Sam Bottner & David Adam Burns are the co-creators of the modern mythic musical Earthsong, current planning its next run in Austin, TX.

David is the co-founder of The Mysteries, an artists’ collective dedicated to giving a voice to the ineffable.

Sam is a composer, producer, poet, multi-instrumentalist, and founder of the Soundbending Academy. 

https://themysteries.us/

https://www.instagram.com/sambottner/

https://www.instagram.com/davidadamburns/

https://davidadamburns.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/

https://mikemorrell.org/2017/03/things-close-rainer-maria-rilke/

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Dive into an exploration of mythic storytelling and inner transformation with hosts Echo Widmer, Sam Bottner, and David Burns. This episode weaves together themes of archetypal journeys, the power of storytelling, and the significance of embracing darkness to discover deeper truths.

In this episode

• The symbolism of the underworld as a space of deep introspection and mystery
• Personal journeys of mythic descent and resurrection, including Persephone and Hermes
• The role of archetypes like Hades, Demeter, and Kronos in understanding power, harm, and healing
• Artistic approaches to embodying mythic characters as prayers and meditations
• The importance of transparency, vulnerability, and storytelling in the process of integration
• Navigating the shadow through creative expression, ritual theater, and community connection
• Practical insights for approaching the dark or shattered spaces in life
• The significance of power, responsibility, and integrity in wielding archetypal energies

In this episode of "Alive from the Underworld," hosts Echo Giesel Widmer and Sarah Nighthawk delve into the profound journey of transformation and self-discovery. They explore the metaphor of free falling into the unknown, where identities dissolve, and true essence emerges. Through personal stories and insights, they discuss the power of surrender, the role of anger as a catalyst for change, and the importance of trusting the unseen. This conversation invites listeners to embrace the discomfort of life's transitions and find strength in vulnerability.

Echo and Sarah also touch on the collective awakening happening in today's world, urging us to connect with our inner wisdom and the unseen forces that guide us. They emphasize the significance of community and authentic conversations in navigating societal disconnection and fostering a sense of belonging.

This episode is a call to courageously step into the void.

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Most of us spend our lives clinging to what we think is solid ground, but the truth is, true growth begins at the edge of our comfort zone — on the ledge of chaos, where everything familiar dissolves. In this profound conversation, I sit with Cole Chance to explore what it really means to live alive from the underworld — the raw, wild, uncharted space where transformation happens. Brace yourself for a journey into the depths of vulnerability, desire, and the power of embracing our shadowy, messy parts. You'll discover how the most pivotal thresholds—pregnancy, addiction, heartbreak—morphed Cole’s sense of self and sparked her fierce, creative voice.

We break down how life's greatest initiations demand a willingness to surrender, to fall into the void, and to trust that death is necessary for fertile new beginnings. Cole reveals her radical insights on the intelligence of our protective parts, the wild beauty of our rebellious edges, and the profound importance of honoring the natural cycles of pause and fallow—those sacred times of gestation when nothing seems to be happening, yet everything is happening beneath the surface.

This episode uncovers the subtle art of boundary-setting, the wisdom hidden in our no’s and yes’s, and the courage to let relationships evolve or dissolve without shame. We explore the unseen archetypes that shape our tendencies to cling or push away, and how conscious relational overlap—like in dance or intimacy—can serve as a mirror for life's essential shifts. Cole and I delve into the importance of re-educating ourselves around departure, the myth of the 'perfect' connection, and why letting go — softly, with grace — is one of the bravest acts of love.

Cole Chance is a yoga teacher, retreat leader, recovery educator, and lifelong student of what it means to be human. Through movement, breathwork, story, and inquiry, she explores the intersection of somatics, mythology, neuroscience, and embodied living. She is the founder of EMERGE and co-creator of The Mindfulish School, and leads retreats, trainings, and online programs that invite people home to themselves, within the wider world.

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Most people are afraid to face the void — but that's where true transformation begins. When Isabel Allen stepped into the dark depths of her own disintegration, she discovered a new realm of aliveness, sovereignty, and cosmic wholeness. Now, she guides others through the chaos of loss, identity dissolution, and initiation into their truest selves. This episode reveals how to turn darkness into the birth of a radiant interior revolution.

Isabel shares her journey from the Western care system's burnout to sacred ceremonies in Peru, and Mexico that reconnected her with her ancestral roots and the mystery of life. You’ll discover how rites of passage—through plant medicine, community, and nature—are essential for true healing and wholeness, especially in a society that prizes comfort over transformation. Isabel’s story illustrates why rushing through spiritual awakening or retreating after mystical encounters can fragment your soul rather than unify it, and what real integration looks like.

We break down profound insights like the importance of community in witnessing your disintegration, the power of surrendering control, and how to cultivate trust when the ego crumbles. Isabel explores how ancestral trauma, colonization, and the disconnection from natural cycles reinforce our fear of the void—and how facing that fear unlocks the treasures of intuition, sovereignty, and authentic love.

Whether you’re in the middle of a crisis or simply yearning for deeper presence, Isabel’s wisdom invites you to surrender into life’s mystery and emerge renewed, radiant, and rooted in your innermost truth.

Guest: Isabel Allen is a sacred mentor, somatic coach, and plant medicine facilitator rooted in ancestral wisdom and community healing. Her work helps individuals embody their sovereignty through rites of passage in nature and ceremony, bridging Western science with ancient practices.

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Alexandra Derwen is a death doula and community educator, poet, pilgrim, keener, and teacher of lament. They are the founder of Sacred Circle Training Co CIC, a global social enterprise offering death and grief doula preparation courses and retreats. Alexandra is the author of three books titled Lost Rites, which track the loss and reclamation of death rites from the individual to the collective and systemic.

They live in North Wales, UK, and are a lover of oak trees — their surname, Derwen, meaning "of the Oaks" — which have been their lovers and teachers.

Alexandra can be found at

www.journeywithdeath.com

@journeywithdeath

Their books : www.wysewomenpublishing.co.uk

[email protected].

Photo for Podcast by Red Raven Photos

Our current times demand we face the chaos, loss, and unraveling of our collective stories with honesty and courage. This episode shatters the illusion of safety and explores how embracing uncertainty, grief, and the unseen can lead us into a deeper sense of belonging and resilience. If you’re longing for authentic connection to death, nature, and the transformative powers of lament, this conversation will awaken your soul’s capacity for courage and love. Discover how the thresholds of death and chaos serve as initiations for collective growth.

We break down powerful frameworks like collective mourning, the importance of lament in modern society, and the urgent need for new rites of passage in a fragmented world.

In this episode, I descend into one of the most intimate and universal forces threading through every human life — fear. Speaking not from the safety of solid ground but from inside the collective free fall of our current moment, I trace the quiet and insidious ways that fear seduces us.

From the hypervigilance living in our nervous systems to the stockpiling of resources, the doomscrolling, the transactional relationships, the addiction to comfort and certainty, I name the many faces fear wears in our bodies, our choices, and our culture.

I hold this reckoning with a piercing tenderness, reminding us that the systems collapsing around us are simply the outer reflection of the systems we have long carried within us. And yet within this episode is an unwavering belief in love. The most grounded, fierce, and radical force available to us in this time of great unraveling. Love as presence. Love as breath. Love as the conscious choice to stop being ruled by lack, by scarcity, by the endless fuel fear is so willing to provide.

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Alive from the Underworld | Episode 1

Living In A Post Modern Threshold

This is not a podcast from the other side. I am not speaking to you from some place of arrival. I am speaking from inside it, from within the chrysalis, where the old form has already dissolved and the new one hasn't yet taken shape.

This is what it means to be alive in the underworld.

Not dead. Not lost. Alive, which is in some ways the harder thing. To be conscious inside the dissolution.

Postmodernity did its necessary work. It dismantled the grand narratives, exposed the machinery behind the curtain, pulled apart the gods we had built from ideology, institution and inherited belief. It told us nothing was fixed, nothing was neutral, everything was constructed. And it was right. But deconstruction is not a destination. It is a demolition. And we are now living in the rubble.

That is the particular weight of this moment. Not just personal unravelling. Collective freefall.

The chrysalis is not comfortable. It is the place where what you were can no longer sustain you, and what you are becoming has not yet arrived.

So this first episode offers no answers but questions. The kind that ask you to stop and look. To feel into what is actually guiding you, persuading you, possibly controlling you, beneath the noise of this fractured, post-everything moment.

This series begins here. Alive. Inside the chrysalis. Asking for what wants to be born.

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