The Numinous Podcast

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...

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...

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 mo...

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? w...

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...

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 s...

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...

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...

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.

"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 sh...

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...

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 Et...

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 d...

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...

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 behi...

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...

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 pos...

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-Europe...

When was the last time you spoke with a Mayanist? When did you last have a conversation where someone dropped the term  "terra nullius" ? Let's talk about the Mayan calendar glyphs and the New Agers – what's up with all that? Juliana does forensic science for  Operation ID , a project that excavates bodies of migrants who've died in the desert trying to cross the Mexico-US border and help identify...

It makes sense that a very unique and special person would have a very unique and special upbringing. Today's guest, L'Erin Alta, is a soul guide, shadow diver, and spiritual teacher, and she gives a great interview because she's willing to go there right off the top. It was inspiring for me to hear about the special village that raised her and also find connections between our histories – I also...

I have been thinking about shame for a couple of years now. Mostly, I have socially unacceptable thoughts about it. But since reading Jennifer Jacquet's book, Is Shame Necessary? New Uses For An Old Tool , I have been both relieved and emboldened. So I'm releasing my shame around championing shame. I'm thrilled to welcome Jennifer to the show to expand on her ideas around effective uses of shame w...

Bees! Some of my favourite beings! I'm so excited to give sacred beekeeping some airtime on the podcast today. My guest is Nikiah Seeds  – another of my favourite beings! – who is a priestess, shamanic practitioner, and ceremonialist. As a teacher at the College of the Melissae - Centre for Sacred Beekeeping , Nikiah has a tremendous amount of technical and spiritual knowledge about bees. In this...

I'm absolutely thrilled to have Charlene Spretnak on the show today. Charlene is a prolific author in the fields of feminist women's spirituality, environmentalism, and the interrelatedness of social change movements. A summary of each of her books can be found here . The book initially that inspired her to write research into the lost goddess myths of pre-patriarchal Greece is called The First Se...

I'm so excited about this show! Alexis P. Morgan is an artist, activist, pan Germanic heathen, and sorceress. In this episode we talk about cultural appropriation in spiritual practice, Alexis gives us a year's worth of witchcraft study references, and we learn what the heck a pan Germanic heathen is. Here are the resources Alexis recommends: If You Want to Be A Witch Sarah Ann Lawless Mastering W...

Let’s talk about the connection between “conscious marketing” and Pick Up Artist culture, shall we? You may be surprised to discover that there’s actually quite a clear and direct connection. If you’re an entrepreneur in the personal development or spiritual space, this episode is for you. If you’ve ever been had by a Pick Up Artist (PUA), a narcissist, or experienced buyer’s remorse after a major...