I had to figure out, I wouldn’t say from the ground up, because, you know, I did have a lot of life experience to pull from, but I definitely had to figure out who I was in a way from scratch. So it’s, it was probably the most difficult period of my life, a spiritual reawakening. But it’s super important because I realized that I had been outside of my authenticity for a very long time. And, you know, the only one I really hurt with that was me.

Sunshine   16:15

Yeah. Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s been a very common thing that I witnessed, you know, when these people step into living the life, and I even said this, like, when you’re continuing to follow somebody else’s advice and guidance, and whose life are you actually living? When you when you aren’t looking at and reflecting, you know, within your own self, and trying to live to what your desires are, and what makes you happy, then, you know, are you actually living your own life anymore, I had

Rissa Miller  16:46

to also let go worrying about what other people wanted. And it was a very big thing for me to realize that I was going to lose friends, by being myself, and nobody wants that, because you feel like you’ve invested time and love and people. But as someone else, as someone who was not you. You

Sunshine   17:05

know, it’s it’s interesting, because the way that you’re describing, you know, we have a similar energetic to like the story, right? I’m a recovering alcoholic, I lost myself in addiction. Right? I, you know, found myself in a rock bottom once again, you know, I didn’t have a whole slew of things that were like, you know, but I, I was destroying myself, right. I was, I was D prioritizing my health, my happiness, my joy. For? Who knows, right? Who knows anything else besides like me? You know, and I, I’m just curious Rissa. How? Well, there’s two things that one, I am going to ask like, you know, how do you like, I’d love to hear how you pulled yourself out. But I want to before we do that, I want to there’s something that you had said, and you said you were facing two choices. Do nothing or do something. And I want to pause there because I often think that people don’t realize inaction is a choice that you’re making.

Rissa Miller  18:24

Absolutely. No answer is an answer.

Sunshine   18:27

Yes. No answer is an answer not doing something is is doing is the lack of doing something. Right. And so here you are, you know, and I say this just to pause for anybody in the audience that’s listening, you know, and if you’re feeling some of these things that you know, resent explain your feeling, maybe the hell are this misfortunes or, you know, whatever it may be, you have an eye, you know, this energetic of I, you know, I use the word displacement, you have a choice, you always have a choice. And that choice is, is typically really easy. Do nothing, do something that Yeah, absolutely. So, what did you do? Right, you know, I mean, you’ve talked about a couple of things there that were pretty Oh, you know, losing family members is rough, losing people that we love is rough. You know, our animals. I mean, sometimes I think our animals becoming sick, you know, can be can hurt our hearts even more than when than what a human does, right? Why don’t you pull yourself out of this one day at a time?

Rissa Miller  19:29

Honestly, it’s, you know, when I’m reading for other people, and you see these movies that are so unrealistic where someone will go through a crisis, and like within 20 minutes of the film, they turned their whole life around, they bought a new house. They lost 25 pounds magically, and they’ve met a great person. That doesn’t happen in real life that they love their commodity.

Sunshine   19:53

So give them some credit. It’s like the scene shows up and then right at the bottom, it says three months later, yeah. Right,

Rissa Miller  20:01

It’s pretty much try like four or five years. So, you know, one of the interesting things, I did talk to a therapist through that time, and it was really important for me to seek support. I didn’t know what to do. And during 2020, let’s be honest, nobody asked me what to do either. So I did seek the support of a therapist, and she was really great in telling me that like, you know, you’re gonna go through a grief process. And it’s going to take time, and it’s going to take years, you’re going to need years to feel like yourself again, and you’re never going to be the same. And she was completely right. By the way, there were definitely peeling off phases I’ve been through. So what did I physically do, I started taking walks. That was a big thing for me, literally getting out of a space and seeing the world. Now, back then, in 2020, taking walks was about the only thing anybody could say. But it was really good to remind me that the world is a big place. And sometimes I would get in my car and go take a walk in another town or take a walk with a different Park. And while I had my dog, still, I worked with him. And we would just walk in new places all the time. And it would remind me that the world’s actually pretty big. And my tragedy wasn’t make I wasn’t the only one grieving losses, I wasn’t the only one who was confused. And I started journaling as well. I feel book after book after book at any at any given time, I do have multiple journals going and I have one where I started putting my hopes and dreams. And then they have one where I list what I’m grateful for. And then I have another word put everything jarque where I’m angry, where I’m sad, where I really want to tell somebody off, but I can’t, because it’s not the appropriate thing. All of that goes somewhere else, that it can be burned later. And then those were like the two most simple practices and I, I feel like when I described them, it almost oversimplifies how important they were in helping you just keep moving forward and not fall into a worse and worse state of mind. And they mattered immensely. And I started looking at my grandmother’s tarot cards, especially because she was gone. It gave me a connection to come back to her. It gave me a way to reconnect with her. And I started remembering all of the things about them that I had shared with my family over the years. It was a wonderful reimagining of my life, looking at the journey of the taro. For those of you have any listeners who don’t know, the taro is actually a story. And it starts with the fool. And it ends with the world with every other card of the 78 in between tells a story just like a novel or a movie or a play. And it’s a journey that starts with great face. And I realized that that’s where I was, I was beginning a journey of great faith. I was I had also at the same time gone through a divorce, I was single for the first time in almost 20 years. I didn’t know how to date, I still don’t I don’t know that anybody does, really. But there was just so much to me that was suddenly new in the world. And you know, for Well, I got stuck in that I’m too old and it’s too late mindset. I’m too old to change your career. I’m too old to find love again, I’m too old for this or that. So that was really just my self doubt talking. I’m not too old at all. I realized that there were people who find love in their 70s There are people to start new careers in their 80s. So in my 40s There’s still plenty of time for anything I can dream of to happen. I mean, since then I’ve taken dance classes again, I one of them was aerial dance hanging from a lira, which is a big metal ring that hangs from the ceiling. I have gone on trips by myself. I have made wonderful new friends that are the right people for me now. And yes, yeah, when you go through a major life change, some of your friends fall away. And it’s okay to let them build lovingly. And again, it’s a super easy thing for me to say, but it was harder to live it. And it’s one of those things where you know, you have to be like, it’s okay to let go of something that’s wrong for me. Like you wouldn’t keep a dress that looks awful on you. Well, maybe you would, but you shouldn’t you should let it go. You should take it to you know a thrift shop and donate it to somebody who looks great and that can have the dress. Same with old friendships. It’s okay to outgrow them. And it’s better for them to you know is what I learned.

Sunshine   24:46

No, I’ll just you know for anybody that’s listening is recited saying the word friends. You know, friendships. I want to emphasize that is relationships period. Yeah, you’re right, right, right. And so this can be this can be Friends, this can be family, it can be careers. This can be organizations that you’re involved in, where you know where you live, you know, when when you make a decision, you know, and like I said, I love that you actually say one day at a time. I mean, that is the recovery way, when we are recovering and returning back to who our true self is, right? When we’re recovering from all the bullshit that society put upon us and told us what we should do and how we should be. Right? We have to take that one day at a time because you have all of these years of conditioning, right? societal conditioning, familial conditioning, whatever it may be cultural conditioning, that you have to, like, mentally kind of on take off, right? It’s too old to do things as a societal type of thing, right. So, you know, the, all the commercials with the, you know, reverse mortgage, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to pick like, really? Okay, now, folks. Yeah, that’s a it’s just so important. And I don’t know who in the world is listening to this right now. But I will tell you, I’ve like chills running through that this is potent for someone. You get to make a choice. To change your life. You get to make a choice to leave behind the things that are creating misery, heartache, or, or you’re suffering from. Right. And that’s not always easy. But it is your choice to make. That anybody else. 

Rissa Miller  26:41

Absolutely, agree.

Sunshine   26:44

No, I love that. And I love you know, kind of, you know, you’re on the other side, and you’re not bullshitting like it is. It is a couple of years, I celebrate October, it’ll be five years that I’ve been in recovery, you know, and it actually it’s, it’s yeah, thank you. And it’s, there’s still there’s still things that I’m still like, facing and working through. Because many, many years of, you know, drinking and abusing myself. In my recovery, I’m having repressed memories come up. I’m having all sorts of things. Yeah, you know, and you just you do but you’re in a different mindset, you’re in a different perspective in life. And so you’re able to handle those things differently. Rissa, you mentioned that you’re a journalist by trade, how does that help this journey?

Rissa Miller  27:34

Well, the one thing you can do as a journalist that you’re trained to do is to approach things without bias. Now we’re all human, we do have some bias, but you’re trained to recognize when you’re looking at things in a biased way. So you know, I’m also a historian. And I will also start by saying, all history has a bias. It depends on who’s telling the history. And I learned that kind of early. I had an amazing teacher in high school, he was phenomenal. And he taught us that all history has a perspective. And, you know, for example, I like to show this as my example, because everybody gets it. But we had our exam on World War Two, the first row of desks had to write an essay from the perspective of Germany as if they lived in Germany, they had to say what the war was about, from their perspective. The next row had to write their perspective from France. What would a French person say this war was about? And how would they react to it? The next row, my row, we had to pretend that we were in Japan. And we were writing our perspective. And I think the other one was Spain. But nobody got to have an American perspective on World War Two. We all had to take the thought process and point of view of another nation on the war. This is how history works. Absolutely. History depends on his telling it, you will always have a bias. Now, as a journalist, you’re supposed to leave your bias behind and represent all sides equally. Now, in a situation like World War Two, you definitely need a few books to do that. But in most situations in life, being able to step outside of your own bias really helps you to clear away your own preconceptions about any situation. It allows you to approach with a clean slate. So no matter what someone looks like, or how they’re presenting or building looks like or whatever, you immediately can wipe the slate clean and say all right, let’s start at the ground level on whatever the situation person’s circumstance is. And come at it clear mindedly I think that’s one of the best gifts of journalism that and it taught me to be able to talk to anyone.

Sunshine   29:46

and that’s always a beneficial thing. Yeah, but no, I don’t agree and it makes me think about one of the things that I I’ve got these little like things in my recovery you these are happening limits. And I almost two years ago now, I was doing a firewall and we had to leave something behind and walked into something. And I wanted to leave behind judgment and replace it and walk into curiosity. So that’s kind of Yeah. So that’s that’s a bit of what you’re saying, Yeah, I’ve encouraged a lot of people, like if you can let go of judgment and replace it with curiosity, I’m like, Oh, wow. You know, like, I’ll give you an example for listeners, you know, somebody cuts you off in the highway judgment could be like, Oh, my God, what an asshole. Curiosity would be. I wonder why they’re going so fast. I wonder what’s happening in their life that’s causing them to drop this.

Rissa Miller  30:43

I also make a joke, and I will, oh, they’re probably doing espionage, they must get to where they’re, you know, going to save the nation. I gotta let them go by. Of course, but that’s not always the case. Maybe.

Sunshine   30:55

Yeah. But that’s a little micro example of, you know, and the more often that you do that, you know, can replace that judgment, or, you know, in kind of terms of what you’re saying this bias, especially on a spiritual journey, right, when we are facing something new that we’ve never seen before, you know, I mean, I all sorts of folks, like, you know, I mean, I talk about alien psychic. I mean, I talk about multiple, all sorts of things. But, you know, if, if people were to approach me with judgment and tell me, I’m crazy, they’re probably not gonna get a lot out of it, if they were to approach it with curiosity. I love it. Well, you know, you also had mentioned that you have a specialist in the witchy History of the United States. Where did that come about? How did you? I mean, I know like, we’ve talked a little bit about your background and some of the family but how do you start going down that path?

Rissa Miller  31:48

Well, I I am, I also am a practicing historian in that I study and make a pedo essay, part of my living from history. And that falls right in line with being a journalist. So I mean, it’s one kind of research for another, and I was a ghost tour guide, isolette, I was still a ghost. And, you know, one of the interesting things about getting into one aspect of any alcohol or supernatural paranormal thing is that it leads you on to the next. And so as it goes toward guide, sometimes people will say, Do you know the story of whatever witch? And I used to have to say, No, I don’t. And a lot of people even though I was at the time in Maryland, giving tours there, I still I still do. Some people would ask me things like, do you know about the bell witch? And I’m like, except that story is from Tennessee. I don’t know anything.

Sunshine   32:45

That was like that. That’s it? Yeah, that seems very far. I’m familiar with. I don’t know the story of hand. But I have read about that one.

Rissa Miller  32:52

It’s actually not a witch story at all. It’s a haunting. So all of the things. People would ask me questions all the time, or want to share their own stories. And I was like, you know, I need to know more about this. So I just started reading and studying and the first thing I did was develop a history of Maryland witches. And it was, it’s still a really popular program. It sells out almost every time it’s offered anywhere in Maryland. I went on to offer a history of Pennsylvania witches. And that pretty much settles out every time I offer it as well. It is a topic people want to understand. And here’s my feeling as to why here in America when I say which people think Salem is very significant. Salem not not to be sneezed at not to be trifled with it was a tragedy. And do I believe those women were actually witches? No. I think it was a frenzy caused by fear and superstition. I also do a lot of studying and superstitions because I think that fear and superstition fuel a whole lot of things in our society that are optional. That if we could choose to get curious, like you said, instead of just blindly following superstition Wow, what a happier place this would be. 

Sunshine   34:08

So that’s how there’s just it popped into my head. There’s a speech that’s on after school that Jim Carrey must have done at like the you know, the actor that must live your graduation but the whole speech is about literally in life we have two paths to choose from. That’s it. The path of love or the path of fear. 

Rissa Miller  34:28

I love that. I love that.

Sunshine   34:31

So you barreling which is Pennsylvania which is I’m and when you say programs, I’m just curious, are these offered like, you know through something?

Rissa Miller  34:41

Oh, usually for a museum. I’ve done them in cafes. I’ve done them in libraries. I’ve done them in people’s stores. I have done them at festivals. I’ve done them all kinds of places. Usually, my my actual talk length is about two hours. Sometimes I shortened it to an hour depending on the situation. I have no ever offered them virtually yet, but I got a lot of requests for it. But along the way, I have just kept studying other which history from around the United States. And it’s definitely different outside of the East Coast. The east coast where you have the original 13 colonies definitely had its own flavor, because they brought the witch trials with them. And then when you get into the West Coast, you have a lot more influence from Native people and Asia. And their belief systems were very different than what the colonists from Europe brought over. So the flavor changes dramatically as you go west United States. You’re nodding you’re like, that’s right. 

Sunshine   35:41

Oh, yeah. No, no, I mean, it’s, I mean, I probably haven’t studied is to the extent that you have, but it’s definitely there is a big difference in that and, you know, I, it’d be a very lovely, like, beautiful kind of map to watch kind of like the magical practices across the United States, it would be see, yeah, you know, seeing kind of how all of these things.

Rissa Miller  36:07

When each European nation really contributed their own background and history. So in Pennsylvania, for example, of the Germans came over and a lot. Well, in Pennsylvania, they call them Pennsylvania judge, even though it was actually German, and Jewish, they, whatever. There was a language confusion moment there. But the German practice of parallel, which was basically like Christian faith, healing, and herbalism came with them. Now, in Salem, that would have been called witchcraft. But Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers. And Quakers were incredibly tolerant. They didn’t want anything to do with the witch trials at all. They actually were totally fine with witches. They were like you do what you will do us were good. And so much of it came from how, you know, in Europe, it wasn’t just witches that people went after and they went after Catholics, they went after Quakers, anybody who was just kind of different. And the fear of other that I think is still exists in certain pockets to the United States, I think can be historically written right back to the fear of other that came with the original colonists from Europe.

Sunshine   37:14

Yeah, it’s a it’s some crazy stories. I mean, I’ve gone in I’ve talked to my guides, I’ve done some, like channeling and, and writing about, like, when you explore all that stuff, and it’s part of the reason why I think I’ve been called to claim the claim the label of which is to, you know, to disengage from a lot of this misconception.

Rissa Miller  37:37

And I agree, it is a lot of misconception. Yes. You know, I mean, of course, we love all love a good movie, but movie Seven helps.

Sunshine   37:46

You know, I don’t know if you’ve read the book waking the witch, I don’t think so. You probably really enjoy it. The author’s name is Ken Grossman. And she does like kind of a historical look both of like, culturally speaking, historically speaking, and things of that of the wedge how it’s referenced in all of that. And I’ve, I think I’m like three quarters of the way. It’s been what I pick up every now and again, and I have been in awe, at a lot of you know, what she has presented and shared as far as the stories go around. You know, how witches had been perceived.

Rissa Miller  38:17

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I feel like witches need a better PR campaign. Really?

Sunshine   38:22

Yeah, it’s on my list of things to do. It is. It is it is absolutely on my list of things. Maybe not in those exact words, but it is definitely. Wow. You know, I, I am curious. So we talk about the you know, the Witch and the history. And you’ve got this background in divination. Do you Do you consider yourself

Rissa Miller  38:47

A witch? In that way? Yes, absolutely. Also, in the way I am an herbalist, I am trained as a clinical herbalist as well, but I do know folkloric herbal practice. And so yeah, by any and all definition, you can definitely call me.

Sunshine   39:03

i In essence, my my philosophy is individuals that practice divination, you know, energy, energetically manipulation and healing. That is the is the qualities of the witch. And so, yeah, my, my guess is you probably have some energy manipulation that you do as well. Thus, those journals those journals and the fact that you’ve burned you know, we’ve talked about like the tea leaf and you know, obviously, you’ve mentioned clients do you use divination, like in this journey of your own you know, as you’ve been on your own scripts, are you using divination to help guide yourself?

Rissa Miller  39:47

I actually only do divination for other people. So I here’s my feeling. I am not unbiased. When I read for myself or somebody I’m very close to I I’ve definitely fallen down the hole of being like, well, you know, maybe this is exactly what I want these cards to say, No, I would rather have somebody else read for me personally. It’s even better for somebody that doesn’t know me very well. I feel like I will get their unbiased reading for me.

Sunshine   40:23

Oh, no, I would agree. I mean, I do I pull cards for myself. I lean into it more from an energetic perspective. I allow it to provide some hits and things like that, you know, round like direction. But I agree, it’s hard. There’s a lot more bias when it comes to other people, like people that I’m close to it doesn’t creep up in it as much as that. But myself It does. Yeah. I am. You’d mentioned recently that you’d had a couple of roadblocks lately. And I’m curious, do you want any, any guidance or any answers right now? On any of those roadblocks?

Rissa Miller  41:03

Um, let me think for a quick second. I would always love to hear your perspective. Sure. I mean, are you looking for me to ask specific or you

Sunshine   41:13

See if there was anything I know, it was one of the things that you’d mentioned that we could we could go in and I and I same thing, like, I do find that I, it’s amusing to me. And I,

Rissa Miller  41:24

I adore the fact that I have a circle of a bunch of psychics, like friends and the circuit that I work and all this kind of stuff. Because there’s you can tap at any given time, you know, and get a little like, Hey, what should I do? And so that’s kind of the thought is just, you know, hey, if you had anything, you’d mentioned that there might be some roadblocks. So if you do, figure it out for that, open the floor for you. I would love to hear anything that your guides have received or picked up. Um, I, I feel like I’ve moving forward, but not nearly as quickly as I feel like I wish I could. I work very hard. And I’m extremely dedicated to my work, but I sometimes don’t know which work to do. And, you know, like, how many hours a day do you want to commit to social media? You know? Yeah. Right. And then also, I like, my health is great. So that’s not a that’s not a factor right now. My family’s good, like, all those things are, are good. This is gonna sound funny, like I really am wishing that I would be able to move forward enough to get another dog, but I don’t feel quite there yet. Because I’m on the road a lot. And I don’t feel like it would be fair to a dog. So

Sunshine   42:42

Yeah, not much you could travel. That’s, that’s a true statement. Like, I do see that if you could arrange all of your travel to be able to take a dog with you, it’s completely feasible. And you’d find a lot of joy in doing that. And being able to explore new places, you know, with a new dog. It’s interesting when you say about the, you know, moving fast enough, and the question that my guides asked was, like, in comparison to what, huh, right in comparison to what like wires in comparison to how my life was before the pandemic has begun.

Rissa Miller  43:15

Everything I did would go fast, fast, fast, and it was easier. And now I feel like I work twice as hard for half as much.

Sunshine   43:27

Yeah. And so whenever I have come down to the that particular you know, what you’re working hard for, for less, you’re actually working in resistance, you know, it’s the same thing is like and so the question interesting, you know, it’s like if you were to be on an exercise bike, and you turn the you know, the resistance up that’s what I mean. Right? It’s taking more and you’re not able to go as far because it’s requiring more energy some of that very well could be just you’re still replenishing your energetic from like, you know, all of the last couple of years you know, I myself have been in this huge transition just left corporate and and basically had saw I’m seeing an acupuncturist right now who said like my chi is completely depleted I just energetically I don’t have the capacity that I once upon a time did Yeah, and so that’s that’s that’s been a lot of the reality check and they just gave them mere to me which does mean that yes, there is some some truth for you in that as well. So revisiting what your expectations are. There’s also this is the second or third time that they flashed in my head but there’s this you know, it’s weird how my speed My guides are showing me this like real this Facebook or Instagram rail that popped up and it was this guy talking about his relationship with time. Okay, and he said he what he did, and I actually do this, it’s been one of my most powerful Often like behaviors when it comes to time, so I learned when I was in my 20s, if you can pay someone less than your hourly rate, then that is the wiser decision to do. And so it’s very similar to this concept. He said he gave himself a $1,500 hourly rate. And so every decision that he makes within his business is now looking at it that way. Right? And so for example, if you are $1,500 an hour, right, let’s say that’s the rate and you said, you could pick any rate, you could pick $50 115, you could pick $20,000, if that’s what you want it. And what you do in that regard, is you will then say, if you’re presented with something, let’s say social media, okay, what is the Wiser business decision for me to spend my hour of time, which is $1,500 Worth, or for me to find someone that I can pay $500 to do three times the amount of work because that’s their specialty. Right? And so he said, that dramatically changed. And to me, it’s, it’s been one of my, I’ll put it to you this way, I literally pay for someone to clean my house, like take care of housekeep 10, they come by two or three times a week, because it is so energetically draining to me. I have a, you know, I grew up with a mother, who was very diligent on a clean house, like you walked in her house right now. It’s like, look ready, right? And so mess creates a lot of anxiety. And it’s a long standing thing. And instead of me trying to unravel it, I just pay for somebody else to take care of.

Rissa Miller  46:42

I love that idea. Yeah,

Sunshine   46:44

I just paid for somebody else. So I would encourage you to revisit your expectations is what they’re saying. Right? Make sure that you are like, you’re not the same person. Why are you expecting the same results? You said, literally, you weren’t the same person, you don’t have the same friends, you don’t have the same social circle any of that? Why are you expecting the same results now with it with the same type of effort, and you need a different way to be able to look at value your time because if you are putting in that much work, and you’re not getting out the result, that means you’re you’re not valuing your time in the way that you need to.

Rissa Miller  47:17

Thank you. Yeah, you’re welcome. You’re absolutely welcome.

Sunshine   47:23

Yeah, it’s, it’s wild, you know, how often I’m just gonna go back to, like, we will, we’ll ignore the choice, you know, we’ll we’ll keep ourselves into a pattern of, you know, suffering, or, you know, I call it low vibration, right. This is where we start to collect and gather all of this misery, right, the things like, you know, all of the hardships that are happening, and it’s very easy to slip into a victim stance, and that, that, that nature, but you know, we always have a choice. And I love so much Rissa that you brought that up, and you’d share that you’d made that comment because, you know, you did have the choice to not do anything.

Rissa Miller  48:03

Absolutely every everybody does.

Sunshine   48:07

And I think it’s amazing that you’ve you’ve made the choice to do something different. And to reclaim yourself to recover the you that you knew I was waiting there to be recovered. Research. Share with us, you know, where can any of our listeners find you? And why might you want them to reach out to you what might they want to reach out to you for? Oh,

Rissa Miller  48:33

well, if they want to find me, my website is tea and smoke that calm and they could find me if they’re in the mid Atlantic area, they could find me for an event. I do ghost tours and all kinds of really fun esoteric history talks. And I do offer public readings. I offer public readings in both Pennsylvania and Maryland. So if they’re interested in those things, they’re available but I also offer online readings as well as far as tea leaf readings, you do need to have your own cup but I do have a video online showing you how to turn it and take pictures to get a tea leaf reading and then I send back an original pen and a drawing of the teacup.

Sunshine   49:19

I love it so much and you know I know not everybody’s going to be able to see it but we will use these videos at some point so if you want to hold that up for you so this is for anybody that has never had a tea leaf reading you know most people or from a divination perspective are going to be more familiar with you know, a tarot reader, right somebody that’s using tarot cards or oracle cards but tea leaf is another way that you can you know, do a reading and it’s I’ve never read the tea leaves but I I’ve learned from many people, right I’ve listened and and then the leaves they take they fall into patterns. And yeah, so resist holding up you start to see these patterns as figures and images and where they fall within the cup itself has certain meanings and so on. I love love so much that you do the image because to me, that’s like one of the reasons why I love the love tarot cards. It’s because you get the physical representation for people to be able to see in this tangible concept. But when you’re staring at the tea leaves, not everybody can understand what you’re seeing. So I love that you translate that into the ink and the pen drawn. It’s amazing. That’s amazing. Well, Rissa, you have been spectacular. I’ve been adored our conversation so much. Thank you for having me. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. For folks that are interested, we’ll make sure that any of the links make sure to check the description so that you can reach out to me so anything else any last before you want to say?

Rissa Miller  50:41

I don’t? I don’t think so. But thank you again for having me. It was a lovely conversation. Oh,

Sunshine   50:47

The same? Absolutely. And you know, we’ll say this. Yeah, I know we I did hear from Graham. He’s okay. So we’re good there. And we definitely missed him because he would have adored some of the commentary that you chair but he will I’m sure be here back back next time. So that being said, the way that we wrap up all of these shows, I’m gonna encourage all the listeners always make that choice. Find your path, follow that path into your own deepest spirituality. Until next time, my dear friends much love from us you.

👉𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦!

🤙🏻𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐚 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥

🧡𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 

👍𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞 

📷 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦

💜𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞

👍 𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞

📷 𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦

👍𝐒𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐚𝐚𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩

🚨𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬:

📲𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐒𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐩𝐩: 𝐴𝑉𝐴𝐼𝐿𝐴𝐵𝐿𝐸 𝐼𝑁 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐴𝑃𝑃 𝑆𝑇𝑂𝑅𝐸 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝑃𝐿𝐴𝑌 𝑆𝑇𝑂𝑅𝐸 𝑇𝑂 𝐷𝑂𝑊𝑁𝐿𝑂𝐴𝐷

🔮𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

🔮𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 

🧑‍🎨𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠