Living Open | Modern Magick and Spirituality for Mystics and Seekers

Today I’m reading you the October Joy Notes essay for paid subscribers as a little freebie, called THE LINEAGES WE CARRY IN OUR BODIES: thousands of ghosts, emergent ancestor ritual, and remembering who we are in our grief. Joy Notes is my twice-monthly publication featuring writings on being stretched wide by beauty, grief, and the full spectrum of aliveness. I want to invite you to subscribe to joy notes for $5/month - there is also a free tier - but paying helps support a working writer & makes writing sustainable! Click here to subscribe and get access to other pieces including: SCENT-SUAL CREATIVE ALIVENESS WITH MARY ADELLE ABANDONING MYSELF AND CALLING IT SURRENDER INSTRUCTIONS FOR BEING ALIVE LETTING OURSELVES CHANGE & TRANSFORM

Christina Carlson (she/they) is an Embodiment and Intuitive Coach, and the Host of the Podcast Bitches, Witches, and Queers. In this episode, Eryn and Christina talk about: Christina’s journey with healing and spirituality coming from evangelical Christianity Following her body’s lead Finding a space of internal safety Being with parts of yourself that are difficult for you Not dominating yourself into being the “best” version of yourself Cultivating compassion and kindness to accept yourself Going back to church experiences (weddings, funerals, etc) as ex-Christian people How harmful religious ideas can be replicated in spiritual spaces too The basic human need to belong Creating new community and relationships after religion Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/christina-carlson Get the Religious Trauma workbook, a 110-page digital workbook full of prompts, reflections, meditations, rituals, and somatic exercises to help you deprogram, heal, and reclaim who you are after religion. Read the latest edition of joy notes: abandoning myself and calling it surrender. Connect with Christina on their website and Instagram. Listen to my episode on their Bitches, Witches and Queers podcast!

Kaitlyn (they/them) is a queer, non-binary trans* Espiritista, psychic medium, diviner, and occult educator in Los Angeles, California. Kaitlyn specializes in facilitating conscious connections between the mortal and spirit realms, uncovering authentic, ancestrally guided spiritual practices, spiritual healing through mediumship, and exorcism. In this episode, Kaitlyn and Eryn talk about: Kaitlyn’s journey with spirituality and healing How Kaitlyn’s kids are part of their spiritual practice Becoming the parent their kids need Loneliness Espiritisma and how they connect with spirits, how the spirits move through them Working with troubled spirits Helping spirits pass over to the next realm What spirits are motivated by The healing work that their spirits do What they’ve learned about life from the spirits Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/kaitlyn-grana Subscribe to Joy Notes, Eryn's new twice-monthly Substack newsletter about being stretched wide by beauty, grief, and the full spectrum of aliveness. Join HOLY, a seven-week reclamation circle for ex-religious folks who want to create community and healing together. Connect with Kaitlyn on their website, Instagram @spiritgardentarot, and TikTok @crynowcrylater. My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Lisa Fazio (she/her) is an Irish/Italian American herbalist, astrologer, writer, mother, grandmother, and educator. In this episode, Lisa and Eryn talk about: Lisa’s journey with plant magic, astrology, and spirituality Secure attachment through plant relationship and physical & somatic anchors with plants Being in service to plants Working with plants on indigenous stolen land Finding home with plants Animism She reads us her poem, “how to love a polluted river” Lisa’s relationship to poetry Poems as living things How her spiritual practice has evolved from growing up Catholic Italian folk medicine! Plants and ancestral connection Simple ways to start to reconnect with ancestral lineages How ancestral work can disempower white supremacy Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/lisa-fazio Subscribe to Joy Notes, Eryn's new twice-monthly Substack newsletter about being stretched wide by beauty, grief, and the full spectrum of aliveness.  Book a sliding scale breathwork session with Eryn. Join the waitlist for HOLY. Connect with Lisa on her website. Stay tuned for her book, Della Medicina: Plants of Italian American Folk medicine - out next year.

Yana Tallon-Hicks, LMFT, (she/her) is a sex therapist specializing in LGBTQQ+, kinky, and non-monogamous relationships. She is also a consent, sex, and sexuality columnist and educator. Her work centers around the belief that pleasure-positive and consent-based sex education can positively impact our lives and the world. In this episode, Eryn and Yana talk about: Yana’s journey with pleasure, queerness, kink, polyamory Integrating sex education facts with making our dreams about sex and sexuality feel real and settled Working with shame and other barriers from moving towards the sex lives and relationships with sexuality we want Talking about sex with your sexual partners Shame monsters! Attachment & sex Getting comfortable with our desires Shattering myths about good sex! Meeting and not meeting our own personal ideals of sex Dealing with our own personal baggage around sex in our bodies How to set big and small sexual goals that are aligned with your values Integrating sex into your daily life (if you want to) Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/yana-tallon-hicks  Subscribe to Joy Notes, Eryn's new twice-monthly Substack newsletter about being stretched wide by beauty, grief, and the full spectrum of aliveness.  Book a sliding scale breathwork session with Eryn. Join the waitlist for HOLY. Check out Yana's book, Hot and Unbothered. Follow her work on Instagram @the_vspot and connect with her on her website.

Kris (they/them) is a radical black queer Jamaican Obeah Enby and Olorisha in the Lukumì tradition. They are the owner of the Spiritual Abolitionist and the creatrix of The Spiritual Abolitionist Oracle Deck, the only handmade, black-centric, ungendered oracle deck in existence (currently available for preorder). They provide spiritual wares, “twerkshops”, and services that center the safety of black, queer, trans and intersex folx in spirituality and believe that there is no revolution without ancestral healing. In this episode, Eryn and Kris talk about: Kris’ journey with spirituality, creativity, and ancestral connection What started Kris’ deconstruction from Christianity Ancestral healing as liberation, especially for Black queer & trans folks Connecting with queer & trans ancestors who aren’t going to reject you the way your living families may have Reparative care with ancestors Decolonizing our notions of ourselves Returning to spiritual pre-Christian roots Faith & doubt The process of creating The Spiritual Abolitionist oracle deck Poetry as a spiritual through line of their life Not being stuck in versions of yourself that don’t resonate anymore Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/spiritual-abolitionist Connect with Eryn on their Instagram. Book a sliding scale breathwork session with Eryn. Join the waitlist for HOLY. Connect with Kris on Instagram and their website. Preorder the Spiritual Abolitionist Oracle deck.

Britta Love (they/she) weaves between the worlds of conscious sexuality and psychedelic ritual, with a through line of social justice and embodied consent. They became an advocate for sex worker’s rights as an undergraduate at the London School of Economics in 2007 and have been a writer and activist pushing for the decriminalization of drugs and sex work ever since. Britta is a certified somatic sex educator through the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education, has trained with Betty Martin’s School of Consent and is a certified circle keeper with the Planning Change Restorative Justice Certification Program under the tutelage of Kay Pranis. Britta is currently completing a research-based memoir about healing and awakening through altered states induced by sex and drugs, based on her Consciousness Studies thesis at Goddard College, and is in the process of organizing a Sex Strike // Strike for Pleasure in response to the U.S. abortion bans. In this episode, Eryn and Britta talk about: Britta’s journey with healing & sexuality Navigating consent in long term relationships The Betty Martin wheel of consent - “some of the most psychedelic, life changing work” for them Getting clear on what our desires are, what we want to take, what we want to allow Allowing versus enduring Understanding our patterns within the wheel of consent Not assuming people have easy access to their choice & their voice Receiving no’s Cultivating consent in psychedelic spaces Not transferring hierarchies of power Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/britta-love Connect with Eryn on their Instagram. Book a sliding scale breathwork session with Eryn. Connect with Britta on their website and Instagram. Check out the Strike for Pleasure on Instagram and the website!

Yvette (they/she) is a somatic/movement psychotherapist focused on integrating the neurobiology of trauma into relational movement practices. In this episode, Eryn and Yvette talk about: Yvette’s journey Their spiritual initiations Trying our actual selves on in spaces where we didn’t really know anyone How they went from wanting to be a nun to finding a more fluid & open spirituality Craving community with elders and decolonizing mentorship Retraumatization in spiritual communities Rooting into our power in healthy and helpful ways The role of somatics in our empowerment & disempowerment Not putting judgements on contraction or expansion Healing together in community Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/yvette-lalonde Connect with Eryn on their Instagram and check out moon sign, officially out everywhere! Join the waitlist to get updated when HOLY is back. Check out the Religious Trauma workbook. Connect with Yvette on their website and Instagram.

Flory Huang (she/they) is a deep feeler, seeker and seer with diverse experiences and skill sets that enable her to establish containers for deep inquiry, relation and being. In this episode, Eryn and Flory talk about: Flory’s journey with spirituality & healing Holding hope, possibility, and change The space between the person you are and the version of yourself you know you can be Being perceived in our wholeness The somatics of possibility The contraction before the expansion How contraction teaches us about restedness The beloved ~ meta emotions ~ Having roots within the swirl Hot takes on the “always expanding” culture of spirituality! Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/flory-huang  Connect with Eryn on their Instagram and check out moon sign, officially out everywhere! Join the waitlist to get updated when HOLY is back. Check out the Religious Trauma workbook. Connect with Flory on their website and Instagram.

Ash Canty (they/he) is a Psychic Medium, Death Guide & Spiritual Life Coach. They support others in liberating their souls, deepening relationship with death and connecting folks with their loved ones on the other side. In this episode, Eryn and Ash talk about: Ash’s journey with healing and spirituality Deepening our relationships with death & being in connection with death in a way that makes us more alive Living in the paradox of grief and praise Living with death in mind Being fully in this life & feeling liberation Letting go and being held The invitation to continue opening up even when death is inevitable Blog for this episode: www.living-open.com/blog/ash-canty Connect with Eryn on their Instagram and download their free 7 minute breathwork meditation. Connect with Ash on their website and Instagram.