Xantico House Podcast

Vadi is a bioregional herbalist and ethnobotanist badass currently inhabiting the liminal space between diaspora and homeland. They uprooted their life in Tucson, AZ to embark on an ancestral remembrance journey in Anatolia—exploring mixed Kurdish/Cypriot/Turkish roots, learning about cultural traditions, landscapes, histories, plant and people connections, and dancing in the medicine between worlds; past and present, inshallah, to form bridges in the years to come. Their core ethos is engaging food as medicine; something they have found brings people together around the table no matter where they end up in the world. Currently,they are in Southern California, awaiting their next exploration.

Alisha Sommer is a California Bay Area freelance writer, photographer, visionary. She has a gift for holding sacred space, deep listening, and seeing the ordinary in extraordinary ways. Alisha has founded and edited a print literary journal (Blackberry: a magazine), published personal essays, creative nonfiction, and poetry for a variety of online and print publications, ghostwritten, and taught at Squam Art Workshops. Oh. She also slings wine.

Guest J. Allen Cross is a practicing witch of Indigenous Mexican and European descent. Born into a family of the mystically inclined, Joshua has been doing spiritual work all his life. Living in his home state of Oregon, he works as Psychic Medium/Occult Specialist for a well known Paranormal Investigation team. He writes articles for esoteric blogs such as Fire and Lux, and provides spiritual healing services to his local and Instagram community under his persona “The Silver Falls Witch”.

Sanyu Estelle is a pigmented (78%), womoonist (as constant and faithful as the tides), cissy (femme but hetero-ish), multisexual (it's a spectrum, seems unwise to call it), travel-apt (Earth is a country) and fashion forward (Funk Flag Flyage) SSJW (Sarcastic Social Justice Warrior). 

Sanyu says, “I’m your forebearers attainable unreality.”

Asha Frost is an Anishinaabe woman from Neyaashiinigmiing, the Cape Croker First Nation community in Ontario, Canada. She is a Medicine Woman, Mentor, and Visionary who believes that we heal when we awaken to the beautiful medicine that we carry within. She facilitates healing in her practice through the use of Shamanic Healing, Homeopathy, and Indigenous Based Ceremony. Her purpose is to help people connect to the magic of Spirit within their lives. Her intention is to help awaken the authentic self, so that we may remember who we truly are.

Sen Elias of Crescent City Conjure in New Orleans. From a very young age, Sen could feel the tug of magic calling him to practice the occult. During his journeys, he has studied European Witchcraft, Southern Folk Magic, and Western Hermeticism; he is an initiate of the Alexandrian tradition. Sen is the owner of Crescent City Conjure, a magical business that maintains its reputation for authentic spiritual tools to be used in Witchcraft and Southern Conjure. Sen has dedicated his life to the pursuit of magical truths, and he endeavors to continue teaching the mysteries of his craft and learning from the wise.

Aysen Farag of Earth Dreams Totems in Toronto, Canada. Aysen, whose name means “Moonlight Reflected on the Water”, is an Egyptian-Sudanese medicine woman, an herbalist, plant spirit worker, and ceremony leader. She was born into a long lineage of indigenous African healers, and has been initiated as a wisdom keeper in the lineage of the Q’ero people from the Andes. She passionately shares her gifts in energy healing, sacred plant medicine, ceremony, and intuitive readings while working with the wisdom gained from various elders and the medicines that have been passed down thru the generations in her family.

Pilar Mejia of I Heal Myself to Heal the World, a space where she writes to share about her healing journey as a mestiza woman from the lands we call Mexico. Her space is not about enlightenment or sharing fake spirituality. She says, "I don’t do “spiritual work”. Spirit knows what we need and who we are." Pilar is a Slayer of Domestications, focusing on finding our authentic selves and healing our ancestral trauma, speaking up about white supremacy and racism. She is a cannabis advocate, a no-bullshit writer, intuitive healing mentor, racial justice activist, and a badass woman who is here to shake things up!

Renée Lopez, of Miss Lopez Media, is a photographer and lifestyle bruja. A brown woman of color, originally from Yakima in Central Washington, Renée moved to Portland in 2006 for a fresh start, but after a few years she began recognizing the long-standing racial divide within the city. In 2015, she became involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, becoming good friends with Portland rapper Glenn Waco. This marked a shift from taking photographs as a hobby to using her camera as a tool of resistance, documenting injustices, the Black Lives Matter movement, and Portland’s hip hop scene.

Alexis J. Cunningfolk, of Worts + Cunning Apothecary, is an intersectional herbalist, witch, and weaver of remedies. As a queer non-binary womxn of mix-d heritage, she revels in the powerful intersections of ancestral wisdom, social justice, and plant healing. She helps folks radically re-enchant their lives with herbal medicine and magickal arts through her online and in-person classes, currently based in Sacramento, CA.