Healing The Spirit: Astrology, Archetypes & Artmaking

How might we approach friendship, art, and spirituality as creative experiments? How do we practice presence in grief? How might we increase our capacity to change our minds and shift our practices?Halfway through this conversation, Mary Schuch casually said something that stopped my heart in its track, "Just because it's not fun, doesn't mean it's not a gift." That's something I've always admired about artist, creative, and astrologer Mary Schuch – her ability to hold wisdom with humor and to serve truth with irreverence.Mary and I recorded this conversation at the tail end of Jupiter in Taurus, a period marked by changes and reminders of life's transient nature. We discussed the current states of our relationships with art, how friendship is a practice, and balancing the intensity of life with slowness.If you can't get enough of our vibe, I recommend that you listen to our podcast "My Life Is Better With You In It"Mary's bio:Mary Schuch (she/her) is committed to showing up for the experience of belonging in a human body. In this lifetime, Mary is steadily walking a resonant path and striving to remember the inherent relationality of all beings. Informed by her upbringing as a homeschooled pastor's kid and the eighth of eleven siblings, Mary is reclaiming her right to exploration and education through meditative multidisciplinary living. She is devoted to practices incorporating writing, music, art, breadmaking, astrology, movement, and being outdoors. A beneficial byproduct of years of manual labor, Mary’s reverence for contemplative time has grown through work in gardens, kitchens, on a commercial lobster boat, and an oyster farm. She is originally from the Chicago area and currently lives on an island in Maine. Connect with Mary on Instagram @maryschuch and book a reading with her.Resources mentioned:Mary and Jonathan's podcast, My Life Is Better With You In ItOur conversation with Leah Garza and Dana BalickiThe War of Art by Steven PressfieldAmanda Yates Garcia and Beth Pickens "The World Needs Your Art"Our first conversation on Healing The Spirit, "Why Are We Obsessed with Cults?" Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

How might nurturing ourselves and slowing down our thoughts bring new possibilities? How might gentleness facilitate deeper, more profound transformations?As we transition into Cancer season, we contemplate the unexpected yet profound relationship between Mercury and the Moon. Astrological lineup:Mon 06.17 Venus enters Cancer; Mercury (Gemini) squares Neptune (Pisces); Mercury enters Cancer; Mercury conjoins Venus in CancerThurs 06.20 Sun (Gemini) squares Neptune (Pisces); Sun enters CancerSat 06.21 Mercury (Cancer) sextiles Mars (Taurus); Full Moon in CapricornSun 06.22 Mercury (Cancer) squares NN (Aries) Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

What roles do our left and right brains play in creativity and mysticism? How are our spiritual beliefs and practices shaped by our cosmologies? How might we shape a future beyond either/or dogmas?To immerse in the work of Xenia Viray is to dissolve boundaries between worlds, to question arbitrary distinctions between disciplines, and to delight in the heart as a sacred alchemist in service of the mystery.In this conversation, Xenia and I explored the poetic capacities of the intellectual mind – drawing connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, individualism and collectivism, productivity and creativity. We also sprinkled in our personal stories and our respective relationships with meaning-making systems.Here's Xenia's bio:Xenia Marie Ross Viray (she/they) is an imagination healer, frequency artist, and creativity catalyst with a focus on experiential learning containers and writing. She is the eldest of three sisters, and her name means kindness to strangers. Born as a brick-and-mortar fashion business, Myths of Creation (the name of Xenia's collective body of work) is a container for experiments, art, writing, and gatherings at the intersection of creativity, spirituality, and meaning-making. Xenia's work reconnects communities, ideas, and art forms that are traditionally siloed to enrich the pool of imaginal possibility. Her offerings are designed to help spirited innovators anchor their natural genius into form and include Imaginal Temple, a creative mystical mentorship, the Garden of the Imaginal Substack, and an evolving cornucopia of courses, workshops, and 1:1 sessions which you can find at MythsofCreation.com and @mythsofcreation on IG.Join Xenia's offering Creation Portals, a 3-month workshop series starting on June 11th. We mentioned Iain McGilchrist's TedTalk on The Divided Brain. Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

What thought forms or philosophies or are creating blockages and restrictions to accessing vitality in our lives? How do we find and express authentic honesty in any given moment? Where are we getting ourselves into a pickle by having too many options?This week, we are experiencing three squares and a Mercury cazimi. It's a week that may promise breakthrough – if only we don't work so hard to try to make it happen.Astrological lineup: Tue 06.11 Mars (Taurus) squares Pluto (Aquarius)Wed 06.12 Mercury (Gemini) squares Saturn (Pisces)Fri 06.14 Mercury conjoins Sun in GeminiSun 06.16 Venus (Gemini) squares Neptune (Pisces) Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

How might surrendering into the trickster within ourselves bring in more freedom, ease, and joy? How might we rewrite old stories and begin inventing new ones?As Mercury enters Gemini this week, the trickster energy is in full force. I share some thoughts on how to be with trickster energy by awakening our inner trickster? Astrological lineup:Mon 06.03 Sun (Gemini) sextiles North Node (Aries); Mercury enters GeminiTue 06.04 Venus (Gemini) sextiles North Node (Aries); Mercury (Gemini) trines Pluto (Aquarius) ; Mercury conjoins Jupiter in Gemini; Venus and Sun conjoin in GeminiThurs 06.06 New Moon in GeminiSat 06.08 Venus (Gemini) squares Saturn (Pisces)Sunday 06.09 Sun (Gemini) squares Saturn (Pisces); Mercury (Gemini) sextiles North Node (Aries); Mars enters Taurus Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

What does it mean to heal the queer spirit? How might our queerness shape our spirituality and vice versa? How do we collaborate and contemplate in care and creativity?In this first joint episode with the Queer Spirit podcast, TanyaMarck Oviedo, Nick Venegoni, and I explore the concept of 'healing the queer spirit.' While the three of us only recently connected, we quickly found flow and sweet kinship that felt profound and ancient.We had juicy discussions around the process of seeing and embracing our experiences as queer people, the magic and work of growing creative collaborations, and queering our definitions of healing.Find their podcast, Queer Spirit, here. Nick's bio and linksNick Venegoni, MA (he>they), is a holistic psychotherapist based on unceded Ohlone territory (San Francisco, CA), where he supports queer folks to heal from trauma and anxiety, to create more joyful lives and fulfilling relationships. He is the creator and co-host of The Queer Spirit podcast and co-facilitator in The Queer Spirit Community. Nick’s primary spiritual practices these days include Earth based wisdom, Buddhist Psychology, Mindfulness meditation, and sound healing.Connect with Nick at www.queerhealingjourneys.com as well as on Instagram @holisticqueerhealingTanyaMarck's bio and linksResiding on Tongva Land, TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) is a  two spirit, nonbinary, queer, native indigenous person of color and has been a person in recovery since 1989. As an embodied practitioner, medicine person, witch, educator and mentor, they share over 3 decades of care-centric wisdom and channeling via space holding, circle facilitation, mentoring, and community service work. TanyaMarck and Pluto (very magical medicine dog) are the founders of Vamonos Wellness, a healing arts and care practice that’s deeply rooted in curanderismo and community service.Connect with TanyaMarck at www.tanyamarck.com as well as on Instagram @tanyamarck Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

How do mystical systems and spiritual philosophies help us understand our subconscious better? How do we reconcile the apparent tensions between different systems? How might art serve to bridge the divide?Over the past few years, I've admired the work of Brynja Magnusson as well as her ability to seamlessly weave her artistic and spiritual practices. Her guidebooks and card decks have been trusted guides in my own study of Human Design, Animal Totems, the I-Ching, and Yin Mysticism. Early on in my Human Design journey, Brynja also gave me a reading that felt like a turning point and gently ignited a flame of curiosity to explore the system more deeply.In this conversation, we explored the connections and distinctions between various spiritual systems, the role of encouragement in nurturing our subconscious, moving away from dogmatic ways of approaching mystical systems, and sharing knowledge while learning.Here's Brynja's bio:Brynja is a student of spiritual philosophy. While apprenticing in topics of shamanism, ritual, human energetics, and nature-based spirituality she creates functional illustrated guidebooks based on her notes of the material she studies. Brynja works with mediums of art, writing, and personal sessions to, directly and indirectly, provide the subconscious and spirit with alternative tools. Brynja is the creator of Ceremoniance, an art-based company that shares her studies via art, design, and description.   Brynja creates beautifully illustrated guidebooks and card decks on topics of Human Design, the I Ching, Animal Totems, Yin Mysticism, and soon the tarot and recovery work. By giving an artistic platform to obscured wisdom, we can maintain and promote the transformative practices cultivated by humans over thousands of years.Brynja's offerings (including her decks and sessions) can be found through her website Ceremoniance. You can also find her on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

How might we interrupt stale patterns by following our curiosities? How do we awaken to the solutions that are already there? How does befriending disappointments help us shake the rigidity of our expectations?Mercury makes aspects to Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus during its last week in Taurus, while Jupiter finally makes a trine to Pluto in air signs. This week provides opportunities for gentle, yet exciting cosmic redirects and for embracing potential disappointments with humor. Astrological lineup:Mon 05.27 Mercury (Taurus) sextiles Saturn (Pisces)Fri 05.31 Mercury conjoins Uranus (Taurus)Sun 06.02 Jupiter (Gemini) trines Pluto (Aquarius); Mercury (Taurus) sextiles Neptune (Pisces) Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

What wisdom, challenges, and opportunities might Jupiter in Gemini bring us? How do we understand Saturn's role during this transit? How do we sharpen our curiosity skills?The brilliant Verena Borell is back on the podcast! Early this week, Verena had a spontaneous idea to record a conversation on Jupiter in Gemini. Within 24 hours, we recorded it!We discussed Jupiter's role in bringing coherence, how Jupiter's transits can be challenging despite their status as the greater benefic, the transition between Jupiter's time in Taurus and Gemini,  the importance of not jumping into conclusions, and how staying rooted in simplicity and intuition may assist us during this time.To learn more about Verena:Verena's upcoming course, Transits for Evolution will begin on November 14th. I encourage you to check out the course page to see if this offering resonates with you. 1:1 Astro Mentoring: https://verena-borell.thrivecart.com/astro-mentoring/1:1 Soul & Soma Guidance: https://verena-borell.thrivecart.com/guidance/Homepage: https://www.verenaborell.com/Mail: mail@verenaborell.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/verenaborell/Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3oPnidm   YouTube: https://bit.ly/3CYgzWzFree Venus Guide: https://bit.ly/41cVfWR Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.

What does it mean to be on a self-love journey? How might our spiritual practices create harmony between our bodies and our spirits? How do our desires point towards our soul's path?My guest today, Bevin, is one of the most naturally radiant beings I know. Her practice brings together aerobics, Reiki, and magic in her own unique cosmic interweaving. Each time we connect, I find myself in awe of her depth, humor, authenticity, and genuine care.In this conversation, we explored Bevin's self-love journey, what it means to be in awe of our incredible human bodies, her commitment to a liberatory movement practices for all bodies, connections with the fae world, and relationship to God as action.Here's Bevin's bio:Hi! I'm Bevin! A childhood of bullying because of my weight kept me off the dance floor. When I found body liberation activism, the idea that all bodies are worthy of love no matter what, it changed my life. I’ve been reclaiming dance floors ever since! I teach aerobics through fatkiddanceparty.com and offer life advice at my blog queerfatfemme.com and my podcast, Bevin: A Femme Over 40 and her Friends! I'm a Reiki Master Healer, love tea, Dolly Parton and the Muppets!Bevin's offerings: Bevin's Patreon: patreon.com/fkdpfatkiddanceparty.comWork one on one with Bevin: https://queerfatfemme.com/one-on-one-with-bevin/Bevin's InstagramFinally, you can also listen to my conversation with Bevin on her podcast, Ep. 174: Redefining Success. Sign up for my newsletter to read my essays and be the first to hear about new offerings here.If you've enjoyed and benefited from the podcast, I invite you to apply for private mentorship and coaching with me. This is an intensive container, designed to support you in refining your self-leadership skills, moving through important life thresholds with grace, and expanding your capacity for creative expansions.Try the incredible breathwork and meditation app Open for 30 days free using this special link. This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jonathan Koe. Theme music is also composed by me! Connect with me through my newsletter, my Instagram @jonathankoeofficial, and my music. For podcast-related inquiries, email me at healingthespiritpodcast@gmail.com.