My latest guest, H. Byron Ballard, joins me on this episode for her second visit to the Home to Her podcast. Byron is a ritualist, teacher, gardener, and author of multiple books, including "Staubs and Ditchwater: A Friendly and Useful Introduction to Hillfolks’ Hoodoo;" "Earthworks: Ceremonies in Tower Time;" "Seasons of a Magical Life;" and the forthcoming "Feral Church." Known as Asheville, North Carolina’s village witch, Byron specializes in folk magic and folkways of the surrounding Appalachian Mountains where she and her family have hailed from for four generations. Byron is also a senior priestess and co-founder of the Mother Grove Goddess Temple, a nonprofit church with a focus on the many forms of the divine feminine.

On this episode we discuss:

• What it means to live in deep relationship to place - both the gifts and the challenges
• How the work and the death of the late thealogian Dr. Carol P. Christ inspired Byron's forthcoming book, Feral Church, and why she feels it's so important that we have new books of thealogy (spelling intentional) that celebrate the Goddess
• Why it's important that we understand that the Goddess and her many incarnations represent much more than patriarchally lauded values such as softness and femininity, but also ferocity and immense power.
• The linkage between the concept of begin feral and the Divine Feminine.
• The need for "hearth church" and other homegrown, emergent practices for engaging with the sacred that can continue to exist and flourish as patriarchal systems crumble around us

Notes related to this episode:

• You can learn more about Byron at her website, https://www.myvillagewitch.com/.
• You can also find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/byron.ballar..., and on Instagram: @byronballard5789
• Byron discussed the late Carol P. Christ, and the importance of her work. Her essay "Why Women Need the Goddess" is an excellent introduction to her work: https://www.goddessariadne.org/why-wo...
• Byron mentioned the Unitarian Universalist curriculum, "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven"
• Here's my first interview with Byron from 2022: https://youtu.be/H1uIFHqH00U?si=T5XMk...

And here are a few more details about this show and my work:

• If you’d like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/
• You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history.
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• You can also watch this episode on the Home to Her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK6xtUV6K7ayV30iz1ECigw
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• And to read about the Sacred Feminine, check out my award-winning book Home to Her: Walking the Transformative Path of the Sacred Feminine (Womancraft Publishing), available on Audible and wherever you buy your books!. If you've read it, your reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are greatly appreciated!

Mentioned in this episode:

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