I have a most complex relationship with the idea and experience of ‘hope’, and Allison & I have had many conversations over the past few years about this complexity. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve had one on air, however!

Hope can be a beautiful and powerful energy to have in our lives, but I feel that if it is over-utilized or utilized in a ‘passive’ or disempowered manner, spending too much time in hope can be ultimately detrimental to our healing and personal awakening journey. In this episode we explore the purpose and power of healthy hope and faith, along with (of course) a lot more. It all comes full circle with the card pull we finish the episode with!

Hope you enjoy x

I could not be more pleased or feel more honoured that the first guest in this space is none other than Stephen Harrod Buhner.

Stephen Harrod Buhner has been an indescribable influence on my path. His books, perspectives, and basic nature are such an inspiration for me (and for many others I know), and his contributions to herbalism, human consciousness, spirituality, and ecological relations are, in many ways, unparalleled.

Hello friends, and happy holidays.

I hope this has been a beautiful time for you all, and I wish perhaps especially that the Solstice and depth of this winter season has been clarifying and meaningful. It certainly has been for me.

This is a great episode. Allison & I explore the idea of what ‘healing’ really is, and how that idea shifts depending on what system you’re utilizing. From the perspective of Shamanic practice, it is entirely possible that a person can pass away from this life and still ‘heal’, while a person may go through a life-threatening experience and remain alive but…not heal at all. Healing in this system is never about the abatement of symptoms as is classically thought in Western systems of medicine, but rather about the wholeness that may potentially be cultivated through the healing process.

Hope you enjoy xx

I think that Shamanic practice offers a very beautiful (albeit difficult) perspective on what it means to really ‘grow up’, as in this work being an adult is not so much related to whether or not we can pay our bills and maintain a job (though, yes, that it still important..) as it is to whether we do, say, think, and feel all the same thing.

To be an adult in this tradition is to be in alignment, and to be fully awake to the responsibility we have as individuals to be showing up with the greatest integrity possible.

It is the practice of always consciously doing our best.

In this episode Allison & I dig deep into this topic, dispelling (I hope) some myths around what Shamanic practice really is about, and what it is not. There’s a whole lot of magic in this beautiful practice and way of being in the world, sure, but the nuts and bolts of the work—and, ultimately, the pursuit and experience of power, which we also dive into a bit here—are about consciously attending to how we show up in the world.

How we adult, you might say.

I hope you’re all fairing well out there, friends.

big love.

This was such a fun conversation to have, all about how we make choices, whether we are REALLY making conscious choices and being honest with ourselves, and how to engage with making better choices in every area of our lives.

My apologies again for the lack of show notes (I might take up those podcast pesterers who can transcribe them all for you someday soon, cause that sounds like a really good and timesaving option…).

Hope you enjoy, friends. Lots of love

Hey friends- welcome back. We’re so happy to be back in this space with you all.

Let’s dive right into here, shall we? In today’s episode we’re exploring the realities of this ‘initiation’ that we are moving through while transiting the intense vortex energies of this time.

We talk about:

- how sacrifice and letting things die is a necessary part of any initiatory process.

- why the scariest part of letting go isn’t necessarily the release, but the fear of the liminal space we move into.

- why working with your beliefs about life and reality is a necessary part of this process.

This episode is a little longer than most as it includes an addendum from me offering a bit more exploration of practice. I intend to offer a practice component for each week from here out, and this will be included at the end of the conversation with Allison, just FYI.

As always, please reach out if you have questions or are looking for clarification on anything we explore here. We love to hear from you.

@cielgrove is me.

@allisonstrickland is my lovely friend.

Big love and support to you all. So glad to be moving through this with such good company.