The Numinous Podcast

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 me...

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...

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 de...

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 territor...

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 @finnrivergr...

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 met...

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...

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 r...

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...

Aurelie Richards is a writer, educator, beekeeper, witch, performer, community builder, gardener, wounded healer. She's a Jewish woman with trans experience, living in Germany. She's long been an advocate for queer rights, trans community building, and domestic violence prevention, especially in rural and small-town contexts. And she's the manager of The Numinous Network and very dear to me. Aurel...

Welcome back to the podcast, Nikiah Seeds! Nikiah has been a ceremonialist and teacher of ritual, myth, and ancestral veneration for a couple decades now since her early years as a doula. She’s founder of the Red Moon Mystery School and co-author of the book Moon Mysteries about connecting with your menstrual cycle, and she’s been leading sacred drum-making retreats for years and years.   Nikiah w...

Danielle Blackwood last appeared on the podcast in 2019 when we talked about her previous book, The Twelve Faces of the Goddess. Now she’s back with a fabulous book that I highly recommend to people aged 25 to 55 especially - it’s called A Lantern In The Dark: Navigate Life's Crossroads with Story, Ritual & Sacred Astrology. We're talking not only about the famous (infamous?) Saturn Return (age 28...

A preparatory episode as we approach the midsummer solstice. Let's check-in with ourselves and our goals, self-regulate, and recalibrate, so we can hit our stride mid-June. I offer a brief and simple somatic practice, plus a really cool (time-sensitive) announcement!

Cyndi's Brannen's most recent book, Entering Hekate's Garden: The Magic, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft , is a rich and enchanting journey with 39 plants, along with 39 ways to work with botanicals in your daily life and deeper rituals. Learn more about Cyndi's online programs at KeepingHerKeys.com Listen to her podcast, More Than This: At the Crossroads of Modern Life and the Deepe...

What is "collapse awareness"? How do we navigate collapse without losing our joy? What skills are needed in times of prolonged periods of overwhelming stress? This episode is an overview and recap of a topic I've talked about every year (multiple times) since the start of this show in 2014. Here, once again, is my annual report on the state of collapse. Find a round-up of past collapse episodes he...

Today, I’m going to make a few people really happy because this is the Bruce Springsteen Niche Episode that more than a handful of you have been waiting for. The episode where I explain the long-lasting appeal of Bruce Springsteen as told through select Springsteen tracks arranged in order of progressive maturity of narrative voice. The journey takes us from frustrated youth in a small town, to em...

Maris Bergrune is a ritual animist, a spirit worker, a sound medium, and singer/musician. I’ve taken two of her programs - one on Norse animism and one on seidr mediumship and we’ll talk about them in detail today. Maris teaches skill development in intuitive perception, boundaries and discernment, and offers a very good foundation in animist ritual and relational practices with the Other Than Hum...

I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Nicholas Pearson, author of several books including, Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones. Nicholas studied mineral science in university and worked for several years at a museum featuring the largest mineral collection in the southwestern US. In this episode, Nick explains the science of why and how crystals work includin...

My guest today is Becca Piastrelli, author of the new book, Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways To Connect To Land, Lineage, Community and the Self . It’s a charming, full colour, illustrated guide to fundamentals of creating connection with spirits of place and ancestors. I’d describe it as a fresh update on modern self-directed spirituality because it foregrounds how white feminism of the past and toda...

Elaine Alec is a co-founder of Alderhill, an Indigenous-owned-and-led company of leading experts in the area of Indigenous Community Planning. She’s led comprehensive community planning and engagement processes, been a political advisor, and recently the bestselling author of Calling My Spirit Back which links a personal examination of her lived experience to a much broader overview of serious soc...

Today I’m speaking with British Columbia record-breaking pumpkin grower, Dave Chan. Dave has grown the heaviest pumpkin in BC’s history at 1,911 pounds! Dave has been growing for many years and finally achieved his dream and I’m thrilled to have him on the show today to share all his secrets. Stay tuned for a Rubenation at the end. GiantPumpkinsBC.com (to see Dave's pumpkin!) BigPumpkins.com The G...

Toi Smith is my guest today! Toi is a business and growth strategist, a writer and teacher.  She's also host of an online community called Business For The People for entrepreneurs, creatives, healers, and guides trying to do business differently. Toi also works with mothers who desire to return to themselves, and Black women who want more joy and pleasure. toimarie.com businessforthepeople.com Sy...

Today’s episode is especially dedicated to all the parents out there of tweens and teens who are exploring their gender identity. Paria Hassouri is a pediatrician, mother of three and writer whose work has appeared in the NY Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post.  She and her family live in LA, where she practices pediatrics at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. And she’s the author of th...

Taraneh Erfan King is a registered counsellor with a specialty in expressive arts and a broad background in psychology, body-centered practices, and mysticism, including her hereditary lineage of Sufism. Born in Iran, she immigrated to Canada as a child with her family, and has lived and worked in several parts of the world including Guyana, France, Switzerland, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka. Her book,...

My guest today is a trusted friend, Oliver Choquette. Oliver is currently a Psychology student at the University of Victoria. His training and expertise comes from various sources: college, university, and private classes. He has been working in clinics as a support person for over 10 years. He is a passionate reader and researcher of many topics: history, philosophy, political science, psychology...