The Wandering Below: Recent Episodes
Davide Zimolo and Stella Roback
When we say deep, we mean covered in soil, nurtured by darkness, and dancing among the mycorrhizae.
These are our usual conversations. As playful as we intend to be, it tends to turn deep pretty quickly.
We're not looking for answers. We're explorers wondering how the story will unfold.
Maybe the messages of healing our world really needs are questions and all we have to do is be together while asking.
We're not trying to heal anything, but there's a chance that our conversations might lovingly provoke new ways of seeing and old ways of being.
All of you is welcome here.
~Davide & Stella
Fun fact: Davide is a huge sports nerd and an especially devoted Olympics fan. In this episode, he shares what it's been like following his country's teams and athletes while living abroad. This sparked a conversation between him and Stella on the themes of belonging, patriotism, nostalgia, levels of identity, language, and connection.
In this episode, we mention four types of trauma: emotional, chemical, electromagnetic, and separation from Nature. From there, we explore how to reconnect with the natural world, no matter where we live or what our lifestyle is like. We noticed through our wandering that there's much overlap between the ways we relate to nature and healthy human connections.
Davide and Stella talk through a web of thoughts on charity, volunteering, the gift economy, generosity, privilege, and whether or not giving builds community.
In this episode we check in with updates on what's been happening in these past few months. We talk about buying and renovating a house, making big decisions as a couple, learning when is best to compromise within one's context, and our dreams of what community could be when spaces that foster it are accessible to all.
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Stella and Davide interview Gary - aka G - on community, contribution, competition, belonging, and social media.
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This bonus episode was inspired by a question Davide asked in our interview with Hayley and Katie (Season 3 Episode 6).
Tune in for an introduction to polyvagal theory (including a quick overview of the ventral vagal, dorsal vagal, and sympathetic nervous system responses) and our take on why understanding this theory can support us in forming connections and building communities.
RESOURCES
A book that unexpectedly changed our lives when we read it earlier this year was Waking Up to the Dark: The Black Madonna's Gospel for An Age of Extinction and Collapse. Our thoughts on light and its impact on the human body and psyche mentioned in this episode are tied deeply to this book. We highly recommend it.
Although neither of us have read Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it for Good yet, it's at the top of our list! We really respect the work of Kimberly Ann Johnson and have no doubt that this book, like all she shares, is incredibly valuable.
To learn more about polyvagal theory, check out the Polyvagal Institute.
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Hayley and Katie join us today for tea and a thoughtful conversation. Tune into this episode on community and belonging to hear our interviewees' perspectives on the queer community, connective virtual spaces, Swifties, and how symbols and labels can help you find your people.
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Tune in for this conversation on community, culture-shaping, and belonging where Davide and Stella interview Cecio.
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Tune in for this conversation on community, culture-shaping, and belonging where Davide and Stella interview Gary.
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Tune in for this interview about community, culture-shaping, and belonging where Davide and Stella touch on the integral role of land in community, the loneliness of rooting into a new place where other humans aren't well rooted, the implications that king/queen/ascension mentality has on belonging, and "virtual communities."
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Tune in for this interview about community, culture shaping, and belonging.
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We’re back! Welcome to Season 3 of The Wandering Below podcast. In this episode, we’ll share:
- The energetics of late-summer, Traditional Chinese Medicine’s fifth season of the year
- Where we’re headed with the podcast!
Inspired by this time of the earth element and of centeredness and abundance, we’re beginning to open up our conversation space to include the stories and reflections of those around us. What lies ahead are discussions with invited guests about community, belonging, and culture-building — and we hope these chats are just the starting point for much more.
Tune into today’s episode for a preview of what to expect from Season 3.
For reference, here are our past episodes on seasonal energetics:
- Autumn
- Winter
- Spring
- Summer
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Join us for a conversation about the rich bewitchment that gratitude brings. The natural flow of thank-yous matches the abundance of the season, so let’s anchor a practice of circular gift-giving in the form of appreciation at this time of year when feeling grateful comes so easily.
In this episode, we share excerpts from Sacred Economics: Money, Gift & Society in the Age of Transition (Charles Eisenstein) and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Robin Wall Kimmerer). We talk about the gift economy, how plants teach us to relate to the land with love, and the real-life romance in the way saying “thank you” can change everything.
Perhaps most importantly, though, we wander back to a theme that has emerged in several conversations during Season 2 of the podcast: attempting to become invisible doesn’t solve anything. Instead, we need more wild entanglement with Nature and each other.
Dionysian cheers to summer, sunlight, soil, and sweat. Dance, sing, harvest, gather, and feast in joy as gifts of thanks. Forge relationships as you forage in the forests and fields. Leave offerings. Say “thank you.”
We’re grateful you’re here with us.
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Happy summer to one and all! Join us for the fourth in a series of episodes on seasonal energetics. Today we engage with the time of fire and joy using Traditional Chinese Medicine’s (TCM) five-element (or wuxing) system.
We rant about the false concept of endless summer and wonder about the connection between one’s elemental constitution or personality and the season in which they tend to thrive. We highlight the distinction between climate and weather and discuss the power in being able to differentiate between emotion and spirit.
We close it out dreaming about a magical world where “summer people” lead fire-season rituals and rely on “winter people” for guidance in honoring darker times.
In addition to TCM, we also reference astrology in this episode. If you’re interested in learning more about this system or simply generating your birth chart, we recommend true-sidereal astrologer Athen Chimenti’s work at MasteringTheZodiac.com.
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This episode is part II in a mini-series on conscious consumerism. Today we’re discussing ethical and ecological clothing labels, the basics of fabric production, and how our shopping choices relate to the health of our planet and its beings.
We talk through the meaning behind the following clothing labels and production certifications:
- Organic
- Fair Trade Certified™
- Regenerative Organic Certified®
- OEKO-TEX® Certified – STANDARD 100 and MADE IN GREEN
- Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) Certified – “Made With Organic” and “Organic”
We also break down the differences between natural, semi-synthetic (naturally-derived), and synthetic fibers, giving examples of each and highlighting how fiber type doesn’t necessarily infer anything about the sustainability of the manufacturing process.
We all wear clothing, and we must acquire our garments somehow. Whether you make your clothes or buy them, understanding the ways natural fibers are grown, synthetic fibers are developed, and fabrics are produced can help inform your purchasing decisions.
Learning the impacts our shopping choices have on the ecologies and beings in the places where our garments are manufactured can be both overwhelming and empowering. However, knowing what labels to look for when purchasing clothing as well as using your intuitive sense to vet vendors can help you navigate the greenwashing that floods the fashion industry.
Choosing what to wear can be a rebellious act when you direct your money and energy wisely in support of your own wellbeing and of the Earth's ecological stability throughout the Anthropocene.
To connect with us or request a list of resources for deeper discovery, reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com.
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This episode is part I in a mini-series on conscious consumerism. Today we’re discussing food labels, agricultural practices, and how our choices at the grocery store relate to the health of our planet and its beings.
We talk through the meaning behind the following food labels and agricultural certifications:
- Non-GMO
- USDA Organic
- Real Organic Project
- Regenerative Organic Certified
- Certified Regenerative (A Greener World)
We also break down the many descriptors used for both beef products and eggs, which tend to be particularly convoluted.
We’re all consumers, in that we all eat. Having the tools to understand some of the labels you might see when purchasing food can help you feel empowered to direct your money wisely in terms of your own well-being and of the Earth's ecological stability throughout the Anthropocene.
To connect with us or request a list of resources for deeper discovery, reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com.
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Today we’re breaking down a few basic concepts in the discussion on climate change. We talk through terminology that’s common but sometimes misunderstood including global warming, greenhouse gasses, fossil fuels, carbon emissions, and carbon sequestration.
In previous episodes, you’ve heard the etymology of “regeneration” and “sustainability.” Today we bring the root of the word “conservation” into the conversation, which delivers an interesting depth to what might otherwise be a pretty heavy topic.
Referencing an article recently published by Charles Eisenstein, we share the perspective that shifting our focus from carbon to water and from climate change to ecocide is essential for understanding how to make empowered decisions at this time. We talk a bit about the living Earth view, love, and how true environmentalism requires responsibility more than it demands activism.
Join us as we anchor the belief that our beautiful planet is inherently healthy and whole.
To read Charles Eisenstein’s essay “How the Environmental Movement Can Find Its Way Again,” click here.
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Join us for a wandering conversation on anarcho-primitivism!
If you’ve never heard of this — yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a movement that fuses anarchy with a primitive lifestyle. This ethics-driven framework serves as a critique of current economic and political systems.
In this episode, we’re questioning whether it’s actually possible to live in deep relationship with Nature and fully adhere to the Wise Earth paradigm (discussed at length in recent episodes) in the context of modern society.
Using anarcho-primitivism as an example of an extreme way of life with both social and environmental implications leads us through an engaging discussion on how one might make ecologically motivated decisions in a time of climate crisis.
We talk about the rejection of authority and technology, the contrasting ideas of domestication and rewilding, and the cost of endless production and consumption.
If we all want more freedom, equity, and an Earthly environment that supports the sustenance of our species, how can we make it happen on the societal level? Individual choices can be impactful in one’s community, but is it ethical or even effective to suggest humans might benefit from living as hunter-gatherers at a global scale?
This conversation, like many we have on The Wandering Below podcast, leaves us with more questions than answers. We wonder where empowerment and leadership might intersect, whether or not a so-called hierarchy exists in the natural world, and how to build stable communities and inspire meaningful creation in times of evolution.
If you’d like to connect with us, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com. For more reflections, check out Stella’s blog.
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Today we’re taking another deep dive into a framework that supports viewing the world as unbroken. This healing paradigm, called German New Medicine (GNM), combines the scientific and Wise Earth traditions we discussed a couple episodes ago.
Like any paradigm, GNM is a way of seeing things. In particular, this system serves as a lens through which the human body can be understood from a biological and evolutionary perspective.
It is neither a healing modality nor a means for fixing problems. It is simply — and profoundly — a mindset that positions Nature and its creatures as infinitely wise.
GNM is based on the understanding that the psyche, brain, and body are all one united being that responds to personal and environmental happenings in a biologically purposeful way. This paradigm is built upon the foundation of five biological laws, which we discuss in this episode.
Thanks for tuning in! If you’re interested in exploring more about German New Medicine, learningGNM.com is an excellent resource as are Dr. Melissa Sell’s YouTube channel and podcast.
If you’d like to connect with us, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com. For more reflections, check out Stella’s blog.
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Simply wanting to adopt a new mindset is not powerful enough of a technique to change your mental rules.
In this episode, we’re using presuppositions from the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) model to talk through how to adopt new beliefs.
Neuroplasticity explains the brain’s ability to rewire itself through experience. Flexibility in our neural pathways effects changes in thinking and behavioral patterns and can have a sustainable impact on our mental health and emotional well-being.
If you want to shift your beliefs about the world, you’ll need to exercise your neuroplasticity in order to reprogram your mind. This typically requires some awareness on your part, along with the intentional use of effective tools.
According to the NLP modality, language can be utilized as one such tool. Although we’ll introduce this modality briefly in today’s conversation, our main focus is the underlying set of “rules” or assumptions that NLP provides.
The purpose of the human mind is to process sensory and emotional input, inform our bodies what will support our advancement, and protect us from anything that could be detrimental to our wellness. It accomplishes this function by establishing rules and viewing our lives through the lens that those rules provide to determine what actions to take, which relationships to pursue, and how to interact with the world.
If you reach a point when you realize the mental “rules” – in other words, beliefs – you’ve held thus far are hindering you more than they’re helping you, you’ll need to replace your existing beliefs with new ones.
This is because the mind can’t do its job when it’s completely empty. It won’t allow you to simply delete your former beliefs and wait to see what arises naturally. You must insert new beliefs in their place and then continuously remind yourself of what those new beliefs are until they stick.
Eventually this new worldview will direct your actions and, from there, you’ll realize you’ve created a positive-feedback loop that supports you in maintaining your new mental rules.
After sharing in our previous episode – “Paradigms of Healing” – that we generally adhere to the Wise Earth Tradition, we wanted to explore how to anchor an unfamiliar mindset into your life in a grounded way. The NLP presuppositions we talk about here have provided practical support to us in affirming this paradigm in our everyday lives.
We aim to live according to the Wise Earth Tradition because we see it as the most effective and respectful way for us to practice and engage with ecological well-being. The perceived gaps between our modern lives and the environment dissolve in the presence of this tradition’s wisdom, and we consider this endeavor a requirement if we are to forge new relationships and create connected communities. Ultimately, the overflow from this leads to a more easeful symbiosis across our Earth.
Thanks for tuning in! If you’d like to connect deeper, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com. For more reflections, check out Stella’s blog.
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As a follow-up to our previous episode on medicine, we zoomed out to look at the frameworks provided by three major healing paradigms. These medical- or health-based traditions gave rise to the tools, medicines, and modalities we’re familiar with today, but what we’re focusing on here is how they also provide different lenses through which we as individuals view the world.
This discussion revolves around how our mindset informs the ways we see our own personal wellbeing, yet its implications overflow into every area of human life and far beyond. We’re diving into this topic because it’s the basis for some of our upcoming conversations about ecological healing in all the forms it takes.
For reference, the healing paradigms reviewed in this episode are:
- The Scientific Tradition – which focuses on data, time, mechanics, comparison, and the ability to standardize health
- The Heroic Tradition – which focuses on seeking improvement and purification while avoiding toxins and disease, the good-bad dichotomy and the victim-villain-hero trinity, and the ability to earn health
- The Wise Earth Tradition – which focuses on nourishment, supporting natural processes, Nature’s innate health or holiness, resilience, flexibility, and sovereignty
Thanks for tuning in! If you’d like to connect deeper, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com. For more reflections and life lessons, check out Stella’s blog.
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Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of The Wandering Below: Messages of Healing for an Unbroken World. With this season’s focus being on what we mean by “healing” and “unbroken,” the question “what is medicine?” is really just a starting point for a much broader conversation – and truthfully this episode barely scratches the surface of all there is to explore on the subject.
Join us as we talk through the etymology of “medicine” and “health,” the four bodies or levels of being, and the seven medicines of the Wise Earth Tradition.
For reference, the four levels of self are:
- Physical
- Mental
- Emotional
- Spiritual
And the seven medicines are:
- Serenity Medicine
- Story Medicine
- Energy Medicine
- Lifestyle Medicine
- Herbal Medicine
- Pharmaceutical Medicine
- High-Tech Medicine
We’re taking the podcast in a new direction with more of a teaching format, and we hope the information shared in today’s episode, the remainder of Season 2, and beyond serves you and supports your wellbeing.
If you’d like to connect deeper, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com.
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There’s plenty of evidence suggesting our world is broken. There’s an endless supply of stories circulating about how society is fragmented and the environment is being destroyed.
If we tune into the narratives currently firing across the collective, it’s natural to experience a sense of hopelessness. However, when we encounter even an ounce of inertia beyond the despair, it reveals to us a request for our participation.
Nature reminds us that we are not the problem, but rather that challenges arise when we shy away from our humanness. The paradox is that being more doesn’t necessarily lead to having more. Obtaining material goods from a place of integrity ensures our needs are met while also allowing for respectful and sustainable use of resources in place of depletion, disaster, and extinction.
The invitation then is to engage more fully with the Earth, our ecosystem, our communities, our families, and ultimately our true selves. Anchoring deeper into presence within allows us to enter the world with an optimistic view of the future.
This is not about sugarcoating the reality of things. It’s about rewiring our minds and recalibrating our vision to see the possibility in what’s alive at this moment. It’s about writing a new story that is neither ignorant of the upheaval happening in these times nor inherently fatalistic. It’s about acknowledging the fact that we are living in a landscape of great evolution – and about creating spaces that support us in exploring this uncharted territory without fear.
There is an equilibrium required here and it’s our calling to name it. On the surface, defining a balance that’s nourishing to the planet and all its beings might look like turning to the past for wisdom. But when we’re courageous enough to peer into the subterrain, we discover a need for modern eldering.
We aren’t elders ourselves, but we’ve come to the realization that the work we’re doing in having these conversations is part of an ancient revolution. Season 1 of our podcast was an exploration of topics that are actively transmuting in the crucible of our lives. As we reflected on the themes that arose and considered how we wanted to move forward into Season 2, we pieced together a mythopoetic adventure.
Our purpose in sharing our thoughts with you is to offer a different perspective. This perspective challenges us to view the world as unbroken. It requires us to be fully present and uphold our values as we give reverence to the inherent wholeness of Nature. It also guides us to focus on the ways our own empowerment is tightly woven with our capacity for healthy decision-making and our willingness to take conscious actions as human beings.
The conversations we have here are raw, heartfelt, and sometimes controversial. May they provoke you into remembering the animal-god within. We’re Davide Zimolo and Stella Roback, and we welcome you to The Wandering Below: Messages of Healing for an Unbroken World. Join us this season as we explore topics including: healing modalities and paradigms, sociopolitical structures, climate change and conscious consumerism, Nature’s wisdom, and gratitude.
Find us on instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingbelow/
Write to us | thewanderingbelow@gmail.com
Read Stella's blog | https://stellamoondrops.wordpress.com/
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Welcome to the final episode of Season 1! We’re back with another seasonal check-in as spring is in the midst of unfurling.
In this conversation, we chat about:
- Precision of language and reframing “I have to” as “I get to”
- How gratitude isn’t a forced sense of positivity but rather an invisible spirit that breaks barriers and encourages flowers to bloom
- Spring being the time when potential energy is activated and transformed into kinetic energy
- Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) associations with this season – the wood element, anger, and expansive Jupiter
- How healthy early-growth can look like fighting
- Letting spring’s energy, the metaphorical seeds sprouting in our hearts, and our imaginations run wild
- How whatever is bursting forth at this time is only doing so thanks to winter having held it
- Forgetting the raw mystery of Earth and how this forgetfulness disconnects us from our human-animal bodies
- The revolution being a remembrance
Thanks for dropping in with us! If you’d like to connect deeper, find us on instagram or reach out at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com! We love to feel you. And stay tuned for Season 2 – we’re excited for the adventure we’re taking The Wandering Below on as we head in a new direction!
This was an emotional episode. We talked about surviving and thriving, immigration and welcoming, grief and gratitude, place-based identity and nourishment, sankofa and remembrance, ancestors and energetic codes, and what it’s like being a bridge between the past and the future.
We opened with a bit of background on the topic that inspired this conversation: the environments in human design. From there, we allowed it to flow freely to see where we landed. As usual, we wound up wondering and wandering through uncharted depths rather than reaching a concrete conclusion.
This discussion weaves together so many threads – most of which are coming up in our lives right now, relevant for each of us in different ways – and yet much of it is left untouched. There’s only so much we can dig into in this amount of time, but we’d love to go deeper with you in the seasons ahead.
We invite you to join the conversation with us. Let’s tug on some of these threads together and see how the tapestry of our human family looks as we rearrange the pieces in a way that makes sense, holds our bones, and feeds our hearts. Reach out to us at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com.
In this episode we share the etymology of “safety” and “protection,” discuss how a sense of safety starts from within while the ability to protect requires the development of certain skills, and explore how the Human Design splenic center relates to all of it.
As humans, we have animal bodies and conscious minds. Our reality revolves around both survival-based instincts and interpersonal relationships. We have biological on/off switches that tell us when there’s a threat in front of us and when we’re safe. We also have community and culture that impact us and are impacted by us.
A major source of subconscious programming is story. When you change the way you see things, the things you see change.
You have the power to bless a space with safety simply by your being there, but it requires you to connect with or cultivate your own sense of safety within your body. We wonder if those with defined spleens (again, this is a reference to Human Design) have an innate and consistent radar for safety – and even emit that frequency themselves – while those with undefined spleens require input from their environment.
Beyond survival, splenic awareness provides information about what’s nourishing and supportive and what’s not. It reveals what will help us thrive as individuals and build resiliency as a community.
We reached the realization that most dangerous situations are a result of people fearing the potential of danger. What would our world be like if we focused more on our inner stability than on protecting ourselves from perceived threats? What would change if we challenged the stories we’ve been told about problems that exist far from us in time and space?
This is a broad and sensitive topic, and our conversation about it is informed by our own personal experiences, the beliefs we’ve received about safety in the past, and our differing experiences of what safety feels like in our bodies. We touch on behavioral ecology, etymology, and of course Human Design.
We genuinely desire to open this discussion up as wide as we can. It might be selfish of us to want to hear what you think – but we also see that the more this is talked about, the safer the world will be for more members of our human family and beyond. Share your hearts with us at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com.
If you’d like to learn more about Human Design, our previous episode where we introduce the system is a good place to start. To generate your Human Design chart for free, click here.
The post we reference in this conversation is here on instagram.
Today we’re chatting about growth, eldering, and charged language. The Wandering Below is a collection of our raw conversations – and sometimes that includes calling each other out in love. We push each other’s views on growing, decomposing, and identifying what’s truly valuable.
As much as we might not want to think about it, there are fewer elders in our world now than ever before. Maybe that’s why we hold innovation in such high regard – and even why something being held in “high” regard is considered a good thing. What about things that stay low? Or things that stay still? What about the soil and the plants’ roots and the mycorrhizal network? And what about the beings who live underground? What about decay? What about fear and fighting and grief?
We welcome all of it and invite you to wander with us.
Find us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingbelow/
Read Stella's blog - www.stellamoondrops.com
By the way, we have a guest speaker joining us in this episode! You’ll hear our dog Dex barking in the background a couple times. He’s a growing boy and got very excited by our conversation. Dex and our other (quieter) dog Ziggy are rescues adopted from a local humane society. Davide is supporting another nearby shelter, HumaneCNY, to raise funds for their animal care needs through the Boilermaker Road Race Charity Bib Program. If you’d like to contribute to the wellbeing of some furry friends, click here to learn more and consider making a donation. Thank you!
Today we’re reviewing seasonal energetics, sharing the script from our 2022 winter solstice ceremony, and checking in with where we’re at in this period of hibernation. We’re complex humans in simple animal bodies after all.
Winter’s darkness invites celebration. Engaging in ritual during this time keeps us grounded throughout our journey along the internal, spiritual spiral we travel upon during the season of emptiness.
In this episode, we reflect on how winter has flowed so effortlessly for us this year and posit that perhaps this could be rooted in the way we blessed the season’s opening with ritual darkness and ceremonial emptiness. Winter delivers grief, offers glimpses of death, and silently demands surrender – and this keeps us in touch with what’s real.
Click HERE for our full breakdown of seasonal energetics. HERE is the written script for our winter solstice ritual, if you’re curious. Share with us how your winter has been at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you!
We’re diving into something that’s been a huge point of fascination for both of us this past year: Human Design! Learning this system has supported us as individuals, as a couple, and in the ways we interact with the world.
Davide is a 3/6 emotional projector and Stella is a 4/6 splenic projector, so we have plenty of insight on being in a projector-projector relationship – and an emotional + splenic relationship (!) – that we’ll share with you during this conversation.
We’re certainly not Human Design experts, but we’re deep into our experiments and will wander through the following in this episode:
- What Human Design is
- Which systems it’s based on
- How to figure out what your personal design is
- Where to begin once you’ve discovered your design
- Definitions of aura type, authority, and profile
- Explanations of some of our design components including the projector aura, emotional (solar plexus) authority, splenic authority, and the 3-, 4-, and 6-line profiles
- Conditioning and deconditioning
- Where we’re at in our deconditioning journeys
During this conversation, we reference DayLuna a few times. If you’re interested in learning more about Human Design, we recommend you search for their site, book, and tools online. We’re not affiliated with DayLuna ourselves, but have found their way of presenting Human Design to be most supportive to us on our journey. However, there are many other teachers and creators we learn from too, so reach out to us at thewanderingbelow@gmail.com if you’d like a list of our additional recommendations. To generate your own chart, visit the official Human Design website at jovianarchive.com/get_your_chart.
Find us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingbelow/
Read Stella's blog - www.stellamoondrops.com
In this episode, we do a breakdown of seasonal energetics, focusing not only on the seasons themselves but also the phases of the moon. So much can be revealed about the nature of things when we have eyes to see the world around us.
This conversation was recorded in November 2022, so we dive deeper into the texture of autumn in particular and share personal stories about how fall feels to each of us.
We round it out with a characteristic rant about society’s disconnection from Nature and talk about how much more fulfilling harvest season feels when the metaphorical seeds planted during spring actually hold meaning.
Find us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingbelow/
Read Stella's blog - https://stellamoondrops.wordpress.com/
It’s easy to pick up a new phrase like “regenerative agriculture” and run full-speed-ahead toward implementing it without ever looking back. But the language we use matters. In episode 3 of The Wandering Below, we share the etymology of the words “regeneration,” “generation,” and “ecology” and reflect on the energetics of using these terms in the context of producing food and stewarding the land.
Find us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingbelow/
In episode 2 of The Wandering Below, we tear up the term “sustainable” after diving deep into the idea that death is its own natural phenomenon. We talk about our tendency to distance our bodies from Nature’s cycles, where those tendencies come from, and how living lives infused with cyclicality grounds us into a sense of home. Based on its etymology, we see sustainability as a linear concept that denies the natural endings of things.
There is an enormous conversation to be had around sustainability, and we realize that a single podcast episode can’t reach the level of nuance it requires. We intentionally shared our thoughts on this in such a way as to lovingly provoke a passionate response and purposefully left out some of the more obvious insights we usually hear talked about when it comes to this topic.
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"Regeneration" is not a process we can control because it's impossible to recreate what already exists. Maybe we're missing the point when we focus on regenerating ecosystems because it perpetuates a pattern of detachment from Nature.
We explore how guilt and other emotions might invite action from Earth's crusaders and wonder what it would be like if we felt our feelings and sank into our fascinations instead.
We focus on regenerative agriculture, but we believe that how we do one thing is how we do everything.
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The Wandering Below: Messages of Healing for an Unbroken World
When we say "deep", we mean covered in soil, nurtured by darkness, and dancing (slowly) among the mycorrhizae.
These are our usual conversations. As playful as we intend to be, it tends to turn deep pretty quickly.
We're not seeking to fix anything. We're not even looking for answers. We're explorers traversing the terrain (and sub-terrain) wondering how the story will unfold. We feel most successful when we wander full-circle and land on another question.
It's funny how the "messages of healing" our world really needs do not contain solutions or secret formulas. The answer is always in the question - and in our willingness to be together as we look the question directly in the eyes.
We're not trying to heal anything, but there's a chance that our conversations might lovingly provoke new ways of seeing and old ways of being.
There's lots of space if you'd like to join us in the labyrinth. All of you is welcome here, and we are here to hold your depth.
~Davide & Stella