Rooted Healing

“We are rainforest people living on a rainforest island… and the greatest challenge is truly remembering that.”

In this episode, we sit down with Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, a rainforest guardian, author, conservationist and founder of the Thousand Year Trust - exploring the healing potential of restoring Britain’s ancient temperate rainforests.

From his home at Cabilla, a sanctuary on Bodmin Moor where native thousand year old Celtic oaks still grow, Merlin is leading a soulful mission: to reweave ecological resilience with cultural memory, and to bring people back into relationship with our Atlantic rainforests.  

We also explore Merlin’s powerful debut book, Our Oaken Bones - an emotive reflection on place, belonging, healing and the intergenerational task of tending what remains.

This episode includes a book giveaway for our Patreon community - one listener will receive a hardback copy of Our Oaken Bones. Visit patreon.com/rootedhealing to enter and support the podcast.

Learn more about our offerings and join our free Embodied Deep Ecology workshop at rootedhealing.org.

The music stitched into this episode is from The Children’s Forest and Bonnie Medicine.

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In this episode, we welcome Maile Kalokura, a Somatic Educator, Shamanic & Evolutionary Astrologer and founder of Kalokura Astrology & the Golden Rose Temple.  With a passion for deepening self-awareness and activating a sense of aliveness in the body, Maile guides us through the art of softening - into presence, authenticity and embodied truth.

She shares her personal journey of confronting power dynamics and radical initiations that led her to rediscover the strength in vulnerability, the power of boundaries and the beauty of slowing down, sensuously.  

Through her studies in somatic healing, mystical traditions and sacred arts, she has cultivated a path of attunement to life’s deeper rhythms, where sensuous presence becomes a gateway to freedom.

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Mairead, the creatrix behind Bonnie Medicine, is a singer, song weaver, and medicine musician from the ‘Bonnie’ isles of Scotland. Rooted deeply in her Celtic heritage and a profound connection to story and place, her music is a prayer—an offering of freedom, unity and truth, inviting us into remembrance and harmony with all beings.

Over a year ago, Mairead’s music became a core thread of the Rooted Healing Podcast, weaving its way through many episodes and into the audio chapters of our year-long course, Deepen Your Roots. It was a joy to finally meet her in person at our Ancestral Gathering last year, where she brought her fiery, vibrant Scottish spirit. Her passion for ancestral life-ways is utterly contagious, and her devotion to the songful, ancestral path is something we deeply respect.

This episode is woven with songs from Mairead’s newly released EP, Belonging, alongside a piece from her previous album, Wide Open. 

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Mairead's Wilderness Retreat.

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In this episode, we are joined by Philiswa Makhaye, a traditional Zulu healer from South Africa. Initiated as a Sangoma at the age of 12, Philiswa has dedicated her life to ancestral communion, intergenerational healing and ancient earth-based spiritual wisdom.

This conversation offers a rare glimpse into animistic spirituality, free from the limiting frameworks of non-animist worldviews. It continues a thread of enquiry explored in a recent episode with Dr Andy Letcher, who highlighted the animistic discourse as one of the most disruptive to the reductionist Western paradigm. Through Philiswa’s insights, we delve into the deep relationality between the land, the ancestors and the healing traditions that have traversed across generations and cultures.

Philiswa’s presence at this year’s Medicine Festival left a lasting impression, particularly during a powerful collective ceremony for peace, where wisdom keepers from around the world offered prayers from each cardinal direction. Her songful prayer, graciously recorded for this episode, is woven into the conversation - a gift to carry in your bones.

For those who wish to experience the full, uninterrupted recording of Philiswa’s prayer, it is uploaded on our patreon, available for all listeners. 

Additional meditations and resources are also available for those who wish to support the show. 

We have recently launched a free hour-long workshop on embodied deep ecology.  

Bookings have now opened to join us at Earth Medicine, our signature ceremonial retreat.

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In this heartfelt episode, we are joined by the wonderful Marina Delamar, an artist, educator, and ceremonialist who explores life through the twin lenses of death and beauty. With a lifelong connection to the natural world and its more-than-human kin, Marina creates installations, shrines, and environments that invite transformation, reflection and storytelling.

Drawing from her background in event management, outdoor education, animal husbandry, and animist principles, Marina collaborates with communities to co-create ceremonies and educational offerings that honour life, death, and the in-between. She is currently working at a nature school, while apprenticing as a death doula and funeral celebrant.

Marina is also a beloved participant of our 2024 Deepen Your Roots cohort and will be returning this year as a community tender to support the next circle of participants. For those new to Deepen Your Roots, it is our year-long, life-affirming programme in embodied deep ecology, Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, and an animistic, folkloric exploration of the ecological Self. Together, we weave belonging and relationship to place as a healing response to the uprootedness and disconnection many feel in modern life.

Learn more at rootedhealing.org/deepen and enjoy a 10% discount with the code ROOTED10 as a thank you for being part of our listening community.

In this conversation, Marina shares her personal mental health journey, a mystical encounter with a very lost emperor penguin, and how moments like these with the natural world can guide us back to belonging and offer healing amidst the rising tide of disconnection in modern life.

We’ve also added Marina’s full story, written beautifully, along with photographs of her encounter, as a free offering for all listeners at our patreon page. For our patrons, this year we’re introducing new meditations every moon cycle alongside our guests’ offerings, making a truly nourishing time to support this show.  As always, we begin by inviting our guest to root us into the lands that shape them and to call in a being or beings in spirit, opening the door to a broader, porous sense of self and connection.

Learn more:

• Deepen Your Roots: rootedhealing.org/deepen
• 10% Discount Code: ROOTED10

Music in this episode is from Bonnie Medicine and Nathalie Nahai

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In this rich and winding conversation, we are joined by Dr. Andy Letcher — Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, former Programme Lead for the MA in Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College, and author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom. With doctorates in both Ecology and the Study of Religion, Andy is a singular voice in contemporary psychedelic research, animism, and the revival of folk wisdom.

We explore the deep well of his research into the ritual and animistic use of psychedelics by British Druids, hints of myths and traditions of the Fly Agaric mushroom, and the discourses that shape our understanding of psychedelic experiences. Andy’s insights bridge folklore, embodied ecology, and mythopoetic storytelling, offering a compelling perspective on how we frame and make meaning within animate landscapes.

This episode is laced with music from Andy’s former folk band, Telling the Bees. For our Patreon supporters, we’re offering a curated selection of Andy’s most elusive and fascinating writings — rare gems that are otherwise difficult to access.

Andy will also be one of 14 special guests on our upcoming Deepen Your Roots programme — a year-long journey beginning on Imbolc (1st February 2025).  This programme offers a slow, spiralling incubation of Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects, guiding you to unearth your ecological niche and mythopoetic calling amid the Great Turning. Registration is now open — visit rootedhealing.org/deepen to learn more.

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In this episode, we dive deep into the mycelial network with world-renowned educator and ethnomycologist Darren le Baron. Known for his transformative Shroomshop Masterclasses and groundbreaking work in mushroom cultivation, Darren shares his journey from growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms to pioneering the UK's first accredited Mycology and Mushroom Cultivation course for schools and at-risk youth.

We explore how ancient fungi medicine traditions intersect with modern psychedelic research, the role of fungi in community empowerment, and the potential of mushrooms to heal both individuals and ecosystems.  Darren also discusses his innovative approach to permaculture and organic horticulture, weaving together sustainability, education and holistic community building.

Join us for a conversation that blends science, spirituality, and practical wisdom to illuminate how "we are mushrooms having a human experience".

The music in this episode is from Bonnie Medicine and Cynefin.  Reach our if you would like to gift your music to these rooted stories.

Deepen Your Roots for a year-long slow spiral of Macy's 'The Work That Reconnects, weaving an animistic, embodied Deep Ecology into finding and tending your calling toward stewardship.

Explore our world and work at rootedhealing.org and follow along on instagram.

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Hayley Frances is a poet and poetry therapist from Birmingham. Her debut collection, Administer the Laughing Gas (VERVE Poetry Press), is a raw and unfiltered exploration of grief, trauma and body autonomy, offering profound insights into the human experience. As the first Poet in Residence for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Hayley’s work bridges the worlds of creative writing and healing, helping individuals navigate loss and re-encounter life through the power of words. With over 15 years of experience, she integrates poetry into healthcare settings, leading therapeutic workshops that foster emotional and relational awareness.

This episode delves into Hayley’s unique approach to poetry therapy, her personal journey through grief, and the deep insights she gained from our Earth Medicine Grief Tending retreat earlier this year.

Register now for next year's slow study Deepen Your Roots.

The music in this episode is by the wonderful Bonnie Medicine, with tracks accompanying Hayley's poems by Ojhro.

Hayley will be offering some poetry practices for our patron community, along with her powerful article about her motherline.

If you would like to gift your music to the show, please reach out to us.

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‘Cynefin’ (pr. kuh-neh-vin) is the creative vision of West Wales native folk musician, Owen Shiers. Fascinated by music and history, it aims to give a modern voice to Ceredigion’s rich yet neglected cultural heritage. Starting from his home village of Capel Dewi in the Clettwr Valley and travelling through the local musical landscape, Owen has unearthed seasoned songs and stories, some never before recorded, and given them new life in the present.

The result of three years of research and work, his debut album ‘Dilyn Afon’ (Following a River) is distinct in its concept and ambition. From talking animals and tragic train journeys – to the musings of star-crossed lovers, farm workers and lonely vagabonds, the album provides a unique window into the past and to a vibrant oral culture of story and song – it moves, probes and reveals forgotten aspects of the tradition, whilst raising questions around our modern malaise of disconnection and rootlessness.

As any of you who have listened to the podcast for a while now will know, belonging is a big theme within our work at Rooted Healing, and yet Owen roots belonging back into the true sense of Cynefin and discusses themes worth sitting with at a deep level. 

Owen questions our responsibilities in the protection and revival of diversity, in the broadest ecological sense that involves culture, language and story, which is big theme that we are exploring in our online course ‘Deepen Your Roots’ and at our upcoming gathering ‘Ancestral’, which is the 23rd-28th July in Eryri, North Wales.  So it is especially joyful to bring Owen onto the show as we approach this time in community on home soil.

Intro music by the wonderful Bonnie Medicine.

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Dr Matthew Zylstra is a systems ecologist passionate about deepening the human-nature relationship for the healing of people and planet. 

He has 20 years of international experience in social-ecological research and outdoor education. With an MSc in Environmental Science and PhD in Conservation Ecology & Sustainability Education, his doctorate research explored how meaningful nature experiences and nature connectedness motivate pro-environmental behaviour and regenerative leadership, which - 10 years on - remains relevant today more than ever. Insights from this research and his publications have informed several global initiatives and university curricula. Matthew is Programme Director with the Kwendalo Institute and Research Fellow with the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University. He lives in South Africa with his family and finds happiness and healing in exploring intertidal life above and below the surface along his local coastline.  

Accompanying this episode, Matthew has gifted 2 PDF books to our patron community: Cave and the Contemplator, which he wrote in 2015, and Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in Protected Areas (edited by Bas Verschuuren and Steve Brown).

For more on Matthew’s past research visit eyes4earth.org and for current endeavours, see earthcollective.net .   See also  https://bio.site/drmattz.

If you’d like to learn more about our work at Rooted Healing, you can head to rootedhealing.org and join us at our ceremonial nature-led gatherings or online courses in animistic deep ecology. 

We have a very special gathering coming up this summer in Eryri, North Wales, called Ancestral, where you can join us and embody ancestral village life, full of songs, ancient stories, craft and ceremonies, all to bring us closer to our early ancestors and our role for the next generations to come, to the land and to our more-than-human kin. 

The music in this episode is from Bonnie Medicine.

Receive additional resources via patreon.com/rootedhealing

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