The Numinous Podcast

TNP219 The Metaskills of Healing with Thérèse Cator

Wow, this is a juicy one. My dear friend, Thérèse Cator, is back on the show in this special replay of a session we co-led as a warm-up event for my Witches New Year Gathering happening on October 28, 2023.
Thérèse Cator is a trauma-informed embodiment practitioner who specializes in helping people develop a connection to their bodies that promotes wellness and healing. Cator’s work provides an intersectional and decolonial lens that is rare in an overwhelmingly white and ableist somatics field. Thérèse is also the founder of Embodied Black Girl, a global community that stands for the embodied liberation of Black women and femmes and women of color everywhere. Embodied Black Girl is devoted to creating a safe space for to heal from intergenerational trauma, racialized stress and colonial conditioning in service of our individual and collective liberation and healing. Thérèse has been featured in Forbes and MindBodyGreen, and she has delivered workshops to major tech companies while maintaining her focus on Black women's and femmes' health.
We've been friends since 2017 and over the years have been in trainings together as students, as well as co-facilitated and collaborated on projects. We often independently come up with new directions we want to take with our work, only to find the other was planning the exact same thing. And that's what happened here! We are each offering facilitator trainings in 2024 and we're here to give some insight into our shared philosophical approach.
Referenced in this episode
TNP85: Thérèse Cator on Shadow Alchemy and Life as Ceremony
Sign up for Thérèse's newsletter on her website
Find out more about Thérèse's background here
Can academic reading be healing?, by Katherine Firth (the Routledge article based off Sedgewick's concept of "reparative reading") 
Sedgewick's original essay on "paranoid reading" versus "reparative reading"
TNP161: Collapse in a Nutshell
 
***
Learn more about the Metaskills of Collapse in my Collapse 101 course in The Numinous Network, or join us to experience our manner of approach for group facilitation. 
Last call to get your ticket for Witches New Year! Recordings available to stream until Nov 7, 2023.
Sign up for my newsletter so you'll know when my facilitation training opens in Feb/March 2024.
Like this episode? Give it a review! As you can tell, I read them and they matter to me!

TNP218 Take Down the Patriarchy and Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn

My guest today is Perdita Finn, co-founder, with her husband Clark Strand, of the non-denominational international fellowship, The Way of the Rose, which inspired their book, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. Her newest book is called Take Back the Magic:Conversations with the Unseen World. It's part spiritual memoir, part ancestral veneration how-to, part takedown of the patriarchy through correspondence with her deceased father who was a doctor. 
I absolutely loved this conversation and could listen to Perdita for hours. I highly recommend you seek out her book, Take Back the Magic, and spend some time communing with your Beloved Dead.
Follow Perdita on Instagram
Join Perdita's Substack
 
Referenced in this episode
TNP73 Charlene Spretnak on Reclaiming PrePatriarchal Goddesses
 
Like this episode? I'd love your review! 🙏🏻💖
 
Check out Witches New Year 2023
 
Learn more about The Numinous Network
 
Check out my book, The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
Author photo by Juliet Lofrado.

TNP217 Burnout and Recovery at Midlife with Annie Bray

I saw a meme that said, "If I am googling symptoms and the treatment says "mindfulness", I know there's no treatment for my condition". I laughed but...for real, can't we do any better than this??
Let's have a real conversation about the pervasiveness of burnout and the gaslighting of the wellness industrial complex. If you're a regular listener, you know we have a clear line of sight on patriarchy and capitalism and we have long been well aware that they're the underlying cause, as with white supremacy, ableism, all of it. Clearly self-help and meditation isn't enough.
And yet, there is something to it, isn't there? It would be awfully ignorant of me to not recognize that a millenias-old practice probably has some merit. The benefits of meditation on our overall wellbeing and to support restoration of the nervous system are clear, (experientially if not always empirically).
Here to muddle through this with me today is my friend, Annie Bray, a longtime meditation teacher and bodywork practitioner. She's also a somatic coach and one of our Guides in The Numinous Network leading monthly Polyvagal Theory-informed meditation sessions. Annie also studied with Joanna Macy, root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, and we invoke her as a muse in this conversation, reflecting on her spiritual leadership as a woman in later life. It's nice to reflect on those who've inspired us as we navigate our entrepreneurship in the wellness space.
Annie has 20 years' experience as a manual therapist, plus deep study in trauma recovery, applied polyvagal theory, meditation, yoga and trauma-informed coaching. In her work, she aims to support folks to feel reliably well-met, relatively safe and free to engage with life meaningfully.
Check out Annie's website here
Learn more about Annie's 1:1 Somatic Coaching
REORIENT: a 12-week meditation program for midlife caregivers, based deeply in both WTR and in attachment and polyvagal theory, set to run again in January, with increased focus on midlife caregivers dealing with burnout.
Follow her on Instagram
Referenced in this episode
Joanna Macy
Work That Reconnects
Recent studies on burnout
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
Donald Winnicott's Good Enough Mother studies
Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time, by Laura Khadouri
 
Check out The Numinous Network to try Annie's class and more!
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Amazon
 
Like this episode? I'd love your review!
(Thanks in advance for taking the time 💖)

TNP216 Colette Baron-Reid on Success + Spiritual Leadership

🚨Alert! 🚨 Alert! 🚨This is a very special episode where my life comes full circle! I am unspeakably thrilled to welcome Colette Baron-Reid to the show.
Colette Baron-Reid is a bestselling author of 15 best-selling Oracle card decks, with over a million sold worldwide and 7 books published in 27 languages. In fact, her iconic deck, The Enchanted Map, is the #1 oracle deck I've recommended for the past decade for people to develop their intuition and card reading skills.
This interview is candid, it's intimate, and it's a very frank reflection on the lessons learned over a 30+ year career in spiritual leadership. We talk workaholism, we talk intergenerational trauma, we talk menopause... We talk about diversity, equity and inclusion in the spiritual self-help genre, and humility in the face of public scrutiny. We talk about diving deeper into shadow work and real, authentic repair. Join us for a fascinating portrait of a wise woman just getting started at 65...
Colette is an internationally acclaimed Oracle expert, spiritual intuitive, personal transformation thought leader, business strategist, artist, and educator. She's the founder of The Oracle School Experience®, OraclePalooza®, and host of INSIDE THE WOONIVERSE, a weekly podcast series. She's a former EMI recording artist has been living clean and sober for the last 37 years. Colette provided numerous in-depth resources in this episode:
References
Visit Colette's website
Oracle School
Colette's membership site
Inside the Woo-niverse podcast
Know Justice, Know Peace by Dr. Deborah Egerton, Enneagram + Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility specialist
Mindful of Race and Healing Rage by Ruth King
Like this episode? Review the podcast! 🙏🏻

TNP215 Before Capitalism (from a European Perspective) with Sophie Macklin

This is a conversation about capitalism, and therefore about whiteness and supremacy culture. There is a bit of a record scratch moment when I say something that sounds pretty obliviously white, then correct myself. I like to leave the mistakes in because it's good reconditioning from perfectionism/whiteness. Enjoy!
Sophie Macklin is an anarchist mystic who lived in California for fifteen years but recently returned home to England. She practises brythonic polytheism, antifascism, and devotion to an animate world, and specializes in topics related to radical history, anti-capitalism, antifascism, reclaiming the commons, anti-ableism, and exploring different ways of knowing. She’s an educator whose work has deeply impacted my own.
I've invited Sophie back to the show to talk about capitalism and its accompanying attitudes around productivity, disability, and land use. In this episode, we’re talking about a period of history in England when we saw the end of access to common lands to the system of private property and land ownership which we now think of as normal. If you want to jam on Caliban and the Witch and the work of Silvia Federici, this one's for you!
References
Sophie is a presenter at my annual Witches New Year event – hope you'll join us!
Silvia Federici
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, by Silvia Federici
Horse Power and Magic, George Ewart Evans
Follow Sophie on Instagram @sophiemacklin
Join us at Witches New Year 2023
Review the podcast!

TNP214 Pop Culture, Toxic Positivity, and Stuff We Hate with Emily Rose

Emily Rose is a content creator from Montreal who hosts a pop culture and reality TV recap podcast called It's Become a Whole Thing. She's also an herbalist and an astrologer. After the death of her mother in the start of the pandemic, Emily needed an outlet to disconnect from the heaviness of life and she found it in pop culture and a whole new world on TikTok where creativity and smarts meet niche communities and a swell of support on social media.
Emily can usually be found glued to her couch, on a quest for a new brunch spot, or on a troll stroll (the antithesis to the hot girl walk: no minimum distances, just taking your bad attitude and bad outfit to get some air and Vitamin D).
References
The Stuff I Hate Journal: Trends I Hate. Foods I Loathe. People Who Annoy Me. And Everything Else That's the Absolute Worst, by Emily Rose
It's Become A Whole Thing Podcast
Emily's TikTok: @itsbecomeawholething
Meredith Lynch, writer and pop culture deep dives
Molly McPherson, public relations and crisis communications 
The Zen Blonde, pop culture deep dives
Friday Things, Stacy Lee Kong
Colleen Emery, Emery Herbals
Letterkenny, Canada's second best ever situational comedy IMHO
Bridget Casey, financial coach
KikiMay, feminist analysis, smashing the patriarchy one ding dong at a time
Review this podcast now!
 

TNP213 Parenting Beyond Power with Jen Lumanlan

My guest today is Jen Lumanlan host of the popular podcast, Your Parenting Mojo, and author of the book Parenting Beyond Power: How to Use Connection and Collaboration to Transform Your Family - and the World.
  
After attending Berkeley and Yale and following a traditional career path in sustainability consulting, Jen found that parenting was her toughest challenge yet. She went back to school for a master’s degree in psychology focused on child development and another in education, and trained as a Co-Active coach to share what she learned with other parents.
 
In the book, she shares about her own struggles as a child and a content warning here for bereavement and discussion of disordered eating.
For my listeners who are people of the global majority, the book is written from the perspective of a white parent grappling with unlearning the use of dominance and other more subtle aspects of white supremacy culture. In this conversation, it does take a minute to get around to stating explicitly that white parents do not have the same parents as parents who are Black, or Indigenous or Asian or other oppressed identities. I want to assure you we do get around to that and also that it is front and centre throughout the book, and it’s handled with nuance. It’s an excellent book for folks who are actively seeking or maybe just starting to be curious about how to dismantle systems of oppression and unhook from supremacy culture and the use of dominance and coercion at the family and relational level.
 
Here's how you can get Jen's book through a gift economy approach: https://yourparentingmojo.com/book/
References
Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication, Meenadchi
Needy: How to Advocate for your Needs and Claim your Sovereignty, Mara Glatzel
My Collapse 101 course is included with membership in The Numinous Network
Stacy Lee Kong of Friday Things explains the coercive control at work in the Jonah Hill/Sarah Brady text exchange
My social media post/explainer on coercive control
Why Giving Choices Doesn't Work And What To Do Instead, Your Parenting Mojo Podcast
Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in our Families, Amanda Gross
White Supremacy Culture, Tema Okun
Zawn Villines on Facebook and their substack, Liberating Motherhood: For mothers who are pissed off about sexism, household chore inequality, and endless misogynistic bullshit, and for the allies who want a better world for all of us
How to Get Away with Parenting with Malaika Dowler
Pervasive Drive for Autonomy, Tomlin Wilding
No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism, Chris Niebauer
 
Like this episode? Review the podcast!

TNP212 Shauna Janz on Ancestral Veneration in Child-Free and Queer Lineages

Shauna Janz is a facilitator at the crossroads of grief, trauma, ritual and ancestral healing. She is a queer cis-woman of northern European ancestry who has been facilitating trauma-informed workshops since 2008 to a wide range of audiences including within education, non-profit, hospice, business, government, and Indigenous settings, locally and internationally.
The intersection of being childfree and ancestral veneration is fascinating to me because when we talk about lineage there’s an implication of continuance. I personally did have a biological child, but I doubt my child will have a child. So it’s interesting to cast my net a little wider when I ponder the question, Who am I becoming an ancestor for? And when I think about my spiritual practice of ancestral veneration, it’s interesting to think about whether I’m giving enough attention to ancestors I’m not directly descended from - the aunties, the uncles, the chosen family that my wayback people were connected to, the ones who supported my direct ancestors so I could be here now.
Shauna is exactly who you want as a conversation partner to ponder these questions!
 
Notes
ShaunaJanz.com
@sacredgriefshaunajanz
• Belonging to the World - Relationship and Ritual for the Heart of Grief starts Oct 4, 2023
• Elder Wisdom - Connecting with our Ancestral Ecosystems to Embody Love and Liberation
starts Oct 9, 2023 with Tamira Cousett
 
• Trauma-Informed Grief Support - A Professional Development Workshop on Nov 9-10, 2023
 
Learning Through Loss, based in Victoria, BC
***
 
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Goodreads or Indigo
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TNP211 Taraneh Erfan on Processing Anger

This is a question for all the woman-identified listeners: What really ignites your rage and how much more than 100% is it patriarchy?
I’m delighted to welcome back to the show, my dear friend Taraneh Erfan to dish on what it’s like to: 
A) recognize the amount of anger is simmering under the surface of our lives living under white capitalist heteropatriarchy 
B) reconcile with that anger given we don’t want to be miserable all the time
C) mobilize and reclaim agency in "a world that doesn’t want us" (to quote Sophie Strand)
Taraneh Erfan is a registered clinical counsellor and a writer with a degree in expressive arts therapy. She was previously on the show when her book came out, Conscious Grieving: The Path of Awakening Through Loss. you may have seen her poetry or pick-me ups on Instagram through her account @mindonspirit and she is one of the presenters at this year’s Witches New Year, an online retreat happening on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
Sign up for my newsletter here.
Learn more about the Woman Life Freedom revolution in Iran here, here, here, and here.
 

TNP210 RCCX Theory of Complex Illness

This episode is for all the folks who are, for whatever reason, familiar with chronic illness, rare disease and/or autoimmune disorder. The Network was inspired by my work with clients living with chronic illness and rare diseases such as Sjogren’s disease, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, PCOS, and MCAS, specifically.
RCCX Theory is a theory proposed by Dr. Sharon Meglathery that may explain overlapping syndromes associated with chronic illness. This mutation creates a stress vulnerability.
In other words, a brain wired for danger and a body primed for stress.
Co-inherited gene mutations of the RCCX module lead to overlapping “rare” genetic diseases and syndromes in families and individuals. This have catastrophic consequences in settings of severe acute, chronic, or prolonged stress, resulting in medical and/or psychiatric illness.
Listeners who may find this episode particularly validating may have experience or be familiar with:
• Post-Covid / Long Covid syndrome• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)• Sjogren's Syndrome• Lyme• Vasovagal Syncope• Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)• Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS) including Crohn's and colitis• Fibromyaligia• Rheumatoid Arthritis• Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)• Multiple Chemical/Mold/Electrical Sensitivities• Chronic Pain• other dysfunction involving the nervous system including gut biome
Deep gratitude to Dr.Meglathery for her research on the RCCX module. We hope her work is carried forward by fellow scientists and advocates.
 
Notes
https://www.rccxandillness.com
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/rccxandchronicillness
https://medium.com/@elizabethnickson/reading-this-might-save-your-life-rccx-theory-the-vagus-nerve-and-the-end-to-43c9431a8df7
https://www.gro-gifted.org/rccx-theory-and-giftedness-a-promising-new-line-of-research/
https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2018/08/09/rccx-chronic-fatigue-fibromyalgia-eds-pots/
https://me-pedia.org/wiki/RCCX_Genetic_Module_Theory
TNP151 Oliver Choquette on the Intersection of Gender Diversity and Neurodivergence
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TNP209 {Special Class Recording} Connecting with Plants

What are the steps to spiritual communication with plants?
Do we need to know a lot about horticulture?
How do I know if I'm just making it all up?
 
In this session, I'm sharing a lightly edited recording of a recent Enrichment session I led within The Numinous Network on connecting with and communicating with plants. I'm offering this sneak peek because it's free Week in the Network from Sept 17-23 - listen in to find out more!
 
Notes
 
Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness, Pam Montgomery
 
Communicating with Plants: Heart-Based Practices for Connecting with Plant Spirits, Jen Frey
 
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
 
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive, Martin Prechtel
 
Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast: The Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Collin Varner
 
Luschiim’s Plants: Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines, Dr Luschiim Arvid Charlie,  Nancy Turner
 
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings, Mary Siisip Geniusz
 
TNP202 Maeg Keane on Connecting with Jupiter
Review The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes and Rituals for the Wheel of the Year
 
Homework for this Lesson
Reciprocity
Ask your plant friend what they’d like. Maybe they want to be tended a certain way, maybe they want you to draw them. Stay with the question – at first they might say something like, I want you to take care of yourself, I want you to relax. That’s all good to know, but stay with this question of what you can do for them or offer to them until you get an answer that is truly something they want just for them. When you have the gift, present it to them. Spend time in this space, speaking aloud your gratitude. What do you notice in the days after?
 
Plant Limpia
Plant bathing: It can be as simple as placing the plant in water, then sprinkling water on you. After you've cleansed yourself, keep a portion of the water and add to it an equal portion of vodka. Place in a spray bottle to cleanse yourself whenever you need to release energetic build-up (spiritual hygiene) or when you are preparing yourself for ritual (purification). Could also infuse a plant in water that is at least 100F, strain, then keep in the fridge until you want to use it. Add it to your bathwater at particularly meaningful times or whenever you’re in need. (Make sure it’s not made from a plant that can cause contact dermatitis).
 
Plant Dieting
This is a way to really meld with the energies of a plant over an extended period of time. It will take several days or perhaps even weeks just to prepare all of the items you can with a single plant. Then, once all of the your preparations are ready, you would have a retreat day with that plant, ingesting it in all the ways. You will need to source a good beginner's herbalism book to learn how to make tinctures and oxymels, etc. Some recommendations would be:
Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
Ava Green and Kate Bensinger's The Comprehensive Guide to Herbalism for Beginners: (2 Books in 1) Grow Medicinal Herbs to Fill Your Herbalist Apothecary with Natural Herbal Remedies and Plant Medicine  
To undertake the ritual of plant dieting, first as your plant ally for a good date to enter into this day-long ritual. When the time comes, begin by eating some of the plant, then make a tea from leaves and drink. Then enjoy some tea made from the roots. After that, perhaps later that day, ingest a tincture. After that you might put balm or oil on your body, followed by some essence on your tongue, perhaps some medicine made of honey infused with the plant, then have an oxymel drink or other fermented version of the plant. Finally, do a trance journey to connect with the plant spirit in the Otherworld. Complete your ritual by thanking your plant ally and following any instructions they gave you.
 
Make a Plant Essence
Flower essences carry the energetic imprint of a plant and are meant to be ingested. They address emotional symptoms, not physical. 
Below are some basic steps to making a Mother Essence, Stock Essence, and Dosage Essence - some simple basic herbalism so you can work with a particular plant all month and notice how that not only deepens your understanding but also expands your intuitive awareness of this plant and others. 
Begin by asking your plant ally when is the best time to make an essence with them.
Mother Essence: Sterilize a two ounce bottle in boiling water. Fill a small clean glass bowl with about a cup of non-chlorinated water and place it on the ground beside the plant. Collect a few pieces of the plant and place them in the bowl. In order to preserve their pure essence, do not allow the plant parts to touch the ground. Ask the plant for guidance - is there any additional information they'd like to provide about how to make this essence with them? When the plant informs you the essence is ready, fill your two ounce bottle 40%-50% full with good quality brandy* (consisting of 40% alcohol by volume - ABV). Top it up with the essence water, using a fine mesh strainer to ensure no plant material enters the Mother Essence bottle. Your remaining essence water can be poured back into the ground at the foot of your plant, (and you can also take a sip of it, if you feel it's safe and the plant is edible). Label your bottle as Mother Essence and the name of the plant.
Stock Essence: Fill a half-ounce bottle with 60% plain non-chlorinated water and 40% brandy, then add 3 drops of the Mother Essence. Label this bottle as Stock Essence plus the name of the plant. you can use the Stock Essence as a daily point of connection with this plant, trying a single drop on the tongue the morning of one day, noon on another, and night on the next. Journal anything you notice over the weeks, particularly your dreams and coincidences relevant to this plant and its teachings. This stock level of dilution will last at least a year, (some say up to 10 years if stored in a cool, dark place and in a dark glass bottle).
Dosage Essence: Fill a clean, sterilized half-ounce bottle with 70% non-chlorinated water and 30% good quality brandy. To this, add 3 drops of the Stock Essence. Standard dosage is three drops on the tongue three times a day for a month. Notice any changes, synchronicities, messages and dreams. The dosage level of dilution will last for about 2 months. After that, gift the liquid back to the plants and soil.
*If you would prefer not to use alcohol in your essences, you can use vinegar.
 

TNP208 {Special Class Recording} Contact Nutrition + Attachment

This episode is one of a series of recordings of live classes that I’m publishing on the podcast so you can have a preview of how I teach ahead of Free Week, which is happening in The Numinous Network from September 17-23, 2023. Get on my newsletter to receive the link when it's sent on September 17.
What is Contact Nutrition and why is it so critical to develop secure attachment in a relationship?
Are there socio-cultural components to secure attachment that might be missing from the popular literature?
Are you wishing you could have the Cole's Notes on attachment theory and just skip right to the practical doing part?
Let's get into it!
 
Referenced in this episode:
Diane Poole Heller
Stan Tatkin
Amir Levine
Resmaa Menakem
 
Check out the class schedule for our live events, plus a listing of on-demand video courses available with your Numinous Network membership.

TNP207 {Special Class Recording} Fascism 101 for Collapse Times

Let’s talk about fascism today, friends. Why is it important? Because in collapse, authoritarianism always increases. Of course we don't like strong man dictators, military coups, or religious fundamentalism – we hate all the different forms authoritarianism takes. But the especially chilling thing about fascism is that doesn't just happen in the political sphere; it happens at the dinner table.
Average people live under authoritarianism, often for generations, without it altering their daily reality much at all. The power struggles of dictators and regime changes might hardly make a difference. But fascism uses the populace and populist movements as part of its social control. 
Fascism goes deeper and far beyond fear and military might to secure its stranglehold. 
This episode is an excerpt from my online course, Collapse 101, which is accessed as part of my monthly membership subscription program, The Numinous Network. We have a Collapse 101 class lecture, followed by an AMA a week later, almost every month.
In this session, I'm sharing about the hallmarks of fascism so we can be alert to some of the sneaky ways it wends itself into our lives.
 
Referenced in this episode:
TNP161 Collapse in a Nutshell
TNP193 How Much Is Enough In Collapse? with Carmen & Ruben
The Rewilding Podcast with Peter Michael Bower, ep. 30: Collapse Care with Carmen Spagnola
End Times/New Times: Numinous Podcast Episode Round-Up for Collapse
Recommended Reading:
Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience, by Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, published under the title, "Fascist Ecology: The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents" (1996)
On the Rise of the Right-Wing Mass Movements, (2014)
The Undying Appeal of White Nationalism: Neofascism is the cultural, Artistic, and Ecological Movements (2014)
The Return of Fascism in Contemporary Capitalism (2014)
Economic Collapse and the Rise of Fascism, 1920-1933, A People's History of Modern Europe (2016)
The Pagan and Occult Fascist Connection and How To Fix It, by Amy Hale (2019)
 
Note the difference in tone regarding America in just one year in the following three articles:
Fascism Is Spreading — And It’s a Sign of Civilizational Collapse, Umair Haque (2022)
How Many Collapsing Societies Does It Take to Teach the Same Lesson?, Umair Haque (2023)
America’s Battle To Save Its Democracy From Trumpism, Umair Haque (2023)
 Alternatively...
If you want to end on a more upbeat note, here's a classic:
Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
or
Punching Nazis: Spiritual or No? by me, Carmen Spagnola

TNP206 Alexa Linton on Interspecies Relating and Healing with Horses

In this episode we grapple with the questions,
Can you ever really be in a consensual relationship with a being who depends on you for food?
How do white supremacy culture and patriarchy show up in horsemanship?
What does non-coercive horsemanship look and feel like?
If you’ve read my book, The Spirited Kitchen, or you’ve been around my work for a while, you know that I come from a long line of horse people - a lineage that wends its way from southern Alberta and rodeo culture to the Scottish Highlands in the late 1800s where my wayback people bred, trained, and worked Highland ponies to labour in the coal mines and to build railroads. It’s been a long and complicated relationship between my family and horses. I am the first generation in as far back as we can remember to not have horses in my life on an everyday basis. It’s a profound source of grief for me.
What has also been a source of grief is that for many of the problems I've supported my child through, (if you don’t know, I have a 19 year old with autism, ADHD, and mental and physical health challenges), the thing that seems to work best is time outside the city with horses. 
And this is where my next guest comes in…
Alexa Linton is an osteopathic practitioner with 15 years of manual therapy and energy work under her belt. She also works with animals using kinesiology, cranial sacral therapy, and intuitive communication. She also helps humans navigate pet death. As a horse steward, trainer and healer, Alexa has seen and experienced a lot of changes in the industry over the years but there is much further to go in uncoupling from systems of dominance. Her course, The Whole Horse Apprenticeship, and her show, The Whole Horse Podcast, are places of refuge for horsey people who no longer feel comfortable with coercive horsemanship.
Check out Alexa's book:
Death Sucks: A Straight-Up Guide to Navigating Your Pet's Final Transition
Follow her on Instagram
Equine Cranial Therapy Certification
 
Referenced in this episode:
The Whole Horse Apprenticeship with Alexa and 25 guest instructors, including myself! (6 month program for horse lovers starting September 15th) 
The Whole Horse Podcast 
Taming Wild documentary created by Elsa Sinclair 
Freedom-based Training with Elsa Sinclair 
Emotional Horsemanship with Lockie Phillips 
Relationship Horsemanship with Josh Nichol 
Nahshon Cook Horsemanship 
Balance through Movement Method (Pillar one mini course) 
Horsemanship on Vancouver Island - Shannon Beahen (Humminghorse) 
 
 

TNP205 Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene + Miracles

Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, andecology. If you love Mary Magdalene and fondly remember Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, you are in for a real treat! Sophie's new book, The Madonna Secret, is a passionate retelling of the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, rewilding the Gospels with the forgotten voices of defiant and oppressed women, the nature-based storytelling of oral communities, and the embodied eroticism of a lovable rabbi with appetites and desires, doubts and shame, and a playful sense of humor. Plus, his awesome mom – aka The Virgin Mary – is a raucous and wonderful surprise, giving big time Baubo of Greek myth vibes, (who in my mind could be played wonderfully by Shohreh Aghdashloo of The Expanse fame).
In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to write about miracles while living with an incurable disease, (Sophie lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder - something that many members of the Numinous Network are all too familiar). We also discuss animism, magic, patriarchy, and the realness she brings to the landscape and the characters of her novel.
Sophie's poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way and Art PAPERS. The author of The Flowering Wand, she lives in the Hudson Valleyof New York.
 
Purchase The Madonna Secret anywhere(and please do leave a review!)
 
Follow Sophie:
SophieStrand.com
Her Substack
Instagram
Facebook
 
References in this episode:
older Dev Patel
Louis Garrel 
Golshifteh Farhani (Oh now that I see who she is, I LOVED her in that dystopian show, Invasion)
young Javier Bardem
article about Bruce Chilton
Bruce Chilton wikipedia
Honi the Circle Drawer
Hanina ben Dosa
Contemporaries of Jesus who were miracle workers
Mary Renault
Mary Stewart
 
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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!
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TNP204 AstroMagic Miniseries ET Shipley on the Power of Saturn

Et Shipley is a consulting professional astrologer, creative writer, and ritual strategist. She weaves astrology with other tools to talk about collapse, social justice, relationality, death and culture. Last year, I asked Erin to be a Guest Guide in The Numinous Network offering astrology workshops to help folks manage key moments. That has morphed into a seasonal offering we call the AstroJam - people gather with Erin to jam about the cosmic weather and all things magical and ritual to do with that. When I had the idea for an AstroMagic Miniseries, I immediately thought to ask Erin who she would recommend as guests - in many ways, you can thank Erin for working her magic there to make some very special connections and episodes happen for us!  
Erin’s writing about astrology is always poetic and profound, gentle but unflinching, and always very useful. She has just the right vibe to help us really understand what it is that Saturn is trying to teach and to not be afraid of those lessons. Even if you’re still not quite ready to engage directly with Saturn after this episode, I know you’ll find it to be good preparation for the time when, eventually, Saturn calls you and you don’t have a choice anymore.
 
Referenced in this episode:
Erin's approach to astrology
Erin's Instagram: @etshipley
Book a session with Erin or get on her newsletter
Idola Stellárum talismanic adornment for devotion
Kristin Mathis' new translation of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos (Saturn)
Audio of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn
Maeg Keane's podcast interview on Blackberry on the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast
Rate this show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen - thanks in advance!

TNP203 AstroMagic Miniseries Kristin Mathis, Venus, and the Orphic Hymns

My guest today is Kristin Mathis - truly a multi-talented individual - and we are all so fortunate that she’s dedicated herself to the translation of the Orphic Hymns which overlight this conversation about Venus, Aphrodite, and AstroMagic! She’s a writer and poet, a teacher and advocate. (You really must read her fascinating bio). But what she's really doing is quietly revolutionizing the English-speaking world's relationship to the Orphic Hymns with her unique perspective as both an academic and a magical practitioner-animist.
In this episode, Kristin helps us understand Venus and Aphrodite as The All, helping us to link love and grief, love and rage, love and justice.
Referenced in this episode:
Mysteria Mundi, Kristin's Substack where you'll find:
Becoming Children of Earth and Starry Sky
Revealing the Mysteries, or, My New Translation of the Orphic Hymn to the Moon (Selene)
A New Translation of The Orphic Hymn To Kronos/Saturn
Audio Recording of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos/Saturn
Kristin's Translation of Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite
Her Podia site with her courses
Star: An Orphic Initiation for Earth-Borne Souls with Drew Levanti
 
Check out The Numinous Network for more on Planetary Magic & Propitiation

TNP202 AstroMagic Miniseries: Maeg Keane on Connecting with Jupiter

Meag Keane is here to expand our understanding of Jupiter in this, part 5 of my 7 part miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation.
Maeg is an astrologer and herbalist, connecting soil and sky. Many of her teachers are people I’ve also followed and admired, and she wrote a really excellent blog post on Jupiter and Being Too Much. (It's so good! Make sure you check out the footnotes!)
To go deeper with your AstroMagic, consider getting a plant and planet reading from Maeg - it’s a two session package with email support for a month where she guides you on a deep dive with one of the 7 traditional planets and a plant based on your specific chart and what comes out of your first session with her. So good!
Sign up for Maeg's newsletter so you're in the know about all upcoming offerings and current writing.
Website: third-sister.com
Twitter | @maegkeane
Instagram | @maeg.thirdsister
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon or Indigo
Check out The Numinous Network - all classes on Planetary Magic & Propitiation are found in the archives of The Numinous School in the course area of the Network.

TNP201 AstroMagic Miniseries: The Magic of Mercury with Thea Anderson

In this episode, I’m speaking with Thea Anderson about Wednesday’s ruling planet, our old pal, Mercury! Thea is a writer and astrologer, as well as the Director of Production for the CHANI app. She works very closely with our previous guest, Eliza Robertson, to make sure that all of the content for the app gets out on time, at the right time. (A very Mercurial type of job, indeed!) 
You can find Thea's fiction and poetry in print and online in a variety of places, most recently you'll find a story of her in the book, Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions.
We're lucky to have Thea here to decode and interpret Mercury for us and explain how we can work collaboratively with this quick, mutable, exciting planet.
References in this episode:
Harriet Tubman as a Magical, Mercurial Figure
Book a session with Thea: TheaNichelle.com
Follow her on Instagram: @theaastrology
Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon, or Indigo
Check us out in The Numinous Network

TNP200 AstroMagic Miniseries Mars Magic with Carmen Spagnola

Content Note: At the end of this episode, I mention "ritual scarification" – this material may remind people of the ritual abuse mentioned in a fairly recent television broadcast, The Vow, a show about the NXIVM cult.
I am not talking about that. I am referring to a cultural practice of scarification, quite common with peoples of darker skin, and other instances where scarification is woven into society, (for instance, some LGBTQ+ communities and other examples).
In this 200th episode of The Numinous Podcast (🎉hooray!!!🎉), I'm flying solo and sharing my experience working with the planet Mars. Known as the lesser malefic, Mars can carry some intense energy. But I really believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from this powerhouse planet.
In this show, I will talk about what Mars can help us with, when we might use caution, appropriate offerings for propitiation, and how Mars can support us in our grief and our rage.
References in this episode:
Georgia Nicols
PlanetaryHours.net
Thérèse Cator
Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa, translated by Eric Purdue
Letterkenny
Sphere + Sundry
Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen
The Orphic Hymns
Many Moons Lunar Planner by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener
Pagan Otherworld Tarot by Uusi Design
Woodland Wardens Oracle by Jessica Roux
The Spirited Kitchen - leave a review on Goodreads!
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