The Skeptical Shaman

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here with The Chaos Monster: THE Villain Era that sparked this whole Villain Era series, courtesy of artist and small business owner Laura Oxendine!  Laura's Chaos Monster is a mischief maker: a little goblin scurrying about picking from a grab bag of activities, either causing a ruckus, boldly calling out injustices, or trying to put order t...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and our newest Villain Era alter ego, The Baltic B*tch, is brought to us by the incredible Lisa Amato, energy worker and all-around badass shamanic practitioner hailing from the hamlet of Long Island-- via Queens. In this second half of another two-part episode, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the incredible Lisa Amato of Ca...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and our newest Villain Era alter ego, The Baltic B*tch, is brought to us by the incredible Lisa Amato, energy worker and all-around badass shamanic practitioner hailing from the hamlet of Long Island-- via Queens. In this first half of another two-part episode, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the incredible Lisa Amato of Cal...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and our newest Villain Era alter ego, Veilwalker, is brought to us by the incredible Celina Ceja Geisler of The Essence of the Moon YouTube channel. In this second half of another two-part episode, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the incredible Celina Ceja Geisler of The Essence of the Moon YouTube channel all about her so-c...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and our newest Villain Era alter ego, Veilwalker, is brought to us by the incredible Celina Ceja Geisler of The Essence of the Moon YouTube channel. In this first half of another two-part episode, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the incredible Celina Ceja Geisler of The Essence of the Moon YouTube channel all about her so-ca...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and this second half of our two-part episode highlights the undeniable creative and spiritual power of a well-defined Alter Ego. Jesse James, aka Billy Purgatory, literally wrote a series of stories about his demon-fighting alter ego, breathing some very real life into a very real aspect of himself. But Billy Purgatory isn't just a lite...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and this second, two-part episode highlights the undeniable creative and spiritual power of a well-defined Alter Ego. Jesse James, aka Billy Purgatory, literally wrote a series of stories about his demon-fighting alter ego, breathing some very real life into a very real aspect of himself. But Billy Purgatory isn't just a literary anti-h...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and the second half of our first episode sets the tone for exploring our collective Villain Era. This season is all about embracing the reality that, despite your very best efforts and pure intentions, we will all inevitably be the villain in someone else's story as we pursue our goals, stretch ourselves spiritually and professionally,...

The 12th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast is here, and this first episode sets the tone for exploring our collective Villain Era. This season is all about embracing the reality that, despite your very best efforts and pure intentions, we will all inevitably be the villain in someone else's story as we pursue our goals, stretch ourselves spiritually and professionally, and enforce our ow...

In this tenth episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show and fellow podcaster Cardsy B, aka Rebecca Szymczak (of Hex and the City Podcast). Not only is Rebecca a resident wellness witch in residence at a posh Manhattan hotel, but she's also a tarot deck creator, the author of the Saturn Diaries, and the creat...

In this ninth episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with client, friend, and newly-anointed psychic channel Teresa Johnson all about the strange, strange journey from being a "normal person" to becoming your true psychic self. Teresa opens up the kimono on the good, the bad, and the cringe of what it's really like to...

In this eighth episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show and astrologer extraordinaire Sam "The SkyGuy" all about planetary magic: how to do it, when to do it, and how to customize it to your unique natal chart- and annual astrological transits! Sam provides listeners a crash course in the background an...

In this seventh episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show and Skeptical Shaman podcast editor Natalie Fehlner (of Sidhe) all about Natalie's strange, strange journey into weird world of online dialogue-- and what it revealed about the spiritual reality underpinning surface-level ideology. Natalie experienced...

In this sixth episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Review Raffle winner and *as luck would have it* experienced animal healer and communicator Alyson Ogimachi (of Phoenix Healing) all about her journey from being an animal groomer and "normal person" to talented animal psychic and healer. Alyson has spent years in re...

In this fifth episode of the 11th season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Caitlin Gonzales, newly spiritually awakened friend of the fae and rural Louisiana homesteader who knows all about the shift from urban conformity to the feral borderlands-- both of the Woo and of Mother Nature! Like many of us in the time since Covid disrupted, well, everythi...

In this fourth episode of Season 11 of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with long-time client (and fellow Chicagoan) Emily P. (of House of Lir), a lifelong psychic finally making the leap into the wild unknown of client-facing readings with her new, Woo-based business House of Lir. Emily has always been psychic, but it took a real deal (and very destabilizi...

In this third episode of Season 11 of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Jesse James Freeman and Jennifer Hotes of the Is AI The Devil? and the Curious Cat Podcasts all about the spiritual implications of our brave new techno-feudalist world.  Was Rudolf Steiner right about Ahriman? Are there really ghosts (and demons) in the machine? How can we reclaim...

In this second episode of Season 11 of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Renee Puvvada (of Smoking Hot Books) about the writerly window of opportunity being presented by the unique and dynamic Fire Horse Year: a year that welcomes, supports and celebrates unique voices, authentic storytelling and independent publishing. Renee Puvvada failed at four book...

In this inaugural episode of Season 11 of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Gabrielle Celeste (of Agua Astrology), combining their superpowers to form some kind of Chinese and Western Astrology Megazord, offering listeners insights into what to expect in the dynamic Fire Horse Year (2026)...and beyond! Rachel and Gabrielle discuss the incredible spiritu...

In this eighth episode in our dude-only season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Craig Moyer, freelance copywriter, advertising expert, novelist, and all around "creative" about our post-AI (and post-human) billionaire-led world-- and how best to navigate it! Craig's recommendation? Tackle the bad guys (and evil forces) with a sharp se...

In this seventh episode in our dude-only season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Bobby Fierro of Wild Raven Tarot: a "TarotTuber" of the highest order who livestreams and posts truly incredible, engaging and very, very real tarot content for the masses to enjoy! Not only does Bobby bring the fun and joy of tarot to the masses with his 420...

In this sixth episode in our dude-only season of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Ryan Hurd: a dream educator, creator of the Dream Studies website (and work), and author of the incredible Archeology of Consciousness Substack! Hilarious plot twist: Rachel and Ryan actually recorded a previous episode that seems to have entered a permanent, liminal stat...

In this fifth episode of The Skeptical Shaman's tenth, all-dude season, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with James Jude of James Jude Tarot and the LA Festival of Tarot : a client-facing tarot reader, teacher of all things tarot, and PR expert who worked on the Conjuring and Annabelle movie franchises (of all things)! Like Rachel, James started out as a non-believer in all things...

In this fourth episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Brian Maierhofer: a working therapist that explores myth, madness, meaning, and how our greatest wounds can become our greatest gifts with his incredible Liminal Means Substack.  Rachel and Brian chat all about the myth of the Fisher King and his wound-- and how we, as a people, need to heal ou...

In this third episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with "Alexis Vale", aka Alan Furth-- the mind behind the incredible Hidden Frameworks Substack, sharing his own meandering explorations in the realm of synchronicity, serendipity, and the ancient concept of Wu Wei: the "invisible river" flow state that we can fall into such that i...