Podcast Summary

Detox Retox with Tom Schwartz
Episode: Oracle of L.A.: Intuition, Magic & Meaning with Amanda Yates Garcia
Date: November 4, 2025
Guest: Amanda Yates Garcia, aka The Oracle of Los Angeles

Episode Overview

This engaging episode of "Detox Retox" dives deep into the world of modern witchcraft, intuition, and personal transformation with renowned witch, writer, and healer Amanda Yates Garcia. Host Tom Schwartz seeks to demystify witchcraft, unpacking its roots in self-empowerment, community, ritual, and activism. Together, Tom and Amanda explore how spiritual practice can counter the pressures of modern capitalism, heal spiritual disconnection, and help us find meaning and confidence in uncertain times.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Meaning & Practice of Modern Witchcraft

[00:25–06:38, 12:37–14:50, 26:33–34:20]

• Demystifying the "Witch": Amanda describes witchcraft not as fantasy but a lived, empowering practice intricately connected to healing, creativity, community, and activism.
  • “She sees witch identity as a feminist, anti-capitalist and reclamation project.” – Host [01:53]
• Connection to Ancestry & Future: The practice is rooted in recognizing interconnectedness—not just with other people, but with land, ancestors, and future generations.
  • Memorable Quote:

    “Everything in your life that you now love was put there by someone, cared for by someone, tended to by many someones over eons.” – Amanda [05:13]

• Witchcraft As a Practice, Not a Belief: Amanda stresses the difference between holding a belief and embodying it through ritual and action.
  • “Witchcraft is not a belief system, it’s a practice.” – Amanda [07:31]

2. Capitalism, Hustle Culture, and Spiritual Exhaustion

[06:24–09:58, 21:10–24:15]

• Tom and Amanda reflect on societal pressure to be productive, and how it strips us of collective rest, reflection, and even grief.
  • “Simultaneously, capitalism grind culture…doesn’t really allow for times of quiet or fallout periods. It doesn’t really let us rest.” – Amanda [06:53]
• Witchcraft and spiritual traditions are positioned as antidotes to grind culture, helping people return to imagination, rest, and interconnectedness.

3. Tolerance for Uncertainty and Building Personal Agency

[14:50–19:17, 39:21–44:54]

• Both Amanda and Tom discuss struggling with uncertainty, imposter syndrome, and the anxiety of nontraditional paths.
  • “If you say you’re a creative person or…public witch or writer, people often…wish they could do that. But to do that work really requires a very high tolerance for risk and uncertainty.” – Amanda [16:29]
• Amanda’s work is about building capacity to handle uncertainty, not fortune-telling:
  • “My work…I am not a fortune teller…that makes [people] hold on to [predictions]. And it can do, I think, real damage.” – Amanda [40:21]

4. Ritual, Magic, and the Mechanics of Witchcraft

[26:49–34:20, 47:44–57:15]

• Ritual as Intention Setting: Modern spells use ritual tools for aligning one’s own will with intention—they’re about internal and, sometimes, external transformation.
  • “She treats them kind of as spells for healing, creativity and empowerment…It’s all about self-empowerment.” – Host [01:09]
  • “Real magic is aligning your will with your desires...and that is not easy.” – Amanda [47:58]
• Clarifying Stereotypes: While Amanda humorously addresses questions about broomsticks and The Craft, she explains the symbolic and historic roots of witch symbols and practices.
• What Magic Can and Can’t Do: Magic and spells may help open new paths or bring clarity, but they are not shortcuts circumventing real-world constraints or personal work.

5. Soulmates, Intuition, and the Nature of the Soul

[34:35–38:29]

• Amanda shares a nuanced view: we have multiple significant soul connections, not one preordained soulmate.
  • “I believe that we have people who are spiritually…familiar to us and that we have unfinished business with…and that we might recognize them in this lifetime.” – Amanda [34:37]
  • “But I don’t believe that we have just one [soulmate]…I think we have many, many beings that we love deeply and with great commitment…” – Amanda [35:45]
• She describes a witchcraft worldview where our soul is multi-layered and death is a transformation, not an end.

6. Working with Clients: Transformation over Fortune-Telling

[39:21–44:54, 58:40–63:43]

• Amanda likens her sessions to “creating an oracular space…like a cauldron” for collaborative magic and self-discovery, not deterministic predictions.
  • “Helping Neo realize his own power and agency rather than giving it. Self belief activates destiny, right? Boom, boom.” – Tom [44:54]

7. Intimacy Crisis & Collective Ritual

[51:32–58:19]

• Modern culture suffers a crisis of intimacy and disconnection.
  • “We are culturally going through a crisis of intimacy. We’re going through crisis of relationship…within families, within relationships…within friend groups, often don’t know how to be in connection and relationship…” – Amanda [55:07]
• Ritual, spiritual work, and intention-setting are most powerful when done for both oneself and the greater good.

8. Tarot and Guidance in Times of Uncertainty

[68:10–78:58]

• Amanda offers a live Tarot reading for listeners experiencing uncertainty:
  • The Eight of Cups: Symbolizes the courage to leave behind situations that no longer serve us, honoring the discomfort of growth over the discomfort of stagnation.
  • “Which discomfort do you prefer? The discomfort of changing…or the discomfort of staying in a situation that no longer works for you?” – Amanda [70:56]

9. Takeaways and Nuggets of Wisdom

[75:50–78:30]

• “Choose your discomfort. You can stay uncomfortable in things you don’t like…or you can choose the discomfort of taking a risk.” – Amanda [76:16]
• “Better a life of oh wells than what ifs.” – Tom [78:09]
• Take your shot, but nourish yourself with community, nature, and practices that foster resilience.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On interconnectedness:

  “Everything in your life that you now love was put there by someone, cared for by someone, tended to by many someones over eons.”
  – Amanda Yates Garcia [05:13]

• On capitalism’s trap:

  “Capitalism grind culture…doesn’t really allow for times of quiet or fallout periods. It doesn’t really let us rest. And there’s a reason for that…if we rested, we’d be like, why are we doing this?”
  – Amanda Yates Garcia [06:53]

• On the role of the Oracle (via The Matrix):

  “The Oracle knows the truth won’t matter until you believe in yourself.”
  – Tom Schwartz [42:00]

• On agency in magic:

  “Witch is much more about agency…I identify much more as a witch…witchcraft is a set of tools, a set of practices.”
  – Amanda Yates Garcia [45:11]

• On leaving comfort zones (Tarot Eight of Cups):

  “The discomfort of staying in this confining situation…or the discomfort of changing, the discomfort of transformation…That’s the question.”
  – Amanda Yates Garcia [70:56]

• Pocket wisdom for listeners:

  “Take your shot. And also…call to you the things that help you stay calm and nourished as you’re taking that shot. Like, call in friends…nature, music, art, connection, community.”
  – Amanda Yates Garcia [78:30]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Amanda’s Introduction & Witchcraft Demystified: [00:25–06:38]
• Personal & Ancestral Connections: [05:13–06:20]
• Witchcraft vs. Capitalism/Grind Culture: [06:24–09:58]
• Amanda’s Journey as the ‘Oracle of LA’: [12:37–14:50]
• Creativity & Navigating Uncertainty: [16:29–19:17]
• The Role of Ritual, Magic, and Agency: [26:49–34:20]
• Philosophy on Soulmates & Multiple Souls: [34:35–38:29]
• On Being an Oracle vs. Fortune-Telling: [39:21–44:54]
• Mechanics & Ethics of Magic (Spells, Outcome): [47:44–57:15]
• Collective vs. Individual Ritual: [53:10–58:19]
• Tarot Reading—Guidance for Uncertainty: [68:10–74:22]
• Ending Advice & Takeaways: [75:50–78:58]

Overall Tone

Reflective, warm, empowering, and practical—neither “woo-woo” nor dogmatic. Amanda communicates complex mystical ideas in an accessible, often humorous way, and Tom keeps the discussion relatable and relaxed.

How to Connect with Amanda Yates Garcia

• Substack: amandiyatesgarcia.substack.com
• Instagram: @oracleofla
• Podcast: Between the Worlds
• Book: Initiated: Memoir of a Witch

Summary Takeaway

This episode invites listeners to reclaim agency, find grounding through ritual, cultivate intuition, and courageously navigate uncertainty—not by seeking external predictions, but by stepping authentically into the “magic” of personal and collective transformation. As Amanda puts it, “Self-belief activates destiny.” [44:54]