In this final deep dive of the Victorian Spiritualism series, Ashleigh closes the séance room door—then opens something much bigger: power. Victorian Spiritualism wasn’t only about ghosts, raps, and ectoplasm. It was also a rare cultural doorway where women could claim spiritual and intellectual authority in a society that restricted their public voice.

This episode is structured around five archetypes—five women, five expressions of spiritual authority, five ways of stepping through the veil:

The 5 Archetypes & Featured Women

• The Trance Speaker: Cora L. V. Scott (Cora Hatch) (1840–1923) — trance lecturing as a “loophole” for women to teach philosophy publicly
• The Movement Builder: Emma Hardinge Britten (1823–1899) — turning Spiritualism into infrastructure through writing, history, and organizing
• The Esoteric Architect: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) — building cosmology and founding the Theosophical Society
• The Embodied Medium: Florence Cook (c.1856–1904) — materialization séances, “Katie King,” and the gendered scrutiny of embodied power
• The Symbolic Visionary: Pamela Coleman Smith (“Pixie”) (1878–1951) — the creative force behind the most influential modern tarot template (and the long erasure of her credit)

Episode highlights

• Why Victorian Spiritualism created a socially “acceptable” way for women to speak publicly
• How trance lecturing became power-through-plausible-deniability
• The moment Spiritualism shifts from parlor spectacle into worldview and philosophy
• A beginner-friendly explanation of what the Theosophical Society was (and why it mattered)
• The high-stakes tension of physical mediumship—and why women’s bodies became the battleground for belief
• Why Pamela Coleman Smith’s illustrated minors changed tarot forever (and why that matters for modern intuitive reading)

Series wrap + what’s next

This episode ties a bow on the Victorian Spiritualism series—and then gently opens the next doorway. April’s theme: exploring the fairy realm—folklore, threshold spaces, the wild edges of the unseen, and the places where reality feels thin in a different way.

Mentioned / referenced

• Ashleigh’s interview with Steele Alexandra Douris (Spirits, Seers, & Séances) — the Fox Sisters + Victorian Spiritualism overview
• Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888) — Helena Blavatsky
• Rider–Waite–Smith / Waite–Smith Tarot — Pamela Coleman Smith’s legacy

Connect + support the show

If you loved this series finale, please follow/subscribe and leave a review—it helps Big Crystal Energy reach more magical souls.
And come say hi on social—Ashleigh will be sharing visuals and extra context from this episode (including the Florence Cook/Katie King lore).

Send me any questions or comments you may have and I will answer them on upcoming podcast episodes!! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Please message me with any questions or comments.
bigcrystalenergypodcast @gmail.com

We are closing out the crystal portion of our Victorian Spiritualism series with a stone that quite literally contains a ghost.

Phantom Quartz is a crystal that remembers who it used to be. Formed when growth pauses for thousands of years and then resumes, it preserves an earlier version of itself inside its present structure — a visible “phantom” suspended within the stone.

In this episode, we explore:

• What Phantom Quartz is and how it forms
• Why it’s often called nature’s version of Victorian spirit photography
• The metaphor of interrupted growth and layered evolution
• How this stone supports shadow work and inner child healing
• Questions to ask when your growth has felt paused
• Reincarnation and soul groups — explained simply and accessibly
• The connection between Phantom Quartz, Akashic Records, and soul memory
• Psychic and magical uses including meditation, clairaudience, astral travel, and dream work

We also discuss how Victorian Spiritualism sought proof that something survives beyond death — and how Phantom Quartz invites us to remember the parts of ourselves that never truly died.

Rather than summoning spirits outwardly, this stone encourages inward remembrance.

✨ Simple Practice: The Growth Pause Ritual

• Sit with your Phantom Quartz and light a candle.
• Hold the stone to your heart.
• Ask:
  • Where did my growth pause?
  • What version of me is preserved inside?
• Visualize the inner phantom glowing.
• Journal:
  • What lesson have I survived?
  • What part of me needs integration?
  • Where am I still becoming?

Optional: Write a Victorian-style letter to your “phantom self” — honoring the version of you that carried you here.

Phantom Quartz reminds us:

Growth is not linear.
Pauses do not equal failure.
You did not break — you became layered.

Thank you for walking through the veil with me during this Victorian Spiritualism series. The final full episode on Victorian Spiritualism drops this Friday.

As always… everything you need is already inside you.

Akashic Records with Alexa Darrin Episode

Send me any questions or comments you may have and I will answer them on upcoming podcast episodes!! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Please message me with any questions or comments.
bigcrystalenergypodcast @gmail.com

We think we know what Victorian mysticism looked like.

A crystal ball glowing in candlelight.
A veiled medium seated at a round table.
Ectoplasm drifting through a darkened parlor.

But what was Victorian Spiritualism really?

In this episode of Big Crystal Energy, I’m joined by historian, author, and cultural scholar Steele Alexandra Douris, who holds a PhD in English from Stanford University. Her research explores 19th-century literature, gender, folklore, and the cultural history of the supernatural.

Drawing from her book Spirits, Seers and Séances, Steele walks us through:

• The origins of Victorian Spiritualism and the rise of the Fox Sisters
• Trance lectures vs. private spirit circles
• Rappings, table-tilting, and the rise of material séance phenomena
• Spirit photography and the mystery of ectoplasm
• Automatic writing, planchettes, and the evolution of the Ouija board
• Cartomancy, crystal gazing, palmistry, and astrology in the 19th century
• The transformation of fairy lore and the Cottingley fairies
• Gothic literature’s resurgence — from Dracula to Frankenstein
• The Pre-Raphaelites and the complicated image of the mystical woman

We explore how Victorian Spiritualism wasn’t originally meant to be frightening. For many, it was grassroots, communal, and deeply tied to grief, creativity, and cultural change.

And perhaps most fascinating of all — so many of the tools we still use today carry Victorian fingerprints.

If you’ve ever felt drawn to the liminal space of a crystal ball, the mystery of automatic writing, or the romance of a Gothic heroine, this episode offers the deeper historical context behind the aesthetic.

Connect with Steele:

Instagram: @steelearcana; Instagram
Website: Steele Alexandra Douris

Book: https://a.co/d/08opPfll

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review Big Crystal Energy — it helps more curious, liminal souls find the show.

Stay curious. Stay liminal. 🕯️

Send me any questions or comments you may have and I will answer them on upcoming podcast episodes!! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Please message me with any questions or comments.
bigcrystalenergypodcast @gmail.com