Plant Cunning Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 246: Fall Forecast '26 with ZamboniFunk Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

ZamboniFunk is back to talk fall forecast 2026! We talk about conference season, the effects of the eclipse season we just went through, the Venus and Mercury retrogrades, Jupiter-Mars-Ketu conjunction, and a little weather prediction.

Ep. 245: Wild Medicine with Ali English Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast we talk with UK herbalist and teacher Ali English, author of Wild Medicine (Aeon Books), about her path from childhood gardening and Culpeper’s Herbal to formal training and later teaching in the Lincoln College herbal medicine degree program. Ali describes how the course is structured (therapeutics, anatomy and physiology, evidence and critical thinking, pharmacy/community practice, and intensive clinical training and exams), and discusses gaps like limited outdoor time. She explains her practical approach to medicine making (teas, syrups, salves, tinctures, decoctions, and combined extracts), her interest in energetics, planetary correspondences, and hedge-witch “small magics,” and how she evaluates plant associations through both tradition and experience. The conversation also covers plants like knapweed, scabious, rosebay willowherb/fireweed, and blue flag, plus dosing differences between the UK and US, and Ali's upcoming projects, consultations, workshops, and mentoring.

00:00 Meet Ali English

00:36 Finding the Plant Path

04:35 Early Herb Books

05:55 Training at Lincoln College

06:43 Making Herbal Remedies

08:37 Inside the Degree Program

11:54 Clinical Exams and Practice

15:15 Fieldwork and Plant ID

18:12 Why Write Wild Medicine

24:02 Witchcraft and Energetics

28:41 Planetary Plant Links

31:38 Local Herbs Over Imports

33:23 Harvesting Knapweed Medicine

34:18 Decoction and Double Extracts

36:48 Astrology in Tincture Craft

38:59 Knapweed as Liver Tonic

39:57 Fireweed Uses and Fermented Tea

43:26 Blue Flag Dosing and Trauma

45:53 Why Herbal Dosage Differs in the UK and the US

52:30 Teaching Energetics in Clinic

55:30 New Projects and Offerings

57:19 Consults Workshops and Farewell

Ep. 244: Dreaming, Herbalism, & Embodied Learning, with Kimberly Gallagher & Lauren Morgan Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Today Isaac & AC welcome herbalists Kimberly Gallagher of LearningHerbs and Lauren Morgan of Herbs & Dreams to the show. Lauren recounts starting with a botanical medicine apprenticeship and now runs a community practice, circles, an apprenticeship, and the Herbs & Dreams podcast, weaving dreams into herbal work. Kimberly describes learning herbs alongside her late husband John through apprenticeships and family healing, then building LearningHerbs with remedy kits, Wildcraft, and Herb Fairies. They discuss Kimberly’s book The Aphrodisiac and a broadened view of aphrodisiacs (including nervines and nutritives like damiana, oats/oatstraw, rose, cacao, fenugreek), plus plant dreaming, dream incubation (including mugwort), nightmares, and notable plant dreams (marshmallow and hawthorn). They introduce their 7-week course Rhythms & Relationships (Rhythms and Relationships: A Feminine Way Into Herbalism), starting the last Saturday in September, with weekly modules and live sessions, and share how it was inspired by Lauren’s dreams.

00:00 Podcast Welcome

01:01 Plant Path Origins

03:16 Learning Herbs Journey

06:50 Herbal Sensuality Work

11:38 Rhythms Course Vision

16:20 Circles Moon Lodge Rites

18:31 Meeting During Covid

21:02 Dream Weaving Course Birth

25:32 Dreaming With Mugwort

31:16 Plant Dreams Marshmallow Hawthorn

36:47 The Generosity of Hawthorn

37:58 Dream Incubation Basics

38:43 Dream Rattle Ritual

41:47 Why Dreams Matter

43:45 Nightmares as Medicine

48:40 Scary Plant Dreams

52:22 Reciprocity With Plants

54:18 Embodied Learning Path

01:00:43 Course Logistics

01:05:15 Who This Course Serves

01:08:37 Links And Farewell

Ep. 243: Temperament & Graeco-Arabic Medicine with Cameron Allen Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

On this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, herbalist and astrologer Cameron Allen returns to discuss his recent travels and to share updates on his ongoing studies in Ayurveda and Unani Tibb. Cameron explains Unani Tibb as Greco-Arabic (Greek) medicine, clarifying the distinctions between elements, temperaments (mizaaj), and humors, and emphasizes temperament as a dynamic intermixture shaped by environment, time, and life experience. The conversation explores why blending medical and astrological systems can create confusion, how modern astrology often reduces meaning to psychology, and why coherence and consulting skills matter. They examine North American “dryness” as a cultural and lifestyle pattern, discuss practical ways to work with melancholic imbalance and grief, and Cameron previews his upcoming UAC talks on luminaries in medical astrology and remedy-generation approaches.00:00 Welcome Back Cameron00:32 Summer Travels And Retreat01:36 Embodied Sexual Leadership03:32 Ayurveda And Unani Studies06:42 What Is Unani Tibb10:34 Modern Western Astrology Debate14:34 Mixing Systems In Herbalism19:22 Coherence And Elemental Language22:19 Temperament As Intermixture26:19 Core Vs Changing Constitution29:31 Environment As Medicine32:51 Consulting Skills And Teaching Vision36:12 Why We Get Dry38:08 Diet and Drying Foods38:38 Hot vs Cold Metabolism40:17 Reading Dryness in Charts42:38 Purging and Nourishing Traditions44:41 Warming Melancholic Gently48:14 Grief as Melancholic Medicine50:38 Helping Grief Move Through53:31 Saturn and Grief Mastery56:20 Temperaments Elements Humors58:57 Body Types by Temperament01:01:27 Planetary Degrees and Venus01:04:03 Planets as Elemental Landscapes01:05:35 Moon Layers Explained01:06:23 Moon Phases Temperament01:08:46 Physiognomy Rising Signs01:11:43 Reading Bodies Nonverbal01:15:14 Movement Practice Evolution01:18:34 Astrology Community Healing01:23:35 UAC Talks Preview01:26:33 Honest Synthesis Ahead01:28:56 Closing Thanks

Ep. 242: Becoming Mushrooms with Madison Murphy Barney Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast we welcome Madison Murphy Barney—doula, two-spirit Indigenous sister, public health storyteller, and author of Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms: Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Planet and Each Other. Madison shares how mushrooms offer blueprints for reconnecting with ourselves, community, and the planet through traits like connection, decomposition, adaptability, and humility, emphasizing moving forward with “original instructions” rather than trying to return to the past. They discuss relating to ecosystems anywhere (including cities) through curiosity and noticing, mushrooms’ role in composting and rebuilding systems, and how doula work applies beyond birth and death to divorce, career change, and other transitions by honoring grief, support networks, and cycles. Madison also mentions ceremony, favorite mushrooms, and where to find her work online.

01:19 Meet Madison and Book Launch

02:27 Plant Path Origins

04:05 Why Be Mushrooms

06:26 City Nature Connection

09:00 Why Mushrooms Matter

12:53 Doula Calling and Expansion

17:20 Guiding Change and Grief

22:38 Ancestral and More-than-Human Support

24:33 Living in Cycles28:51 Cycles and Comfort

29:27 Native Plants Debate

30:37 Love of Place

32:05 Mushrooms and Protection

33:33 Adaptability and Neighbors

37:18 Humility in Ecosystems

42:01 Fungi Favorites Today

44:13 What Comes Next

45:25 Who the Book Is For

47:25 Connecting and Closing

Ep. 241: Telesmanica with Christopher Warnock Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

Today on Plant Cunning, Christopher Warnock returns to discuss his new book, Telesmanica, an comprehensive, operative manual of astrological magic. He explains how the book expands beyond technique into worldview, methodology, causality, and the internal logic behind elections, arguing that many contemporary approaches are “bricolage,” mixing techniques without coherent structure or testing. Warnock contrasts modern atheistic materialism with traditional spiritual-first worldviews, using models like ecological “patterning” and mapping to explain how models are tested for usefulness. He outlines his approach to talismans—prioritizing timing, images, and mathematical ratios over materials—emphasizing practical constraints, rigorous selection of key chart factors, and a devotional practice focused on relationship with celestial spirits rather than guaranteed outcomes.

01:04 Why did Christopher Warnock write Telesmanica?

08:59 Worldview and Spiritual Reality

15:02 Models, Meaning and Belief

26:40 Bricolage in Modern Astrology

33:20 Astrology as Language and Intuition

37:32 Getting Readings Wrong

38:25 When Magic Doesn’t Fit

39:17 Worldview and Causality

40:10 What a Talisman Is

41:05 Picking the Right Election

42:41 In Picatrix, Context Matters

45:50 The Cookbook Perspective

52:57 Devotional Angel Practice

54:46 Reality Warping and Limits

56:02 Camouflage Magic Explained

57:54 Modern Anxiety and Ritual

59:10 Problematic Images and Archetypes

01:02:16 Ducks and Spiritual Freedom

01:08:24 Hermetic Lineage History

01:12:52 Reviving a Lost Tradition

01:15:16 Robert Zoller's Advice

01:16:10 Daily Devotional Power

01:17:09 Tradition Beyond Social Media

01:18:36 What Traditional Really Means

01:20:20 Medieval Renaissance Lineage

01:23:32 Applying vs Separating Aspects

01:24:58 Bricolage and Chart Noise

01:26:28 Meta Perspective and Meaning

01:30:00 Why does Christopher Warnock prioritize election and image over materials in the creation of talismans?

01:32:35 Occult Virtue and Platonic Ideas

01:36:43 Practical Talisman Use and Care

01:41:58 Meaning, Nihilism, and Collapse

01:45:37 Preserving Esoteric Texts in an age of Decline

01:47:20 Consciousness Beyond Humanity

Ep. 240: William Padilla-Brown Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026

MycoSymbiotics Mushroom & Art Festival July 29- August 2d, 2026Today on the podcast, AC & Isaac Hill interview mushroom citizen scientist and community builder William Padilla-Brown about his path into mycology, from early curiosity about consciousness and “plant medicine” to diet-driven health struggles that pushed him into growing his own food, foraging, and functional mushrooms. He credits discovering online superfood and medicinal-mushroom content (including David Avocado Wolfe) as a turning point, then explains how mushroom videos took off on YouTube and led him to start MycoSymbiotics and launch MycoFest in 2015 to create a lasting community and legacy for his family. Will recounts cultivating cordyceps after finding a specimen at the first festival, rejecting the idea that it was “impossible,” and learning through observation—treating life as a readable language. He describes MycoSymbiotics’ cutting edge work: wild strain selection, DNA barcoding, cultivation, extraction, third‑party analytics, and making potent products affordable. The conversation also covers ecological literacy through mushrooms, conservation concerns like Pine Barrens development and matsutake habitat loss, the importance and diversity of native truffles (including training a dog to find tuber canaliculatum), aroma as a form of “medicine,” modern distraction and nervous-system hijacking, and adapting to AI by leaning into uniquely human creativity. He closes with MycoFest details (first weekend of August; July 31–Aug 2; MycoFest.net; Artemis, PA; code MYCOMMUNITY), plus MycoSymbiotics sites, classes, a farmer co‑op, and local projects.

00:00 Meet William Padilla-Brown

01:55 Origins in Plant Medicine

06:03 Health Wake Up Call

09:09 David Wolfe and Medicinals

11:28 Myco Symbiote to MycoFest

13:12 Nothing Is Impossible

15:30 Learning From Living Signs

21:05 Mycology Cutting Edge Today

23:44 Matsutake and Habitat Threats

25:29 Truffles as Ecological Gateway

27:16 Native Truffles in Pennsylvania

30:14 Truffles and Sensory Depth

30:41 Overstimulation and Numbness

31:54 Aroma as Medicine

33:58 Capitalism and Responsibility

36:16 Distraction Casino Reality

38:53 Using the System for Good

40:53 Social Media and Rage Bait

44:27 AI Music and Human Spark

48:55 MycoFest and Community Wrap

Ep. 239: Dreaming Herbs & Scientific Inquiry into Astrology with Will Morris Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC welcome back Will Morris, PhD, DAOM, MSEd, LAc, RH, a interdisciplinary healer and scholar whose work spans traditional Western and Vedic astrology, Chinese medicine, pulse diagnosis, sound healing, and education. Will explains his compulsive, spiritually driven path across traditions and how transdisciplinary study reveals shared underlying structures, including medical frameworks of location, process, and severity and recurring 12-fold patterns across nature and culture. He critiques mainstream scientific testing of astrology as method-driven, politically shaped, and often logically flawed, arguing the right assessment depends on the question and may require qualitative approaches. The conversation explores intuition, divination versus science, horary use in clinical settings, dreamwork and oneirobotany, mugwort’s shamanic origins, catnip’s “wind” associations, and Will’s upcoming books, including Evidence Ecology: Science and Astrology.

02:10 Why Study Many Traditions?

03:39 Life Path Music to Astrology

08:36 The Benefits of Transdisciplinary Studies

12:00 The Science Industry and Astrology

13:13 Is Astrology Divination or Science?

19:31 Testing Astrology Properly

27:59 Clinical Astrology in Practice

31:07 Book of Dreams and Yesod

32:48 Dreamwork Pulse and Herbs

36:59 Sedative Herbs Mix

37:10 Catnip and Wind Pathology

39:08 Eight Winds and Charts

40:32 Wind as Science Debate

41:23 Dream Plants: Mugwort

42:17 Dybbuk Clearing Story

44:58 Artemisia and Dreamwork

49:08 Cycles and Plant Motion

51:47 Pan Celestial Thesis

01:01:24 Land, Climate and Relocation

01:05:16 Universalism vs Relativism

01:08:15 Books and Future Projects

01:13:45 Closing Thanks

Ep. 238: Ceremonial Magic in Mexico with Jorge Nájera Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC interview Jorge Nájera in Guadalajara about Mexico’s ceremonial magic scene and his role leading the Fraternidad del Círculo Dorado (Circulo Dorado Web) a mystical and magical school founded in 1986. Najera recounts how a small study group grew through work with BOTA, Golden Dawn-style ritual, Freemasonry, and later affiliation with the Servants of the Light (SOL) lineage of Dion Fortune and Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. He describes meeting Ashcroft-Nowicki, trips to Egypt, learning to build an “astral temple” and inner contacts, then adapting SOL material for Spanish-speaking students by creating their own structured curriculum centered on astrology, Hermetic and Sephardic Kabbalah, and coherent symbolism. He explains the school’s three-degree model, its emphasis on lived experience and service, and how COVID shifted much of their work online, including new digital tools.

01:04 Meet Jorge in Guadalajara

01:55 Founding the School in 1986

03:08 Early Growth

05:02 Joining Servants of the Light

08:11 Egypt Trip and London Temple

11:06 Astral Temple Training

13:11 Adapting SOL for Latin America

14:56 Building the Curriculum

16:07 Kabbalah as Foundation

19:22 Courses and Temple System

21:05 Jorge’s Early Influences

25:10 Astrology Awakening and Teaching

29:58 Fruits and Mission of the School

33:26 From Rituals to Creativity

34:57 Information vs Wisdom

37:34 Mystery Schools Go Digital

42:14 How does a Mystery School work in the Age of Aquarius?

46:10 The Importance of Coherent Symbolic Training

50:52 The Degrees of Initiation

56:24 The Ideal Student

01:00:02 How to Connect and Closing

Ep. 237: From Soil to Soul with Laurie Szott-Rogers: Plant Archetypes, Tarot & the Council of Plants Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Find out more about Laurie here: Laurie Szott-Rogers Bio - Self Heal DistributingThis episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast features herbalist, author, gardener, and educator Laurie Szott-Rogers discussing her new book, From Soil to Soul, and her blend of herbalism, astrology, archetypes, tarot, and dreamwork. Laurie shares how dandelion first drew her into plant medicine, her path from early interests and government work to partnering with her husband Robert Rogers, and what her current life looks like in Alberta’s cold climate gardening. She explains her “24 herbs” framework, the Plant Council concept, and how she writes from the plants’ perspectives using attunement, trance, drumming, and automatic writing. The conversation also addresses AI-generated imagery, explores dandelion’s archetypal qualities, and dives into tarragon’s dragon mythology and its King of Swords tarot association, along with practical uses like tarragon pesto.00:00 Meet Laurie Szott-Rogers00:23 Plant Cunning Conference Plug01:41 Her Plant Path Origins02:25 Dandelion First Love03:47 Astrology Meets Herbalism05:43 Life in Alberta Garden09:04 Store Products and Teaching10:17 Council of Plants Concept13:29 Attunement and Plant Rituals16:02 Writing as the Plants17:23 From Soil to Soul and AI Art21:08 Recipes and Dandelion Archetype22:42 Dandelion Resilience Medicine25:05 Planetary Archetypes in Dandelion26:43 Bitterness Shadow and Renewal28:08 Why Humans Love Archetypes29:48 Plant Surprises Mint Myth31:28 Tarragon Dragons and Growing32:55 Tarragon Pesto Kitchen Uses35:03 Tarot Links King of Swords38:42 Neoshamanic Plant Journeying41:07 Next Projects Oracle Deck42:27 Where to Find the Book43:21 Closing Thanks and Farewell

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