Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ary Cupcakezzz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Ary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I has been into witchcraft since I was about 14 years old. It all started with not wanting to take pharmaceuticals, when I had a head ache or an injury growing up. Long hours researching “Home remedies” and “natural ways to cure a cough” and the more reading and research I put into it the more I found myself coming back to witchcraft and herbalism. So, I started searching “Witchcraft” and “How to; Manifestation” and “What crystals can help with…” Before I knew it I was hip deep in all things witchcraft and occult.
Around 23years old I had made lots of friends within the occult and pagan communities around Austin, Tx. and the universe kept bringing me back to my magick. I formed a coven with my three best friends in all the universes, known and unknown, Started practicing magick more often. Had monthly coven meetings, until finally I wanted to bring my craft to the world. I wanted to share the energies and art that come with my magick and so Ancient Mystic was born.
I guess this is a long winded way to explain how I learned to do the witching side of my craft. Then the art side came from a life being raised by artists and doing art (badly) for a LONG time to finally be where I am. My mother and older brother have been tattoo artists my whole life, so I was fortunate to get to be around art my whole life. My brother is definitely one of my biggest artistic inspirations.
To speed up my learning process? Well I think perhaps thats the wrong way to look at it. Everything takes time to get amazing at and perhaps we are meant to take the time it takes to learn the skills we learn. Slow and steady wins the race for a reason and artists who have kept at it for 20 years are amazing because it took 20 years.
The most essential skills were probably learning patience with myself as I perfected different areas of my art, I have a virgo mercury so my virgo cannot abide by me not being perfect at something immediately. Also, learning to price my stuff correctly as to value my own time and hard work I put into the piece. This comes from my cancer moon, Venus AND Mars, which makes it hard for me to charge people for my art; I’m much better at just gifting it away; and as such it took alot for me to be good at pricing my things in a way that gets me my worth. *learning astrology is also proving to be a quite useful tool*
As far as obstacles I have been pretty fortunate that my mother was an atheist so I was able to deep dive into any religions I chose from a young age, however, I had limited access to the computer and most people growing up were freaked out by anything that was not christian values. So I had to be careful with who I asked questions to or talked about these things to. Then, when I started finding other witchy people, for awhile I could only find the “love and light only” type of witches and it made me feel that I was even “too weird and occult-y for other witches!” and Finally down the road I was able to find people who were into more esoteric occult practices and learn more through them and their experiences and knowledge. As far as the art side it has always just been a bunch of trial and error til I finally get it right.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I own Ancient Mystic Metaphysics and co-own Creations From The Crypt.
Ancient Mystic is a Round Rock, Texas based small business. I aim to provide my customers with all the supplies they need to tap into their inner god/goddess! I create custom wands made with drumsticks that were used in live performances in Austin by local bands including but not limited to The immortalz, The bottomless, and Be’ware!
I also create wands with found bone or foraged pieces of wood from both the Austin and San Antonio areas, my incredible friend Desmond lives in San Antonio so we forage together there at times as well as they have been amazing enough to gift me lots of bones for my work in our years of friendship.
I also create resin altar pieces such a tarot cards and god/goddess busts, wind-chimes from ethically sourced (found specimens) bones, mini cloches with tiny oddities and I have designed two different ouija boards which my friends at Anomaly Forge helped me bring into reality!
Along with these products I also offer my services as a witch for rituals, spell work, cleansings, and altar building!
I think what sets me apart is that I truly care about all the people I work with and it reflects in my work and attention to detail. It’s nearly impossible for me to leave a situation without a new friend. I care about other humans and want to help people as much as I can in my time on this plain of existence.
I am most proud that I have been able to come so far with my work and the amount of people I have affected in a positive way. It is my goal to help people as much as possible. Which lead to Creations from the Crypt!
Creations from the Crypt is a group of friends and local Austin area popup market organizers. It is made up of my amazing friends from Anomaly Forge, Samm and Sebastion as well as myself and we are organizing events in Central Texas for other vendors with an emphasis on acceptance and authenticity. Our markets are largely spooky, occult, sideshow, alternative or goth vendors. Our goal is to give all the weirdos like us a safe space to showcase their art and make a living. I am most proud of us for genuinely caring about our vendors. What sets us apart from other market organizers is that we provide waters and snacks for our vendors, and we check in on them throughout the market and make sure they don’t need anything. We are also vendors so we know what other vendors need and what they forget and how sometimes you need a restroom break and don’t have someone to watch your booth! We fill those gaps by having extra batteries or an extra card reader when you forgot yours and we have extra hands to help make sure vendors are taken care of. Because even though you work for yourself and CAN do it all alone you shouldn’t have to in a community of artists who can work together to make the dream work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Definitely getting to live my most authentic life is the best part. I could not imagine being who I am not to fit the mold of a job. I have been dying my hair since I was 7 and I have tattoos, piercings and a vocabulary full of “f” words and I can not and will not change those things about myself.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I was 18 I was working in my mother’s tattoo shop as a tattoo artist and a piercer. Tho I loved the art of it and I love piercing I did not like the environment or some of the people who would come into the shop. There were lots of customers who I loved and were a dream to work with but not everyone realizes a tattoo artist is a person and IS creative but when you don’t feel the inspiration on a particular day it would upset people. Seeing how I was unable to 1000% of the time make the client happy because if I did not feel creative on a day I would schedule them for the next day or something because I refuse to ruin someones skin, then I decided I needed to find a way to be creative so that I could help people and can be done on my own terms. I quite the shop shortly after having a falling out with my mother and haven’t spoken to her in years. This was a huge pivot point in my life as I was finally feeling fully independent as an adult in my own life and doing my own art to my own terms and only selling my art at markets I want to attend and to people who appreciate me and my art. Ancient Mystic Metaphysics has been just that outlet and I couldn’t be more grateful to the universe for pushing me to work hard to accomplish these goals

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ancientmystic.company.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ancient_mystic_metaphysics?igsh=MW9jYTRlNzg0ZHF3dw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Ancient.mystic

Image Credits

Personal photo: Me photographer: Me

Professional photos:
Model: Nova Valentina
Photographer: Fable Avalon