Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026

MycoSymbiotics Mushroom & Art Festival July 29- August 2d, 2026Today on the podcast, AC & Isaac Hill interview mushroom citizen scientist and community builder William Padilla-Brown about his path into mycology, from early curiosity about consciousness and “plant medicine” to diet-driven health struggles that pushed him into growing his own food, foraging, and functional mushrooms. He credits discovering online superfood and medicinal-mushroom content (including David Avocado Wolfe) as a turning point, then explains how mushroom videos took off on YouTube and led him to start MycoSymbiotics and launch MycoFest in 2015 to create a lasting community and legacy for his family. Will recounts cultivating cordyceps after finding a specimen at the first festival, rejecting the idea that it was “impossible,” and learning through observation—treating life as a readable language. He describes MycoSymbiotics’ cutting edge work: wild strain selection, DNA barcoding, cultivation, extraction, third‑party analytics, and making potent products affordable. The conversation also covers ecological literacy through mushrooms, conservation concerns like Pine Barrens development and matsutake habitat loss, the importance and diversity of native truffles (including training a dog to find tuber canaliculatum), aroma as a form of “medicine,” modern distraction and nervous-system hijacking, and adapting to AI by leaning into uniquely human creativity. He closes with MycoFest details (first weekend of August; July 31–Aug 2; MycoFest.net; Artemis, PA; code MYCOMMUNITY), plus MycoSymbiotics sites, classes, a farmer co‑op, and local projects.

00:00 Meet William Padilla-Brown

01:55 Origins in Plant Medicine

06:03 Health Wake Up Call

09:09 David Wolfe and Medicinals

11:28 Myco Symbiote to MycoFest

13:12 Nothing Is Impossible

15:30 Learning From Living Signs

21:05 Mycology Cutting Edge Today

23:44 Matsutake and Habitat Threats

25:29 Truffles as Ecological Gateway

27:16 Native Truffles in Pennsylvania

30:14 Truffles and Sensory Depth

30:41 Overstimulation and Numbness

31:54 Aroma as Medicine

33:58 Capitalism and Responsibility

36:16 Distraction Casino Reality

38:53 Using the System for Good

40:53 Social Media and Rage Bait

44:27 AI Music and Human Spark

48:55 MycoFest and Community Wrap

Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC welcome back Will Morris, PhD, DAOM, MSEd, LAc, RH, a interdisciplinary healer and scholar whose work spans traditional Western and Vedic astrology, Chinese medicine, pulse diagnosis, sound healing, and education. Will explains his compulsive, spiritually driven path across traditions and how transdisciplinary study reveals shared underlying structures, including medical frameworks of location, process, and severity and recurring 12-fold patterns across nature and culture. He critiques mainstream scientific testing of astrology as method-driven, politically shaped, and often logically flawed, arguing the right assessment depends on the question and may require qualitative approaches. The conversation explores intuition, divination versus science, horary use in clinical settings, dreamwork and oneirobotany, mugwort’s shamanic origins, catnip’s “wind” associations, and Will’s upcoming books, including Evidence Ecology: Science and Astrology.

02:10 Why Study Many Traditions?

03:39 Life Path Music to Astrology

08:36 The Benefits of Transdisciplinary Studies

12:00 The Science Industry and Astrology

13:13 Is Astrology Divination or Science?

19:31 Testing Astrology Properly

27:59 Clinical Astrology in Practice

31:07 Book of Dreams and Yesod

32:48 Dreamwork Pulse and Herbs

36:59 Sedative Herbs Mix

37:10 Catnip and Wind Pathology

39:08 Eight Winds and Charts

40:32 Wind as Science Debate

41:23 Dream Plants: Mugwort

42:17 Dybbuk Clearing Story

44:58 Artemisia and Dreamwork

49:08 Cycles and Plant Motion

51:47 Pan Celestial Thesis

01:01:24 Land, Climate and Relocation

01:05:16 Universalism vs Relativism

01:08:15 Books and Future Projects

01:13:45 Closing Thanks

In this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC interview Jorge Nájera in Guadalajara about Mexico’s ceremonial magic scene and his role leading the Fraternidad del Círculo Dorado (Circulo Dorado Web) a mystical and magical school founded in 1986. Najera recounts how a small study group grew through work with BOTA, Golden Dawn-style ritual, Freemasonry, and later affiliation with the Servants of the Light (SOL) lineage of Dion Fortune and Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. He describes meeting Ashcroft-Nowicki, trips to Egypt, learning to build an “astral temple” and inner contacts, then adapting SOL material for Spanish-speaking students by creating their own structured curriculum centered on astrology, Hermetic and Sephardic Kabbalah, and coherent symbolism. He explains the school’s three-degree model, its emphasis on lived experience and service, and how COVID shifted much of their work online, including new digital tools.

01:04 Meet Jorge in Guadalajara

01:55 Founding the School in 1986

03:08 Early Growth

05:02 Joining Servants of the Light

08:11 Egypt Trip and London Temple

11:06 Astral Temple Training

13:11 Adapting SOL for Latin America

14:56 Building the Curriculum

16:07 Kabbalah as Foundation

19:22 Courses and Temple System

21:05 Jorge’s Early Influences

25:10 Astrology Awakening and Teaching

29:58 Fruits and Mission of the School

33:26 From Rituals to Creativity

34:57 Information vs Wisdom

37:34 Mystery Schools Go Digital

42:14 How does a Mystery School work in the Age of Aquarius?

46:10 The Importance of Coherent Symbolic Training

50:52 The Degrees of Initiation

56:24 The Ideal Student

01:00:02 How to Connect and Closing

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Find out more about Laurie here: Laurie Szott-Rogers Bio - Self Heal DistributingThis episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast features herbalist, author, gardener, and educator Laurie Szott-Rogers discussing her new book, From Soil to Soul, and her blend of herbalism, astrology, archetypes, tarot, and dreamwork. Laurie shares how dandelion first drew her into plant medicine, her path from early interests and government work to partnering with her husband Robert Rogers, and what her current life looks like in Alberta’s cold climate gardening. She explains her “24 herbs” framework, the Plant Council concept, and how she writes from the plants’ perspectives using attunement, trance, drumming, and automatic writing. The conversation also addresses AI-generated imagery, explores dandelion’s archetypal qualities, and dives into tarragon’s dragon mythology and its King of Swords tarot association, along with practical uses like tarragon pesto.00:00 Meet Laurie Szott-Rogers00:23 Plant Cunning Conference Plug01:41 Her Plant Path Origins02:25 Dandelion First Love03:47 Astrology Meets Herbalism05:43 Life in Alberta Garden09:04 Store Products and Teaching10:17 Council of Plants Concept13:29 Attunement and Plant Rituals16:02 Writing as the Plants17:23 From Soil to Soul and AI Art21:08 Recipes and Dandelion Archetype22:42 Dandelion Resilience Medicine25:05 Planetary Archetypes in Dandelion26:43 Bitterness Shadow and Renewal28:08 Why Humans Love Archetypes29:48 Plant Surprises Mint Myth31:28 Tarragon Dragons and Growing32:55 Tarragon Pesto Kitchen Uses35:03 Tarot Links King of Swords38:42 Neoshamanic Plant Journeying41:07 Next Projects Oracle Deck42:27 Where to Find the Book43:21 Closing Thanks and Farewell

Find out more and get your tickets for thePlant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026 here!Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast, hosts Isaac and AC Hill interview nutritionist, health coach, herbalist, and educator Andrea Beaman. She shares how she healed her thyroid through diet and lifestyle changes and later navigated a debilitating 2012–2013 illness she associated with Lyme after recurring lung infections, joint pain, and depression. Beaman discusses fear of herbs as cultural residue from witch trials and modern medical suppression, encourages experimentation with time-tested remedies and kitchen herbs, and stresses grounding, meditation, and heart-based intuition (including muscle testing). She outlines thyroid imbalance symptoms, links many cases to nutritional deficiency and stress, touches on autoimmune thyroid issues and parasites, recounts powerful experiences with trees and ayahuasca, and invites listeners to her courses and Health is Wealth community at andreabeaman.com.

01:29 Meet Andrea Beaman

02:50 A Health Crisis Begins

06:07 How did you find out it was Lyme disease?

09:01 Breakthrough with Teasel

13:09 Herb School and Self Testing

14:16 Trusting Herbs and Tuning In

19:04 Healing Beyond Food

21:47 Thyroid Healing Origins

23:00 Thyroid Signs and Root Causes

32:41 Herbs for Mind and Spirit

34:12 Ayahuasca and Plant Connection

36:06 Do Plants Speak?

41:17 Central Park Tree Spirit

43:11 Why People Fear Herbs

45:03 Witch Trials Trauma Echoes

47:49 Reclaiming Plant Confidence

50:40 Kitchen Herbs and COVID

54:00 Fear Physiology and Hospitals

57:33 Trust Your Heart Intuition

01:01:17 Meditation Cracks the Heart

01:03:11 Rethinking Education and Nature

01:04:34 Where to Learn With Andrea

01:08:17 Simple Recipes and Farewell

Find out more about the Plant Cunning Conference at Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Astrologer ZamboniFunk returns to talk about the astrological forecast for summer 2026! We discuss the Cancer Mercury retrograde as a loud season for mistakes, delays, review, and serendipity, followed by Mars entering Gemini and conjoining Uranus, trining Pluto in Aquarius, heightening anxiety, disruption, experimentation, and possible tech/cybersecurity volatility. Jupiter’s move into Leo is framed as more defensive support amid “pirate season” boundary-testing, with a key July 29 Jupiter cazimi opposite Pluto alongside a full moon conjunct Pluto, suggesting power plays and revelations. The episode closes with herbal support for stress and heart strain: harvesting motherwort, and combining it with hawthorn and rose for courage, boundaries, grief, and tension.

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:20 Conference Announcement

01:17 Summer Forecast Begins

01:55 Mercury Retrograde Setup

03:38 Mars Uranus Volatility

06:25 Experimentation Pirate Season

08:41 Mercury Retrograde Lessons

14:04 Jupiter Enters Leo

20:04 Jupiter Pluto Power Plays

23:03 Nodes Shift Authority

24:18 Era of Air Metaphor

24:58 Redistribution Scenarios

26:36 Mutual Aid Power

27:19 Jupiter Pluto Togetherness

28:28 Eclipses Chaos Reset

29:37 Robots Hive Mind

31:09 Adaptability Job Shakeup

34:46 Pirate Season Skills

35:29 Motherwort Heart Medicine

38:18 Hawthorn Boundaries

40:44 Courage Against Tech Future

43:05 Delusion & Hope

47:37 Conference And Farewell

Find out more about the Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today, AC & Isaac interview Trista Haggerty, author of When the Dark Mother Calls, about her path into mysticism after a dark night of the soul and two decades of mentoring with a German mystic while traveling to sacred sites in places such as Peru and Ireland. They discuss what makes power spots sacred, stone circles as “acupuncture,” and caves as initiation spaces, plus practices for trusting intuition through body-based discernment. Trista shares her work at Hawk Circle, a couple-hundred-acre land project where she’s building stone circle, trails, and a perfumery inspired by Egyptian temple recipes to fund youth nature programs. The conversation also explores fairies, dragons, the “threefold path,” and her upcoming talk at the Plant Cunning Conference (July 24–26) alongside other speakers.

01:38 Trista Meets Her Mentor

03:31 First Sacred Site Journeys

06:21 Earth-Based Mysticism Lessons

08:22 What Makes Sites Sacred

11:26 Primal Earth Energy Work

15:08 Mystic Path and Hidden Teachings

19:07 Trusting Intuition in Noise

23:51 Hawk Circle Vision and Land

29:51 Perfumery and Temple Scents

31:49 Essential Oils Impact

32:04 Ritual Perfumery Journey

33:11 Fairy Lore Explained

37:15 Threefold Path Teachings

40:14 Dragons and the Land

42:08 First Dragon Encounter

43:45 Connecting With Dragons

47:39 Awakening Landscape Dragons

48:38 Dragon Humor and Myths

53:31 New Earth Vision

56:41 When the Dark Mother Calls

Learn more about the Plant Cunning Conference at:Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026On this episode, Isaac and AC welcome community herbalist, author, and teacher Mary Blue to talk about the "hot tincture method" and why applying a hot water extraction can dramatically improve tincture color, aroma, taste, and effectiveness while saving plant material, storage space, and time. Mary shares her path from environmental and protest activism into herbalism, her day-to-day running an herb shop and farm, and the mentors and experiences that shaped her teaching focus on herbal actions and solvency. They discuss safety lessons learned from heating alcohol, plant-specific considerations (including mushrooms, marshmallow, comfrey, and milk thistle), glycerins and oils, and how herbalism functions as a form of activism through accessibility, community support, and sustainable practice.

02:23 Meet Mary Blue

02:55 Activism To Herbalism

04:46 Running Farmacy Herbs

06:14 Mentors And Training

08:01 Teaching Solvency Basics

09:55 Common Solvency Confusions

11:26 Accessible Teaching Methods

13:53 The "Hot Tincture Method" Explained

16:19 Why It Works Better

23:09 How Mary Blue almost burned down her apothecary

28:01 Tincture Ratios

31:24 When Not to Tincture

31:50 Comfrey Safety Debate

33:12 Liniments and Compresses

34:43 Glycerins and Pre Extraction

36:01 Heating Oils for Extraction

36:29 Classes and Farm Intensives

37:46 Hosting Herbal Events

39:25 Herbalism as Activism

40:55 Burnout to Micro Activism

47:02 Fulfillment Through Service

47:58 The Future of Herbalism

s52:55 Creativity and Community Play

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today on the show, Isaac & AC welcome David Holmgren, co-originator of the Permaculture concept.In this episode, David describes life at Melliodora in Central Victoria with three semi-autonomous households sharing work and produce, and recounts how he came to the “plant path” through plant ID, foraging, and early research for Permaculture One. He tells the story of meeting Bill Mollison in 1974 and how the idea of agriculture functioning like a forest became a seed of permaculture, while reflecting on Mollison’s charisma and difficulty. The conversation explores holistic thinking versus reductionism, DIY self-reliance, cycles of skill loss and renewal, COVID’s impact on interest in permaculture and RetroSuburbia, “enlightened self-interest,” energy descent and relocalization, household-scale resilience including health capacity, and where to find Holmgren’s essays and websites.

02:11 Meet David Holmgren

03:47 Finding the Plant Path

06:04 Chance Meeting with Bill Mollison

08:15 Permaculture Seed Idea

12:12 Working with a Charismatic Genius

15:31 Patterns vs Practice

21:13 DIY Skills and Tasmania Culture

24:27 Cycles of Self Reliance

28:17 COVID and RetroSuburbia Spike

30:07 Enlightened Self Interest Explained

37:29 Humans as Keystone Species

38:26 Hierarchy and Elite Corruption

40:35 Predators and Power

41:25 Fossil Fuel Hierarchy

42:42 Globalists vs Sovereigntists

44:11 Household Resilience Basics

45:35 Health as Weak Link

47:44 Bigger Households Work

52:17 Household Beats Consensus

55:23 Food Growing Mindset

59:09 Jack of all trades, Master of One

01:03:06 Why Intentional Communities Fail

01:06:49 Brown Tech Uncertainty

01:08:32 Tower of Babel Reality

01:12:35 Long Descent Balance

01:16:29 Essays and Resources

01:19:30 Final Thanks and Wrap

Sign up for the free Herbal Dental Care class here: https://courses.herbrally.com/a/2148265685/vCybToz9

Get The Zodiac Garden Guide here: Amazon.com: The Zodiac Garden Guide: A Handbook of Astrological Gardening: 9798253036525: Hill, Isaac Alexander, Cole, Freedom: Books

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today, Isaac and AC welcome Gary P. Caton, the "Hermetic Astrologer" to discuss embodied astrology—going outside to directly observe and relate with the planets. Caton recounts his father teaching him to plant by the Moon, a 1993 dream tied to a Sun–Venus conjunction, and his experience with Project Hindsight translations that renewed interest in sky-based practice. He describes conversations and synchronicities with Venus and plants, argues astrologers have an ethical imperative to know the sky firsthand, and explains practical entry points like tracking Venus’s seven Moon conjunctions and working with new/full moons for intentions. The conversation also explores ethics, seasonality, civilization cycles, and “seed people.”

03:15 Meet Gary Caton

03:36 Origins in Astrology

05:32 Venus Dream Awakening

08:57 Planets and Plants Talk

11:45 Why "Embodied Astrology"?

13:59 Civilization and Planets

18:12 Hermes Myth and Charts

23:22 Start Embodied Astrology

26:25 Venus Cycle Dates

29:17 Moon Cycles and Seeds

31:01 Dark Moon and Ethics

34:16 Waning Moon Decrease

36:08 Disseminating Phase Seeds

37:15 Rudhyar Autumn Metaphor

39:07 Science and Hermeticism

40:38 Becoming Seed People

44:58 The Elements, Love and Strife

47:22 Ape Hierarchies Embodiment

51:38 Sunrise Ritual Nature Healing

55:37 Quiet Desert Homecoming

57:31 Where to Find Gary

59:47 Biodynamic Planting Calendar

01:02:33 Wrap Up and Thanks