There are conversations you plan, and then there are the ones that pour through you because they were already waiting. This one was the second kind.
This month on Ancestor Hour, Georgina and I welcomed our comadre Juliet Diaz, author of The Altar Within, community bruja, neurodivergent Indigenous Taino, and first-generation Cuban-American, and one of the most influential literary voices of our generation. Her books have been translated into more than 14 languages. Love Juliet, it's at the top of Substack's leaderboard.
But what came through wasn't a résumé. It was three matriarchs around a fire, comadres, hermanas, talking about what this moment is actually asking of us.
In this episode, we get into:
- Why joy is resistance, not bypass
- "We are the machine" — and what it takes to stop fueling it
- How rage and anger live downstream of love
- A message for everyone over 40 who's been running on empty
- Why the elders are calling us back to our hands — to maíz, to embroidery, to slow remembering
- The Altar Within and the practice of decolonial wellness
- The 10-year journey Juliet, Georgina and I are stepping into together — bringing Indigenous voices and ancestral medicine into the world in deep reciprocity
- Sabiduría — our new collaborative newsletter, around the fire, bi-weekly medicine letters
- What it looks like when faith leads, and the path arranges itself behind it
This is not a love-and-light space. The duality is the medicine. The crying and the hummingbirds. The rage and the love underneath it.
If this episode meets you somewhere tender, we'd love to hear from you.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 — Welcome & introducing Juliet03:30 — What this time is asking of us08:30 — Joy as resistance12:50 — Rage, love, and "spiritually horny"18:50 — Don't ask questions, feel through it21:00 — For the sisters in their 40s and beyond26:30 — The Altar Within and unplugging from the matrix33:00 — The 10-year journey with Indigenous communities43:30 — Sabiduría: our collaborative newsletter51:00 — What we're each working on next58:30 — Closing
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CONNECT WITH JULIET DIAZ
- Substack: Love Juliet
- Book: The Altar Within: A Devotional Guide to Liberation
CONNECT WITH ANCESTOR HOUR
- Hosts: Antüpewma (Daniela Miranda) & Georgina Juarez
- Newsletter: Sabiduría — bi-weekly medicine letters from three matriarchs
- Daniela's Substack: Slow Living as a Way Home
- Georgina's Subback : Mujer Magic
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If this episode landed for you, the kindest thing you can do is share it with one sister, leave a rating, and come back next week. Gracias for spending your time with us. We're walking each other home.