Welcome to Animisma - All Things In-Spirited

Season 2 of Animisma is an offering of seasonal contemplation, offered with care, and offered in peace. It is a walk along the hidden paths, along forest floors covered in soft grass, sunlight peeking through ancient boughs, breezes quietly moving across our faces as we walk with permission through mist and shadow. It is a walk in the presence of giants, of plants as portals, mystical herbs, and magical flowers.

I offer Animisma as a bridge of authentic spiritual connection sourced from myth and legend.

The first and second seasons follow The Celtic Wheel of the Year. Animisma is offered as a bridge towards reclaiming the indigenous wisdom of our Celtic ancestry, the collective living peoples and cultural lineages of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and some parts of England, as well some lore and legend from the lands that spread across Northern and Western Europe.

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Dreaming into being…

Season 2 - Episode 8: SAMHAIN - The FINAL harvest

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) From Saturday October 29th through Monday October 31st the summer ends, the veils thin, and the winter time begins. Samhain. The final harvest of root and fruit. The death of the old year. The beginning of the new. Three days it takes, to transition a year. One to farewell; the death of the old year. One to welcome; the birth of the new year. One in between; belonging to no time, no place and no person. The final episode of Season 2 offers three things:
1) A reflection on your own ancestral inheritance.
2) An honoring of the sacred trees and plants at Samhain: Elder, Blackthorn and Croneswort. These three are also known by other names; Tree of Witches, Dark Crone of the Woods and Wormwood.
3) A sharing of my recent pilgrimage to my maternal ancestral home - Scotland - where I visited magical islands, an ancient fairy flag in a remote castle and spent some time honoring the magnificent creatrix, winter crone and hag of the North - the Cailleach.

Season 2 - Episode 7: AUTUMNAL EQUINOX - The SEcond harvest

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) On Wednesday September 21st, we greet the start of the divine season of Autumn (Fall) a full quarter turn from the Summer Solstice. The Autumn Equinox is the second of the three Celtic harvest festivals and is a celebration of the abundance of our lives, calling upon us to continue our harvests and our preparations for the coming winter months. It is a day of balance, of equal day and night, and we greet this fulcrum day from the warm, bright half of the year. Release, beautiful release, is our sacred practice on this day of balance. Today is a contemplation of the myth and mystery of one of the greatest trees in all of our celtic lore; the mystical, forbidden, revered, celebrated, guardian, chieftain, goddess, tree of the land of enchantment, prophetic, eternal, legendary namesake of the sacred Isle of Avalon, food of the fae…

The Apple.

Season 2 - Episode 6: lughnasadh - The first harvest

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) On Monday August 1st, we celebrate the peak of Summer, the space and time halfway between the solstice and the equinox, the cross-quarter festival of the warrior and Sun God Lugh (Lughnasadh). Lughnasadh (also known as Lammas, the ‘loaf mass’) is the first of the three Celtic harvest festivals that lead us towards the end of the Celtic year. On this day garlands of beautiful meadowsweet were worn, sporting competitions were undertaken and tribal chiefs were chosen. A celebration of vigor and beauty this is also the grain festival, so a ritual cutting of the first grains was taken, making them into a communal bread for sharing. The sharing of the loaves celebrated the accomplishments of the growing season and acknowledged that preparations for the darker half of the year were now underway. The Celtic tree of knowledge, Hazel, is honored at this time. Wrapped in a cloak of great story and mythology, Hazel and its nuts are the keepers of knowledge, transformation, intuition and the sensing of plans.

Season 2 - Episode 5: summer solstice - The sacred light

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) Welcome to the wonderful celebration of Summer’s start and the stilling of the spin - the Summer Solstice. One of the most well-known and popular celebrations throughout the tribes of the North, it is also referred to as Litha; an Anglo-Saxon term for the longest day also thought to mean the summer months. Celtic stone circles, ancient gathering places, monuments and tombs, are awakened by the dawn light on this day. This sacred solstice light has lit the path into the resting places of our ancestors for thousands of years, shining a light on their memory, offering them passage to the stars. The Summer Solstice is a time of power, a time of strength, and is the celebration of our glorious, life giving and life sustaining home star - our sun - of sun gods and sun goddesses alike, a day that honors the King of trees and the world of bees, our beloved summer kin. This is a short podcast based on my inability to talk well at the moment - may you be blessed by Birch, Vervain, Oak and Rose - sacred trees and plants honored on this most glorious of celebrations!

Season 2 - Episode 4: BELTANE

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) to the beautiful celebration of peak Spring, Beltane! Beltane is the celebration of the Fire of Bel, the ancient god of the Sun who at this time marries Danu, great Mother Goddess of the Earth. This is the time on the wheel of the year when the Sun and the Earth become one - when fertility peaks and when union abounds. This is a celebration of skin and physicality, senses and sensations. Hawthorn is a deeply important tree, it is an ancestral tree and the sixth tree of the sacred ogham. Its berries offer human bodies profound circulation and heart medicine and its energies offer release and healing, and pathways towards love of self and love of other. It is a wild and enchanted tree under protection of the faerie realms - it has the protection of the old magics and as such it must be greatly respected. Wherever it grows it brings the wildness, whether in a city or on vast lands. Today, we will journey together to a sacred hawthorn grove and anoint ourselves with the most mystical and magical of waters - the Beltane morning dew.

Season 2 - Episode 3: the spring equinox (ostara)

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) to the season of the warming Earth. The Vernal Equinox (Spring Equinox and in modern times often referred to as Ostara) is a time of sacred discernment. A time to reflect on the balance of action and contemplation and to tend to that which has been neglected during the colder months. Buds and sprouts move their way through the thawing soils towards the warming surface of the Earth. Birdsong returns calling all the creatures to return to our lands, beckoning they awaken and begin their year anew. Sacred in Celtic folklore, the hare is a mystical and magical creature of transformation that comes to guide us along its thin, hidden paths at the Vernal Equinox. Today, please join me in a celebration of divine and dynamic balance, of emerging dreams and of blossoming light by connecting with the sacred trees and plants of Ash (Nion), Alder (Fearn), Gorse, Nettle and Hyssop.

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Season 2 - Episode 2: IMBOLC

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) to the emerging light. Imbolc is translated from ancient Irish and means ‘in the belly’ or ‘around the belly’ and refers to both the pregnancy of sheep and to the fertility of the Earth, that is the swelling belly of the earth goddess. Imbolc was the traditional celebration of Spring, as opposed to the modern Spring Equinox. Imbolc is an awakening from the dreaming of winter, into the gently emerging buds and shoots of Spring. Together today, let’s build an etheric altar at the base of a sacred Rowan tree in honor of the Goddess Brighid (this is her day), and the returning light.

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Season 2 - Episode 1: The Winter Solstice

Fàilte a charaidean (welcome friends) to the deep dark heart of winter. A time of stillness. A time of depth. A time of darkness peppered with light and the green reminders of life everlasting. A time for introspection, a time for dreaming. A time for death and deep contemplation. A time for silence and a time for the decaying of the old and used energies and dreams to go to Earth, creating space for possibility and potentiality. Together today, let’s take a walk through a sacred, mythical forest in the Celtic otherworld to celebrate the Winter Solstice and connect with the beautiful trees that are venerated at this time.

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Season 1 - Episode 7: Samhain (the 8th festival)

Welcome to Samhain, beloveds. Welcome to the ending and beginning of The Wheel Of The Year, the end of summer and the beginning of winter celebrated at this sacred threshold. At Samhain, the veil between the seen and unseen worlds is thinned. A time to celebrate ancestors, a time for divination, and a time to seek out the mysteries and magic found in the Otherworld. It is the time of the Crone, the Wise Woman, the time of the Death Gods, and the time to reclaim magical traditions and our reverence for the underworld. May the spirits of transformation and rebirth guide you as we descend into the liminal, release the past, and prepare for the inward turn of the wheel. We offer prayers to the Gods and Goddesses of Death and to our Ancestors to guide us along the way. Blessed be the season! Blessed be the final harvest! Blessed be the ancestors, human and non-human alike! I wish you a safe, sacred, and sensational Samhain!

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Season 1 - Episode 6: autumnal equinox - mabon (the 7th festival)

Welcome dear ones, dear hearts, welcome to the seventh festival - the Autumnal equinox. In this episode, I offer you a little respite from the world. A moment just for yourself where you can reflect upon and honor this most beautiful of festivals. This is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain. This is the festival of the horn of plenty, the cornucopia, where we are invited to gather and connect and enjoy the fruits of our labor. We explore the lore and spirit behind this festival's very modern name, Mabon, the balance and maturing of the energies we find this time of year, and the equal breath we enjoy in this threshold moment on the Wheel of the Year. We celebrate in this episode with a water offering and words adapted from Akasha Ap Emrys, along with a rattling, to welcome in this new season. Blessed Autumn Equinox to you all!

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Season 1 - Episode 5: lughnasadh (the 6th festival)

Welcome dear ones the Sixth Festival of the year that is Lughnasadh - the first of the three harvest festivals and the festival of high summer heat. While the days are long and warm, while the flowers blossom and the trees bear their fruit, let’s unite in our deepest appreciation for all that we have on this resplendent, green, beautiful Earth and fill our hearts and our cups to the brim. May you and all you hold dear be blessed by the radiance of the Sun, the Season, of the Ancient Ones honored by this festival, Lugh and Tailtiu. I wish you a beautiful, sacred, and health-filled high summer festival of Lughnasadh!

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Season 1 - litha - paused

May all be showered in the blessings of the Solstice.
May divine rays of light illuminate your heart and the hearts of humankind.
May the strength of the sun strengthen our collective resolve towards true evolution.
May the spirit of the butterfly guide you on its wing revealing that it is within the constriction of the chrysalis that transformation takes place.
May the power of the phoenix stoke the flames of courage in your heart to acknowledge, claim, and heal the wounds of your ancestors.
May the light of the divine shine upon the lineages of all - past, present, and future.

For more please see “On Litha & The Summer Solstice”

Season 1 - Episode 4: beltane

Welcome, dear ones, welcome to the beloved, ancient fire festival of Beltane! This sun-fire festival is a full half-year turn of the wheel from Samhain when the ancestral veil is thinnest. I dedicate this Beltane podcast to celebrating on your own. There are so many ways to lovingly celebrate at this time and the Earth in all her ripening splendor is so very deserving of our attention! As part of my offering, and in service of this month of May, I offer you some rituals and pathways to connect with the flame of the Belfire, the sacred waters of the Beltane morning dew, and the wildness within us all.

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Season 1 - Episode 3: OSTARA

Blessings on this Spring Equinox, dear ones. For the Celtic wheel of the year, this celebration is sometimes referred to as Ostara. And in context for those that are listening from the future, we are currently experiencing a rather large tensing of the social fabric of our culture. As part of my offering into the cauldron of change and transformation we are experiencing, and in service of this Spring Equinox where the balance of light and dark is upon us, I offer you some pathways to your own inner resiliency via some visualizations and meditations.

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Season 1 - Episode 2: IMBOLC

May the blessings of Imbolc be upon you! Imbolc is the beautiful festival and celebration of awakening, fertility, birthing, and beginning. It is the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of the earth slowly awakening and of life-force stirring. I offer this episode as a way to explore the history and traditions of Imbolc and to connect with the fascinating, protective, loving, fierce, capable, and frankly incredible deity that is Brighid who is honored on this day. We will end with ritual, prayer and gentle meditation to honor this magical time of year.

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Season 1 - Episode 1: YULE

Happy Solstice, Good Yule to you, and welcome to the first episode of the podcast Animisma - All Things In-Spirited. I’m thrilled and deeply honored that you’re here. During this first season, we will follow The Celtic Wheel of the Year and this season is offered as a bridge towards reclaiming the beautiful indigenous wisdom of our Celtic ancestry. We launch this podcast on the 2019 Winter Solstice and the magnificent celebration of Yule, the 1st celebration of the year. Welcome to Animisma - All Things In-Spirited.

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Guest Podcasts

Tree Speech Podcast: Embracing Autumn

We are so excited to be entering into our fourth season with an exploration of this magical time of year, the Autumnal Equinox! Much gratitude to our guest, Heather Porter of Animisma podcast for her moving thoughts and insights regarding this time of year, and the benefits of sacred rot.

Heather is a writer, storyteller, and advisor.  She's been called an empath, a sensitive compass of compassion, and a 'Rosetta Stone' for the soul and was led to her work through a lifetime of translating the intersections of the ecological, spiritual, and scientific for others. Rooted in her Celtic ancestry, those who lived closely to the land, waters, and seasons, she lives as an animist and her work contemplates the myriad aspects of a sovereign life, seeking to reveal the wonders of the natural and the etheric in service of connection, reverence, and deep, honorable communion. Spirit, grace and a deep, unyielding love of the Earth are at the heart of all she does.

She has undertaken depth studies in animistic, shamanic, Celtic, and Eastern spiritual practices and holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science with Honors and a Master of Environmental Law.