Indigenous Wisdom with Julia Carmen

What does it mean when someone we love doesn't come back right away — and no one panics? Julia Carmen shares a fable from her mother's village in the mountains of Mexico, where messages traveled in the bodies of people — usually children — because there were no phones. When a child came home late from an errand, no one scolded her. The family just smiled and said, "she went for the tamales." Julia...

What does it mean to feel everything? In this month's archetype episode, Julia Carmen sits with the Sensitives — the ones with the big human hearts, who feel from the earth all the way to the universal source of the all. She opens by drawing a line many of us blur: a Sensitive isn't the same as an empath. Empathy is a human condition, tied to this planet. The Sensitive reaches further — earth to u...

What holds the healer together? In this month's archetype episode, Julia Carmen sits with the Healer — the curandera, the servant, the teacher — and follows the teaching back to where it has always begun: with yourself. The Healer's energy flows like an atom, putting the stardust back together wherever it needs to be. Their medicine bag holds all the elements — water, fire, earth — because the pat...

What changes the day you stop asking someone else for the answer and finally ask yourself? In the second of a two-part conversation, Julia Carmen sits back down with her granddaughter, Juliana Guerrero, and follows the thread back to ancestors, heritage, and what Julia calls the female frequency of being — the creative force that makes and remakes the world, squashed for a long time and now waking...

What did the word "woke" mean before the over culture got hold of it? In this conversation, Julia Carmen sits down with her granddaughter, Juliana Guerrero — high school English teacher, writer, and curandera in her own right — for one of the talks they share a few times a year. They begin with that one loaded word and the difference between its political version and the older one: the meaning tha...

What does it mean to walk in both worlds when the outer culture keeps pulling you toward one?  A listener sent that question in. Julia Carmen answered it live — by pulling a card.   In this episode, Julia traces the full origin of the Dragonfly Card Deck: a vision that arrived in Hawaii nearly twenty years ago, fifty-two channeled texts, and a long journey to physical form. She walks through how s...

What do people sense in a Wizard — before they can name it? In this episode, Julia Carmen continues the 2026 Archetype Series with the Wizard: an archetype that lives at the intersection of the seen and unseen, moving between worlds with a subtlety that is easy to miss and impossible to forget once you feel it. The Wizard moves and balances. People are drawn to them without quite knowing why. Juli...

What do you do with the love that didn't always come in the form you needed? Twenty years ago, Julia Carmen wrote an essay about being asked to care for her 80-year-old mother. She didn't want to do it. She called her sister. She briefly considered trading mothers with a friend. What followed those four days — and the fifteen years after — became one of the most profound teachings of her life. In...

Today, Julia revisits one of her most cherished stories: a memory from 1957 in the Mission District of San Francisco, when she was four or five years old and her Tía Francisca was living with the family. This is a story about what happens when two people show up in a kitchen with a willingness to just be. No fixing, no pretending. Julia talks about soul care—not the Instagram version with bath bom...

This month in our archetype series , Julia sits with Mother Earth. Julia explores what it actually means to carry this energy—the gift of it, the weight of it—and how Grandmother Dragonfly shows up as a companion for this archetype. She talks about the difference between nurturing from fullness versus nurturing from depletion, the "spaghetti dinner" moment when you realize you're running on empty,...

What does it mean to own something you made — in a world where anything digital can be copied in an instant? And what does that question have to do with the music your ancestors carried? In this episode, Julia Carmen sits down with Catherine Gairard, a French-Peruvian harpist and songwriter who creates what she calls emotive landscapes — music designed to reach the places words can't always find....

In this episode, Julia Carmen introduces the Alma Class: a year-long container for those who are hearing the knock—that inner call to come home to themselves. This is not a curriculum. It's a remembrance. The Alma Class is for anyone who has felt that movement within, that sense that something deeper is asking to be known. Julia talks about what soul listening actually is, how the archetypes guide...

What does it mean to honor where you come from while walking between two worlds? In this conversation, Julia Carmen sits down with Lily Espinoza—educator, author, and advocate for Latinx students in higher education—to explore identity, legacy, and what it takes to stay centered when the world asks you to choose. With over twenty years of experience at universities including Stanford, Harvard, Col...

This month, Julia continues the archetype series , diving into The Alchemist. If you've ever had the experience of things just coming together for you — opportunities that seem to flow in without force, knowing something before you can explain how you know it — this episode might explain a lot.  The Alchemist archetype lives across two worlds at once, creating in the unseen before anything appears...

In this episode, Julia Carmen of The School Without Walls invites you to experience Cafecito y Chisme. Cafecito y Chisme calls are free 30-minute discovery calls offered through the School Without Walls. These are opportunities to gain a greater understanding of Julia's work, and which offerings may be right for your Soul's journey at this moment. At times, there can be some confusion: these calls...

Today's guest previously joined Julia to talk about dancing to the tune of your own soul, in episode 79. In this follow-up conversation, soul empowerment coach and light language healer Birgitta Visser opens up about what it really looks like to walk away from the relationships and patterns that have been keeping you small, and what the work of rebuilding from the inside out actually requires. Jul...

In today's Indigenous Wisdom Conversation, Julia revisits her original conversation with Birgitta Visser — divine channel, soul empowerment coach, light language healer, and author — as a special rerun before welcoming Birgitta back next week for a brand-new follow-up episode. Don't miss Part 2, airing next week! In this episode, Julia and Birgitta explore what it means to truly live in the presen...

This month, Julia Carmen continues the archetype series with The Sage. The Sage doesn’t announce itself. It moves like an infinity sign — constant, flowing, without ego. If you’ve ever walked into a room and felt more at home in the background than the front, or found yourself watching the world with curiosity rather than judgment, this one is for you. In this episode, Julia explores: •  What it m...

In this episode, Juliana — apprentice to Julia and guest host — sits down with JR Rice, a Black man, writer, teacher, event host & curator, and spoken word artist, born and raised in Oakland, California.  JR works with students navigating homelessness, immigration pressure, incarceration, and trauma — and he meets them there through the radical act of storytelling. This conversation moves thro...

This month, we begin walking with the Queen archetype—the one who stands in her glory and knows who she is. When we understand the archetype we lead with, comparison falls away, and our nervous system begins to settle. You are not here to become someone else. You are here to remember who you already are. Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides: Get your free guide: 10 Qu...

Today we are happy to share Julia Carmen's conversation with Kevin Chung on the Standout Creatives Podcast. This is a conversation about business, creativity, and what it means to stand out without selling your spirit. Together they explore visibility, identity, belonging, and the difference between branding as performance versus branding as truth. This episode is an invitation to create from the...

In today's Indigenous Wisdom Conversation, we are revisiting a conversation between Julia and Kawika Alfiche. This is a heart-filled conversation about story, music, Hula, community and so much more. Connect with Kawika: Hālau O Keikiali'i Kawika's Music   Learn more about The School Without Walls  and the Dragonfly Guides: Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul Self Schedule a free Ca...

Just be in the now of what is going on. Learn more about The School Without Walls  and the Dragonfly Guides: Get your free guide: 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul Self Enroll in The Magical Papers Schedule a free Cafecito y Chisme Call with Julia Learn more about Master Alma Class (MAC) sessions Explore The School Without Walls Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook Production assistance from Podl...

In this episode, Julia invites us to step off the overculture’s rushed timeline and into the slower, more honest threshold of the Lunar New Year. Reflecting on the Year of the Horse, she explores movement that is soul-led rather than urgency-driven, and how listening inward can guide the year ahead. This is an invitation to begin later, softer, and with deeper trust in your own rhythm. Learn more...

In this episode, Julia reflects on what happens when creativity freezes—and what it actually takes to bring it back to life. Drawing on the teachings of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, we explore how warmth, movement, and self-love thaw the places where the soul has gone quiet. Creativity never disappears; it waits for us to return. Learn more about The School Without Walls and the Dragonfly Guides: Get y...