Medicine Stories

Latest Episodes:

The Dreaming Channel & Remembering Ourselves Home - Toko-pa Turner Mar 07, 2019

Show notes

We are entitled to a (re)membership with the holy, the never-ending and ever-evolving wisdom of dreams, and guidance on the path of remembering ourselves home.

I forgot to mention this episode's Patreon offering in the intro, but check out the Links section below to access Toko-pa's Dream Recovery Kit ebook, designed for the individual who is feeling estranged from their dreams, this guide will help you cultivate a rich dream life. This kit contains guidance for dream recall, tips for overcoming blocks, exercises for deepening your practice, and ideas for ritual and dream incubation.

IN THE INTRO:

Ancestral Voices, Women's Weariness, & the Illusion of Linear Time
Chronic pain
Dreamwalking

IN THE INTERVIEW:

A childhood in exile, a lost community, and finding belonging again
Being grabbed by the hair and dragged into the bottomless underworld
An incredible story about physical pain, a powerful dream, the grandfather who jumped from a train on the way to Auschwitz, and ancestral healing
Healing is open ended
When a family must keep their stories secret in order to survive, and how that silence affects the lineage- "Nothing influences children more than the silent facts in the background" -C.G. Jung
The dreaming channel is always open- being in reciprocity with the world behind the world
We are literally made of story, and dreams are the original stories
Why we should not be down with OPI- Other People's Information
Dreams are nature pulsing through us, and incline us toward our unique medicine
The multiplicity of our coherence
Not all dreams carry equal weight, but there is no such thing as a throwaway dream either
Approaching a dream as if it were a wild animal in a forest
Heirlooms, the storying of objects, and what we reclaim when we make things by hand
To feed the holy that sustains us, give in a way that doesn't require any more taking
The meaning of Toko-pa's name (which was given to her at birth)

LINKS:

Toko-pa's website
Dreamwalking Online Course
My piece Ancestral Voices, Women's Weariness, and the Illusion of Linear Time
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (Dream Recovery Kit)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Ancient Medicine & the Love of the Ancestors - Atava Garcia Swiecicki Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

We each carry our own unique ancestral medicine, and can (and should!) spend a lifetime uncovering it. A teacher of herbal, folk, and indigenous medicine, Atava is deeply grounded in and a powerful guide through this sacred work.

IN THE INTRO:

Synchronicity, mushroom medicine, and the deer dress
Herbal Medicine Giveaway
Ancestral Apothecary's Student of Color Scholarship Fund- investing in herbal education is investing in the health of your community
The Ancestor Song

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Invocation
When an ancestor becomes an ally from the other side
How to know when it's really a message from spirit and not just our own projection
Food as the one surviving cultural tradition within a family
Remembering your indigenous mind
How giving time and attention to our roots can heal relationships among the living
Ancestral connection and reverence work never ends
Healing is in our bones, our blood, our DNA
Being witnessed in our stories
Remembering that the plants are (literally) our ancestors
Using plants to ground deeply when talking about and facing ancestral issues like colonization and slavery- we're never alone as long as we have our plant allies
Making space for people of color to explore and reclaim their ancestral medicine
Teaching healing skills so that people can treat those within their own communities and not need saving from elsewhere
Herbalists are the grassroots community healers
You're going to be a better herbalist and healer if you're rooted in your own ancestral traditions
We all come from people who work with plants
Love is the basic fundamental vibration that keeps the universe moving- how love and community saw Atava through uterine cancer & remembering to reweave the energy of love back into the healing arts
A beautiful death: how the love we give and receive in this life carries us into the realm of the ancestors

LINKS:

Ancestral Apothecary School
Ancestral Apothecary
Ancestral Apothecary on Instagram
Weaving Earth Immersion
Lead To Life
Ancestral Medicine
My website Mythic Medicine
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Kitchen Herbalism: The Body Remembers - Kami McBride Feb 14, 2019

Show notes

Herbalist Kami McBride is back to dive even deeper into the uses of plant medicine for long term vitality and well being. This time we focus on home & kitchen herbalism, which is both super easy/accessible to everyone and the most important way to utilize herbs for daily health. Win win!

INTRO:

Home herbalism is the best kind of herbalism
Put this spice (already in your kitchen!) on a cut to stop bleeding quick
Kami's fabulous book, The Herbal Kitchen, has a new 10th anniversary edition! Pre-Order now and get these bonuses:
- The Turmeric Sessions Video Class
- Pesto for All Seasons eBook
- Kitchen Medicine Workshop
- Herbal Kitchen Recipe Cards
- Pre-order access to Herbal Kitchen chapter on Herbal Honey

INTERVIEW:

How simple kitchen herbalism bypasses the overwhelm many new herbalists feel (IT'S SO EASY Y'ALL)
Culture begins in the kitchen
Empowering yourself to take care of everyday illnesses and ailments at home
The magic that happens when women gather to make food and medicine together (with our uniques lineage of women standing behind us)
How Kami has her kitchen set up so that incorporating healing herbs into every meal takes no thought
Herbal sprinkles alone can change the whole food culture in a home
No one eats perfectly healthy at every meal, but adding herbal salts, vinegars, oils, honeys, etc. to each dish automatically and dramatically boosts the nutritional- and flavor!- content
Kitchen herbalism returns a vast diversity of missing micronutrients to the Standard American Diet
Digestion is literally the foundation of health, and an herbally oriented kitchen supports the flow of blood, energy, and oxygen to your digestive track at every meal
Evolving our medical care to the next level begins at home
Pesto is as sacred as the elements and is incredible for fighting colds & flu (and has endless possibilities beyond basil!)
Reawakening our senses & activating ancestral taste and scent perception
Why you need the bitter flavor in your life
Alchemy Oil, Chai Honey, and mind blowing Herbal Cordials
The best herbal food gifts to give for every occasion
Mega next level meal planning- taking 15 minutes to ask yourself what's going on with your/your living mates lives and health this week, and then planning meals and herbal condiments around that

LINKS:

Pre-Order The Herbal Kitchen now to get the bonuses!

My website MythicMedicine.love

Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)

The Medicine Stories Facebook group

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Healing Our Indigenous European Ancestors - Lyla June Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Our task as European-ancestored people, seeing what's been hidden beyond our short-sighted view of history, and why healing isn't possible in the absence of love.

IN THE INTRO:

Who gets to claim their ancestors?
Healing broken lineages
Cultural appropriation & reparations

IN THE INTERVIEW:

How Lyla, raised to acknowledge only her Native American side, came to understand and honor her indigenous European ancestors
What happens when people hate their ancestors (and therefore themselves)
Making space for everyone's healing- permission to grieve all the ancestral traumas
Going way back in time to understand colonizer/oppressor actions
Lyla's early experiences with sexual abuse, alcohol, and drugs and how they informed her perspective on restorative justice
Pilgrimage to the Sacred Motherland of Europe- "These mountains may have lost their people, but that doesn't mean they don't need ceremony"
Seeing through the thin wall of time that dominates our understanding of history & remembering that the vast majority of our ancestors lived before cultures and humans got broken
Indigenous languages are the sound of the land speaking through the people
Love is the only thing worth doing here
Where do we go from here? It depends on where we came from

LINKS:

Reclaiming our Indigenous European Roots by Lyla in Moon Magazine
Lyla on Facebook
Anti-Racist Genealogical Research (For Everyone) w/ Darla Antoine
Ancestral Reverence as Devotion to the Earth w/ Daniel Foor
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Ancestral Legacies, Lost Cultures, & Personal Mythmaking - Janelle Hardy Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

The stories that call to us, the ancestors who live in us, the cultures that are lost to us, and so much more...

IN THE INTRO:

Self care and energy hygiene for sensitive types
Ancestral languages
Elderberry magic

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Making peace with our names, the legacy of patriarchal naming, changing names, prehistoric kinship ties, and pondering how our most ancient ancestors chose names
Spectral visitations from the grandfather who died before Janelle was born
Rootlessness, and what is lost when people set out on their own and leave their land and people behind
How our ancestors live in us, even when we can't claim their culture as our own
Language as a gateway to the ancestors
Megalithic monuments and the transition from hunting and gathering to farming in Europe
Starting a podcast
Knowing whose land you're living on
The ancient tales we're drawn to
Diving deep into embodiment and creativity
The profound inner and outer journey of Personal Mythmaking
Navigating the world as a Highly Sensitive Person and empath- "I need a lot of self care to be connected to my deep self"
Biodynamic craniosacral therapy, somatic experiencing, and other coping mechanisms/self care
Chronic trauma responses and nervous system stuckness
The more ephemeral cultural transmissions: textiles, fiber arts, music, dance, cooking, etc.

LINKS:

Janelle's website
My interview on the Personal Mythmakers Podcast
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)
The Memory Code by Lynne Kelly
Ancient Spirit Rising by Pegi Eyers
The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron
Lyla June on the For The Wild Podcast, Part 1 and Part 2
Sylvia Lindstead

Magic Makes Us Human & Plants Keep Us Rooted- Rebecca Altman Jan 14, 2019

Show notes

How strategic inefficiency can make us more efficient, knowing your personality type, and being deeply rooted in place.

IN THE INTRO:

What time can do (my recent family emergency)
Ancestral Lineage Healing
Lion's mane mushroom & hawthorn berry medicine

IN THE INTERVIEW:

How the journey through grief, depression, and getting on and then getting off 5 different pharmaceuticals at once led Rebecca to herbalism
Meeting the spirit of a place/seeing your home with new eyes
Sexy desert plants: creosote (chaparral/Larrea) & ocotillo
Where there is no word for magic because it's just a normal part of life & why believing in magic makes us human
The West's missing rites of initiation & why we have such a hard time adulting
Realizing that no one else is going to tell you that you belong, that you have the gift, that you are magical
The humoural approach to herbalism & healing: why knowing your personal balance of temperaments (sanguine, choleric, meloncholic, and phlegmatic) can help you to know yourself better
The debilitating cultural preference/lie embedded in The Hero's Journey
The virtues of working inefficiently
A practice to get you rooted and step you back inside yourself: reconnecting to what we cut off in order to get things done quicker & better
Root medicine: shatavari & ashwaganda

LINKS:

Rebecca's websites: King's Road Apothecary and The Wonder Sessions
Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensive in Berkeley 2/8-10
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)
Malidoma Somé

Giving Life to Songs & Babies - Alela Diane Dec 18, 2018

Show notes

Most artists, and working women, keep their parenthood separate from their work and creativity. Alela Diane is bucking that (unnatural/inauthentic) trend, and we speak about the hard decisions working moms face, how giving life to her second daughter literally almost killed her, and the many magical ways her songs come into being.

IN THE INTRO:

The complexities of motherhood, Part 1: Weaning
Win a copy of Alela's latest album Cusp
The future of this podcast

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Alela's unique name, bohemian childhood, and deeply rooted familial musical inheritance
The painful life experiences that led Alela to start making music
Songs that come in dreams, or that contain foreknowledge of the future
The complexities of motherhood, Part 2: Tour life as a mom (taking them with until you're like neh, they're staying home)
Alela's giving birth / near death experience
Knowing when your loved one has passed, before you get the news

LINKS:

AlelaDiane.com
Mother Magazine feature on Alela
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Womb Wisdom, Addiction, & the Way of the Wounded Healer - Anja Robinson Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

IN THE INTRO:

Evolutionary health, symptoms as adaptations, why there's no such thing as the optimal diet, and why we didn't necessarily evolve to be healthy
One of our last remaining collective/ancestral rituals

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Why to start herbally & nutritionally preparing for your period at ovulation
Understanding nutritional needs throughout the menstrual cycle
Tracking your period
Coffee & chocolate for the cycling woman- good or bad?
Iron, blood, oxygen, and women
How Anja overcame six years of alcohol and drug abuse and built a healthy, healing life
We share our stories of growing up with an alcoholic parent, and of our mothers' deaths, and what it feels like when you get that phone call we all dread
A super important but always overlooked perspective on nutrient deficiency in addicts and the role of nutrition in recovery
It's never too late to change your path
When Anja found out about her German great-grandmother being the town mystic and Tarot reader, and how this ancestor's sensitivity has echoed down through the motherline
Food, drink, and herbs for winter nourishment
Carminitives: a simple, delicious, and healing class of herbal medicine that you already have in your kitchen

LINKS:

Anja's website ManaMedicinals.net
My website & herb shop MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

BOOKS-

*The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Daniel E. Lieberman

*Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler

*Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Dr. Christianne Northrup

*Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain

*The Alphabet Vs the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain

*It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine (and her website Refuge In Grief)

*Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner

PODCASTS-

*LifeSpa with John Douillard

*Dr. Gabor Mate on Russell Brand's Under the Skin podcast

Past Medicine Stories episodes mentioned-

*w/ Stephen Harrod Buhner (sensory gating channels)

*w/ Suuzi Hazen (iron, liver, evolution)

*w/ Kami McBride (herbalism, oils, menstrual wellness)

MISCELLANEOUS-

*My video An Herbalist's Perspective on Cold & Flu

*Period Tracker apps

*Dr. Zach Bush

Root Cause Medicine & Breasts as an Intuitive Center - Anja Robinson Nov 23, 2018

Show notes

In the Intro:

Living among the California wildfires
$200 herbal medicine giveaway!
The beautiful complexity of the female body

In the Interview:

The intersection between herbalism & functional medicine
Why "Just live like your grandmothers lived and you'll be healthy" doesn't work anymore
Health confusion and information overload
A name is a prayer: the meaning of Anja's name and how it ties into her life's path
The gateway of birth & the role of a birth attendant
Understanding the complex dance of women's hormones and what we can do to create better hormonal health (we talk about digestion, the liver, PMS, headaches, bloating, cramps, water retention, breaking out, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, toxic overloads, xeno-estrogens, etc.)
The importance of the lymphatic system
The insanity of the truly toxic products that are marketed to women as real femininity
Don't put anything on your skin you wouldn't put in your mouth
A deep dive into breast health
Reframing self exams: knowing the terrain of your own body, what to look for, and what not to worry about!
The flexibility & resiliency of breast tissue

Links:

Anja's website Mana Medicinals
My website MythicMedicine.love
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses)
The Medicine Stories Facebook group
Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)
For the Wild podcast: The Myths & Misinformation of Wildland Fires

Word Witchery, the Ancestors, & Tarot - Sanyu Estelle Oct 30, 2018

Show notes

Why to always work with the ancestors first, diving deep into the meaning of the words we use, and more...

In the Intro:

A word about this podcast
November Tarot Forecast
The best bio ever

In the Interview:

The power of words & etymological knowledge
Ancestral migratory paths
The history of "queer" & being multisexual
Sanyu's Belizean and Ugandan roots
Why to work with our ancestors first and foremost
What it looks like when a genealogy/research nerd pieces together an ancestor's life
Placing our forebears in the wider socio-historical context of their times: discovering a great-grandmother's life through understanding colonialism and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
The feeling of being the first generation in a new land
The ancestors & Tarot
Being claircognizant
When illness is a spiritually energetic leveling up
The interweaving of Christianity and spiritualism
Working with dreams
Opening yourself to the wisdom & weirdness of the multiverse
Naming things collapses possibilities
Taoism rules
The Plant Alchemy Deck