The Numinous Podcast

TNP186 Time As A Tool of Empire with Desiree Adaway

Desiree Adaway is here to share with us how time has been constructed as a tool of oppression and how we can resist becoming complicit with supremacy culture through time pressure, and instead 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.

TNP185 Tutorial with Carmen on Trance, Dreams and the Collective

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. 
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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!

TNP184 Art and the Moon with Dana da Ponte

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 don’t have to be serious to own a paintbrush. 
 
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. 
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 she’s 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.
Email your Canadian MP
Sign the Amnesty International petition

TNP183 Journey From Maiden to Mother with Sarah Durham Wilson

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.
Sign the Amnesty International petition
Email your Canadian MP
 

TNP182 Reimagining Elderhood with Sharon Blackie

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 who’ve 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. 
Find Hagitude wherever you buy books and check out Dr.Blackie's many programs at sharonblackie.net

TNP181 Takeover Episode: Andrea Sexton Dumas Interviews Carmen on the Making of The Spirited Kitchen

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 – 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.

TNP180 What Makes A Witch? with Carmen Spagnola

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.

TNP179 Navigating Creative Drought and Change with Nikiah Seeds

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

TNP178 Eliza Robertson on Writing with the Stars and Magic with the Muses

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 Chani’s 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!

TNP177 Journal As Altar, Pages As Portals with Erin Fairchild

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 Kitchen 

TNP176 Mimi Young on Animism, Numerology, and Chinese Astrology

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 we’re 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:
 
CHINESE ASTROLOGY 1 + 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/
 
HOMING COVEN:A coven of collabortive animist-esoteric practice, relational care, and the power of the commmunal
https://shopceremonie.com/homing-coven/
www.shopceremonie.com

TNP175 Ancestral Reverence and Seasonal Traditions with Thérèse Cator

Thérèse 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.
Thérèse has been a coach for 13 years, has been practicing energy work since her teens and performing and writing since childhood. We’ve been friends since Therese first appeared on the podcast in 2017 when we spoke about Shadow Alchemy. Since then we’ve been fellow students more than once and we’ve collaborated professionally by co-facilitated small groups together. Thérèse has held me in some of my most vulnerable moments, at other times she’s 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!

TNP174 Sovereign + Supernatural: Manifesting Beyond Capitalism with L’Erin Alta

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

TNP173 Creative Witchcraft with Natalie Rousseau

Natalie Rousseau is here and we’re talking about her relationship to the word “witch”, 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. She’s 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. She’s a great listener, an excellent writer, and a gentle teacher and I know you’re going to love this conversation between two very like-minded women of great mutual respect. 
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 Instagram 
Sign up for her newsletter to stay informed about her 13 Moons program and other offerings.
Pre-Order The Spirited Kitchen now!

TNP172 A Love Note To Grievers with Angela E Morris

Gather in for a tender talk today about love and loss and friend breakups and grief and how all that impacts the creative process. I’m 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. You’re welcome here. Grab a cup of tea or head out to the garden with your headphones on – maybe don’t listen while you’re driving cuz the tears will make it hard to see the road. Whatever you’re doing right now, pull over and let’s have a minute together, shall we? We’re stepping onto sacred ground now.
Find Angela on Instagram at:
@angelaemmamorris
@ange_morris
 
Find The Spirited Kitchen here:
Canada
Everywhere else

TNP171 Crystie Kisler Is Connecting Land And Food

It’s 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
I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing Crystie’s warmth and generosity in circles together, workshops together, and could feel it in the atmosphere when I visited Finnriver on a trip for my son’s 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 don’t 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 swans’
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

TNP170 Flower Essences from the Witch’s Garden with Nicholas Pearson

I’m 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 we’re talking about Flower Essences and how they can be so safe yet still effective, and how to work with them if you’re 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 – follow Nicholas on Instagram @theluminouspearl to hear when pre-orders are available.
Plus he’s 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.

TNP169 Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies

Sophie Macklin is an anarchist mystic living on Tongva land, near the Los Angeles river. She’s 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. I’m 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.
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Have a question or comment? Looking for life advice? Need some witch wisdom? Maybe I can help – listen for my response in an upcoming episode!
Click here to leave me a voice or written message.
 

TNP168 Somatics for White-Bodied Folks Recovering Ancestral Wisdom with Marika Heinrichs

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). 
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
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Have a question or comment? Looking for life advice? Need some witch wisdom? Maybe I can help – listen for my response in an upcoming episode!
Click here to leave me a voice or written message.

TNP167 Lessons Learned from Ira Glass, Roxane Gay and the Making of The Spirited Kitchen

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 – 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!