Dear one -

We spend so much time and energy prepping ourselves to begin something. But while beginning something takes massive courage and varying amounts of desire, vision, and skill; I’m beginning to wonder if our hesitance is less about risk of failure and more about knowing that what we’ve begun, whatever intention we’ve set and portal we’ve opened, will inevitably challenge us, change us, demand that we step up and become more capable of stewarding the vision and receiving our desires.

I started my podcast because I ‘Saw’ a space of fallow Earth, a place worn bare through time and neglect, a place longing for a different kind of culture to sprout and be tended.

Some semi-conscious part of me wondered, what would it be like to light an old-way fire in that barren place and invite people around it with the technology we have in these days? To sow seeds through the air waves and see what takes root and grows?

When I lit that first virtual fire, something sparked. It was a podcast, yes. It was also a contract between me, that Vision, and whatever path would forge me into a good channel for the Vision.

I have no idea how long this contract is for or where the path will ultimately take me, but today, the day the 20th episode comes into the world, I want to honor a few of the lessons I had no idea were in the fine print:

1. Experience is shifting my lighting a fire to lighting a fire - unknowingly, I awoke within me an ancient role of fire keeper. There's our understanding of ourselves and the path we're on... and there's the way the path itself (and the people we meet on it) open our eyes to what we didn't yet recognize it (and ourselves) to be. I feel so deeply humbled, grateful, blessed.

2. A podcast about being more human will include more conversations about grief and loss than you might initially expect. Turns out, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

3. There’s so much wisdom and courage to be found in all my conversations with guests… and the ones with elders have a certain je ne sais quoi to them. Note to self: without bearing down too hard, or focusing too much, create space for that unknown quality to gently, slowly, in its time and way, reveal itself.

4. The Vision is right: this experiment has the potential to keep growing into a deeper, wider, richer ecosystem; a web of resources, community, ancestral and personal wisdom, and cultural benefit. My deepest prayer is my continual becoming as a good channel for that.

Today’s episode is with the lovely Amana Mayfield-Faulkner, a supportive sister and guide for women who are motivated to deepen their understanding of themselves.

Through her life, her work, and her own podcast (The Heart of the Soul - we also recorded an episode for her podcast where I’m the guest! I’ll let you know when that episode comes out), Amana is an explorer of pregnancy, birth, death, mothering, sociology, culture, nature, nursing, midwifery, reiki & mediumship… among other things.

You’ll feel Amana’s curious, courageous, open heart in this conversation which begins with an exploration of initiations (hers have come at times in the form of travel, the death of her first love at a young age, and then motherhood and child loss). And from there it meanders through archetypes, culture, and mediumship.

• We get curious about what it takes to get comfortable in the experiences that stretch us, that grow us, that are, by their very nature and design, uncomfortable.
• We wonder about safety and belonging and what it takes for our hunger for those to feel met.
• We weave our conversation through the cycles of life and death, through the risk and reward of rebirth, all to grieve and celebrate the magic of being human.

There is deep responsibility in opening a fire where people feel safe enough to share their stories and the wisdom they steward.

There is immense honor and tenderness in receiving those stories.

There is something redemptive about doing it all together.

​Check out today’s episode. Let me know what you think.

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And if you’d like to support the podcast and the growth of culture and conversations serving as good medicine for our wild, tender personal and collective hearts:

1. Please ‘follow’, ‘like’ or ‘subscribe’ where you listen so you stay up-to-date on all our conversations and help others find them, too.

2. share widely

3. consider joining the new Patreon community! You support helps me immensely and, for as little as $1/ month, you get access to monthly community gatherings and get to play a more interactive role in the growth of the podcast.

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With deep gratitude for you and for the desires we have and how they invite us to grow,

Kate

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P.S. We had our first call for Ancestral Songs and Stories of Scotland yesterday on ‘Power of the Word and Faery Lore’ and I teared up several times through the call it felt so good to sit in community (even on Zoom) and receive wisdom in the form of stories. Especially when those stories were so deeply connected to animistic and ancestral rememberings. It’s not too late to join - recordings are available for up to one year from yesterday. (Next week includes a bonus class, Intro to Scottish Gaelic to get a feel for the language in our mouths, and The Gaelic Song Tradition with Christine Primrose)

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P.P.S. Two opportunities, beyond listening to the podcast, to gather with me around the fire:

1. In-person - the Divine Love retreat at Shine Yoga in Winchester, VA on Sunday, June 4th (early bird price until May 31!). Gathering in ancestral ways around the fire and the theme of Divine Love.

2. Online - our monthly free podcast community gathering. Eventually these will be available for patrons only, but for now it’s a come-one-come-all affair. Tues, June 13th at 5:30pm ET. Reserve your spot here.

2923 Pine Spring Rd, Falls Church, VA 22042
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