

The Numinous Podcast
Carmen Spagnola
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).
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 6, 2023 • 57min
TNP201 The Magic of Mercury with Thea Anderson
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

Jul 4, 2023 • 48min
TNP200 AstroMagic Miniseries Mars Magic with Carmen Spagnola
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
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Jul 3, 2023 • 1h 4min
TNP199 AstroMagic Miniseries Bronwyn Simons on Moon Magic and Lunar Consciousness
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!

Jul 2, 2023 • 1h 14min
TNP198 AstroMagic Miniseries Eliza Robertson and the Sun
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

Jun 30, 2023 • 1h 36min
TNP197 Portrait Of A Marriage Part Four
The final episode featuring Ruben and me as we dissect and update my 2017 Medium article, Portrait Of A Marriage (Yes, It's Mine.)
In this episode, we're talking about fighting and conflict, with tips to navigate inevitable relationship ruptures.
Referenced in this episode:
Rachelle Lamb has an unconventional approach to Non-Violent Communication that I find more helpful than most
bell hooks' books on love have been integral to making our marriage work, in particular The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love
YourPersonality.net
Stan Tatkin: runs a signature couple's retreat called the Wired For Love Retreat, also has a new book called, In Each Other's Care: A Guide To The Most Common Relationship Conflicts And How To Work Through Them
Clue period tracker app
Check out my course, Contact Nutrition 101
The Numinous Network
***
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Maybe I can help – listen for my response in an upcoming episode!
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May 13, 2023 • 1h 16min
TNP196 Portrait Of A Marriage Part Three
In this third part of our Portrait Of A Marriage Miniseries, we go a little deeper into how we started healing trauma within our marriage, patriarchy and sexual trauma, epistemic privilege, and how poetry helped us reconnect in intimate but non-sexual ways.
Resources cited in this episode:
YourPersonality.net
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, bell hooks
Tobar Phaidraic, by David Whyte (found in River Flow: New and Selected Poems)
The Queen, by Pablo Neruda (found in Love Poems, translated by Donald D.Walsh)
***
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.

Apr 9, 2023 • 1h 26min
TNP195 Portrait of a Marriage Part Two
This is the second episode in our miniseries revisiting my 2017 article, Portrait Of A Marriage. (Yes, It's Mine.)
In this episode we talk about top-down and bottom-up processing and how communication is not the magic cipher we have been led to believe!
I share my story of how the stress of our relationship somatized into physical symptoms that required us to call 911. And we get into tender territory about what patriarchy looked like in our marriage and how it's related to Ruben's current experience with severe burnout.
The key resource we recommend to everyone trying to bring feminist cultural analysis to relationship building:
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, bell hooks
Shauna Janz' work:
Sacred Grief with Shauna Janz
***
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.

Apr 7, 2023 • 56min
TNP194 Portrait Of A Marriage with Carmen and Ruben Part One
Welcome to a special miniseries of The Numinous Podcast: Portrait Of A Marriage where we revisit a seminal blog post I published in 2017 on resolving the traps of an Anxious and avoidant Partnership, in other words a relationship where one partner, in this case me, a cis white woman, tends to have a more avoidant attachment style, and the other partner, in this case, Ruben, a cis white man, tends to express a more anxious attachment style. We're going to read through that blog post and give you updates on all the strategies we tried to earn the more secure attachment we have now, what worked, what didn't, and bring the article up to date to let you know where we are in the marriage now. Spoiler alert: it was all very, very worth it.
Notes:
The original article, Portrait Of A Marriage. (Yes, It's Mine)
Carmen's CV
The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love, by bell hooks
Stan Tatkin
Sue Johnson
Journey From Abandonment To Healing
YourPersonality.net
***
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.

Feb 24, 2023 • 29min
TNP193 How Much Is Enough In Collapse with Carmen and Ruben
Something a little bit different today – a clip featuring myself and my husband, Ruben Anderson. We're teaching a course this year called Collapse 101, hosted in The Numinous Network, and each month there's a 1 hr live session followed a week or two later by an Ask Me Anything session.
A lot of people don’t see the through-line from attachment to somatics –> trauma healing –> co-regulation –> folk magic –> ritual –> animism –> socialism –> collapse resilience, but I do.
And I bet you do, too, at least partly, when I lay it out in that sequence. And if you don’t see it, but you want to, then stick around! Everything I teach about is a collapse skill, from recipes and rituals for the wheel of the year, to dowsing with a pendulum, to attachment parenting, to Contact Nutrition and Polyvagal Theory in trauma recovery - these are 100% all collapse skills.
Of course at the root of everything I do, I’m trying to help people live richly connected and meaningful lives, but even more fundamental to me is that I’m trying to help shape the social discourse and collective thinking around collapse. I attempt that through compassionate and holistic and accessible adult education. I’m trying to help shape social thought around how we’re going to live in these times.
This episode is a brief response to a Numinous Network member’s question about how much is enough when prepping material or financial resources as a safety net or a lifeboat for collapse. Ruben and I offer our very pragmatic answers along with some scaffolding for how you might approach this challenge in your own life – how you might shape your thinking so you can come up with what feels like enough for you.
If Crisis or War Comes - Swedish government Emergency Handbook
The Numinous Network
Carmen's newsletter

Feb 10, 2023 • 1h 22min
TNP192 Happily Needy with Mara Glatzel
This is a really lovely conversation with Mara Glatzel, author of a new book coming out Feb 28 called, Needy: How to Advocate for Your Needs and Claim Your Sovereignty, which was recently selected by Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Grant for the Next Big Idea Club’s book of the month.
Mara says she is an intuitive coach, writer, and Needy Podcast host who helps humans stop abandoning themselves and start reclaiming their sovereignty through embracing their needs and honouring their natural energy rhythms. She’s also a queer, femme mother of two, recovering control freak.
We talk about being multi-passionate when so much prevailing marketing tells you to niche down, we jam on balancing the need to feel safe in an overculture that is just factually unsafe in so many ways and especially so for more oppressed people, and we get into how we might approach reclaiming needs like rest and saying no, depending on where we’re at in that healing journey.
Buy the book
Find Mara on Instagram
Harsh review on Goodreads!