Episode Transcript
00:00:09 Hello, and welcome to this bonus episode of Common Mystics- Mystics in the Making. I’m Jennifer James. I’m Jill Stanley. We're psychics. We're sisters. And we are Common Mystics
00:00:20 So Jen, why are we doing this bonus episode? We are doing this bonus episode because we just did episode number one. We shared it with some family and friends for feedback. And some of the feedback we got was that we should talk about ourselves and how we quote unquote became psychic. So in trying to address that, um, there wasn't really a moment where we became psychic. Like, it’s never about us being psychic. No, it's actually not about us at all. Yeah. It's more about the environment that we grew up in. Like, it wasn't like becoming like, hello. Yeah. It was more like we're just in this arena. Exactly, exactly. Our first person that we selected to discuss about how they crafted, um, our influence into the mystical and the spiritual realm would be our maternal grandmother. Our mom's mother. So Jen, can you give us some background on Gram's origin story?
00:01:21 Oh, sure. Yeah, so she was grandma Irene in English, but she was Polish. So Irena would be her name. She was born in 1920 in rural Poland, um, a devout Catholic. Um, she had a really poor upbringing working on a small farm and she had a single mother. She did. That's right. And several siblings, I don't know. I don't remember off the top of my head, but it was a big family, five, at least five, at least five. And, um, then in, you know, 1938, the Germans came and picked her up on her 18th birthday and brought her to Germany where she worked, you know, did basically slave labor, for the entirety of World War II. So she was a pretty amazing woman and it's not surprising that she had such a strong spiritual self. Jen and I have a really, um, interesting relationship with our grandmother because, um, when Jen was born, grandma and grandpa had a four flat on the South Side and Jennifer and mom and dad lived in one of the apartments.
00:02:30 And so Jen was basically raised to up to the age of five with grandma and then, um, our parents moved to the suburbs. And, um, eventually, um, when Jen was in middle school, when I was about six, maybe, grandma's house burned down, the four flat burned down and grandma, grandpa, and my mom's youngest sibling, aunt Genie moved into our house in the suburbs for a few years, at least three, I think two or three. And then, um, after our aunt Genie had passed away at a young age, suddenly my mom and I, still living at home, moved back into a different residence with our grandmother in our grandmother's house. Right. Um, so what was unique about that is that we had several different moments in our lives and in several different moments in her life, we were intimately, you know, connected, right. Like seeing her everyday sort of relationship.
00:03:23 Exactly. Exactly. So, um, we picked out a few grandma's stories and a few, um, experiences we have. And we remember about our grandmother first. I want to say that grandmother had a very spec…, I said “grandmother,” it's grandma had a very special, um, way about her. She, yes, she was. You felt like you were in church when you were around her, you felt safe, you felt at peace, but you also knew, like you can't be messing around, like she was strict, right. There is, you felt literally like you were at church. Um, do you want to add to that at all? No, I agree. And just, there was this whole, like, lightness about her space, you know, if you walked into her kitchen, it was like, almost like, you know, your, I don't know, just light, you know, physically like physically, like yes, absolutely.
00:04:15 So the first story though, before we get to the stories, I do want to preface this by saying that, you know, if you ask our cousins to relate stories that grandma told them, or aunts, or our aunts, correct, um, they're going to give you different versions of the story. Um, because at this point, the stories that we've heard over the course of these, I don't know, 40 years, you know, um, they've, they've shifted and changed and became lore, literally, family lore. Absolutely. So, you know, if, when we share these with our family, you know, they're going to be like, “Oh, I remember it differently.” And we expect that because Jennifer and I, we don't agree or not, not that we don't agree, but the details that I remember are different than the details you remember. And to be quite honest, I think grandma told it a little different too, because she would tell the same stories again and again.
00:05:09 Right. And we didn't really talk about it with each other. No grandma had already passed. Right. That's very true. So what are we going to start with? So I titled this “Baby Gramma Story.” Um, so grandmother, grandma, when she was living with her brother and sisters, um, on the farm in rural, I think it was Poznan. And I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but, um, so when grandma was a little girl, she was the second or third oldest, she was the third of the five and she got very sick. Um, and they were laying, they had like a one bed that the kids shared and she was at the farm and she was laying in bed and the other kids were in the field doing the chores for the day. But grandma was like, your great grandmother, I should say, um, Josephine was grandmother's mother's name.
00:06:04 She told grandma to lay in bed and she was going to go get the doctor. So, um, grandma Josephine left the other kids in the field to do the chores for the day, our grandma Irene in bed, and went to go fetch the doctor in town. So, um, when our grandma was laying in bed, she heard, “Irena, Irena” someone calling her outside. And so little grandma got out of bed and she went into the yard and it was a fenced in area. And she saw what she believed, who she believed to be the blessed Virgin. And the blessed Virgin was standing near a tree. So grandma came, walked up to her and she said, “Irena, I can take you now. Or you can stay and you could pray and help people on earth, but it's going to be a very hard life at Irena.”
00:06:54 It's going to be a lot of pain. It's going to be really hard. A lot to lift.” And little grandma said, “Let, let me, let me live. Let me hold it. Let me do what you need me to do.” And so she said, “Okay, then you have to lay in the sun, lay in the sun. Don't go back in bed, lay on the little bench.” So the blessed Virgin gave grandma directions to go lay on the bench. And grandma was laying there when grandma Josephine came back with the doctor and grandma Josephine was surprised to see grandma laying on the bench. And she was like, well, what are you doing? You're sick. Go to bed. And grandma Irene said, “No, mama. I have to stay here. I have to lay here. And she convinced her mom to let her say, so her mom got her like a pillow and tried to make her comfortable on the bench.
00:07:38 The doctor checked her out and she just was sick. And there was really nothing he added to the situation and he left. And so grandma was laying on the bench, in her fenced in yard. And she saw from a distance, someone walking towards her and he was wearing, it was a man, she recognized, and he was wearing a long burgundy... Um, I don't know how to describe it. Cloak? Great, cloak. And he came and he opened the fence and he didn't say anything to her, but he handed her a big cross over her. It's like he handed it to her, but it was like an air cross. Right. That makes sense. So he made the sign, the sign of the cross over her. And he didn't say anything. He just smiled at her a little bit and turned around and walked away. Did she ever tell you who that was?
00:08:23 She thought it was Jesus. And she said he was beautiful. Blue eyes, blondish Brown hair, beautiful man. And so peaceful. So peaceful. Um, so grandma eventually ended up getting better. And that was a really memorable story that she would tell me again and again, as I was growing up, right. One thing that I noticed that some people might not know is that, you know, uh, Mary was Jesus's mother. Right. And people call her Mary. We were not raised to use her first name. We know. So we were taught to call her the blessed Mother or blessed Virgin. So when you were talking about the blessed Virgin, you're talking about Mary, right? So people who don't know that terminology, that's grandma talk. I, there is no way, that's the blessed Mother. Even now when people say Mary, I kind of cringe.
00:09:16 It's true. Right? Okay. So that was one of my, that's a good one that brought tears to my eyes. What was it? Oh, give me one of yours. Tell me what I'm supposed to talk about. I don't remember. Oh, I can't say the name. I don't even know. Okay. I know what you're talking about. Okay. So, um, when grandma was living in Chicago, so she had moved with her family to Chicago and, um, her daily routine was, you know, get up and do her chores and just go about her day. She never worked outside the house. Grandpa did, you know, she had four daughters. Um, and uh, one day she was lying in bed at night, you know, saying her prayers and a man walked into her bedroom and sat on the edge of her bed. And grandma told me that, um, he was, he was very handsome.
00:10:08 He was a handsome man. He was well dressed. He had a suit on and like, uh, a top hat. Right. And he sat and he had a cane. And I remember her saying that the cane was like, fancy. You know, it wasn't just like a wooden cane. It was like, had like a gold or brass kind of handle on it. And he sat on the edge of the bed. And he said to her, “I told you not to go there.” And she was confused that he would say that to her. Now, just to be clear, her confusion wasn't that a strange person walked into her bedroom and sat down because she knew that this person was not a human. Right. This was like a spiritual being that had come to her. And that happened all the time. Right. So that was commonplace that like dead people would come and see grandma.
00:10:59 Right. Ask for prayers. Exactly. That wasn't what confused her. What confused her was his manner of speaking. Like, “I told you not to go there.” So she was like, “I don't know what you're talking about.” And he said, “Why did you go there? I told you not to go there.” And he didn't elaborate. But he started getting angrier and angrier. And again, grandma, her mind was racing. Cause she's like, who is this? And what are, what are they talking about? And she was telling me that she was going through the events of the day in her head. She's like, where did I go? I don't know. I made food. You know, I cooked, I did the laundry. Um, I worked in the yard. I did everything I normally do. What is this person talking about? And so again, he was even angrier and said, “Why did you go there?”
00:11:56 And she thought, the only place I went was first thing this morning, I went to church. Like I always go to church. And then he turned on her and looked her in the eye and said, “That's where you went!” And he took off his hat and she saw two horns on his head. And that's when she knew that the being that was sitting on her bed and reprimanding her was the devil himself. So grandma grasped the crucifix around her neck. It might've been a, you know, the blessed Mother statue or icon that you wear on her neck, but she grasped it. And she said, “Blessed Mother come and step on his head!” And um, and then he disappeared. But as a kid, that story was the scariest thing. So, so scary. It is. And I do not understand why she told us this.
00:12:52 She told me to like you, like, I was really young. Like, I am like rocking, holding myself right now... Okay. When you would ask our mother about it, she would just be like... No, she wasn't any comfort. She was like, “The devil is real. And he shows up in your room.” I'm like, yeah, not afraid of the dark. Oh, Jesus. Let's go change the subject. Okay. Moving on, moving on. So personal experiences with grandma that we realized at some point in our lives, weren't normal grandma things. It wasn't like she made a pie and it was like, grandma did like extraordinary things. Then we came to realize like, that's, that's different. Right? You want me to go first? Yes. I like yours. So I was, I don't know. I don't know how old I was, but I was sitting in her kitchen.
00:13:45 I was maybe, I don't know, eight or 10 whatever. And she looked at me and she goes, “What's wrong with you?” And I said, “Nothing's wrong.” She's like, “No, what's wrong with you?” And she was like, stern about it. And I'm like, “Grandma, nothing's wrong with me.” She looked at me. “Somebody gave you the evil eye.” I'm like, what does that even mean? Somebody, what does that even mean? And she didn't have the best English. So she didn't really explain what she meant, but she walked over to me and she like, you know how the doctor will like pull down your lower eyelid and like, look at the whites. She did that. She like looked at the whites of my eyes. And I was like, are you kidding me right now? She was pulling down the, my lower eyelids. She licked my forehead. She licked my forehead.
00:14:28 And then she was convinced that, yes, this was the evil eye somebody had, I don't know, hexed me. So, um, she took a loaf of bread and she pinched a hole into a piece of bread and she took a glass of water and she put the bread in the water and then she took salt. And I'm pretty sure I don't remember what she did with the salt. I think she, she sprinkled the salt in the water and then mixed it up. And then she took a sip of the water and spit it back into the cup. And then she told me that, um, if I'm honest, she told me to take a sip of the cup. It was nasty. I know, but I didn't want to tell you that it's kind of gross, but so of course I did it. And then like, I don't know, that was supposed to like cure my evil eye, you know, the, the hex that was put on me.
00:15:19 But, but that happened. Oh, wow. Like that happened. Yeah. That's weird. That is weird. That's different. That's, that's not, that's not apple pie. I would have taken an apple pie. Um, my grandma experience, um, is that one of my favorites is that I had gotten a kitty cat, um, a baby kitten from my aunt and my cousin delivered this baby cat to me. And I was so excited about this cat. And I had an apartment like three, three blocks away from grandma and mom's house. And so, and I was like 26 at the time. So I brought the cat over to my mom and my grandma and grandma took the cat from me and lifted it up, like Simba, above her head, and then immediately bended at the waist with the cat in her hands and with a figure eight around her ankles, saying something in Polish again and again, and again, then she lifted him back up to eye level, looked him in the eyes and handed him to me and said, “Now he'll never leave you.”
00:16:23 And I was like, what just happened? I was like, okay. You still have that cat. And I still, that cat is still my kitty. And he actually is the best, little, best little soulmate I got. Aw. Yeah. So I think those are all the stories that we wanted to share today. Oh, no, the dreams. Oh yeah. Gosh. So not only did grandma do white magic and not only did she speak to dead people. Wow. She also had prophetic dreams. True. And I'm going to say it like that. Right. And, um, so I remember I was in sixth grade and grandma kept having these dreams, and I know this from our mother, cause she was telling mom about the dreams. Cause you know, mom did astrology, so they would talk about things like that. Right. So grandma kept having this recurring dream over and over the dream was that she was seeing the block in Chicago where her house was and her house was glowing.
00:17:23 It was the brightest on the block. And so, you know, she asked Stella, my mom, you know, “What does it mean?” And mom's like, I don't know what it means, you know, but grandma kept having that dream. She told me that she thought it was a good dream. You know, Hey, my house is the brightest. You think that would be a good dream. Right? Right. Well, it turns out her house burned down. It was on fire. Um, we had already mentioned that at the opening of this episode, but, um, it was not a good dream. It was quite a prophetic dream. Not very helpful as it turns out now, but um, but nonetheless, she knew that something was gonna happen and she knew that her house would be the brightest on the block. And unfortunately it was, but yeah, not for any good reason. Um, my, uh, one of my favorite grandma's stories when it comes to her dreams involves, um, munchkins from Dunkin Donuts.
00:18:11 Oh, you don't say. Um, but uh, when my aunt Genie was alive, she was living, um, in my, in a house with my grandma and Genie's husband, Tony. So Genie's husband Tony would take her to church every Sunday. Because at that time when she was getting older, she couldn't go any day, every day anymore. So after church, um, one day Tony said we're going to bring home Genie, um, munchkins from Dunkin Donuts and the coffee. So they go through the drive through, they bring a box of Dunkin Donuts home. And um, Tony said, I'll carry the coffee. I'll carry the donuts. Do you want to carry the munchkins? And grandma said to him, “I had a dream last night that the munchkins were all over the yard. So if I hold them, I know that they're going to fall to the ground.”
00:18:54 And Tony was like, okay. And it was just like, all right, whatever you say. And as grandma was leaving the garage, the threshold of the garage, she, her foot got caught on the step and she ended up tumbling forward into the yard. She was okay. She was okay. But, but she told him, she was like, “I told you, I told you, that's why you need to hold them. I told you.” The funny thing about that is that, you're right. Her, her, the dreams. And as we come to realize, as we're having our own experiences, it's really hard to determine- you don't really know why you're seeing what you're seeing. Right. And for what reason, and what does it mean, in what context? And they're not very clear. Yeah. So that's very interesting that you brought that up. A hundred percent. Yeah. So, so in closing, I would like to say that, um, when she was alive, grandma would not have approved of us sharing her stories. She’d be so mad at us. And you know, in fact, every time she'd tell you a story, she would say the same thing afterwards. And I'll share that now.
00:20:03 She'd say, “Don't say anything. They'll think you're crazy. No one will ever believe you.”
