HEYO!
I'M ANDI.
(I hope you like reading!)
I've been asking inconvenient questions for as long as I can remember.
I got kicked out of Sunday school more than once for questioning things a little too eagerly, so apparently the habit started early. When I wasn't interrogating adults about organized religion, I was climbing trees, catching bugs, learning about plants, and disappearing into the California hills behind my grandparents' house, imagining fantastical worlds and creating whimsical creatures to tame.
My most relished childhood birthday, my 8th, was spent dragging my friends through my favorite trails and hidden places in those hills while enthusiastically explaining everything I'd learned about them.
You could say I was born for this gig.
As a teenager, that curiosity wandered into culturally forbidden territory. I discovered earth-centered spirituality and promptly disappeared into library religion sections, Pagan forums, mythology, magick, witchcraft practices, and whatever other rabbit hole could answer one question while giving me seventeen new ones.
The questions have only multiplied since then. What actually makes a life meaningful? Why do I believe the things I believe? What happens when I stop fighting myself and start understanding myself? And perhaps most importantly: what other answers are out there?
One thing I have figured out is that I am considerably happier when I allow myself to be fascinated by weird shit.
Today, Alchemy Untapped is where I explore the subjects I can't stop thinking about, from spirituality, occultism, and the natural world, to the fascinating psychology of being human and whatever ADHD detour I've wandered into lately.
I don't have all the answers. Frankly, I'm suspicious of anyone who claims they do.
What I do have is an insatiable curiosity, a growing collection of questions, and a habit of finding things I immediately need to tell someone about. That's where we come together here.
The story of Alchemy Untapped began on the bank of a river.
In the summer of 2023, I went to the river with an old friend. She'd been searching for a hag stone for years, so we decided to look for one together.
Not long into our search, I found one.
And I immediately handed it to her.
At the time, it made perfect sense. She knew more than I did. She understood its magic in a way I didn't. Surely it belonged with her.
She accepted it, and the moment passed as though nothing particularly important had happened.
It took me some time to realize that I'd been repeating this cycle in my life with far more than just rocks.
Again and again, I handed my intuition, my voice, and my authority to people I believed were wiser, more experienced, or somehow more legitimate than I was. I mistook confidence for competence and trusted other people's certainty more than my own.
The strange part was that I wasn't inexperienced. I'd spent years cultivating my own spiritual practice, asking questions, studying, experimenting, and figuring out what I believed. But I still assumed someone else must know better.
I couldn't see my own authority, so I kept looking for it in people who seemed to possess theirs.
Looking back, I wasn't really handing away the stone. I was handing away my trust in my own magic.
Once I saw that pattern, I started seeing it everywhere.
I questioned what I'd been taught about success, productivity, worth, spirituality, and what a meaningful life was supposed to look like. I became less interested in finding the person with the right answers and much more interested in learning how to ask better questions.
Slowly, I started trusting myself enough to explore without needing someone else to tell me where I'd end up.
I wanted to create a place for questions without predetermined answers, spirituality without someone else's rulebook, and the wonderful things we discover when we trust ourselves enough to keep looking.
So, I did.
These days, I still look for hag stones. I just know what I'll do with the next one. And if we work together, I hope you leave a little more certain of what you'll do with yours.
xo, Andi
THE VIBES yOU'LL FIND AT MY FUNCTIONS
Field notes for a magickal life
THE CAIRN
A cairn is a stack of stones marking a hiking trail, offering reassurance that you're still on the right path. Each week, you'll get updates on the latest symposiums across the channels, plus practices to try, ideas to ponder, rabbit holes to wander down, and other bits of practical magic for the strange experience of being alive.
YOUR WEEKLY MAGICKAL MUSING
THE CAIRN
A cairn is a stack of stones marking a hiking trail, offering reassurance that you're still on the right path. Each week, you'll get updates on the latest symposiums across the channels, plus practices to try, ideas to ponder, rabbit holes to wander down, and other bits of practical magic for the strange experience of being alive.