Plant Cunning Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep.236: Don't Be Afraid of the Herbs: Andrea Beaman on Natural & Spiritual Healing Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

Find out more and get your tickets for thePlant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026 here!Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast, hosts Isaac and AC Hill interview nutritionist, health coach, herbalist, and educator Andrea Beaman. She shares how she healed her thyroid through diet and lifestyle changes and later navigated a debilitating 2012–2013 illness she associated with Lyme after recurring lung infections, joint pain, and depression. Beaman discusses fear of herbs as cultural residue from witch trials and modern medical suppression, encourages experimentation with time-tested remedies and kitchen herbs, and stresses grounding, meditation, and heart-based intuition (including muscle testing). She outlines thyroid imbalance symptoms, links many cases to nutritional deficiency and stress, touches on autoimmune thyroid issues and parasites, recounts powerful experiences with trees and ayahuasca, and invites listeners to her courses and Health is Wealth community at andreabeaman.com.

01:29 Meet Andrea Beaman

02:50 A Health Crisis Begins

06:07 How did you find out it was Lyme disease?

09:01 Breakthrough with Teasel

13:09 Herb School and Self Testing

14:16 Trusting Herbs and Tuning In

19:04 Healing Beyond Food

21:47 Thyroid Healing Origins

23:00 Thyroid Signs and Root Causes

32:41 Herbs for Mind and Spirit

34:12 Ayahuasca and Plant Connection

36:06 Do Plants Speak?

41:17 Central Park Tree Spirit

43:11 Why People Fear Herbs

45:03 Witch Trials Trauma Echoes

47:49 Reclaiming Plant Confidence

50:40 Kitchen Herbs and COVID

54:00 Fear Physiology and Hospitals

57:33 Trust Your Heart Intuition

01:01:17 Meditation Cracks the Heart

01:03:11 Rethinking Education and Nature

01:04:34 Where to Learn With Andrea

01:08:17 Simple Recipes and Farewell

Ep. 235: Summer 2026 Astrological Forecast with ZamboniFunk Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

Find out more about the Plant Cunning Conference at Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Astrologer ZamboniFunk returns to talk about the astrological forecast for summer 2026! We discuss the Cancer Mercury retrograde as a loud season for mistakes, delays, review, and serendipity, followed by Mars entering Gemini and conjoining Uranus, trining Pluto in Aquarius, heightening anxiety, disruption, experimentation, and possible tech/cybersecurity volatility. Jupiter’s move into Leo is framed as more defensive support amid “pirate season” boundary-testing, with a key July 29 Jupiter cazimi opposite Pluto alongside a full moon conjunct Pluto, suggesting power plays and revelations. The episode closes with herbal support for stress and heart strain: harvesting motherwort, and combining it with hawthorn and rose for courage, boundaries, grief, and tension.

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:20 Conference Announcement

01:17 Summer Forecast Begins

01:55 Mercury Retrograde Setup

03:38 Mars Uranus Volatility

06:25 Experimentation Pirate Season

08:41 Mercury Retrograde Lessons

14:04 Jupiter Enters Leo

20:04 Jupiter Pluto Power Plays

23:03 Nodes Shift Authority

24:18 Era of Air Metaphor

24:58 Redistribution Scenarios

26:36 Mutual Aid Power

27:19 Jupiter Pluto Togetherness

28:28 Eclipses Chaos Reset

29:37 Robots Hive Mind

31:09 Adaptability Job Shakeup

34:46 Pirate Season Skills

35:29 Motherwort Heart Medicine

38:18 Hawthorn Boundaries

40:44 Courage Against Tech Future

43:05 Delusion & Hope

47:37 Conference And Farewell

Ep. 234: Earth Energy, Dragons and Faeries with Trista Haggerty Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Find out more about the Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today, AC & Isaac interview Trista Haggerty, author of When the Dark Mother Calls, about her path into mysticism after a dark night of the soul and two decades of mentoring with a German mystic while traveling to sacred sites in places such as Peru and Ireland. They discuss what makes power spots sacred, stone circles as “acupuncture,” and caves as initiation spaces, plus practices for trusting intuition through body-based discernment. Trista shares her work at Hawk Circle, a couple-hundred-acre land project where she’s building stone circle, trails, and a perfumery inspired by Egyptian temple recipes to fund youth nature programs. The conversation also explores fairies, dragons, the “threefold path,” and her upcoming talk at the Plant Cunning Conference (July 24–26) alongside other speakers.

01:38 Trista Meets Her Mentor

03:31 First Sacred Site Journeys

06:21 Earth-Based Mysticism Lessons

08:22 What Makes Sites Sacred

11:26 Primal Earth Energy Work

15:08 Mystic Path and Hidden Teachings

19:07 Trusting Intuition in Noise

23:51 Hawk Circle Vision and Land

29:51 Perfumery and Temple Scents

31:49 Essential Oils Impact

32:04 Ritual Perfumery Journey

33:11 Fairy Lore Explained

37:15 Threefold Path Teachings

40:14 Dragons and the Land

42:08 First Dragon Encounter

43:45 Connecting With Dragons

47:39 Awakening Landscape Dragons

48:38 Dragon Humor and Myths

53:31 New Earth Vision

56:41 When the Dark Mother Calls

Ep. 233: The Hot Tincture Method with Mary Blue Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

Learn more about the Plant Cunning Conference at:Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026On this episode, Isaac and AC welcome community herbalist, author, and teacher Mary Blue to talk about the "hot tincture method" and why applying a hot water extraction can dramatically improve tincture color, aroma, taste, and effectiveness while saving plant material, storage space, and time. Mary shares her path from environmental and protest activism into herbalism, her day-to-day running an herb shop and farm, and the mentors and experiences that shaped her teaching focus on herbal actions and solvency. They discuss safety lessons learned from heating alcohol, plant-specific considerations (including mushrooms, marshmallow, comfrey, and milk thistle), glycerins and oils, and how herbalism functions as a form of activism through accessibility, community support, and sustainable practice.

02:23 Meet Mary Blue

02:55 Activism To Herbalism

04:46 Running Farmacy Herbs

06:14 Mentors And Training

08:01 Teaching Solvency Basics

09:55 Common Solvency Confusions

11:26 Accessible Teaching Methods

13:53 The "Hot Tincture Method" Explained

16:19 Why It Works Better

23:09 How Mary Blue almost burned down her apothecary

28:01 Tincture Ratios

31:24 When Not to Tincture

31:50 Comfrey Safety Debate

33:12 Liniments and Compresses

34:43 Glycerins and Pre Extraction

36:01 Heating Oils for Extraction

36:29 Classes and Farm Intensives

37:46 Hosting Herbal Events

39:25 Herbalism as Activism

40:55 Burnout to Micro Activism

47:02 Fulfillment Through Service

47:58 The Future of Herbalism

s52:55 Creativity and Community Play

Ep. 232: David Holmgren on Permaculture's Origins & Building Resilient Households May 27, 2026

Show notes

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today on the show, Isaac & AC welcome David Holmgren, co-originator of the Permaculture concept.In this episode, David describes life at Melliodora in Central Victoria with three semi-autonomous households sharing work and produce, and recounts how he came to the “plant path” through plant ID, foraging, and early research for Permaculture One. He tells the story of meeting Bill Mollison in 1974 and how the idea of agriculture functioning like a forest became a seed of permaculture, while reflecting on Mollison’s charisma and difficulty. The conversation explores holistic thinking versus reductionism, DIY self-reliance, cycles of skill loss and renewal, COVID’s impact on interest in permaculture and RetroSuburbia, “enlightened self-interest,” energy descent and relocalization, household-scale resilience including health capacity, and where to find Holmgren’s essays and websites.

02:11 Meet David Holmgren

03:47 Finding the Plant Path

06:04 Chance Meeting with Bill Mollison

08:15 Permaculture Seed Idea

12:12 Working with a Charismatic Genius

15:31 Patterns vs Practice

21:13 DIY Skills and Tasmania Culture

24:27 Cycles of Self Reliance

28:17 COVID and RetroSuburbia Spike

30:07 Enlightened Self Interest Explained

37:29 Humans as Keystone Species

38:26 Hierarchy and Elite Corruption

40:35 Predators and Power

41:25 Fossil Fuel Hierarchy

42:42 Globalists vs Sovereigntists

44:11 Household Resilience Basics

45:35 Health as Weak Link

47:44 Bigger Households Work

52:17 Household Beats Consensus

55:23 Food Growing Mindset

59:09 Jack of all trades, Master of One

01:03:06 Why Intentional Communities Fail

01:06:49 Brown Tech Uncertainty

01:08:32 Tower of Babel Reality

01:12:35 Long Descent Balance

01:16:29 Essays and Resources

01:19:30 Final Thanks and Wrap

Ep. 231: Embodied Astrology with Gary Caton May 13, 2026

Show notes

Get The Zodiac Garden Guide here: Amazon.com: The Zodiac Garden Guide: A Handbook of Astrological Gardening: 9798253036525: Hill, Isaac Alexander, Cole, Freedom: Books

Get your tickets for the Plant Cunning Conference here: Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026Today, Isaac and AC welcome Gary P. Caton, the "Hermetic Astrologer" to discuss embodied astrology—going outside to directly observe and relate with the planets. Caton recounts his father teaching him to plant by the Moon, a 1993 dream tied to a Sun–Venus conjunction, and his experience with Project Hindsight translations that renewed interest in sky-based practice. He describes conversations and synchronicities with Venus and plants, argues astrologers have an ethical imperative to know the sky firsthand, and explains practical entry points like tracking Venus’s seven Moon conjunctions and working with new/full moons for intentions. The conversation also explores ethics, seasonality, civilization cycles, and “seed people.”

03:15 Meet Gary Caton

03:36 Origins in Astrology

05:32 Venus Dream Awakening

08:57 Planets and Plants Talk

11:45 Why "Embodied Astrology"?

13:59 Civilization and Planets

18:12 Hermes Myth and Charts

23:22 Start Embodied Astrology

26:25 Venus Cycle Dates

29:17 Moon Cycles and Seeds

31:01 Dark Moon and Ethics

34:16 Waning Moon Decrease

36:08 Disseminating Phase Seeds

37:15 Rudhyar Autumn Metaphor

39:07 Science and Hermeticism

40:38 Becoming Seed People

44:58 The Elements, Love and Strife

47:22 Ape Hierarchies Embodiment

51:38 Sunrise Ritual Nature Healing

55:37 Quiet Desert Homecoming

57:31 Where to Find Gary

59:47 Biodynamic Planting Calendar

01:02:33 Wrap Up and Thanks

Ep. 230: Traditional African Medicine with Olatokunboh Obasi May 06, 2026

Show notes

Today AC & Isaac welcome herbalist and teacher Olatokunboh Obasi back to the Plant Cunning Podcast for a second interview, now speaking from outside Nairobi, Kenya. Obasi shares that she’s finishing a doctorate in clinical nutrition while working toward opening an integrative women’s health clinic, and explains how nutrition, changing food systems, and modern indoor life affect herbal outcomes. She discusses divination and geomancy, genetics as “codes” responding to environment, and how she navigates multiple traditions—Yoruba as her root, alongside Taíno and Kenyan indigenous practices—without collapsing them into one. They explore Kenyan healing culture, including lineage-based herbalism, diviners, birth workers, and bone-setting (lila) meridian work, plus a story of discovering an East African betony for headaches. Obasi also defines traditional African medicine as diverse, spiritually centered, and regionally distinct, and critiques material reductionism in Western herbalism while pointing to figures like Culpeper and Hildegard as bridges back to spirit.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:45 Ola’s Life in Kenya

03:50 Why Clinical Nutrition

05:52 Divination and Genetics

09:31 Lineages and Training

11:41 Navigating Multiple Traditions

16:47 Plants Calling in Kenya

22:15 Healing Culture in Kenya

24:40 Bone Setting and Lila

28:32 Community-Based Medicine

34:32 Defining African Traditional Medicine

36:16 Spirit First Healing

36:47 Lineage And Bioregions

37:45 Cross Cultural Herbal Exchange

41:37 Reclaiming Spirit In Herbalism

44:02 Traditional Western Medicine

45:44 Astrology, Culpeper, Hildegard

50:17 Centering Over Scrolling

53:07 Rest Boredom And Reading

54:07 Rethinking Academia And Art

58:27 Craft Culture And Kenya

Ep. 229: Sacred Homemaking with Kimberly Steele Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

In this Plant Cunning Podcast episode, AC & Isaac interview Kimberly Steele about her first book, Sacred Homemaking, on making the home a sacred space through everyday practices. Steele shares her path from a casual Christian upbringing and decades of atheism into Druidry and daily spiritual discipline, including meditation and long-term practice of Sphere of Protection rituals, and discusses gratitude and generosity as transformative forces. She explains perceiving multiple “planes” (physical, etheric, astral, spiritual) and how tidying, thanking household objects, cleaning (especially the toilet), and avoiding both hoarding and sterile perfection can shift a home’s “vibe.” Steele offers practical suggestions such as removing “haunted” objects, using sprays and salt, and placing symmetrical sacred geometry patterns as “demon traps,” critiques materialism and doomscrolling, and introduces the idea of “astral pyramids” and group spirits.00:00 Show Intro and Announcements00:39 Meet Kimberly Steele01:27 Her Spiritual Origin Story05:27 Gratitude and Generosity09:09 From Atheism to Spirit10:27 Planes of Existence Explained12:45 Sacred Homemaking Basics18:44 Spirits at Home and Influence22:21 Protection and Banishing25:22 Sacred Geometry Demon Traps29:41 Order vs Sterile Living33:48 Toilet Cleaning and Money Luck35:26 Recognizing the Spirit of Place37:34 Gratitude Improves Relationships38:25 Marriage Scorekeeping Trap39:42 Sacred Beauty And Illusion40:31 Looksmaxing And Dysmorphia41:39 Ozempic And Willpower44:38 Health Complaints Culture46:10 Astral Dumpster Fire47:46 Screens With Boundaries49:08 Kids Gaming And Enchantment52:19 Kung Fu Daily Discipline54:38 Gratitude Raises Consciousness59:16 Home Vibe And Spirit Of Place01:00:56 Astral Pyramids And Egregores01:06:40 Music As Prayer And Earworms01:11:22 Book Wrap Up And Where To Find Her

Ep. 228: Black Paths & Green Cathedrals with Sian Sibley Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, hosts Isaac & AC Hill talks with Sian Sibley—witch, author of Black Paths and Green Cathedrals, and founder of the Dragon Oak Coven in Wales—about building real relationships with plant and tree spirits, including mugwort as an initiator and yew as a teacher around death and continuity. Sian shares how to approach trees respectfully, how to recognize a clear “no,” and why taking plant material without permission can undermine magical work. They discuss key allies like hazel, apple, hawthorn (including timing Beltane by local hawthorn bloom), and elder’s seasonal “three faces,” plus practical astral/meditation safety and grounding. The conversation also critiques modern pagan and wellness habits that harm ecosystems—crystals, frankincense, wasteful candles, and commodified entheogens—calling for smaller, more local, less consumerist practice.

01:24 Meet Sian Sibley

01:54 Springtime Blackthorn

02:29 Finding the Plant Path

03:07 Mugwort Opens the Gate

06:06 Yew and Death Mysteries

08:53 Patience and Plant Consent

09:37 Blackthorn Says No

13:57 When Plants Reject You

14:37 Buttercup and Monks Hood

17:30 Who Is Charubel

19:54 Sigils and Personal Practice

22:55 Astral Safety Basics

26:33 Protective Tree Allies

27:41 Hazel, Apple, Elder, Hawthorn

28:20 Elder Medicine and Folklore

30:45 Elder Initiation Poem

32:22 Pruning and Asking Permission

34:37 Elder Tree Lore

35:41 Hazel Nuts Wisdom

36:29 Hawthorn Beltane Timing

39:51 Local Time Cycles

42:44 Circadian Clock Health

47:13 Rest, Boredom & Imagination

47:43 Eco-Spirituality Critique

48:55 The Ethics of Crystals and Frankinscence

57:21 Living Smaller Solutions

01:04:20 Closing Poem

01:06:06 Where To Find Sian

Ep. 227: Alan Chapman and the Garden of Awakening Apr 15, 2026

Show notes

Get The Zodiac Garden Guide on Amazon (available in any country)

Book a Vedic astrology consultation with Isaac by emailing him at askisaachill@gmail.com

On the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac & AC Hill interview Alan Chapman (at Barbarous Words.com) —magician, mystic, and writer—about his path from chaos magic to teaching Magia, a Western tradition oriented around awakening. Chapman describes a deepening in 2013 following awakening in India (in Tiruvannamalai) that led to his book Magia and a shift toward a more “miraculous” view of realization beyond standard nonduality frameworks. They discuss delusion as mistaken identity, “silent knowing” as the impulse behind seeking, transmission and its seductions, the limits of maps versus the need for cosmology, and a gardening metaphor for traditions that avoids both perennial “mush” and rigid traditionalism. Chapman shares how he works with students through practices that let experiences disclose their nature, and he points to his site and retreats for further study.

01:29 Meeting Alan Chapman

02:45 Baptist's Head Era

05:17 Awakening Deepens 2013

13:12 What I Know Sure

17:29 Silent Knowing Faith

21:15 Gnosticism Labels Rejected

24:21 Traditions as Garden

27:42 Universals and Particulars

31:44 Fear and Running Away

37:37 Delusion and Trust Thread

44:24 Morality After Awakening

46:01 Ramana Self Inquiry Myth

47:09 Who Am I Inquiry

48:34 Transmission Explained

49:46 Seduction of Control

52:24 Guru Yoga and Institutions

54:43 Why Teachers Help

56:28 What We Really Seek

58:04 Entrainment and Dependency

01:00:17 Cautionary Guru Stories

01:04:42 Maps Versus Cosmology

01:06:07 Let It Disclose

01:07:12 Gardening the Path

01:13:36 Faith and Silent Knowing

01:19:13 Practice and Awakening

01:22:44 Enjoying the Garden

01:23:33 Extreme Awakening Chasing

01:24:06 Two Worlds One Heart

01:26:09 Farming Incarnation Metaphor

01:27:39 Transmission Life and Death

01:30:28 Minimal Tree Cosmology

01:32:35 Unbinding Practice Steps

01:34:41 Mounting Cosmology Stages

01:36:49 Journal Envy and Comparison

01:40:37 Dry Paths and Fireworks

01:48:25 Cosmological Binding Method

01:49:28 Unconditional States Test

01:58:29 Cutting Down the Tree

01:59:21 Resources Retreats Farewell

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