37. How To Trust in The Great Mystery with Josh Schrei of The Emerald Podcast
The World Needs Creatives with Rachael Sardelich
Understanding Stillness and Creative Incubation
Josh reframes seasons of stillness as natural incubation, urging rest, dreaming, and resisting capitalist pressure to constantly produce.
Do you hear the pulse of creation speaking to you? Have you ever wondered how to cultivate a deeper relationship with this vast, omnipresent force?
Today we venture into the sacred and animate world of Josh Schrei — a teacher, writer, mythologist, and founder of The Emerald Podcast.
If you're yearning to deepen your relationship with source, with the great mystery itself, this conversation is for you. Joshua invites us to remember what our ancestors knew across time and tradition: that we live not in a world of inert objects, but in a living, sentient, singing cosmos. That creation pulses through all things — through water and stone, through breath and blood, through the spaces between heartbeats. And that we are not separate from this pulse. We are woven into it.
In this mystical conversation, we explore what it means to move from the mindset of extraction to one of cultivation. We talk about why the ache for originality many of us feel is actually a cellular memory — a longing to return to our role as vessels for something ancient and ever-present. We discover how the seasons of stillness in our creative lives are not failures, but sacred incubations. And we learn why the most radical act of creativity in our fractured world is choosing reciprocity over consumption, reverence over extraction.
Joshua speaks to the mysteries of how creation reaches us — through the voice of waters, through the wisdom held in stones, through felt dialogue with the land itself. He reveals why the constant pressure to produce is a wound we carry, and what becomes possible when we finally align with the actual rhythms of the cosmos.
In this episode we explore:
- The difference between summoning inspiration and cultivating a real, living relationship with the creative forces of the cosmos
- Why creativity as service, rather than extraction — transforms not just your art, but your entire relationship to being alive
- The burden of believing creativity must come from you alone, and the liberation that comes when you release that weight
- Why stillness and incubation are not failures, but sacred architecture woven into the fabric of existence
- The cost of constant production, and what it means to align with the natural rhythms of creation
- How to anchor yourself to place and develop a felt dialogue with the living world
- The essential role of dreamers, artists, and visionaries in guiding culture toward healing and wholeness
- Why we need communal circles of dreaming in a world that has forgotten how to listen
SHOW LINKS:
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Explore working or collaborating with Rachael at rachael@rachaelsardelich.com and learn more about her work HERE.
You can join the wider conversation and our community over on Substack via THIS LINK.
The original painted work in the show design was hand painted by artist Sarah Darling.
The creation of our original musical score was created by Camilla Rose Sullivan.
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