The Numinous Podcast: Recent Episodes
Carmen Spagnola
The Numinous Podcast is a show about intuition, spirituality and the mystery of life. The host, Carmen Spagnola, is an intersectional witch and clinical hypnotherapist who has smart, soulful conversations with interesting people. The lineup is diverse, the topics are eclectic, and the people are down-to-earth (mostly).
On August 7, our home was completely ravaged by wildfire.
Our dear friend, Alysha, set up a Go Fund Me
https://www.gofundme.com/f/emergency-support-for-carmen-and-family
Grab a hanky because I am living close to the waterworks lately, folks! đ I was not able to keep it together through this interview and that tracks completely because I donât actually believe in trying to suppress emotions and I donât mind crying in the middle of an interview at all. Especially because itâs not everyday you know your guest is going to hold you in such deep care and dignity. My guest today is the warm and wonderful, Erinn Doncaster, here today to share about their new venture, a project called "Find Your Song".
Erinn's combined background in music education and event production, as well as AOP Social Work, trauma counselling, Somatic Experiencing, and group therapy has culminated in this project that weaves together the threads of their rich experience. Erinn is a non-binary, queer, newly disabled, white settler with way-back roots in the Scottish Hebrides via eight generations in Nova Scotia.
Find Your Song is a series of musical collaborations and explorations including the upcoming Songwriting to Meet the Moment retreat, happening November 19-22 in Nanaimo, BC, on gorgeous Vancouver Island. Registration closes on August 22, so Iâm glad we managed to align schedules so you all can hear why Erinnâs work is so much more than it seems! Just listen, youâll understand what I mean.
Find Your Song:findyoursong.cofacebook.com/findyoursong.coinstagram.com/findyoursong.coSongwriting to Meet the Moment registration: findyoursong.co/post/songwriting Karla Mundy & SongRoots: songroots.ca Sarina Partridge: sarinapartridge.comhttps://sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com/album/songs-to-re-root-and-remember-albumhttps://www.patreon.com/sarinapartridgeSarina's interview with Anderson Cooper about Singing Resistance: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BmrPcjfwA/ Singing Resistance: instagram.com/singingresistanceâ¨â¨â¨
The threads we're weaving between this podcast and the Stoner Story Witch Podcast:
"Mona is an Ancestor Now", The Numinous Podcast
"Music as Oracular Bridge with Colette Baron-Reid", The Numinous Podcast
"Memos with Friends: Taming the Werewolf Within with Carmen Spagnola", Stoner Story Witch Podcast
"Tending Ourselves and Each Other with Spaciousness & Creativity with Carmen Spagnola", Stoner Story Witch Podcast
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Pre-order my book, How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition, (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History, or Neurotype)
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Join us in The Numinous Network for 12 Days of Trancework starting August 3
Remember, I'm teaching my Trancework Practitioner Mini Certificate again this fall! (Likely the past time for a few years.)
Thanks for listening!đ
Mara Glatzel is an intuitive coach, teacher, podcast host + the author of Needy: How to Advocate for Your Needs + Reclaim Your Sovereigntyand she's inviting you to a slumber party for burnt out baddies (eldest daughters/sisters/girls).
Take Mara's Needs Quiz! (Fun and informative!)
Mara teaches eldest sisters, people pleasers, and chronic overfunctioners (her absolute favourite people) how to take up SPACE, deeply tend to their needs, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Through her online programs, workshops, and retreats, Mara supports folks yearning to reconnect with their humanity and create ambitious lives filled with meaning, without abandoning themselves in the process.
Check out her website and get on her mailing list to learn all about her summer retreat.
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Pre-order my forthcoming book, How to Connect
Come join us in The Numinous Network
(Content note: Adult language; also brief, non-specific mention of sexual assault.)
đIt's Colette Baron-Reid Day*!đ Sixty eight years ago, she began a life journey that has seen her rise to the height of publishing success as a bestselling author and oracle deck creator. Today, she is coming full circle in more ways than one: it's her solar return, it's her new album's debut, and it's a puzzle piece slotting into place that had been missing for decades.
In this conversation, we get to hear why Colette left the music industry 22 years ago and what has changed so that now, at 68 years old, she's no longer "too old for the industry".
Listen to the new album, My Dark Church, on Bandcamp.
Observances for đColette Baron-Reid Dayđ include: Pull an oracle card, tap into your own intuitive interpretation; make some art, bonus points for intention-setting as you do it; cuddle a cute Pomeranian while you introduce your friends to each other and build networks of solidarity and support to raise up your community and industry; sing if you feel like it, swear if you want to; embrace change, like, actively; take a creative risk and keep looking forward, "raise your eyes up"*. â¨
Pre-order my forthcoming book today, How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History, or Neurotype) <â Thank you so, so much for your support with this one! đđťđ
Join us for 12 Days of Trancework in The Numinous Network (9am PT/12pm ET, Aug 3 - 15, 2026, 30 min sessions, camera on or off, recordings available immediately afterward with no time limit to re-play)
WE WILL NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PERIMENOPAUSE. WE WILL NOT STOP ADVOCATING FOR UPDATED INFORMATION, GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE, AND A SERIOUS OVERHAUL OF FIRST LINE TREATMENT TO CURRENT MOST PROMISING PRACTICES IN MENOPAUSAL SUPPORT.
Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW (they/them/Mx.) is an author, educator, and certified menopause doula and coach specializing in gender-affirming menopause care. As Founder and CEO of Genderqueer Futures LLC, they train healthcare providers, therapists, coaches, and allied professionals to deliver inclusive, trauma-informed menopause care for people of all genders.
Lasara is the author of Genderqueer Menopause (North Atlantic Books, 2026) and the forthcoming Magickal Menopause (Llewellyn, 2027), and host of The Genderqueer Menopause Coach podcast. They present nationally at conferences, including the UCSF Transgender Health Summit, GLMA, and NPWH.
Lasara's next Gender-Affirming Menopause Care Certification Course, an 8-week IAOTH-accredited live cohort for providers, begins November 3, 2026.
Links:Everything Lasara: https://linktr.ee/lasarafirefoxallen
GAMC Certification Course (Nov 2026 cohort): https://bit.ly/GAMCFall2026
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Pre-order my book, How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)
Give The Numinous Network a try
Content Warning: pet death. Also, Dispatch episodes feature the background noise of me doing chores around the farm which may cause aggravation for folks with sensory processing sensitivities. Please look for a transcription within your podcast player.
Madonna (Mona) Spagnderson (2013 - 2026)This is the story of how Mona was promised to me in return for not leaving my husband.
This is the story of Mona's trauma recovery.
This is the story of how our dog required us to become better people, more healed people.
This is the story of how Mona told us she was ready to go.
This is the story of how we grieve.
This is the story of the fundamental role of ritual in our lives and how we do it when the time has come.
This is the story of how to do it when my time has come.
This is the story of our good girl, Mona, who became an ancestor on June 30, 2026.
Click here to see Mona's In Memoriam video on Instagram
Click here for my sad songs playlist on Tidal
Let's go on a farm tour and talk business! Today I am choring, checking the horses' water, the kunekune pigs' water, and saying hi to the chickens, then on to the fields to harvest wheat and barley to dry for wheat weaving kits this fall.
I'm sharing quite transparently about my income, my debt, my marketing and my foundational business philosophies.
I do want to note:
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As with all dispatch episodes, the background noises may not work for everyone. The pig grunts may get tiresome and the chickens may cause a startle response. Please search your podcast player for a transcription!
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I say several times in this episode "you have to do events", but I want you to hold that term, "events", very lightly. I don't mean you HAVE to host workshops. But, I mean, at least a 45 minute lunch-and-learn/webinar or SOMETHING, know what I mean? You have to make yourself available to the public if you want the public to fund your life. That's what I'm trying to say. It doesn't HAVE to be hosting events, that's just one example. It could also be your incredibly helpful or entertaining Substack, or your edutainment podcast or whatever. You just gotta MAKE is what I'm trying to say...you gotta DO stuff, otherwise all you have left to talk about is yourself and your boring credentials LOL đ
In this episode I reference:My NuMethod Facilitation Training â now taking applications for the fall cohorts
The 1000 True Fans Theory
Dunbar's Number
Several times I mention a resource available with membership in The Numinous Network
(For example, "Teach Well: Course Design for Healers Who Want to Teach", our Small Business Chat sessions, Peer Supervision, etc.)
I mention how I built my business on 8-10 newsletters a year (for years) and how I maintained a high engagement/open rate. (You don't open 80% of the time in a year? No worries - I've unsubscribed you!)* Sign up for my newsletter here!
*I actually haven't stayed on top of this since 2022 but I may resume soon! I love a good purge of my list!
**I didn't mention this, but I also have registration now open for my Trancework Practitioner Mini Certificate, a microcredential to boost your confidence and provide support for your therapeutic work.
*I also didn't mention that I have another book coming out soon! How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype). Your pre-order means so much! Without it, I can't do the size of print run that will properly stock stores ahead of the holiday gift season - please pre-order and thank you in advance!
Storytime! This one is about how I won a trip to Greece through Contact Nutrition. I was a wine rep trying to sell relatively expensive bottom shelf wine to Greek restaurants that did not want this wine. Here's what made the difference.
Join us for a mellow summer of Contact Nutrition in The Numinous Network!
Thanks in advance for pre-ordering my next book: How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History, or Neurotype)
A little more "Common Sense for Collapse Times" for you today with something I learned after my business was washed away in the Great Recession of 2008 and I experienced bankruptcy and some deep, deep shame.
I'm talking about navigating capitalism and managing terror and desperation - somehow in 12 minutes I manage to make myself both laugh and cry, while also feeding the horses and sharing, like, 3 different stories and multiple partial tangential thoughts with you. It's an authentic hang-out session. đ
Come hang out with us in The Numinous Network for some gentle care and deep connection, as well as some entrepreneurial support!
I'm so honoured to welcome back to the podcast, one of my favourite conversations partners ever, Perdita Finn!
Perdita is the author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, and with her husband Clark Strand The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. She teaches popular workshops on connecting and collaborating with both the dead and the animate everything. She lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains.
She is on Facebook and Instagram and writes a popular Substack, Take Back the Magic. Her website is takebackthemagic.com
Buy Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of our Ancestors from your favourite bookseller now!
Referenced in this episode:Bitch: On the Female of the Species, by Lucy Cooke
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Join us for more like this in The Numinous Network
10 Rules to Live By (for Collapse or Any Other Time)This episode features the best bangers of cowboy logic, farm wisdom, and collapse tips that are getting us through some tough months here on Faulder Farm on Syilx Territory.
Pre-order my book: How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)
đđť Thanks in advance! đđť
Join us for collapse support in The Numinous Network
Today's guest, Nadine Nakagawa, is an organizer, activist, intersectional feminist, clinical counsellor, and two-term city councillor. She is also the co-founder of Feminist Campaign School which supports underrepresented people to run for and serve in elected office.
She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Moss, Molt, Murmur: Contemplations on Nature, which is now available for pre-order from 9th House Press!
This conversation was recorded over a month ago and we were still using the working title "Imaginal Discsâ which is just one of the essays in this little book. I say âessaysâ but theyâre not exactly essaysâŚ
Itâs more like a compendium of prose poems and musings and tiny immersions into an animist, anticapitalist, interconnected world.
I know this book will resonate with activists, environmentalists, animists, artists, pagans, witches, people developing secure attachment with beings and places of the natural world.
Itâs a book for people trying to find their way out of the narrative of a white capitalist imperialist patriarchal overculture. It's for those people who are looking for the exit by entering into communion with the natural world.
And when you hear more from Nadine today, I think youâll see why I think this book is going to be wildly popular when it arrives.
Referenced in this episode:Kai Cheng Thom
Indiginews
Eden Fineday
Follow Nadine on Instagram
Pre-order now from 9th House Press
âď¸ Check out the Power Reader Bundle âď¸
Join us in The Numinous Network
If you are in the mood for something soothing, cozy, wholesome, and heartwarming, this episode is for you. If you are craving some quality time with a neighbour who is grounded, good-hearted, generous and genuinely curious about you and life in general, this episode is for you. If you need a comfort listen, this episode is for you.
And so is the forthcoming book from today's guest, Marianne Unger. It's called Farm Stand News: Letters to the Neighbourhood and it's now available for pre-order from 9th House Press.
It's about neighbourliness, baking, gardening, place-making, heritage and chosen family, the gift economy, and turning capitalist colonialism on its head. And most of all, it's about love.
Check out the Power Reader Bundle!
Join us in The Numinous Network to participate in more conversations like this.
Author and educator, Dionne Grayman, is here to talk about her new book, I Call My Own Name: A Homegirl's Lyrical Memoir of Hip-Hop, Healing and Holy Reclamation, now available for pre-order from 9th House Press.
In the 90s, Dionne was just 20 years old and pregnant when her baby's father was killed. Now in her late 50s, Dionne recounts how literature and music helped her "remember herself whole", her whole story, with herself as lead not victim. With a warm voice and engaging storytelling, Dionne rewrites the story of how this MC saved her own life.
Pre-order I Call My Own Name from 9th House Press
Best Savings: the Power Reader Bundle
More show notes with links to all of Dionne's references and recommendations coming soon!
Check out my next book, How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)
Join us in The Numinous Network
New from 9th House Press: Mother Juniper: On Matrescence in Ecological Crisis, by Dr.Allison Claire Davis, explores the question, What happens when a woman becomes a mother during the slow emergency of our ecological crisis?
Matrescence is the developmental transition of becoming a mother. As far as I can find, this is the first book published that focuses exclusively on the unique psychoemotional context of becoming a mother during a time of climate crisis.
Dr.Allie Davis is a licensed therapist, researcher, and educator who coined the term maternal ecodistress. Her research has been published in journals including Ecopsychology and Womenâs Studies International. She teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute, directs the Maternal Ecopsychology Certification program for clinicians and birth workers, serves as associate editor of the Journal of Mental Health and Climate Change, and runs Southwest Perinatal Counseling.
Mother Juniper draws on the juniperâs pioneer species carework as a developmental framework for supporting the Earth-Self that awakens in matrescence. It is grounded in attachment theory, ecopsychology, feminist theory, and depth psychology. Throughout the book, Davis holds Indigenous ways of knowing and Western science in relationship with each other and reframes maternal climate distress as accurate perception rather than pathology.
Along with a developmental framework for moving through ecological crisis, Mother Juniper supports mothers in building earned secure attachment to Earth during matrescence. Therapists and healthcare providers will also benefit from this book as gives clinicians language and a framework for the ecological dimensions of maternal care.
âď¸ Buy the book âď¸
www.dralliedavis.com
Follow Allie on Instagram
TikTok
Learn more about 9th House Press
Come join us in The Numinous Network
Production Note: I used a different recording program than usual without any background noise dampening so you get to hear the summer storm roll in, my dog, Mona slurping her water, my movements as I shuffle stuff on my desk, etc...So real! So high def! So intimate and interactive!
Trigger warning: Discussion of suicide and brief non-specific mention of sexual assault, overall a bummer of a topic but I try to keep it moving along fairly briskly and we end with some good coping strategies.
On this Mother's Day weekend, I'm taking about some grief-y things and some tough things, and also some funny things and some empowering things. If you're a caregiver nearing the end of her rope, this is for you.
International Crisis Lines
Quality of Life assessment: https://qli.uic.edu/
Professional Quality of Life Scale (Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue and Burnout):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzvQVeakBzCbjDCaypwZ_dEy3vHs-37K/view?usp=drive_link
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide
https://sprc.org/about-suicide/suicide-data/suicide-by-age/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3603326/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791161
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7292717/
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/12/e032391.full.pdf
https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ei/Article/1003241
Come join us in The Numinous Network for some structured social interaction! đ
If you've enjoyed discourse on this podcast about the barefoot doctor approach, community-based and culturally-relevant mental health initiatives and disability justice, as well as how ritual and spiritual literacy helps weave a stronger collective nervous system and increases community resilience, then you need to read, The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution by Dr.Dixon Chibanda. It's about a mental health program of elder lay counsellors who deliver mental health support from neighbourhood park benches, and the 100+ published studies on its efficacy in measurable improvements to individual patients and public health.
Dr.Dixon Chibanda is a medical doctor, a practicing psychiatrist, and a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also director of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI). His TEDx Talk about the Friendship Bench has over 3 million views.
Referenced in this episodeThe Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution
FriendshipBench.org
Friendship Bench-in-a-Box
Dixon's socials and podcasts:
Instagram and FriendshipBenchGlobal Insta
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube/Podcast
TikTok
LinkedIn
Join us in The Numinous Network for some Contact Nutrition
Sign up for my newsletter to be notified when pre-orders open for my next book:
How to Connect: Build Deep Connection and a Strong Bond Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)
Welcome to your new hyper-niche comfort listen, my fellow disability nerds! Today we're talking with Dr.Diana Driscoll about some of the recent research on Inflammatory POTS as well as promising treatment approaches.
Diana Driscoll, OD, FAAO received her Doctoral degree from The University of Houston College of Optometry, and began studying idiopathic autonomic dysfunction through the ophthalmic examination of affected patients. Her work extended into abnormal vagus nerve function, vascular endothelial health, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, premature aging associated with connective tissue disorders, the genetic traits involved, and the reversal of symptoms.
She has published in The Journal of Vitreoretinal Disease and is a peer-reviewer for retinal journals. Dr. Driscoll created Genetic Disease Investigators, LLC in 2011 to conduct formalized research into autonomic dysfunction. She is the recipient of five patents to date concerning the enigmatic autonomic nervous system, including dry eye disease. She is the author of The Driscoll Theory which details the role of intracranial pressure, vagus nerve function, fibrosis, and inflammation in connective tissue patients.
She also authored Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: Your Eyes and EDS â the only publication of its type.
Dr. Driscoll is the Clinical Director of POTS Care, the owner of TJ Nutrition, and the President of Genetic Disease Investigators.
Referenced in this Episode:Download The Driscoll Theory: The cause of POTS in Ehlers-Danlos and how to reverse the process
Learn more about Dr.Driscoll's work and offerings:
POTS Rebels on Patreon
POTS Care Clinic
More on Inflammatory POTS
Vagus nerve support supplement
www.drdianadriscoll.com
Related Past Episodes of The Numinous Podcast:
TNP169 Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies
TNP205 Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene + Miracles
TNP210 RCCX Theory of Complex Illness with Carmen Spagnola
TNP215 Before Capitalism (from a European Perspective) with Sophie Macklin
TNP267 The Body Is A Doorway with Sophie Strand
Past episodes featuring Numinous Network Members and Guides
who live with disability, chronic/temporary/dynamic or episodic disability:
TNP281 23 Dates with My Dead Dad with Corey MacAuliffe
TNP275 Community Building in Tough Times with Asteria Elzea
TNP270 Art, Pleasure and Consent with Marisa Sullivan
Join us in The Numinous Network â sliding scale rate of $50, $75 or $100USD per month for 50+ live support calls, including weekly sessions for people with Sensitive Systems & Long Covid. (Camera optional, verbal or non-verbal participation a-ok, no forced sharing, slow pacing and lots of mini breaks to reset, calibrate, and discern the goldilocks amount of connection in the moment).
NotesApologies: I misspoke in the intro of this episode and said "RCCX syndrome" which is definitely not a thing. I meant "RCCX Theory", the work of Dr.Sharon Meglathery.
I also misspoke in the outro when I said that pre-orders are now available for my book, How to Connect: Build Deep Connection and a Strong Bond Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype) â PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE MAY 8! â¨đ Sign up for my newsletter for the announcement.
Today's episode is part announcement, part request, part inspiration, part call to action â I am delighted to welcome back my dear friend and colleague, Taraneh Erfan, in her role as Editorial Director for 9th House Press. Regular listeners will know that 9th House Press is a worker co-op founded by Taraneh, myself and our colleague, ThĂŠrèse Cator, and we are bringing you world-building books that are a response to the question, How then shall we live?
We are pleased to officially announce that our debut catalogue arrives May 8, 2026!
Check out our Submissions Guidelines and send us your work to be considered for our upcoming anthology of poetry and prose by marginalized and equity-denied voices, Assembly: Liberatory Words for Revolutionary Times. On November 4, 2026, our title will be on bookstore shelves, and your words could be within the pages!
Sign up for accessible group or self-paced expressive arts therapy with Taraneh Erfan
Become an Associate Member of the 9th House Press Co-operative today! (Entries prior to 5pm PDT on May 8, 2026 are automatically entered into our Grand Prize Giveaway.)
Get a 30-day free trial of The Numinous Network when you use promo code FREE30 before April 30, 2026.
This episode features my very special guest, Alysha! She's here for her third work-stay on the land, learning construction skills as she helps my husband, Ruben, build a livestock shelter. Alysha has been an amazing role model, resource, and thought partner for me around anti-colonialism for many years. Once again, here she is, advancing my thinking on the subject. Come grapple with us as we do morning horse chores!
I know that as a settler, a Land Acknowledgement isn't for me.
But as a participant in settler colonialism, it is about me in a way, and it does impact me in that it has been and continues to be a learning process.
I hope that, since we're trying to have a holistic, nuanced, and relational conversation about Land Acknowledgements, I'll be forgiven for saying that I believe having moral ambition benefits me by improving my self-esteem. I believe awkward participation in Land Acknowledgements is a pro-social, collective good. I don't know where the line is where it becomes a social detriment or we become numb to it, but I do think it's important they are not limited to formal events and those involving people who move the levers of institutional power.
Again, this process is of course not about making me, as a settler, feel good. But it does make me feel a lot of things, and not all of them are bad.
UPDATE March 26, 2026: I'm realizing that I threw the term "moral ambition" out into the conversation via the show notes and it perhaps lands a bit out of context. I recently published an episode, TNP306 {Dispatch: Jan 30, 2026} Lively v. Baldoni, Avoidant Attachment, and Moral Ambition, in which I grapple with, and ultimately endorse, that concept. The way I feel it relates here is that I tend to think that the way we ought to address numbness to the challenges of life is not to curtail our engagement but rather to become more present, to cultivate more maturity (emotional and spiritual), to stick with the trouble. There is a risk we fail, but it's honourable to try.
And that's all I have to say about that. đ
Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded en plein air with all the sounds of farm life and chores in the background, (and sometimes a bit loud). We tried not to sniff too much but it was a cold morning, and sometimes the feed bags make a big tarp-in-the-wind-like sound. If auditory sensitivity is part of your experience, please consult your podcast player for a transcript.
With gratitude for the article of note to the writer, Khelsilem: Understanding the Purpose, Limits, and Misuse of "Land Acknowledgements": On symbolism, substance, and the limits of public ritual
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Sign up for my newsletter to receive the reminder for Free April: Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of The Numinous Network
Today we're engaging in thought partnership around critical impact ratings, mental models, and reaching for what we care about in a risk assessment framework.
Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded while I'm doing farm chores and feeding the horses in the morning, so people with sensory processing challenges may not find this episode enjoyable. In this episode I'm walking in snow, jostling with metal chains, shovelling hay and packing it into hay nets. Lots of background sounds! Apologies for that â please check your podcast player for a transcript.
Referenced in this episode:Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen (book/autobiography)
So Sinopoulous Lloyd of Queer Nature who appeared on ep.93 of this podcast
The actual 2025 StatsCan data on small business longevity in Canada: About 22% of small businesses fail in the first year and only 50% survive after five years.
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, by Laurence Gonzales (Major trigger warning: Story after story of smart, well-equipped, experienced people dying by accident because this is actually really common)
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Join us in The Numinous Network
Sign up for my newsletter
This episode is actually only 24 minutes long if you subtract all the parts with me managing the fact that the horses broke the fence and got stuck in a pasture they're not supposed to be in. Skip forward to minutes 9:30 - 35:00 to hear about what we can learn from 1970s China about navigating dictatorship and collapse and orienting to a more collectivist world.
Note: I record dispatch episodes while doing my horse chores in the morning so there's lots of background noise that folks with certain sensory processing issues may not appreciate. In this episode you'll hear rain, my laboured breathing, the metal bin opening and closing, scooping and pouring out feed (beet pellets), plastic bags rustling, horses chewing...I also speak with some pretty stern vocal prosody when the horses try to push me or get too assertive mouthing me. This may be slightly startling since you have no visual cues to anticipate I might do that and you might be used to me having a more soothing speaking voice â you're not the one trying to bite me, though, so it's all good! Please check your podcast player for a transcript option if this doesn't work for you.
In this episode I reference:Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China, by Xioping Fang
my Facilitation Training (next Level 1 intake will be Fall 2026)
This is an episode about Past Life Regression but...
CW: This may be a tough one to listen to (or a validating one, depending on your situation) because I'm sharing some high-level details about my history of sexual trauma. Non-specific mentions of sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and a bunch of patriarchal bullshit. I've kept it pretty non-specific, but if you care about me, it may be hard to hear.
Please note: If you don't want to hear the background trauma history that motivated this regression work, please pause at minute 30:00 and skip ahead to minute 41:00.
It's not lost on me that I, and many others in my orbit, are having lots of emotional material arise in the wake of the release of the Epstein files. If it feels good to be "in it" with me, great. If you're at capacity, then give this one a pass or take it in small doses. I'm not going into detail, and it's woven in with other related information about trancework, past lives, autoimmunity and dysautonomia symptoms, but please exercise caution and care.
Please listen while you're tasking so you can easily zone out of parts that you relate to a little too much â¤ď¸â𩹠đŤ
Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded while I'm doing farm chores and feeding the horses in the morning, so people with sensory processing challenges may not find this episode enjoyable. In this episode I'm walking in snow, jostling with metal chains, shovelling hay and packing it into hay nets. Lots of background sounds! Apologies for that â please check your podcast player for a transcript.
Let me tell you about the past life regression I experienced last night! One of my students needed a practice buddy to be their "client". It gave me clarity around some triggers I have that I really must take more seriously as they have serious health ramifications for me. (The rammies đŤ Can't forget about the rammies, bro.)
In this episode, I reference:⢠my Trancework Practitioner Mini Certificate
⢠my Facilitation Training
⢠sign up for my newsletter (I'll keep you posted about future trainings!)
⢠the seminal research of Dr.Ian Stevenson
⢠Dr.Jim Tucker, The University of Virginia School of Medicine, Division of Perceptual Studies
⢠Carol Bowman and her kids on the Oprah Winfrey Show talking about children's spontaneous past life recall
⢠underlying causes of autoimmunity and dysautonomia
⢠bell hooks' quote from her book, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2004), âThe first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.â
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Join us in The Numinous Network for affordable, accessible, on-going support and Contact Nutrition.
This dispatch is a response to a lovely listener's question about how to avoid being bullied by those who respond to moral integrity with aggression.
Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded extemporaneously during the morning feed of the horses, (Beau, Skaha, and Reverie). If background noises, or me sniffing, or scooping beet pulp pellets, or moving buckets around, or filling hay nets, or walking in mud are irritating sounds, these episodes may not be pleasurable for you. Please see your podcast player for transcript options!
Learn more about the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy, a facilitation method that emerged in post-apartheid South Africa, aspiring to support social integration by getting to the root of harm, resentment, grievance, and vengeance in large collectives, communities and organizations. Myrna Lewis was was present and actively involved in holding space at the Civic Dialogue that Ruben and I attended. Here is a short video about the Civic Dialogue we attended that day. (Catch a glimpse of me and Ruben at 1:25, back row to the left of Sera, (speaker/co-facilitator), where our body language speaks volumes about how convinced we were that hope was the key driver of social/environmental change. đ)
The facilitator I speak of, the marvellous Aftab Erfan, has been on the podcast a couple of times.
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If you like the topic of this episode, you may find comfort and support in The Numinous Network, both the live calls such as Attachment Jams and Contact Nutrition Drop-Ins, as well as the on-demand video courses like Contact Nutrition 101, and Secure: The Magical Art and Subtle Science of Attachment.
Note: If you don't like the background noise of feeding horses, (opening plastic bags, pouring water, stirring, packing hay nets in a metal bin, belaboured breathing), then Dispatches are not the episodes for you. Sorry! Please see your podcast player for transcript options.
Here are my hot takes and broad strokes thinking on the Blake Lively v. Justin Baldoni, Jamie Heath, and Wayfarer Parties lawsuit, and how it intersects with:
⢠avoidant attachment tendencies
⢠profound shame
⢠patriarchy, misogyny, and pick-up artist culture
⢠contempt for religious minorities
I also share what I know off the top of my head, and from personal experiences in my youth, about the BahĂĄ'Ă faith. Please do your own research into BahĂĄ'Ă principles and its founder, BahĂĄ'u'llĂĄh, for a more correct and precise accounting. Same with the Quakers: I meant what I said, I'm a bad Quaker and should not be trusted as a role model or information source! đ I have enjoyed this little book by anarchist-turned-Quaker-turned-professor-of-Quaker-practice, Ben Pink Dandelion, if you're seriously curious about understanding the diversity of Quaker faith and practice worldwide.
To understand the fascinating legal maneuverings behind the Lively v. Baldoni case, I recommend the podcast Allegedly Golden podcast.
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Join us for Imbolc in The Numinous Network.
This dispatch covers some far-reaching terrain, from Clarissa Pinkola Estes to Luigi Mangione, from horse hoof trimming to the Harvard Law Review, from elderhood to eccentricity, imagination, and a triumphant orientation to life.
Content Note: If you don't like the background noise of feeding horses, (opening plastic bags, pouring water, stirring, packing hay nets in a metal bin, belaboured breathing), then these are not the episodes for you. Sorry! Please see your podcast player for transcript options.
Content Note 2: Mentions of political violence, state violence, sexual violence, and incarceration.
Referenced in this episode:
How to be an Elder, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (I believe this is the lecture I was referring to â it's been a literal decade since I listened but it's the only one in my audio library of hers that references elderhood, so I think this must be it!)
The Dangerous Few: Taking Seriously Prison Abolition and its Skeptics, by Thomas Ward Frampton, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
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Join us in The Numinous Network for our Wheel of the Year observance for Imbolc on Sunday, Feb 1, 2026. We will be invoking the healing power of Brigid and her blessings, asking for her to make sacred our clooties (prayer cloth), a talismanic expression of Brigid's mantle. This simple ritual will feature an extended trance journey to receive Brigid's healing.
Dispatch episodes are short and off the cuff, recorded while I'm doing horse chores. If sensory inputs like crunching hay, chewing animals, or occasionally laboured breathing and sniffles aggravate you, this episode may not be for you! Please see your podcast player for transcript options.
In this episode, I talk about the deeply rooted defaults of Eldest Daughter Syndrome and how being heard and truly seen utterly breaks me.
Referenced in this episode:TNP301 Muted by Maximalism: A Study in Power Analysis
Not referenced, but related: TNP233 Understanding Moral Injury with Dr.Robyn Walser
Follow me on Instagram for my Saturday meme train
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Thoughts on William Morris, enshitification, and seeking friction.
Correction: William Morris wallpaper was actually block printed, not silkscreened as I said in this episode. Seeing how it was produced actually made me cry, it's so beautiful and care-full. Watch how it was made!
Note: If you have certain sensory processing issues involving background noises like hay nets being stuffed, or horses chewing, or roosters crowing in the background, then my Dispatch episodes may not be to your liking. My apologies! Please consult your podcast player app for a transcript alternative.
Referenced in this EpisodeMorris & Co, UK
William Morris and The Socialist League
Some original block printed wallpapers and their backstories in the William Morris Gallery
Arts and Crafts design elements from my old office in Victoria, BC
The term "enshitification" was coined by Cory Doctorow
Empire of AI, by Karen Hao
Ben Affleck is sick of life
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Learn more about The Numinous Network
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Purchase my books:The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
{Dispatch} I'm experimenting with a new, more candid format for shorter episodes called "dispatches" where I share the thoughts I have while I'm out feeding the horses. This is my first one! đ
I will try to make them 15 minutes or less. (Apologies in advance if they go longer because of my rambling thought trains.) They will be about current events and interpersonal issues...probably a lot of them will be about Contact Nutrition.
Content Note: If you don't like the background noise of feeding horses, (opening plastic bags, pouring water, stirring, packing hay nets in a metal bin, belaboured breathing), then these are not the episodes for you. Sorry! Please see your podcast player for transcript options.
Content warning: This episode is a story about a friendship breakup between two relatively privileged white women. It contains mentions of self-harm, suicidality, psychosis, sexual assault, and overdose.
I have my child's and my husband's consent to discuss matters pertaining to them.
Referenced in this episodeThe Left Is Eating Itself podcast episode with Maurice Mitchell
Building Resilient Organizations: Toward Joy and Durable Power in Times of Crisis
Interview with Maurice Mitchell in Convergence Magazine on Building Resilient Organizations
Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair, by Sarah Schulman
Feminist Accountability: Disrupting Violence and Transforming Power, by Ann Russo
Right Use of Power Institute
SpringUp: Liberatory Education
Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators, by Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan
Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence, by CreativeInterventions.Org
community accountability recources from INCITE!
White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun
National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
Suicide hotlines
Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute
Not Actually Golden on TikTok
Little Girl Attorney on TikTok
Attorney Britt on TikTok
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Intentions and actions to live a values-led life in the coming year.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder
Donate to the Amazon Labour Union
Get involved in your local 4H Club in Canada or the US!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Ritual ideas for crossing the threshold to the new year surrounded by allies and a sense of love and care.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Slowing down, attuning to the rhythm of grief, and remembering the Beloved Dead who died in the past year.
Buy Aly Halpert's song or album, Loosen, on Bandcamp
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Today we're doubling down on our protective plant magic to bolster our spiritual safeness while the veil remains thin. We also look at 'wassail' as a noun, verb, and greeting which is especially appropriate on the 9th night of Yule which is associated with the 9th month of the year â the apple-iest month there is â September.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
We're cleansing home and body with medicinal herbs by making vermouth, potpourri and incense in order to finish the year well.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
We explore myths related to the beauty of binaries, balance, and cycles of death and resurrection. Some of the myths can help us queer the holidays, others can help us put strained sibling relationships into new perspective. Learn why why ham is such a symbolic meal during this holiday time, and consider some simple rituals to help you bring more balance into your life.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
â¨My favourite part of Yuletide!⨠Hearth spirits, house brownies, and protective supernatural allies for homes, barns, and livestock are all propitiated at this time. For me, this seems like a great way to steer children away from the more commercial aspects of this time of year and spark imagination, intuition, and an animist sensibility. A fun ritual for today would be to research what house spirits were called in your family's heritage â¨
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Ancient traditions around the return of the light imply a revival of hope and healing. Pagans created art and apothecary items to reflect the beautiful and harmonious qualities of the cosmos, adorning their homes and bodies to revive the spirit in wintertime.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
We honour the children in our lives and the child within us. Plus, more Winter Witches! Woop woop!
Note: The final 4 minutes of this episode is a guided meditation during which you should not be driving, riding a bike, operating machinery or engaged in any activity that requires your full attention.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Ancestral veneration is a key function of winter rituals, a way to put our lineages in good order, encourage harmonious relations with the spirits of the ancient dead, and appease the restless dead who roam at night. On this night, we tell scary ghost stories that might include child-devouring crones, beer-stealing werewolves, dictator dogs and violent Santas. It's also a good day to honour the animal familiars who help convey gifts and goodness including flying goats, female deer, and horse skeletons.
There are also lighter aspects to the day including the reverence of Freya, hanging wreaths, and sacred spinning, weaving and fibre work.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
This is one of my favourite episodes because cultivating intimacy with the land I live on and the Spirits of Place is one of my favourite things to do. It also addresses, briefly yet deeply, how we can attend to the impacts of imperialism, colonialism, and patriarchy in our spiritual work, especially at wintertime.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
It all begins with the Mother. Tonight on the longest night of the year, we honour our matrilineages and the spiritual lineages of prophesy, blessing, abundance and nurturance passed down through the ages through myths concerning Crones.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Antifascism for the holidays!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Inspiration for your holiday kitchen witchery!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
What's the deal with dead bird on Victorian holiday greeting cards? Plus, a rundown of some of the Yuletide bestiary.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
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Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
A look at Victorian holiday postcards and the botanicals of winter.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
NOTE: This episode contains a 7 minute guided meditation â do not listen while driving or operating machinery! We begin the Yuletide season by grounding into our values and prioritizing just a few rituals, crafts or special foodstuffs. Then we can relax and release pressure to have or provide perfect holiday moments; instead we can deepen into rhythm of winter's work of ritual, ceremony, reflection and restorative pause.
Himmeli straw can be found at The Straw Shop
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
Learn about Fumbulvinter, the 12 Days of Yuletide and their themes, and the stories of European Yuletide folklore in my annual program, now available for free!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft) and Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
People often ask me how I get so much done. Where do I get the time? Electional astrology, that's where.
Working with the natural rhythms of my chart and leveraging action during the most auspicious portals of my year; that's how I keep wasted time to a minimum, and ensure I am more or less always doing what I'm meant to be doing at any given moment. I recognize when my chart is telling me to work, rest, and play, and then I do that. The right things at the right time.
I trust an experienced professional to determine those portals of time for me. Lately I've been working with electional astrologer, Drew Levanti, to help me map out my year.
Drew is an astrologer rooted in the Cascadia region of the Pacific. They weave the mystic, the mythic, and the mathematical roots of astrology, allying with the archetypal cosmos and your own guides to help you soulfully and practically navigate the times at hand. Drewâs love of philosophy, history, and myth permeates his astrological career, from his research to his long-term client relationships and his professional collaborations, including that with one of our previous podcast guests, Kristin Mathis, who was one of the guests during the astromagic miniseries, (ep.203) on Venus and the Orphic Hymns. Drew and Kristin have co-led programs and co-appeared on a number of podcasts discussing ancient astrology and the Orphic Hymns.
Check out these awesome offerings from Drew to help you prepare for 2026:
Radical Election ReportInto the Fire: Your 2026 Astro-DownloadListen to the AstroMagic Miniseries
Astrocartographers I recommend:
Jen Zahrt
Jasmine Richardson
⨠Join us in The Numinous Network â¨
Content Warning: Grief, death, substance use, intergenerational trauma, and bereavement.
I have a magical story for you today about angels, grief and loss, and receiving signs from our ancestors. My guest today is Corey McAuliffe. She holds a PhD in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences and a Masterâs in Public Health. Sheâs also the author of 23 Dates with My Dead Dad, a grief memoir that chronicles her journey toward reconnecting with her late father and healing from intergenerational trauma.
After her fatherâs death in 2019, Corey transformed their monthly father-daughter tradition into a spiritual practice, tuning into synchronicities and signs. The book weaves together her experiences with chronic illness, ancestral trauma, and a transformative trip to Ireland to explore family history.
For many of us, the holiday season is a time of bittersweet memories and melancholy reminiscencesâŚone thing I really appreciated about Coreyâs book is that is offered a balance of the practical actual lived reality of a complicated relationship with a parent with the excitement and uplifting energy of asking for signs and tuning into synchronicities and receiving winks from the Universe.
It really was a page turner so if you're looking for a memoir thatâs one part Eat Pray Love, one part Travelling with Pomegranates, plus a dash of visiting a medium to connect with your Beloved Dead, then have I got a book for you!
Buy 23 Dates with My Dead Dad
Join us in The Numinous Network
Follow Corey on Instagram and TikTok
As we slip more deeply into the holiday season, even the most committed feminist may also be inadvertently sliding into old patterns of over-functioning. Let's pause to refocus, shall we? Beatriz Victoria Albina is a Family Nurse Practitioner, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and author of the bestselling book, End Emotional Outsourcing: a Guide to Overcoming Codependent, Perfectionist and People Pleasing Habits.
In this episode, we talk about:
⢠signs we might be engaging in Emotional Outsourcing (what it is and what it might look like)
⢠the five Survival Selves â personas we adopt to get along
⢠a process to engage with boundaries using clear, direct communication
and much, much more!
BĂŠa has a ton of useful resources that I highly recommend you check out.
Follow her on Instagram
She's also the host of the Feminist Wellness Podcast with hundreds of helpful episodes!
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Learn more about my books, Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times and The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year â Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft
My guest today is ⨠Dra.RocĂo Rosales-Meza ⨠Dra.RocĂo is a former academic with a background in counselling psychology who currently works at the intersection of ancestral veneration, decolonization, health â and by that I mean, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing.
Through her courses and mentoring programs, Dra.RocĂo helps people unlearn colonial programming and embody their gifts. As of this recording, registration is currently open for her program, Decolonial Shadow Work, designed specifically for white folks and bi-racial white folks.
Because Iâve followed Dra.RocĂo for some time and Iâve seen her quote many of the iconic teachers and revolutionaries that I, personally, find inspiring and instructive â for instance, Iâve seen and heard her reference Frantz Fanon, bell hooks, Assata Shakur, some of the figures I admire most and that most fascinate me in the movement for Black liberation â I thought it would be very worthwhile to have a conversation about decolonizing our minds and hearts and doing the deeper spiritual work needed to become a reliable and useful accomplice and co-conspiritor in the movement towards liberation and justice for all. I hope that whatever your racial identity, you'll enjoy and find something useful and comforting in this conversation.
Visit Dra.RocĂo's website
Register for Decolonial Shadow Work
Learn more about: Dr.Michael Yellowbird - Neurodecolonization and Indigenous Mindfulness
Assata Shakur
bell hooks
ThĂch Nhat Hanh
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Come to my Book Jam! Bringing Contact Nutrition to the Page
Pour yourself a cup of tea or something cozy because my dear friend, Sarah Selecky, and I are going to have a chat about writing.
Sarahâs newest book, Story Is A State of Mind, started as a writing class in her living room in Victoria, BC, 25 years ago, right around the time we met. It has since become a unique example of how the internet has disrupted the classical education system, with her program evolving into an online program now known as the Sarah Selecky Writing School. Her Story Course has been praised by the likes of Margaret Atwood and Zuzie Gartner and her debut short story collection, This Cake is for the Party, was a finalist for what is probably Canadaâs most well known literary award, The Giller Prize. Her next book, Radiant Shimmering Light, was optioned by Amy Adams to create a series for HBO. And her latest, Story is a State of Mind: Writing and the Art of Creative Curiosity, is getting buzz in academic circles with profs in MFA programs across the country adding to their required reading lists.
And we are SO LUCKY to have Sarah back on the program for a third time to help us bring our creative work out into the world.
Listen to Sarah's previous visit to the podcast, ep.102 talking about Radiant Shimmering Light
Listen to episode EIGHT (đŽ) of The Numinous Podcast: Sarah Selecky on Better Living Through Metaphor
Get your copy of Story is a State of Mind from our wonderful friends at Assembly Press
I am â¨thrilled⨠to welcome back to the show for a fourth time, my friend and beloved mentor, Dr.Cyndi Brannen. Cyndi is a world-renowned expert on Modern Hekatean Witchcraft. Her seminal book, Keeping Her Keys, published in 2019 continues to be a bestselling title in the witchcraft category. She has since published three more books on Hekate, a trilogy begun with Entering Hekateâs Garden in 2020, Entering Hekateâs Cave which came out in 2023, and now, finally Entering Hekate's Cauldron: Spells, Spirits, Rites, and Rituals released summer 2025.
In this episode, we talk about rites and rituals but also we go more deeply into Hekateâs parentage and her coterie of counterparts - the other deities and allies that show up in her myths, and even author her myths as weâll hear later on.
Learn more about Cyndi's books and offerings (including Covina, her on-going coven of Hekate) on her website keepingherkeys.com
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Today Iâm delighted to welcome back to the show, Nicholas Pearson, who is basically becoming our resident geologist and crystal witch. His newest book is The Witching Stones: The Lore & Craft of the Essential Crystals, Gemstones and Minerals to Empower Your Magic.
Nicholas has been immersed in the mineral kingdom for thirty years and appeared previously on this podcast, in episode 158 on Crystal Basics which aired in 2021, and episode 170, Flower Essences from the Witchâs Garden which aired in 2022. I think heâs written about a dozen books now, not only on minerals but other spiritual topics as well, and heâs always got a unique take, thereâs always a new way of looking that I think keeps the topics fresh and the books worth the investment.
In this conversation, Nicholas shares his rationale for some of the unexpected choices he made when writing The Witching Stones.
Follow Nicholas on socials! Instagram Facebook TikTok
Patreon
Welcome fellow Numinous Network Guide, ⨠Asteria â¨, to the podcast!
Asteria Elzea (she/ they) is an artist, a maker, and a connector. In this episode, Asteria shares how she builds community on a shoestring budget as a queer disabled neurodivergent artist.
Asteria identifies as white, bisexual, polyamorous, and is neurodivergent. Her most special interest is people and how we connect. Asteria has trained in connection, actionable goals, and trauma-informed facilitation with Beautiful You Coaching Academy, Desiree Adaway, and me, Carmen Spagnola!
They also love growing food, roses, decolonization, and pulling the rug out from under capitalistic, white supremacist, patriarchal society. Asteria is a certified data analyst and practicing witch, as well as a coach and community builder.
As a resident of LA, her grassroots approach has helped her communities in the challenging times they've faced with the entertainment industry strikes, the devastating fires, and the city under siege by the government.
Check out her coaching and workshops at StarGirlCreative.com
Check out Asteria's somatic workshop if you're in LA! Sunday, Oct.19 at The Makery, 260 S.Los Angeles St, 2:00-3:30.
I've been waiting a long time for this interview and I'm so delighted to share it. Abigail Rose Clarke is one of the few somatics teachers whose instructions and anatomical lessons I can actually remember. Her inspired teaching style features clear articulation and vivid, lyrical descriptions that really land and stay with me. Abigail is a somatic educator, writer, artist, and creator of the Somatic Tarot and also the Body Oracle Deck. Abigail holds a degree from Smith College in Health Behavior and advanced training certificates in EmbodyogaÂŽ. She's also the author of Returning Home to Our Bodies: Reimagining the Relationship Between Our Bodies and the World.
This is a conversation about how to balance using language that people understand while also breaking the chokehold of capitalism on our words, minds and bodies.
It's also about the â¨mesenteryâ¨, â¨lungsâ¨, â¨SCMâ¨, â¨psoasâ¨, and what's so magical about these parts.
Referenced in this EpisodeAnchor Community is an ongoing somatic learning community: www.abigailroseclarke.com/anchor-community Check out her Embodied Anatomy Library Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel Patty Townsend (Abigail's mentor) Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen Her substack is Bones Made of Stardust: https://abigailroseclarke.substack.com/ Instagram is @abigail.rose.clarke
This is the biggest announcement Iâve ever made, not just on this podcast, but in my life. Bigger than getting a book deal, even.
This is something Iâve been thinking about for the past four years or so, since I was in the midst of the pre-order campaign for my first book, The Spirited Kitchen in 2021. The nudge got even stronger as I was in negotiations for my second book, Spells for the Apocalypse. And now, with both of those works out in the world and doing really well without a lot more help from me, the nudge has felt more like a call, a strong pull forward towards somethingâŚpretty scary, honestly, but all good adventures stories begin with accepting some risk, venturing into the unknown, and what makes it a great story is that the protagonists donât know yet what they donât know. đ
It is my great, great pleasure to announce, that along with my colleagues and co-founders, Taraneh Erfan and ThÊrèse Cator, I am embarking on a new venture to publish world-building books that help readers develop meaningful answers to the question, How then, shall we live in these times?
Our new company, 9th House Press, is a worker cooperative. A worker cooperative is a business that the workers own and democratically control, and it foregrounds two equally important primary purposes: to provide employment and a better quality of work-life for its members, and to provide a community benefit. We see this work of publishing uncompromisingly liberatory books as an important part of the movement for civil rights and protection of intellectual freedom, in a similar vein as libraries and a free press. And we see our taking more control and ownership of the means of production â meaning the ways we access liberatory information â we see that as a critical shift away from an industry that is overflowing with talented women making money for white shareholding men.
10 Things That Excite Me About This:1. Iâm in business â a worker co-op â with my two dear friends, Taraneh and ThĂŠrèse! This is wildly exciting to me! And very healing. 2. Weâre going to publish not only our own books, but also acquire up to 12 titles a year. 3. Weâre publishing works that will tell us stories and give us models for how weâre going to seed the future with the best humanity has to offer: compassion, creativity, and connection. 4. Our world-building books will each have their own limited edition book bling! Useful and beautiful swag that relates to the content of the book. Maybe sometimes itâs a cloth bag, or stickers, but sometimes itâs seeds! Sometimes itâs t-shirts, and sometimes itâs art! Sometimes itâs a branded multitool! Or, or or⌠5. We already have initial acceptance for a book called Farm Stand News by Marianne Unger, whose pandemic-inspired neighbourhood farm stand and newsletter has become a model for mutual aid sprinkled with a lyrical nostalgia akin to A Prairie Home Companion. 6. We are actively wooing two other authors that I hope will be a yes for our first catalogue (coming January 2026). Weâre eager to see what kinds of submissions we receive by our deadline: November 15, 2025 for Fall/Winter 2026 publication. 7. Weâre gonna have Street Teams! I envision this almost like a âbusiness-in-a-boxâ for my disabled and employment-challenged friends and followers whoâd like to support our work but also make some money selling our catalogue and book bling at festivals, markets, fairs, and concerts. Itâs very punk! Itâs giving anarchist book fair! I love it so much. 8. Our net royalties favour the author starting at 50% with increasing escalators. 9. In a completely new twist for alternative publishing models, after seven years, authors are returned their rights with an option to renew, honouring our value of enthusiastic ongoing consent and collaboration with our fellow authors. 10. Weâre going to publish the books that will help us hold ground on the left against the rising tide of fascism.
How can you support our cause?
Join us! Become an Associate member of our co-op!
Itâs an associate membership so you donât have the same rights and responsibilities as we have as worker-members, but itâs how you can belong to our community, how you can support this anticapitalist business, how you can fund the alternative economy. I had a meeting with the publisher of a small press who has had a long and illustrious career in the literary world at very small to the very largest publishing houses, and she said to me, In 2025, micro is the way to go.
We will give you preview chapters and access to limited edition book bling, but also give you a chance to vote on selected book cover designs and titles. Itâs going to be collaborative and fun and, honestly, important work.
We mean it when we say weâre looking to publish the books getting banned before they even get a book deal.
Books by people with marginalized and targeted identities, books by people with disabilities who canât keep us with the exhausting pace of the author-centered book launch eraâŚweâre going to launch our books together. Weâre going to collaborate. Itâs going to be real hands-on but really body-friendly, real gentle on the nervous system đ
And we could really use your support! Please:⢠Follow our Instagram @9thhousepress⢠Become an associate member of our co-op
Itâs $35 CAD per year. And there are other perks too! So check out our website: 9thhousepress.com I mentioned the right wing imprints that large traditional publishers have begun to profit from - read more about that here.
If you feel alienated with the typical prescribed way of marketing, this episode is for you! If you're an entrepreneur who hates capitalism, you're gonna love it! If being perceived is generally unpleasant for you but need to do commerce to survive, listen up! Bear is here with frameworks, ideas, and activities to scaffold your business in a way that doesn't make you want to puke.
This is about enoughness. This is about commerce, not exploitation. This is about business at the rhythms and cycles of life. This is about extricating ourselves from tech dependence and build out new (and vintage) models that are more values-aligned.
At the end of this episode, you'll have a handful of tangible steps you can start today or whenever you catch a wave of energy or inspiration. You'll be ready when the muse arrives or the brain glucose hits your neurons.
Learn more about Bear's program: Marketing for Weirdos
Follow Bear on Instagram
Listen to Bear's previous appearance on this podcast about Unlearning Oppression
Check out The Numinous Network for monthly Small Business Chats and Peer Supervision for sustaining your business and your energy over the long term.
Buy my books (which each have quite a few 5 star reviews - don't listen to Melinda who honestly is probably in fact a misogynist that I dunked on a month ago on Instagram)
Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
In this episode, after a personal update, we get to have a delightful, informative, hopeful conversation with someone I consider a possibility model in collapse times, my friend, Kirsten Hunter. We're talking about parenting, trying to plan ahead, and how we go about trying to build community, trust, and collaborative decision-making during times of tumult, precarity, and turmoil. We get into managing the particular challenges of being a renter who is also gardener and a small scale farmer with a desire to live more communally.
Kirsten advocates for a return to earth-oriented living in response to the polycrisis of unravelling ecological, social, political, and spiritual systems under late-stage colonial capitalism. She is a mom, a civil servant, a volunteer counsellor at a local mental health non-profit, and a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, an experiential framework for navigating collective despair, hope and love for the world. Kirsten lives as a 3rd generation euro-settler transplant in WSANEC territory, colonially known as Saanich, BC, where her family rents a small rundown acreage. Kirsten and family specialize in rebel-gardening on rental properties, with a focus on regenerative ecosystem restoration. They are also passionate about braiding together cross-cultural rituals and practices that reflect their mixed Coast Salish, Metis, and Euro-Pagan ancestral family lineages.
Referenced in this episode:
The Work that Reconnects from Joanna Macy
HelpX (WorkAway and WWOOF are other options)
Follow Kirsten on Instagram @tendingnettles
Visit their family's website at www.goodseedland.com for seeds and more farm-based goodies
Join us in The Numinous Network!
Other episodes referenced:
TNP226: Wild Horses of the Chilcotin with Wayne McCrory
Selected collapse-themed episodes of The Numinous Podcast: 114, 161, 193, 207, 268
{Content Warning} Discussion of sexual abuse, assault and yoga cults. Please take good care of yourself if you feel vulnerable or distressed with these topics. Press pause, stand up and walk around, bring on your arms and legs. Walk forward while looking forward. Say to yourself, I am not prey.
In this episode, we refer to Matthew Remski's exposĂŠ: Practice And All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, And Healing In Yoga And Beyond
You may also wish to listen to my conversation with him about this topic, ep. TNP116 Matthew Remski on Attachment High Demand Communities and Yogas Culture Of Abuse
Let's take a cinematic journey in time from childhood as the daughter of artists in small town Massachusetts in the 70s, to the 1980s Tribeca loft art scene, to the East Village of the 1990s as a provocative film and movement artist becoming involved in yoga, butoh, and sexual liberation. Our protagonist is Marisa Sullivan, a somatic and sexual health practitioner and one of our Guides in The Numinous Network.
Marisa is a Sexual Empowerment and Intimacy Educator and an Embodiment and Movement Facilitator. She counsels how to maximize the magic and medicine of sexual juiciness, how to be authentic in our sexual expression, inhabiting our yes and no, and understanding the power of pleasure, not just in Sexuality, but Joy and Pleasure in our bodies and everyday life.
Her certifications include multiple yoga systems, pelvic floor yoga, Reiki Masters, Womb/Perineal Steaming, deep study of The Wheel of Consent with Betty Martin, training in Psychodrama, breathwork for trance, and a Masters in Theater for Educational and Therapeutic Use. Marisa is the mother of a teen, lives with multiple chronic illnesses, and is queer.
{Special Bonus Rant} At the end of this episode, I provide a little critical analysis of patriarchal conduct online, seasoned with several F-bombs, about leaving reviews on books. đĽ
Learn more and book a 1:1 with Marisa: https://www.marisasullivanhealing.com/
Follow her on Instagram to hear about upcoming workshops and online courses: @marisasullivan1
Learn more about my Facilitation Training
Join us in The Numinous Network
In this conversation, former emergency dispatch supervisor, current somatic mentor, and one of the hosts of The Numinous Network, Christi Jarland, shares insights from her multi-decade career as a frontline worker on some of people's toughest days.
Christi is a mentor who blends 20 years of crisis-response experience as a 911 telecommunications leader with training in occupational therapy, psychology, somatic work and energy practices. Her work is shaped by these experiences as well as a lifelong instinct to listen deeply, sense energy and hold steady space. In this episode, Christi shares tips on how to stay focused and grounded when navigating an emergency and calling for help.
We also map the somatic and stress management advice onto the large scale dilemmas of collapse â what lessons can we learn and take with us as we move through the world, trying to be of help? What matters most when we're coming out the other side of an emergency situation?
I found this conversation really brought my situational awareness into focus and offered many good reminders for how and who I want to be in an emergency.
We laughed! We cried! It was thought-provoking and tender.
When you sign up for The Numinous Network, Christi is one of the people right there to lend a helping hand and support to navigate the platform. She can help you discern how to make the most out of your investment while staying within your energetic capacity.
In this episode, you'll hear and understand why I trust her with this important job â you'll really feel held in a capable embrace. đĽ°
đˇ Follow Christi on Instagram
đ Check out Christi's website and somatic mentorship offerings
Currently, Christi offers monthly mentoring, one-to-one sessions, and free monthly drop-ins. You can also listen to her read her monthly musings newsletter, and there's always a new meditation included in it.
⨠Learn more about The Numinous Network â¨
My friends, I just do not have the brain glucose in me to try and cite references or resources for this episode. It's a personal update.
Content warning: Discussion of severe mental health challenges.
But in the end, I also share how I'm coping using post-its and catchphrases and the four-level framework (PEMS). I also share the vision we have for our land as a queer sanctuary for They/Thems interested in rural living in a neuroaffirming and validating environment with our family.
*
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Exciting news! Sophie Strand returns to The Numinous Podcast with a probing conversation around her stunning new memoir, The Body is a Doorway, and:
⢠the meaning of the word "health"
⢠the debatable value of pursuing a complex medical diagnosis
⢠orienting towards a reparative reading of the body
⢠New Age purity culture and healthism
⢠avoiding the pitfall of one's work being seconded to support a Pollyanna narrative or spiritual bypassing on a 'healing journey'
⢠navigating complex health issues that overlap with sexual trauma
⢠one of my favourite answers (in over 250 episodes!) to the question: How are you coping with grief and rage?
Content Note: All the usual warnings around dealing with sensitive material â it' a conversation that goes deep around many forms of trauma. Especially if you have a sensitive nervous system, consider doing some light tasking while you listen, keep your arms and legs moving while you listen if you can, or listen if small increments.
Check out Sophie's website
Buy The Body Is A Doorway
Support treatment
Follow her on Instagram @cosmogyny
Ep.205: Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene and Miracles
Join us in The Numinous Network (where sensitive nervous systems are centered and people really understand this type of journey).
This is a conversation about the ritual my husband and I devised â mentioned briefly in my new book, Spells for the Apocalypse â and which we've shared with many friends who've heard us refer to it, who've asked us how to do it, or for advice on what we've done when our marriage was on the rocks. We touch on topics like the real estate market, intergenerational trauma, neurodiversity, astrocartography, collapse-oriented choices we've made, attachment and the somatic cycle â all my favourite things!
This ritual was a "Hail Mary" move in our marriage. Granted, we've never dealt with infidelity or lies, and we've always had a foundational respect. We really, genuinely like each other which, sadly, not all couples can say.
However, patriarchy is still in play, what with us both steeped in this patriarchal culture. And trauma always lurks in the shadows. And attachment is a dynamic force that can sometimes be stretched too thin.
So here's the breakdown of the ritual we've done in desperate times, why we think it worked/works, and the impact it's had on our marriage. We call it The Ritual of the Marriage Moon.
We begin with a little context around why we needed the ritual in the first place, and how it's still serving us many years later.
Referenced in this episode:
Diane Poole Heller's somatic attachment therapy training
Portrait of a Marriage podcast miniseries
Portrait of a Marriage article
The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society by Bruce Alexander
The Numinous Network (where you can access my two attachment courses: Secure and Contact Nutrition 101)
*Not referenced in this article but definitely related and recommended for man-identified folks who want to learn more: Bear Hebert's course, Undoing Patriarchy
Order your copy of Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times
Leave us feedback!
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder
Donate to the Amazon Labour Union
Get involved in your local 4H Club in Canada or the US!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Buy Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Buy Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Buy Aly Halpert's song or album, Loosen, on Bandcamp
The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Today we're doubling down on our protective plant magic to bolster our spiritual safeness while the veil remains thin. We also look at 'wassail' as a noun, verb, and greeting which is especially appropriate on the 9th night of Yule which is associated with the 9th month of the year â the apple-iest month there is â September.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
In this episode, we're cleansing home and body with medicinal herbs by making vermouth, potpourri and incense in order to finish the year well.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
In this episode we explore myths related to the beauty of binaries, balance, and cycles of death and resurrection. Some of the myths can help us queer the holidays, others can help us put strained sibling relationships into new perspective. Learn why why ham is such a symbolic meal during this holiday time, and consider some simple rituals to help you bring more balance into your life.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
â¨My favourite part of Yuletide!⨠Hearth spirits, house brownies, and protective supernatural allies for homes, barns, and livestock are all propitiated at this time. For me, this seems like a great way to steer children away from the more commercial aspects of this time of year and spark imagination, intuition, and an animist sensibility. A fun ritual for today would be to research what house spirits were called in your family's heritage âĽď¸
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Ancient traditions around the return of the light imply a revival of hope and healing. Pagans created art and apothecary items to reflect the beautiful and harmonious qualities of the cosmos, adorning their homes and bodies to revive the spirit in wintertime.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Today we honour the children in our lives and the child within us. Plus, more winter witches! woop woop!
Note: The final 4 minutes of this episode is a guided meditation during which you should not be driving, riding a bike, operating machinery or engaged in any activity that requires your full attention.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Ancestral veneration is a key function of winter rituals, a way to put our lineages in good order, encourage harmonious relations with the spirits of the ancient dead, and appease the restless dead who roam at night. On this night, we tell scary ghost stories that might include child-devouring crones, beer-stealing werewolves, dictator dogs and violent Santas. It's also a good day to honour the animal familiars who help convey gifts and goodness including flying goats, female deer, and horse skeletons.
There are also lighter aspects to the day including the reverence of Freya, hanging wreaths, and sacred spinning, weaving and fibre work.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
This is one of my favourite episodes because cultivating intimacy with the land I live on and the Spirits of Place is one of my favourite things to do. It also addresses, briefly yet deeply, how we can attend to the impacts of imperialism, colonialism and patriarchy in our spiritual work, especially4 at wintertime.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
It all begins with the Mother. Tonight on the longest night of the year, we honour our matrilineages and the spiritual lineages of prophesy, blessing, abundance and nurturance passed down through the ages through myths concerning Crones.
Source materials for this miniseries:A Brief History of Christmas Tradition
Apple Tree Lore, druidry.org
A Visit from La Befana, JSTOR Daily
Bärbeletreiben
Biedermeier period
Berserks In History and Legend, M.Speidel
Between the âThracian Substratumâ and âOriental Accretionsâ: Bulgarian Mumming and the National Heritage Canon, Ivo Strahilov
CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND THE GIFT-BRINGER, LESLIE D. JOHNSTON
Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux
Deutsches Weinachsmuseum, All About Christmas Glass
Doe A Deer A Female Deer, Danielle Prohom Olson
Feasts and Feasting in the Fourteenth Century, Jon Mackley
foodtimeline.org
Frau Holle in Legend
HiddenGlen.org, Michael Newton's courses are chock full of Gaelic lore and language. Highly recommended.
How Guy Lombardo Became Mr.New Year's Eve, Canadian Encyclopedia
Industrial Revolution, Chocolate Revolution
Lucy of Syracuse. Patron saint of eye disorders, Carlos Ortiz-Hidalgo
Marzipan Pigs Christmas Tradition
Notes on Italian Folk Customs, Stanley Gee
Otto Hofler, Wikipedia
Perchten and Krampusse: Living Mask Traditions in Austria and Bavaria, Molly Carter
Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead, Claude Lecouteux
Roast Beef, The New Poor Law, and the British Nation, 1834-63, N.Durbach
St. Lucia's Day: An Italian saint, a German child and a female demon all play a role in the story of 13 December, ScienceNorway.no
St.Lucy, Brittanica.com
Shedding Light on Saint Lucy, Aubrey Minshew
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Unknown author
Some Ancient and Modern Yuletide Customs (Dec.1939), L.Johnston
Sugar Past and Present
The Kissing Bough
The Ancient Jus Gentium of the Aryans (1899)
The Feast of Saint Barbara with Pagan Traditions
The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics, Gertraud Seiser and Matthäus Rest
The Lussekatter
The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year, L.Raedisch
The Pomander: A Brief History
The Problem of Mysteriousness of Baba Yaga Character in Religious Mythology, Evgenia V. Ivanova
The Rowan Tree and a Rowan Cross
The Scots Kitchen (1929), F.McNeill
The Silver Bough, Volume 3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals - Halloweâen to Yule (1961), F.McNeill
The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux
The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, B.Walker
Unwrapping Yuletide: A Century of Icelandic Traditions, Gudrun Jonina Gunnlaugsdottir
We Don't Know The Origin Of The Candy Cane But They Almost Certainly Were Not Christian, Smithsonian Magazine
Witches, Werewolves and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages, Claude Lecouteux
Yule: The Pagan Holiday of Light, The TROTH | Education and Service for Inclusive Heathenry
Yuletide Monsters: Christmas Hauntings in Medieval Literature and Modern Popular Culture, Medieval Studies Blog Hosted by the University of Notre Dame's Medieval Institute
⨠⨠â¨
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
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Antifascism for the holidays!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics by Gertraud Seiser and Matthäus Rest
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
NOTE: This episode contains a 7 minute guided meditation â do not listen while driving or operating machinery! We begin the Yuletide season by grounding into our values and prioritizing just a few rituals, crafts or special foodstuffs. Then we can relax and release pressure to have or provide perfect holiday moments; instead we can deepen into rhythm of winter's work of ritual, ceremony, reflection and restorative pause.
Himmeli straw can be found at The Straw Shop
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Inspiration for your holiday kitchen witchery!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
What's the deal with dead bird on Victorian holiday greeting cards? Plus, a rundown of some of the Yuletide bestiary.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
A look at Victorian holiday postcards and the botanicals of winter.
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
Learn about Fumbulvinter, the 12 Days of Yuletide and their themes, and the stories of European Yuletide folklore in my annual program, now available for free!
Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)
~ Join us in The Numinous Network ~
This episode is about the four intuitive tools I use to plan my year ahead, incorporating divination, dowsing, and more.
Before I dive in, I take a few minutes to stand on ceremony as I cross and important threshold with this podcast. It felt important to take some time to mark it well. I hope you find the Canadian Heritage Minutes interesting! limlÉmt to the Syilx Okanagan people for accepting us here on this land.
In this very full episode, I'm sharing about:
- electional astrology
- water witching
- pendulums
- Family Constellations
- wrestling with cultural appropriation
- trancework as a form of death work
- The Hellenistic concept of virtue ("arete")
- working with your daemon (your good spirit of destiny)
- guidelines for pulling an Oracular calendar reading
- a special announcement about a new format for The Spirit of Yuletide this year
PLUS!
- a preview of New Year happenings including a price increase for The Numinous Network
- live monthly rituals from my forthcoming book Spells for the Apocalypse
- a new Network event coming this spring: the Soft Sober Jam!
Referenced in this episode:
Chief Walking Grizzly Bear
Fur Brigade Trail
Syilx Language House
TNP226 Wild Horses of the Chilcotin with Wayne McCrory
The Divining Rod: A History of Water Witching, Dept. of the Interior US Geological Survey
About Family Constellations and generally all round awful person, Bert Hellinger
TNP229: What It Feels Like For A Girl with Emelia Symington-Fedy
âď¸ Leave feedback for this episode! âď¸
Learn more about The Numinous Network
Welcome to the final episode of my Witches New Year Podcast Retreat! As you likely know by now, I have a new book coming out in January 2025 called Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times. In this episode, you'll get all the tea on how this book came to be, learn what advanced readers like Colette Baron-Reid and Asha Frost had to say about it, and hear excerpts from two chapters: a ritual on facing Fear, and an invocation for Wholeness.
Referenced in this episode:
The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, James Hillman
Colette Baron-Reid's Enchanted Map Oracle Deck
You Are The Medicine: 13 Moons of Indigenous Wisdom, Asha Frost
âď¸ Leave feedback âď¸
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Sign up for my newsletter so you know when Spells for the Apocalypse is available with pre-order bonuses!
đ This episode is for all the collapse nerds! đ
đ Content warning đ: Frank discussion of near-term scientifically accepted and expected climate crises. For all the folks who feel fragile and might be tipped into a downward spiral, maybe skip this one, yeah?
I've invited collapse astrologer, Hummingbird Star, from @astrologyfortherevolution to join us for Witches New Year to do our year ahead overview. đđť
Given where we're at in the grand scheme of things, I asked Hummingbird to scan the medium-term horizon to help us understand what the Hermit year might be preparing us for on a collective scale. We're not only touching on topics we may want to contemplative in our collective Hermit year, but also the personal question of what role we wish to play in the revolution.
In this episode, we touch on the Neptunian shifts we should be tracking and much, much more.
Check out Hummingbird's website: www.astrologyfortherevolution.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/astrologyfortherevolution
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@collapseastrology
âď¸ Leave feedback âď¸
Join us for Collapse 101 in the Numinous Network!
Sign up for my newsletter so you know when Spells for the Apocalypse is available with pre-order bonuses!
NOTE: In this episode, we talk about the potential failure of the AMOC (Atlantic meridional overturning circulation) and since I was speaking off the cuff, there's a danger that this could be spread as misinformation.
So to be clear: Here's a really nice, succinct and digestible explanation of what the AMOC is, and a nice, succinct, and conservative interpretation of what the shutdown would do, from The Guardian (Oct 23, 2024):
"AMOC, or the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, is a system of ocean currents that brings heat into the northern Atlantic. Warm surface water from the tropics flows north and releases its heat in the subpolar Atlantic, south of Greenland and west of Britain and Ireland. Then it cools and sinks to a depth of between 2,000m to 3,000 metres before returning south as a cold current. Amoc is one of our planetâs largest heat transport systems, moving the equivalent of 50 times the human energy use, and it has a particularly strong impact on the climate in Europe, affects the oceanâs CO2 uptake and oxygen supply, as well as rainfall patterns in the tropics."
"The effects (of a shutdown) include a cooling of the northern hemisphere, particularly northwestern Europe. There would also be a shift of the tropical rainfall belt to the south, which is bad because the rains will move away from the rainforests to regions that are not used to so much rainfall. So this will mean droughts in some regions and floods in others.
AMOC collapse would also have a major impact on the northern Atlantic sea level, which would rise by half a metre or so, in addition to the rise caused by global heating. It would also reduce the CO2 uptake of the ocean because AMOC sinking in the northern Atlantic takes a lot of CO2 down into the deep oceans where it is safely locked away from the atmosphere.
AMOC collapse would also change the nutrient supply and reduce the oxygen of the deep oceans. This would have a massive effect on marine biology and the entire ecosystem of the northern Atlantic."
Generally speaking, what climate scientists in the past had predicated would not happen until after 2050 is happening now, 30 years earlier. It's not that much of a stretch then, to say that what they predicted would happen before 2050 will occur a decade earlier. So the possible range of hitting a tipping point to an AMOC shutdown was predicted to be somewhere between 2030 and 2075, or the end of the century as the very outside possibility of it taking that long.
So that puts the tipping point to shutdown right around... now.
Learn more about the AMOC shutdown from collapse expert, Sharon Astyk
We're preparing for a soul-searching kind of year with the Hermit card overlighting our path. In the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, Key 9 (in other words, card number 9) is the Hermit card. In numerology, next year is a 9 year (2+0+2+5). So we look to the lessons of the Hermit card for clues about our developmental task on the spiritual level for the year ahead.
In this episode, I share a brief overview of the Fool's entire journey through the Major Arcana, using Rachel Pollack's Three Cycles of the Majors before I dive deep into the lessons of the Hermit.
Plus we'll notice some patterns when it comes to some intensely disruptive historical events that occured the last time we experienced some of the major outer planet transits that will be happening again in 2025, (which, when taken altogether, are really giving Hermit vibes).
Plus! I offer a 5-card spread to help you interpret the Hermit card and how you can apply its lessons in 2025.
Referenced in this episode:
Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy by Chris Marmolejo
Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen
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{Witches New Year Podcast Retreat} In this very special episode, we're doing a deep dive into the Eleusinian Mysteries and the cults of Demeter and Persephone, including a special trance journey to walk the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis, as the ancient initiates did.
Referenced in this episode:
Eleusinian terracotta figurine
Dr.Cyndi Brannen
Jean Shinoda Bolen
Marija Gimbutas
Charlene Spretnak
Dr.Mara Keller
Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries
The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries by R.Gordon Wasson* (I have concerns about super shitty and extractive research methods here - not sure I recommend but am citing for proper attribution of research I accessed for this class and subsequent podcast)
Present-day Eleusis from Google Earth
Present-day Athenian Agora
Trance music: "Adrift 2" by Christopher Lloyd Clarke
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We're back with another class from The Numinous School archive: Trancework Fundamentals. Here you'll learn:
⢠what is trance?
⢠how does it work?
⢠what is it good for?
⢠is it safe?
⢠what qualities should we look for in a guide to signal that we can trust them with this process?
I'm giving you this information now so you're well prepared in advance of the next episode which will feature a richly evocative trance journey to participate as an initiate in the Eleusinian Mysteries, a 9-day rite of devotion to Demeter, Persephone, Hekate and others, one of the most famous rites of the Hellenistic world performed annually in the autumn.
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Check out my Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy program in The Numinous Network
Prism Magic Mushroom Tea from Sero (affiliate link - Canada only)
The ritual craft for this year's Samhain Wheel of the Year is a perennial favourite: Witch Ladders! I never get bored of them. And I rarely get rid of them, but when I do you'll learn in this episode what I do with them when the magic is finished. You'll want to consult your copy of The Spirited Kitchen for help in deciding which Magical Correspondences will fulfill your intention and make this an effective spell for you. Or simply listen to this episode in full and let the spirit move you towards the materia magica that intuitively works for you!
Mentioned in this episode:
Witch ladder inspo 1
Witch ladder inspo 2
Witch ladder inspo 3
Witch ladder inspo 4
Witch ladder inspo 5
Witch ladder inspo 6
Somerset Witch Ladder: Witches' Ladder: The Hidden History
Knot of Isis
Gordian Knot
Trinity Knot/Triquetra
Buddhist Endless Knot
Constrictor Knot
In the Bath House at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia by W.F. Ryan
The Power of Words in Miracles, Visions, Incantations and Bewitchments by Klaniczay Gabor
Carmina Gadelica
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Check out my Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy program in The Numinous Network
Prism Magic Mushroom Tea from Sero (affiliate link - Canada only)
In this essay I will show how Thomas Aquinas, due to his early life attachment ruptures and abandonment wound, and under the influence of the violent toxic masculinity of the Inquisition and Aristotle's writings, became a 23 year old incel who went on to drive an 800 year wedge between intuition and the mind for people of European descent.
Enjoy!
Mentioned in this episode:
Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition with Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Why Evil Exists with Professor Charles Mathewes, Ph.D., University of Virginia
âď¸ Leave feedback for this episode! âď¸
Check out my Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy program in The Numinous Network
Prism Magic Mushroom Tea from Sero (affiliate link - Canada only)
Happy 49th birthday to me! Here's my gift to you: This is the first episode of a personal retreat podcast miniseries! Half of the episodes help you prepare for the season of the witch, the other half offer a guided day of ritual, trancework, self-care, and divination for 2025. It's a party at your own pace! A party for introverts! We're all doing similar things but inside our own homes on our own time. Huzzah! đ 𼳠đ
I'll be honest, I've got a lot going on right now so this is probably the most off-the-cuff episode I've ever produced. But if you can put up with all my side quest, stories and tangents, there's a lot of good instruction here, especially for folks who are new to working with altars or ancestors.
Here's a shrine I made for Isobell, my grandmother
Mentioned in this episode:
Crafting Personal Shrines: Using Photos, Mementos & Treasures to Create Artful Displays, by Carol Owen
YouTube: AirDry Clay Shrines by CraftyChica Kathy Cano-Murillo
TNP99: Monsters and Magical Beings with John Michael Greer
AstroMagic Miniseries
Try the Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy program in The Numinous Network
Prism Magic Mushroom Tea from Sero (affiliate link - Canada only)
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Did you know that matrescence â the process of becoming a mother â takes approximately 2-3 years? It's far from the 3, 6, or 12 month process we've been made to believe. In fact, 20 years after giving birth to my child, I'm still grappling with how it changed me, how I want to mother, and what this identity means to me.
My guest for this episode is Jessie Harrold, coach, doula, educator and author of Mothershift: Reclaiming Motherhood as a Rite of Passage. We're talking about:
⢠Who goes through "matrescence"? Who is a mother?? What is mothering???
⢠Should postpartum depression (or postpartum anxiety) an expected part of matrescence?
⢠How do we manage the grief, rage or ambivalence that often comes with motherhood?
⢠How are mothers specially equipped to disrupt social norms like capitalism?
Please do pre-order Mothershift before November 11 â get your own Mothershift journal as a bonus gift!
On November 20th from 6-7p.m. Atlantic Time, Jessie will be hosting a virtual launch party with Q&A, giveaways, and practices. Sign up for her newsletter to learn more.
Follow Jessie on Instagram
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Get 10% off all purchases from Sero, my recommended microdosing retailer in Canada (affiliate link)
Learn more about The Numinous Network
Jordan Pickell is a Vancouver, BC-based a trauma counsellor. Issues centred in her work include boundary setting, making friends and building community, and the impacts of trauma, violence and oppression. She's our hype woman today for building better boundaries with our parents.
I happened to see on Instagram that Jordan is once again offering her 2hr online workshop, Build Better Boundaries, on Friday, November 15, 2024. It's recorded in case you can't make it live, and itâs less than $40 Canadian!
In that workshop, youâll map your current relationship dynamics, youâll uncover your personal boundaries blueprint, and craft a personalized boundaries action plan. In other words, youâre going to get yourself out of the freeze response, and lay the critical groundwork for success so that when you actually do the thing, you are mobilized and confident and ready to handle whatever happens next.
Enjoy this conversation as a warm-up: You'll hear me share about my own journey of setting boundaries, more than a decade of estrangement from my mom, and repair with impacted family members. Jordan shares about her family's style of "enmeshment", the experience of being a first daughter, and cultural factors as a person of mixed race.
It's an honest and tender conversation, and I'm happy to hear how it lands for you: Click here to leave me a voice note or written message!
Follow Jordan on Instagram and sign up for her newsletter
Check out The Numinous Network
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Welcome back to the second of this teensy tiny Tarot miniseries. Remember, we're continuing our Tarot journey in The Numinous Network throughout the fall and into the new year. Join us for this deep dive! All classes are recorded and archived with no time limit for viewing.
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This is actually an excerpt from a now-retired course I used to have called Intro to Tarot. You'll get all the backstory of that in this episode, but the main content here is about the history of the Tarot going all the way back to a syncretic figure called "Hermes Trismegistus" who was not a singular person but rather a collective of writing by powerful magi, like how Homer is not actually one writer but ratherthe combined works of several bards over centuries...It's mysterious and fascinating and I hope you enjoy this sweet lil artifact from my archive!
Stay tuned for part two on the proliferation of decks across the globe and through the ages, from the Sola Busca deck of the Renaissance to the icon and groundbreaking Rider Waite Smith, to today's artist-driven marketplace of Post Modern decks! Subscribe to this podcast to get that episode automatically in your podcast player.
Thanks to folks who write helpful honest reviews! They help the right listeners find a sense of belonging and resonance - I super appreciate you taking the time to write a few words.
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Learn more about the Safe & Sound Protocol
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My guest today is Clinical Counsellor, relationship therapist, and fat activist, Dawn Serra. Dawn offers trauma-informed, weight-neutral, radical mental health care, particularly for those in larger and marginalized bodies. I super enjoyed this conversation about fatphobia, anti-Blackness, ableism, disability, perimenopause, Ozempic and cultivating a kinder relationship with our ever-changing bodies. Connect with Dawn at tendandcultivate.com Follow her on Facebook and Instagram Referenced in this episode Mia Mingus, disability rights activist and contributor to Octavia's Brood with her story, Hollow Gloria Lucas of Nalgona Positivity Pride Sabrina Strings and her book, Fearing the Black Body Da'Shaun Harrison, Belly of the Beast Sonalee Rashatwar @thefatsextherapist Tressie McMillan Cottom, THICK and Other Essays Culture Work on TikTok and Substack Betty Martin Dr. Asher Larmie, The Fat Doctor (their Ozempic masterclass is listed here) Zena Sharman, The Care We Dream of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health Ep229: What it Feels Like For A Girl with Emelia Symington Fedy on sex and pressure Ash of The Fat Lip - A Fat Liberation Podcast came up with the infinifat classification - details about the history are here:--- https://fluffykittenparty.com/2021/06/01/fategories-understanding-smallfat-fragility-the-fat-spectrum/--- https://cherrymax.medium.com/community-origins-of-the-term-superfat-9e98e1b0f201 Covid PSA: WHO technical document University of Bristol study Elevator Covid transmission study âď¸ Leave feedback for this episode! âď¸ Check out The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year Learn more about The Numinous Network
We're not afraid of grappling with the tough stuff here on The Numinous Podcast! In this episode we're engaging with high stakes violations of values and betrayals that lead to Moral Injury.
Moral Injury can occur when you do or fail to do something, when you witness something, or when you hear about something after the fact, that violates your deeply held beliefs and values in a high stakes context.
Certainly healthcare practitioners and mental health professionals will be interested in this discussion, but also anyone who has grappled with moral emotions like outrage, shame, guilt, and remorse.
Moral injury is a social wound that helps the collective stay co-operative. Grappling with Moral Injury is a civic responsibility â a moral obligation as our guest says â and a sign of a healthy pro-social individual.
Our guest on this episode is Dr.Robyn Walser, a licensed psychologist and co-author of 7 books on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (commonly known as ACT). She has most recently written a book entitled,The Heart of ACT: Developing a Flexible, Process-Based, and Client-Centered Practice Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Sheâs an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the Director of TL Psychological and Consultation Services, and works at the National Center for PTSD. Dr. Walser has been offering ACT workshops since 1998.
Referenced in this episode
Case Conceptualizing in Acceptance and Commitment therapy for Moral Injury: An Active and On-Going Approach to Understanding and Intervening on Moral Injury, by Jacob Farnsworth, Lauren Borges, Sean Barnes and Kent Drescher and Robyn Walser
The Moral Injury Workbook: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Skills for Moving Beyond Shame, Anger and Trauma to Reclaim Your Values by Robyn Walser, Wyatt Evans, Kent Drescher, Jacob Farnsworth
The Heart of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Talk by Robyn Walser (YouTube)
The Moral Injury Course
⢠Become a member of The Numinous Network and begin a supportive somatic practice ahead of the live sessions. Group somatic practice sessions happen Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
⢠If appropriate, begin The Safe & Sound Protocol (included in membership) to support nervous system resilience.
⢠Attend the live sessions, starting in June. Live Sessions form a sequential series of psychoeducation and progressively layered activities:
Friday, June 28, 10-11am PT
Saturday, June 29, 9-9:45am PT
Sunday, June 30, 10-10:45am PT
Monday, July 1, 10-10:30am PT (optional for additional or catch-up work)
Fridays, July 5, 12, 19, 26, 10-11am PT
Live sessions will be recorded and archived for later viewing at your convenience.
⢠Optional: Stay on with us for aftercare! In August, we're streamlining the calendar and focusing on somatic practice and weightlifting. (Discharging anger by lifting heavy shit!) In September, the full calendar of events is back up and running, with additional SSP co-listening sessions to support nervous system regulation ahead of the American election season.
The Moral Injury course is included in Numinous Network membership which is offered at a sliding scale from $45 - $75 US per month, providing access to over 30 live events and over 50 hours of video on-demand.
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This episode is going to be a very special one for all the listeners who live with chronic illness and all the listeners with Indigenous heritage. These stories and experiences are interwoven in my conversation today with Anishinaabe medicine woman, Asha Frost.
Asha Frost (she/her) is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. Sheâs a longtime healer working with homeopathy, plant medicine, and ceremony. Sheâs also the author of the bestselling book, You Are the Medicine: 13 Moons of Indigenous Wisdom, Ancestral Connection, and Animal Spirit Guidance, as well as the Sacred Medicine Oracle Deck.
This is real talk about living with chronic illness, and about white supremacy and colonialism in the wellness industry and the medical field.
In this episode, we explore the perennial paradox of any health diagnosis: the tension/balance between accepting the reality of chronic illness while also reaching towards healing.
Throughout, Asha shares some of the medicines that can be helpful on this journey.
Connect with Asha
Follow her on all the socials: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok
Pre-order her new oracle deck, The Animal Elders Oracle
Visit her website to sign up for her newsletter
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Sign up for my newsletter to hear when The Moral Injury Course opens
Mental health professional and somatic coach, Aurelie Richards, is back on the show and weâre talking about secure attachment in movement work â community organizing, workplace unionizing.
How can we do this in a way that's sensitive to the realities of interpersonal neurobiology? In a way that recognizes the value of presencing secure attachment in an environment that naturally brings up unresolved trauma, lack of safeness, perhaps even hostility?
The topic of our show today is very aligned with the energy of the Beltane season, particularly the weaving of the labour movement and other liberatory movements with the energies of spring, collective mobilization, and ecstatic, creative union.
We get into the nitty gritty of working with a disorganized attachment field within movement work.
We dive into astromagic as part of our organizing strategy.
We discuss the intricacies of power mapping in groups and organizations.
It's a juicy case study of Aurelie's labour organizing experience in a German context with lots for us to learn!
Connect with Aurelie
For resilience coaching, somatics, and burnout prevention visit Aurelie's website.
Aurelie's resilience workshops, team building, and wellness in the workplace offerings
Her anarcho queer feminist health collective is actively seeking new members in Berlin!
Folks can direct questions or reach out for support to post@aurelierichards.com.
No socials, but sign up for Aurelie's newsletter
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Learn more about The Numinous Network
Sign up for my newsletter to hear when The Moral Injury Course begins
Content note: Specific, sometimes graphic, discussion of death.
Shawn Leonard is a Mi'kmaq psychic medium. Gifted and accurate, his television show on APTN called 'Spirit Talker' depicts him travelling to Indigenous communities across the country, learning about their culture and spiritual teachings, and connecting them with their Beloved Dead.
Along the way, he brings hope, healing, and closure, and deepens his connection to his own Mi'kmaq heritage and the medicine of his Indigenous name, White Eagle Spirit Talker.
Connect with Shawn
Follow on all the socials: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube
Get Shawn's book Spirit Talker: Indigenous Stories and Teachings from a Mi'kmaq Psychic Medium (I enjoyed his reading of the audiobook version!)
Join his online course starting in September 2024, Spirit Talker Tribe
Find his oracle deck
Watch Spirit Talker on APTN's streaming service, Lumi
(Also check out Indians and Aliens while you're there!)
Visit Shawn's website to sign up for his newsletter
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Learn more about The Numinous Network
Check out Sero for psilocybin support at HeySero.co
If you're a 35 - 55 year old woman, you grew up in the very particular cultural landscape of the pre-#MeToo era. You grew up with boy-centered stories like The Outsiders, Stand By Me, Goonies and The Lost Boys, the everyday male violence and misogyny of entertainers like Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison, and hypersexualized movies and music like Porky's and "Me So Horny" â LOTS TO UNPACK THERE. Time to revisit and tell our own stories.
Emelia Symington Fedy's memoir, Skid Dogs, is a brave, bittersweet coming-of-age story about a group of high school girls in the '90s navigating friendship, sex, and parents from the retrospective view of a now 30-something woman supporting her mother's cancer journey.
Content Warning: We're talking about rape culture, sexual assault, and gender-based violence in this episode, the impacts still felt decades on, and the process of sexual healing as middle aged women.
We also get a little explicit with the language soâŚheadphones highly recommended!
This is a raw and riveting coming-of-age story about the wild love of teenage friendships and the casual oppression of 90s rape culture, and to be honest it was so searingly accurate I had to wait a minute and gather myself before I invited @emeliasf to come on the show to discuss it.
Publisher's Weekly describes it this way:
âWith plenty of Juicy Fruit, padded bras, and pot smoke, the narrative begins as a nostalgia-tinted reverie before evolving into a devastating portrait of the pre-#MeToo era from someone on the other side of it. The authorâs candor and courage will move readers regardless of when or where they came of age.â
Buy Skid Dogs at your favourite local bookseller or the alternative.
Sign up for Emelia's newsletter on her website.
Reach out to a Crisis Line to debrief:
Canadian mental health resources
American mental health resources
International Suicide Hotlines
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Content Note: This is a very honest and frank conversation about our topic â modern dating. You may want to listen to this one through headphones! Weâve got a really FUN episode ahead with Canadaâs Dating Coach, Chantal Heide, who has some great advice for all the women who are trying, so far unsuccessfully, to date men.
Honestly, I think this might be my new comfort listen. It's so soothing to hear someone preach about sovereignty and self-love and high standards!
Chantal is the author of several books on dating and relationships, among them the notable title, No More Assholes: Your 7 Step Guide to Saying Goodbye to Guys and Finding the Real Man Youâre Looking For.
Chantal's approach to dating is at once more conservative and more radical than most. From a neurobiological attachment perspective, I have no notes. Very sound advice. I never did it this way, but if I was single and wanting to date a man, I'd do it this way.
Check out CanadasDatingCoach.com and follow Chantal:
TikTok
YouTube
iTunes
Podbean
âď¸ Leave feedback on this episode! âď¸
Learn more about my Facilitation Training.
Tag me when you share on Instagram!
When I tell you that a tarot book is one of the best antiracism workbooks Iâve ever come across, I hope you take note. I honestly think if anyone, whether an adept or a newer student of antiracism, were to pick up Tarot for the Hard Work, it would keep them busy with exercises and practices for the rest of their lives. And, not incidentally, forge a deeper relationship with their tarot practice.
The author and my guest for this episode is Maria Minnis, a tarot reader who teaches about blending spirituality with liberation work.
Tarot for the Hard Work is a provocative exploration of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana that re envisions these archetypes as beacons that illuminate the various ways racism takes root both in ourselves and in the world. With exercises and thought-provoking recommended reading and resources, readers are guided to use Major Arcana themes to dismantle internalized racism, racism in relationships, and racism in communities.
This book exceeded my expectations and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Buy the Book
Follow Maria on Instagram
Referenced in this Episode
Iâm Embracing the Term âPeople of the Global Majorityâ, by Daniel Lim
"Global Majority" Wikipedia entry
Who Are People of the Global Majority and Why It Matters, by Britt Hawthorne
My Grandmother's Hands, Resmaa Menakem
They Called Me Number One, Bev Sellars
I Am Woman, Lee Maracle
TNP222 Podcast Playlists for Special Interests 10 Years + 14 Themes
Leave me a note or voicemail! âď¸
Sign up for my newsletter
YouHaveToLiveYour.Life
Percentage of Asymptomatic Infections among SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant-Positive Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
The People's Public Health Education Campaign is a project of the People's Oracle, Dayna Lynn Nuckolls - follow her on Instagram Twitter or Facebook for more!
I am a huge fan of Wayne McCrory's book, The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future. Wayne McCrory is a registered professional biologist specializing in the study of wild horses, bears and western toads.
Wayne is a leading expert on bear conservation and human-bear conflict. He was a driving force in the creation of the Khutzeymateen/Kâtzim-a-deen Grizzly Sanctuary as well as the Kitasoo Spirit Bear Conservancy, and for 30 years he worked with many others to end B.C.âs grizzly bear trophy hunt.
Wayne has published more than ninety scientific reports on wildlife and conservation, including two technical reports on wild horses in BC and Alberta. With horse genetics expert Dr. Gus Cothran, he has coauthored two reports on the genetics of wild horses in the Chilcotin.
In Wild Horses of the Chilcotin, thereâs also kind of a low key mystical aspect to the book too - through the sharing of his dreams and experiences on the land, you get the sense that thereâs an underlying subtext around a scientist encountering his spiritual self and seeking to defend and protect something bigger, something ineffable yet essential to the human spirit.
Buy the book: The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future
Learn more about the Elegesi Qiyus (Eagle Lake Henry) Wild Horse Preserve of the Xeni Gwet'in
Watch In the Valley of Wild Horses on YouTube about the Xeni community
Friends of the Nemaiah Valley
The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be, JB MacKinnon
Sharon Astyk re: collapse
Yvonne Owens
Recent mask effectiveness research and NIOSH citation by Consumer Reports
Leave feedback for this episode
Looking back and looking forward, standing on threshold with a full decade of The Numinous Podcast behind me, I share 10 Qualities of Leadership, 3 secrets about the show, plus a bonus secret and another extra special bonus secret, a clip of my favourite 15 minutes out of the 10,000+ minutes of the show, and I cry a few times, of course.
So it's a pretty full episode with a good dose of edu-tainment!
Thank you so much for your support over the years.
Mentioned in this episode:
Barefoot doctors
Mirabella Ponders the Mystery
Grieving Susan and Civilization with Michael Phillips
Pollution is Colonialism, Max Liboiron
Thank you to Thanh Mai K'Taaya of SpringUp for language around self-harm and self-determination.
The People's Public Health Education is a project led by The People's Oracle, Dayna Lynn Nuckolls, that seeks to create art and belonging around staying Covid-Safe during the on-going SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Join us for the organizing meeting on April 3, 2024 (or receive the materials if you can't attend).
Leave feedback for the show here âď¸
This episode is for people who are seeking guidance about how we shall live and work and be joyful together in the face of on-going pandemic. Our guest is Dayna Nuckolls, known online as The People's Oracle, creator of the Divination For Liberation Framework of Sidereal Astrology and The 7 Essential Needsâ˘ď¸. Dayna is a multi-oracle diviner, musician, writer, speaker, and teacher. I'm so excited for her new project: The People's Public Health Education Campaign.
We're talking about the pandemic, we're talking about liberatory astrology, we're planning for a future that includes a grassroots collective care renaissance.
I hope I'll see you at the organizing meeting!
The People's Public Health Education Campaign Info MeetingWednesday, April 3, 2024 at 6pm Central via ZoomRegister to attend (or to receive meeting materials if you can't attend in person): https://bit.ly/pphec2024 For questions please contact Dayna on Insta @PeoplesOracle or James @jameslpoteetwww.ThePeoplesOracle.comFollow Dayna on Instagram and Twitter: @PeoplesOracleYouTube: www.YouTube.com/LynnDaynaGet the 2024 Sidereal Astrology Guide: https://shop.ThePeoplesOracle.com/collections/2024 Mentioned in this Episode StatsCan Report, Dec 2023: Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19 Nature Medicine: Higher health risks associated with each Covid re-infection: Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection
Mask blocs Ba-Zi Chinese predictive astrology Covid-19 Monoclonal Antibodies - emergency use authorization How to Survive a Plague, by David France Clean Air Club of Chicago ***Leave feedback for the show! Learn more about The Numinous Network Sign up for my newsletter
My guest today is Efu Nyaki, a healer born and raised in Tanzania who works internationally facilitating trainings and workshops on trauma healing. I first heard about Efu through my friends, Patricia Petersen and ThĂŠrèse Cator who were each members of the inaugural BIPOC-only cohort of Somatic Experiencing (SE) Practitioner trainings. They recently graduated from that multiyear program and I couldnât be more delighted to congratulate them on this tremendously wonderful achievement! đ Finding a BIPOC practitioner of SE is getting easier in great measure because of the trailblazing work of todayâs guest, Efu Nyaki.
Efu is a faculty member at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute and also a professor of Systemic Family Constellations Therapy at the Hellinger Science Institute, and is also the founder of AFYA, a womenâs holistic healing centre in Brazil. Iâm delighted to welcome Efu to the show.
Find Efu's book, Healing Trauma through Family Constellations and Somatic Experiencing: Ancestral Wisdom from the Snail Clan of Tanzania
Follow her on Instagram
Referenced in this episode
BIPOC-only SE training in January 2024
Blog post on epistemic privilege and humility
Patricia Petersen Counselling (incl attachment-informed couple counselling)
ThÊrèse Cator - Circle of Reclamation
Sign up for my newsletter to be notified when my Level 1: Multidisciplinary Facilitator Training and Level 2: Metaskills for Trauma Sensitive Care training is offered in spring 2024
Tell me your thoughts on this episode!
Leave me a voicemail or note at this link.
This episode is a short retrospective of highlights from nearly a decade of The Numinous Podcast!
Below, I've sorted ten years of episodes into 14 playlists. If you don't see 14 categories below in your podcast player show notes, click here to view them on the podcast website. Enjoy!
Intuition, Spirituality, and the Mysteries of Life
TNP4: Love and Angels with Robin Arnold
TNP5: Nature, Mind and the Mystical with J.B.MacKinnon
TNP7: Spirituality + Recovery with Trinity Donnelley MacRae
TNP9: Meditation, Channeling and Connection with Dr.Jonni Gray
TNP11: Public, Private and Political with Louise
TNP13: Spiritual Self-Esteem and Professional Integrity as an Intuitive Practitioner with Judee Gee
TNP14: Carl-Greger on Spontaneous Spiritual Awakening and Direct Experience
TNP16: Jenna DellaGrottaglia on Art + Intuition
TNP17: Shakti Roumagoux: Catholic, Quaker, Engaged Buddhist
TNP18: Arthurian Legend Leadership Lessons with Kent Osborne
TNP22: The Vision Quest with Sparrow Hart
TNP25: Findhorn and Facilitating Inner Knowing with Kate Sutherland
TNP27: Shamanism and the Corporate World with Agneta
TNP30: Kate Sitka on Intuitive Communication with the Animal Kingdom
TNP32: Sex, Spirituality and Intuition with Lesley Stedmon
TNP35: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 1- Trusting Your Intuition
TNP36: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 2 - Trusting Your Pendulum
TNP37: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 3 - Common Questions About Intuition
TNP41: Elle North on Tarot + Intuition
TNP42: Mark Silver on Sufism and the Heart of Business
TNP44: John Michael Greer on Mystery Teaching from the Living Earth
TNP46: Mirabella Ponders the Mystery
TNP50: Carmen & Ruben on Badass Backyard Spirituality
TNP52: Humanism, Atheism and Optimism with Emrys Damon Miller
TNP53: Astronomy's Mysteries with John Reid
TNP59: Ritual + Magic with John Michael Greer
TNP61: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 1
TNP62: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 2
TNP63: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 3
TNP64: {Special Episode} Learning to See in the Dark
TNP72: Alexis P. Morgan on Witchcraft, Magic, and Liberation
TNP73: Charlene Spretnak on Reclaiming Pre-Patriarchal Goddesses
TNP74: Sacred Beekeeping with Nikiah Seeds
TNP76: L'Erin Alta on Lineage and Legacy
TNP77: Digging Deep with Forensic Archeologist Juliana Kabal Xoc
TNP78: Niana Hierlander on the Uncommon Marriage of Celtic Shamanism and Catholic Mysticism
TNP79: Layla Saad on Perspectives of a Black Muslim Woman on the Priestess Path
TNP81: {Numinous School Tutorial} Your Intuition Questions Answered
TNP82: The Eclipse, The Gleaners, and Ruben and I
TNP85: ThÊrèse Cator on Shadow Alchemy and Life as Ceremony
TNP89: The Journey of the Psychopomp with Cat Webb
TNP90: The Celtic Golden Dawn with John Michael Greer
TNP92: Sufism, Dreamwork and Belonging with Toko-pa Turner
TNP96: Secrets of the Temple with John Michael Greer
TNP98: Priestess, Shaman, Mystic, Scapegoat with Sarah Kerr
TNP99: Monsters and Magical Beings with John Michael Greer
TNP101: Layla Feghali on Plantcestral Medicine
TNP102: Sarah Selecky and Radiant Shimmering Light
TNP103: Witchcraft and Parenting Wisdom with Beth and John Threlfall
TNP104: Magical Cookery and EcoFeminism with Danielle Prohom Olson
TNP124: Elizabeth Brown on Dowsing and Causative Diagnosis
TNP126: Controlled Remote Viewing with Laurie Lambert Williams
TNP127: Moon Magic with Sarah Faith Gottesdiener
TNP128: Scottish Folk Magic with Scott Richardson Reid of the Cailleach's Herbarium
TNP129: Palm Reading with Helene Saucedo
TNP130: Sigil Witchery with Laura Tempest Zakroff
TNP131: The Twelve Faces of the Goddess with Danielle Blackwood
TNP136: Maia Toll on Working with Plant, Animal and Crystal Allies in Troubled Times
TNP140: Darius Mills on Hoodoo Manifestation Magic
TNP141: Eric Tyrone - Get Woke in Your Dreamtime
TNP144: Mimi Young on Intuition and Pandemic Plant Medicine
TNP149: Spiritual Hygiene for the Holidays with Carmen Spagnola
TNP150: Hekatean Witchcraft with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP158: Beyond Crystal Basics with Nicholas Pearson
TNP159: Norse Ritual Animism and Seidr with Maris Bergrune
TNP162: Entering Hekate's Garden with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP169: Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies
TNP170: Flower Essences from the Witch's Garden with Nicholas Pearson
TNP173: Creative Witchcraft with Natalie Rousseau
TNP174: Sovereign and Supernatural - Manifesting Beyond Capitalism with L'Erin Alta
TNP175: Ancestral Reverence and Seasonal Traditions with ThÊrèse Cator
TNP176: Mimi Young on Animism, Numerology and Chinese Astrology
TNP180: What Makes a Witch? with Carmen Spagnola
TNP183: Journey from Maiden to Mother with Sarah Durham Wilson
TNP184: Art and the Moon with Dana da Ponte
TNP185: Trance, Dreams and the Collective with Carmen Spagnola
TNP188: Fumbling Through...All Of It with Kael Klassen
TNP190: Celtic Embodiment with Jen Murphy
TNP191: Entering Hekate's Cave with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP205: Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene and Miracles
TNP209: {Special Class Recording} Connecting with Plants with Carmen
TNP212: Shauna Janz on Ancestral Veneration in Child-Free and Queer Lineages
TNP216: Success and Spiritual Leadership with Colette Baron-Reid
TNP219: Take Down the Patriarchy and Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
Attachment, Human Relationships, Parenting, Families, and Cults
TNP19: Monique Gray Smith on Ceremony and Sacredness with Children
TNP29: Conscious Parenting with Colleen Adrian
TNP31: Creating Community with Carolyne Taylor
TNP33: Community, Autonomy and Forgiveness with Michael Phillips
TNP39: Rachelle Lamb on Relating, Language and Poetry
TNP40: Bethany Webster on Healing the Mother Wound
TNP46: Mirabella Ponders the Mystery
TNP49: Carolyn Baker on Grief and Love During Collapse
TNP50: Carmen & Ruben on Badass Backyard Spirituality
TNP51: Love in the Apocalypse with Carolyn Baker, PhD
TNP56: Motherless Daughter, Mother: Sheila Webster
TNP61: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 1
TNP62: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 2
TNP63: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 3
TNP69: Tiffany Joseph on Language, Land, and Everything Important
TNP76: L'Erin Alta on Lineage and Legacy
TNP82: The Eclipse, The Gleaners, and Ruben and I
TNP83: Nora Samaran - The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture
TNP84: Honouring Ancestors with Rachael Rice
TNP86: Channelling Change with Jenn Richardson
TNP88: Monique Gray Smith is Speaking Truth
TNP103: Witchcraft and Parenting Wisdom with Beth and John Threlfall
TNP115: Solara Goldwyn on Edible Landscapes, Sustainability, and Climate Dread
TNP116: Matthew Remski on Attachment, High Demand Communities and Yoga's Culture of Abuse
TNP118: Patti Elledge on Attachment, Grieving Together, and Mobilizing Outrage
TNP121: Alexandra Stein on Disorganized Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Regimes
TNP138: Mara Cur on Hide Tanning and the Orphan's Journey
TNP151: Oliver Choquette on the Intersection of Gender Diversity and Neurodivergence
TNP153: Parenting a Trans Teen with Paria Hassouri
TNP166: Cultivating Sisterhood at (Trans)Midlife with Aurelie Richards
TNP172: A Love Note to Grievers with Angela E Morris
TNP189: Recovering Towards Mothering with Taryn Strong
TNP194: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 1
TNP195: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 2
TNP196: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 3
TNP197: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 4
TNP208: {Special Class Recording} Attachment + Contact Nutrition
TNP213: Parenting Beyond Power with Jen Lumanlan
TNP218: Take Down the Patriarchy and Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
TNP223: Efu Nyaki on Healing Trauma through Family Constellations and SE
TNP228: New Rules for Dating with Canada's Dating Coach, Chantal Heide
Voices of the Global Majority (BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, People of Colour)
TNP19: Monique Gray Smith on Ceremony and Sacredness with Children
TNP47: Indigo Ocean Dutton on Saying Yes to Happiness
TNP57: Homeless and Hopeless, to Unbounded Joy with Shayla Logan
TNP65: Jessie Hemphill on Walking Between the Worlds
TNP66: Aftab Erfan on Safe Spaces
TNP68: Janet Rogers on Art, History, and Strong Women
TNP69: Tiffany Joseph on Language, Land, and Everything Important
TNP70: Sewit Thomas Jones on Language and Belonging
TNP72: Alexis P. Morgan on Witchcraft, Magic, and Liberation
TNP76: L'Erin Alta on Lineage and Legacy
TNP77: Digging Deep with Forensic Archeologist Juliana Kabal Xoc
TNP79: Layla Saad on Perspectives of a Black Muslim Woman on the Priestess Path
TNP85: ThÊrèse Cator on Shadow Alchemy and Life as Ceremony
TNP88: Monique Gray Smith is Speaking Truth
TNP93: Queer Nature with Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd
TNP95: Preparing with Quest with Patricia and Ashley
TNP97: Ancestry, Funerals, and Writing at 4:30am with Leesa Renee Hall
TNP101: Layla Feghali on Plantcestral Medicine
TNP105: Tending the Threshold with Tannur Ali
TNP106: Tending the Threshold with Aftab Erfan
TNP107: Tending the Threshold with Aaron Ortega
TNP110: Tending the Threshold with Desiree Adaway
TNP111: Tending the Threshold with Bayo Akomolafe
TNP114: Jessie Hemphill on Indigenizing Urban Design and Collapse Awareness
TNP117: Monique Gray Smith on the What, Why, and How of Territorial Acknowledgements
TNP120: Tiffany Ĺwxeloselwet Jospeh on Adaptation
TNP125: Stephanie Papik on Inuit tattoos and Cultural Reclamation
TNP137: Sharon Ross (Afrovivalist) on Emergency Preparedness
TNP140: Darius Mills on Hoodoo Manifestation Magic
TNP141: Eric Tyrone - Get Woke in Your Dreamtime
TNP144: Mimi Young on Intuition and Pandemic Plant Medicine
TNP152: Conscious Grieving with Taraneh Erfan
TNP153: Parenting a Trans Teen with Paria Hassouri
TNP154: Fuck Capitalism â But Wait, What is Capitalism Exactly? With Toi Smith
TNP156: Elaine Alec on Calling Your Spirit Back from Trauma
TNP174: Sovereign and Supernatural - Manifesting Beyond Capitalism with L'Erin Alta
TNP175: Ancestral Reverence and Seasonal Traditions with ThÊrèse Cator
TNP176: Mimi Young on Animism, Numerology and Chinese Astrology
TNP186: Time as a Tool of Empire with Desiree Adaway
TNP187: Sinking Into Sacred Truth and Giving It Voice with Velda Thomas
TNP201: {AstroMagic Miniseries} The Magic of Mercury with Thea Anderson
TNP211: Taraneh Erfan on Processing Anger
TNP219: The Metaskills of Healing with ThÊrèse Cator
TNP223: Efu Nyaki on Healing Trauma through Family Constellations and SE
TNP224: Dayna Lynn Nuckolls on Sidereal Astrology and the People's Public Health Education Campaign
TNP227: Tarot for the Hard Work with Maria Minnis
Collapse, Dismantling Systems of Oppression, and Revolution
TNP21: Culture, Colonialism and Spirituality with Josiah Neufeld
TNP24: Grieving for Susan and Civilization with Michael Phillips
TNP28: Communism, the Beatniks and the Guru with Michael Phillips
TNP43: Miss Rosie Bitts on Feminism, Burlesque and Self-Expression (Or, Learning to Love Your Jiggly Bits)
TNP49: Carolyn Baker on Grief and Love During Collapse
TNP54: Nicole Foss on Navigating the Perfect Financial Storm
TNP55: How to Build a Life Boat with Nicole Foss
TNP64: {Special Episode} Learning to See in the Dark
TNP65: Jessie Hemphill on Walking Between the Worlds
TNP67: Confronting Whiteness with Rachael Rice and Marybeth Bonfiglio
TNP66: Aftab Erfan on Safe Spaces
TNP68: Janet Rogers on Art, History, and Strong Women
TNP71: Kelly Diels on the Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand
TNP73: Charlene Spretnak on Reclaiming Pre-Patriarchal Goddesses
TNP75: Jennifer Jacquet Asks, Is Shame a Necessary Tool for Social Cooperation?
TNP82: The Eclipse, The Gleaners, and Ruben and I
TNP83: Nora Samaran - The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture
TNP85: ThÊrèse Cator on Shadow Alchemy and Life as Ceremony
TNP88: Monique Gray Smith is Speaking Truth
TNP93: Queer Nature with Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd
TNP104: Magical Cookery and EcoFeminism with Danielle Prohom Olson
TNP105: Tending the Threshold with Tannur Ali
TNP106: Tending the Threshold with Aftab Erfan
TNP107: Tending the Threshold with Aaron Ortega
TNP109: Tending the Threshold with Rachael Rice and Bec Stupak
TNP110: Tending the Threshold with Desiree Adaway
TNP111: Tending the Threshold with Bayo Akomolafe
TNP114: Jessie Hemphill on Indigenizing Urban Design and Collapse Awareness
TNP115: Solara Goldwyn on Edible Landscapes, Sustainability, and Climate Dread
TNP117: Monique Gray Smith on the What, Why, and How of Territorial Acknowledgements
TNP119: John Michael Greer on The Long Descent
TNP120: Tiffany Ĺwxeloselwet Jospeh on Adaptation
TNP133: Permission to Grieve with Francis Weller
TNP134: Decolonizing Scottish Highland History and Radicalizing Gaelic Folk Culture with Michael Newton
TNP137: Sharon Ross (Afrovivalist) on Emergency Preparedness
TNP139: Colonial Influence on Hide Tanning Past and Present with Mara Cur
TNP143: Bear Hebert on Unlearning Oppression
TNP145: Holly Truhlar on Tending the Threshold of Collapse
TNP146: Carmen + Holly on Collapse Psychology and the Importance of Grief, Ritual, Accountability and Play
TNP147: Tom Hirons Tracks Collapse and Meaning Through Poetry
TNP148: Seeing Yourself Through the Apocalypse with Lindsay Tunkl
TNP154: Fuck Capitalism â But Wait, What is Capitalism Exactly? With Toi Smith
TNP161: Collapse in a Nutshell with Carmen Spagnola
TNP168: Somatics for White-Bodied Folks Recovering Ancestral Wisdom with Marika Heinricks
TNP169: Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies
TNP171: Crystie Kisler is Connecting Land and Food
TNP186: Time as a Tool of Empire with Desiree Adaway
TNP193: How Much is Enough in Collapse? with Carmen & Ruben
TNP207: {Special Class Recording} Fascism 101 for Collapse Times
TNP215: Before Capitalism (from a European Perspective) with Sophie Macklin
TNP218: Take Down the Patriarchy and Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
TNP219: The Metaskills of Healing with ThÊrèse Cator
TNP221: Waking Up to the Dark with Clark Strand
TNP224: Dayna Lynn Nuckolls on Sidereal Astrology and the People's Public Health Education Campaign
TNP227: Tarot for the Hard Work with Maria Minnis
Grief, Death, and Mortality
TNP24: Grieving for Susan and Civilization with Michael Phillips
TNP49: Carolyn Baker on Grief and Love During Collapse
TNP77: Digging Deep with Forensic Archeologist Juliana Kabal Xoc
TNP84: Honouring Ancestors with Rachael Rice
TNP86: Channelling Change with Jenn Richardson
TNP89: The Journey of the Psychopomp with Cat Webb
TNP97: Ancestry, Funerals, and Writing at 4:30am with Leesa Renee Hall
TNP122: Pashta MaryMoon on Accompanying the Dying, Hospice Singing and Preparing for our Death
TNP123: Sarah Kerr on Being a Death Doula and Coping with Loss When a Pet or Plant Dies
TNP133: Permission to Grieve with Francis Weller
TNP138: Mara Cur on Hide Tanning and the Orphan's Journey
TNP152: Conscious Grieving with Taraneh Erfan
TNP172: A Love Note to Grievers with Angela E. Morris
TNP219: Take Down the Patriarchy and Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
Midlife/Perimenopause
TNP165: Embracing Sovereignty at Midlife with Nikiah Seeds
TNP179: Navigating Creative Drought and Change with Nikiah Seeds
TNP164: The Astrology of Midlife with Danielle Blackwood
TNP166: Cultivating Sisterhood at (Trans)Midlife with Aurelie Richards
TNP182: Reimagining Elderhood with Sharon Blackie
TNP191: Entering Hekate's Cave with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP216: Success and Spiritual Leadership with Colette Baron-Reid
TNP197: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen and Ruben (Part Four)
TNP173: Creative Witchcraft with Natalie Rousseau (this one is maybe indirectly related - I can't remember specifics but it feels aligned!)
TNP217: Burnout and Recovery at Midlife with Annie Bray
TNP220: Empower Your Menopause with Dr.Kristin Schnurr, ND
TNP228: New Rules for Dating with Canada's Dating Coach, Chantal Heide
Creativity, Business, and Practitioner Skills
TNP5: Nature, Mind and the Mystical with J.B.MacKinnon
TNP8: Better Living Through Metaphor with Sarah Selecky
TNP15: Lauren Bacon with Tools to Diffuse Imposter Syndrome and Comparison
TNP18: Arthurian Legend Leadership Lessons with Kent Osborne
TNP38: Brooke Semple on Culture, Design, and Authenticity
TNP42: Mark Silver on Sufism and the Heart of Business
TNP45: Emrys Damon Miller on Graphic Design and Shamanism
TNP58: Kindness and Goodness, in Business and Life with Carrie Klassen
TNP60: How the Healer Heals Herself with Lindsay Rose Turner
TNP65: Jessie Hemphill on Walking Between the Worlds
TNP68: Janet Rogers on Art, History, and Strong Women
TNP71: Kelly Diels on the Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand
TNP77: Digging Deep with Forensic Archeologist Juliana Kabal Xoc
TNP91: Emelia Symginton Fedy is Trying to be Good
TNP97: Ancestry, Funerals, and Writing at 4:30am with Leesa Renee Hall
TNP102: Sarah Selecky and Radiant Shimmering Light
TNP109: Tending the Threshold with Rachael Rice and Bec Stupak
TNP114: Jessie Hemphill on Indigenizing Urban Design and Collapse Awareness
TNP115: Solara Goldwyn on Edible Landscapes, Sustainability, and Climate Dread
TNP167: Lessons Learned from Ira Glass, Roxane Gay, and the Making of The Spirited Kitchen
TNP173: Creative Witchcraft with Natalie Rousseau
TNP177: Journal as Altar, Pages as Portals with Erin Fairchild
TNP178: Eliza Robertson on Writing with the Stars and Magic with the Muses
TNP181: {Takeover Episode} The Making of The Spirited Kitchen
TNP184: Art and the Moon with Dana da Ponte
TNP216: Success and Spiritual Leadership with Colette Baron-Reid
TNP219: The Metaskills of Healing with ThÊrèse Cator
Land, Nature, and Animism
TNP5: Nature, Mind and the Mystical with J.B.MacKinnon
TNP22: The Vision Quest with Sparrow Hart
TNP30: Kate Sitka on Intuitive Communication with the Animal Kingdom
TNP44: John Michael Greer on Mystery Teaching from the Living Earth
TNP65: Jessie Hemphill on Walking Between the Worlds
TNP68: Janet Rogers on Art, History, and Strong Women
TNP70: Sewit Thomas Jones on Language and Belonging
TNP93: Queer Nature with Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd
TNP95: Preparing with Quest with Patricia and Ashley
TNP101: Layla Feghali on Plantcestral Medicine
TNP104: Magical Cookery and EcoFeminism with Danielle Prohom Olson
TNP115: Solara Goldwyn on Edible Landscapes, Sustainability, and Climate Dread
TNP117: Monique Gray Smith on the What, Why, and How of Territorial Acknowledgements
TNP136: Maia Toll on Working with Plant, Animal and Crystal Allies in Troubled Times
TNP144: Mimi Young on Intuition and Pandemic Plant Medicine
TNP155: Growing Great Pumpkins with BC Record-Breaker Dave Chan
TNP162: Entering Hekate's Garden with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP170: Flower Essences from the Witch's Garden with Nicholas Pearson
TNP171: Crystie Kisler is Connecting Land and Food
TNP205: Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene and Miracles
TNP206: Alexa Linton on Interspecies Relating and Healing with Horses
TNP209: {Special Class Recording} Connecting with Plants with Carmen
TNP226: Wild Horses of the Chilcotin with Wayne McCrory
Astrology
TNP12: Georgia Nicols on Astrology and Patterns of Knowing
TNP23: Making the Most of Mercury Retrograde with Georgia Nicols
TNP164: The Astrology of Midlife with Danielle Blackwood
TNP178: Eliza Robertson on Writing with the Stars and Magic with the Muses
TNP198: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Eliza Robertson and the Sun
TNP199: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Bronwyn Simons on Moon Magic + Lunar Consciousness
TNP200: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Mars Magic with Carmen Spagnola
TNP201: {AstroMagic Miniseries} The Magic of Mercury with Thea Anderson
TNP202: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Maeg Keane on Connecting with Jupiter
TNP203: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Kristin Mathis, Venus and the Orphic Hymns
TNP204: {AstroMagic Miniseries} ET Shipley on the Power of Saturn
TNP224: Dayna Lynn Nuckolls on Sidereal Astrology and the People's Public Health Education Campaign
Somatics, the Body, and Healing Journeys
TNP32: Sex, Spirituality and Intuition with Lesley Stedmon
TNP43: Miss Rosie Bitts on Feminism, Burlesque and Self-Expression (Or, Learning to Love Your Jiggly Bits)
TNP47: Indigo Ocean Dutton on Saying Yes to Happiness
TNP57: Homeless and Hopeless, to Unbounded Joy with Shayla Logan
TNP60: How the Healer Heals Herself with Lindsay Rose Turner
TNP91: Emelia Symginton Fedy is Trying to be Good
TNP94: Mapping Reclamation with Rachael Maddox
TNP132: Somatic Mentoring with Patti Elledge
TNP156: Elaine Alec on Calling Your Spirit Back from Trauma
TNP168: Somatics for White-Bodied Folks Recovering Ancestral Wisdom with Marika Heinricks
TNP169: Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies
TNP187: Sinking Into Sacred Truth and Giving It Voice with Velda Thomas
TNP190: Rooting the Myths of Celtic Embodiment with Jen Murphy
TNP210: RCCX Theory of Complex Illness with Carmen Spagnola
TNP211: Taraneh Erfan on Processing Anger
TNP217: Burnout and Recovery at Midlife with Annie Bray
TNP219: The Metaskills of Healing with ThÊrèse Cator
TNP220: Empower Your Menopause with Dr.Kristin Schnurr, ND
TNP223: Efu Nyaki on Healing Trauma through Family Constellations and SE
Poetry
TNP20: Llynne Phillips and Sacred Poetry
TNP39: Rachelle Lamb on Relating, Language and Poetry
TNP147: Tom Hirons Tracks Collapse and Meaning Through Poetry
Elder Wisdom
TNP12: Georgia Nicols on Astrology and Patterns of Knowing
TNP20: Llynne Phillips and Sacred Poetry
TNP24: Grieving for Susan and Civilization with Michael Phillips
TNP28: Communism, the Beatniks and the Guru with Michael Phillips
TNP33: Community, Autonomy and Forgiveness with Michael Phillips
TNP49: Carolyn Baker on Grief and Love During Collapse
TNP73: Charlene Spretnak on Reclaiming Pre-Patriarchal Goddesses
TNP122: Pashta MaryMoon on Accompanying the Dying, Hospice Singing and Preparing for our Death
TNP132: Somatic Mentoring with Patti Elledge
TNP155: Growing Great Pumpkins with BC Record-Breaker Dave Chan
TNP216: Success and Spiritual Leadership with Colette Baron-Reid
TNP226: Wild Horses of the Chilcotin with Wayne McCrory
Carmen & Ruben / Rubenations
TNP50: Carmen & Ruben on Badass Backyard Spirituality
TNP75: Jennifer Jacquet Asks, Is Shame a Necessary Tool for Social Cooperation?
TNP82: The Eclipse, The Gleaners, and Ruben and I
TNP83: Nora Samaran - The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture
TNP100: Cocktail Pairings for Your Listening Pleasure
TNP133: Permission to Grieve with Francis Weller
TNP155: Growing Great Pumpkins with BC Record-Breaker Dave Chan
TNP193: How Much is Enough in Collapse? with Carmen & Ruben
TNP194: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 1
TNP195: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 2
TNP196: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 3
TNP197: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen & Ruben, Part 4
Just Me Talkin'
TNP1: Becoming Your Own Spiritual Advisor, (Premiere Episode, March 30, 2014)
TNP2: Becoming Your Own Spiritual Advisor
TNP3: Becoming Your Own Spiritual Advisor
TNP35: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 1- Trusting Your Intuition
TNP36: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 2 - Trusting Your Pendulum
TNP37: Carmen Answers Listener Questions, Part 3 - Common Questions About Intuition
TNP61: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 1
TNP62: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 2
TNP63: Healing the Abandonment Wound, Part 3
TNP64: {Special Episode} Learning to See in the Dark
TNP81: {Numinous School Tutorial} Your Intuition Questions Answered
TNP149: Spiritual Hygiene for the Holidays with Carmen Spagnola
TNP160: The Bruce Springsteen Soundtrack
TNP161: Collapse in a Nutshell with Carmen Spagnola
TNP180: What Makes a Witch? with Carmen Spagnola
TNP185: Trance, Dreams and the Collective with Carmen Spagnola
TNP200: {AstroMagic Miniseries} Mars Magic with Carmen Spagnola
TNP207: {Special Class Recording} Fascism 101 for Collapse Times
TNP208: {Special Class Recording} Attachment + Contact Nutrition
TNP209: {Special Class Recording} Connecting with Plants with Carmen
TNP225: 10th Anniversary Episode! 3 Secrets + My Thoughts on the Mystery of Life
⨠âď¸ Leave feedback! đâ¨
Today, we welcome Clark Strand to the show to talk about his book, Waking up to the Dark: The Black Madonna's Gospel for an Age of Extinction and Collapse. Clark has written numerous books and articles, his work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post, and he is co-author with previous podcast guest, Perdita Finn, of the book, The Way of the Rose.
In this episode, we go back to the beginning, in more ways than one. We explore the Deep Time of our neolithic ancestors, and even just how distant the world of our ancestors of less than 100 years ago seems, as we discuss the ways in which electric light has shaped our lives and our psyches. We discuss how electrification has led us to the climate crisis weâre in today. Waking up to the Dark is an urgent message from an apparition that Clark calls Our Lady of Climate Change about the challenges to come.
Get or gift a copy of Waking Up to the Dark
Learn more about the Way of the Rose Fellowship
Monthly Tricycle Haiku Challenge
Follow Clark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkstrand/
Perdita Finn's episode of The Numinous Podcast
Sophie Strand's episode of The Numinous Podcast
Learn more about The Spirit of Yuletide
Join The Numinous Network
Review this podcast!
{NEW!} Leave a comment or question for me â I may respond in a future episode!
I have been a student in the most life-changing class about perimenopause for the better part of this year. Actually, itâs a telehealth group â a group of patients meeting monthly for online sessions â under the care of Dr.Kristin Schnurr, a naturopathic doctor who specializes in complex endocrine concerns including perimenopause and postmenopause.
In this episode, we explore:
⢠how long perimenopause lasts
⢠how to know which stage of perimenopause you're in
⢠why vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) can be more serious than we think
⢠the connection between ACE scores and perimenopausal symptoms
and so much more!
Referenced in this episode:
Read Dr.Kristin's full bio here.
Follow her on Instagram.
Get on Dr.Kristin's newsletter by visiting her website here: www.drkristinschnurr.com
Dr.Kristin's Upcoming Therapeutic Small Group Programs:* Empowered - Navigating the Perimenopausal Transition - This group would be a good fit for those of you still menstruating or if it has been less than one year from your last menstrual period. Sign up for her newsletter to be the first to know when registration opens. * Emergence - An Exploration of Life After Menopause - For those of you for whom it has been 12 months since your last menstrual period. Sign up for her newsletter to be the first to know when registration opens.
Beginning in January 2024 these groups will meet virtually every month for 12 months. Over the course of the year, you'll cover comprehensive and up to date information in a safe and nurturing space. The emphasis will be on listening to your inner wisdom as you make informed decisions in support of your own unique health. Registration opens November 20th, 2023 via newsletter mail-out. If you miss that deadline, email the office to get on the waitlist: office@drkristinschnurr.com * Self-Paced Course: Empowered - Navigating the Perimenopausal Transition (Coming Soon! Visit her website and sign up for her newsletter for the announcement)
Resources
International Menopause Society
The Menopause Society
Daily Record of Severity of Problems tracking sheet
ACE Studies information and quiz
Perimenopause Playlist of relevant Numinous Podcast episodes
TNP165: Embracing Sovereignty at Midlife with Nikiah Seeds
TNP179: Navigating Creative Drought and Change with Nikiah Seeds
TNP164: The Astrology of Midlife with Danielle Blackwood
TNP182: Reimagining Elderhood with Sharon Blackie
TNP191: Entering Hekate's Cave with Dr.Cyndi Brannen
TNP216: Success and Spiritual Leadership with Colette Baron-Reid
TNP197: Portrait of a Marriage with Carmen and Ruben (Part Four)
TNP173: Creative Witchcraft with Natalie Rousseau (this one is maybe indirectly related - I can't remember specifics but it feels aligned!)
TNP217: Burnout and Recovery at Midlife with Annie Bray
Does this material resonate? Join us live!
Check out The Numinous Network and come to the Peri/Meno Jams and AMAs
Come hang out with us for The Spirit of Yuletide
Like what you heard? Give a little love to the podcast with a nice review!
Wow, this is a juicy one. My dear friend, ThÊrèse Cator, is back on the show in this special replay of a session we co-led as a warm-up event for my Witches New Year Gathering happening on October 28, 2023.
ThĂŠrèse Cator is a trauma-informed embodiment practitioner who specializes in helping people develop a connection to their bodies that promotes wellness and healing. Catorâs work provides an intersectional and decolonial lens that is rare in an overwhelmingly white and ableist somatics field. ThĂŠrèse is also the founder of Embodied Black Girl, a global community that stands for the embodied liberation of Black women and femmes and women of color everywhere. Embodied Black Girl is devoted to creating a safe space for to heal from intergenerational trauma, racialized stress and colonial conditioning in service of our individual and collective liberation and healing. ThĂŠrèse has been featured in Forbes and MindBodyGreen, and she has delivered workshops to major tech companies while maintaining her focus on Black women's and femmes' health.
We've been friends since 2017 and over the years have been in trainings together as students, as well as co-facilitated and collaborated on projects. We often independently come up with new directions we want to take with our work, only to find the other was planning the exact same thing. And that's what happened here! We are each offering facilitator trainings in 2024 and we're here to give some insight into our shared philosophical approach.
Referenced in this episode
TNP85: ThÊrèse Cator on Shadow Alchemy and Life as Ceremony
Sign up for ThÊrèse's newsletter on her website
Find out more about ThÊrèse's background here
Can academic reading be healing?, by Katherine Firth (the Routledge article based off Sedgewick's concept of "reparative reading")
Sedgewick's original essay on "paranoid reading" versus "reparative reading"
TNP161: Collapse in a Nutshell
Learn more about the Metaskills of Collapse in my Collapse 101 course in The Numinous Network, or join us to experience our manner of approach for group facilitation.
Last call to get your ticket for Witches New Year! Recordings available to stream until Nov 7, 2023.
Sign up for my newsletter so you'll know when my facilitation training opens in Feb/March 2024.
Like this episode? Give it a review! As you can tell, I read them and they matter to me!
My guest today is Perdita Finn, co-founder, with her husband Clark Strand, of the non-denominational international fellowship, The Way of the Rose, which inspired their book, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. Her newest book is called Take Back the Magic:Conversations with the Unseen World. It's part spiritual memoir, part ancestral veneration how-to, part takedown of the patriarchy through correspondence with her deceased father who was a doctor.
I absolutely loved this conversation and could listen to Perdita for hours. I highly recommend you seek out her book, Take Back the Magic, and spend some time communing with your Beloved Dead.
Follow Perdita on Instagram
Join Perdita's Substack
Referenced in this episode
TNP73 Charlene Spretnak on Reclaiming PrePatriarchal Goddesses
Like this episode? I'd love your review! đđťđ
Check out Witches New Year 2023
Learn more about The Numinous Network
Check out my book, The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Author photo by Juliet Lofrado.
I saw a meme that said, "If I am googling symptoms and the treatment says "mindfulness", I know there's no treatment for my condition". I laughed but...for real, can't we do any better than this??
Let's have a real conversation about the pervasiveness of burnout and the gaslighting of the wellness industrial complex. If you're a regular listener, you know we have a clear line of sight on patriarchy and capitalism and we have long been well aware that they're the underlying cause, as with white supremacy, ableism, all of it. Clearly self-help and meditation isn't enough.
And yet, there is something to it, isn't there? It would be awfully ignorant of me to not recognize that a millenias-old practice probably has some merit. The benefits of meditation on our overall wellbeing and to support restoration of the nervous system are clear, (experientially if not always empirically).
Here to muddle through this with me today is my friend, Annie Bray, a longtime meditation teacher and bodywork practitioner. She's also a somatic coach and one of our Guides in The Numinous Network leading monthly Polyvagal Theory-informed meditation sessions. Annie also studied with Joanna Macy, root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, and we invoke her as a muse in this conversation, reflecting on her spiritual leadership as a woman in later life. It's nice to reflect on those who've inspired us as we navigate our entrepreneurship in the wellness space.
Annie has 20 years' experience as a manual therapist, plus deep study in trauma recovery, applied polyvagal theory, meditation, yoga and trauma-informed coaching. In her work, she aims to support folks to feel reliably well-met, relatively safe and free to engage with life meaningfully.
Check out Annie's website here
Learn more about Annie's 1:1 Somatic Coaching
REORIENT: a 12-week meditation program for midlife caregivers, based deeply in both WTR and in attachment and polyvagal theory, set to run again in January, with increased focus on midlife caregivers dealing with burnout.
Follow her on Instagram
Referenced in this episode
Joanna Macy
Work That Reconnects
Recent studies on burnout
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
Donald Winnicott's Good Enough Mother studies
Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time, by Laura Khadouri
Check out The Numinous Network to try Annie's class and more!
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Amazon
Like this episode? I'd love your review!
(Thanks in advance for taking the time đ)
đ¨Alert! đ¨ Alert! đ¨This is a very special episode where my life comes full circle! I am unspeakably thrilled to welcome Colette Baron-Reid to the show.
Colette Baron-Reid is a bestselling author of 15 best-selling Oracle card decks, with over a million sold worldwide and 7 books published in 27 languages. In fact, her iconic deck, The Enchanted Map, is the #1 oracle deck I've recommended for the past decade for people to develop their intuition and card reading skills.
This interview is candid, it's intimate, and it's a very frank reflection on the lessons learned over a 30+ year career in spiritual leadership. We talk workaholism, we talk intergenerational trauma, we talk menopause... We talk about diversity, equity and inclusion in the spiritual self-help genre, and humility in the face of public scrutiny. We talk about diving deeper into shadow work and real, authentic repair. Join us for a fascinating portrait of a wise woman just getting started at 65...
Colette is an internationally acclaimed Oracle expert, spiritual intuitive, personal transformation thought leader, business strategist, artist, and educator. She's the founder of The Oracle School ExperienceÂŽ, OraclePaloozaÂŽ, and host of INSIDE THE WOONIVERSE, a weekly podcast series. She's a former EMI recording artist has been living clean and sober for the last 37 years. Colette provided numerous in-depth resources in this episode:
References
Visit Colette's website
Oracle School
Colette's membership site
Inside the Woo-niverse podcast
Know Justice, Know Peace by Dr. Deborah Egerton, Enneagram + Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility specialist
Mindful of Race and Healing Rage by Ruth King
Like this episode? Review the podcast! đđť
This is a conversation about capitalism, and therefore about whiteness and supremacy culture. There is a bit of a record scratch moment when I say something that sounds pretty obliviously white, then correct myself. I like to leave the mistakes in because it's good reconditioning from perfectionism/whiteness. Enjoy!
Sophie Macklin is an anarchist mystic who lived in California for fifteen years but recently returned home to England. She practises brythonic polytheism, antifascism, and devotion to an animate world, and specializes in topics related to radical history, anti-capitalism, antifascism, reclaiming the commons, anti-ableism, and exploring different ways of knowing. Sheâs an educator whose work has deeply impacted my own.
I've invited Sophie back to the show to talk about capitalism and its accompanying attitudes around productivity, disability, and land use. In this episode, weâre talking about a period of history in England when we saw the end of access to common lands to the system of private property and land ownership which we now think of as normal. If you want to jam on Caliban and the Witch and the work of Silvia Federici, this one's for you!
References
Sophie is a presenter at my annual Witches New Year event â hope you'll join us!
Silvia Federici
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, by Silvia Federici
Horse Power and Magic, George Ewart Evans
Follow Sophie on Instagram @sophiemacklin
Join us at Witches New Year 2023
Review the podcast!
Emily Rose is a content creator from Montreal who hosts a pop culture and reality TV recap podcast called It's Become a Whole Thing. She's also an herbalist and an astrologer. After the death of her mother in the start of the pandemic, Emily needed an outlet to disconnect from the heaviness of life and she found it in pop culture and a whole new world on TikTok where creativity and smarts meet niche communities and a swell of support on social media.
Emily can usually be found glued to her couch, on a quest for a new brunch spot, or on a troll stroll (the antithesis to the hot girl walk: no minimum distances, just taking your bad attitude and bad outfit to get some air and Vitamin D).
References
The Stuff I Hate Journal: Trends I Hate. Foods I Loathe. People Who Annoy Me. And Everything Else That's the Absolute Worst, by Emily Rose
It's Become A Whole Thing Podcast
Emily's TikTok: @itsbecomeawholething
Meredith Lynch, writer and pop culture deep dives
Molly McPherson, public relations and crisis communications
The Zen Blonde, pop culture deep dives
Friday Things, Stacy Lee Kong
Colleen Emery, Emery Herbals
Letterkenny, Canada's second best ever situational comedy IMHO
Bridget Casey, financial coach
KikiMay, feminist analysis, smashing the patriarchy one ding dong at a time
Review this podcast now!
My guest today is Jen Lumanlan host of the popular podcast, Your Parenting Mojo, and author of the book Parenting Beyond Power: How to Use Connection and Collaboration to Transform Your Family - and the World.
After attending Berkeley and Yale and following a traditional career path in sustainability consulting, Jen found that parenting was her toughest challenge yet. She went back to school for a masterâs degree in psychology focused on child development and another in education, and trained as a Co-Active coach to share what she learned with other parents.
In the book, she shares about her own struggles as a child and a content warning here for bereavement and discussion of disordered eating.
For my listeners who are people of the global majority, the book is written from the perspective of a white parent grappling with unlearning the use of dominance and other more subtle aspects of white supremacy culture. In this conversation, it does take a minute to get around to stating explicitly that white parents do not have the same parents as parents who are Black, or Indigenous or Asian or other oppressed identities. I want to assure you we do get around to that and also that it is front and centre throughout the book, and itâs handled with nuance. Itâs an excellent book for folks who are actively seeking or maybe just starting to be curious about how to dismantle systems of oppression and unhook from supremacy culture and the use of dominance and coercion at the family and relational level.
Here's how you can get Jen's book through a gift economy approach: https://yourparentingmojo.com/book/
References
Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication, Meenadchi
Needy: How to Advocate for your Needs and Claim your Sovereignty, Mara Glatzel
My Collapse 101 course is included with membership in The Numinous Network
Stacy Lee Kong of Friday Things explains the coercive control at work in the Jonah Hill/Sarah Brady text exchange
My social media post/explainer on coercive control
Why Giving Choices Doesn't Work And What To Do Instead, Your Parenting Mojo Podcast
Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in our Families, Amanda Gross
White Supremacy Culture, Tema Okun
Zawn Villines on Facebook and their substack, Liberating Motherhood: For mothers who are pissed off about sexism, household chore inequality, and endless misogynistic bullshit, and for the allies who want a better world for all of us
How to Get Away with Parenting with Malaika Dowler
Pervasive Drive for Autonomy, Tomlin Wilding
No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism, Chris Niebauer
Like this episode? Review the podcast!
Shauna Janz is a facilitator at the crossroads of grief, trauma, ritual and ancestral healing. She is a queer cis-woman of northern European ancestry who has been facilitating trauma-informed workshops since 2008 to a wide range of audiences including within education, non-profit, hospice, business, government, and Indigenous settings, locally and internationally.
The intersection of being childfree and ancestral veneration is fascinating to me because when we talk about lineage thereâs an implication of continuance. I personally did have a biological child, but I doubt my child will have a child. So itâs interesting to cast my net a little wider when I ponder the question, Who am I becoming an ancestor for? And when I think about my spiritual practice of ancestral veneration, itâs interesting to think about whether Iâm giving enough attention to ancestors Iâm not directly descended from - the aunties, the uncles, the chosen family that my wayback people were connected to, the ones who supported my direct ancestors so I could be here now.
Shauna is exactly who you want as a conversation partner to ponder these questions!
Notes
ShaunaJanz.com
@sacredgriefshaunajanz
⢠Belonging to the World - Relationship and Ritual for the Heart of Grief starts Oct 4, 2023
⢠Elder Wisdom - Connecting with our Ancestral Ecosystems to Embody Love and Liberationstarts Oct 9, 2023 with Tamira Cousett ⢠Trauma-Informed Grief Support - A Professional Development Workshop on Nov 9-10, 2023Learning Through Loss, based in Victoria, BC
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Goodreads or Indigo
Sign up for my newsletter
This is a question for all the woman-identified listeners: What really ignites your rage and how much more than 100% is it patriarchy?
Iâm delighted to welcome back to the show, my dear friend Taraneh Erfan to dish on what itâs like to:
- A) recognize the amount of anger is simmering under the surface of our lives living under white capitalist heteropatriarchy
- B) reconcile with that anger given we donât want to be miserable all the time
- C) mobilize and reclaim agency in "a world that doesnât want us" (to quote Sophie Strand)
Taraneh Erfan is a registered clinical counsellor and a writer with a degree in expressive arts therapy. She was previously on the show when her book came out, Conscious Grieving: The Path of Awakening Through Loss. you may have seen her poetry or pick-me ups on Instagram through her account @mindonspirit and she is one of the presenters at this yearâs Witches New Year, an online retreat happening on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
Sign up for my newsletter here.
Learn more about the Woman Life Freedom revolution in Iran here, here, here, and here.
This episode is for all the folks who are, for whatever reason, familiar with chronic illness, rare disease and/or autoimmune disorder. The Network was inspired by my work with clients living with chronic illness and rare diseases such as Sjogrenâs disease, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, PCOS, and MCAS, specifically.
RCCX Theory is a theory proposed by Dr. Sharon Meglathery that may explain overlapping syndromes associated with chronic illness. This mutation creates a stress vulnerability.
In other words, a brain wired for danger and a body primed for stress.
Co-inherited gene mutations of the RCCX module lead to overlapping ârareâ genetic diseases and syndromes in families and individuals. This have catastrophic consequences in settings of severe acute, chronic, or prolonged stress, resulting in medical and/or psychiatric illness.
Listeners who may find this episode particularly validating may have experience or be familiar with:
⢠Post-Covid / Long Covid syndrome
⢠Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
⢠Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)
⢠Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
⢠Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)
⢠Sjogren's Syndrome
⢠Lyme
⢠Vasovagal Syncope
⢠Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
⢠Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS) including Crohn's and colitis
⢠Fibromyaligia
⢠Rheumatoid Arthritis
⢠Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
⢠Multiple Chemical/Mold/Electrical Sensitivities
⢠Chronic Pain
⢠other dysfunction involving the nervous system including gut biome
Deep gratitude to Dr.Meglathery for her research on the RCCX module. We hope her work is carried forward by fellow scientists and advocates.
Notes
https://www.rccxandillness.com
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/rccxandchronicillness
https://medium.com/@elizabethnickson/reading-this-might-save-your-life-rccx-theory-the-vagus-nerve-and-the-end-to-43c9431a8df7
https://www.gro-gifted.org/rccx-theory-and-giftedness-a-promising-new-line-of-research/
https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2018/08/09/rccx-chronic-fatigue-fibromyalgia-eds-pots/
https://me-pedia.org/wiki/RCCX_Genetic_Module_Theory
TNP151 Oliver Choquette on the Intersection of Gender Diversity and Neurodivergence
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What are the steps to spiritual communication with plants?
Do we need to know a lot about horticulture?
How do I know if I'm just making it all up?
In this session, I'm sharing a lightly edited recording of a recent Enrichment session I led within The Numinous Network on connecting with and communicating with plants. I'm offering this sneak peek because it's free Week in the Network from Sept 17-23 - listen in to find out more!
Notes
Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness, Pam Montgomery
Communicating with Plants: Heart-Based Practices for Connecting with Plant Spirits, Jen Frey
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive, Martin Prechtel
Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast: The Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Collin Varner
Luschiimâs Plants: Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines, Dr Luschiim Arvid Charlie, Nancy Turner
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings, Mary Siisip Geniusz
TNP202 Maeg Keane on Connecting with Jupiter
Review The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Homework for this Lesson Reciprocity Ask your plant friend what theyâd like. Maybe they want to be tended a certain way, maybe they want you to draw them. Stay with the question â at first they might say something like, I want you to take care of yourself, I want you to relax. Thatâs all good to know, but stay with this question of what you can do for them or offer to them until you get an answer that is truly something they want just for them. When you have the gift, present it to them. Spend time in this space, speaking aloud your gratitude. What do you notice in the days after?
Plant Limpia Plant bathing: It can be as simple as placing the plant in water, then sprinkling water on you. After you've cleansed yourself, keep a portion of the water and add to it an equal portion of vodka. Place in a spray bottle to cleanse yourself whenever you need to release energetic build-up (spiritual hygiene) or when you are preparing yourself for ritual (purification). Could also infuse a plant in water that is at least 100F, strain, then keep in the fridge until you want to use it. Add it to your bathwater at particularly meaningful times or whenever youâre in need. (Make sure itâs not made from a plant that can cause contact dermatitis).
Plant Dieting This is a way to really meld with the energies of a plant over an extended period of time. It will take several days or perhaps even weeks just to prepare all of the items you can with a single plant. Then, once all of the your preparations are ready, you would have a retreat day with that plant, ingesting it in all the ways. You will need to source a good beginner's herbalism book to learn how to make tinctures and oxymels, etc. Some recommendations would be:
Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
Ava Green and Kate Bensinger's The Comprehensive Guide to Herbalism for Beginners: (2 Books in 1) Grow Medicinal Herbs to Fill Your Herbalist Apothecary with Natural Herbal Remedies and Plant Medicine
To undertake the ritual of plant dieting, first as your plant ally for a good date to enter into this day-long ritual. When the time comes, begin by eating some of the plant, then make a tea from leaves and drink. Then enjoy some tea made from the roots. After that, perhaps later that day, ingest a tincture. After that you might put balm or oil on your body, followed by some essence on your tongue, perhaps some medicine made of honey infused with the plant, then have an oxymel drink or other fermented version of the plant. Finally, do a trance journey to connect with the plant spirit in the Otherworld. Complete your ritual by thanking your plant ally and following any instructions they gave you.
Make a Plant Essence Flower essences carry the energetic imprint of a plant and are meant to be ingested. They address emotional symptoms, not physical.
Below are some basic steps to making a Mother Essence, Stock Essence, and Dosage Essence - some simple basic herbalism so you can work with a particular plant all month and notice how that not only deepens your understanding but also expands your intuitive awareness of this plant and others.
Begin by asking your plant ally when is the best time to make an essence with them.
Mother Essence: Sterilize a two ounce bottle in boiling water. Fill a small clean glass bowl with about a cup of non-chlorinated water and place it on the ground beside the plant. Collect a few pieces of the plant and place them in the bowl. In order to preserve their pure essence, do not allow the plant parts to touch the ground. Ask the plant for guidance - is there any additional information they'd like to provide about how to make this essence with them? When the plant informs you the essence is ready, fill your two ounce bottle 40%-50% full with good quality brandy* (consisting of 40% alcohol by volume - ABV). Top it up with the essence water, using a fine mesh strainer to ensure no plant material enters the Mother Essence bottle. Your remaining essence water can be poured back into the ground at the foot of your plant, (and you can also take a sip of it, if you feel it's safe and the plant is edible). Label your bottle as Mother Essence and the name of the plant.
Stock Essence: Fill a half-ounce bottle with 60% plain non-chlorinated water and 40% brandy, then add 3 drops of the Mother Essence. Label this bottle as Stock Essence plus the name of the plant. you can use the Stock Essence as a daily point of connection with this plant, trying a single drop on the tongue the morning of one day, noon on another, and night on the next. Journal anything you notice over the weeks, particularly your dreams and coincidences relevant to this plant and its teachings. This stock level of dilution will last at least a year, (some say up to 10 years if stored in a cool, dark place and in a dark glass bottle).
Dosage Essence: Fill a clean, sterilized half-ounce bottle with 70% non-chlorinated water and 30% good quality brandy. To this, add 3 drops of the Stock Essence. Standard dosage is three drops on the tongue three times a day for a month. Notice any changes, synchronicities, messages and dreams. The dosage level of dilution will last for about 2 months. After that, gift the liquid back to the plants and soil.
*If you would prefer not to use alcohol in your essences, you can use vinegar.
This episode is one of a series of recordings of live classes that Iâm publishing on the podcast so you can have a preview of how I teach ahead of Free Week, which is happening in The Numinous Network from September 17-23, 2023. Get on my newsletter to receive the link when it's sent on September 17.
What is Contact Nutrition and why is it so critical to develop secure attachment in a relationship?
Are there socio-cultural components to secure attachment that might be missing from the popular literature?
Are you wishing you could have the Cole's Notes on attachment theory and just skip right to the practical doing part?
Let's get into it!
Referenced in this episode:
Diane Poole Heller
Stan Tatkin
Amir Levine
Resmaa Menakem
Check out the class schedule for our live events, plus a listing of on-demand video courses available with your Numinous Network membership.
Weâre doing something a bit different on the podcast today! Iâm sharing a basically unedited recording of a recent class I led within The Numinous Network on connecting with and communicating with plants.
What are the steps to communicate with plants?
Do we need to know a lot about horticulture?
Do we have to ingest plants to really know them?
How do I know if I'm just making it all up?
We cover all of this and more.
Iâm offering this sneak peek because itâs Free Week in the Numinous Network this month, from Sept 17 - 23 in this year of 2023.
This class includes several intuitive exercises including trancework which may not be appropriate for listening while driving or riding a bike or otherwise operating machinery - take due care, my friends!
Because it's a basically unedited recording of a live video class, some parts may not be as interesting as a normal podcast episode, but I hope you'll feel like you're right there with us in an intuition development class, learning and practicing alongside us. It feels really sweet to me to think of you there in the larger collective field of The Numinous School*.
Referenced in this episode:
Opening Poem: "In California: Morning, Evening, Late January", DENISE LEVERTOV
Entering Hekate's Garden: The Magic, Medicine and Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft, Dr.Cyndi Brannen
Communicating with Plants: Heart-Based Practices for Connecting with Plant Spirits, Jen Frey
Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness, Pam Montgomery
TNP198 AstroMagic Miniseries: Eliza Robertson and The Sun
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and the Young Adult version by my friend, Monique Gray Smith
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive , MartĂn Prechtel
Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast: The Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Collin Varner
Luschiimâs Plants: Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines, Dr Luschiim Arvid Charlie with Nancy J. Turner
vanilla leaf
TNP202 AstroMagic Miniseries: Maeg Keane on Connecting with Jupiter
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask, Mary Siisip Geniusz
Closing Poem: The Tree Agreement, ELISE PASCHEN
*The Numinous School was a year-long intuition development program that ran from 2014-202, a precursor to The Numinous Network.
Now, assembled with nearly a dozen other courses within The Numinous Network, The Numinous School anchors our Spirituality section in the Courses area.
Homework for this LessonReciprocityAsk your plant friend what theyâd like. Maybe they want to be tended a certain way, maybe they want you to draw them. Stay with the question â at first they might say something like, I want you to take care of yourself, I want you to relax. Thatâs all good to know, but stay with this question of what you can do for them or offer to them until you get an answer that is truly something they want just for them. When you have the gift, present it to them. Spend time in this space, speaking aloud your gratitude. What do you notice in the days after?
Plant LimpiaPlant bathing: It can be as simple as placing the plant in water, then sprinkling water on you. After you've cleansed yourself, keep a portion of the water and add to it an equal portion of vodka. Place in a spray bottle to cleanse yourself whenever you need to release energetic build-up (spiritual hygiene) or when you are preparing yourself for ritual (purification). Could also infuse a plant in water that is at least 100F, strain, then keep in the fridge until you want to use it. Add it to your bathwater at particularly meaningful times or whenever youâre in need. (Make sure itâs not made from a plant that can cause contact dermatitis).
Plant DietingThis is a way to really meld with the energies of a plant over an extended period of time. It will take several days or perhaps even weeks just to prepare all of the items you can with a single plant. Then, once all of the your preparations are ready, you would have a retreat day with that plant, ingesting it in all the ways. You will need to source a good beginner's herbalism book to learn how to make tinctures and oxymels, etc. Some recommendations would be:
Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
Ava Green and Kate Bensinger's The Comprehensive Guide to Herbalism for Beginners: (2 Books in 1) Grow Medicinal Herbs to Fill Your Herbalist Apothecary with Natural Herbal Remedies and Plant Medicine
To undertake the ritual of plant dieting, first as your plant ally for a good date to enter into this day-long ritual. When the time comes, begin by eating some of the plant, then make a tea from leaves and drink. Then enjoy some tea made from the roots. After that, perhaps later that day, ingest a tincture. After that you might put balm or oil on your body, followed by some essence on your tongue, perhaps some medicine made of honey infused with the plant, then have an oxymel drink or other fermented version of the plant. Finally, do a trance journey to connect with the plant spirit in the Otherworld. Complete your ritual by thanking your plant ally and following any instructions they gave you.
Make a Plant EssenceFlower essences carry the energetic imprint of a plant and are meant to be ingested. They address emotional symptoms, not physical.
Below are some basic steps to making a Mother Essence, Stock Essence, and Dosage Essence - some simple basic herbalism so you can work with a particular plant all month and notice how that not only deepens your understanding but also expands your intuitive awareness of this plant and others.
Begin by asking your plant ally when is the best time to make an essence with them.
Mother Essence: Sterilize a two ounce bottle in boiling water. Fill a small clean glass bowl with about a cup of non-chlorinated water and place it on the ground beside the plant. Collect a few pieces of the plant and place them in the bowl. In order to preserve their pure essence, do not allow the plant parts to touch the ground. Ask the plant for guidance - is there any additional information they'd like to provide about how to make this essence with them? When the plant informs you the essence is ready, fill your two ounce bottle 40%-50% full with good quality brandy* (consisting of 40% alcohol by volume - ABV). Top it up with the essence water, using a fine mesh strainer to ensure no plant material enters the Mother Essence bottle. Your remaining essence water can be poured back into the ground at the foot of your plant, (and you can also take a sip of it, if you feel it's safe and the plant is edible). Label your bottle as Mother Essence and the name of the plant.
Stock Essence: Fill a half-ounce bottle with 60% plain non-chlorinated water and 40% brandy, then add 3 drops of the Mother Essence. Label this bottle as Stock Essence plus the name of the plant. you can use the Stock Essence as a daily point of connection with this plant, trying a single drop on the tongue the morning of one day, noon on another, and night on the next. Journal anything you notice over the weeks, particularly your dreams and coincidences relevant to this plant and its teachings. This stock level of dilution will last at least a year, (some say up to 10 years if stored in a cool, dark place and in a dark glass bottle).
Dosage Essence: Fill a clean, sterilized half-ounce bottle with 70% non-chlorinated water and 30% good quality brandy. To this, add 3 drops of the Stock Essence. Standard dosage is three drops on the tongue three times a day for a month. Notice any changes, synchronicities, messages and dreams. The dosage level of dilution will last for about 2 months. After that, gift the liquid back to the plants and soil.
*If you would prefer not to use alcohol in your essences, you can use vinegar.
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Letâs talk about fascism today, friends. Why is it important? Because in collapse, authoritarianism always increases. Of course we don't like strong man dictators, military coups, or religious fundamentalism â we hate all the different forms authoritarianism takes. But the especially chilling thing about fascism is that doesn't just happen in the political sphere; it happens at the dinner table.
Average people live under authoritarianism, often for generations, without it altering their daily reality much at all. The power struggles of dictators and regime changes might hardly make a difference. But fascism uses the populace and populist movements as part of its social control.
Fascism goes deeper and far beyond fear and military might to secure its stranglehold.
This episode is an excerpt from my online course, Collapse 101, which is accessed as part of my monthly membership subscription program, The Numinous Network. We have a Collapse 101 class lecture, followed by an AMA a week later, almost every month.
In this session, I'm sharing about the hallmarks of fascism so we can be alert to some of the sneaky ways it wends itself into our lives.
Referenced in this episode:
TNP161 Collapse in a Nutshell
TNP193 How Much Is Enough In Collapse? with Carmen & Ruben
The Rewilding Podcast with Peter Michael Bower, ep. 30: Collapse Care with Carmen Spagnola
End Times/New Times: Numinous Podcast Episode Round-Up for Collapse
Recommended Reading:
Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience, by Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, published under the title, "Fascist Ecology: The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents" (1996)
On the Rise of the Right-Wing Mass Movements, (2014)
The Undying Appeal of White Nationalism: Neofascism is the cultural, Artistic, and Ecological Movements (2014)
The Return of Fascism in Contemporary Capitalism (2014)
Economic Collapse and the Rise of Fascism, 1920-1933, A People's History of Modern Europe (2016)
The Pagan and Occult Fascist Connection and How To Fix It, by Amy Hale (2019)
Note the difference in tone regarding America in just one year in the following three articles:
Fascism Is Spreading â And Itâs a Sign of Civilizational Collapse, Umair Haque (2022)
How Many Collapsing Societies Does It Take to Teach the Same Lesson?, Umair Haque (2023)
Americaâs Battle To Save Its Democracy From Trumpism, Umair Haque (2023)
Alternatively...If you want to end on a more upbeat note, here's a classic:
Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
or
Punching Nazis: Spiritual or No? by me, Carmen Spagnola
In this episode we grapple with the questions,
Can you ever really be in a consensual relationship with a being who depends on you for food?
How do white supremacy culture and patriarchy show up in horsemanship?
What does non-coercive horsemanship look and feel like?
If youâve read my book, The Spirited Kitchen, or youâve been around my work for a while, you know that I come from a long line of horse people - a lineage that wends its way from southern Alberta and rodeo culture to the Scottish Highlands in the late 1800s where my wayback people bred, trained, and worked Highland ponies to labour in the coal mines and to build railroads. Itâs been a long and complicated relationship between my family and horses. I am the first generation in as far back as we can remember to not have horses in my life on an everyday basis. Itâs a profound source of grief for me.
What has also been a source of grief is that for many of the problems I've supported my child through, (if you donât know, I have a 19 year old with autism, ADHD, and mental and physical health challenges), the thing that seems to work best is time outside the city with horses.
And this is where my next guest comes inâŚ
Alexa Linton is an osteopathic practitioner with 15 years of manual therapy and energy work under her belt. She also works with animals using kinesiology, cranial sacral therapy, and intuitive communication. She also helps humans navigate pet death. As a horse steward, trainer and healer, Alexa has seen and experienced a lot of changes in the industry over the years but there is much further to go in uncoupling from systems of dominance. Her course, The Whole Horse Apprenticeship, and her show, The Whole Horse Podcast, are places of refuge for horsey people who no longer feel comfortable with coercive horsemanship.
Check out Alexa's book:
Death Sucks: A Straight-Up Guide to Navigating Your Pet's Final Transition
Follow her on Instagram
Equine Cranial Therapy Certification
Referenced in this episode:
The Whole Horse Apprenticeship with Alexa and 25 guest instructors, including myself! (6 month program for horse lovers starting September 15th)
The Whole Horse Podcast
Taming Wild documentary created by Elsa Sinclair
Freedom-based Training with Elsa Sinclair
Emotional Horsemanship with Lockie Phillips
Relationship Horsemanship with Josh Nichol
Nahshon Cook Horsemanship
Balance through Movement Method (Pillar one mini course)
Horsemanship on Vancouver Island - Shannon Beahen (Humminghorse)
Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and
ecology. If you love Mary Magdalene and fondly remember Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, you are in for a real treat! Sophie's new book, The Madonna Secret, is a passionate retelling of the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, rewilding the Gospels with the forgotten voices of defiant and oppressed women, the nature-based storytelling of oral communities, and the embodied eroticism of a lovable rabbi with appetites and desires, doubts and shame, and a playful sense of humor. Plus, his awesome mom â aka The Virgin Mary â is a raucous and wonderful surprise, giving big time Baubo of Greek myth vibes, (who in my mind could be played wonderfully by Shohreh Aghdashloo of The Expanse fame).
In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to write about miracles while living with an incurable disease, (Sophie lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder - something that many members of the Numinous Network are all too familiar). We also discuss animism, magic, patriarchy, and the realness she brings to the landscape and the characters of her novel.
Sophie's poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way and Art PAPERS. The author of The Flowering Wand, she lives in the Hudson Valley
of New York.
Purchase The Madonna Secret anywhere
(and please do leave a review!)
Follow Sophie:
SophieStrand.com
Her Substack
References in this episode:
older Dev Patel
Louis Garrel
Golshifteh Farhani (Oh now that I see who she is, I LOVED her in that dystopian show, Invasion)
young Javier Bardem
article about Bruce Chilton
Bruce Chilton wikipedia
Honi the Circle Drawer
Hanina ben Dosa
Contemporaries of Jesus who were miracle workers
Learn more about the Numinous Network
Sign up for my newsletter and join us for Free Week, Sept 17-23, 2023
Et Shipley is a consulting professional astrologer, creative writer, and ritual strategist. She weaves astrology with other tools to talk about collapse, social justice, relationality, death and culture. Last year, I asked Erin to be a Guest Guide in The Numinous Network offering astrology workshops to help folks manage key moments. That has morphed into a seasonal offering we call the AstroJam - people gather with Erin to jam about the cosmic weather and all things magical and ritual to do with that. When I had the idea for an AstroMagic Miniseries, I immediately thought to ask Erin who she would recommend as guests - in many ways, you can thank Erin for working her magic there to make some very special connections and episodes happen for us!
Erinâs writing about astrology is always poetic and profound, gentle but unflinching, and always very useful. She has just the right vibe to help us really understand what it is that Saturn is trying to teach and to not be afraid of those lessons. Even if youâre still not quite ready to engage directly with Saturn after this episode, I know youâll find it to be good preparation for the time when, eventually, Saturn calls you and you donât have a choice anymore.
Referenced in this episode:
Erin's approach to astrology
Erin's Instagram: @etshipley
Book a session with Erin or get on her newsletter
Idola StellĂĄrum talismanic adornment for devotion
Kristin Mathis' new translation of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos (Saturn)
Audio of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn
Maeg Keane's podcast interview on Blackberry on the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast
Rate this show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen - thanks in advance!
My guest today is Kristin Mathis - truly a multi-talented individual - and we are all so fortunate that sheâs dedicated herself to the translation of the Orphic Hymns which overlight this conversation about Venus, Aphrodite, and AstroMagic! Sheâs a writer and poet, a teacher and advocate. (You really must read her fascinating bio). But what she's really doing is quietly revolutionizing the English-speaking world's relationship to the Orphic Hymns with her unique perspective as both an academic and a magical practitioner-animist.
In this episode, Kristin helps us understand Venus and Aphrodite as The All, helping us to link love and grief, love and rage, love and justice.
Referenced in this episode:
Mysteria Mundi, Kristin's Substack where you'll find:
Becoming Children of Earth and Starry Sky
Revealing the Mysteries, or, My New Translation of the Orphic Hymn to the Moon (Selene)
A New Translation of The Orphic Hymn To Kronos/Saturn
Audio Recording of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos/Saturn
Kristin's Translation of Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite
Her Podia site with her courses
Star: An Orphic Initiation for Earth-Borne Souls with Drew Levanti
Check out The Numinous Network for more on Planetary Magic & Propitiation
Meag Keane is here to expand our understanding of Jupiter in this, part 5 of my 7 part miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation.
Maeg is an astrologer and herbalist, connecting soil and sky. Many of her teachers are people Iâve also followed and admired, and she wrote a really excellent blog post on Jupiter and Being Too Much. (It's so good! Make sure you check out the footnotes!)
To go deeper with your AstroMagic, consider getting a plant and planet reading from Maeg - itâs a two session package with email support for a month where she guides you on a deep dive with one of the 7 traditional planets and a plant based on your specific chart and what comes out of your first session with her. So good!
Sign up for Maeg's newsletter so you're in the know about all upcoming offerings and current writing.
Website: third-sister.com
Twitter | @maegkeane
Instagram | @maeg.thirdsister
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon or Indigo
Check out The Numinous Network - all classes on Planetary Magic & Propitiation are found in the archives of The Numinous School in the course area of the Network.
In this episode, Iâm speaking with Thea Anderson about Wednesdayâs ruling planet, our old pal, Mercury! Thea is a writer and astrologer, as well as the Director of Production for the CHANI app. She works very closely with our previous guest, Eliza Robertson, to make sure that all of the content for the app gets out on time, at the right time. (A very Mercurial type of job, indeed!)
You can find Thea's fiction and poetry in print and online in a variety of places, most recently you'll find a story of her in the book, Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions.
We're lucky to have Thea here to decode and interpret Mercury for us and explain how we can work collaboratively with this quick, mutable, exciting planet.
References in this episode:
Harriet Tubman as a Magical, Mercurial Figure
Book a session with Thea: TheaNichelle.com
Follow her on Instagram: @theaastrology
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon, or Indigo
Check us out in The Numinous Network
In this 200th episode of The Numinous out Podcast (đhooray!!!đ), I'm flying solo and sharing my experience working with the planet Mars. Known as the lesser malefic, Mars can carry some intense energy. But I really believe that there are values;e lessons to be learned from this powerhouse planet. In this show, I will talk about what Mars can help us with, when we might use caution, appropriate offerings for propitiation, and how Mars can support us in our grief and our rage.
References in this episode:
Georgia Nicols
PlanetaryHours.net
ThÊrèse Cator
Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa, translated by Eric Purdue
Letterkenny
Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen
The Orphic Hymns
Many Moons Lunar Planner by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener
Pagan Otherworld Tarot by Uusi Design
Woodland Wardens Oracle by Jessica Roux
The Spirited Kitchen - leave a review on Goodreads!
Check out The Numinous Network
Sign up for my newsletter đ instantly receive a little love in your inbox đ (and about once a month thereafter)
Welcome to Part 2 of our 7 episode miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation! We began on a Sunday with Eliza Robertson talking about the Sun. Here we are on a Monday and Iâm speaking with Bronwyn Simons about Moon Magic and wisdom.
Bronwyn Simons is an award-winning predictive astrologer, psychic medium, dream traveller, mentor, and astrology teacher with a worldwide client base and a busy consulting practice. She is beloved by clients and students for her warm, wise, compassionate, and positive style of sharing. She was named one of 2019âs Most Promising Astrologers by the Organization for Professional Astrology, and was featured as an Inner Circle Guide on Astrology Hub in 2021.  Here, Bronwyn guides us through the phases of the moon and why it's a safe place to start with our planetary magic.
Check out Bronwyn's signature program, Light Of The Moon, for immediate access to recorded modules, plus a live round of four weekly calls starting on the New Moon, July 17, 2023.
Those who sign up for Bronwyn's mailing list get a beautiful moon journal for 2023 with all the lunations, journaling prompts, ideas about celebrating the new moon, and a moon calendar! Opt-in here:Â https://astrologygoddess.mykajabi.com/2023MoonJournal
If you share this episode on social, please tag us!
@moon.wisdom
@carmenspagnola
Join us in The Numinous Network this summer for more planetary magic!
Today weâre welcoming Eliza Robertson back for her third time on the show - she was here as part of Kosmic Tonic with Jasmine Richardson in 2020 when we discussed the key transits that would affect the second half of that wild year, and she was here again in 2022 talking about Writing with the Stars and Magic with the Muses. Clearly, sheâs a favourite conversation partner of mine and Iâm delighted that sheâs the one to shepherd us through the gate as we begin a 7 part miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation for the days of the week!
Since about the time Eliza first appeared on the show in 2020, I have been taking a closer look at AstroMagic and paying more attention to cultivating relationships with the planets that rule the days of the week. I find it grounding, centering, resourcing and supportive. Over the next seven episodes we'll go deeper into relationship with each planet that rules that day of the week, beginning with Sunday and moving through the week to Saturday.
Referenced in this episode:
I Got A Name by Eliza Robertson
Picatrix translated by Attrell and Porreca.
Three Books of Occult Philosophy by H. Agrippa (the cheaper option)
Three Books of Occult Philosophy translated by Eric Purdue (the splurge option)
Sphere + Sundry for materia magica
Join us for more AstroMagic in The Numinous Network
The final episode featuring Ruben and me as we dissect and update my 2017 Medium article, Portrait Of A Marriage (Yes, It's Mine.)
In this episode, we're talking about fighting and conflict, with tips to navigate inevitable relationship ruptures.
Referenced in this episode:
Rachelle Lamb has an unconventional approach to Non-Violent Communication that I find more helpful than most
bell hooks' books on love have been integral to making our marriage work, in particular The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love
YourPersonality.net
Stan Tatkin: runs a signature couple's retreat called the Wired For Love Retreat, also has a new book called, In Each Other's Care: A Guide To The Most Common Relationship Conflicts And How To Work Through Them
Clue period tracker app
Check out my course, Contact Nutrition 101
The Numinous Network
In this third part of our Portrait Of A Marriage Miniseries, we go a little deeper into how we started healing trauma within our marriage, patriarchy and sexual trauma, epistemic privilege, and how poetry helped us reconnect in intimate but non-sexual ways.
Resources cited in this episode:
YourPersonality.net
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, bell hooks
Tobar Phaidraic, by David Whyte (found in River Flow: New and Selected Poems)
The Queen, by Pablo Neruda (found in Love Poems, translated by Donald D.Walsh)
This is the second episode in our miniseries revisiting my 2017 article, Portrait Of A Marriage. (Yes, It's Mine.)
In this episode we talk about top-down and bottom-up processing and how communication is not the magic cipher we have been led to believe!
I share my story of how the stress of our relationship somatized into physical symptoms that required us to call 911. And we get into tender territory about what patriarchy looked like in our marriage and how it's related to Ruben's current experience with severe burnout.
The key resource we recommend to everyone trying to bring feminist cultural analysis to relationship building:
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, bell hooks
Welcome to a special miniseries of The Numinous Podcast: Portrait Of A Marriage where we revisit a seminal blog post I published in 2017 on resolving the traps of an Anxious and avoidant Partnership, in other words a relationship where one partner, in this case me, a cis white woman, tends to have a more avoidant attachment style, and the other partner, in this case, Ruben, a cis white man, tends to express a more anxious attachment style. We're going to read through that blog post and give you updates on all the strategies we tried to earn the more secure attachment we have now, what worked, what didn't, and bring the article up to date to let you know where we are in the marriage now. Spoiler alert: it was all very, very worth it.
Notes:
The original article, Portrait Of A Marriage. (Yes, It's Mine)
Carmen's CV
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, by bell hooks
Stan Tatkin
Sue Johnson
Journey From Abandonment To Healing
Something a little bit different today â a clip featuring myself and my husband, Ruben Anderson. We're teaching a course this year called Collapse 101, hosted in The Numinous Network, and each month there's a 1 hr live session followed a week or two later by an Ask Me Anything session.
A lot of people donât see the through-line from attachment to somatics â> trauma healing â> co-regulation â> folk magic â> ritual â> animism â> socialism â> collapse resilience, but I do.
And I bet you do, too, at least partly, when I lay it out in that sequence. And if you donât see it, but you want to, then stick around! Everything I teach about is a collapse skill, from recipes and rituals for the wheel of the year, to dowsing with a pendulum, to attachment parenting, to Contact Nutrition and Polyvagal Theory in trauma recovery - these are 100% all collapse skills.Â
Of course at the root of everything I do, Iâm trying to help people live richly connected and meaningful lives, but even more fundamental to me is that Iâm trying to help shape the social discourse and collective thinking around collapse. I attempt that through compassionate and holistic and accessible adult education. Iâm trying to help shape social thought around how weâre going to live in these times.
This episode is a brief response to a Numinous Network memberâs question about how much is enough when prepping material or financial resources as a safety net or a lifeboat for collapse. Ruben and I offer our very pragmatic answers along with some scaffolding for how you might approach this challenge in your own life â how you might shape your thinking so you can come up with what feels like enough for you.
This is a really lovely conversation with Mara Glatzel, author of a new book coming out Feb 28 called, Needy: How to Advocate for Your Needs and Claim Your Sovereignty, which was recently selected by Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Grant for the Next Big Idea Clubâs book of the month.Â
Mara says she is an intuitive coach, writer, and Needy Podcast host who helps humans stop abandoning themselves and start reclaiming their sovereignty through embracing their needs and honouring their natural energy rhythms. Sheâs also a queer, femme mother of two, recovering control freak.
We talk about being multi-passionate when so much prevailing marketing tells you to niche down, we jam on balancing the need to feel safe in an overculture that is just factually unsafe in so many ways and especially so for more oppressed people, and we get into how we might approach reclaiming needs like rest and saying no, depending on where weâre at in that healing journey.
Buy the book
Find Mara on Instagram
Harsh review on Goodreads!
Dr Cyndi Brannen, one of the worldâs foremost Hekatean experts, is here to talk about her most recent book, Entering Hekateâs Cave, now available in stores and online. This is Cyndiâs fourth book and her third time on the Numinous Podcast. We're talking about how Hekate can guide us on the journey through darkness to wholeness, and also about Cyndi's own evolution as a scholar and author.
Cyndi's other books on Hekate include
Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate's Modern Witchcraft
Entering Hekate's Garden: The Magick, Medicine and Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft
Make sure to get on her newsletter list to find out when the doors next open to the Covina Institute!
Jen Murphy is the founder of the Celtic School of Embodiment  where she fuses the ancient wisdom of Irish Mythology with Feminine Embodiment Coaching. Jen has a degree in Medieval Irish & Celtic Studies and a masters in the Anthropology of Development. She specializes in critical pedagogy - empowering learners to critique the power structures at play in their own learning experiences. I've enjoyed taking Jen's courses, particularly the Non-Linear Movement sections, and am thrilled to have her on the show today to share how she weaves land, mythology, embodiment, and music into her coaching and healing practice.
Website
Jen on Instagram
Sign up for Carmen's newsletter here.
Taryn Strong is one of the Founders of SHE RECOVERSÂŽ Foundation as well as a Coach, Herbalist and Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher. Tarynâs courageous and passion for recovering out loud has made her an influential voice in the global recovery movement. Taryn creates and curates transformational experiences online and in person through her group and private mentorship offerings. As a certified Trauma of Money Facilitator, she currently specializes in financial empowerment and money healing. She also mentors entrepreneurs in recovery who are seeking support to take up space, find their voice and expand their business through aligned impact.
Taryn is also expecting her first child and I was curious about how she is navigating that rite of passage, not only spiritually and creatively, but also in the context of recovery.
TarynStrong.com
SheRecovers.org
Mentioned in this episode:
The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society, by Dr.Bruce Alexander
Rat Park studies
In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, by Dr.Gabor MatĂŠ
Kael Klassen moved from the corporate world into motherhood before fumbling, fortunately quite quickly, through a series of well-meaning-but-problematic-white-lady spiritual endeavours. Since extracting herself as much as possible from that, she has grounded her work in the modality of trancework, along with writing and creating. Here we talk about missteps each of us have made on our spiritual paths as white settler folks. In this confessional episode, we cover topics like culty yoga teacher trainings, ancestral healing and appropriation, mental health on the healing journey and how it intersects with the creative process. Kael shares intimately about coping with grief and rage, and the rituals that help her to root into winter.
In this episode we mentioned the art and philosophical approach of our esteemed colleague, Rachael Rice.
You can find Kael's offerings on instagram @kael.klassen or @liminalrootsbotanica or online at www.liminalrootsbotanica.com
This episode gets us back to the roots of this podcast: the mysteries of life...
In this episode Velda Thomas, author of Blended: Perspectives On Belonging, engages questions like, What does it take to be human? How is a cultural bridge created between people? How are you transactional with yourself?
Velda Thomas was born and educated in England with biracial family ancestry sourced from Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. She is a creative, author, healer, and artist.  Her love of plants, herbal remedies, sound practice, somatic and ritual experiences weave passion with grounded human experience. Velda has worked as a kindergarten teacher, adult educator, birth doula, and massage therapist. In this episode, we learn more about her work with voice, sound, and energy healing.
Find her book here: veldathomas.com
Follow her on Instagram: @veldathomas11
Engage on Patreon: www.patreon/veldathomas.com
Desiree Adaway is here to share with us how time has been constructed as a tool of oppression and how we can become resist becoming complicit in supremacy culture through time pressure, and become aware of different ways to be in relationship to time.
Believe me: she understands time pressure, my friends! Desiree has over 20 years of experience creating, leading and managing international, multicultural teams through major organizational changes in over 40 countries. As the Senior Director of Mobilization for Habitat for Humanity, she was responsible for planning the strategy and training for hundreds of membership organizations, totaling more than 50,000 members. She was responsible for the overall strategy and DEI plans for 1,600 US affiliates and one million volunteers globally.
Desiree is an expert at teaching others how to handle complex, charged conversations (particularly around identity and power) with grace, assertiveness, and transparency.
Her program, Whiteness at Work is a one-of-a-kind primer in intersectional race equity work. To confront white supremacy, racism, institutional inequities, and power dynamics in our organizations we must learn a new set of skills. It requires shared language, a historical and cultural analysis, a nuanced understanding of our own identities, the ability to have difficult conversations across difference, and the capacity to imagine and create new ways of being.
The Whiteness at Work program is Five modules containing 30 lessons, and over seven hours of training content. Each Lesson is accompanied by a comprehensive resource guide and an extensive debrief and activity guide to help solidify learnings and apply them to your organization.
Follow Desiree on Facebook and Instagram.
Something a little different today: a clip from a recent Tutorial call in The Numinous Network where I answer a question from Marissa of @riverinehart.hidetanning about the connection between trance and the collective. It's a great question that speaks to a through-line that touches on dreams, trancework, somatics, large scale cooperation dilemmas, death literacy, awe, the vagus nerve, and emotionally taking care of ourselves and each other as best as we can during collapse times.Â
Free Week is happening in The Numinous Network again from November 27 - Dec 3. Get on my newsletter to receive the link for your Free Trial on Nov 27!
My friend, Dana Da Ponte, is here to talk about art journaling with the moon! Dana is a professional intuitive, artist, witch, and certified MAP Practitioner. She helps highly sensitive people reach their goals with the moon and the power of their subconscious mind. She believes play is a portal to the Divine and you donât have to be serious to own a paintbrush.Â
She is the creator of the Moon Mapping Year, a collection of recordings that rewire the brain in rhythm with the seasons and lunar cycles, and the private MAP Your Mornings podcast where she shares daily recordings that work with your subconscious mind and the astrological energy the moon is reflecting down to us.Â
She also leads a community that loves to art journal with the moon and every new moon she shares a Creative Moon Cycle Guide to help you use the energy of the new and full moon phases to heal and manifest.
And sheâs here to jam with us and share more about the intersection of creativity, the moon, the subconscious mind, the body and disability (Dana has Mast Cell Activation Syndrome), and art.
Follow Dana on Instagram and check out her blog and offerings on her website.
Support the women of Iran.
Content Warning: Mentions suicide, substance use, bereavement, language.
Sarah Durham Wilson is the author of Maiden to Mother: Unlocking Our Archetypal Journey into the Mature Feminine.
Her own mother died when Sarah was just a teenager and life sort of spiralled from there for a while. She came to professional success through journalism and her stints writing for the likes of Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Spin Magazine. She also found her voice on social media a decade ago as Do It Girl, a popular blog-facebook presence for young women seeking a spiritual experience. But it was hitting rock bottom, struggling with substance use and just kind of chaotic dysfunction that Sarah came to understand the trauma of being an Unmothered Woman.
She has since deepened her studies, diving into the works of Marion Woodman and apprenticing to the myths of Inanna and Ereshkigal, devoting herself to the work of elevating the Mature Feminine as well as her activism work, intersectional feminism, decolonization, divesting from whiteness, and eradication of the patriarchy.
Check out Sarah's website, themotherspirit.com
Plus her Instagram and her book.
Support the women of Iran.
Sharon Blackie, PhD, is a writer, psychologist and mythologist. In her most recent book, Hagitude: Reimagining The Second Half Of Life, Sharon explores the inner life of women over 50 and women whoâve experienced menopause and invites us to challenge belief systems and rewrite the elder years as a time of great flowering. In this conversation, we explore what Sharon describes as the "incandescence" of menopause and the spiritual purpose of women's elderhood.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. Some of her work, particularly her two previous books, If Women Rose Rooted and The Enchanted Life, are considered by many to be among the classic psychospiritual and mythic texts of our age, sitting comfortably on the shelf alongside other greats such as Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Jean Shinoda Bolen.
Her highly acclaimed books and courses are focused on the development of the mythic imagination. She likes to explore the relevance of myths, fairy tales and folk traditions to the personal, cultural and environmental problems we face today.Â
Find Hagitude wherever you buy books and check out Dr.Blackie's many programs at sharonblackie.net
This is a super fun episode based on a genuine conversation between friends. In this episode, death doula and fellow animist, Andrea Sexton Dumas, asks me some excellent questions!
⢠What is the personality of The Spirited Kitchen â if it was a person, what would they be like?
⢠As a collapse-aware person, what was it like to write about cooking and gathering during the pandemic?
⢠What rituals did I do to petition the Greater Powers to support this book?
⢠Which deities and spirit guides pressed upon me during the writing of this book or came to me in dreams?
Check out more of Andrea's work here: andreasextondumas.com
Follow Andrea on Instagram and come to Candle Hour!
Support the women's revolution in Iran.
This is a mini-episode where I talk about the two fundamentals that I believe are required in someone's practice for them to be a witch: animism and activism. If these two things aren't present in someone's craft, I am dubious. They are playing around. They are not being serious. I would not claim them as a peer or fellow practitioner of witchcraft.
Learn more about Witches New Year.
Pre-order The Spirited Kitchen.
Nikiah Seeds has been working in the realm of ceremony and healing for the past 20 years and is the creatrix of the Red Moon Mystery school and co-author of Moon Mysteries: Reclaiming Woman's Menstrual Wisdom.
She offers ancestral healing work and spiritual mentoring along with her creations as a weaver, and drum maker and teacher. Among her offerings are sacred drums, rattles, and shawls/prayer cloaks, as well as online courses.
In this conversation, Nikiah and I talk about changing our identities and adapting language as we grow and evolve. Once again we touch on the topic of being a witch at mid- or later life and the lack of intergenerational spaces for exchange and transmission amongst witches. Nikiah shares when and where she feels most creative and what she does when she's blocked.
www.redmoonmysteryschool.com
Sacred Path Apprenticeship and Certification
Learn more about Nikiah at:
https://www.redmoonmysteryschool.com/about
and
www.nikiahseeds.com
My astrologer, Eliza, is here! Eliza Robertson is a published author, researcher, and astrologer based in Montreal, Canada. She holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia and has published two books of fiction, one of which was selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. She
began formalizing her astrological studies at the Faculty of Astrology in the UK and has
gone on to study Hellenistic and Electional Astrology with Chris Brennan and Horary
with Nina Gryphon at Kepler College. She co-hosts an astrology and occult podcast under the banner, Kosmic Tonic, and is currently the Director of Content for the CHANI App. You know the CHANI app - Chani Nicholas, another beloved astrologer - that Chaniâs app.
Learn more about safer sex work at PEERS Victoria.
Listen to the podcast she co-hosts under the banner Kosmic Tonic.
Come to her session at Witches New Year!
I'm delighted to welcome Erin Fairchild to the podcast! Erin is founder of Journal As Altar, as well as a social worker and (not currently practicing) therapist with expertise related to childhood trauma, attachment, and preventing violence in systems, communities, and families.
In this episode, we talk about the ritual of journaling, and about coming back to the practice if you've experienced a betrayal, conflict, or violation of privacy with your journal.
In addition to Journal As Altar, Erin continues to work in the fields of equity-centered trauma informed care and violence prevention over at Collective Action Consulting. I have wanted to have Erin on the podcast ever since I took her Journal As Altar workshop and received the care package of supplies in the mail - and we're so lucky to have her presenting at Witches New Year this year!
Find Erin on Instagram @journal.as.altar
Erin's Workshops
Erin's Substack Community
Munro's Books - 20% off pre-orders of The Spirited KitchenÂ
Mimi Young is here again - in 2020 she was here and we talked about intuition and tea and plant medicine and working with ancestors. Today weâre talking about animism, numerology, her relationship to the word witch, and what we might have in store as we move through the second half of a Yang Water Tiger Year into a Yin Rabbit year in early 2023.
Mimi Young is a Taiwanese Canadian animist spirit medium and the founder of Ceremonie, an esoteric brand focused on imparting practical ancient wisdom so folks can actively receive support from spirits, break negative patterns, and celebrate their path.
Mimi works at the intersection of animism and wu shamanism, ancestral wisdom, dream work, and other Chinese mystic practices to communicate with the Unseen. She offers private readings, education and mentorship, and made-to-order skin and aura care.
Find Mimi on Instagram: @shopceremonie
Learn more about Mimi's offerings: Â CHINESE ASTROLOGY 1Â + 2 Immerse, explore and interact with aspects of ancient Chinese Astrology in a thorough, straightforward and highly relatable way. https://shopceremonie.com/product/chinese-astrology-sessions-1-2-on-demand/
MYSTERY MENTORSHIP: A way into the hidden through animism + the esoteric arts https://shopceremonie.com/learn/mystery-mentorship/ www.shopceremonie.com
ThÊrèse Cator is an artist, performer, leadership coach, embodiment practitioner, and founder of Embodied Black Girl, a global community that stands for the embodied liberation of Black women and femmes and women of color globally. Part of that work is realized through the Global Healing Festival, an annual online event featuring over 20 inspiring presenters.
ThĂŠrèse has been a coach for 13 years, has been practicing energy work since her teens and performing and writing since childhood. Weâve been friends since Therese first appeared on the podcast in 2017 when we spoke about Shadow Alchemy. Since then weâve been fellow students more than once and weâve collaborated professionally by co-facilitated small groups together. ThĂŠrèse has held me in some of my most vulnerable moments, at other times sheâs given me really stingy feedback when I needed it. I love hearing about her upbringing and family traditions and this conversation about how she celebrates the Wheel of the Year in her Haitian tradition has been a long time coming. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Seattle native, L'Erin Alta, is a mystic, medicine woman, and spiritual mentor with more than 20 years of experience helping women + femmes live their soul's purpose by being their most authentic selves. As creatrix of Black Girl Mystic, she leads masterclasses, workshops, retreats and 1:1 mentorships guiding Black women, femmes, and gender queer folk to embody wealth, ease, and freedom from a deep place of soul alignment.
Her work as a masterful healer, magical facilitator, and transformational space holder began over 20 years ago in the Women's Research and Resource Center of Spelman College, one of the historically Black colleges and universities in the US . It was there that she started SisterFire, a monthly all-women's open-mic / spiritual ceremony / healing space. From Seattle to Spelman to powerful spaces near and far, healing and liberation has always been L'Erin's purpose and she's embodying it everyday.
L'Erin first appeared on the podcast in 2017 when we spoke about Lineage + Legacy.
In this episode, we're talking about manifestation without spiritual bypass, healing the money wound|mother wound and releasing any conditionality placed upon our self-worth, and finding joy and pleasure in unexpected places!
Go to Black Girl Mystic to learn more about L'Erin's courses and mentorship.
Follow L'Erin on Instagram @lerinalta
Natalie Rousseau is here and weâre talking about her relationship to the word âwitchâ, how we feel about creativity and self-expression, feeling stuck, the books we long to write, and the stories we love to hear again and again. Natalie is a woman who wears many hats. Sheâs taught yoga and meditation since 2002 and is currently in school studying somatic therapy. She lives in Hul'qumi'num territory, also known as Salt Spring Island, BC. Sheâs a great listener, an excellent writer, and a gentle teacher and I know youâre going to love this conversation between two very like-minded women of great mutual respect.Â
In this episode, we mentioned the newer feminist edition of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson (and here's a Vox article on why her version is an important piece of work.)
Also Circe by Madeline Miller
Follow Natalie on InstagramÂ
Sign up for her newsletter to stay informed about her 13 Moons program and other offerings.
Pre-Order The Spirited Kitchen now!
Gather in for a tender talk today about love and loss and friend breakups and grief and how all that impacts the creative process. Iâm speaking today with Angela E Morris, author of Love Notes to Grievers.
{Content Warning for mentions of death and suicide.}
Angela is a writer and massage therapist who offers people a soft space to land as they navigate their grief. She provides reflective writing on grief and relationships impacted by grief, pushing against how the dominant culture reacts toward death and loss and mourning. She encourages her readers to take time to process their pain and be with their loss, carrying their loved ones with them, not leaving them behind.
Today we share an intimate conversation, itself a love note to all the grievers out there. We see you. Youâre welcome here. Grab a cup of tea or head out to the garden with your headphones on â maybe donât listen while youâre driving cuz the tears will make it hard to see the road. Whatever youâre doing right now, pull over and letâs have a minute together, shall we? Weâre stepping onto sacred ground now.
Find Angela on Instagram at:
@angelaemmamorris
@ange_morris
Find The Spirited Kitchen here:
Canada
Everywhere else
Itâs wonderful to have a genuine friend named Crystie Kisler with me on the podcast today. Crystie Kisler is the co-founder of Finnriver Farm & Cidery, (@finnriver) and is a mother, farm wife, and community networker in the Chimacum Valley, on an organic farm located along a salmon stream on the north Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Her partner, Keith, is farming heritage wheat at @finnrivergrain
Iâve had the pleasure of experiencing Crystieâs warmth and generosity in circles together, workshops together, and could feel it in the atmosphere when I visited Finnriver on a trip for my sonâs 16th birthday. If I had a farm-based business, I would use Finnriver as the model and template.
Where Crystie and I could spend probably forever talking and visioning and activating dreams together is where land-based spiritual connection and social justice meet, where business ownership and equity and advocacy intersect, where dismantling supremacy culture meets building a worthwhile and beautiful and delicious future.
This is a conversation between two white ladies grappling with what it means to connect to land you donât come from, and how we might try to learn how to belong there.
Here is the poem that Crystie wrote and read to us:
Belonging (draft)
What will it take to belong here truly
To a land I was not born to, nor my parents or theirs or theirs?
Once I have learned the timing of the swansâ swooping return?
The names of the many feathered ferns?
Once I am on familiar terms with all the wild berries?
Been covered head to heel by nettle stings and blackberry briars?
Immersed myself in the sea wrapped in kelp?
What if I smeared Semiahmoo Muck all over my body?
What if I packed it in my mouth?
What if I ate only from this ground? Drank only rainwater and creekrun from these clouds?
What if my feet never left this land again?
If the birds knew me by scent and did not scatter when I went by?
If all my neighbors waved? If I knew the names of all the bones and stones I found on the beach?
Is there any way to belong here? In this place. This time and space?
Will I always feel Extraterrestrial? Invader?
What would cedar say about me?
Could I become familiar to here? Make family? Grow roots? On a farm? Can I untangle from harm?
Could I learn the real word for home?
Could I assemble myself whole among the mycelium?
Could I find my way by the feel of it under and through me?
Is it morbid to say I feel like I will only fully belong when I am buried here?
When I have given All of myself back?
~Crystie Kisler, 8/2
Iâm thrilled to welcome back to the podcast, Nicholas Pearson - longtime listeners will remember him from episode 158 (Beyond Crystals Basics). Nicholas is an author, healer and teacher and today weâre talking about Flower Essences and how they can be so safe yet still effective, and how to work with them if youâre new to this as a healing modality or ritual tool, including some really unique methods I haven't seen anywhere else.
Check out Flower Essences from the Witch's Garden: Plant Spirits in Magical Herbalism
Nicholas has recently announced some very exciting new offerings including an expanded pocket version of Crystal Basics with over 450 gemstone listings â follow Nicholas on Instagram @theluminouspearl to hear when pre-orders are available.
Plus heâs co-leading a pilgrimage to Glastonbury in spring of 2023 to visit sacred wells, stone circles, and ruins, and to meet the crystal and gemstone guardians of the landscape. Amazing! Find out more here.
To join my 7-week psychoeducation course, Contact Nutrition 101, simply sign up for The Numinous Network.
Here's a transcript of this interview.
Sophie Macklin is an anarchist mystic living on Tongva land, near the Los Angeles river. Sheâs lived in California for fifteen years but comes from Canterbury, England.
She practises brythonic polytheism, antifascism, devotion to an animate world, and anarchist living. She specializes in topics related to anarchism, mysticism, radical history, communication with the human and more than human world, anti-capitalism, antifascism, reclaiming the commons, anti-ableism, and exploring different ways of knowing.
Sophie is the person I chose to be the first reader of the manuscript for my book, The Spirited Kitchen. From the very earliest kernel of thought I had about potentially writing a book, she came to mind as the person I wanted to give me the first pass of honest feedback. Why? Because I think she might be the smartest person I know. Her cultural analysis is tops and I have learned so, so, so much from her way of teaching and of being in business.
And at the time, I still had some things to unpack in my own mind about what to valorize and what not to valorize in a book about ancestral veneration, as a white settler under capitalism, in a time of increasing fascism. I knew there was nuance needed and also some firmness and boundaries so that my work couldn't be pressed into the service of white supremacy. Iâm so grateful for Sophie for helping me see how I could improve my manuscript.
Here we are jamming on anarchy, antifascism, ableism, and ungovernable bodies.
Check out Sophie's work here:
Beyond the Blood
Ungovernable Bodies
Radical Well Tending: Living Folkways of Care with Sophie & Becka
I also mentioned RCCX Theory. This is a model we often use when we discuss sickness in The Numinous Network, particularly within the Sensitive Nervous Systems + Long Covid Connection group.
Marika Heinrichs is the granddaughter of German Mennonite, British, and Irish settlers to the part of Turtle Island colonially known as Canada. She is a queer, femme, somatics practitioner and facilitator whose work focuses on the recovery of ancestral wisdom through body-based ways of knowing, and challenging the appropriation and erasure of Indigenous knowledge in the field of somatics. Marika resides on Attawandaron, Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe territory (a.k.a. Guelph, Ontario).Â
Kai Cheng Thom
Susan Raffo's Piece on the origins of craniosacral therapy
Susan Raffo's piece on acknowledging the lineages of healing practices
Bear Hebert on quitting yoga
Michael J. Morris
Prentis Hemphill
Don Hanlon Jonhson
Camille Barton
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Resmaa Menakem
generative somatics
NeuroAffective Touch
Focusing
Marika's blog post on Bealtaine
Marika's course for practitioners
The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals of the Wheel of the Year is now available for pre-order! (Check it out here.) In this episode, I'm sharing how and why I wrote this cookbook â the stories, friends, mentors, and supports that helped me navigate the fear, creative blocks, and emotional paralysis that came up in the process.
Resources In This Episode
Sarah Selecky
Nerys Patterson's Cattle Lords and Clansmen
Michael Newton, HiddenGlen.org
F.Marian McNeill, The Silver Bough and The Scots Kitchen
Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch
Quaker Committee of Care
Sophie Macklin's courses: Ungovernable Bodies and Beyond the Blood
Lauren Bacon: Curious For A Living
Cyndi Brannen, PhD.
Ira Glass quote about having killer taste that exceeds your skill level
Roxane Gay's writing Masterclass
Check out the pre-order bonuses! If you place a bulk order, or have a group of Spirited Kitchen fans who'd like me to visit your bookclub, please reach out to: admin@carmenspagnola.com
Come hang out with us in The Numinous Network where I'll be doing cooking demos in Carmen's Cookbook Club and holding online Wheel of the Year rituals for each solstice, equinox and halfway point in between.
The book hits stores on October 18, 2022. Pre-order today and save $10 per copy!
Aurelie Richards is a writer, educator, beekeeper, witch, performer, community builder, gardener, wounded healer. She's a Jewish woman with trans experience, living in Germany. She's long been an advocate for queer rights, trans community building, and domestic violence prevention, especially in rural and small-town contexts. And she's the manager of The Numinous Network and very dear to me.
Aurelie had feedback for me about something I said in my last episode with Nikiah Seeds, so we've continued the conversation here. Listen in as we work through differences and bring in more context and practice repair skills like the soft start up, balancing power, and dropping in to deep listening.
Check out her work at AurelieRichards.com
Hang out with us in The Numinous Network
Welcome back to the podcast, Nikiah Seeds! Nikiah has been a ceremonialist and teacher of ritual, myth, and ancestral veneration for a couple decades now since her early years as a doula. Sheâs founder of the Red Moon Mystery School and co-author of the book Moon Mysteries about connecting with your menstrual cycle, and sheâs been leading sacred drum-making retreats for years and years.
Nikiah was last here in 2017 when we talked about sacred beekeeping. But weâve actually known each other since about 2007. We've witnessed each other grow and our careers evolve over the years so itâs fun to be able to have a visit and talk about the thresholds we stand upon now as women at midlife. Originally we were going to talk about ageing and elderhood and Embracing the Crone and how that archetype speaks to us, but actuallyâŚit turns out thereâs still a lot to figure out about this in-between phase of becoming the cunning woman who stands between maidenhood and cronehood.Â
Danielle Blackwood last appeared on the podcast in 2019 when we talked about her previous book, The Twelve Faces of the Goddess. Now sheâs back with a fabulous book that I highly recommend to people aged 25 to 55 especially - itâs called A Lantern In The Dark: Navigate Life's Crossroads with Story, Ritual & Sacred Astrology.
We're talking not only about the famous (infamous?) Saturn Return (age 28-30), but also about the lesser known major Midlife Transits:
⢠the Pluto Square (age 36 to 48) ⢠the Neptune Square (age 39-43) ⢠the Uranus Opposition (age 41 - 45) ⢠the Saturn Opposition (age 44 -45) ⢠the Second Saturn Return (age 58 - 60)
Learn more about Danielle's work here.
Sign up for my newsletter to get the link for Free Week in the Numinous Network happening June 16 - 22, 2022.
A preparatory episode as we approach the midsummer solstice. Let's check-in with ourselves and our goals, self-regulate, and recalibrate, so we can hit our stride mid-June. I offer a brief and simple somatic practice, plus a really cool (time-sensitive) announcement!
Cyndi's Brannen's most recent book, Entering Hekate's Garden: The Magic, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft, is a rich and enchanting journey with 39 plants, along with 39 ways to work with botanicals in your daily life and deeper rituals.
Learn more about Cyndi's online programs at KeepingHerKeys.com
Listen to her podcast, More Than This: At the Crossroads of Modern Life and the Deeper World
What is "collapse awareness"? How do we navigate collapse without losing our joy? What skills are needed in times of prolonged periods of overwhelming stress? This episode is an overview and recap of a topic I've talked about every year (multiple times) since the start of this show in 2014. Here, once again, is my annual report on the state of collapse.
Find a round-up of past collapse episodes here.Â
Preparing For A Beautiful End, Geez Magazine (Winter 2014), Utne Reader (Summer 2015)
The Numinous Network
The Spirited Kitchen
Today, Iâm going to make a few people really happy because this is the Bruce Springsteen Niche Episode that more than a handful of you have been waiting for. The episode where I explain the long-lasting appeal of Bruce Springsteen as told through select Springsteen tracks arranged in order of progressive maturity of narrative voice. The journey takes us from frustrated youth in a small town, to emergent adult getting into trouble, an adult desire for love and reconciliation with the past, deepening radicalization as the hardships of life are revealed to be so often caused by oppressive systems of class and hierarchy, and finally a swell of hope and resilience as a more mature voice of elderhood emerges. Features 15 of his 60+ albums.
I have created this playlist in Tidal but Iâm going to add a list of each track and the specific album it appears on - because the specific recording matters. This is a musician who is known for tireless touring having played over 2,600 concerts since he signed with Columbia Records in 1972. But of course, he had a career before that - Bruce Springsteen has been the front man of a rock and roll band since his first gig as a 17 year old with his band called The Castiles in 1965 and heâs never had any other job since. Never had a workin man job. Not a day. But his dad did. His dad had lots of jobs, it was hard for him to keep jobs. Partially because of declining industrial jobs around New Jersey intensifying in the mid-60s, but also because Bruceâs dad struggled with alcoholism and undiagnosed depression and schizophrenia, and that became a defining feature of Bruceâs life and his music, wrestling with intergenerational demons and the mirroring of one familyâs life in the larger decline of America as a country and an idea at the end of the 20th century.
Follow along with the songs with a free trial on Tidal (credit card required) or search the following recordings wherever you get your music, (possibly even YouTube).
Playlist
- Growinâ Up, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
- Born to Run, Born To Run, (1975)
- Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975-1985
- The River, The River (1980)
- Working on the Highway, Born In The USA (1984)
- Johnny 99, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975-1985 (1985)
- Badlands, Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
- Dancing In The Dark, Born in the USA (1984)
- Iâm on Fire, Born In The USA (1984)
- Human Touch, Human Touch (1992)
- Brilliant Disguise, Tunnel of Love (1987)
- My Hometown, Born In The USA (1984)
- Born In the USA, Born In The USA (1984)
- Bring âEm Home, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
- The Ghost of Tom Joad, The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
- Devils & Dust, Devils & Dust (2005)
- Shenandoah, We Shall Overcome (2006)
- Blood Brothers, Greatest Hits (1995)
- O Mary Donât You Weep, We Shall Overcome (2006)
- Pay Me My Money Down, We Shall Overcome (2006)
- We Shall Overcome, We Shall Overcome (2006)
- This Land Is Your Land, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975 - 1985 (1986)
- Reason To Believe, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975 - 1985 (1986)
- Better Days, Lucky Town (1992)
- Hello Sunshine, Western Stars (2019)
References
Covers and Springsteen Songs by Other Artists
- Blinded By The Light, Mannfred Mann's Earth Band (1976)
- Because The Night, Patti Smith (1978)
- Because The Night, 10,000 Maniacs (1993)
- Because the Night, Co.Ro (1992)
Movie: Blinded By The Light, Gurinder Chadha (2019)
Netflix: Springsteen on Broadway
Album: Traveling Wilburys, Vol.1
Pete Seeger on the Johnny Cash Show: Bring Them Home (1970)
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live at C.W.Post College, Greenvale NY (1975)
Autobiography: Born To Run (2016)
Maris Bergrune is a ritual animist, a spirit worker, a sound medium, and singer/musician. Iâve taken two of her programs - one on Norse animism and one on seidr mediumship and weâll talk about them in detail today. Maris teaches skill development in intuitive perception, boundaries and discernment, and offers a very good foundation in animist ritual and relational practices with the Other Than Human worlds. She focuses on developing healthy relationships with spirits and ancestors and also on accessing self-sovereignty and voice.
As youâll hear in this interview, her practice is characterized by this very clear intention to partner with only the most compassionate aspects of spirit. I find her approach very grounded and practical; and sheâs clear that this approach is not a way to bypass the challenges of humanity but are rather offers ways to be deeply resourced while facing these challenges.Â
Here's her website: https://livingvoicemedicine.com
Click here for her program, Gather at the Well: Norse Ritual Animism
Resources Mentioned:
Betsey Bergstrom
Tom Kenyon
Annette HĂśst
Seed of Yggdrasill, by Maria Kvilhaug
I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Nicholas Pearson, author of several books including, Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones. Nicholas studied mineral science in university and worked for several years at a museum featuring the largest mineral collection in the southwestern US. In this episode, Nick explains the science of why and how crystals work including concepts like entrainment, amplification and coherence.Â
Check out his website and links here:
www.theluminouspearl.com www.linktr.ee/theluminouspearl www.facebook.com/TheLuminousPearl www.Instagram.com/theluminouspearl
https://www.innertraditions.com/author/nicholas-pearson/ https://www.amazon.com/Nicholas-Pearson/e/B01E4TQMJU
My guest today is Becca Piastrelli, author of the new book, Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways To Connect To Land, Lineage, Community and the Self. Itâs a charming, full colour, illustrated guide to fundamentals of creating connection with spirits of place and ancestors. Iâd describe it as a fresh update on modern self-directed spirituality because it foregrounds how white feminism of the past and today has a tendency to appropriate spirituality from anywhere and everywhere. Beccaâs book clearly aims to recognize white privilege, give credit, and walk humbly on the spiritual path.
Find out more about Root & Ritual here.
Find out more about Becca and her podcast, Belonging, here.
Find out more about Constellation work here.
Elaine Alec is a co-founder of Alderhill, an Indigenous-owned-and-led company of leading experts in the area of Indigenous Community Planning. Sheâs led comprehensive community planning and engagement processes, been a political advisor, and recently the bestselling author of Calling My Spirit Back which links a personal examination of her lived experience to a much broader overview of serious sociological concerns of national importance for people in Canada and beyond, along with tangible steps to address them. I also know that Elaine and her family share the same strong commitment to co-parenting and secure attachment in a blended family as I do, and I wanted to jam on that a bit. Content warning: Discussion of cultural genocide and the legacy of Indigenous residential institutions in Canada.
Learn more about Elaine and the book, Calling My Spirit Back, here.
Find out more about Alderhill for Indigenous community planning and engagement here.
Today Iâm speaking with British Columbia record-breaking pumpkin grower, Dave Chan. Dave has grown the heaviest pumpkin in BCâs history at 1,911 pounds! Dave has been growing for many years and finally achieved his dream and Iâm thrilled to have him on the show today to share all his secrets. Stay tuned for a Rubenation at the end.
GiantPumpkinsBC.com (to see Dave's pumpkin!)
BigPumpkins.com
The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth
Master Carver, Scott Cully, who appeared on the Johnny Carson Show in 1985, inspiring Dave's lifelong passion for pumpkins
Toi Smith is my guest today! Toi is a business and growth strategist, a writer and teacher. She's also host of an online community called Business For The People for entrepreneurs, creatives, healers, and guides trying to do business differently. Toi also works with mothers who desire to return to themselves, and Black women who want more joy and pleasure.
toimarie.com
businessforthepeople.com
Sylvia Federici's books
Combahee River Collective StatementÂ
American Capitalism: A History (Cornell University podcast)
RAVEN Trust is the place where I give a percentage of my income every month if you're interested in helping support legal challenges to fight for Aboriginal Rights & Title in British Columbia.
Reciprocity Connects is where I've pledged to make payments to the local nations whose territories I live upon.
Todayâs episode is especially dedicated to all the parents out there of tweens and teens who are exploring their gender identity. Paria Hassouri is a pediatrician, mother of three and writer whose work has appeared in the NY Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post. She and her family live in LA, where she practices pediatrics at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. And sheâs the author of the book, Found In Transition: A Motherâs Evolution during her Childâs Gender Change, a very frank, sometimes painfully honest account of parenting a transgender teen. Paria chronicles what amounts to a dual transition: as her child transitions from male to female, she navigates through anger, denial, and grief to eventually arrive at acceptance. Blindsided by her childâs gender identity, Paria is also forced to examine how she still carries insecurities from her past of growing up as an Iranian-American immigrant in a predominantly white neighborhood.
Follow Paria:
pariahassouri.com Buy the book: Found in Transition: A Mother's Evolution During Her Child's Gender Change Instagram: @laparia Twitter: @pariahassouri Contact Paria Hassouri, M.D., at Cedars Sinai Medical Group
Taraneh Erfan King is a registered counsellor with a specialty in expressive arts and a broad background in psychology, body-centered practices, and mysticism, including her hereditary lineage of Sufism. Born in Iran, she immigrated to Canada as a child with her family, and has lived and worked in several parts of the world including Guyana, France, Switzerland, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka. Her book, Conscious Grieving: The Path of Awakening Through Loss, is a compassionate companion for all grievers and a source for poetry and prayers you'll return to again and again.
Visit Taraneh's website mindonspirit.com for more information about her programs and services, and find her book online at major outlets as well as your favourite independent booksellers. Follow her on Instagram @mindonspirit
Check out The Numinous Network for all my current offerings.
My guest today is a trusted friend, Oliver Choquette. Oliver is currently a Psychology student at the University of Victoria. His training and expertise comes from various sources: college, university, and private classes. He has been working in clinics as a support person for over 10 years. He is a passionate reader and researcher of many topics: history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. And at the end of the day, I have trusted him with my child as a skilled helper providing emotional support for a number of years. As the parent of a 17 year old trans son with ADHD and autism diagnoses, who struggles with both anxiety and depression, I wanted to talk to Oliver about the intersection of gender diversity and neurodivergence. And because itâs not just my son â I literally donât know an LGBTQIA+ youth who does not present with some form of neurodivergence or at the very least some diagnosable mood disorder such as anxiety or depression. I hope you enjoy this candid, non-expert, real conversation.
Accounts I follow on Instagram for psychoeducation:
@neurodivergent_lou
@sensoryhuman
@the.autisticats
@fidgets.and.fries
@pixiesbigwhy
@autism_sketches
@iampayingattention
@the_mini_adhd_coach
@lifeinautismworld
@adultingwithautism
@drdevonprice
@the_queer_counselor
@autism_unmasked
@busybeingdisabled
Oliver's Research Links
Carter, B. (2021). Impact of social inequalities and discrimination on vulnerability to crises.
Kia, H., Robinson, M., MacKay, J., & Ross, L. E. (2020). Poverty in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit (LGBTQ2S+) populations in Canada: an intersectional review of the literature. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 28(1), 21-5
Executive Skills Questionnaire- Peg Dawson & Richard Guare
Giovanardi, G., Vitelli, R., Maggiora Vergano, C., Fortunato, A., Chianura, L., Lingiardi, V., & Speranza, A. M. (2018). Attachment patterns and complex trauma in a sample of adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 60.
Strauss, P., Cook, A., Watson, V., Winter, S., Whitehouse, A., Albrecht, N., ... & Lin, A. (2021). Mental health difficulties among trans and gender diverse young people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Findings from Trans Pathways. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 137, 360-367.
Rommelse, N. N., Franke, B., Geurts, H. M., Hartman, C. A., & Buitelaar, J. K. (2010). Shared heritability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 19(3), 281-295.
Schnarrs, P. W., Stone, A. L., Salcido Jr, R., Baldwin, A., Georgiou, C., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2019). Differences in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and quality of physical and mental health between transgender and cisgender sexual minorities. Journal of psychiatric research, 119, 1-6.
Craig, S. L., Austin, A., Levenson, J., Leung, V. W., Eaton, A. D., & DâSouza, S. A. (2020). Frequencies and patterns of adverse childhood events in LGBTQ+ youth. Child abuse & neglect, 107, 104623.
Cuevas, A. G., Ong, A. D., Carvalho, K., Ho, T., Chan, S. W. C., Allen, J., ... & Williams, D. R. (2020). Discrimination and systemic inflammation: A critical review and synthesis. Brain, behavior, and immunity.
Todayâs fantastic guest is Dr.Cyndi Brannen, one of the world's preeminent scholars on Hekatean Witchcraft.
After a successful career in academia and healthcare, Dr.Brannen transitioned to focusing on reclaiming the sacred feminine after she became convinced that mainstream psychology was not sufficient to lead to personal wholeness. Â Her work focuses on personal healing through depth psychology, herbalism, rituals, meditations, and exploration of the deeper self. She founded The Covina Institute, a soul school dedicated to the pursuit of wholeness through structured programs of study and transcendent experiences. Dr.Brannen is the author of the bestselling books, Keeping Her Keys and Entering Hekateâs Garden.
Mentioned in this episode: ⢠Dr.Sarah Isles Johnstone's Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature ⢠Thomas Moore ⢠James Hillman ⢠Erich Neumann
Check out Hide Tanning 101 with Fern + Roe!
This special episode includes a 30 minute trancework exercise. I stack 4 different spiritual hygiene exercises, one after the other, to connect with earth, water, air and fire.
This episode is a complement to my Yuletide Stocking Stuffer program.
Inspiration for some of the techniques in this exercise come from:
⢠Diane Poole Heller (Competent Protector terminology and trauma-informed pedagogy) ⢠Philip Shepherd's Radical Wholeness work ⢠Laura Day, intuitive coach ⢠Dara Silverman and Amanda Ream, Somatics For White Racial Justice Organizers ⢠The Strozzi Institute ⢠generative somatics
And of course my nearly decade-long experience as a Clinical Hypnotherapist.
Hope you enjoy it and find something in there of use to you!
Lindsay Tunkl is an artist and the author of "Origins & Endings: Seeing Yourself Through the Apocalypse". It's a divination deck and self-reflection inkblot kit that helps us grapple with the most pressing questions of our time. In this conversation, we explore the intersections of art, healing, therapy, intuition, fear, collectivism, divination, and living in choice during apocalypse times.
Find the Origins & Endings Divination Book and Card Deck here.
See some of Lindsay's artwork here including some of the PreApocalypse Counselling installation here.
Connect with Lindsay for coaching at intothedeepcoaching.com.
Follow Lindsay on Instagram to learn more about her magic and Tarot work, as well as her current adventures.
Sometimes A Wild God is a powerful poem written by storyteller, author, wilderness vigil guide, and poet, Tom Hirons. In this episode, I ask the poet the impolite question, "What is your poem about?"
It leads to a conversation about collapse, grief, wilderness vigil, the wyrd, the loneliness of modern masculinity, the lifetime work of wholeness, and the prospect of hope as a deity.
Find Tom's writing at tomhirons.com
Purchase stacks of his poetry and prose at Hedgespoken Press hedgespokenpress.com
Adorn your abode or altar with Rima's art by visiting her site:Â rimastaines.com
And learn more about their life in the off-grid storytelling theatre run from a 1966 Bedford RL lorry, converted to be a home and go-anywhere stage. (For real.): hedgespoken.org
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Dark Mountain Project On Poetry, by Glyn Maxwell In The Skin Of A Lion, by Michael Ondaatje By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, by Elizabeth Smart
Learn more about The Numinous Quest Online here.
Learn more about the Threshold community here.
In Part 2 of my conversation with Holly, we explore collapse grief and death rituals in COVID times, and share fairly extensively about why Transformative Justice and community accountability is such an important aspect of collapse preparedness. We get into some detail about concerns we have over being two cis white women leading a diverse community, and, some ways we are hoping to mitigate that and reduce possible harm. We also share about the importance of play and creativity in collapse work.
In the first minutes of this episode, I make a reference to a Netflix action series that perhaps many will not have heard of: Altered Carbon. I super love the show, for so many reasons not the least of which is the incredible fight choreograhy that features incredible women of colour as lead characters â so badass!
I also reference Sarah Kerr at soul passages.ca as one of my teachers.
Find out more about the Threshold community here.
Register for my Numinous Quest Online here.
Holly is a psychotherapist and a lawyer, and what she calls a âcollapsitarianâ â sheâs spent a long time tracking collapse from multiple perspectives and coalesced her observations into a framework she calls collapse psychology. You can get a sense of that framework by visiting collapse psychology.org
Holly approached me in early 2017 and our relationship since then has blossomed into friendship both online and in physical presence, weâve witnessed each other in grief and pain, but also had a chance to stay up late drinking and laughing. And whether weâre crying or laughing, the topic always somehow comes around to the collapse of empire and large scale convergent emergencies.
Find out more about the Threshold community here.
Learn about The Numinous Quest Online here.
I'm talking with Mimi Young about clairolfaction, wonderful plant allies for pandemic times, and how to work with tea in a magical â even ancestral â way.
Mimi is a shamanic intuitive and founder of Ceremonie (@shopceremonie), an esoteric brand focusing on in-person and online core shamanic and occult education, Remote Shamanic Readings, and plant potions for skin and aura. Mimi works with a blend of modalities including core shamanism, plant spirit healing, chao magick, and Chinese esoterics, with a focus on healing through shadows, dream work, divination, ancestral connection, and psychic development. She is also a neurofeedback practitioner (@openmindsperformance), where she supports others in accessing their peak via neurological resilience.
Check out all of Mimi's offerings here.
Follow her on Instagram: @shopceremonie
Find out about doing neurofeedback with Mimi here.
Learn about joining the online Mystery Mentorship Program here.
The book she referenced is For All The Tea In China, by Sarah Rose.
Follow me on Instagram @carmenspagnola
Check out my Intuitive Business (And Life) Planning Workshop
Bear is a life coach, artist, and social justice educator who helps socially conscious humans align their actions with their values. In their coaching and teaching, they apply a feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist lens. In this episode, I ask them about their gender journey to using they/them pronouns, and we talk about interlocking systems of oppression, call out culture, and wanting healing for people who cause harm without necessarily wanting to be a part of that healing.Â
Content Warning: We do touch on sexual violence, capital punishment, and more, but we also take stretch breaks and pauses for breath as we do so. Remember to pause the recording if you feel yourself tensing up or becoming very activated.
Bearcoaches.com Undoingpatriarchy.com
Caliban And The Witch by Silvia Federici
Combahee River Collective and How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Alternate ROOTS alternateroots.org Info about the online version of ROOTS Week
Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni
Killers Of The Dream by Lillian Smith
The Farm: Angola, USA
13th, Ava DuVernay
bell hooks on âwhite supremacist capitalist patriarchyâ
Whiteness At Work, Desiree Adaway with Jessica Fish and Erika Hines
Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? Â on diversity as an aftereffect of a lifelong commitment to the self-named struggles of people of color
Philly Stands Up zine
Beyond Survival book
"The Opposite Of Rape Culture Is Nurturance Culture" and Turn This World Inside Out by Nora Samaran
âNo one enters violence for the first time having committed it.â -Danielle Sered, quoted by Mariame Kabe
Jasmine Richardson and Eliza Robertson are an astrology team who make their home online at KosmicTonic.com. Today weâre talking about what the astrology looked like leading up to 2020 that might have revealed something big like a global pandemic was coming, and looking ahead to the outlook for the rest of 2020 and beyond. How did we get here and where are we going?
We begin with a resource round up of highly recommended modern astrologers to follow and learn from:
ISAR Kaitlin Coppock at Sphere and Sundry Nina Gryphon Demetra George Chris Brennan - The Astrology Podcast Gray Crawford Barbara Hand Clow - Journeys Through Nine Dimensions Fortuneâs Wheelhouse Podcast Wesly Feuquay - Psylogia
We also look at what stands out to be aware of for Fall/Winter of 2020/21. We look at Mars Retrograde (Sept 9 - Nov 13), possible advancements in science, America's progress on its' Pluto return, and eclipses at the end of 2020 (Nov 30 and Dec 14) which set the tone for 2021.Â
Book consultations with Jasmine and Eliza at kosmictonic.com and follow them on Instagram @kosmictonic and on Twitter @kosmic_tonicÂ
Register now for my Intuitive Business (And Life) Planning Workshop on September 26, 2020.
Eric Tyrone is the founder of Soul Dreamers and the creator of the "Get Woke In Your Dream-Time" Masterclass. In the past, Eric ran a non-profit called "Awakening Through Art", founded a mindfulness App, and was a co-facilitator of a nationwide meetup called EcoTuesday. In this episode we talk about the purpose of dreaming, how to interpret your dreams and heal through dreamwork, and we even do a little on the spot interpretation of a slightly anxious dream I had about a tarantula and my son.
Listeners can save $100 off his 4-Week âGet Woke In Your Dream-Timeâ Live Group Masterclass by using the coupon code: DREAMS333
Find the next start date at www.soul-dreamers.comÂ
Follow Eric on Instagram @_Soul_Dreamers
Find out more about the Threshold community here.
Darius Mills is a Conjure Oils expert and to be honest, probably the one of the most charming guests Iâve ever had. In this interview, Darius shares how he used hoodoo conjure magic to manifest a fully paid international move. We touch on Jesus, quantum physics, intergalactic beings, ancestors, and how to make a honey jar.Â
Follow Darius on Instagram @dariusmills91 to find out when his next Conjure & Create program begins (at time of posting, Sept 2020).
This is the continuation of my conversation with Mara Cur , a hide tanner, hunter, wildcrafter, herbalist and wilder punk extraordinaire. In this episode Mara talks about the history of hide tanning and the important role that women and femmes played in this vocation. We also circle back to the question I posed in the last episode about how she approaches redress with Indigenous communities as she returns the teachings of hide tanning that were eradicated by colonialism.
The resource that Mara recommends to learn about White Saviorism is NoWhiteSaviors.org.
Mara credits visionary Cree artist, Kent Monkman, for his teachings on the early history of the fur trade.
Iâd like to lift up Bruce Alexanderâs essay, The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society, as a formative document in my collapse awareness that relates quite directly to what Mara was saying about the first 250 years fo the fur trade. It uses the experience of the Orcadians â thatâs Scottish folks from the Orkey Islands, previously renown for their sobriety â employed by in the later days of the fur trade by the Hudsonât Bay company, as a study in how cultural dislocation and attachment rupture were direct causes of alcoholism.
If you really want to geek out on that particular historical niche, you can read my other teacher, Michael Newtonâs book, Weâre Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of Scottish Highlanders in the United States.
Check out Maraâs online offerings at liminagathering.com and her own website Crowsnest wildcraft.com
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. If the topics engaged in this episode appeal to you, check out our programming at www.thethresholdcommunity.com
Mara Cur is a hide tanner, hunter, wildcrafter, and herbalist. She is a teacher of mine that Iâm excited to share with you because I love her thinking and articulation on so many topics like settler colonialism, attachment, trauma and radical politics. In this episode Mara shares about growing up an orphan in a high demand community (cultic religion).
Check out Maraâs offerings on her site, Crowsnest Wildcraft, and follow her on Instagram @woodland.cur
Continue the conversation in Part 2 here.
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. If the topics engaged in this episode appeal to you, check out our programming at www.thethresholdcommunity.com
Sharon Ross, aka Afrovivalist, is an African American woman, huntress and survivalist in America here to teach city folks how to prepare for any and all emergencies â not just coronavirus but any natural or human-made disaster. I think you can hear in my voice in this episode that I've got fan fever.
Her online retreat, DeCamp Outdoors, is happening August 21-23. You'll learn how to prepare for the second wave of COVID-19 and beyond. Hunting, soapmaking, ham radio operation â learn from experienced guides in the field.
What does Sharon say in brief about the second wave?
1) Get your water sorted out 2) Food stores 3) Shelter in place improvements 4) Get a food dehydrator!
Go follow @afrovivalist on Instagram and Facebook, and get your ticket to DeCamp Outdoors â I'll see you there!
Note: This show is rated E for "explicit". Cover the young ones' ears. We are using our grown up words for this topic, people!
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. We look forward to welcoming Sharon as a Guest Guide in September!
Sharon Ross, aka Afrovivalist, is an African American woman, huntress and survivalist in America here to teach city folks how to prepare for any and all emergencies â not just coronavirus but any natural or human-made disaster. I think you can hear in my voice in this episode that I've got fan fever.
Her online retreat, DeCamp Outdoors, is happening August 21-23. You'll learn how to prepare for the second wave of COVID-19 and beyond. Hunting, soapmaking, ham radio operation â learn from experienced guides in the field.
What does Sharon say in brief about the second wave?
1) Get your water sorted out 2) Food stores 3) Shelter in place improvements 4) Get a food dehydrator!
Go follow @afrovivalist on Instagram and Facebook, and get your ticket to DeCamp Outdoors â I'll see you there!
Note: This show is rated E for "explicit". Cover the young ones' ears. We are using our grown up words for this topic, people!
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. We look forward to welcoming Sharon as a Guest Guide in September!Â
Today I'm speaking with Danielle Dulsky, author of Woman Most Wild: Three Keys for Liberating the Witch Within. Today, weâre focused on Daniellsâ second book, The Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman.
We talk about ancestral inheritance and its influence on our spellcraft, mothering as witchcraft, and we touch on the effects of whiteness, capitalism, and patriarchy on our spiritual practice. She also tells us some awesome stories about the Mother of Babylon and other dark goddesses. Itâs a toothsome conversation and I found Danielle very relatable and I suspect you will too!
Be sure to check out her newest book, Seasons of Moon and Flame: The Wild Dreamer's Journey of Becoming, due out March 10, 2020.
In this conversation, Danielle mentioned The Atlantis Bookshop in London, and recommended the book The Witch of Portobello by Paul Coelho.
Check out all of Danielle's website for all of her excellent offerings including online courses, workshops and her Patreon page.
Maia Toll is with us today speaking about creating kinship with other-than-human friends. Maia is the author of The wild Wisdom series which includes The Illustrated Herbiary, The Illustrated Bestiary, and the forthcoming, Illustrated Crystallary. I wanted to have this conversation through a lens of climate change and dynamic social transition. How can we have a conversation about working with plants and animals and crystal without discussing climate change and over-extraction, amirite?
In this episode, we also mentioned the Archetypes Deck by Kim Krans.
Find me on Instagram @carmenspagnola
Learn about Wet'suwet'en solidarity: @takaiya.blaney @gidimten_checkpoint @smogelgem @strikingstick
#wetsuwetenstrong #youthforyintah #indigenousyouthforwetsuweten
Iâm speaking with Celtic studies and Gaelic scholar, Michael Newton. Heâs a researcher and teacher with a history of recovering and interpreting original sources of Scottish Highland language, literature and tradition. Heâs written multiple books and even produced and performed on an album of songs in Gaelic, and thatâs how I discovered Michaelâs work on my journey to learn to sing Gaelic laments and blessings, and learning about the tradition of keening, (which is a thing I do on certain occasions).
Michael has a folk school called The Hidden Glen where he offers online courses on topics in Gaelic culture and folklore. Iâve taken two of the courses:
Reclaiming the Roots (6 classes, new intake January 2020) is about deepening the understanding of Scottish Highland heritage during the era of the clan systems and the importance of the relationship to land and relationships with the more-than-human world.
Stories of Scottish Highland Immigration is about the experience of Gaels in the New World as told by Gaels themselves â we learn about the complex reasons for mass migration through their songs and remnants of the Gaelic bardic tradition.
And a new course in 2020 Iâm excited to be taking is called Radicalizing The Roots: Deconstructing Whiteness Through Gaelic lenses and Decolonizing Scottish Heritage. This one feels like a natural extension if you're doing social justice or ancestral reclamation and healing work. (6 classes, new intake January 2020)
Resources for deeper inquiry: Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 1)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 2)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 3)
Books: Warriors Of The Word: The World Of the Scottish Highlanders (Kindle)
Seanchaidh na Coille: Memory-Keeper Of The Forest: An Anthology of Scottish-Gaelic Literature of Canada
A Handbook Of The Scottish Gaelic World
Papers: Academia.edu
Michael's Patreon Page
Francis Weller is a psychotherapist and author of The Wild Edge Of Sorrow: Rituals Of Renewal And The Sacred Work Of Grief. In this episode we talk about the Five Gates Of Grief, men's circles, patriarchy and our infatuation with mythopoetic white men at the mic.
We also welcome back my husband for a "Rubenation" where he tells about his experience in a program for men about learning how to make friends as an adult male.
Also in this episode, I share the promo code provided by our sponsor Hollyhock to get a 15% discount on all meals + accommodations packages in 2020!
Resources cited in this episode include:
Joanna Macy Toward Psychologies of Liberation, Helene Schulman Carolyn Baker Finding Beauty In A Broken World, Terry Tempest Williams Jeannette Armstrong, Okanagan wisdom keeper and elder
Would you like to sponsor an upcoming episode? Please fill out our application form. Thanks!
This episode is part case consult, part psychoeducation, part storytelling. I'm so excited to share with you a conversation with my Clinical Supervisor and mentor, Patti Elledge, and to announce her new 3-month online program for like-minded therapists of all specialties!
I'll be assisting Patti both behind the scenes and in-class, as well as making myself available for one-on-one participant support through the program which runs January through March 2020.
You may have heard Patti's interview in TNP118: Patti Elledge on the Neurobiology of Attachment, Grieving Together, and Mobilizing Outrage.
In this episode, we talk about principles and techniques for managing Global High Activation States, the difference between "going global" and numinous unity experiences, and why working with the body to release trauma is so critical â especially in this time of increasing collective trauma.
Resources mentioned in this episode include: Accessing The Healing Power Of The Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and Autism,by Stanley Rosenberg
We-space practices
This is the drawing by Patti's 9-year old client, illustrating a Global High Activation state:
Patti is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) who has specialized in therapeutic application of neuroscience for more than 40 years, and teaches Diane Poole Hellerâs groundbreaking work, DARe, which treats adult attachment wounds. She has a broad clinical background in treating developmental and attachment based traumas, offering somatic strategies to access healthy bonding and co-regulatory processes.
She worked directly with babies, children and families for more than 20 years prior to her SE training in the late 90s, and weaves strategies from the fields of interpersonal neurobiology, sensory processing, developmental differences and neurodiversity, coherent narratives and embodiment through movement and creativity. Her blending of a variety of somatic and body-mind techniques helps to treat and resolve over-coupled elements of survival energies (fight-flight-freeze responses) that become so seemingly intractable with the essence of loving/bonding and âbelonging.â
Registration for the Somatic Mentoring programis capped at 25 spots.
Nov.26: just 8 spots left!
Danielle Blackwood is the author of The Twelve Faces Of The Goddess: Transform Your Life With Astrology, Magick And The Sacred Feminine. In this episode, we talk about strong archetypal goddesses for each astrological sign. Danielle also tells the amazing story of her incredible grandmother's survival in a Siberian work camp and escape after nine years, eventually finding and reuniting with Danielle's mother after nearly a decade of estrangement. It gives me chills to hear it.
Danielle mentions astrodienst.com as a resource for discovering your own astrological chart.
Read Danielle's monthly Cosmic Weather Report here. You can connect with her here on her website and make sure you follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
The world of sigil witchery can be both fascinating and intimidating depending on your relationship to your artistic side. I was happy I mustered up the courage to try my hand at sigil craft with a little help and encouragement from Laura Tempest Zakroff, author of Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols.
Ask for Sigil Witchery and all of Laura's books at your local independent bookseller.
Check out Laura's artwork and upcoming workshops here, also at her sigil witchery site, and also on Instagram via @owlkeyeme.arts
Tag Laura and @carmenspagnola on Instagram â show us your sigils!
This episode is sponsored by ThÊrèse Cator's new program, Embodied Manifestation. Thank you, ThÊrèse!
Handful of Stars is the new book from Helene Saucedo about the ancient art of hand analysis common known as palm reading. It's a tool for self-discovery and divination that is cross cultural and widespread, but palm reading is often quite confusing and shrouded in mystery for those of us who didn't grow up in a culture that widely embraces the practice. Helene has created a book and handprint kit for those of us who are curious about how much our hands can tell us about our life path and purpose.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Handful Of Stars: A Palmistry Guidebook and Handprinting Kit
Helene's website
Richard Unger's Life Prints and Hand Analysis Institute
And a final thank you to this episode sponsor, Elate Clean Cosmetics. Check out their new Rise:Together collection on Instagram.
In this episode we are joined by Scott Richardson-Reed author of the popular blog, the Cailleachâs Herbarium, where he writes about Scottish Folk Magic, witchcraft, folklore and herbalism.
Iâve followed Scott's blog for a few years now and have thoroughly enjoyed the depth of research and frank discourse he brings to topics like cultural and spiritual appropriation, reclaiming or reimagining ancestral practices and animism in Scottish myth. I'm thrilled for this opportunity to dive deeper into his excellent series, The Good, The Dead and the Faery: Scottish Folk Magic And The Dead.
Iâm delighted to share with you a long awaited conversation â long awaited by me anyway â with Scott Richardson-Reed, the conversation in which I learn thatâŚI have an accent! Who knew? ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
Links to topics in this conversation:
Tales of the Taibhsear concept album- limited edition on sale now!
skyrie stones - "colourful stones" divination
Amanda Edmiston, Botanica Fabula Storytelling
Debbie Armour, Burd Ellen music
Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Saining Not Smudging: Purification and Lustration in Scottish Folk Magic Practice
Sarah Faith Gottesdiener is an artist, tarot reader and educator, and witch. She is also the creator of the very popular Many Moons journals and Moonbeaming program. Sarah is also co-host of the Strange Magic podcast.
You can find Sarah's readings and courses at: visualmagic.info
Buy Sarah's art here.
Finally, sign up for Sarah's excellent Moonbeaming newsletter.
I'm thrilled to be speaking with Lori Lambert Williams today about Controlled Remote Viewing â a protocol to access the subconscious and determine information about any location, person, or thing anywhere at any time.
Remote Viewing is a technique commonly associated with intuition, but actually has its military roots both in Russia and the US. Much research around Remote Viewing has been funded by the Pentagon and developed by the Stanford Research Institute.
Lori has been a professional remote viewer and teacher since 1996. Her classes and trainings are available online at intuitivespecialists.com
Stephanie Papik is an indigenous Inuit woman, experienced facilitator and program manager, current Director of Indigenous Relations and stakeholder Engagement for a division of the government of British columbia, as well as fibre artist and entrepreneur.
What strikes many people upon first meeting Stephanie, probably second after her big warm smile, are her beautiful facial tattoos.
I was so pleased she agreed to come on the show and talk about what these tattoos mean to her and to her Inuit culture.
Check out the show notes at carmenspagnola.com for links to all the resources mentioned in this episode.
Elizabeth Brown is a master dowser and author of DOWSING: The Ultimate Guide For The 21st Century. Her storied career includes the co-founding and running of a geopathic stress consultancy, she has studied with two former presidents of the British Society of dowsers, and has trained in remote viewing and more. Plus, she comes from a family lineage of water dowsers.
In this episode, Elizabeth helps us understand the history and science behind dowsing including the sometimes surprising involvement of the Catholic Church. We discuss whether pendulums are as effective as rods, and the importance of finding your niche as a dowser. (We can't all be experts at everything, right?) She also explains what a session with her entails and helps me get a sense of what's affecting my nasal congestion.
Sarah Kerr is a death doula and ritual healing practitioner. She work with dying people and their families, as well as families navigating the death of a pet, and also lectures and teaches about death care and the healing power of ritual. Sarah perviously appeared on the podcast in episode 98: Priestess, Shaman, Mystic Scapegoat.
The most incredible thing happened during the taping of this episode. Precisely what I was asking Sarah advice around happened...to her. This episode is dedicated to Sarah's deceased cat, Luna, and all those who are suffering grief over the death of a beloved animal, or tree friend, or natural landscape. Sarah generously wrote about her experience on her blog.
In this episode, we talk about the nuts and bolts of dying well, (are there things you should or shouldn't say to a dying person?), being a death doula (how do you manage your energy being in such intense environments?), and ways to honour the death of animals and trees.
How do you know if you're in a cult? And, how does an open society confront propaganda, brainwashing, and the rise of fascism? That's the undercurrent of this conversation with noted cultic studies expert, Alexandra Stein, PhD.
Alexandra Stein is a writer and educator specializing in the social psychology of ideological extremism and other dangerous social relationships. She brings an extraordinary lens to cultic studies with her attachment-based approach, which helps us understand how an average person â privileged and educated, even â can fall under the influence of a high-demand group. Â
Pashta MaryMoon is a death doula, a Wiccan, a Quaker, and a longtime fan of Jesus. In fact, before we get to our conversation on death and dying, Pashta gives us a revealing tour of her early spirituality â a syncretic blend of earthy paganism, deep devotional relationship with Jesus as brother/lover/son, kinship with Mary Magdalene, and Wiccan god/goddess themes. To say she's a singular presence is understatement.
Pashta has been a compassionate radical her whole life. She is a longtime grassroots organizer including anti-nuclear activism in the '80s, and frontline support worker during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the '90s, with a current focus on death care alternatives in Canada.
I'm delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Tiffany Ĺwxeloselwet Joseph, to talk adapting to catastrophic collapse. Tiffany tells us stories about bees, salmon, orcas and humans, and her main strategy for collapse resilience: cultivating beauty inside and out.
Go here to read and share the story of SEMSEMĂYAÂ
Learn more about Tiffany and how you can work with her or invite her to your gathering.
Welcome back to the show for the sixth time, peak oil expert and author, John Michael Greer. In this episode, we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of John's seminal book, The Long Descent: A User's Guide To The End Of The Industrial Age.
John explains the concept of Catabolic Collapse, why apocalypse scenarios are problematic and the hopium of political will and green utopias just as much so. I ask him about useful viable professions in collapse scenarios and how to choose where to live. Finally, John gives us three steps for personal preparation to face the deindustrial age.
Read the full article: Peak Oil Advice From German Poets
Patti Elledge is a Trauma Healing Specialist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with a private practice in Asheville, NC. She's my supervisor and mentor and I'm here to tell the world: I love her and I think everyone should have more Patti in their life. I want that for you. You deserve some Patti.
In this conversation, Patti explains what Attachment is, what different Attachment styles look like in babies and how that translates in adulthood, the role of Evolutionary Biology in our Attachment systems, and how we can heal attachment wounds in a world of persistent precarity, climate change, and social turmoil.
I particularly enjoyed hearing Patti's thoughts on grief, rage, and how Attachment shows up in our spiritual lives.
Here are the resources Patti noted in this interview:
Mary Main
Mary Ainsworth
John Bowlby
Joanna Macy
Peter Levine and Somatic Experiencing
Stephen Porges and the Polyvagal System (YouTube)
Allan Schore and the Good Enough Mother
Portrait Of A Marriage: Yes, It's Mine (the article mentioned that I wrote)
Learning To See In The Dark Amid Catastrophe: An Interview With Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy
Patti specializes in somatic healing techniques via organic, instinctual ways of the body and psyche, allowing for more connection with self and other and the emergence of creativity and spirituality. Patti credits her training by Peter Levine, Diane Poole Heller and Raja Selvam.  She has assisted more than 40 trainings worldwide and now teaches Diane Poole Heller's pioneering work DARe, (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience).
Patti has specialized in therapeutic application of neuroscience for 40 years and has a broad background in early development (interpersonal, social/emotional, language and cognition), sensory processing disorders, self- and co-regulatory processes and the neurobiology of stress and trauma.
While Patti's work is grounded in current day research on the neurobiology and physiology of the human stress mechanism, it is also infused with embodied intuition and a compassionate heart.
You can reach Patti at:
www.pattiatlarge.blogspot.com
https://dianepooleheller.com/teachersproviders/
https://sepractitioner.membergrove.com/member-details.php?id=1388
My guest today is author, speaker and consultant, Monique Gary Smith. We're talking about Territorial Acknowledgements, a small act of Reconciliation that is spreading beyond the borders of our province and country.
When I committed a few years ago to incorporating acts of Reconciliation into my personal and professional life, I began inviting elders (of all ages) to open all of my retreats and workshops with a Territorial Acknowledgement. When I was invited to give a speech, or lead a networking event, or any kind of circle, I would also verbally acknowledged the traditional occupants of the territory, wherever I went. And if I travelled outside of my region to go on Quest or a spiritual retreat, I would reach out to the local band or tribal office to find out more about the land and the ancestors from that place.
But I only learned how to do this because my friend, Monique, guided and re-directed me again and again.
In this episode, Monique shares some ideas for how any person wanting to incorporate this small act of Reconciliation into their life or work might begin in a good way.
MoniqueGraySmith.com
Truth And Reconciliation Commission Of Canada: 94 Calls To Action
In this episode, I'm thrilled to talk with Matthew Remski about how one finds oneself in a cult, how to get out, and what high demand groups have to do with social justice, climate change and collapse.
Matthew is a writer and cultural critic who published an explosive article in The Walrus called, Yoga's Culture Of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories.
Since then, I've followed Matthew and especially appreciated his real-time critique of the unravelling of the Shambala meditation community.
Resources cited in this episode include:
Alexandra Mann, Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment In cults And Totalitarian Systems
Dr.Cathleen Mann
Steven Hassan
Dr.Michael Langone
This Is Not your Practice Life
My guest today is gardener, landscape designer, teacher of permaculture, and business owner, Solara Goldwynn of Hatchet & Seed.
Known for bringing lush, edible landscapes to forgotten private corners and under-used public spaces, Solara is not only a champion of sustainable values but I consider her a strong role model. But I also know that folks who live with such conviction also shoulder more emotional burden than most; I wanted to know how she copes with her own eco-grief and climate anxiety.
We talk about her work, what she thinks the future of the planet will look like when her daughter grows up, reconciling with having children in an age of overpopulation, and how she seeks joy in spite of these dire times.
For eco-inspiration, follow Solara and Hatchet & Seed on Instagram.
I'm delighted to welcome Jessie Hemphill back to the show to talk about Indigenizing Urban Design and also what we can learn about collapse and crisis preparedness from an Indigenous perspective.
I'm so excited that Jessie is attending our retreat, Ritual + Practice For Urban Homestead this fall because we are both pretty serious peppers and like to talk shop about our emergency preparedness plans and kits.
To learn more about Jessie's work in Comprehensive Community Planning, and to read her Master's Thesis summary, visit: alderhill.ca
To learn more about our Hollyhock retreat, visit our event page.
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Holly Truhlar, MA, JD, is a grief practitioner, ritualist, and community builder. She has a Masters degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University and a law degree from the University of Denver. Combining her experience in justice work and relational psychology, she created an intellectual, emotional, sociological, and spiritual approach to activism called Radical Attunement Work (RAW). Her writing and workshops dance with the topics of planetary grief, cultural trauma, oppression and inequality, restructuring power, environmental justice, conscious collapse, and subversion of the dominant system. She's deeply committed to transforming our culture of exploitation into communities of care.
http://hollytruhlar.com
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.) is a renegade academic, lecturer, speaker, and proud diaper-changer. Bayo curates an earth-wide organization, The Emergence Network, for the re-calibration of our ability to respond to the civilizational crisis--a project framed within a feminist ethos and inspired by indigenous cosmologies. He considers this a shared art--exploring the edges of the intelligible, dancing with posthumanist ideas, and dabbling in the mysteries of quantum mechanics. In short, Bayo has given up his longing for the "end-time" and is learning to live in the "mean time." In the middle, where we must live with confusion and make do with partial answers. He speaks and teaches about his experiences around the world, and then returns to his adopted home in Chennai, India - "where the occasional whiff of cow dung dancing in the air is another invitation to explore the vitality of a world that is never still and always surprising." Bayo has authored two books, âWe Will Tell Our Own Story!â and âThese Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanityâs Search for Home.âÂ
http://bayoakomolafe.net
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Desiree Adaway is a Principal of The Adaway Group, a minority and woman owned consulting firm that brings together multi-racial teams to work on projects related to racial equity and social justice. With over 20 years experience creating, leading and managing international, multicultural teams through major organizational changes in over 40 countries, she is uniquely qualified to partner with talented leaders to successfully navigate through integrations, reorganizations, and all stages of organizational evolution. She works from an intersectional perspective, which believes that organizations thrive when they build cultures that are inclusive of wide ranging ethnic, racial, gender, sexual, religious, and national identities and abilities.
http://desireeadaway.com
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Rachael Rice is a full-time artist, musician, writer, educator and death doula. Her work lies at the crossroads of grief, radical togetherness, creative expression, death, learning, and magic. Her background is in critical pedagogy and constructivist theory where she specialized in differentiated instruction and educating for democracy with concentrations in Art and English. She spent over 20 years in the classroom as a certified, licensed public school art teacher, as well as in after-school and out-of-school community-based arts programs that serve primarily at-risk youth, folks with disabilities and low-income communities. She also worked in the social enterprise non-profit startup world implementing systems to support communities our current systems have failed.
http://rachaelrice.com
Bec Stupak is an artist, musician and videographer who's work is based on visioning, magic, ritual and ecstatic play. Her focus has been on depicting liminal spaces and transporting the viewer into the non-ordinary through the experience of her work. She was a Deitch Projects artist, exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and has been a primary member of the Joshua Light Show. Most recently she has been exploring expressions of gratitude and the experience of ceremony through a series of drawings that are transformed into wearable prayers.
http://www.becstupak.com
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Donnie Maclurcan, PhD, is an author and social entrepreneur. He is passionate about all things not-for-profit. Originally from Australia, he moved to the U.S. in 2013, from where he runs the Post Growth Institute, exploring how we accelerate the shift to a thriving, prosperous society within ecological limits. As a consultant, Donnie has helped more than 400 not-for-profit projects start, scale and sustain their work, while his own initiatives include developing: Free Money Day, the Post Growth Alliance, the (En)Rich List, the Offers and Needs Market process, Cascades Hub, and Project Australia. Affiliate Professor of Social Science at Southern Oregon University, Donnie holds a Ph.D. in social science, with his research having explored nanotechnologyâs implications for global inequality. He is currently completing his third book: How on Earth: Our future is not for profit.
https://www.postgrowth.org
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Aaron Ortega is a Pacific Northwest Native who has spent 25 years facilitating educational and experiential forums for the reclamation, preservation, and integration of Indigenous insights. Ortega is one of the founding members of 'Inside Circle', the recent subject of the award winning documentary 'The Work', a film about the benefits of skilled confrontational inquiry for men within a maximum security prison. Aaron co-created cross-cultural rites of passage with Dallas Chief Eagle for the 'All Nations Training Center.'Â Recently, he has been offering consultations, special one-day events, and a two day 'movement' course for Women, 'Way of the Luminous Warrior'. He lives in Southern Oregon.
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Aftab Erfan, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner working in the areas of community engagement, conflict resolution, strategic planning, intercultural diversity, and leadership development for social transformation. Her facilitation approach is based in various methodologies including Deep Democracy, the Art of Hosting and Harvesting, Theory U, Action Inquiry and the Expressive Arts field. She is often called in as a facilitator when there is a large degree of complexity, when there are divisive issues within a group, or when a group simply needs help to connect on a deeper level. She has facilitated large group decision-making and conflict resolution in high-stakes situations, including in the Middle East.
http://wholepicturethinking.com
Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com
It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.
The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:
Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali Conflict Engagement and Resolution practitioner, Aftab Erfan Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Desiree Adaway Clinical Psychologist and Author, Bayo Akomolafe Social Entrepreneur, Donnie Maclurcan Artist and Death Doula, Rachael Rice Educator, facilitator and Indigenous rights activist, Aaron Ortega Videographer and artist, Bec Stupak Therapist, ritualist and conference founder, Holly Truhlar
And myself, Carmen Spagnola.
Tannur âShewrightzâ Ali is the emcee and story weaver for our conference. She's a poet, workshop facilitator and vessel of divine flow. She has been featured in every region of the country, as well as in Europe, stunning audiences with the insightful power of her words and voice. Tannurâs "Dancing Between Realms National Tour" visited 25 cities throughout the U.S. during 2016-17. The tour came on the heels of her winning the 2016 International Poetry Slam in Bled, Slovenia. A prolific writer and relationship-builder, Tannur uses her poetry and poetic spirit as a force for engaging creative energy and power, and as a rallying cry to build artistic and civic community.
https://www.shewrightz.com
https://tendingthethreshold.com
Iâm delighted to share with you this vibrant, passionate and also at times very tender conversation I had with Danielle Prohom Olson of Gather. Danielle is a wildcrafter and herbalist, and Gather is her creative collaboration with Jennifer Aikman, where they teach, write, and host events dedicated to ancestral foods, magical cookery and seasonal celebrations.
Thousands of people around the world follow and appreciate their work through their website and newsletter, as well as their Patreon and Facebook accounts. But for me, what really comes through their work, is that Gather is about more than just events and recipes and articles.
Check out Danielle's essay, The Magical Herstory of Food.
This is a long-overdue episode. Two of my city's most interesting residents live right next door and we've finally had a chance to sit down for a proper interview.  An artist and mother, Beth Threlfall is a black cord priestess with Thirteenth House Mystery School in Victoria BC. She works hard to bring her art into the world on a day-to-day basis: believing that art is a way of living â not a thing to do â has helped her experience community through her artistic practice. She is also a childrenâs art instructor with the non-profit organization ArtsReach, and works with the Pandora Arts Collective in her home community of Fernwood. Beth is best known as the originator of Fernwoodâs famous Pole Painting Project, which she started back in 2008 and has not only transformed the look and feel of the streets in her neighbourhood but has also inspired residents to artistically engage with and participate in their local surroundings.  A practicing witch since his initiation in 1986, John Threlfall is a black cord priest with Thirteenth House Mystery School. A freelance writer for nearly 30 years, John has had a typically eclectic careerâincluding working as a stage manager, wedding DJ, technical director for a haunted Gold Rush theatre, co-host of a motorcycle TV show, four seasons as the on-air "walking encyclopedia of popular culture" for CBC Radio's Definitely Not the Opera, and 12 years as a staff writer for Monday Magazine, where he ultimately wound up being Editor-in-Chief. Heâs currently the Special Projects and Communications Officer for the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria, and has been teaching with UVicâs Department of Writing since 2006.  Thirteenth House Mystery School is one of the Victoria's oldest and largest covens. Started in 1993, Thirteenth House has also been running introductory public classes in the practice of witchcraft since 1998.
Sarah Selecky is the author of This Cake Is for The Party, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, arguably Canada's highest literary award. The New York Times called her stories "utterly fascinating".
Sarah is also the founder of the Sarah Selecky Writing School. I've always loved its tag line, Write what you want to read.
I have to say, though, that I'm quite taken aback that Sarahs new novel, Radiant Shimmering Light, is exactly what I want to read. I couldn't put it down! I devoured it in two sittings stopping only to sleep. I was absolutely taken in by the story, the characters, the details and the familiarity of this work. This world is so familiar to me that when the scenes weren't totally cracking me up, it was because they were making me really uncomfortable.
Radiant Shimmering Light is going to be found in the Womens Literature section of your local bookstore, what is often called ChickLit. For the past fifteen years I have read almost exclusively works of non-fiction. And I rarely wander the shelves of the bookstore looking for feel-good beach reads. But if you listen to this podcast, you need to buy this book. Sarah wrote this book for us. She gets us. She's one of us. She has written what we want to read, a story about us.
Find out all about Sarah's work at sarahselecky.com
Let's talk about talking to plants. Like, really being in relationship with the plant realm. My guest today is Layla Kristy Feghali, of River Rose Apothecary. I was drawn to seek out Layla as a guest because of her beautifully soft, gentle, and sweet relationship with plants and in particular, one of my favourites, roses.
Holy moly! One hundred episodes. I am indulging quite a bit with this episode; I offer you nothing new here except some tasty cocktail recipes. The recording quality here may be unrefined but the beverage pairings are exquisite!
This is me and Ruben reminiscing, sharing some of our favourite episodes from a behind-the-scenes perspective and pairing them with cocktail recipes inspired by the guest or interview content. In this episode, we refer to our upcoming workshop at Hollyhock, Ritual + Practice For The Urban Homestead. We hadn't planned to promote that retreat so much but the topics in several of our favourite episodes are quite complementary so it makes sense that we'd naturally bring that up. Maybe we'll connect with some listeners there in real life!
Yes, Monsters. Today's topic is on the fringe of the mainstream which is ironic considering so many people have ghost stories and tales of strange and bewildering encounters with mysterious phenomena. I'm speaking again with John Michael Greer, digging a little deeper into his best selling book, Monsters: An Investigator's Guide To Magical Beings.
Once again, John goes above and beyond to provide additional resources and source materials:
The Mothman Prophecies
Michelle Belanger - psychic vampire
The Doctrine And Ritual Of High Magic: A New Translation, by John Michael Greer and Mark Anthony Mikituk
The Secret Commonwealth: An Essay On The Nature And Actions Of The Subterranean (And For The Most Part) Invisible People Heretofore Going Under The Name Of Elves, Fauns And Fairies
The Kybalion, by William Walker Atkinson
Sarah Kerr, PhD, is a death doula and ritual healing practitioner. I've connected with Sarah and her work a number of times and was keen to follow up with her regarding a lecture she gave on the Shamanic Archetype, (part of a series, and just one of many resources she offers on contemporary archetypal shamanism).
In this conversation, I ask Sarah to explain the difference between The Priest/ess, The Shaman, and The Psychopomp as archetypes. (We also toss The Mystic in there for good measure).
We consider the implications of being white women doing work that is often called "shamanic", and share our different perspectives and comfort levels around that. (It's a site of struggle for each of us in our own way).
I also dig a little into a section of Sarah's dissertation, Dreams, Ritual and the Creation of Sacred Objects: An Inquiry Into A Contemporary Western Shamanic Initiation. It's a worthwhile read and this part of our dialogue will appeal to those who've long walked between the worlds but didn't know what to do about it, or have had spontaneous initiation experiences and few places to turn for support. We talk specifically about how the Shamanic Archetype is often scapegoated by society, and how one way to heal through the Journey of the Walkaway is to choose to Return as Teacher/Interpreter.
Finally, Sarah shares a bit about her own initiation ritual and some personal parts that felt powerful for her. Some good ideas in there for those of us who adore that sort of thing.
If you're in the Calgary area and you'd like to work with Sarah more closely on an on-going basis, you might want to check out the Calgary Community Healers' Council.
Leesa Renee Hall is a speaker, writer and tech industry veteran. I first became aware of Leesa's work when she introduced me to the notion of the "Like" fast and social media algorithms that are inherently racist. But I was fascinated when I learned she has been the organist at hundreds of funerals.
In this conversation, we begin with sharing about our ancestry and some of the genealogy research we've done. We learn about Leesa's early experiences in church and how she became an organist. We discover her approach to curious inquiry and expressive writing (Why at 4:30am specifically?) and we drift into a discussion of white fragility.
Be part of Leesa's Patreon community and find her excellent Writing Prompts for White Fragility.
In this episode, we're talking with popular guest, John Michael Greer, about his book, The Secret of the Temple: Earth Energies, Sacred Geometry, and the Lost Keys of Freemasonry. He explains how ancient temples around the world and from different eras are actually forms of technology that affect agricultural fertility and bind human communities in a material way with the larger forces of nature. Our conversation tours history and humanity, stopping off to look at the Temple of Solomon, the Freemasons, and his take on the two shapes of time.
John also expands the function and importance of bread, blood, chanting and incense as related to temple technology.
Once again, a conversation that is both broad and deep.
Find all of John's 40+ books (!) here, and his essays here.
Ashley asks some great questions and Patricia (who's a veteran attending her second Quest this spring) dishes on the details. We talk about our daily agenda over the twelve days, how and why I chose this specific location for Questing, and what it's like to be on this kind of journey with my husband, Ruben, and me.
Ashley asks me, How can someone know if it's time for them to go on Quest? and Why is it important to leave our familiar world to go do this soul craft work in the natural world?
I go beyond the obvious answers. (It's not always because you're in transition.)
Quest is happening from June 19 - July 1, 2018.
Deposits are due April 1.
Learn all about Quest here.
Rachael Maddox is a trauma resolution educator, coach and guide. In this conversation, she shares with us her Map of Reclamation and a generous amount of psychobiological and theoretical information about what trauma really is. Rachael generously and gently takes us through 7 core trauma wounds, what the hyper- and hypo-araoused responses (ie: inner escalation or collapse) can look like, what a more regulated (grounded, calm, empowered) response might feel like, and how we can find our way back to health and wholeness. It's an excellent overview and there's so much value offered here in her model.
Rachael includes Digital Isolation as a core trauma for our age and we explore the notion of re-villaging as one potential antidote.
Naturally, since we're talking about trauma in general, it's very common to have specific, personal examples come to mind â likely some part of this will be very relatable for most people. Remember to go slow: it takes the body a little while to metabolize this kind of information. Press pause, take breaks, fast forward. Listen to your body as you listen to our voices.
And remember that we're real people. You can always book in with either of us if something comes up that you'd like to explore.
If you'd like to go deeper with Rachael, she has a free video series called Becoming A Grown Goddess that includes topics like Trauma 101, Boundaries & Belonging, Sex After Trauma, and more.
Read all about Rachael's offerings on her site, rachaelmaddox.com
This interview featuring Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd holds a special place in my heart; it's not often I meet people who speak my mind so clearly. I love them and the work they're doing with Queer Nature, a growing Colorado-based project dedicated to cultivating earth-based queer community through traditional skill-building.
In this conversation, we dive deeply into the questions: why Quests? why for queer folk? why for queer youth, in particular? and why at this moment in time?
Along our exploration, we pause to examine relationships between queerness and landscapes, relationships with the more-than-human world, the language of "quest", and the role of ancestral skill reclamation in dismantling and repairing the legacies of settler colonialism. (!!!)
I LOVED THIS CONVERSATION.
After this, read Pinar's excellent essay, Queer Futurism: Denizens of Liminality.
Enjoy!
I'm thrilled to welcome esteemed dreamwork practitioner, Toko-pa Turner to the podcast today! Although we live relatively close to each other and have several friends in common, this is our first ever conversation. I'm excited to have more of them because we just barely touched on the interests we share. I love how Toko-pa articulates her approach to investigating the personal unconscious and the work of being part of the collective.
Her new book, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, is the jumping off point of our conversation. It leads us into an exploration of her Sufi upbringing, her perilous journey through the foster care system, acknowledging white privilege, elder wisdom, turning to face the Dark Dream, and how dreams can help lead us back to ourselves and each other.
Learn all about her dreamwork offerings on her website, toko-pa.com.
Buckle up for a wild conversation that explores the highs and lows of spiritual self-help, addiction, parenting, trauma, relationships, bereavement and motherhood. Emelia Symington Fedy is an artist and storyteller. Her new audio memoir is called Trying To Be Good: The Healing Powers Of Lying, Cheating, Stealing And Doing Drugs.
Emilia is a new friend of mine, a friend of a friend, and a kindred spirit in many ways. So it felt good and safe for us to "go there" in this interview.
Content warning: we go into topics like teenage sexuality, sexual assault and rape, death and dying, all of it.
It's intense at times.
It's also funny and tender. It's very real.
Do you ever feel alone in your trauma, or your shame, or your dark thoughts? We're right here with you. We had this conversation with you in mind.
Here's where you can purchase the audio memoir, read Emelia's articles, and hire her creative genius.
Are you ready for a deep dive into mystery schools, Druidry, the Kabbala, the Tree of Life, the Gnostics, and geomancy? What?? All in one conversation? YES! This conversation is an incredible treat.
Returning to The Numinous Podcast for the third time is my guest, John Michael Greer. He's a world-renowned authority on a million things, and today we're focusing on his excellent handbook, The Celtic Golden Dawn: An Original & Complete Curriculum of Druidic Study.
It is well worth your time to peruse John's Amazon author page, and try to grasp just how much research has gone into his life's work to this point. I own several volumes and I can tell you, there are not light reads. The are not superficial forays. These are reference libraries you can hold in your hand â the bibliographies alone, people. The bibliographies! Magical keys to unlock the knowledge of the ages, I tell you.
Read John's essays at ecosophia.net.
Classically speaking, a psychopomp is a deity or supernatural being who would guide the souls of the dead to their resting place in the afterlife. In modern parlance, a psychopomp acts as "an energetic Soul Midwife to the dead or dying".
Cat Webb is a psychopomp, oracle, creatrix, mystic and teacher. So naturally, this was a fabulous conversation!
We talk about patriarchy, good spiritual hygiene, dealing with a death-phobic society â specifically how to care for the dying when there are family members resisting â and so, so, so much more.
Follow her on Facebook or join her group PsychopompLifeChat.
I'm so pleased to be speaking with Monique today about her new book, Speaking Our Truth: A Journey Of Reconciliation.
You can purchase all of Monique's books for children online at Orca Books.
Learn more about the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here.
Read their 94 Calls to Action here.
Explore more youth titles by Indigenous Canadian authors.
"Not everyone can be saved, but everyone is worth loving." Jenn Richardson
Jenn was a Mentoring client, who came to a couple of my retreats, and then Quest and is now a dear, dear friend and soul sister. More importantly, she is now coming out as a professional intuitive - hooray!
Jenn is a queer feminist poet and yoga instructor and banshee-at-large, a fascinating person to know and observe as she moves through the world and comments on it.
Today we're talking about growing up with an alcoholic and homeless father and how his death has impacted her life. She shares what I think many of us have experienced around the mystery of death and how covered-up it can be in western culture. And she talks about grieving as a physical process. It's an intense, close-up, very real conversation.
Learn about Jenn and her intuitive readings on her website, jennthepoet.com
Check out her art and poetry on Instagram.
Listen to her in conversation about Quest with her fellow participants.
Jenn references Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book, Women Who Run With The Wolves, and we talk about the keeners and the banshees.
ThÊrèse Cator is a Spiritual Leadership Coach + Teacher, Shadow Alchemist, and Soul Artist and comes from a lineage of healers, spiritual teachers, intuitives, artists and activists. She was born in a country ruled by a dictator, her first language is French, and she's as comfortable working with Fortune 500 companies as she is teaching students in South Central LA or acting in Hollywood.
In other words: she's got some stories!
Today, we're talking about ancestry, grieving, life as ceremony, and she tells a harrowing story about being racially profiled and how that led to the liberation of her own Light.
Learn more about Agape International.  Learn more about Vipassana Meditation.  ThÊrèse is leading a Shadow Alchemy Retreat in Tulum, Mexico. Explore her world at theresecator.com
Rachael Rice is an artist, teacher, musician, truth-teller, and whistle-blower amongst many, many other things. In this intimate conversation, we talk about the death of her mother and how it affected her creativity, her spiritual growth and her journey of recovery.
Rachael was 22 when her mother died, and her mom was 49.
Learn more about Rachael here.
Purchase her original art here, and in her Etsy shop and more cool items on Society6.
Listen to our conversation (including Marybeth Bonfiglio!) on Confronting Whiteness here.
Find out more about the 12 Step approach here.
Learn more about the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach here.
Rachael mentioned Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, too.
Check out Stephen Jenkinson's book Die Wise and Rachael's mom's favourite book on death, Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living And Conscious Dying by Stephen and Ondrea Levine.
My guest today is a literature professor who writes a blog called Dating Tips For The Feminist Man, under the pen name "Nora Samaran". Last year, she wrote an article that went viral, changed my life, and transformed my marriage. It's called "The Opposite Of Rape Culture Is Nurturance Culture".
Just so we have a basic agreement of what is meant by ârape cultureâ, a quick Google brings up this definition: a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.
Wikipedia goes a little bit further:
Rape culture is a sociological concept used to describe a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by some forms of sexual violence, or some combination of these.Â
Nora's article does a beautiful job of summarizing attachment theory as it applies to adult relationships and then stepping back to look a the larger implications within a patriarchal culture.
We talk about how western culture shames men for feeling and nurturing, how it invisibilizes white supremacy and anti-black racism for white people.
In this episode, I give a brief summary of attachment theory and the four main attachment styles. You can read more here in the article where I dish about my own marriage.
Off the top, Nora mentions The Icarus Project, along with bell hooks and KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw.
We also mention Tada Hozumi and cite his work over at SelfishActivist.com.
Adrienne Maree Brown is quoted and she is definitely someone to learn from.
The book The Dispossessed, by Ursula LeGuin, is described as well.
This is a gentle little episode. It's just a recording of me and my husband, Ruben, musing about appropriate rituals for the upcoming solar eclipse. The conversation meanders to ecological costs, the workers and the strangers, capitalism, extinction, co-parenting, the meaning of "shadow work", fine art in Paris, and how gleaning points to a way of living together that we each really value.
In the end, we do sort of come up with some ritual observances to mark the eclipse.
Things we mention:
John O'Donohue's Grace Before Meals
Daniel Quinn's essay, "The New Renaissance"
Kelly Diels' essay, There Is No Flawless Position (newsletter, August 20, 2017)
Agnès Vargas' film, "The Gleaners and I"
Jean-Francois Millet's painting of The Gleaners and also The Angelus (originally titled, Prayer For The Potato Crop)
If you've listened for a while, you know that this podcast is a complement to The Numinous School, my online intuition development program. And you'll also know that registration only opens once a year with a limited number of spots because I do a limited print run of customized textbooks.
If you didn't know that, well now you do and you're in a for a treat because today's episode is a peak behind the curtain.
This is a recording of one of our monthly Tutorial calls where I take questions from students about anything related to intuition, divination, and the spiritual path.
Questions answered in this class include: * What's the difference between trance and meditation? * How might I manage difficulties such as hyper vigilance when struggling to get deeper into meditation? * What are some of the best resources for purchasing oracle decks, crystals and essential oils? * What's the deal with reverse cards in tarot and oracle readings? Do we need to read them differently? * My pendulum gives me contradictory answers - am I missing something? * How can I find out what my personal next steps should be in my spiritual exploration? * How can I develop my clairvoyance?
Resources I recommend in this episode are: The Enchanted Map and The Wisdom of the Oracle decks illustrated by Jena DellaGrottaglia Instinct Art & Gifts in Victoria, BC or online Banyen Books & Sound in Vancouver, BC or online Aeclectic Tarot Healing Crystals For You The Crystal Bible by Judy Hall The New Crystal Bible by Cassandra Eason Silk Road Teas for essential oils in Victoria and Vancouver, BC or online Floracopeia for essential oils and resins The Spice School ~ Glynnis Osher Aromatherapy For The Soul and The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Ann Worwood The Mary Magdalene Oracle and Angels, Gods and Goddeses decks by Toni Carmine Salerno The Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene
Registration for the 2017-2018 cohort of The Numinous School opens Saturday, June 10, 2017!
Hop on my newsletter to receive the announcement and link to secure your spot.
I'm so excited about this episode! It's me with four dear souls who've recently returned from their 12-day Wilderness Quests experience.
These are demigods, I'm telling you! They endured a tougher Quest than I ever have.
If you have a fear about doing a wilderness quest, they have good advice for you. My guests today will address your questions and concerns about:
- hunger and fasting
- the dark and wild animals
- enduring the cold
- getting lost
- logistical concerns about gear, preparation, and general safety
- being bored/self-sabotaging behaviours
- PTSD/trauma responses to being left alone in the dark and the wild
- facing the abyss/existential dread
- acting out/acting in
- not wanting to come back
I also ask them, how did they know that a Wilderness Quest was the right next step for them on their spiritual path?
In this episode, Carl-Greger mentioned the book The Wind Is My Mother, by Bear Heart
I'm so pleased to welcome Layla to the show, all the way from Qatar!
Layla is a Black Muslim woman who has lived both in the West and the Middle East and has an interesting perspective on blending Islam and Catholicism, cultural appropriation in spiritual practices, and what it's like to live in a truly diverse and multicultural society.
Layla also shares what it was like when one of her blog posts critiquing the "6-figure" business coaching mill went viral and how that prompted a spiritual awakening.
We also explore the collapse of old forms that came with Layla's self-initiation as well as the healing power of Reiki and her work to heal the Mother Wound.
Layla is not one to walk a single path or "stick to lineages" and she explains how she is synthesizing influences to create her personal spirituality.Â
We also jam about the overwhelming whiteness of most of the connotations that leap to mind with the word "priestess".
Layla also confesses that she used to be afraid of big emotions like rage and even of the Wild Woman archetype. Update: she's over it.
You can learn more about Layla's offerings at wildmysticwoman.com
This is a delightful and animated conversation between two people who are, in many ways, kindred spirits.
Nina Hirlaender is the founder of Dancing Spirit Tours, a company that leads sacred pilgrimage trips throughout Europe. Nina has a kind of breathless passion for mysticism that, honestly, is quite contagious.
Today we're talking about some of the indigenous spiritual practices of Indo-European cultures such as Celtic shamanism. Nina shares her surprising journey from her Celtic roots to her passion for Catholic mysticism.
Once again, the term "pan-Germanic" comes up again on the podcast. It's lovely to hear Nina share her stories of growing up with her grandmother in her native Austria, learning about the nature spirits and faeries. And hedgehogs! So magical!
Nina experienced her spiritual initiation after her cancer diagnosis and recovery. Hearing about her journey is both harrowing and inspiring.
And of course, we can't have a good conversation about Catholic mysticism without talking about some of our heroes including Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, and Mary Magdalene, and some of its sacred places like Chartres Cathedral. I was also very compelled by Nina's reminder of the Marian/Goddess tradition within Catholicism.
(A book I highly recommend if you're interested in Mary Magdalene is The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity by Cynthia Bourgeault)
It was a pleasure to talk to someone who, like me, loves grief and declares it ecstatically like a true mystic.
When was the last time you spoke with a Mayanist? When did you last have a conversation where someone dropped the term "terra nullius"? Let's talk about the Mayan calendar glyphs and the New Agers â what's up with all that?
Juliana does forensic science for Operation ID, a project that excavates bodies of migrants who've died in the desert trying to cross the Mexico-US border and help identify them so their families can know what happened to their loved ones.
I found this topic extremely difficult to hear so, trigger warning...This is mature content: rape, murder, genocide. We're talking about a harrowing humanitarian crisis.
This is an interesting conversation about colonialism in academia, cultural appropriation in personal spiritual practices, the trauma of the Inquisition carried by white people (especially women), along with some super interesting stories about entheogenic spiritual experiences.
An excellent essay â truly a seminal piece of work â that Juliana led me to is called Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K.Wayne Yang. It should be required reading for settlers trying to understand what decolonization really means.
It makes sense that a very unique and special person would have a very unique and special upbringing. Today's guest, L'Erin Alta, is a soul guide, shadow diver, and spiritual teacher, and she gives a great interview because she's willing to go there right off the top.
It was inspiring for me to hear about the special village that raised her and also find connections between our histories â I also come from a small family and know nothing about my paternal ancestry. I also have had to reclaim lineage and walk the spiritual path in a very self-directed and intuitively guided way â a way that at times has been cocky and arrogant. In other words, a way that has been humbling.
One of the teachers L'Erin mentions in this interview is the recently deceased, Sonbonfu SomÊ.
Sign up for L'Erin's newsletter to learn more about workshops, retreats and one-on-one intensives at her website: sisterfire.com
Follow her on Facebook for insightful and provocative posts about the important things in life.
It makes sense that a very unique and special person would have a very unique and special upbringing. Today's guest, L'Erin Alta, is a soul guide, shadow diver, and spiritual teacher, and she gives a great interview because she's willing to go there right off the top.
It was inspiring for me to hear about the special village that raised her and also find connections between our histories â I also come from a small family and know nothing about my paternal ancestry. I also have had to reclaim lineage and walk the spiritual path in a very self-directed and intuitively guided way â a way that at times has been cocky and arrogant. In other words, a way that has been humbling.
One of the teachers L'Erin mentions in this interview is the recently deceased, Sonbonfu SomÊ.
Sign up for L'Erin's newsletter to learn more about workshops, retreats and one-on-one intensives at her website: sisterfire.com
Follow her on Facebook for insightful and provocative posts about the important things in life.
I have been thinking about shame for a couple of years now. Mostly, I have socially unacceptable thoughts about it.
But since reading Jennifer Jacquet's book, Is Shame Necessary? New Uses For An Old Tool, I have been both relieved and emboldened.
So I'm releasing my shame around championing shame.
I'm thrilled to welcome Jennifer to the show to expand on her ideas around effective uses of shame when dealing with large-scale cooperation dilemmas like climate change, over-fishing, and racism.
In this episode, Jennifer mentions high profile examples like Justine Sacco whose life was ruined by a single tweet, and Walter Palmer, the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion.
She also makes a distinction between shaming corporations versus individuals. As such, it is a form of punishment that scales well.
If you would like to see the tour de force example of the public shaming of the Dow Chemical Company by The Yes Men, here is the video. The response is detailed in this video.
Here's the manel-shaming featuring David Hasselhoff, plus the article that did the math on statistical proof of sexism with regard to the issue.
In the Rubenation segment, Ruben mentioned our friend, J.B.MacKinnon and his excellent book, The Once And Future World. If you love the planet, you should read it.
This interview goes well with episode TNP67: Confronting Whiteness with Rachael Rice and Marybeth Bonfiglio.
Check out more of Jennifer's work at jenniferjacquet.com
Bees! Some of my favourite beings! I'm so excited to give sacred beekeeping some airtime on the podcast today. My guest is Nikiah Seeds â another of my favourite beings! â who is a priestess, shamanic practitioner, and ceremonialist.
As a teacher at the College of the Melissae - Centre for Sacred Beekeeping, Nikiah has a tremendous amount of technical and spiritual knowledge about bees.
In this episode, Nikiah recommends we check out the book, The Honey Trail: In Pursuit of Liquid Gold and Vanishing Bees, to learn more about sustainable beekeeping.
I would also like to recommend you check out Nikiah's book, Moon Mysteries, co-created with Nao Sims and Eyan Myers, if you're interested in learning more about connecting lunar rhythms with your menstrual cycle. I really enjoyed that book.
Nikiah also leads drum-making workshops. I've personally experienced it and can attest to the specialness and wealth of spiritual teachings that Nikiah so generously provides. Gather a group of women together and bring her to your town if you can.
Footnotes:
To learn more about Boudicca, start here.
Learn more about the excavation of the bee priestess on Crete here.
I'm absolutely thrilled to have Charlene Spretnak on the show today.
Charlene is a prolific author in the fields of feminist women's spirituality, environmentalism, and the interrelatedness of social change movements.
A summary of each of her books can be found here.
The book initially that inspired her to write research into the lost goddess myths of pre-patriarchal Greece is called The First Sex by Elizabeth Gould Davis.
The philosopher Charlene mentioned is Luce Irigaray.
Charlene has provided me with so much material to research and study. If you'd like to hear the speech I gave inspired by her book, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, check out TNP64.
I'm so excited about this show! Alexis P. Morgan is an artist, activist, pan Germanic heathen, and sorceress.
In this episode we talk about cultural appropriation in spiritual practice, Alexis gives us a year's worth of witchcraft study references, and we learn what the heck a pan Germanic heathen is.
Here are the resources Alexis recommends:
If You Want to Be A Witch
Sarah Ann Lawless
Mastering Witchcraft
Evolutionary Witchcraft
Jailbreaking the Goddess
The Chaos Protocols
Starships
Jason Miller
Brianna Saucy
Josephine McCarthy
You can purchase candles, temporary tattoos and t-shirts from the Church of St Felicia through the online store.
Letâs talk about the connection between âconscious marketingâ and Pick Up Artist culture, shall we? You may be surprised to discover that thereâs actually quite a clear and direct connection. If youâre an entrepreneur in the personal development or spiritual space, this episode is for you. If youâve ever been had by a Pick Up Artist (PUA), a narcissist, or experienced buyerâs remorse after a major purchase that involved a charismatic salesperson or coach, this episode is for you.
Kelly Diels is a writer and feminist marketing consultant who has articulated a severely problematic phenomenon sheâs named the Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand, (FLEB), the effects of which can be seen all around us.
FLEB is basically this: a marketing approach leading with beauty, wealth and privilege, constructed as empowerment. In other words, empowerment â which is supposed to be a collective experience of liberation â is presented as an individual experience of wealth and privilege.
In business, spirituality, politics, parenting, and beyond, the FLEB effect is pervasive and harmful. But we can stop supporting it and stop perpetuating it if we know what to look for.
This episode is meant to educate and inoculate.
Read Kellyâs essays on the FLEB and sign up for her newsletter for weekly evolution.
If youâre seeking to transform the way you do business, consider joining Kellyâs Facebook group, How To Sell To Women Without Selling Them Out.
The book Kelly mentions â a big favourite on the podcast â is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Today on the podcast Iâm speaking with Sewit who goes by the English name, Thomas Jones. Sewit is a scholar of linguistics and I had the opportunity to learn alongside him at a language revitalization workshop called Where Are Your Keys.
As I mentioned in the previous episode, WAYK is a comprehensive method for revitalizing endangered languages and skills. It uses games, tricks and sign language to essentially âhackâ second language learning. It was develop by an American fellow named Evan Gardner as a response to the imminent crisis of language loss that so many indigenous communities across North America are facing as elders and conversant speakers die and forget and culture slips away.
In this episode, Sewit introduces me to the concept of "the borrowed child" as a form of intergenerational connection, a concept I personally find fascinating coming from more of a "latch key kid" kind of upbringing.
He also tells a beautiful origin story from the Snuneymuxw people and shares his thoughts on communal living.
Sewit also mentions two other language learning resources you might want to check out if you're interested:
Chief Atahm
Total Physical Response (TPR)
There is a real urgency to language revitalization because the fluent speakers are dying. Sewit is one of only a small number of latent speakers Snuneymuxw. In the past four years, of the ten fluent speakers he could go to for teaching, six have died.
Sewit does voiceover work and you can hear him speaking hÉnĚqĚÉminĚÉmĚ in the show, Warrior Games.
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
First Peoples' Language Map of B.C. American Indian Language Development Institute Endangered Language Fund
In this moving and memorable episode, I'm talking with Tiffany Joseph about indigenous language revitalization, sense of place, and navigating settler-indigenous relations with an aim towards Reconciliation. Tiffany is a language scholar and also an astrologer, multi-media artist and blogger.
Full disclosure: I cried fragile white lady tears through pretty much the whole thing.
I can't quite describe how acutely I felt Tiffany's words, how true they felt in my body, how deeply they pierced through my insides.
Give yourself some time to listen carefully to this beautiful offering from Tiffany.
You can read the follow up to this interview on Tiffany's blog: https://netsnetseol.wordpress.com
Follow her astrology work on Facebook.
If you appreciated Tiffany's insights in the episode, you can support her directly through PayPal:Â PayPal.Me/TiffanyJoseph
Click here to learn more about Where Are Your Keys? It's not overstatement to say that their method is truly revolutionary and actively helping to save languages from extinction. Check them out, support them and spread the word.
In this free ranging conversation with artist, poet and playwright, Janet Rogers, I have an opportunity to learn about some of the iconic female artists who've inspired some of Janet's work.
We also talk about "feminism" as a concept and a word, and "reconciliation" as a concept and a word, and the notion of land-as-body.
We get down and dirty about land, reparations, equality and activism.
Also notable (for me, anyway), is how my privileged, possessive, white supremacist language which keeps slipping out â I can't seem to stop myself from referring to everything and everyone as "our", as in, the colonial "our". Ugh.
Anyway, I do my best. I receive feedback. I apologize. It still pains me to hear it, though. It's what I suppose they call a "teachable moment" and I appreciate Janet for pointing it out and for being patient.
Eden Robinson, mentioned by Janet in this interview, is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations and a prolific author.
You can follow Janet on Facebook and purchase her books online at Indigo. In this interview, Janet read from her newest work, Totem Poles and Railroads. Yes, I cried.
I'm not gonna lie. This one's a doozy. In this episode of the podcast, I am the guest and I say the F word and several other swear words, a lot.
The full-length version of this conversation was published in video form as part of Rachael Rice's series, Confronting Whiteness.
I met Rachael and Marybeth online and we became familiar with each other's work through Facebook conversations. It was evident to me from the beginning that these are women who know what time it is (#revolutiontime). If you're on Insta, you should definitely follow them.
In this conversation, I tell the story of The Racist Dinner Party and I rant about white fragility in Well-intentioned White Women Sisterhood spaces.
I make the case for developing a more mature and nuanced relationship with shame and honour, and I implore white women to become more resilient when it comes to racial conversations.
Here are the excellent resources cited in this episode:
The Roots Of Addiction In Free Market Society
Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor
The Bluest I Blog by Michelle R Smith
Is Shame Necessary?: New Uses For An Old Tool by Jennifer Jacquet
I'm so pleased to welcome to the podcast, Aftab Erfan, Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement at the University of British Columbia.
Aftab is an experienced facilitator and longtime trainer of the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy.
When you watch the video clips at the top of the DeepDemocracy.ca website, you can see me standing behind her business partner and co-facilitator, Sera, who is speaking animatedly. She's "amplifying" Jeremy - one of the tools used in this facilitation method to quickly get to the heart of a matter. My face is cropped, I'm wearing a white blouse, hands in pockets. My posture pretty much says everything about what I think of "hope" in the context of the Is Hope Bullshit? Civic Dialogue they convened. My feelings about hope have evolved a bit since then. It was a life-changing day. Myrna Lewis, (co-developer of the Lewis Method), is just to the left of screen wearing taupe, hand on her necklace.
The book Aftab references in this episode is called Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman. Sounds like essential reading.
Along with Jessie Hemphill (my guest on TNP65), Aftab co-facilitated a Civic Dialogue I convened in my hometown called Yes, I'm Privileged. Now What? I received a lot of feedback from that event, all of it positive. Since then, I've seen it galvanize members of my community around social justice in a way they didn't before. Many have told me it was the experience they needed in order to show up and speak up and put their privilege to work on behalf of marginalized populations.
If your organization has the funding and desire to tackle hard topics in order to move forward together, you should definitely reach out to her.
Today I'm talking to my girl, Jessie Hemphill, and we're having a warm and wonderful conversation. It's like we're all sitting down for tea and Jessie's telling us stories about growing up Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxd'axw and MÊtis in rural coastal Canada while passing for white.
We hear a bit about 'Nakwaxd'axw mythology, what her Indigenous name means, how she became a politician, and what it means to do urban planning using culturally-based Indigenous planning processes.
Finally, I tell the story of how I became infatuated with met Jessie and she changed the course of my life with some magic words. Then we dish about our unhealthy ways of coping with grief and rage. In the end, it's abundantly clear how much we love each other and this whole show is just a meeting of our mutual appreciation society.
You should definitely learn more about Jessie and recommend her company to any community that is looking for a facilitator who can sit in the truth and hold space in the heart of the matter.
This special episode is a recording of an hour-long keynote address I gave in the fall of 2016. The title of the talk is, "Learning To See In The Dark: Reclaiming Our Power, Transforming Our World".
It's a deep dive into the Dark Woman archetype, how she shows up in our lives, why she is so feared and what her purpose is in transforming our lives and our world.
For further reading:
Charlene Spretnak
Jean Shinoda Bolen
Demetra George
Caroline Casey
Carol Leonard & Elizabeth Davis
Peggy Reeves Sanday
Marije Gimbutas
In this final episode, I talk more about the spiritual void underpinning the abandonment wound.
I also provide a framework and suggested exercises that clinical hypnotherapists and other healing practitioners might use to support clients in their journey from abandonment to healing. This framework is based on Susan Anderson's model of the Five Stages of Abandonment.
In Part 2, I dive deeper into Attachment and Addiction.
Additional readings I suggest in the introduction to this episode are linked below:
The Attachment Parenting Book, by Dr. Sears Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers, by Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Dr. Gabor MatĂŠ Hold Me Tight, by Dr. Sue Johnson Attached, by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller The Opposite Of Rape Culture Is Nurturance Culture, by Nora Samaran The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, by bell hooks
A therapist I once worked with said it best:
Abandonment is the gap between what you need and what you get.
Abandonment arouses the primal fear of infancy and childhood, that of being left alone to fend for ourselves.
This kind of wound is cumulative: every loss, betrayal, disappointment, rejection (perceived or real), break-up or death can trigger the primal Abandonment Wound. Rather than dissipate, feelings incubate.
Everybody has an Abandonment Wound. The issue is not whether or not it exists within us, itâs how well weâre coping with it.
In 2014, I delivered a lecture at the Canadian Association of Clinical Hypnotherapists Conference called, "Healing The Abandonment Wound: A Five Step Process". This is a special Numinous Podcast three-part mini-series that expands on that lecture with additional readings, resources and thoughts about how this work has evolved in the three years I've spent focussing the client work in my hypnotherapy practice in this area.
Resources cited in this episode include:
The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society, by Bruce K. Alexander
Rat Park, by Bruce K. Alexander and the comic it inspired by Stuart McMillen
(not mentioned in this episode but equally entertaining work describing Rat Park is the video, "Everything We Know About Addiction Is Wrong")
In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, by Dr. Gabor MatĂŠ
The Journey From Abandonment To Healing, by Susan Anderson
You can explore this work with me further at: www.carmenspagnola.com/abandonment-therapy/
Lindsay Rose is a Reiki Master and intuition development teacher who has experienced more than her fair share of loss and tragedy in her life. In this episode, Lindsay shares the intimate story of her healing journey along with a host of techniques and tools that helped her cope when the sadness, pain and anxiety was overwhelming. This is an excellent episode for anyone who's struggling with the pain of death, a break-up or any form of abandonment.
Learn more about Lindsay Rose at her website or on her blog.
Find out about Love School at Locate Your Soulmate.
I chat with living occult encyclopedia, John Michael Greer, author of popular blogs, The Archdruid Report and The Well of Galabes.
John is Past Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and current head of the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn, and the author of more than thirty books. (Makes you wonder what the heck you do with your time, doesn't it?)
In this second conversation with John, we talk about why ritual sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I ask him about the placebo effect in relation to ceremony and healing. He tells me about a Druid communion ceremony (???) in more detail, including a description of the use of solar and telluric currents of the cosmos. We talk about the impact of reclaiming the gods of nature. And then he schools us on "decensus" and genetic drift.
It's a broad, sweeping and thought-provoking conversation about how and why the universe works the way it does and how humans behave in relationship to the greater realms. Whew!
My marketing crush, Carrie Klassen, shares the story of a heart-wrenching experience that occurred while she was volunteering at a shelter for abused girls and women in India.
How We Met I first came across Carrie's work some time around 2009. When she released her workbook, How To Write a Loveable Homepage, she became the go-to adviser that I recommend to any entrepreneur who feels icky when it comes to sales and marketing.
When she was 19, Shayla Logan was homeless and suffering from severe depression with suicidal tendencies. For six months, she lived on the street while working her way through the court system to take control of her life. A near-death experience changed everything.
What is the size and shape of the wound of absence? When she was 11 years old, Sheila Webster's mother died of cancer. With tender open-heartedness, Sheila shares her story of navigating her mother's death and the impact it had on her life as she became a woman and a mother. This show was created in response to a previous episode on the Mother Wound. Sheila commented that she couldn't really relate and I was intrigued.
How We Met I'm not sure I remember exactly how I met Sheila - I think she saw me speak at a conference and then booked an appointment with me. I know it was about four years ago and we've since woven in and out of each other's paths. When I think of Sheila, the word "alignment" comes to mind. She's one of those people you meet and instantly know she's a good, solid, dependable person with a strong moral compass. Considering her story, that seems quite a feat, no?
International energy and finance analyst, Nicole Foss, breaks it down for us: what is really coming down the road in terms of systemic financial collapse and how do we personal prepare and cope with it. Can we talk for a minute about the escalating consequences of debt? How about the unsecured loans we're making to the banks (ie: keeping our savings there)? We run some scenarios.
We also talk about the importance of social capital in the midst of a long drawn-out crisis. This conversation is definitely thought-provoking. For more in-depth review, read the cited post, How To Build A Lifeboat.
How do we cope with personal and public debt in an age of global markets and possible Econopocalypse? We're talking with international energy and finance analyst, Nicole Foss, about how we manage global financial insecurity at a personal level. How do we manage our personal finance, investments and real estate to secure our future when globalization makes us so vulnerable to systemic collapse? I'm asking Nicole to expand on financial concepts because she's such an intellectual force of nature. Here's just a sample of her background: Nicole ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she has focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy. While living in the UK, she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level. She earned a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997. So, yeah, she's pretty well informed.
In a universe that's at least 13 billion years old and at least 13 billion light years across, how is it possible we've never had contact with intelligent life from other planets? In this episode, Astronomy Educator and Librarian, John Reid, discusses the Fermi Paradox, space debris and what the heck is happening with those crazy lights shining on the asteroid Ceres right now.
How We Met John and I went to high school together. One of the most memorable and terrifying experiences of my high school life was a late study session in the creepy old wing of the main school building. John told a group of us, in chilling, expressionless detail, all about this book he was reading called The Shining by Stephen King.
Episode We start by tackling The Fermi Paradox, the contradiction between the extremely high likelihood of intelligent life in the universe and the extremely low probability of our never having come across it yet.
We also muse about what might be happening with those brights lights on Ceres right now.
I get irate about space debris and John gets moony about the moon. He slips in little side notes here and there about things can could instantly end all life on earth like gamma ray explosions, supernova explosions and asteroids hitting us. (We saw what happened to the dinosaurs, he says casually.)
This is one of my favourite episodes and I'd like to thank my patron, Charlene Lo, currently hailing from Hong Kong, for her support in making it happen. Â Yay, Charlene!
Graphic designer, Emrys Miller, has worked as an artistic director for both a yoga magazine and a skeptic magazine - what the??? How does he, and how do we, make sense of the world using both reason and intuition?
How We Met I mentioned our origin story last time Emrys was on the show. You might also find it interesting to know that Emrys is the father of twin girls just entering their teen years. (Each, in my opinion, is a genius in her own way.) Emrys and his family usually spend an extended vacation every summer at an ashram in the interior of British Columbia. Cool, right? Also perhaps a little unexpected.
Episode Required reading for this podcast: Anomalous Events That Can Shake One's Skepticism to the Core by Michael Shermer.
And I simply can't recommend the book by Barbara Ehrenreich that I mention in the show highly enough. It's called Living With A Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search For The Truth About Everything and it was so deliciously exciting for me that when I read the last line, I slammed the book shut and literally squealed.
Also, take a look at Emrys' site www.rocketdayarts.com. If you're interested in humanism, check out the book he published, Voices of Humanism. It's an anthology of 35 articles by 15 humanists. My copy has a lot of underlines and dog ears.
Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse: Cultivating the Relationships We Need To Thrive is Carolyn Baker's most recent book and I'm so thrilled to talk to her about it in this episode of The Numinous Podcast.
In this episode, Carolyn talks about our fear of death, shares practical skills for communicating with a reluctant partner and children. She also helps us move through the feeling of schizophrenia that comes from trying to speak truth while living in an insane culture.
For this special milestone episode, my husband, Ruben Anderson, interviews me. A self-proclaimed atheist, Ruben starts out with basic questions about intuition and spirituality. But things get interesting when evidence mounts that Ruben is, in fact, the most spiritual person I know.
This week on the podcast we're getting to the heart of it all: facing environmental, economic and social decline and the sheer amount of grief that entails. Thankfully, we have the lucid, sensible and sensitive guidance of one of North America's foremost experts and elders in this area, Carolyn Baker, Ph.D.
Carolyn is a Jungian psychotherapist, an adjunct professor of history and psychology, and a prolific author of many thought-provoking books including one I consider essential reading for our age, Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times.
Some of the content in this show may be news to some of you, but for those for whom it is an urgent and incessant background beat, this show will be a release valve. Hearing someone approach such a daunting subject with such clarity and calmness is truly heartening.
This week my guest is musical artist, Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Christopher is the creative spirit behind all of the music in The Numinous School. I listen to his mucis nearly every day in meditation and use it in sessions with clients. I was curious to know how he found himself creating music in this niche.
Indigo Ocean is the founder and champion of multiple service organizations, an entrepreneur, a self-made millionaire, and a consultant for spiritually oriented entrepreneurs. Her first suicide attempt was at age 9 and she struggled with depression for years before deciding to stay and make the most of life.
In this episode, I mention Indigo's two books, Being Bliss and Micro Habits for Major Happiness. Indigo also recommends some great books for those exploring spirituality and enlightenment:
Personal and perennial favourite, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot
To find out more about Indigo Ocean and her offerings, including Phone Buddies Peer Counselling Community, find her online at www.IndigoOcean.org
A conversation with my 11 year old daughter, Mirabella, about intelligent life in the universe, lucid dreaming, parking angels and what happens after you die. It's a "who knows?" kind of conversation. I hope it prompts you to ask your loved ones, or even yourself, the Big Questions. Here are some Big questions to start with:
Do you believe there are other intelligent life forms in the universe? What do you think happens after you die? If you could come back as any person or thing, what would you choose? Do you believe in angels? Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever had a lucid dream? What do you fantasize about most?
In this episode, we re-imagine the design process as a form of shamanic journey. Emrys Damon Miller is the founder and creator of Rocketday Arts, a communications studio which helps clients who aim to build a healthier future. His clients have included those in the arts, the environment, education, and humanism/theology. Our conversation moves from how imagery affects society and self-image, intuition and the creative process, balancing a client's needs with personal and professional creative expression, and the way that intuition can bring charm, warmth and beauty to design.
John Michael Greer is the current Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a longtime Golden Dawn initiate and scholar of the Western Mystery Traditions. He is the author of numerous book on a wide range of subjects including peak oil and the decline of industrial societies. He also has two popular blogs, The Archdruid Report and The Well of Galabes.
In this episode, we talk about two of the lessons from John's seminal book, Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth, The Law of Flow and The Law of Limits.
John mentions his admiration of the toaists in this show, and recommends reading Lao-Tzu if you're interested in exploring further. He also cites Aldo Loepold and Henry David Thoreau as influences.
The Fabulous Miss Rosie Bitts is a burlesque diva, chanteuse, and sex and body-positive educator with a mission to empower. In this episode, we talk about feminism, the male gaze, doing scary things like taking your clothes off and singing in front of strangers (I don't know which is scarier to me), and learning to love our jiggly bits.
Rosie cites Bettina May as an early influence and talks about the burlesque troupe she co-founded, The Cheescake Review. Rosie offers workshops as well as one-on-one teaching sessions for men and women to develop their sexy sides, and has also authored a number of erotica books and a solo show called "Stories of Love and Passion". It was written to raise awareness for sex worker rights and was selected for performance at New York's United Solo Theatre Festival, the world's largest festival of one-person acts. Bravo, Rosie!
Find out more about working with or hiring Rosie at bestbitts.com.
Mark Silver is an entrepreneur, business coach, Sufi Master, and has a great sense of humour - such a great combination! He helps his clients "witness the love that's present in business that's hard to see."
In this episode we touch on pretty much everything - Judaism, spiritual disconnect with parents, agnosticism, mystical experiences, Islam, Sufism, the Reclaiming tradition, Wicca, neo-paganism, Jewish Renewal...my goodness, it's a good one, folks.
Find out more about Mark, the Heart of Business and his programs here. He also has a great list of resources about Sufism on his site, too.
Elle North is a tarot teacher, a reiki trainer and the creator of visually stunning websites for spirited entrepreneurs. I love the look and feel of Elle's designs and that's what drew me to her. It's so fun to spend time with someone who is as thoughtful and intuitive as Elle. In this episode, we dive into the tarot, particularly the Major Arcana.
The tarot deck that Elle said was her first is the Herbal Tarot deck and you can see samples of it on the site we both love, Aeclectic Tarot. The deck I use is The Mythic Tarot (old version) by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene. The tarot expert mentioned is Rachel Pollack, author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot and Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings.
Elle has a number of online courses and also offers spiritual mentoring. Find out more about her tarot, reiki and crystals work at www.drawingwithin.com.
Find out more about her design services at www.drawingwithindesign.com.
Oh this is a juicy one. Today I'm talking with Bethany Webster about the effects of patriarchy on mother-daughter relationships and other taboo topics like the impact of our mothers' struggles with self-esteem on our own sense of self. I was surprised to discover that Bethany and I are in the same boat with our mother wounds.
Bethany is a writer, transformational coach, international speaker and what you could call a midwife of the heart. Her work is focused on helping women heal the mother wound so that they can fully claim their brilliance, own their power and live as their authentic selves. Her work has appeared in Elephant Journal and the California Journal of Women Writers. She is the author of the forthcoming book âHealing the Mother Wound: Move Beyond What Your Mother Never Gave You and Become the Woman Youâre Meant to Be.â
Interested in private coaching with Bethany on healing the mother wound? Click here for a free, 30 minute session: http://www.b-webster.com/session/  Here is where you can get a free download of Bethany's e-book: "Transforming the Inner Mother": http://forms.aweber.com/form/67/1940772167.htm
Rachelle Lamb specializes in conflict resolution and breakthrough conversations. In this intimate conversation, Rachelle invites us to explore our inner landscape. The vivid imagery in her speech is lyrical and so pleasing to listen to. Enjoy sitting in with us as we share some poetry, some laughs, and some soul food in this episode.
Hey, what do you think of my website design? I really love it - it's a beautifully executed interpretation of my vision and it makes me feel good. The magic design fairy that makes it possible is Brooke Semple, the smart cookie behind the boutique agency, Seesaw Design.
With her degree in art history and contemplative approach to visual design, Brooke is one of my favourite collaborators and sounding boards when I'm moving through my creative process. (Can you tell she inspires me endlessly?)
Check out her work and follow her on Instagram and her monthly Field Notes.
Here's what I'm addressing in this, the last in a 3-part series of answering your questions:
1. What does it mean when you see number sequences repeating everywhere?
2. What am I doing wrong when I ask my oracle deck a question and the answer is totally unrelated?
3. Is it normal to suddenly be tearful when I receive a vision or message?
4. What's your #1Â tip for your students about intuitive development?
Trusting your pendulum: this week I seek advice from a veteran spiritual bookstore owner and also give three tips for getting more accurate information from this practical and useful tool.
The book I suggest in this episode is called The Pendulum Bridge to Infinite Knowing by Dale W. Olson. He also has pendulum chart books.
Mailbag time! I'm always getting questions about how to trust one's intuition more and in this episode, I get ranty about it. This is part one of a 3-part series in which I respond to questions submitted by students of The Numinous School of Intuition, my online intuition development course.
Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies is a dear friend and trusted teacher, advisor and mentor of mine. If you like my style of marketing, you'll enjoy his work because he's probably had the strongest influence on my approach. I'm proud to count him as a friend and I'm delighted to finally capture one of our conversations.
In this episode, Tad brings up his views on "charging what you're worth" and I give a shout out to one of my all-time favourite of his hundreds of blog posts. He also mentions our mutual friend, Sufi business guru and all-round nice guy, Mark Silver.
In this third and final episode of my three part conversation with Michael, he tells me about leaving Berkeley and the Communist Party behind, finding himself teaching at a Quaker school in rural Canada, and coming to a place of belonging after decades of seeking, betrayal and resistance.Â
We're going there this week on The Numinous Podcast: sex, spirituality, intuition and creativity with Registered Nurse and Certified Sexual Health Educator, Lesley Stedmon. How does our spiritual life influence our sex life and vice versa? How do we draw the line between being "good, giving and game" as a partner and not honouring our authentic self? How do we cultivate creativity and healthy sexuality in the course of busy, modern life?
In this episode, Lesley gets personal and shares what intuition feels like in her body. She also gives some great advice on "discrepancy of desire". To learn more about Lesley's work, visit her site thesensualsisterhood.com
Carolyne Taylor is a community organizer and connector. Known for producing inspirational and uplifting events such as the Victoria Yoga Conference, Conscious Conversations, yoUnlimited, Pitch Your Passion, and the Unlimited Woman Awards, Carolyne is like the Oprah of her city. But what do you do if you want to be part of a heart-centered community and you don't have a Carolyne on call? What if you're an introvert?
In this episode, Carolyne shares with us how she avoids burn-out as a natural "giver" and connector. She also gives sound advice for when you're starting from scratch or joining a new community. Finally, we talk about how to handle the challenges of belonging to or leading a heart-centered community, (especially as an introvert!)
Click to tweet! "Wishes come true when we put action behind them" ~ Carolyne Taylor
Kate Sitka has been able to communicate psychically with animals since she was a little girl. In this episode of The Numinous Podcast, we're talking about how to open dialogue with your pet, the difference between domesitcated and wild animals on the intuitive level, and whether there's a place for animal communication on the farm.
Kate mentions two of her favourite teachers on the show, Sonja Fitzpatrick and Penelope Smith. I also mention my husband's website The Small and Delicious Life (sign up for his occasionally-sent newsletter to follow our adventures in urban homesteading or check us out on Instagram #smallanddeliciouslife).
You can connect with Kate on her website tofinopsychic.com and find her delightful podcast at JoyfulTelepathy.com.
How do you teach your child about intuition and staying connected to their inner wisdom? What if your child really doesn't want to listen? What do you do if you get a bad feeling about one of your child's friends? My guest this week is conscious parenting expert, Colleen Adrian. We're talking about control, power dynamics, and messy bedrooms from a spiritual perspective!
In this episode, Colleen mentions two great resources that I heartily endorse as well:
Marshall Rosenberg's system of Non-Violent Communication (also known as Compassionate Communication). To download the "Feelings and Needs" list, check out my colleague Rachelle Lamb's website.
Power vs Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour by David R. Hawkins is a classic in the self-help genre because of its groundbreaking perspective on applied kinesiology, consciousness and energy dynamics.
Welcome back to my very special guest, Michael Phillips! In this week's episode, Michael tells about his upbringing as a Communist in 1940s America, followed by the Beat Movement in the '50's and attending UC Berkeley in the '60's.
My previous interview with Michael was called "Grieving Susan + Civilization".Â
Enjoy!
This week's episode features my friend, Agneta, a Swedish executive leadership coach who, oh by the way, also studied shamanism with some of the most famous teachers alive.Â
In this personal interview, Agneta shares what drew her to the shamanic path.  She also talks about the challenges of balancing her spiritual life with her corporate work. I love the end of this interview where she talks about being a catalyst - very inspiring for those who are trying to introduce spirituality in somewhat hostile atmospheres.
Some resources Agneta mentions include:
Psychosynthesis
Alberto Villoldo's Four Winds School (more of a South American tradition).
I've also heard good things about the Institute for Contemporary Shamanic Studies here in Canada.
I met Agneta when we were on a vision quest with Sparrow Hart of Circles of Air and Stone. He also shares medicine wheel teachings and several shamanic rituals.
I'm so pleased to have my beloved teacher, Judee Gee, returning to The Numinous Podcast this week. We're talking about Yin + Yang, Shiva + Shakti, tantra, and the Apostle to the Apostles, Mary Magdalene. Juicy, juicy stuff!
In this conversation, Judee and I share our deep gratitude for the wonderful book by Cynthia Bourgeault, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. That book truly changed my life.
I also mention my pilgrimage to La Grotte de la Sainte Baume, the grotto where Mary Magdalene lived out her days as a hermitesse.
I can't wait to one day take Judee's Tantric Woman workshop. I believe she is doing a North American tour in 2015 so if you'd like to bring her to your city, you should send her an email ASAP!
If you don't already own it, I highly, highly recommend Judee's book, Intuition: Awakening Your Inner Guide.
Trained as an intuitive psychic, breath therapist and teacher of alternative healing methods in Australia and the USA in the early 1980âs, Judee settled in France in 1988 where she created The Intuition School (LâEcole de lâIntuition). From 1988 to 2000 she taught her intuition development program in several regions throughout France and also published Intuition: Awakening Your Inner Guide, during that period.
Judee is the past President (1998â2001) of the International Breathwork Foundation and a founding member (2000) of the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors.
Have you, like me, dreamed of quitting everything and going to live indefinitely at Findhorn in Scotland? I'd say I give it serious consideration every five years or so, and a passing thought every other day. It's definitely going to happen one day. Until then, I have Kate.
Kate Sutherland is Faculty with THNK, The School of Creative Leadership, and a social entrepreneur, author, speaker and coach. As Kate sees it, each of us has an inner guidance system, available 24/7 and stunningly accurate. (I agree!)
But most of us barely begin to tap the potential benefits, in part because we don't know how, and in part because society emphasizes outer authority rather than the subtle signals of our inner knowing.
Kate's two books, Make Light Work and Make Light Work In Groups, are a wonderful resource for accessing that inner knowing and drawing it out in others.
Kate will be leading her workshop, Barefoot Facilitation, at Findhorn in August 2014.
Learn more about The Transformation Game here.
This week's episode is a tender portrait of loss, destruction and the pain of living in our times.Â
I have a very special friendship with Michael; a kinship and delight in our conversations, a warmth and joy in his presence that lifts my spirits. I love his lyrical way of communicating. I love how he surprises me - one moment a poetic rumination, the next a pragmatic shrug. I usually need lots of kleenex for our conversations. He just has a way of speaking to the human condition in a way that opens and soothes my soul. I hope you enjoy sharing in this small portion of one of our recent talks.
By the way, the following quote (which I sort of bastardize  in the show) is from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
"After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
Think you're out of the woods because Mercury has finally gone direct? Nuh uh says Canada's favourite astrologer, Georgia Nicols.
On this week's episode of The Numinous Podcast we're talking about how to deal with Mercury Retrograde, that thrice annual occurrence when it seems all things technology, communication and travel-related go haywire. Georgia explains what it is, why it happens and how to deal with it.Â
You can get Georgia's daily updates by subscribing on her website or you can follow her on Facebook to find out when the Moon alerts are in effect.
This week we're talking about the ritual of the vision quest with Sparrow Hart. For over 30 years, Sparrow has personally gone on vision quest every year and has led hundreds of people through their own wilderness rights of passage. I feel privileged to have been guided by Sparrow when I did my vision quest in the desert.
This is a truly rich conversation in which Sparrow gives so. many. resources. Not only has he written a beautiful ode to questing called Letters to the River: A Guide to a Dream Worth Living, he also mentions some of the books that were formative in the early years of his questing such as Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt, People of the Deer by Farley Mowatt, the work of Carlos Castadenda and Laurens van der Post.
I really can't recommend more highly a vision quest experience with Sparrow. Of all of my spiritual undertakings, these teachings were some of the most formative. If you are an ardent pursuer of the spiritual path and maker of your own myth, then a week with Sparrow will be a gift to your heart and a balm for your soul. Do it!
This week I'm talking with Josiah Neufeld, a Vancouver-based writer whose journalism, essays and short fiction have appeared in The Walrus, Hazlitt, The Globe and Mail, Prairie Fire, The Vancouver Sun, Geez Magazine, The Winnipeg Free Press, Rhubarb and elsewhere. Josiah grew up in West Africa, the son of Mennonite missionaries.
In this episode, Josiah shares his story and what he values most about the cultures that shaped his spiritual path.
In this episode, Josiah mentioned Malidoma Patrice SomÊ's work including his book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community. He also noted the Five Pillars of Islam when discussing spiritual practices.
This conversation leads us gently into usually rather barbed territory - colonialism, evangelism, and such - but I think you'll enjoy Josiah's thoughtful nature and the warm-hearted way he is integrating many cultures, practices and patterns into his own personal spirituality.
This episode celebrates the poetry that touches our soul and moves us. Llynne Phillips is a poet and poetry fan and today she shares her favourites and helps us discern their meaning.
In this episode, I'm talking with author and speaker, Monique Gray Smith, about how parents can weave ceremony and ritual into every day experiences with their children.
Monique shares several traditional First Nations rituals and we explore how we can support our children's growth through exposure to elements of ceremony to inspire their own spiritual connection.
Monique is the author of Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, and also the founder of Little Drum Consulting, an Aboriginal-owned and operated firm that provides consulting services to governments and Aboriginal communities and organizations.
In this show, I mentioned the wonderful coming-of-age event, G Day for Girls. Check out their website to find out how you can make this great event happen in your city! {Tell them Carmen sent you!}
This week on The Numinous Podcast is Kent Osborne, an Executive Coach and Leadership Development Trainer with a unique approach. Kent incorporates the mythology of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table into his work to evoke greatness in his clients.
Kent has 20 years' experience working with corporate clients internationally and since we're friends, I'm lucky enough to have experienced his unique approach to coaching for myself.
In this interesting conversation, we touch on the Arthurian Cycle, The Four Treasures of Tuatha DÊ Danann and The Kalevala of Finnish folklore.
I'm thrilled to introduce you to a Friend, elder and spiritual mentor, Shakti Earleen Roumagoux. She grew up Catholic and attended Jesuit university. She spent 20 years following the Hindu tradition and for the past few years she's been a staff member at Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist community, Plum Village in France. In this conversation we touch on mindfulness, sensing energy and the challenges of spiritual seeking.
Ever wonder who created the art in your favourite oracle deck? I did. So I did some sleuthing and tracked her down. And now we're friends! It's like a superfan fairy tale. Jena DellaGrottaglia-Maldonado is the artist who created the imagery for one of my all-time favourite decks, The Enchanted Map, by internationally acclaimed intuition expert, Colette Baron-Reid. She has also collaborated with Baron-Reid on Wisdom of the Hidden Realms as well as P.C. Cast's The House of Night. You can find her portfolio online and follow her on Facebook at The Art of Autumns Goddess. Her FB page is also where you can enjoy the results of the duelling Muses with Tracye Shearin as mentioned in the interview and she also posts her playlist at times. In this episode, Jena takes us into her process for the making of an oracle card deck.
I'm so excited for this week's episode because my guest is someone who inspires me weekly with her insight and thought leadership on topics as varied as entrepreneurship, gender, creativity and social change. Lauren Bacon is a seasoned tech entrepreneur and author who asks a lot of questions. I highly recommend you sign up for her newsletter and get her e-book, "Curious for a Living: How Asking Better Questions Makes You Indispensable" - it worked for me!
Today we're talking about a subject I've been working with and thinking a lot about lately, Imposter Syndrome.
In this show, Lauren references some excellent resources including another thought leader in this arena, Tara Sophia Mohr. I've enjoyed her blog posts for over a year now. I especially loved her post about personal branding being "bullshit". Yes! I mention another post that really resonated with me about common ways that women undermine their own authority. Always provocative and substantial.
When Lauren talks about the "power pose" and research about how embodiment can affect performance, she's referring to this wonder woman here, Amy Cuddy.
If I were you, I'd start following Lauren and her work. She's up to some very cool stuff and I feel like her weekly Curiosity Experiments always seem to give me a new way to think about something I'm dealing with or working on. Find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
This week I'm talking with my friend, Carl-Greger L., and we're talking about the kundalini awakening he experienced during a reiki session that transformed his life, and how he integrates spirituality into his life as a consultant in the financial industry in northern Europe. His story is extraordinary and inspiring.
In this show, Carl-Greger shares one of his strategies for processing and integrating spiritual experiences: he writes everything down. He likes to use an app called Scrivener and I mention that I like Evernote.
If you enjoy the show, please remember to go back and give it a review in iTunes - that's how more seekers like you can find it! Just click the tab that says "View in iTunes" and it will automatically open your iTunes app to the show. Click on "Ratings and Reviews" and just underneath you'll see a tab that says "Write a Review". Thanks ever so much for taking the time to support the show!
This week's episode features my dear teacher, intuition coach and mentor, Judee Gee. We're talking about dealing with social scorn and the fallout of spiritual awakening, trusting ourselves, and integrity as a professional intuitive. Juicy stuff!
Trained as an intuitive psychic, breath therapist and teacher of alternative healing methods in Australia and the USA in the early 1980âs, Judee settled in France in 1988 where she created The Intuition School (LâEcole de lâIntuition). From 1988 to 2000 she taught her intuition development program in several regions throughout France and also published Intuition: Awakening Your Inner Guide, during that period.
She is the past President (1998â2001) of the International Breathwork Foundation and a founding member (2000) of the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors.
Since 2001, from her base in the South of France (Ecole ETRE), Judee has been co-directing an intensive three-year personal development program as well as a two-year professional level transpersonal therapist training. She also trains apprentice group facilitators in the art of group orchestration and ethical leadership.
Judee regularly leads seminars on the themes of intuition development, tantra, integrative breathwork and team cohesion, and facilitates individual sessions as a transpersonal therapist. She brings over 30 years of experience to the creation and implementation of the programs she teaches. Judee is fluently bi-lingual, speaking English and beautiful French.
This week's episode features everyone's favourite astrologer, Georgia Nicols! Georgia explains that intuition isn't part of her approach to astrology and illuminates the mathematical approach to astrology. We talk about how she got started in her work, Linda Goodman's sun signs, the Ephemeris and the ridicule that even she experiences as a "soft science" practitioner.
Georgia Nicols's wisdom and wit have made her a popular international astrologer whose horoscope columns appear in the National Post, Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald, Winnipeg Free Press, Victoria Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Press Democratic (Santa Rosa, California), China Daily (Beijing), and San Miguel (Mexico) as well as smaller weekly and monthly publications. She is a regular columnist in Elle Canada, The San Francisco Examiner, Washington Examiner (D.C.), and The Examiner (Baltimore), among others.
Georgia's book, You and Your Future, is a best seller in Canada, and has international printings in three languages. (In Australia, it is published under the title "Your 40 Year Horoscope").
The Numinous Podcast is a complement to The Numinous School, an online intuition development program for people who want their self-awareness to serve a greater good.
Today's podcast is a conversation with a woman who first came to me as a client, and who became a dear friend. Louise is the mother of three boys, a politician, and has been quietly building a professional practice as an energy healer. I asked Louise how she balances her spiritual life with the demands of high profile public service and also how she deals with the social scorn that comes from working with intuition.
Louise and I spoke over Skype (the few periods of poor reception pass quickly). Louise was at home in Stockholm, Sweden.
Episode 10
The Numinous Podcast with Carmen Spagnola is a show about Intuition & Spirituality, featuring interesting conversations with everyday folks about the mystery of life. The Numinous School is a self-paced online intuition development program for people who want their self-awareness to make a difference in the world.
On this week's show, I'm delighted to welcome the founder of the eWomen Network, Sandra Yancey. I asked Sandra about reconnecting to her centre when she's running a massively successful business. Sandra shared the intimate story of the series of tragedies that finally culminated in a life-changing moment at her mother's bedside as she lay there, at the threshold of death. It's a touching conversation.
In 2000 from a room above the garage of her Dallas, Texas suburban home -- with limited entrepreneurial experience -- Sandra boot-strapped her way to create one of the largest and most decorated business networking organizations in North America. Today eWomenNetwork is a multi-million dollar enterprise in six countries with 118 chapters that helps thousands of women grow their businesses. The organization produces over 1,000 womenâs business events each year, including one of the largest 4-day International Womenâs Business Conference in North America. Recognized by the International Alliance for Women as one of the worldâs 100 Top Difference Makers and by CNN as an American Hero, the eWomenNetwork Foundation she created has awarded cash grants to 94 non-profit organizations and scholarships to 132 emerging female leaders of tomorrow.
If you live in North America, very likely, there's an eWomen network chapter near you. If you're a woman in business, you should really look into membership especially if you hate networking. I have found their very structured Accelerated Networking process gives me something to focus on and do at the events so I'm not just standing there holding up the wall all night. It's how I built my in-person business and forged the deepest friendships of my life. You may not be as lucky as me (the Victoria chapter is particularly wonderful) but isn't it at least worth a look?
Follow Sandra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get up close and personal - she really does engage with her tribe which has now swelled to about half a million members.
Episode 9
The Numinous Podcast with Carmen Spagnola is a show about Intuition & Spirituality, featuring interesting conversations with everyday folks about the mystery of life. The Numinous School is a self-paced online intuition development program for people who want their self-awareness to make a difference in the world.
This week, my guest is my very own teacher, Dr.Jonni Gray. Â After seeing Jonni as a client, I ended up training with her in past life regression. In this conversation, I ask Jonni about the role of meditation in her work, and we talk about the tendency of some spiritual paths to create a hierarchy of realms. Jonni gives her take on the nature of the spiritual realms based her her nearly three decades of experience as a spiritual counsellor and channeler.
Jonni has helped tens of thousands of individuals source the answers to their questions of purpose,  passion, deeper connection with self, others, work, Soul, and the Universe. When describing her work to people, she says, "I'm not a shrink, but an expander."
You can expand along with Jonni with her wonderful meditation downloads. I'm telling you: she gives the best voice in the business!
She also tweets every morning and it's a great way to focus your alignment for the day. And of course Facebook is a great way to show your love or engage with Jonni if you enjoyed the show or have follow up questions.
Today I'm talking to my friend, Sarah Selecky, about the parallels between the writing and working with intuition. We also give metaphor the love it deserves.
Sarah is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and grew up in Southern Indiana and Northern Ontario. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and her writing has appeared in the top Canadian magazines and quarterlies such as The Walrus, The New Quarterly, and The Journey Prize Anthology, among many others. This Cake Is for the Party is her first book, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, and longlisted for the Frank OâConnor Short Story Award.
She is also the creator of the groundbreaking online writing program, Story Is a State of Mind, and online writing school, The Story Intensive, which includes collaborations with Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, and others. She divides her time between Toronto and the rest of the world. You can find Sarah at www.sarahselecky.com and on Twitter @sarahselecky.
I am not a fiction writer but I want to be because of Sarah's course. It has made my speech writing better, my course writing better and my articulation better. It's a gift you should give yourself if you have to write for your work but you're "not a writer".  You're welcome.
Our guest for this episode is Trinity Donnelly MacRae, founder of Divinely Inspired.Â
On today's show, we're celebrating Trinity's 17 years sober and we talk about the role of spirituality in addiction recovery. We touch on what it's like being "out" in recovery, and the importance of finding our tribe.
Recovering addict turned Gratitudaholic, Trinity dreams of living each day in an uplifting way. Her mission is to spread the love - one positive message at a time. The cure for stinkinâ thinkinâ? Notes to self, she says. Posted everywhere! And a whole lotta help from your friends. When not designing products for her line of inspirational giftware, Trinity can be found hanging out with her 8 year old guru. Join Trinity on the Divinely Inspired journey and watch your attitude of gratitude grow!
To direct some of that divine love your way, Like her Facebook page and sign up for her email list!
My guest for today's show is Elena Lipson, a Divine Self-Care Mentor who helps conscious mamas take care of their most important asset: Themselves! Women work so hard in their businesses and in their lives as mothers, friends, wives, etc. But what is it all worth if they are too tired, sick and stressed-out to enjoy it? Thatâs the focus of Elenaâs programs & retreats. Elenaâs passion is to help tune the mind, body & spirit into income, balance & inspiration.
In this episode, Elena tells us about coming out of the intuitive closet, the transition from corporate life to coaching, and how she incorporates intuition with her work with clients.
Keep up with Elena on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Her feed is always inspiring!
In this show, Elena references a great book that I also highly recommend, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Curry. (If you don't feel like adding another book to your pile here's the gist of it: go for long walks.)
I also mention The Transformation Game, a game of intention and intuition that originated at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. I've been playing it since I was 15 years old and host a monthly game night in my community. Warning: once you start, it's hard to stop. It's a wonderful way to spend a long evening but stock up on snacks and wine!
My guest for today's show is J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be, and co-author of The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. On today's show, we talk about what people are really seeking in nature, James drops the term "participatory consciousness" as though I ought to have heard of it, and he explains how to will the Universe to present a puffin when you need one. A very cool conversation, indeed.
MacKinnon also works in the field of interactive documentaries. He was the writer for Bear 71, a very cool interactive documentary which explores the intersection of the wired and wild worlds through the true story of a mother grizzly bear. Bear 71 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was named 2012 Site of the Year at the international Favourite Website Awards. His work can also be read in the app for CBC's epic wilderness documentary, Wild Canada.
As a journalist, MacKinnon has won more than a dozen national and international awards in categories as varied as essays, science writing, and travelogue. He is a past editor of Adbusters, the âculture jammingâ magazine that launched the Occupy movement, and a past senior contributing editor of Explore, Canadaâs national outdoors magazine. His stories have ranged from the civil war in Southern Sudan to anarchists in urban North America to the overlooked world of old age among wild animals.
You can listen to him read the article to you, Wisdom in the Wild: Why Age Matters Throughout the Animal Kingdom, courtesy of Orion Magazine. It's really beautiful.
James is a rock climber, mountain biker, snowboarder, andâyesâa birdwatcher. He lives with his partner Alisa Smith in Vancouver, Canada.
Keep up with J.B. on Twitter.
Also in this episode, I mention that I'm reading a book by my teacher, Sparrow Hart, called Letters to the River: A Guide to a Dream Worth Living. Sparrow led my vision quest in the Death Valley and I can't thank him enough for his teachings. If you feel called to go on a vision quest, seek him out on his website. Changed my life, in a good way.
Our guest for today's show is Robin Arnold, founder of Locate Your Soulmate. When it comes to life, Robin has a simple philosophy: Love wide; be positive, generous and kind. Believe in angels.
As the creator of Love School, which launches Sept 2014, sheâs changing the way people think about Matchmaking. Rather than doing the searching for her clients, sheâs teaching them simple and effective ways to do it themselves. Robin is excited to show people that everyone comes into your life for a reason and the journey of searching for your Soulmate can be just as joyful as finding them.
When sheâs not Love Coaching, Robin is treasuring time spent with her husband & soulmate and their two beautiful girls. She expects miracles to happen in her daily life and is living proof that they do.
In this episode, Robin shares the touching story of losing her twin brother, Reece, to a sudden heart attack when he was just 34 years old.
Within days of his passing, Reece appeared to Robin in angelic form. She talks about some of the experiences she's had with angels and guides ever since that fateful day.
As you might imagine, Robin's approach to helping her clients find true love was also dramatically influenced by her spiritual evolution. Keep up with her on her blog or Facebook page or get to know her on YouTube!
Part 1 of 3: Â In this special episode, Carmen introduces herself and shares some of her own spiritual journey including the influence of Joseph Campbell, First Nations spirituality and more.
Part 2 of 3. In this episode, Carmen talks about the first stages of spiritual development, including initiation and threshold experiences.
Part 3 of 3: In this show, Carmen shares the story of her long, dark night of the soul from bankruptcy and welfare to re-emergence.