The Numinous Podcast

Cyndi's Brannen's most recent book, Entering Hekate's Garden: The Magic, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft, is a rich and enchanting journey with 39 plants, along with 39 ways to work with botanicals in your daily life and deeper rituals.

Learn more about Cyndi's online programs at KeepingHerKeys.com

Listen to her podcast, More Than This: At the Crossroads of Modern Life and the Deeper World

What is "collapse awareness"? How do we navigate collapse without losing our joy? What skills are needed in times of prolonged periods of overwhelming stress? This episode is an overview and recap of a topic I've talked about every year (multiple times) since the start of this show in 2014. Here, once again, is my annual report on the state of collapse.

Preparing For A Beautiful End, Geez Magazine (Winter 2014), Utne Reader (Summer 2015)

Join us in my course, Collapse 101, in The Numinous Network

The Spirited Kitchen

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Today, I’m going to make a few people really happy because this is the Bruce Springsteen Niche Episode that more than a handful of you have been waiting for. The episode where I explain the long-lasting appeal of Bruce Springsteen as told through select Springsteen tracks arranged in order of progressive maturity of narrative voice. The journey takes us from frustrated youth in a small town, to emergent adult getting into trouble, an adult desire for love and reconciliation with the past, deepening radicalization as the hardships of life are revealed to be so often caused by oppressive systems of class and hierarchy, and finally a swell of hope and resilience as a more mature voice of elderhood emerges. Features 15 of his 60+ albums.

I have created this playlist in Tidal but I’m going to add a list of each track and the specific album it appears on - because the specific recording matters. This is a musician who is known for tireless touring having played over 2,600 concerts since he signed with Columbia Records in 1972. But of course, he had a career before that - Bruce Springsteen has been the front man of a rock and roll band since his first gig as a 17 year old with his band called The Castiles in 1965 and he’s never had any other job since. Never had a workin man job. Not a day. But his dad did. His dad had lots of jobs, it was hard for him to keep jobs. Partially because of declining industrial jobs around New Jersey intensifying in the mid-60s, but also because Bruce’s dad struggled with alcoholism and undiagnosed depression and schizophrenia, and that became a defining feature of Bruce’s life and his music, wrestling with intergenerational demons and the mirroring of one family’s life in the larger decline of America as a country and an idea at the end of the 20th century.

Follow along with the songs with a free trial on Tidal (credit card required) or search the following recordings wherever you get your music, (possibly even YouTube).

Playlist

1. Growin’ Up, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)

References

Covers and Springsteen Songs by Other Artists

1. Blinded By The Light, Mannfred Mann's Earth Band (1976)

Movie: Blinded By The Light, Gurinder Chadha (2019)

Netflix: Springsteen on Broadway

Album: Traveling Wilburys, Vol.1

Pete Seeger on the Johnny Cash Show: Bring Them Home (1970)

Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live at C.W.Post College, Greenvale NY (1975)

Autobiography: Born To Run (2016)

Maris Bergrune is a ritual animist, a spirit worker, a sound medium, and singer/musician. I’ve taken two of her programs - one on Norse animism and one on seidr mediumship and we’ll talk about them in detail today. Maris teaches skill development in intuitive perception, boundaries and discernment, and offers a very good foundation in animist ritual and relational practices with the Other Than Human worlds. She focuses on developing healthy relationships with spirits and ancestors and also on accessing self-sovereignty and voice.

As you’ll hear in this interview, her practice is characterized by this very clear intention to partner with only the most compassionate aspects of spirit. I find her approach very grounded and practical; and she’s clear that this approach is not a way to bypass the challenges of humanity but are rather offers ways to be deeply resourced while facing these challenges. 

Here's her website: https://livingvoicemedicine.com

Click here for her program, Gather at the Well: Norse Ritual Animism

Resources Mentioned:

Betsey Bergstrom

Tom Kenyon

Annette Höst

Seed of Yggdrasill, by Maria Kvilhaug

I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Nicholas Pearson, author of several books including, Crystal Basics: The Energetic, Healing, and Spiritual Power of 200 Gemstones. Nicholas studied mineral science in university and worked for several years at a museum featuring the largest mineral collection in the southwestern US. In this episode, Nick explains the science of why and how crystals work including concepts like entrainment, amplification and coherence. 

Check out his website and links here:

www.theluminouspearl.com

My guest today is Becca Piastrelli, author of the new book, Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways To Connect To Land, Lineage, Community and the Self. It’s a charming, full colour, illustrated guide to fundamentals of creating connection with spirits of place and ancestors. I’d describe it as a fresh update on modern self-directed spirituality because it foregrounds how white feminism of the past and today has a tendency to appropriate spirituality from anywhere and everywhere. Becca’s book clearly aims to recognize white privilege, give credit, and walk humbly on the spiritual path.

Find out more about Root & Ritual here.

Find out more about Becca and her podcast, Belonging, here.

Find out more about Constellation work here.

Elaine Alec is a co-founder of Alderhill, an Indigenous-owned-and-led company of leading experts in the area of Indigenous Community Planning. She’s led comprehensive community planning and engagement processes, been a political advisor, and recently the bestselling author of Calling My Spirit Back which links a personal examination of her lived experience to a much broader overview of serious sociological concerns of national importance for people in Canada and beyond, along with tangible steps to address them. I also know that Elaine and her family share the same strong commitment to co-parenting and secure attachment in a blended family as I do, and I wanted to jam on that a bit. Content warning: Discussion of cultural genocide and the legacy of Indigenous residential institutions in Canada.

Learn more about Elaine and the book, Calling My Spirit Back, here.

Find out more about Alderhill for Indigenous community planning and engagement here.

Today I’m speaking with British Columbia record-breaking pumpkin grower, Dave Chan. Dave has grown the heaviest pumpkin in BC’s history at 1,911 pounds! Dave has been growing for many years and finally achieved his dream and I’m thrilled to have him on the show today to share all his secrets. Stay tuned for a Rubenation at the end.

GiantPumpkinsBC.com (to see Dave's pumpkin!)

BigPumpkins.com

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

Master Carver, Scott Cully, who appeared on the Johnny Carson Show in 1985, inspiring Dave's lifelong passion for pumpkins

Toi Smith is my guest today! Toi is a business and growth strategist, a writer and teacher.  She's also host of an online community called Business For The People for entrepreneurs, creatives, healers, and guides trying to do business differently. Toi also works with mothers who desire to return to themselves, and Black women who want more joy and pleasure.

toimarie.com

businessforthepeople.com

Sylvia Federici's books

Combahee River Collective Statement 

American Capitalism: A History (Cornell University podcast)

RAVEN Trust is the place where I give a percentage of my income every month if you're interested in helping support legal challenges to fight for Aboriginal Rights & Title in British Columbia.

Reciprocity Connects is where I've pledged to make payments to the local nations whose territories I live upon.

Today’s episode is especially dedicated to all the parents out there of tweens and teens who are exploring their gender identity. Paria Hassouri is a pediatrician, mother of three and writer whose work has appeared in the NY Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post.  She and her family live in LA, where she practices pediatrics at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. And she’s the author of the book, Found In Transition: A Mother’s Evolution during her Child’s Gender Change, a very frank, sometimes painfully honest account of parenting a transgender teen. Paria chronicles what amounts to a dual transition: as her child transitions from male to female, she navigates through anger, denial, and grief to eventually arrive at acceptance. Blindsided by her child’s gender identity, Paria is also forced to examine how she still carries insecurities from her past of growing up as an Iranian-American immigrant in a predominantly white neighborhood.