The Numinous Podcast

TNP98 Priestess Shaman Mystic Scapegoat with Sarah Kerr

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.

TNP97 Ancestry Funerals and Writing at 4am with Leesa Renee Hall

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.

TNP96 Secrets of the Temple with John Michael Greer

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.

TNP95: Preparing for Quest with Ashley + Patricia

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.

TNP94 Mapping Reclamation with Rachael Maddox

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 – 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

TNP93 Queer Nature with Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd

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!

TNP92 Sufism Dreamwork and Belonging with Toko-pa Turner

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.

TNP91 Emelia Is Trying To Be Good

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.

TNP90 The Celtic Golden Dawn with John Michael Greer

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 – 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.

TNP89 Journey of the Psychopomp with Cat Webb

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 – specifically how to care for the dying when there are family members resisting – and so, so, so much more. Follow her on Facebook or join her group PsychopompLifeChat.

TNP88 Monique Gray Smith is Speaking Truth

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.

TNP86 Channelling Change with Jenn Richardson

"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.

TNP85 Therese Cator on Shadow Alchemy Life As Ceremony

Thérèse 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.   Thérèse is leading a Shadow Alchemy Retreat in Tulum, Mexico. Explore her world at theresecator.com

TNP84 Honouring Ancestors with Rachael Rice

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.

TNP83 Nora Samaran The Opposite Of Rape Culture Is Nurturance Culture

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 “rape culture”, 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.  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 Kimberlé 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.

TNP82- The Eclipse The Gleaners And Ruben And I

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)

TNP81: Your Intuition Questions Answered - The Numinous School Tutorial

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 DellaGrottagliaInstinct Art & Gifts in Victoria, BC or onlineBanyen Books & Sound in Vancouver, BC or onlineAeclectic TarotHealing Crystals For YouThe Crystal Bible by Judy HallThe New Crystal Bible by Cassandra EasonSilk Road Teas for essential oils in Victoria and Vancouver, BC or onlineFloracopeia for essential oils and resins The Spice School ~ Glynnis Osher Aromatherapy For The Soul and The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Ann WorwoodThe 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.

TNP80: Quest Q&A ~ Your Top 10 FAQs Answered By Ones Who’ve Just Returned From The Wilderness

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    

TNP79 Layla Saad on Perspectives of a Black Muslim Woman on the Priestess Path

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.  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  

TNP78 Nina Hirlaender on the Uncommon Marriage of Celtic Shamanism and Catholic Mysticism

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.