The Numinous Podcast

TNP292 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #10 Honouring the Child Within {with Bonus Meditation}

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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TNP291 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #9 The Wild Hunt and the Restless Ancient Dead

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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TNP290 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #8 Father's Night and Spirits of Place

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
 
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TNP289 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #7 Winter Solstice and the Old Woman of Winter

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 ✨

TNP288 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #6 Krampus, Lussi, and Holiday Horror

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
 
✨ Join us in The Numinous Network ✨

TNP287 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #5 Food Lore

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
 
✨ Join us in The Numinous Network ✨

TNP286 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #4 Animal Lore

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
 
✨ Join us in The Numinous Network ✨

TNP285 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #3 Plant Lore

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 ✨

TNP284 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #2 Grounding the Season

Welcome to this fun and convenient replay of my Yuletide Miniseries! In this episode:
NOTE: This episode contains a 7 minute guided meditation – 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 ✨

TNP283 {REPLAY} Yuletide Miniseries #1 The Anticapitalist Festival of Animism!

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 ✨

TNP282 Electional Astrology with Drew Levanti

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. Drew’s 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 Report
Into the Fire: Your 2026 Astro-Download
 
Listen to the AstroMagic Miniseries
 
Astrocartographers I recommend:
Jen Zahrt
Jasmine Richardson
 
✨ Join us in The Numinous Network ✨

TNP281 "23 Dates with My Dead Dad" with Corey MacAuliffe

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 Master’s in Public Health. She’s 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 father’s 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 reminiscences…one thing I really appreciated about Corey’s 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 that’s 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
 

TNP280 End Perfectionism & People Pleasing with Beatriz Victoria Albina

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 – personas we adopt to get along
• a process to engage with boundaries using clear, direct communication
and much, much more!
Béa 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!
✨ ✨ ✨
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 – Everyday Animism, Folk Magic and Witchcraft

TNP279 Dra.Rocio Rosales-Meza on Decolonial Shadow Work

My guest today is ✨ Dra.Rocío Rosales-Meza ✨ Dra.Rocío is a former academic with a background in counselling psychology who currently works at the intersection of ancestral veneration, decolonization, health – and by that I mean, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing.
Through her courses and mentoring programs, Dra.Rocío 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 I’ve followed Dra.Rocío for some time and I’ve seen her quote many of the iconic teachers and revolutionaries that I, personally, find inspiring and instructive – for instance, I’ve 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 – 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.Rocío's website
Register for Decolonial Shadow Work
 
Learn more about:
Dr.Michael Yellowbird - Neurodecolonization and Indigenous Mindfulness
Assata Shakur
bell hooks
Thích Nhat Hanh
 
Join us in The Numinous Network
Come to my Book Jam! Bringing Contact Nutrition to the Page

TNP278 Story is a State of Mind with Sarah Selecky

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.
Sarah’s 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 Canada’s 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 (😮) 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

TNP277 Entering Hekate's Cauldron with Dr.Cyndi Brannen

I am ✨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 Hekate’s Garden in 2020, Entering Hekate’s 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 Hekate’s parentage and her coterie of counterparts - the other deities and allies that show up in her myths, and even author her myths as we’ll hear later on.
Learn more about Cyndi's books and offerings (including Covina, her on-going coven of Hekate) on her website keepingherkeys.com
 
Join us in The Numinous Network

TNP276 The Witching Stones with Nicholas Pearson

Today I’m 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 Witch’s Garden which aired in 2022. I think he’s written about a dozen books now, not only on minerals but other spiritual topics as well, and he’s always got a unique take, there’s 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 TikTokPatreon

TNP275 Community Building in Tough Times with Asteria Elzea

Welcome fellow Numinous Network Guide, ✨ Asteria ✨, 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.

TNP274 Embodied Anatomy with Abigail Rose Clarke

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 Embodyoga®. 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 ✨mesentery✨, ✨lungs✨, ✨SCM✨, ✨psoas✨, and what's so magical about these parts.
Referenced in this Episode
Anchor 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
 
 

TNP273 Introducing 9th House Press with Taraneh Erfan and Thérèse Cator

This is the biggest announcement I’ve ever made, not just on this podcast, but in my life. Bigger than getting a book deal, even.
 
This is something I’ve 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 something…pretty 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 don’t know yet what they don’t know. 😂
 
It is my great, great pleasure to announce, that along with my colleagues and co-founders, Taraneh Erfan and Thérèse 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 – meaning the ways we access liberatory information – 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:
I’m in business – a worker co-op – with my two dear friends, Taraneh and Thérèse! This is wildly exciting to me! And very healing.
We’re going to publish not only our own books, but also acquire up to 12 titles a year.
We’re publishing works that will tell us stories and give us models for how we’re going to seed the future with the best humanity has to offer: compassion, creativity, and connection.
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 it’s a cloth bag, or stickers, but sometimes it’s seeds! Sometimes it’s t-shirts, and sometimes it’s art! Sometimes it’s a branded multitool! Or, or or…
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. 
We are actively wooing two other authors that I hope will be a yes for our first catalogue (coming January 2026). We’re eager to see what kinds of submissions we receive by our deadline: November 15, 2025 for Fall/Winter 2026 publication.
We’re gonna have Street Teams! I envision this almost like a “business-in-a-box” for my disabled and employment-challenged friends and followers who’d like to support our work but also make some money selling our catalogue and book bling at festivals, markets, fairs, and concerts. It’s very punk! It’s giving anarchist book fair! I love it so much.
Our net royalties favour the author starting at 50% with increasing escalators.
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.
We’re 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! It’s an associate membership so you don’t have the same rights and responsibilities as we have as worker-members, but it’s 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. It’s going to be collaborative and fun and, honestly, important work. We mean it when we say we’re 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 can’t keep us with the exhausting pace of the author-centered book launch era…we’re going to launch our books together. We’re going to collaborate. It’s going to be real hands-on but really body-friendly, real gentle on the nervous system 💖 And we could really use your support! Please:
•  Follow our Instagram @9thhousepress
• Become an associate member of our co-op
It’s $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.