Deconstruction

In this week’s episode of Deconstruction, Rachael drops in with rockstar & artist Jesse Roper for a rich, entertaining, and wildly alive conversation on performance, presence, and joy as a revolutionary act. What begins as a playful exchange unfolds into something deeper, a study in what it means to follow aliveness through fear, and offer it back as medicine.Jesse is a natural storyteller, full of humour, integrity, and presence. His stories trace the path from fear to flow, from distraction to devotion. Together they explore music as emotional regulation, the magic of teaching kids to write songs, and the energetic exchange that makes live music feel like medicine.This episode is a celebration of generosity, groove, and the relational magic that happens when we let joy be the message.Bonus: Stay tuned for a special guided meditation Rachael created for Jesse before one of his concerts—released later this week as a companion piece to this conversation.Jesse Roper MusicJesse Roper InstagramJesse Roper Tik TokMusic in episode: The Hurricane's EyeBody LanguageRed BirdLearn More: ⁠⁠⁠Alchemy⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠ Rachael

Create a cocoon. Light a candle. Wear headphones.Let the music move through you.Let the part of you that is still becoming feel seen.A Ritual for Uranus in Gemini In honour of Gemini’s duplicity, I wanted to try this one again.This audio was originally recorded for the Jupiter Cazimi (Breathing into Belonging), but it never quite anchored the body the way I knew it could.So I returned. Recut, rethreaded, reimagined.This time, I wove in the music that was actually playing when I recorded it—Liquid Bloom.What emerged was something else.A journey.Evocative.. Alive.This one won't be for everyone, but it was for meI’m releasing it again, as Uranus enters Gemini—an auspicious moment for shapeshifting, redefinition, and multiplicity.It feels right that there are now two versions.This journey was originally recorded to use with Cannabis as a sacred Ally & may be especially resonant for those who work with this Plant in an intentional way.If you choose to receive it, I invite you to do so with care.Music:Heart of the Shaman: Ceremonial Medicine SongsLiquid Bloom Learn More: ⁠⁠Alchemy⁠⁠ &⁠⁠ Rachael

This is a guided meditation to help you return to your body, your breath, and your being.Gently. Honestly. With reverence.There’s a place inside you that knows how to come home. Not through effort. Not through fixing. But through breath. Through sensation. Through presence.This meditation is an invitation to meet yourself in that place. Together, we slow down. We root into the body. We track the subtle rhythm of aliveness moving through. And we listen.Recorded on the New Moon and Jupiter Cazimi—a moment of cosmic clarity and inner expansion—this offering supports you in cultivating a felt sense of safety, groundedness, and belonging.Let yourself be met. Let it feel good to be here. You are not alone.For the best experience, I recommend listening with headphones, in a quiet, comfortable space with soft or low lighting. Let this be a moment just for you.Music:Downstream - Shivarasa Interospection - LaraajiGreen Lane - Jonny NashLearn More: ⁠Alchemy⁠ &⁠ Rachael

Dr. Ido Cohen, a Jungian psychologist and psychedelic practitioner, joins Rachael for an insightful dialogue on trauma and emotional healing. They discuss the delicate balance of personal and collective pain and highlight the power of community in fostering vulnerability and authenticity. The conversation navigates the transformative nature of self-acceptance, emphasizing how grief and celebration coexist. Ultimately, they explore the sacred work of intimacy and reconnection in a culture often driven by disconnection.

In this episode, I sit down with Mackenzie Amara for a rich and reverent conversation about the mother wound—how it lives in our bodies, our culture, and our ancestral lines. We explore grief as a spiritual excavator, the path to existential secure attachment, and what it means to surrender to love even when loss is inevitable.Mackenzie brings the rawness of new motherhood, the insight of depth psychology, and a deep relationship to archetypal energies. Together we speak of shape-shifting in service, calling in help, and the chaos within the mother complex. This conversation is a threshold—a remembering of the mother within, and a call to grieve, to feel, and to belong again.Mackenzie Amara is a depth-oriented psychologist, writer, Jungian analyst-in-training, and doctoral student in Clinical Psychology. She’s also a 5Rhythms® teacher, a mystic, a new mother, and someone devoted to healing the psychic wounds that keep us from inhabiting our wholeness. Her work lives at the intersection of the mythic and the clinical, the sacred and the irreverent, the rational and the unknowable.This episode is for those apprenticing to the long dark. For those learning to love without grasping. And for anyone who suspects the mother within may be the one who’s been here all along.Connect with Mackenzie Amara:InstagramSubstackWebsiteLearn more: ⁠⁠Alchemy⁠⁠ &⁠⁠ Rachael ⁠

In this conversation, Radha and Rachael explore the themes of transformation, self-awareness, and the importance of personal responsibility in navigating both individual and collective challenges. They discuss the role of relationships in self-discovery, the significance of open-mindedness, and the impact of the nervous system on our ability to feel safe and present. The conversation also delves into the complexities of dissociation, trauma healing, and the necessity of metabolizing past experiences to reclaim one's life force energy. Ultimately, they emphasize the importance of self-inquiry and compassion in the journey of personal growth. In this conversation, Rachael Spyker and Radha explore the themes of sensuality, pleasure, and conscious living. They discuss the importance of community and eldership in personal and collective transformation, as well as the relationship with Mother Earth and the necessity of feeling pain to facilitate healing. The dialogue emphasizes the balance between enjoyment and awareness, the role of pleasure as activism, and the alchemical process of destruction leading to new creation.Questions for Self Inquiry:What are my distraction techniques or my dissociation techniques?When do those happen?What are my unconscious patterns?Why am I doing this pattern?How am I trying to hyper control or hyper manage?Talked about in the episode:Ram Dass Legacy Retreat: The Art of Living, Blue Ridge MountainsJoanna Macy’s work on Earth grief and collective transformationEmbodied Practice for nervous system regulationFind more about their work here:⁠Radha's Website⁠⁠Love Service Wisdom Podcast⁠⁠Guidance meditation ⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠East Forest's Music Learn more: ⁠Alchemy⁠ &⁠ Rachael

Dr. Ido Cohen, a clinical psychologist and founder of The Integration Circle, shares his unique insights on psychological healing and transformation after losing his home in a fire. He discusses the power of relational healing and the importance of play in emotional recovery. Ido emphasizes integration as a journey of individuation, where personal growth emerges from grief and transformation. He advocates for community connection and embraces the playful elements of life, presenting a fresh perspective on resilience and self-acceptance.

A guided somatic journey into your body and into the body of the Earth.In this bonus episode from the Treehouse Project, Rachael shares a short, potent commentary on the origins of this guided meditation—created during a time of deep personal and political upheaval. Originally made to regulate her own nervous system while navigating a wave of collective reactivity, the meditation was recorded in real time from a jungle treehouse.This episode almost didn’t get released. It emerged from a charged moment inside the psychedelic therapy world, entangled with systems Rachael cares deeply about. And after returning home, a painful moment of creative misattunement nearly kept it buried.But this piece is being shared now—not because it needs to be heard, but because it no longer needs to be understood.The guided meditation begins at 10:45.Offered in devotion to the Earth, to the trees, and to the body as belonging.May it hold you as you return. On this Earth Day, may your body remember it belongs to something vast, rooted, and alive.For the best experience, I recommend listening with headphones, in a quiet, comfortable space with soft or low lighting. Let this be a moment just for you.Find the Complete Treehouse Project hereLearn More: Alchemy & Rachael

What happens when spiritual awakening meets a collapsing world?In this pivotal episode, Rachael sits down with psychedelic therapist and spiritual activist Marisa Radha Weppner for a soul-deep conversation on truth, discernment, and sacred responsibility. Together, they name what many are afraid to: the commodification of psychedelics, the seductive trap of spiritual bypass, and the crisis of conscience in wellness spaces gone silent.This is a conversation about what it really means to integrate—not just your journey, but your place in the world. Radha speaks from the frontlines of embodied activism, weaving decades of experience with grief for the Earth, anger at injustice, and love for what’s still possible.They explore:Spiritual disillusionment and the myth of psychedelic salvation.Why discernment—not transcendence—is the medicine we need.Environmental grief and the psychic cost of extractive culture. Activism as a nervous system responseHow to return to the sacred in a time of collapseThis episode is a mirror for those ready to reckon with complexity and reclaim clarity. It’s for the ones who can’t look away—and won’t.Find more about their work here:Radha's WebsiteLove Service Wisdom PodcastGuidance meditation Instagram East Forest's Music Episode Commentary: Architecture of ProgrammingLearn more: Alchemy & Rachael

In this episode of Deconstruction, I’m joined by Simon Yugler—depth psychotherapist, psychedelic guide, and author of Psychedelics and the Soul: A Mythic Guide to Psychedelic Healing, Depth Psychology, and Cultural Repair. Together, we spiral into the terrain of mythopoetics as a lens for meaning-making in times of upheaval and unknowing.We explore how story becomes a map—for navigating life, altered states, for integration, for grief. We speak of animism, the de-souled world, and what it means to come back into right relationship with the Earth—and with soul. Simon offers reflections on ontological addiction, facilitator integrity, and the cost of chasing peak experiences without myth or community.This conversation is a living invitation:to heal through story,to reweave our world with meaning,to remember that transformation—like myth—moves in spirals.Find more about Simon Here:SubstackWebsiteInstagramBookLearn More: Alchemy & Rachael