The Numinous Podcast

This week I'm talking with Josiah Neufeld, a Vancouver-based writer whose journalism, essays and short fiction have appeared in The Walrus, Hazlitt, The Globe and Mail, Prairie Fire, The Vancouver Sun, Geez Magazine, The Winnipeg Free Press, Rhubarb and elsewhere. Josiah grew up in West Africa, the son of Mennonite missionaries. In this episode, Josiah shares his story and what he values most about the cultures that shaped his spiritual path. In this episode, Josiah mentioned Malidoma Patrice Somé's work including his book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community. He also noted the Five Pillars of Islam when discussing spiritual practices. This conversation leads us gently into usually rather barbed territory - colonialism, evangelism, and such - but I think you'll enjoy Josiah's thoughtful nature and the warm-hearted way he is integrating many cultures, practices and patterns into his own personal spirituality.

This episode celebrates the poetry that touches our soul and moves us. Llynne Phillips is a poet and poetry fan and today she shares her favourites and helps us discern their meaning.

In this episode, I'm talking with author and speaker, Monique Gray Smith, about how parents can weave ceremony and ritual into every day experiences with their children. Monique shares several traditional First Nations rituals and we explore how we can support our children's growth through exposure to elements of ceremony to inspire their own spiritual connection. Monique is the author of Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, and also the founder of Little Drum Consulting, an Aboriginal-owned and operated firm that provides consulting services to governments and Aboriginal communities and organizations. In this show, I mentioned the wonderful coming-of-age event, G Day for Girls. Check out their website to find out how you can make this great event happen in your city! {Tell them Carmen sent you!}

This week on The Numinous Podcast is Kent Osborne, an Executive Coach and Leadership Development Trainer with a unique approach. Kent incorporates the mythology of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table into his work to evoke greatness in his clients. Kent has 20 years' experience working with corporate clients internationally and since we're friends, I'm lucky enough to have experienced his unique approach to coaching for myself.   In this interesting conversation, we touch on the Arthurian Cycle, The Four Treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann and The Kalevala of Finnish folklore.

I'm thrilled to introduce you to a Friend, elder and spiritual mentor, Shakti Earleen Roumagoux. She grew up Catholic and attended Jesuit university. She spent 20 years following the Hindu tradition and for the past few years she's been a staff member at Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist community, Plum Village in France. In this conversation we touch on mindfulness, sensing energy and the challenges of spiritual seeking.

Ever wonder who created the art in your favourite oracle deck? I did. So I did some sleuthing and tracked her down. And now we're friends! It's like a superfan fairy tale. Jena DellaGrottaglia-Maldonado is the artist who created the imagery for one of my all-time favourite decks, The Enchanted Map, by internationally acclaimed intuition expert, Colette Baron-Reid. She has also collaborated with Baron-Reid on Wisdom of the Hidden Realms as well as P.C. Cast's The House of Night. You can find her portfolio online and follow her  on Facebook at The Art of Autumns Goddess. Her FB page is also where you can enjoy the results of the duelling Muses with Tracye Shearin as mentioned in the interview and she also posts her playlist at times. In this episode, Jena takes us into her process for the making of an oracle card deck.

I'm so excited for this week's episode because my guest is someone who inspires me weekly with her insight and thought leadership on topics as varied as entrepreneurship, gender, creativity and social change. Lauren Bacon is a seasoned tech entrepreneur and author who asks a lot of questions. I highly recommend you sign up for her newsletter and get her e-book, "Curious for a Living: How Asking Better Questions Makes You Indispensable" - it worked for me! Today we're talking about a subject I've been working with and thinking a lot about lately, Imposter Syndrome. In this show, Lauren references some excellent resources including another thought leader in this arena, Tara Sophia Mohr. I've enjoyed her blog posts for over a year now. I especially loved her post about personal branding being "bullshit". Yes! I mention another post that really resonated with me about common ways that women undermine their own authority. Always provocative and substantial. When Lauren talks about the "power pose" and research about how embodiment can affect performance, she's referring to this wonder woman here, Amy Cuddy.   If I were you, I'd start following Lauren and her work. She's up to some very cool stuff and I feel like her weekly Curiosity Experiments always seem to give me a new way to think about something I'm dealing with or working on. Find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

This week I'm talking with my friend, Carl-Greger L., and we're talking about the kundalini awakening he experienced during a reiki session that transformed his life, and how he integrates spirituality into his life as a consultant in the financial industry in northern Europe. His story is extraordinary and inspiring. In this show, Carl-Greger shares one of his strategies for processing and integrating spiritual experiences: he writes everything down. He likes to use an app called Scrivener and I mention that I like Evernote. If you enjoy the show, please remember to go back and give it a review in iTunes - that's how more seekers like you can find it! Just click the tab that says "View in iTunes" and it will automatically open your iTunes app to the show. Click on "Ratings and Reviews" and just underneath you'll see a tab that says "Write a Review". Thanks ever so much for taking the time to support the show!

This week's episode features my dear teacher, intuition coach and mentor, Judee Gee. We're talking about dealing with social scorn and the fallout of spiritual awakening, trusting ourselves, and integrity as a professional intuitive. Juicy stuff! Trained as an intuitive psychic, breath therapist and teacher of alternative healing methods in Australia and the USA in the early 1980’s, Judee settled in France in 1988 where she created The Intuition School (L’Ecole de l’Intuition). From 1988 to 2000 she taught her intuition development program in several regions throughout France and also published Intuition: Awakening Your Inner Guide, during that period. She is the past President (1998–2001) of the International Breathwork Foundation and a founding member (2000) of the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. Since 2001, from her base in the South of France (Ecole ETRE), Judee has been co-directing an intensive three-year personal development program as well as a two-year professional level transpersonal therapist training. She also trains apprentice group facilitators in the art of group orchestration and ethical leadership. Judee regularly leads seminars on the themes of intuition development, tantra, integrative breathwork and team cohesion, and facilitates individual sessions as a transpersonal therapist. She brings over 30 years of experience to the creation and implementation of the programs she teaches. Judee is fluently bi-lingual, speaking English and beautiful French.

This week's episode features everyone's favourite astrologer, Georgia Nicols! Georgia explains that intuition isn't part of her approach to astrology and illuminates the mathematical approach to astrology. We talk about how she got started in her work, Linda Goodman's sun signs, the Ephemeris and the ridicule that even she experiences as a "soft science" practitioner. Georgia Nicols's wisdom and wit have made her a popular international astrologer whose horoscope columns appear in the National Post, Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald, Winnipeg Free Press, Victoria Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Press Democratic (Santa Rosa, California), China Daily (Beijing), and San Miguel (Mexico) as well as smaller weekly and monthly publications. She is a regular columnist in Elle Canada, The San Francisco Examiner, Washington Examiner (D.C.), and The Examiner (Baltimore), among others. Georgia's book, You and Your Future, is a best seller in Canada, and has international printings in three languages. (In Australia, it is published under the title "Your 40 Year Horoscope"). The Numinous Podcast is a complement to The Numinous School, an online intuition development program for people who want their self-awareness to serve a greater good.