The Numinous Podcast

Let’s talk about fascism today, friends. Why is it important? Because in collapse, authoritarianism always increases. Of course we don't like strong man dictators, military coups, or religious fundamentalism – we hate all the different forms authoritarianism takes. But the especially chilling thing about fascism is that doesn't just happen in the political sphere; it happens at the dinner table. Average people live under authoritarianism, often for generations, without it altering their daily reality much at all. The power struggles of dictators and regime changes might hardly make a difference. But fascism uses the populace and populist movements as part of its social control.  Fascism goes deeper and far beyond fear and military might to secure its stranglehold.  This episode is an excerpt from my online course, Collapse 101, which is accessed as part of my monthly membership subscription program, The Numinous Network. We have a Collapse 101 class lecture, followed by an AMA a week later, almost every month. In this session, I'm sharing about the hallmarks of fascism so we can be alert to some of the sneaky ways it wends itself into our lives.   Referenced in this episode: TNP161 Collapse in a Nutshell TNP193 How Much Is Enough In Collapse? with Carmen & Ruben The Rewilding Podcast with Peter Michael Bower, ep. 30: Collapse Care with Carmen Spagnola End Times/New Times: Numinous Podcast Episode Round-Up for Collapse Recommended Reading: Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience, by Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, published under the title, "Fascist Ecology: The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents" (1996) On the Rise of the Right-Wing Mass Movements, (2014) The Undying Appeal of White Nationalism: Neofascism is the cultural, Artistic, and Ecological Movements (2014) The Return of Fascism in Contemporary Capitalism (2014) Economic Collapse and the Rise of Fascism, 1920-1933, A People's History of Modern Europe (2016) The Pagan and Occult Fascist Connection and How To Fix It, by Amy Hale (2019)   Note the difference in tone regarding America in just one year in the following three articles: Fascism Is Spreading — And It’s a Sign of Civilizational Collapse, Umair Haque (2022) How Many Collapsing Societies Does It Take to Teach the Same Lesson?, Umair Haque (2023) America’s Battle To Save Its Democracy From Trumpism, Umair Haque (2023)  Alternatively... If you want to end on a more upbeat note, here's a classic: Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein or Punching Nazis: Spiritual or No? by me, Carmen Spagnola

In this episode we grapple with the questions, Can you ever really be in a consensual relationship with a being who depends on you for food? How do white supremacy culture and patriarchy show up in horsemanship? What does non-coercive horsemanship look and feel like? If you’ve read my book, The Spirited Kitchen, or you’ve been around my work for a while, you know that I come from a long line of horse people - a lineage that wends its way from southern Alberta and rodeo culture to the Scottish Highlands in the late 1800s where my wayback people bred, trained, and worked Highland ponies to labour in the coal mines and to build railroads. It’s been a long and complicated relationship between my family and horses. I am the first generation in as far back as we can remember to not have horses in my life on an everyday basis. It’s a profound source of grief for me. What has also been a source of grief is that for many of the problems I've supported my child through, (if you don’t know, I have a 19 year old with autism, ADHD, and mental and physical health challenges), the thing that seems to work best is time outside the city with horses.  And this is where my next guest comes in… Alexa Linton is an osteopathic practitioner with 15 years of manual therapy and energy work under her belt. She also works with animals using kinesiology, cranial sacral therapy, and intuitive communication. She also helps humans navigate pet death. As a horse steward, trainer and healer, Alexa has seen and experienced a lot of changes in the industry over the years but there is much further to go in uncoupling from systems of dominance. Her course, The Whole Horse Apprenticeship, and her show, The Whole Horse Podcast, are places of refuge for horsey people who no longer feel comfortable with coercive horsemanship. Check out Alexa's book: Death Sucks: A Straight-Up Guide to Navigating Your Pet's Final Transition Follow her on Instagram Equine Cranial Therapy Certification   Referenced in this episode: The Whole Horse Apprenticeship with Alexa and 25 guest instructors, including myself! (6 month program for horse lovers starting September 15th)  The Whole Horse Podcast  Taming Wild documentary created by Elsa Sinclair  Freedom-based Training with Elsa Sinclair  Emotional Horsemanship with Lockie Phillips  Relationship Horsemanship with Josh Nichol  Nahshon Cook Horsemanship  Balance through Movement Method (Pillar one mini course)  Horsemanship on Vancouver Island - Shannon Beahen (Humminghorse)     

Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. If you love Mary Magdalene and fondly remember Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, you are in for a real treat! Sophie's new book, The Madonna Secret, is a passionate retelling of the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, rewilding the Gospels with the forgotten voices of defiant and oppressed women, the nature-based storytelling of oral communities, and the embodied eroticism of a lovable rabbi with appetites and desires, doubts and shame, and a playful sense of humor. Plus, his awesome mom – aka The Virgin Mary – is a raucous and wonderful surprise, giving big time Baubo of Greek myth vibes, (who in my mind could be played wonderfully by Shohreh Aghdashloo of The Expanse fame). In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to write about miracles while living with an incurable disease, (Sophie lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder - something that many members of the Numinous Network are all too familiar). We also discuss animism, magic, patriarchy, and the realness she brings to the landscape and the characters of her novel. Sophie's poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way and Art PAPERS. The author of The Flowering Wand, she lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.   Purchase The Madonna Secret anywhere (and please do leave a review!)   Follow Sophie: SophieStrand.com Her Substack Instagram Facebook   References in this episode: older Dev Patel Louis Garrel  Golshifteh Farhani (Oh now that I see who she is, I LOVED her in that dystopian show, Invasion) young Javier Bardem article about Bruce Chilton Bruce Chilton wikipedia Honi the Circle Drawer Hanina ben Dosa Contemporaries of Jesus who were miracle workers Mary Renault Mary Stewart   Learn more about the Numinous Network Sign up for my newsletter and join us for Free Week, Sept 17-23, 2023 *** Have a question or comment? Looking for life advice? Need some witch wisdom? Maybe I can help – listen for my response in an upcoming episode! Click here to leave me a voice or written message.  

Et Shipley is a consulting professional astrologer, creative writer, and ritual strategist. She weaves astrology with other tools to talk about collapse, social justice, relationality, death and culture. Last year, I asked Erin to be a Guest Guide in The Numinous Network offering astrology workshops to help folks manage key moments. That has morphed into a seasonal offering we call the AstroJam - people gather with Erin to jam about the cosmic weather and all things magical and ritual to do with that. When I had the idea for an AstroMagic Miniseries, I immediately thought to ask Erin who she would recommend as guests - in many ways, you can thank Erin for working her magic there to make some very special connections and episodes happen for us!   Erin’s writing about astrology is always poetic and profound, gentle but unflinching, and always very useful. She has just the right vibe to help us really understand what it is that Saturn is trying to teach and to not be afraid of those lessons. Even if you’re still not quite ready to engage directly with Saturn after this episode, I know you’ll find it to be good preparation for the time when, eventually, Saturn calls you and you don’t have a choice anymore.   Referenced in this episode: Erin's approach to astrology Erin's Instagram: @etshipley Book a session with Erin or get on her newsletter Idola Stellárum talismanic adornment for devotion Kristin Mathis' new translation of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos (Saturn) Audio of the Orphic Hymn to Saturn Maeg Keane's podcast interview on Blackberry on the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast Rate this show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen - thanks in advance!

My guest today is Kristin Mathis - truly a multi-talented individual - and we are all so fortunate that she’s dedicated herself to the translation of the Orphic Hymns which overlight this conversation about Venus, Aphrodite, and AstroMagic! She’s a writer and poet, a teacher and advocate. (You really must read her fascinating bio). But what she's really doing is quietly revolutionizing the English-speaking world's relationship to the Orphic Hymns with her unique perspective as both an academic and a magical practitioner-animist. In this episode, Kristin helps us understand Venus and Aphrodite as The All, helping us to link love and grief, love and rage, love and justice. Referenced in this episode: Mysteria Mundi, Kristin's Substack where you'll find: Becoming Children of Earth and Starry Sky Revealing the Mysteries, or, My New Translation of the Orphic Hymn to the Moon (Selene) A New Translation of The Orphic Hymn To Kronos/Saturn Audio Recording of the Orphic Hymn to Kronos/Saturn Kristin's Translation of Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite Her Podia site with her courses Star: An Orphic Initiation for Earth-Borne Souls with Drew Levanti   Check out The Numinous Network for more on Planetary Magic & Propitiation

Meag Keane is here to expand our understanding of Jupiter in this, part 5 of my 7 part miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation. Maeg is an astrologer and herbalist, connecting soil and sky. Many of her teachers are people I’ve also followed and admired, and she wrote a really excellent blog post on Jupiter and Being Too Much. (It's so good! Make sure you check out the footnotes!) To go deeper with your AstroMagic, consider getting a plant and planet reading from Maeg - it’s a two session package with email support for a month where she guides you on a deep dive with one of the 7 traditional planets and a plant based on your specific chart and what comes out of your first session with her. So good! Sign up for Maeg's newsletter so you're in the know about all upcoming offerings and current writing. Website: third-sister.com Twitter | @maegkeane Instagram | @maeg.thirdsister Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon or Indigo Check out The Numinous Network - all classes on Planetary Magic & Propitiation are found in the archives of The Numinous School in the course area of the Network.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Thea Anderson about Wednesday’s ruling planet, our old pal, Mercury! Thea is a writer and astrologer, as well as the Director of Production for the CHANI app. She works very closely with our previous guest, Eliza Robertson, to make sure that all of the content for the app gets out on time, at the right time. (A very Mercurial type of job, indeed!)  You can find Thea's fiction and poetry in print and online in a variety of places, most recently you'll find a story of her in the book, Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions. We're lucky to have Thea here to decode and interpret Mercury for us and explain how we can work collaboratively with this quick, mutable, exciting planet. References in this episode: Harriet Tubman as a Magical, Mercurial Figure Book a session with Thea: TheaNichelle.com Follow her on Instagram: @theaastrology Review The Spirited Kitchen on Goodreads, Amazon, or Indigo Check us out in The Numinous Network

Content Note: At the end of this episode, I mention "ritual scarification" – this material may remind people of the ritual abuse mentioned in a fairly recent television broadcast, The Vow, a show about the NXIVM cult. I am not talking about that. I am referring to a cultural practice of scarification, quite common with peoples of darker skin, and other instances where scarification is woven into society, (for instance, some LGBTQ+ communities and other examples). In this 200th episode of The Numinous Podcast (🎉hooray!!!🎉), I'm flying solo and sharing my experience working with the planet Mars. Known as the lesser malefic, Mars can carry some intense energy. But I really believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from this powerhouse planet. In this show, I will talk about what Mars can help us with, when we might use caution, appropriate offerings for propitiation, and how Mars can support us in our grief and our rage. References in this episode: Georgia Nicols PlanetaryHours.net Thérèse Cator Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa, translated by Eric Purdue Letterkenny Sphere + Sundry Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen The Orphic Hymns Many Moons Lunar Planner by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener Pagan Otherworld Tarot by Uusi Design Woodland Wardens Oracle by Jessica Roux The Spirited Kitchen - leave a review on Goodreads! Check out The Numinous Network Sign up for my newsletter 💖 instantly receive a little love in your inbox 💖 (and about once a month thereafter)  

Welcome to Part 2 of our 7 episode miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation! We began on a Sunday with Eliza Robertson talking about the Sun. Here we are on a Monday and I’m speaking with Bronwyn Simons about Moon Magic and wisdom. Bronwyn Simons is an award-winning predictive astrologer, psychic medium, dream traveller, mentor, and astrology teacher with a worldwide client base and a busy consulting practice. She is beloved by clients and students for her warm, wise, compassionate, and positive style of sharing. She was named one of 2019’s Most Promising Astrologers by the Organization for Professional Astrology, and was featured as an Inner Circle Guide on Astrology Hub in 2021.   Here, Bronwyn guides us through the phases of the moon and why it's a safe place to start with our planetary magic. Check out Bronwyn's signature program, Light Of The Moon, for immediate access to recorded modules, plus a live round of four weekly calls starting on the New Moon, July 17, 2023. Those who sign up for Bronwyn's mailing list get a beautiful moon journal for 2023 with all the lunations, journaling prompts, ideas about celebrating the new moon, and a moon calendar! Opt-in here: https://astrologygoddess.mykajabi.com/2023MoonJournal If you share this episode on social, please tag us! @moon.wisdom @carmenspagnola Join us in The Numinous Network this summer for more planetary magic!

Today we’re welcoming Eliza Robertson back for her third time on the show - she was here as part of Kosmic Tonic with Jasmine Richardson in 2020 when we discussed the key transits that would affect the second half of that wild year, and she was here again in 2022 talking about Writing with the Stars and Magic with the Muses. Clearly, she’s a favourite conversation partner of mine and I’m delighted that she’s the one to shepherd us through the gate as we begin a 7 part miniseries on Planetary Magic and Propitiation for the days of the week! Since about the time Eliza first appeared on the show in 2020, I have been taking a closer look at AstroMagic and paying more attention to cultivating relationships with the planets that rule the days of the week. I find it grounding, centering, resourcing and supportive. Over the next seven episodes we'll go deeper into relationship with each planet that rules that day of the week, beginning with Sunday and moving through the week to Saturday.   Referenced in this episode: I Got A Name by Eliza Robertson Picatrix translated by Attrell and Porreca. Three Books of Occult Philosophy by H. Agrippa (the cheaper option) Three Books of Occult Philosophy translated by Eric Purdue (the splurge option) Sphere + Sundry for materia magica Join us for more AstroMagic in The Numinous Network