Belonging: Conversations about rites of passage, meaningful community, and seasonal living

The moon and I have a relationship, but there is still so much she has yet to share with me. And my garden? Each year, there are lessons to be harvested from the great losses, unexpected surprises, and joyful moments of gratitude that come with tending to one’s own plants. Joining me today on the Belonging Podcast is Erin Duffy Osswald. Erin is a certified Earth Medicine Practitioner and hedgewitch (which she defines in this episode) living in the northern lands of Great Falls, Montana. She has lived most of her life guided by Grandmother Moon, making it a devotional practice she incorporates into everything from the mundane to the deeply magical. So I invited her on the Belonging podcast to talk more about her devotional lunar practice, including the way she incorporates it into her garden every year. Erin has so much wisdom to share about moon gardening. As a hobby gardener myself, I can’t wait to put what she shared into practice this coming growing season.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/moon-gardening/Follow Erin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkstobees/Sign up for Erin's Garden Magick course (open through May 3rd): https://gardenmagick.com/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

I talk a lot about connecting with and working with the ancestors, and many people have come to me confused as to what that actually means—thinking perhaps I'm some sort of genealogist. So I decided to welcome my friend, Jaclyn Wallach, who is a genealogical researcher on the show to really dig into the topic of researching your ancestry and gathering information. In this episode, Jaclyn shares her own deep journey into discovering her own ancestry and claiming her Jewish identity and lineage and then offers three in-depth steps for beginning the journey of discovering and connecting with your own ancestry.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/jaclyn-wallachFollow Jaclyn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourstorygenealogy/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

You know I've been doing a lot of work in examining my relationship with my calendar and linear time, so I thought I'd invite one of my best friends on the show—who has these conversations with me often and who is healing many of these things in her own life as well—Stephanie Burg. Stephanie is a health and trauma-healing coach and therapeutic dance + meditation teacher. In this episode, we talk about opting out of the capitalistic, linear time world to choose self-care instead, how that's easier said than done, how our relationship with coffee is part of that journey, finding time leaks, and setting up your calendar and boundaries to give yourself space in non-linear time.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/stephanie-burgFollow Stephanie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniemburg/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

Lara Veleda Vesta, storyteller weaving with myth, initiation, ritual practice, folk magic, and ancestral connection, shares the story of a long and debilitating bout of illness that she now views as a rite of passage for many things including her connection with her ancestors. We talk about how experiencing illness or loss can cause relationships to change in your life, the three phases of rites of passage, the power of naming yourself, and some incredible folklore surrounding death, transition, and runes.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/lara-veleda-vesta/Follow Lara on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veledavesta/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

I've been feeling the call to invite more voices on the Belonging Podcast to help me paint in perspectives of this journey of Belonging that are different from my own. In this episode, I am so excited to welcome Ash Johns who is a trans-cultural ancestral healing guide, psycho-spiritual coach, ceremonial priestess, strategist, speaker, and author. Ash and I are talking about what it means to be a good ancestor and connect with the bright and well ones, connecting to the land without perpetuating colonization, and working with the ancestors to heal the collective.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/ash-johns/Follow Ash on Instagram: http://instagram.com/ashinspiresFollow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

The moon is the ancient timekeeper of the year, and it mirrors the cyclical nature that we as humans move through—energetically, emotionally, hormonally, seasonally. It's so powerful to tune into the cycle of the moon. So I'm sharing how I work with the moon—both how she works in folk magic, but also how I see her reflected within myself.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/moon/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

I use this word, "sisterhood," frequently in my work and practice. It's one of the most powerful tools I've found for healing, feeling a sense of belonging, and deepening your relationship to self, but it's a practice and there are a lot of unhealthy models of sisterhood in media and popular culture. The best way to heal is often to confront the dark side of the matter, so in this episode of Belonging, we're talking about the dark side of Sisterhood to examine where the distrust, judgment, and cutting down comes from.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/dark-side-sisterhood/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

Today I'm talking about the importance of finding a sense of belonging in your body in a society that may not love and support the type of body you have in the way it deserves to be seen. This is a tender episode about how sometimes we can engage in unhealthy or harmful treatment of our bodies because we're trying to fulfill this need for belonging in a society that only leaves space for a select few.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/belonging-to-body/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

I've recently moved and am deep in the process of settling into this new home and infusing my magic and a feeling of sacred into it. So in this episode, I want to talk about that sacred hygge and finding belonging in the place where you live. This episode isn't just for people who are moving to a new place—it can apply to anyone whether you live in an apartment or house or you're buying or renting. It's about finding a sense of place and belonging on the land and where you dwell.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/sacred-home/Find this week's blog post here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/house-witchery/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/

I recently took pilgrimages to Ireland and Glastonbury (mythical Avalon) to connect with the lands of my ancestors. So in this episode, I want to tell you about my experiences, how the calling to these lands came to me in dreams, and the deep medicine that comes with communing with the sacred sites of various lands.Find show notes for this episode here: https://beccapiastrelli.com/journey-to-avalon/Follow Becca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccapiastrelli/Credit for the phrase "be a good ancestor" goes to Arianna of https://www.quwutsunmade.com/My book Root & Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self is now available wherever books are sold! My intention with this book is for it to be your guide to reconnecting with the earth, your ancestors, and your communities as you come home to your whole self. Despite our best efforts, our modern world leaves so many of us feeling isolated, unworthy, and alone. We’re unrooted from the land, untethered from our lineages, disconnected from our communities, and separated from our deepest sense of self. Root & Ritual is meant to be a pathway back to connection and wholeness through rituals, recipes, and ancestral wisdom. Find more information at: http://rootandritualbook.com/