The Numinous Podcast

I'm so excited about this episode! It's me with four dear souls who've recently returned from their 12-day Wilderness Quests experience. 

- hunger and fasting

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In this episode, Carl-Greger mentioned the book The Wind Is My Mother, by Bear Heart

I'm so pleased to welcome Layla to the show, all the way from Qatar!

Layla is a Black Muslim woman who has lived both in the West and the Middle East and has an interesting perspective on blending Islam and Catholicism, cultural appropriation in spiritual practices, and what it's like to live in a truly diverse and multicultural society.

Layla also shares what it was like when one of her blog posts critiquing the "6-figure" business coaching mill went viral and how that prompted a spiritual awakening.

We also explore the collapse of old forms that came with Layla's self-initiation as well as the healing power of Reiki and her work to heal the Mother Wound.

Layla is not one to walk a single path or "stick to lineages" and she explains how she is synthesizing influences to create her personal spirituality. 

We also jam about the overwhelming whiteness of most of the connotations that leap to mind with the word "priestess".

Layla also confesses that she used to be afraid of big emotions like rage and even of the Wild Woman archetype. Update: she's over it.

You can learn more about Layla's offerings at wildmysticwoman.com

This is a delightful and animated conversation between two people who are, in many ways, kindred spirits.

Nina Hirlaender is the founder of Dancing Spirit Tours, a company that leads sacred pilgrimage trips throughout Europe. Nina has a kind of breathless passion for mysticism that, honestly, is quite contagious.

Today we're talking about some of the indigenous spiritual practices of Indo-European cultures such as Celtic shamanism. Nina shares her surprising journey from her Celtic roots to her passion for Catholic mysticism.

Once again, the term "pan-Germanic" comes up again on the podcast. It's lovely to hear Nina share her stories of growing up with her grandmother in her native Austria, learning about the nature spirits and faeries. And hedgehogs! So magical!

Nina experienced her spiritual initiation after her cancer diagnosis and recovery. Hearing about her journey is both harrowing and inspiring.

And of course, we can't have a good conversation about Catholic mysticism without talking about some of our heroes including Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, and Mary Magdalene, and some of its sacred places like Chartres Cathedral. I was also very compelled by Nina's reminder of the Marian/Goddess tradition within Catholicism.

(A book I highly recommend if you're interested in Mary Magdalene is The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity by Cynthia Bourgeault)

It was a pleasure to talk to someone who, like me, loves grief and declares it ecstatically like a true mystic.

When was the last time you spoke with a Mayanist? When did you last have a conversation where someone dropped the term "terra nullius"? Let's talk about the Mayan calendar glyphs and the New Agers – what's up with all that?

Juliana does forensic science for Operation ID, a project that excavates bodies of migrants who've died in the desert trying to cross the Mexico-US border and help identify them so their families can know what happened to their loved ones.

I found this topic extremely difficult to hear so, trigger warning...This is mature content: rape, murder, genocide. We're talking about a harrowing humanitarian crisis.

This is an interesting conversation about colonialism in academia, cultural appropriation in personal spiritual practices, the trauma of the Inquisition carried by white people (especially women), along with some super interesting stories about entheogenic spiritual experiences.

An excellent essay – truly a seminal piece of work – that Juliana led me to is called Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K.Wayne Yang. It should be required reading for settlers trying to understand what decolonization really means.

It makes sense that a very unique and special person would have a very unique and special upbringing. Today's guest, L'Erin Alta, is a soul guide, shadow diver, and spiritual teacher, and she gives a great interview because she's willing to go there right off the top.

It was inspiring for me to hear about the special village that raised her and also find connections between our histories – I also come from a small family and know nothing about my paternal ancestry. I also have had to reclaim lineage and walk the spiritual path in a very self-directed and intuitively guided way – a way that at times has been cocky and arrogant. In other words, a way that has been humbling.

One of the teachers L'Erin mentions in this interview is the recently deceased, Sonbonfu Somé.

Sign up for L'Erin's newsletter to learn more about workshops, retreats and one-on-one intensives at her website: sisterfire.com

Follow her on Facebook for insightful and provocative posts about the important things in life.

I have been thinking about shame for a couple of years now. Mostly, I have socially unacceptable thoughts about it.

But since reading Jennifer Jacquet's book, Is Shame Necessary? New Uses For An Old Tool, I have been both relieved and emboldened.

So I'm releasing my shame around championing shame.

I'm thrilled to welcome Jennifer to the show to expand on her ideas around effective uses of shame when dealing with large-scale cooperation dilemmas like climate change, over-fishing, and racism.

In this episode, Jennifer mentions high profile examples like Justine Sacco whose life was ruined by a single tweet, and Walter Palmer, the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion.

She also makes a distinction between shaming corporations versus individuals. As such, it is a form of punishment that scales well.

If you would like to see the tour de force example of the public shaming of the Dow Chemical Company by The Yes Men, here is the video. The response is detailed in this video.

Here's the manel-shaming featuring David Hasselhoff, plus the article that did the math on statistical proof of sexism with regard to the issue.

In the Rubenation segment, Ruben mentioned our friend, J.B.MacKinnon and his excellent book, The Once And Future World. If you love the planet, you should read it.

This interview goes well with episode TNP67: Confronting Whiteness with Rachael Rice and Marybeth Bonfiglio.

Check out more of Jennifer's work at jenniferjacquet.com

Bees! Some of my favourite beings! I'm so excited to give sacred beekeeping some airtime on the podcast today. My guest is Nikiah Seeds – another of my favourite beings! – who is a priestess, shamanic practitioner, and ceremonialist.

As a teacher at the College of the Melissae - Centre for Sacred Beekeeping, Nikiah has a tremendous amount of technical and spiritual knowledge about bees.

In this episode, Nikiah recommends we check out the book, The Honey Trail: In Pursuit of Liquid Gold and Vanishing Bees, to learn more about sustainable beekeeping.

I would also like to recommend you check out Nikiah's book, Moon Mysteries, co-created with Nao Sims and Eyan Myers, if you're interested in learning more about connecting lunar rhythms with your menstrual cycle. I really enjoyed that book.

Nikiah also leads drum-making workshops. I've personally experienced it and can attest to the specialness and wealth of spiritual teachings that Nikiah so generously provides. Gather a group of women together and bring her to your town if you can.

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Footnotes:

To learn more about Boudicca, start here.

Learn more about the excavation of the bee priestess on Crete here.

I'm absolutely thrilled to have Charlene Spretnak on the show today.

Charlene is a prolific author in the fields of feminist women's spirituality, environmentalism, and the interrelatedness of social change movements.

A summary of each of her books can be found here.

The book initially that inspired her to write research into the lost goddess myths of pre-patriarchal Greece is called The First Sex by Elizabeth Gould Davis.

The philosopher Charlene mentioned is Luce Irigaray.

Charlene has provided me with so much material to research and study. If you'd like to hear the speech I gave inspired by her book, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, check out TNP64.

I'm so excited about this show! Alexis P. Morgan is an artist, activist, pan Germanic heathen, and sorceress.

In this episode we talk about cultural appropriation in spiritual practice, Alexis gives us a year's worth of witchcraft study references, and we learn what the heck a pan Germanic heathen is.

Here are the resources Alexis recommends:

If You Want to Be A Witch

Sarah Ann Lawless

Mastering Witchcraft

Evolutionary Witchcraft

Jailbreaking the Goddess

The Chaos Protocols

Starships

Jason Miller

Brianna Saucy

Josephine McCarthy

You can purchase candles, temporary tattoos and t-shirts from the Church of St Felicia through the online store.

Let’s talk about the connection between “conscious marketing” and Pick Up Artist culture, shall we? You may be surprised to discover that there’s actually quite a clear and direct connection. If you’re an entrepreneur in the personal development or spiritual space, this episode is for you. If you’ve ever been had by a Pick Up Artist (PUA), a narcissist, or experienced buyer’s remorse after a major purchase that involved a charismatic salesperson or coach, this episode is for you.

Kelly Diels is a writer and feminist marketing consultant who has articulated a severely problematic phenomenon she’s named the Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand, (FLEB), the effects of which can be seen all around us.

FLEB is basically this: a marketing approach leading with beauty, wealth and privilege, constructed as empowerment. In other words, empowerment – which is supposed to be a collective experience of liberation – is presented as an individual experience of wealth and privilege.

In business, spirituality, politics, parenting, and beyond, the FLEB effect is pervasive and harmful. But we can stop supporting it and stop perpetuating it if we know what to look for.

This episode is meant to educate and inoculate.

Read Kelly’s essays on the FLEB and sign up for her newsletter for weekly evolution.

If you’re seeking to transform the way you do business, consider joining Kelly’s Facebook group, How To Sell To Women Without Selling Them Out.

The book Kelly mentions – a big favourite on the podcast – is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini