
The Numinous Podcast
The Numinous Podcast is a show about intuition, spirituality and the mystery of life. The host, Carmen Spagnola, is an intersectional witch and clinical hypnotherapist who has smart, soulful conversations with interesting people. The lineup is diverse, the topics are eclectic, and the people are down-to-earth (mostly).
Latest episodes

Aug 10, 2020 • 1h 2min
TNP141 Eric Tyrone - Get Woke In Your Dream-Time
Eric Tyrone is the founder of Soul Dreamers and the creator of the "Get Woke In Your Dream-Time" Masterclass. In the past, Eric ran a non-profit called "Awakening Through Art", founded a mindfulness App, and was a co-facilitator of a nationwide meetup called EcoTuesday. In this episode we talk about the purpose of dreaming, how to interpret your dreams and heal through dreamwork, and we even do a little on the spot interpretation of a slightly anxious dream I had about a tarantula and my son.
Listeners can save $100 off his 4-Week “Get Woke In Your Dream-Time” Live Group Masterclass by using the coupon code: DREAMS333
Find the next start date at www.soul-dreamers.com
Follow Eric on Instagram @_Soul_Dreamers
Find out more about the Threshold community here.

Aug 9, 2020 • 52min
TNP140 Darius Mills on Conjure Oils Hoodoo Manifestation Magic
Darius Mills is a Conjure Oils expert and to be honest, probably the one of the most charming guests I’ve ever had. In this interview, Darius shares how he used hoodoo conjure magic to manifest a fully paid international move. We touch on Jesus, quantum physics, intergalactic beings, ancestors, and how to make a honey jar.
Follow Darius on Instagram @dariusmills91 to find out when his next Conjure & Create program begins (at time of posting, Sept 2020).

Aug 4, 2020 • 30min
TNP139 Colonial Influence on Hide Tanning Past and Present with Mara Cur
This is the continuation of my conversation with Mara Cur , a hide tanner, hunter, wildcrafter, herbalist and wilder punk extraordinaire. In this episode Mara talks about the history of hide tanning and the important role that women and femmes played in this vocation. We also circle back to the question I posed in the last episode about how she approaches redress with Indigenous communities as she returns the teachings of hide tanning that were eradicated by colonialism.
The resource that Mara recommends to learn about White Saviorism is NoWhiteSaviors.org.
Mara credits visionary Cree artist, Kent Monkman, for his teachings on the early history of the fur trade.
I’d like to lift up Bruce Alexander’s essay, The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society, as a formative document in my collapse awareness that relates quite directly to what Mara was saying about the first 250 years fo the fur trade. It uses the experience of the Orcadians – that’s Scottish folks from the Orkey Islands, previously renown for their sobriety – employed by in the later days of the fur trade by the Hudson’t Bay company, as a study in how cultural dislocation and attachment rupture were direct causes of alcoholism.
If you really want to geek out on that particular historical niche, you can read my other teacher, Michael Newton’s book, We’re Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of Scottish Highlanders in the United States.
Check out Mara’s online offerings at liminagathering.com and her own website Crowsnest wildcraft.com
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. If the topics engaged in this episode appeal to you, check out our programming at www.thethresholdcommunity.com

Aug 4, 2020 • 42min
TNP138 Mara Cur on Hide Tanning and the Orphans Journey
Mara Cur is a hide tanner, hunter, wildcrafter, and herbalist. She is a teacher of mine that I’m excited to share with you because I love her thinking and articulation on so many topics like settler colonialism, attachment, trauma and radical politics. In this episode Mara shares about growing up an orphan in a high demand community (cultic religion).
Check out Mara’s offerings on her site, Crowsnest Wildcraft, and follow her on Instagram @woodland.cur
Continue the conversation in Part 2 here.
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. If the topics engaged in this episode appeal to you, check out our programming at www.thethresholdcommunity.com

Aug 4, 2020 • 54min
TNP137 Sharon Ross Afrovivalist on Emergency Preparedness
Sharon Ross, aka Afrovivalist, is an African American woman, huntress and survivalist in America here to teach city folks how to prepare for any and all emergencies – not just coronavirus but any natural or human-made disaster. I think you can hear in my voice in this episode that I've got fan fever.
Her online retreat, DeCamp Outdoors, is happening August 21-23. You'll learn how to prepare for the second wave of COVID-19 and beyond. Hunting, soapmaking, ham radio operation – learn from experienced guides in the field.
What does Sharon say in brief about the second wave?
1) Get your water sorted out
2) Food stores
3) Shelter in place improvements
4) Get a food dehydrator!
Go follow @afrovivalist on Instagram and Facebook, and get your ticket to DeCamp Outdoors – I'll see you there!
Note: This show is rated E for "explicit". Cover the young ones' ears. We are using our grown up words for this topic, people!
This season of the podcast is brought to you by the Threshold community. We look forward to welcoming Sharon as a Guest Guide in September!

Feb 27, 2020 • 35min
TNP135: Danielle Dulsky on Revisionist Storytelling to Tend the Holy Wild
Today I'm speaking with Danielle Dulsky, author of Woman Most Wild: Three Keys for Liberating the Witch Within. Today, we’re focused on Daniells’ second book, The Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman.
We talk about ancestral inheritance and its influence on our spellcraft, mothering as witchcraft, and we touch on the effects of whiteness, capitalism, and patriarchy on our spiritual practice. She also tells us some awesome stories about the Mother of Babylon and other dark goddesses. It’s a toothsome conversation and I found Danielle very relatable and I suspect you will too!
Be sure to check out her newest book, Seasons of Moon and Flame: The Wild Dreamer's Journey of Becoming, due out March 10, 2020.
In this conversation, Danielle mentioned The Atlantis Bookshop in London, and recommended the book The Witch of Portobello by Paul Coelho.
Check out all of Danielle's website for all of her excellent offerings including online courses, workshops and her Patreon page.

Feb 27, 2020 • 1h 2min
TNP136: Maia Toll on Working with Plant, Animal and Crystal Allies in Troubled Times
Maia Toll is with us today speaking about creating kinship with other-than-human friends. Maia is the author of The wild Wisdom series which includes The Illustrated Herbiary, The Illustrated Bestiary, and the forthcoming, Illustrated Crystallary. I wanted to have this conversation through a lens of climate change and dynamic social transition. How can we have a conversation about working with plants and animals and crystal without discussing climate change and over-extraction, amirite?
In this episode, we also mentioned the Archetypes Deck by Kim Krans.
Find me on Instagram @carmenspagnola
Learn about Wet'suwet'en solidarity:
@takaiya.blaney
@gidimten_checkpoint
@smogelgem
@strikingstick
#wetsuwetenstrong
#youthforyintah
#indigenousyouthforwetsuweten

Jan 3, 2020 • 1h 28min
TNP134: Decolonizing Scottish Highland History and Radicalizing Gaelic Folk Culture with Michael Newton
I’m speaking with Celtic studies and Gaelic scholar, Michael Newton. He’s a researcher and teacher with a history of recovering and interpreting original sources of Scottish Highland language, literature and tradition. He’s written multiple books and even produced and performed on an album of songs in Gaelic, and that’s how I discovered Michael’s work on my journey to learn to sing Gaelic laments and blessings, and learning about the tradition of keening, (which is a thing I do on certain occasions).
Michael has a folk school called The Hidden Glen where he offers online courses on topics in Gaelic culture and folklore. I’ve taken two of the courses:
Reclaiming the Roots (6 classes, new intake January 2020) is about deepening the understanding of Scottish Highland heritage during the era of the clan systems and the importance of the relationship to land and relationships with the more-than-human world.
Stories of Scottish Highland Immigration is about the experience of Gaels in the New World as told by Gaels themselves – we learn about the complex reasons for mass migration through their songs and remnants of the Gaelic bardic tradition.
And a new course in 2020 I’m excited to be taking is called Radicalizing The Roots: Deconstructing Whiteness Through Gaelic lenses and Decolonizing Scottish Heritage. This one feels like a natural extension if you're doing social justice or ancestral reclamation and healing work. (6 classes, new intake January 2020)
Resources for deeper inquiry:
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 1)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 2)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 3)
Books:
Warriors Of The Word: The World Of the Scottish Highlanders (Kindle)
Seanchaidh na Coille: Memory-Keeper Of The Forest: An Anthology of Scottish-Gaelic Literature of Canada
A Handbook Of The Scottish Gaelic World
Papers:
Academia.edu
Michael's Patreon Page

Dec 11, 2019 • 1h 51min
TNP133 Permission to Grieve With Francis Weller
Francis Weller is a psychotherapist and author of The Wild Edge Of Sorrow: Rituals Of Renewal And The Sacred Work Of Grief. In this episode we talk about the Five Gates Of Grief, men's circles, patriarchy and our infatuation with mythopoetic white men at the mic.
We also welcome back my husband for a "Rubenation" where he tells about his experience in a program for men about learning how to make friends as an adult male.
Also in this episode, I share the promo code provided by our sponsor Hollyhock to get a 15% discount on all meals + accommodations packages in 2020!
Resources cited in this episode include:
Joanna Macy
Toward Psychologies of Liberation, Helene Schulman
Carolyn Baker
Finding Beauty In A Broken World, Terry Tempest Williams
Jeannette Armstrong, Okanagan wisdom keeper and elder
Would you like to sponsor an upcoming episode? Please fill out our application form. Thanks!

Nov 27, 2019 • 56min
TNP132 Somatic Mentoring with Patti Elledge
This episode is part case consult, part psychoeducation, part storytelling. I'm so excited to share with you a conversation with my Clinical Supervisor and mentor, Patti Elledge, and to announce her new 3-month online program for like-minded therapists of all specialties!
I'll be assisting Patti both behind the scenes and in-class, as well as making myself available for one-on-one participant support through the program which runs January through March 2020.
You may have heard Patti's interview in TNP118: Patti Elledge on the Neurobiology of Attachment, Grieving Together, and Mobilizing Outrage.
In this episode, we talk about principles and techniques for managing Global High Activation States, the difference between "going global" and numinous unity experiences, and why working with the body to release trauma is so critical – especially in this time of increasing collective trauma.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Accessing The Healing Power Of The Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and Autism,by Stanley Rosenberg
We-space practices
This is the drawing by Patti's 9-year old client, illustrating a Global High Activation state:
Patti is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) who has specialized in therapeutic application of neuroscience for more than 40 years, and teaches Diane Poole Heller’s groundbreaking work, DARe, which treats adult attachment wounds. She has a broad clinical background in treating developmental and attachment based traumas, offering somatic strategies to access healthy bonding and co-regulatory processes.
She worked directly with babies, children and families for more than 20 years prior to her SE training in the late 90s, and weaves strategies from the fields of interpersonal neurobiology, sensory processing, developmental differences and neurodiversity, coherent narratives and embodiment through movement and creativity. Her blending of a variety of somatic and body-mind techniques helps to treat and resolve over-coupled elements of survival energies (fight-flight-freeze responses) that become so seemingly intractable with the essence of loving/bonding and “belonging.”
Registration for the Somatic Mentoring programis capped at 25 spots.
Nov.26: just 8 spots left!