Suitcase Series: Meghan Corder

Welcome back to the series where I interview incredible women about their creative work and the clothes that help them get the job done. I met Meghan several years ago when we were a part of a small emergent church plant, and we instantly bonded over books, the moon, and not being fancy or proper. Meghan is a special education teacher and a spiritual director and life coach at Chapel and Cauldron where she publishes a seasonal Magazine, Christ’s Coven. Meghan has supported and encouraged me to pursue my own passions and talents, and so it has been so rewarding to see her career evolve into something dynamic and fulfilling that helps her use her natural gifts. We got to catch up recently when she modeled the Wednesday Wrap for me, along with the new Saturday Pleat Pant in rainbow dyed bamboo rayon challis.

Addie: You have been having a slow career evolution over the past few years. Tell me what's going on lately?

Meghan: I feel like I'm really living my best life, getting to do my day job, and also getting to do spiritual direction with some fantastic people, writing on my blog, and gaining traction there, coming to do this with you. I'm teaching an enneagram class on Monday and I'm getting to lead a workshop for teachers who want to live a more sacred life. So I'm making progress finally and getting to do what I really want to do.

Addie: When you wake up in the morning how do you want to show up in the world? What feelings do you want your clothing and habits to give you ?

Meghan: I want to show up in the world as a priestess. That other women feel safe to be wholly expressed around me.

Addie: What different roles do your clothes need to play?

Meghan: For my day job I'm a teacher, so I have to be able to get up and down off the floor, I also need to be able to work in ceremony, so it needs to look some level of sacred. So I need to be really flexible with my clothing, and I like clothing that is multi purpose in those ways. I can get up and down off the floor and look professional at work and go into ceremony with it and be comfortable the entire time.

Addie: When I interviewed Chesna we talked a lot about like the tricky balance sometimes of dressing with authority in a female, curvy, soft body. Is that something that comes up for you?

Meghan: I don't think I worry about dressing with authority, but when I feel like I look like a priestess I stand taller, and I do assert my authority more as, "I am a magical and powerful woman." And I'm going to show up as that if I look magical and powerful.

Addie: Awesome. So it comes from the confidence you get from your clothes more than a specific aesthetic.

Meghan: Yeah, I mean I do have this witchy priestess-y aesthetic, but dressing that way then gives me the confidence to step into being that person.

Addie: What are the actual physical contexts that you're dressing for. You've mentioned a little, but what are the age group of kids that you're usually working with?

Meghan: All elementary kids at work. I have teenagers at home. I live in a very hot and humid climate and I'm perpetually hot, so I try to wear natural fabrics that breathe, even in the winter. I do a lot of layering because of the heat.

Addie: Are there any creative projects that you're working on right now?

Meghan: I'm working on my March issue of Christ's Coven magazine, writing some articles about spring cleaning rituals for christian witches, christo-pagans, and other christian weirdos. I'm working with some more directs than usual which is a creative listening process. I'm also teaching classes. I've taught an enneagram class before. This is my first workshop that I'm leading for "Leading a Sacred Life" I'm looking forward to doing more of that.

Addie: Has the Enneagram, always played a big part of your work is that something you want to grow?

Meghan: I think that discovering the Enneagram is the thing that made me realize why I was so into the self help world and wanted to go into that and it seems to be a really accessible way for a lot of like normies to reach into the self help world. So I've been studying it for about seven years, teaching it for about two now, and so it's relatively new as far as teaching it, but it's alway been a part of it. I'm an enneagram 1, I'm an improver, and I perpetually want to improve myself and I perpetually want to improve the world and that's why I'm in the business that I'm in, is to help other people improve themselves.

Addie: What are you reading right now?

Meghan: I'm currently reading the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Addie's husband cheers from the other room) as my fiction, and really enjoying it. And my non-fiction book right now is by Alyssa Vitti, I think It's called In the Flo, and it's about syncing your life with your cycle. The other book I'm reading is The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, for the second time.

Addie: What are your favorite books?

Meghan: I'm going to have to list the Stormlight Archive series, Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne, Julie by Catherine Marshall, and Water, Wind, Earth, Fire by Christine Valters Paintner. It's a prayer book about praying with the elements.

Addie: Who's work has been exciting you lately?

Meghan: There is a life coach named Tonya Lee, and she produces the School of Self Image podcast, and I am obsessed and listen to it in the car everywhere I go, and I cannot wait to get in the car and listen to more. I'm waking up in the morning excited to get in the car to drive to work and listen, because she is insanely inspiring, and really makes your positive side of life and not make excuses for yourself.

Addie: Is there someone you have been wishing you could collaborate with?

Meghan: I can't really think of anyone. I've wanted to collaborate with you, and we've done that a couple of times now, but I'm still in a figuring out who I am kind of phase and I don't really want to drown that in other people's ideas.

Addie: What are you looking for in music while you work?

Meghan: I don't listen to music while I work. I like to have silence when I work, because when I listen to music I get so enraptured with it that I am all in the music and no thought can happen besides the music.

Addie: What are some of your favorite rituals.

Meghan: My Friday night shower, washing off the entire week with candles and music, washing the week away. My cup of tea, every morning. It's really those simple every day things. It's not anything big or fancy. Just putting a candle on the dinner table, drinking my cup of tea in silence with my sun lamp on. Nothing spectacular.

Addie: What music do you listen to when you want music?

Meghan: I really like Pop Punk, Motion City Soundtrack, Relient K. I listen to some international music. I really like Tinariwen. Beartooth is one of my current favorites. Their last album is really inspiring to me.

Addie: How do you show your body love and gratitude?

Meghan: I just don't beat myself up. I don't feel like I have to make a big deal of that. I really like my body. I appreciate what it's done for me. I try to take care of myself. Like putting lotion on. I hate putting lotion on. It's so good for my skin, and I hate it. Why is that so hard? Otherwise, it's not really something I struggle with. I know some women do, but I just naturally love my body.

Addie: Who in your life makes you feel valued and appreciated, and how?

Meghan: It's so trite to say my husband, but my husband is spectacular. That is who sees me at the most me, and still thinks I'm spectacular. So if he can see me at my worst and think that I'm spectacular then I can see me at my worst and think that I'm pretty spectacular too.

Addie: Is there a practice or a hobby that you have loved for a long time?

Meghan: Reading, because it's that self improvement thing. Always trying to self-improve, but also it's an escape from having to self improve, when I need to switch because I can go into fantasy and just think about someone else's world.

Addie: When did you start to fall in love with Pagan spirituality and other things outside of your traditions?

Meghan: I was a little kid, stirring potions in pots on the back porch, with sticks and leaves always. I went through the witch phase in middle school that I think so many girls go through, and as I got older, kind of got told by the church universal that witch craft is bad, that pagans are bad people, and I was really drawn to this nature focused divine feminine religion, and I also really loved Jesus, and someone said to me, what you're really looking for is Celtic Christianity, and I did the research and I realized, *gasp* "This is it." It's basically pagan christianity. It's very syncretic, and it blends all the divine feminine nature worshiping stuff of their heritage combined with a love for Jesus. That's how I got into it, and I wanted to let other women know, women in particular, but let people know that you can love Jesus and be like that. Having that aesthetic and those values does not make you less of a Christian. So as I've followed that path to help others realize that,, I've just become more and more into it.

Addie: What parts of your work stretch and challenge you.

Meghan: I think it's hardest for me to turn the coach off when I need to turn that off, because I want to help people improve, and sometimes I need to be a spiritual director and just sit and listen, and I've gotten to where I can do that, and sometimes I need to just be a spouse or a friend. I don't have to fix everyone around me, who did not ask for coaching.

Addie: Where do you want to continue to grow from here?

Meghan: I think I just want to share with more people, and grow in coaching practice, both in numbers, and always skill. Always improving. I want to help more people and I always want to improve myself.

Addie: What did you prep for or expect me to ask, that I didn't ask?

Meghan: Oh, that's a good question. I thought you were going to ask me about how the specific clothes you gave me were going to fit in with my wardrobe, so I prepped for that. I have a couple of dresses that I'm going to wear the wrap over, and a couple different tops to wear the pants with. I wear pockets everywhere. It is a command for me that if I am wearing clothing in public it has to have pockets, so I will wear the dress with the pants so that I have pocket, I will wear the wrap with other pants, and the pants with other dresses that have no pockets. I love that it's light enough and loose enough that I can layer without worrying about the heat.

Addie: What are the things that you always have with you when you travel, your essentials?

Meghan: Migraine medicine, my wallet and phone. I really am not particular. I don't care much. If I'm traveling far, I am going to take my Vionic shoes. I have a pair in every color I can get my hands on, and linen pants, because they can go anywhere, but just around town, I am really not fussy, I am good with just what fits in my pocket.