Dear one -

No sign of Nessie, here at Loch Ness… but I "found" a new podcast episode!

When I was younger and traveling, I would drop into a deep observation mode - almost like I could disappear and merge myself with the culture and people of a place. It wasn’t inherently a bad thing - there’s a lot we can learn when we let ourselves become open curiosity, when we are willing to be unmade and remade.

I was also in a very different place in relationship with myself in those days. I was disconnected from my sense of center, suffered a lot from depression, and held myself (and others) with a lot of contempt.

When this trip began, I noticed those old travel patterns kick in. But I began noticing where those old ways felt more like a ‘under threat’ response of the social nervous system - fawning and fitting in.

I spent the first few days here in Scotland wondering where a more confident, connected, and caring me had gone. I couldn’t feel my own body in ways I haven’t experienced in a long time. My regular rituals felt hollow. It took a while and some conscious attending to land back in.

And part of that re-homing process was realizing I needed to explore a new way of traveling: one where I am still open and curious, still willing to be unmade and remade again; but also to take up space in my body and the world - one where I’m willing to be an outsider and be recognized as such so as not to self-abandon.

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Today on the podcast, I’m joined around the fire by Erik Eging - a PR and Communications specialist, photographer, and no stranger to medicine spaces; as well as a human now supporting this podcast on the backend. 

He shares his personal story of leaving a “high-demand” religion (or cult); what it looked like for him to discover he still needed some sort of spiritual meaning-making system; and how he moved into authorship of that for himself.

And I love this conversation for many reasons, but one is that there are so many small and large ways we’ve been taught to self-abandon, to find comfort in power-over dynamics (including ones where we give our power away and someone else is willing to take it). And so through his story, I think there are beautiful lessons here for all of us.

Whether you’re wondering where you go in your personal or professional (or travel) relationships;

whether you identify with having left a cult or other high-demand community;

whether you have concerns about the influx of conspirituality in wellness spaces and some of the power-over dynamics you see being perpetuated in spiritual and medicine spaces, or are not sure why some of those spaces don’t feel quite right;

whether you are hoping to become the kind of person who can help build a more just, power-with kind of world;

or have gone through some sort of initiation where your sense of certainty and security was lost and you had to find a new way forward…

​join us around this fire. There’s probably something here for you.

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Other things you’ll hear us dive into:

• the erasing and rewriting of our own histories;
• ancestral healing and not wanting to look back at the pain; 
• where our spirituality and anti-racism journeys can overlap and inform each other;
• certainty being fragile even though it feels like confidence;
• how do we recognize ‘truth’?;
• the real culprit isn’t the belief system but the lack of room for doubt;
• containment without rigidity;
• cultivating inner authority or authorship over life;
• the wounds of self-betrayal;
• how to recognize cult-like dynamics at play around us (and some of the varied and perhaps unexpected) places they can show up;
• when the Savior complex appears and how to stop taking, giving away, or accepting other’s power;

… and more.

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Dearest one - all of you is welcome here.

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with love,

Kate

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P.S. I’ll send out another email with more info, but the Living Sacred ’summit’ or series of conversations I feel profoundly excited and humbled to be a part of is live!

Next week, you can listen to a conversation I had with Jaime Lehner (guest from episode 3 on the podcast!) about how plant medicines have supported me in living life as ritual, embracing the sacredness of it all, and unlearning some of our societal programmings which keep us disconnected and hurting.

I’m excited to share this, as plants are quickly moving into the collective consciousness, changing our worldviews, and waking us up to another reality… and it can feel hard to find good information or know where to turn for solid, grounded experiences.

🌿How can we truly honor the plants and embody their wisdom? 

🌿How can we approach them with reverence and grow beyond our current perceptions of reality? 

🌿How can we live more in alignment with the truth that the plants reveal to us?

I explore these questions, as so do many other healers, visionaries and leaders who are living in relationship with the plants.

You can watch all these conversations in Living the Sacred: Weaving the Wisdom of Plant Medicines into Our Modern World.

They will be aired online September 20-22, 2023. And you can sign up for FREE here. 

May these conversations inspire us to reconsider the narratives we are living in, our inherent connection to nature, and where we are going as humans on this planet.

All with the wisdom & guidance of the plants.

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P.P.S. You’ll get to watch these conversations for free for 7 days. If you want more time, you may want to get the “All Access” (let them know I sent you by doing that here). Which gives you 1 year to watch them all for only $88. Purchases help subsidize production costs, support me through the affiliate link, and 20% of all proceeds will be donated to Amazon Frontlines. Amazon Frontlines is an organization that empowers indigenous on the ground in the Amazon to protect their lives, their traditions and their home. Check out all of their work on Instagram here!

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