Medicine Stories

Latest Episodes:

Our Complex Humanity Cannot Be Canceled Jan 10, 2022

Show notes

Let us step out of the mass psychosis of cancel culture and remember compassion, tolerance for differing viewpoints, and recognition of the deeply complex nature of human behavior.

TOPICS:

Losing compassion in the name of compassion
Cancel culture does nothing to create justice or healing
It's an ouroboros- the more a person participates in cancel culture, the more likely they are to be cancelled
The goalposts of what is and is not okay are always moving
I am not here to intellectually coddle my audience
Collapsing both/and issues into either/or issues
Shame is not a social justice tool
Treating people like human beings, not political abstractions or online content
Moral perfection is impossible
People are not disposable
Less punishment and more rehabilitation
Dehumanization only leads to more injustice
What cancellation would have meant for our ancestors and how that ancient imprint affects us today
The trauma of cancellation shuts down the brain areas needed for healing and growth
Quitting the cult of wokeness
Choosing truth over popularity
The parallels with the witch hunts
This is not how we restructure humanity toward a more just, kind, equitable future
Cancel culture leads to self censorship
Your ancestors will not cancel you, the earth will not cancel you, the sun will not cancel you

RESOURCES:

On Cancel Culture & the Medicine Stories Podcast

Megan Jayne Crabbe's post
Clementine Morrigan's post
The Fucking Cancelled podcast
I Was the Mob Until the Mob Came For Me
Shame & Accountability by Brene Brown
Chloe Valdary Theory of Enchantment
Why I'm Leaving the Cult of Wokeness by Africa Brooke
Africa's Instagram
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Coming Home to the Mushroom Elders - Amanita Dreamer Dec 16, 2021

Show notes

When Amanita muscaria says "Hey bitch, what's up?", you listen. Also known as the fly agaric, this most culturally significant fungi of all time has been maligned and misunderstood by modern people. May we reweave the ancient relationship between Amanita and humans and hear what these sentient, wise beings are saying to us.

IN THE INTERVIEW:

How a chance encounter with Amanita muscaria saved AD's life the day before she was going to end it (trauma, anxiety, and the pharmacological lobotomy that is benzodiazepines)
The nuances of our bodies that are written in to our nervous systems
The long history between Amanita muscaria and human beings
Examining the myth that the fly agaric is deadly
Nerding out on science and how Amanita affects the GABA neural pathways to help with anxiety and being stuck in fight-or-flight
The two main active constituents in this fungus: ibotenic acid and muscimol and their effects
There is great medicinal variability in Amanita compared to psilocybin
This is the kind of mushroom that asks you to slow down and pay attention
Preparing the medicine to get the most consistent dosing
When mammal meets fungi meets bacteria- was Soma (the revered ancient intoxicant whose ingredients are shrouded in mystery) Amanita muscaria processed with raw milk?
This medicine, the ancestors, and drums are intertwined in the ancient human past
When you don't "get anything" from an entheogenic substance
Using Amanita as a topical oil
Science, regulation, patents, commerce and the future of this fungus

RESOURCES:

AmanitaDreamer.net
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Fly Agaric: A Compendium of History, Pharmacology, Mythology, & Exploration edited by Kevin Feeney
The Vaults of Erowid
Psyched Wellness' research on Amanita
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

What I'd Be Without You: My Mother's Life, Death, & Legacy of Love Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

In this meandering medicine story, I share about my mama's unexpected death in 2015, the unbelievable coincidence of losing my father-in-law the same way 5 years later, the amazing thing my stepdad did at her memorial service, the worst and best things to say to someone who's lost a loved one, the final gift she gave me after her death, and always remembering that our grief is equal to our love.

I love you Mama. I miss you every day. God only knows what I'd be without you. It's all for you.

LINKS:

Pictures & a video of my mom
Megan Devine's work at Refuge in Grief
Joanna Newsom's song Time, as a Symptom
Brene Brown on Overfunctioning in times of stress

We Belong to What We Long For: Reclaiming Lost Lifeways in the Age of Loneliness - Becca Piastrelli Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

It is through land that we find ourselves. It is through lineage that we return to ourselves. It is through community that we expand ourselves. In this age of disorienting change and fracture, let us wander within our daydreams of another way of being.

TOPICS:

A Western suburban childhood- television, processed food, malls, and fear of nature's dangers
Evolutionary Mismatch Theory: our human bodies were not made for these times
We are living in the Eremocene: The Age of Loneliness
The medicine of women's circles and the two questions that should be central to each gathering
The collective yearning for ritual and embracing the awkwardness of not knowing what you're doing
Repercussions of the Burning Times
We do this reclaiming work for our descendents, knowing we may not reap the fruit of our labors in this lifetime
Listening to what the soul of your home wants
Connecting to lineage with food and folklore
How an offering of food from a stranger saved Becca's ancestors' lives
Connecting with our ancestors in Mythic Time: what stories from your lineage are ever happening?
The echoes of the electroshock therapy Becca's grandmother underwent & how writing Root and Ritual completed an ancestral storyline
Musings on women in the 1960s, twilight births, the rise of consumerism and isolated living
The world we were born into is gone: the end of the Pax Americana and the unraveling of culture and collapse of institutions
We need to grieve as a culture so that we can be responsive to what's next
Your body is sacred land
Parenthood and postpartum in the modern age
Mothering as ancestral reverence
Calling in energy from unexpected sources

RESOURCES:

RootandRitualBook.com
BeccaPiastrelli.com
Becca's Instagram
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)
A Hunter Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein
The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World: The Essential Guide to Women's Circles by Jean Shinoda Bolen
My interview with Toko-Pa Turner, The Dreaming Channel and Remembering Ourselves Home
My blog post Ancestral Voices, Women's Weariness, and the Illusion of Linear TimeFamily Constellations
Becca's interview with Megan McGuire on the Belonging Podcast: Mothering as Ancestral Reverence
Becca's interview with me on the Belonging Podcast: Motherhood, Grief, and the Grandmother Hypothesis

Grandmother Medicine & Expanding the Parameters of Herbal Care - Damiana Calvario Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

Herbalism is an outlet for creative expression, a tool for community care, and a pathway to our own inner knowing. Let us revel in the freedom we have to make our own healing medicine with guidance from the land, the ancestors, and the mythic realm.

TOPICS:

Being an abuela in training
When an ancestral name is tied in to a landscape
Kitchen herbalism in Mexico
Gardening with whatever is on hand
Following the threads of our ancestors' herbalism
The multifaceted medicine of rose (& making an essence from 100 roses!)
Your romantic relationship is yours to create; it doesn't have to look like anything
Healing is not a straight line
Acknowledging the limits of ancestral healing, and the positive outward ripples we create when we self heal
Damiana shares the story of being held up at gunpoint while delivering herbal medicine to folks in need, and what facilitated the perpetrator's unexpected change of heart
Anger as the fire that triggers action
Expanding the possibilities of flower essences- infusing without harvesting, Aguas Serenadas, and spontaneously capturing moments
Collective essence making in liminal space

RESOURCES:

Damiana's Patreon, website, and Instagram
See a video of the cenote where the dragonfly essences were created
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
Damiana mentions Natalie Ross of the EarthSpeak podcast
Medicine Stories interview with Amy Mea Woodruff I Forgive You: A Story of Loss & Transformative Healing
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
My Patreon offering eBook Bringing Rose Medicine Home
Medicine Stories episode Rose Medicine: Softness & Strength from the Queen of the Flowers
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Sunshine Medicine: The Healing Magic of St. John's Wort Jul 12, 2021

Show notes

St. John's Wort has evolved over millennia to capture the ultimate expression of sunlight on our planet and turn it into the molecule hypericin, which has numerous profound effects on our human bodies.

Find our St. John's Wort Oil & check out my teacher Kami McBride's course Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils.

From deep nerve healing, relaxation, and pain relief when applied externally to its antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive properties when taken internally, SJW has always occupied an exalted place in the medicine cabinet of the ancestral humans who were lucky enough to live where it grew, and is one of the most used and loved herbal medicines in the world today.

IN THIS EPISODE:

St. John's Wort acts as an extension of sunlight
The endless external uses include the healing of wounds, bruises, burns, blisters, cuts, eczema, growing pains, inflamed skin, muscle pain, nerve pain, neck tension, spasms, back pain, neuralgia, sciatica, insomnia, anxiety, and stress
The oil is indispensable for menstrual pain, pregnancy, postpartum, babies, children, elders, empaths, and highly sensitive people
Photosensitivity, precancerous skin cells, and using SJW as sunscreen
Internal uses: notes on the antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive effects (including my shingles story)
Hypericum feeds our inner radiance and summons forth our purpose and power
This ancient herb has always been associated with fairies and other magical beings
How empire co-opted pagan rituals and herbal practices
The widespread ritual use of St. John's Wort as a protective herb
A word on wildcrafting and non-natives v invasives
Making your own high potency, shelf stable herbal oils
Herbal medicine is so simple, yet also endlessly complex
Kami McBride speaks about St. John's Wort

RESOURCES:

Mythic Medicinals St. John's Wort Oil
Medicine Stories Patreon (patrons can download Rosalee's ebook here)
Cute, short video showcasing our St. John's Wort garden

Learn to Make Your Own Herbal Oils:

Kami McBride's Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course
My video Sneak Peak at the Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course from Kami McBride

Previous Episodes & Books Mentioned:

The Profound Medicine of Herbal Body Oils
Kami McBride Healing Herbal Oils: How to Make and Use Them
Lola Pickett Highly Sensitive People are the Psychedelic Plants of the Human Realm
Nadine Artemis Harvesting Light: the Alchemy of Sun & Human
Rosalee de la Foret Wild Remedies: Tending Relationships with the Land Around Us
Sajah Popham True Holistic Healing: Bridging Plant & Human Consciousness
Sajah Popham Called to the Plant Path: Herbal Myths, Healing Forward, and Human Ecology
The article Feeding Your Inner Sun with St. John's Wort from The School for Evolutionary Herbalism
Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han
The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present by Wolf D. Storl
The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: The Healing Power of Medicinal Plants by Wolf D. Storl
A Modern Herbal II by Maude Grieve
The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More Than 130 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies by Michael Castleman

More Good Stuff:

Kathi Keville's website
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Plants are Infinitely Healing & Folk Herbalism is for Everyone - Farai Harreld May 21, 2021

Show notes

In these times, we all need all the healing help we can get. How lucky then that an infinite source of renewal and vitality lies just beneath our feet. Connection with the earth and plants never fails to shift our animal bodies into a place of calm receptivity and deep entrainment with the rhythms of nature. This is our ancestral birthright as human beings. Let us remember it.

TOPICS:

Name meaning and magic
Weaving together ancestral lines
How a chance encounter with an intuitive foretold Farai's future path as a healer
Being the cycle breaker in your family
Working with plants is infinitely healing
Living with a partner in the military
Connection is the main thing that heals trauma
Including kids into our every day folk herbalism
Mullein medicine for littles
Treating ear issues herbally
Herbal care for animals
Healing with topical honey
Drawing salves for the win
What we do when we find an embedded tick
Folk herbalism is for you

LINKS:

Farai's Patreon Folk Herbalism for Everyone
Farai's website
Farai on Instagram
Medicine Stories Patreon (tick resource and Farai's ebooklet are here)
It Didn't Start With You by Mark Wolynn
What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry
Naturally Healthy Babies & Children by Aviva Jill Romm
Natural MD Radio Podcast
Previous episode Herbalism is Homecoming & Our Senses Are Portals of Connection with Marysia Miernowska
Juliette de Bairacli Levy's books (including animal care)
Farai's video on how to harvest nettles without getting stung
Camille Rose hair products
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Herbalism is Homecoming & Our Senses Are Portals of Connection - Marysia Miernowska Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

For most of human history, herbalism hasn't had a name. It was just a way of life, part of being human upon the earth. The folk traditions of our ancestors have deep nourishment to offer us, and are an antidote to the depleting and disheartening realities of modern life. Let us reclaim an embodied relationship to plants, come into alignment with the regenerative currents of nature and ourselves, and get back to the root of the root of the root.

TOPICS:

Remembering parts of ourselves through plants and storytelling
Learning simple herbalism at her great-grandmother's feet in Poland
The many uses for nettle, including urtification or the application of the sting on the body
Herbalism as homecoming
Cultivating embodied presence in relationship with the plant realm
Earth's electromagnetic frequency brings us into the brainwave states where healing can happen
Body portals (chakras) in relationship to plant healing
Noticing where in your body a plant lands
Flooding the body with nourishment: drinking herbal teas & infusions every day (sometimes)
Blending fresh spring greens to create herbal "juices"
The most ancient herbal healing tradition on earth (v the way herbalism is often practiced today)
Seasons and cycles: harmonizing ourselves to the regenerative currents of nature
Midwifing death & dismantling structures in our own lives and society at large
The dark womb of the universal mother: a personal, powerful medicine story in which names, archetypes, ancestral threads, and healing are interwoven
The plants and the magic of Beltane

LINKS:

School of the Sacred Wild website
The Witch's Herbal Apothecary book
Marysia on Instagram
The book's illustrator Maggie Eileen Lochtenberg
Sharon Blackie's book If Women Rose Rooted
My interview with Sharon: Lineage, Calling, and the Mythic Imagination
Judith Berger's book Herbal Rituals
My interview with Judith: Herbal Rituals, Rhythms, and Remembrance
Article: Urtification or Stinging Nettles on the Skin
Marysia's article on The Pagan Roots of Easter
Sage Mauer and The Gaia School of Healing and Earth Education
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagra
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Nature's Ancient Design: Exalting Life by Honoring the Physiologic Truths of Childbearing - Rachelle Garcia Seliga Feb 26, 2021

Show notes

How do we support thriving life on earth through the pathway of maternal health? Our physiologic design is the inarguable truth, but in today's confusing online culture well meaning morality politics often obscure what eons of evolution make clear. If we want to best support babies and their families, do the deep repair work of these times, and become the fully realized adults we were born to be, we must have an accurate understanding of what our biology needs from us.

Learn more about studying in community with Rachelle and exploring true wellness on the childbearing continuum, creating a culture of thriving life, and growing ourselves into the elders we so desperately need in the Innate Postpartum Care Certification Online Training at https://tinyurl.com/1darrj59.

TOPICS:

Social engagement: the lesser-known third branch of the autonomic nervous system (beyond sympathetic and parasympathetic)
Getting out of our conditioned morality and turning to nature/life/evolution as our ultimate teacher
Eating to grow a baby, birth a baby, help the body recover from birth, shift from gestation to lactation, replenish iron stores, and supply the nursling with necessary nutrients
Babies in utero and at the breast literally grow their brains off of their mother's brains (our bodies will always give our gestating or nursing babies nutrients first- at our expense, if we aren't getting enough)
Health is multigenerational
The profound lack of emotional and spiritual maturation in modern adults
Be real with yourself and speak your truth, because you're going to offend people no matter what
"I can't be triggered if I don't have something to work on"
Reorienting towards joy and the alchemy of women coming together to exalt life
How lack of community support is toxic for mothers
Keeping in mind the both/and in this time of repair
Healing can only happen when we feel safe
Kids and anxiety in heightened times

RESOURCES:

Innate Postpartum Care Certification Online Training
Medicine Stories Patreon
Our previous conversation- Revillaging: Maternal, Cultural, and Planetary Wellness Are One
Rachelle on Instagram
Rachelle's Physiologic Baby Care Course
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Learning Is Innate: Ancestral Childhood, Unschooling, and Healing - Akilah S. Richards Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

If the phrase "school wounds" stirs something inside of you, or the words "crisis schooling" describe your current reality as a parent or caregiver, or you've just always intuited that there's something not quite right about modern compulsory schooling, this episode is for you.

TOPICS:

The reimagining of schooling as we've known it
Akilah's story of schooling and unschooling
Unschooling is not just school at home- it's a whole new paradigm of learning, power, and belonging
School wounds
The radical presence it takes to raise up kids in this way
How leaving school can free up a family's life in myriad unanticipated ways
Schoolishness and the American Dream, in which so much of the actual human gets lost
The slow normalization of dehumanizing systems and institutions
Being constantly in curiosity about how our children (and ourselves!) actually learn
Reframing consent in the parent/child relationship
The liberation of being allowed bodily autonomy (especially for black folk)
Akilah's response to the common assertions that only stay at home parents/rich people/white people can school at home
Actionizing love & recognizing that it's all portal work