Turning Season: News & Conversations on Our Adventure Toward a Life-Sustaining Society

I'll be honest with you: the "great unraveling" is as real as the "great turning." They've always been happening at the same time. The unraveling was already accelerating, and now (late 2024) to see a democratic election process choose a path of more, worse, faster harm to our planet and our fellow human and more-than-human beings? It's been... deeply discouraging. For many I know, it's been devastating.And at the same time - always at the same time - I feel so blessed to have had a conversation with Cynthia Jurs about this. We spoke about that devastation, and our bewilderment, and how we keep going. We also talk miracles, activism, practice, awakening, and so much more. Cynthia's life has been devoted to embodied, engaged, sacred activism for the healing and protection of Mother Earth for decades. She is a spiritual teacher who doesn't describe herself as one, and I love learning from her.Interviewing Cynthia with me in this conversation are Erin Geesaman Rabke and Carl Rabke, of Embodiment Matters. We talk about Cynthia's stunning new book, Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our WorldU.S. politics and the question: "Is this the flaming end of the patriarchy?"the interconnectedness of all lifecultural polarizationthe 4 sections of Cynthia's book: "answering the call," "hearing the cries of the world," "becoming a holy vessel," and "collective awakening"reactivity and activismpeacebuilding, and choosing not to fan the flames of blame, separation, and violencecomments from astrologers on this historical momentand Cynthia's profound experience in Greece at the Oracle of DelphiAs much as I enjoyed hearing everything Cynthia had to say on these topics, I valued hearing the way she spoke about it all. I hope you do too. May this conversation serve your healing and the healing of our world.Note: There are a number of times when Cynthia, Carl, Erin or I reference teachers and teachings, ideas and terms, that might not be familiar to you. (Many of them I've heard of for the first time in the last few years!) So, I've compiled some links with more info in the show notes. If you hear a name or a term and you're wondering who or what that is - or if you simply want to take an internet wander down some of our favorite paths related to indigenous wisdom, ecological belonging, spiritual growth, global healing, etc. - come to the show notes at turningseason.com/episode44 and find my bulleted list of teachers and terms that we mention in this conversation.You're invited to… Take Heart: Embodying the Great Turning | A 10-week course facilitated by Leilani Navar and Erin Geesaman Rabke, with special guests Cynthia Jurs, Francis Weller, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Lydia Violet HarutoonianThis series is for you if you're looking for helpful teachings and tools, a place for beauty and for grief, and a kind community. We'll be looking to Joanna Macy's teachings about the "Five Vows of the Great Turning" to help us orient, navigate, and stay heartened in these times, giving our lives to the Great Turning while also living in the Great Unraveling. We're so excited about it and we'd love for you to check it out if you're curious.More about Cynthia Jurs:Cynthia Jurs has immersed herself deeply in the study and practice of Buddhism for over three decades, annually spending time in solitary retreat and receiving teachings from many great masters. In 1994 she was given dharma transmission from her root teacher, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and became a Dharmacharya in the Order of Interbeing. In 2018 in recognition for her many years of study and practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and her devotion in carrying out the Earth Treasure Vases, she was recognized as an Honorary Lama at the root temple of Kushok Mangden Rinpoche, Tolu Tharling Gompa, in Nepal. Cynthia says that she holds these titles and dharma affiliations lightly. She shares that her true source of refuge and spiritual inspiration is Mother Earth; Gaia. Inspired by her thirty years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems, today Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma, connected to the Earth, in service to Gaia, deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous traditions, and teaching an embodied, engaged, sacred activism through meditation and prayer, ceremony and ritual, pilgrimage and council.About Turning Season Podcast:Serving up heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. This is a series of deep conversations with people who are rising to their own unique roles in this worldwide shift. This show is for every one of you who's aware of our multiple crises, feels your love for life on earth, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future.

A conversation between Leilani and Erin Geesaman Rabke about sustaining our tender hearts and our dedication to showing up for the web of life on Earth, through all the heartbreak, overwhelm, and discouragement that can happen when we care deeply about our world.We talk about taking beauty as ballast, turning to our grief as a guide, and attending to our bodies as sacred landscapes. We share the "five vows of the great turning," or the "five commitments of active hope," and how they help us orient, steer, stay steady, and keep wholeheartedly, imperfectly carrying on.Read more about our upcoming workshops on 3 Sundays in November: Beauty as Ballast, Grief as Guide, and Body as Sacred Land.You can join us for 1, 2, or all 3!Find all the other links mentioned in this episode on the show notes page: turningseason.com/episode43

"How is it that those individuals who are in the front line, in the first response, can bring that awareness, that connection to their own selves through their own nervous system, owning again a quality of spaciousness in their body?"My wonderful guest for this episode, Paula Ramírez, supports mental health in contexts of war and displacement. In this work, she has learned a lot about that process of reconnection and nervous system regulation, and about the spaciousness that can become accessible even in difficult situations.It's clear that Paula has cultivated her own spaciousness and presence, practicing what she has been teaching in humanitarian contexts around the world.Our conversation moved me deeply. Click Play to hear about:Paula's commitment to supporting the mental health of first responders in humanitarian aid contexts, and especially her dedication to introducing connection with the body as part of that mental health supportA powerful story about working with men digging graves in south Sudan, and what becomes possible when we slow down and become more presentHow all of us - whether in a conflict zone or in a place of currently more peace and privilege - can navigate the two extremes of being overwhelmed by intense emotion, or being disconnected from emotion. (Paula gives some beautiful guidance and tools during the conversation. I really enjoyed feeling the shift in myself as she spoke, and I think you will too.)Paula's own story, from growing up in Colombia in the 1980s when there was an intensification of armed conflict and drug trafficking, through health challenges and healing, and questions she had about violence and war, which led her to study anthropology, peacebuilding and conflict transformation, and Somatic ExperiencingI'm so happy to bring Paula's voice to you. There's a lot she's very clear about, in a powerfully helpful way - and she also invites me into the truth of how much we don't know. We don't know yet how to handle the situations humanity faces right now - and I invite you into that with us, into this conversation with a beautiful fellow human being in these times.Paula Ramírez Diazgranados is Co-Director of Emerge International, formerly called Breathe International, an organization which combines peacebuilding and mental health driven by the restoration of human resilience. Working with humanitarian teams deployed around the globe, with a focus in mindfulness and somatic (body-based) perspectives, Paula bridges traditional understandings of the human and more-than-human world with contemporary crisis work and trauma integration. This has brought her into work with organizations including the UN and the Tibetan Government in exile, supporting populations in contexts of war and displacement. Paula´s guiding vision is the embodied and universal dignity of all beings. Turning Season Podcast brings you heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. This is a series of deep conversations with people who are rising to their own unique roles in this worldwide shift. It's for every one of you who's aware of our multiple crises, feels your love for life on earth, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future.Show notes with links to connect with Paula: turningseason.com/episode42

My guest Ingrid Edstrom founded the "Accounting Alchemy Network," and in this episode, we talk accounting, and we talk alchemy. "Alchemy" as in transformation. Practical transformation, which of course is necessary in this great turning toward a life-sustaining society, along with transformation in the ways we think, and the ways we ask questions. These are necessary too.Listen in to hear us talk about how the accounting profession can change the world, Ingrid's journey with giving "rights of nature" to the land she calls home,how we change the way we think,finding your zone of genius in your work and playand more! It was great fun and so inspiring to talk with Ingrid. She has such a sharp and creative mind, and a powerful drive in her big heart.More about Ingrid:Ingrid Edstrom is a Certified Business Coach through the Woodard Institute, a Certified PQ Mental Fitness Coach through Positive Intelligence, and a certified Working Genius consultant. She is also working with her local chapter of the Pachamama Alliance and Oregon Water League to develop rights of nature for the Rogue River and surrounding local watershed, and working to use some of the education from that experience to develop rights of nature for the 2 acres she stewards where she grows most of her own food, including goats and chix.When Ingrid is not actively working to heal the world, she is usually playing Irish music, doing a Joe Dispenza meditation, or having a deep conversation about quantum physics & chaos magick. Ingrid Edstrom is a total nerd with a hungry mind and a passion for helping others be their best selves in service to our beautiful world. Her superpowers are manifestation and positive change, even (especially) when change is scary. She loves asking the big questions that confront people with their own personal freedom, and really enjoys developing collaborative relationships with people who are brilliant, grounded in spirituality, and also working to save the world. She is a founder of the Accounting Alchemy Network, volunteers as a course moderator for the Pachamama Alliance, and participates in several other org communities, such as YesWorld Jams, School for the Great Turning, New and Ancient Story, Humane Leadership Institute, and others.Show notes with links to connect with Ingrid: turningseason.com/episode41Fundraiser to support Oasis Organization's poultry farm at Nakivale Refugee Settlement - Every dollar will help this refugee-led project feed hungry children. They've survived displacement and we can help thrive in their new lives.

What a joy to introduce you to We Are the Great Turning, a new podcast series featuring kitchen-table conversations between Joanna Macy, in her 95th year of life, and her friend and student, activist Jess Serrante.Click Play to hear a brief visit between me and Jess about what's on her mind now that this extraordinary project has come out into the world, and then you'll hear the beautiful first episode of We Are the Great Turning, called Love and Loss.About We Are the Great Turning:We welcome you to the kitchen table of the legendary eco-spiritual teacher Joanna Macy, where we'll dive into what it takes to live with our hearts and integrity intact in this time of global crisis. You'll be guided into these conversations by Jess Serrante, a longtime activist and student of Joanna's. Together, we'll discover abiding wisdom that can help us stay joyful and energized as we work toward a more just and life-sustaining world.Episode 1 - Love and Loss:As Joanna Macy approaches the end of a long life dedicated to healing our imperiled planet, she begins the conversation with Jessica Serrante, her student and dear friend, “standing afresh with what it's like to live on Earth at this moment.” As we look into the face of the climate crisis, injustice, and war, difficult feelings arise; all are welcomed.You are invited to join them at Joanna's kitchen table, and invited into a deeper sense of your belonging and love for our world.In this episode:How to connect with the great possibilities that still exist for us even in these precarious timesJoanna reflects on her awakening of environmental consciousnessJess reflects on how meeting Joanna changed her lifeLove, laughter, heartbreak, and the Work That ReconnectsBonus Exercise: “Open Sentences”—a practice for partnersWe recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.comTurning Season Podcast brings you heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. Each episode, get to know the how, the why, and the heart of someone who is participating in the Great Turning in their own unique way. This show is for you if you're aware of our multiple crises, feel your love for life on earth, and care about cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future. Hosted by Leilani Navar, facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, acupuncturist, herbalist and dreamworker.turningseason.com

How to become an Earth Caretaker? One good starting place is to "get off your butt and get out in the woods," as Tim Corcoran has been known to say, and his young students love to quote. Hear about many other good starting places and ways to walk the path in this conversation. It's a fun and rich one, including Tim's own fascinating life story of connecting with nature and with Earth Caretaking peoples, closeness with animals, and 30 years of running Headwaters Outdoor School, where Tim teaches nature connection, wilderness skills, and earth philosophy.You'll hear about:The Earth Caretaker Way, a comprehensive new book written by Tim Corcoran and Julie BoettlerTim's story of finding the land that would become Headwaters Outdoor School (it's truly multidimensional)the diverse groups of young people who've come to HeadwatersTim's take on ancestors of place, and our biological ancestors who were Earth Caretakerswhy he believes humans are supposed to be here, and why he has hope right now.Turning Season Podcast brings you heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. Each episode invites you into conversation with someone who is participating in the Great Turning in their own unique way. You'll hear about what they do, why they do it, and how they're relating to these times we're in. This show is for you if you're aware of our multiple crises, feel your love for life on earth, and care about cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future. Hosted by Leilani Navar, facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, acupuncturist, herbalist and dreamworker.Today's conversation is with Tim Corcoran, who runs Headwaters Outdoor School in Mt. Shasta, California. Tim has been helping transform lives for 30 years, by bringing children and adults to the camp there, teaching nature awareness, wilderness skills, and earth philosophy. He's written a new book called The Earth Caretaker Way, co-written with Julie Boettler.Tim traces his own connection to Earth peoples philosophy to his Irish heritage, as taught to him by his uncle and grandfather. He knew at 6 years old that the woods were his home, and at seventeen he spent four months alone in the Canadian Wilderness practicing Earth living skills. Tim began a career teaching wildlife conservation in 1974. During this time, he learned how to communicate with the spirits of the animals he worked with, enhancing his abilities to connect on an intimate level with them.He has worked at the Alberta Game Farm in Alberta, Canada as an animal caretaker, the Crandon Park Zoo in Miami Florida as an animal relocation director, and Marine World Africa U.S.A. as a chimpanzee and elephant trainer. (You may have glimpsed Tim and his elephant in Star Wars, where he was a Tuskan raider on the back of his elephant, costumed as a bantha.) Tim co-founded the Native Animal Rescue in Santa Cruz, California, rescuing and releasing injured wildlife. He created Headwaters Outdoor School in Mount Shasta, California in 1992, to realize his lifelong vision of sharing what he has learned from nature, and to inspire people to discover their own personal relationship with nature. Tim teaches outdoor living skills, and Earth Philosophy to kids and adults.Tim is also an accomplished professional nature photographer and has published a series of nature photography books highlighting sacred places in nature. Tim has recently founded The Earth Caretaker Way Movement LLC, with the intention of uniting a global community of Earth Caretakers to save wild spaces, and create wildlife refuge within every environment, including urban settings. Tim lives with his wife, Jean, and their pack of dogs on an amazing refuge of wooded land in Mount Shasta, California where he runs Headwaters Outdoor School and The Earth Caretaker Way Movement.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode39

"I bow to Osprey in deepest respect and gratitude for her years of inspired activism and this brilliant book." - Joanna MacyOnce again, I agree wholeheartedly with Joanna Macy, this time about Osprey Orielle Lake and her new book, The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis. The book is packed with so much to learn from - stories, insights, strategies - and so is the conversation Osprey and I had.Click Play to hear us dive into:Osprey's experience working with indigenous communities, global leaders, systems thinkers, and climate justice activiststhe importance of nonviolent direct action, and the ways it is becoming increasingly dangerous - specifically for land defenders in Latin Americathe "time riddle" we're in: how do we change things as fast as possible, AND slow down enough to make the changes deep and lasting?the worldviews that need to be dismantled, and the worldviews that we need to revive and strengthen, if we're to have a life-enhancing societythe Kawsak Sacha, or Living Forest Declaration, a vision, a worldview, a strategy, a demand, by the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, in the Ecuadorian Amazonthe loss of identity and belonging we experience when we don't have a healthy connection to long-ago ancestors, who were in right relationship with the land and within the web of lifeplus more - and even then, just beginning to explore what Osprey shares in her book.Listen in, let me know what you think, and get a copy of The Story is in Our Bones for yourself and for someone else you know whose heart is with us in the Great Turning.Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), where she works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Free Non-ProliferationTreaty. Osprey's writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine and many other publications. Osprey holds an MA in Culture and Environmental Studies from Holy Names University in Oakland and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Coast Miwok lands.Learn more:Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) the Women Speak section of the WECAN website Kawsak Sacha: The Living Forest Declaration Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Global Alliance for the Rights of NatureShow notes: turningseason.com/episode38.

Alpha Lo caught my attention when I heard him say, "All we have to do is…" and then lay out a sweeping plan for how California can effectively restore rain, prevent both wildfires and floods, and regenerate the water cycle. He explained how we could reverse the negative effects on the water cycle caused by how we've built our cities, treated our forests, and run our agriculture.This plan clearly would take many years, and plenty of political will and resources, but he said, "All we have to do…" I loved that, because he helped me see that it's all possible. As he described it, I could see it happening. With a background in physics, and experience working in different permaculture farms and eco-restoration projects, Alpha is now in the water restoration field. He's been researching the connection of climate, water and ecology, and publishes the Climate Water Project newsletter and podcast. He co-founded a network of water land managers, watershed restorers, and people interested in understanding the connection of water, climate and ecology. He is the co-author and editor of the "Open Collaboration Encyclopedia," and has utilized those collaborative skillsets in emerging a water network.Alpha has opened my eyes to how crucial the way we handle water is to addressing our ecological and climate emergencies. It's at least as important as carbon - but, as he explains in this conversation, water is getting less attention because the science on water hasn't been made as clear to the public as the science on carbon. So, I hope that after you listen you'll join us in spreading the word, and bringing water into your conversations about climate.In this conversation, you'll hear about:how pavement, channelization of rivers, and cutting down trees lead to less rain, and more vulnerability to drought and firehow improving soil and vegetation help prevent floods, with examples from California and Australiahow animals are key players in the "water web" - from wildebeest to dung beetles to wolvesthe role regenerative water practices play (or might play) in local and global coolingpractical changes we can make in small homes and gardens, and on large areas of land - like permeable pavement, curb cuts, swales, terraces, greywater systems, and (of course!) bringing back beaverswhy there are hundreds of climate scientists working on the "small water cycle," but there's very little public awareness and policy discussion around itthe idea of international collaboration in "precipitation recycling watershed networks," because rivers and rain cross all political bordersand one of my topics of greatest fascination: the insights we can get from seeing the Earth as a body, and our bodies as landscapesThis episode is rich with information and I'm excited to hear what sparks your curiosity, your hands-on actions, your conversations. Visit the shownotes at turningseason.com/episode37 for links to:Alpha Lo's newsletter, podcast, and networkthe work of the scientists he mentionsand to contact me or subscribe to email updates on new Turning Season episodes. Thanks for being here, and for all the ways you play your part in the Great Turning. Show notes: turningseason.com/episode37Music by East Forest

Our bodies are just like the rest of the living world: coursing with healing, life-affirming intelligence and capacity; and suffering the effects of being out of balance. The body is one setting for what Joanna Macy called "the three stories of our time": Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning. We've explored these stories many times on this podcast. In this episode, I talk with Lydia Violet Harutoonian about how I see all three stories playing out in the landscape of the human body, and in the field of medicine.Lydia is the founder and director of School for the Great Turning, a music maker, and a longtime, dedicated student and friend of Joanna Macy. She's a friend, comrade, and inspiration to me. You'll get to hear some of her potent way of articulating things during this conversation - but in this episode, I'm the guest, and she's the interviewer. We talk about The Great Turning in relation to illness and healing, through my explorations as a Chinese Medicine practitioner and a lover of Deep Ecology.Click Play now to hear us get into:how Deep Ecology and Traditional Chinese Medicine are natural companions that help us understand human beings, and the system of Life on Earthemotions as key to both personal health and collective well-beingthe energy it takes to repress emotions about what's going on the world, the toll that takes on our health, and the energy that's liberated when we acknowledge the truth about our experiencehow Qi flows through the landscape of the body like water in riverswhat happens when we relate to our bodies with a Business as Usual mindset, how illness is like a Great Unraveling, and how the body is always moving toward a Great Turningthe life-honoring changes happening in medicine todaythinking about medical treatment holistically, and seeking gentler, more life-honoring choicesplus a few approaches to well-being that are part of the Great Turning, like acupuncture, self-massage with acupressure, therapeutic movement, and caring for our microbiomes… and have a good time talking about it all!I love hanging out with Lydia, I love talking about this stuff, and I hope you'll have fun listening to this one. I'd love to hear what you think, too! Please share your reflections with me by commenting on social media, or replying to my emails (you can subscribe to my twice-a-month-or-so emails at turningseason.com).This conversation was part of The Great Turning Summit, held online on June 17, 2023. It was such a heartening day, full of learning and music from a diverse range of activists, visionaries, artists, and elders. You can purchase access to the recordings of this event through the link in the show notes, at turningseason.com/episode36.You'll also find links to:Rupa Marya and Raj Patel's book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injusticethe online program I host called Healing Season, which is all about you understanding and taking care of yourself, especially the connections between your physical and emotional health, and being able to express your love and care for our world, guided by the wisdom of Chinese Medicine and deep ecologyand a video showing the self-acupressure point Large Intestine 4, which I demonstrated during this conversation (originally broadcast with video at the Great Turning Summit) About the guest:It's me this time! Your usual host, Leilani Wong Navar. I have a clinical practice where I offer acupuncture and herbal medicine, functional medicine, and dreamwork. With groups, I facilitate the Work that Reconnects and teach practical wisdom from Chinese Medicine. Lydia and I work together at School for the Great Turning, where I serve as Assistant Director. I attended Evergreen State College, where I earned a BA with a focus on Political Economy and Holistic Health. My formal Chinese Medicine training was through the National University of Natural Medicine, where I graduated with a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine. I was born into Chinese and Jewish families, and see myself as carrying on my Chinese ancestors' holistic, poetic medical science, and my Jewish ancestors' dedication to asking big questions. I'm a mom of two, and as my kids grow up, I'm excited to be getting to support their emergence into their own ideas and passions, and start to see the ways the Great Turning moves through them too.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode36

Ready for a dose of Active Hope? Listen to Gloire Mudekuza, a young refugee, a social entrepreneur, a climate activist and a mentor in Uganda, making an impact in the refugee community. He is passionate about regenerative agriculture, climate action, and entrepreneurship. He is the founder and director of Plethora Social Initiative, a refugee-led organization that works to develop the inner potential and capacities of refugees in Nakivale Refugee settlement and their host community, developing a regenerative culture and building a resilient local community.This conversation with Gloire was part of the Great Turning Summit, a daylong online event that we at School for the Great Turning hosted a couple weeks ago, on June 17. We got to hear from a diverse range of activists, visionaries, artists, and elders speaking about how they're participating in the movement for life on this planet. We talked about how we're collectively making a pivot toward a livable future, in collaboration with millions of people and the more-than-human world, all vying for life.As part of the Summit, I had the opportunity to speak about The Great Turning in the intimate landscapes - the ecosystems - of our own bodies, and what Chinese Medicine and Deep Ecology teach us about illness and healing. I also hosted a panel on parenting during the Great Turning, and this conversation with Gloire Mudekuza. Click Play now to hear about:Gloire's arrival in Nakivale Refugee Settlement 6 years ago, having fled from his original home in the Democratic Republic of Congohis choice to focus on helping his community, and the shift from identifying as a victim to identifying as a survivorlocal farming, impacts of climate change, and the value of learning permacultureparticipating in the Gigaton Challenge to reduce carbon emissions and create green jobs for youth in Nakivale Refugee Settlement and the host communitieshow he sees the Great Turning happening now, particularly in terms of leadership - and what the Great Turning means to himplus more!This conversation was powerful for me, and for many who attended the Summit. I hope you too enjoy it, learn from it, and feel inspired in your own way.Turning Season Podcast is dedicated to offering regular doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human, bringing you deep conversations with people who are rising to their own unique roles in this worldwide movement.  This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on earth, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future.Learn more about and support Plethora Social Initiative and sign up for email updates here: turningseason.com/episode35

In this planet-wide, diverse movement we can call The Great Turning, one of the threads I'm personally following is medicine. I'm all in for the shift to a life-honoring, life-sustaining approach to understanding illness, treating disease, and promoting health and healing. Ruby Daniels is part of this shift, too, growing medicinal herbs and making botanical medicines at her home in West Virginia.I connected with Ruby because she's on the board of United Plant Savers. I heard her talking about protecting wild ginseng, and about her mission to change the narrative of African American relationships to woodland botanicals, and educate about the herbal traditions of African Americans, which have been practiced since the time of slavery.Ruby is the founder of Creasy Jane's Herbal Remedies. She comes from a creative and inventive family who were enslaved in Virginia and moved to the Southern coalfields of West Virginia to build a new life after emancipation. Ruby refers to her heritage as “Afro-lachian.” She spent many childhood summers in the mountains of Raleigh County, West Virginia, with her great aunt, Ruby, her grandmother, and other wise women of the community, learning about herbal traditions, God, and the plants of the mountains. After earning her Master's of Science in Herbal Therapeutics, she returned to West Virginia, where she runs Creasy Jane's, named after her great-grandmother, Creasy Jane Pack. Creasy Jane's offers custom-made herbal teas and tinctures, herbal soaps, and other topical herbal remedies. All her herbal products are formulated with a combination of Appalachian herbal traditional remedies, science and research and spirit.Listen in to our conversation to hear about:Ruby's research into how slaves in the region used herbal medicineher experiences as a Black woman in her master's degree program and in the business of herbal medicineRuby's family's history and "permaculture" lifestyle after emancipationher town's history, and herbal medicines for today's coal mining-related illnessesprotecting wild ginsengthe forest and garden botanicals she works withand more.I'm so grateful for the chance to hear from Ruby, to learn from her and to get these glimpses of how the Great Turning is moving through her in multiple ways, from making sure history is remembered to helping local coal miners with their lung health, from bringing her perspective into academic and workplace conversations to cultivating garden food and herbs. Enjoy this conversation with Ruby, and be sure to check out Creasy Jane's online shop, the research Ruby talks about, and historical photos of Ruby's family and recent photos from her garden. Links and photos are in the show notes: https://turningseason.com/episode34Register for the (free!) Great Turning Summit: https://programs.schoolforthegreatturning.com/gtsummit

How about these goals: Avoid human extinction Cultivate healthy economies of living systems at local landscape, continental and planetary scales Emerge into these systems on the other side of whatever crises and collapse(s) are aheadWhat would that take?Joe Brewer has dedicated his life to this question, and to a "living laboratory" of bioregional regeneration and community collaboration. He is the founder of Earth Regenerators and co-founder of the newly established Design School for Regenerating Earth.I have learned so much from Joe. He's been a source of information, inspiration, techniques and strategies, and also the reason I've found many other people I'm now so grateful to be connected with (including Charles Upton, whom you heard from in Episode 21). Joe gave me a big grin and two thumbs up when I said that I frame these conversations in the language of Joanna Macy, so we have that in common. His roots of study spread wide in many other directions, though: He's a complexity researcher and transdisciplinary scholar who has studied cultural evolution, physics, atmospheric sciences, and cognitive linguistics, among other things. Joe is also a father, and someone who is trying to embody the pathway to Earth Regeneration. I know through community photos and stories that he's out there digging swales and planting trees, and participating actively in all the realities of community cooperation.I've been looking forward to having a conversation with Joe Brewer for a long time, and I'm excited to share it with you now.Click Play now to dive into:working for regeneration on the scale of larger landscapes, even if we live in cities (how did water move through this bioregion before these cities existed?) in thinking about sustainability, how much depends on the regenerative capacity of the land having children, being with children, and being there for children, in these times (I loved this: "children are such a profound source of human emotional regeneration") the tapestry of local projects being woven together in the High Andes Tropical Dry Forest ecosystem of Barichara, Colombia - a living laboratory for a bioregional-scale regenerative economy  the human species being in ecological overshoot, what that probably means about the future, and what Joe is "actively hopeful" for, in light of that how to have effective, cooperative groups - both the knowledge about how to do that, and the actual practice of doing it and Joe's words of advice on following your heart, and being ready for people to be confusedI continue to learn so much from Joe and the Earth Regenerators community. Maybe for some of you listening this will also be a doorway into what's next for you, in your journey toward embodying life-sustaining, life-honoring, regenerative ways to live in the web of Life.Come to the show notes for links to connect with Joe Brewer, check out the Design School for Regenerating Earth, and learn about other topics we touched on: turningseason.com/episode33

"Somehow, we were only touching the symptoms, whether it's poaching, whether it's the destruction of forests, or unsustainable development." So said Radhika Bhagat about her 12+ years of conservation work with leading organizations in India, as she explained to me why she founded the Sacred Earth Trust. Radhika now focuses on reviving spiritual connection to the Earth, as well as scientific research and education, in her work to protect India's thousands of Sacred Groves.This conversation was wide-reaching, and once again I am so heartened and inspired to connect with someone who's reflecting deeply on how to relate to both the Great Unraveling and the Great Turning – and who is enacting her Active Hope every day. I feel an especially strong resonance with Radhika and what she's doing for Life on Earth, and I'm looking forward to hearing what comes up for you as you listen.Click Play now to hear us explore:sitting with our pain as a teacher, and letting it move us to change the things we cannot acceptRadhika's experience working for a leading conservation NGO in India, and why she changed focus to reviving spiritual connection with the Earthwhat Sacred Groves arehow Sacred Earth Trust has approached learning about Sacred Grovesand why it's so important to protect both these groves, AND the belief systems that have kept them alive until nowhow Radhika has seen culture change in India since her teenage years, and what might revive a perspective that all life is sacred, in a modern contextwhy a two-pronged approach, speaking to both science and spirituality, is essentialand stories: change on the "mythic" level of human society's sense of itself; stories from indigenous protectors of sacred groves in India; and Radhika's reflections on the Three Stories of Our Time (Business as Usual, The Great Unraveling, and The Great Turning)plus redefining "development" to include a more comprehensive experience of life, and more.Enjoy, please share what you think about all this, and if you know anyone else who would appreciate this conversation with Radhika, please send them the link.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode32Music by East Forest

This Full Moon, a new deep conversation with someone rising to her own unique role in The Great Turning - the role only she can play, coming about through what she loves, what breaks her heart, her gifts, her circumstances, her stories. Today, meet Fernanda Lenz, an educator, facilitator, and visual documentarian in São Paolo, Brazil.Listen in to see what resonates with you about how she's relating to this time of ecological and humanitarian crises, influenced by her longtime immersion in Tibetan Buddhism and Deep Ecology. You might be inspired, or hear something that helps you recognize what's true for you, helps you find your role in these times, or helps you keep going in the role you're already playing. Or maybe you'll find yourself sitting with a really good new question.Click Play to hear us talk about:the inner world, and the subtle part of us that carries on beyond our lifetimes in these bodiestaking the small actions that can be felt more deeply than seemingly bigger, more showy actionsfacilitating the Work that Reconnects with humanitarian aid volunteers and with refugeeswhat Fernanda did when she encountered a beach covered for miles with trash carried downriverand the worldview of "interdependence."Fernanda teaches classes in Deep Ecology that weave her Tibetan Buddhist philosophy heritage into Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects. She brings an embodied learning approach that emphasizes empathic connection to our living Earth, transforming apathy and grief into collaborative action.She started her career as a photographer, after graduating from the International Center of Photography in New York City in 2013. She has produced documentary work with indigenous peoples in Brazil, documented elephants in Tanzania, and made pilgrimages with her brother Lama Michel Rinpoche and Guru Lama Gangchen Rinpoche to Nepal, Tibet and Indonesia. Coming eye to eye with all of these beings and life forms, she aims to communicate our intrinsic connection with our planetary family, portraying both its strength and fragility.Connect with Fernanda, learn more about the practice of Tonglen, check out Joanna Macy's book World as Lover, World as Self, and subscribe to our newsletter at: turningseason.com/episode31

News roundup of evidence of The Great Turning, for this month's New Moon:The Mother Tree project in British ColumbiaTribes and Natures Defenders in the Philippinesand Indigenous leadership on climate change in the Arctic (Native Movement, Indigenous Climate Action, Native Conservancy, as shared recently by Bioneers)Turning Season Podcast is your regular dose of active hope, here with news and deep conversations with people following the thread of their own storyline in this adventure we're all weaving toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human in Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for the web of life, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of living that we can believe in, making a life-honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future. This New Moon episode is a very quick one. Since July of last year, on New Moons, I've been releasing short 10-15 minute episodes sharing news from each dimension of the great turning: Holding Actions; Life-Sustaining Systems; and Shifts in Consciousness.I'm really enjoying gathering up all this evidence of the Great Turning in action. And I'm going to keep doing that. But after this one, I'll be sharing that on the New Moons by email newsletter. For the podcast, I'm returning to releasing only the deep conversation episodes, every Full Moon, where we get to really understand the work someone is doing in the world, plus what's happening in their mind and heart around the Great Turning and their personal role in it. This decision basically comes down to my own personal sustainability. I love this podcast. I love connecting with all of you listening. And I love all the other things I'm doing. Mothering is at the top of that list, and I'm running a fuller acupuncture and dreamwork practice than I did in the past, and now working with the School for the Great Turning to support all the incredible online and in-person programming provided there.All while I also want to make more, not less, time and space for all the fun and the challenges of my family, community, and bioregion. So that's the plan: New Moon newsletter, Full Moon episodes. The newsletter will include a roundup of Great Turning news, along with links to other things I've come across that month that I've found heartening or inspiring, or have made me ask new questions, plus maybe a meme or two that made me cry-laugh.Click Play to listen, and subscribe to the newsletter at turningseason.com, Come back for the upcoming Full Moon episodes with guests from Brazil, Utah, and India. So excited to share these with you. Thanks for being here, and for all the ways you play your part.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode30Music by East Forest.

I guess I was believing some "bright green fairytales" myself - because the truths in Bright Green Lies burst a few bubbles in my mind. In a tiny nutshell: Solar, wind, hydro, and recycling do worse than not solve our problems. They continue the harms of industrial society, and divert the attention of people who want to address our ecological crisis away from what matters most.This book intensified some of my biggest personal questions, especially about relinquishment, and my ongoing participation in destructive ways of life.So I was prepared to feel the weight of all this when I spoke with Max Wilbert, one of the co-authors of Bright Green Lies.Instead, I felt lighter. I felt heartened. I felt grateful. Once again, I am reminded, there's nothing like connecting with someone who's bringing their whole mind, heart, and activist body to The Great Turning. Max is a community organizer, writer, photographer, and wilderness guide, living in rural Oregon with his family. He has been part of grassroots political work for 20 years.He dove right in with me to: what he loves about being alivewhat's breaking his hearthis take on the "Business as Usual" story, emphasizing the short-term advantages gained by those who are willing to desecrate the living Earth and oppress other peoplehis background in labor activism, and how we've come further now than simply wanting more just distribution of industrial measures of economic wealththe cautionary tale of the insatiable spirit of Wetiko, or Windigo (as described in the books Columbus and Other Cannibals, and Braiding Sweetgrass, among others), and the possibility of co-creating different culture by telling different storieshow it's not that easy or obvious to relinquish the ecocidal aspects of the lifestyles we currently enjoy - and how social change has always been messythe campaign to protect the Nevada area known in English as Thacker Pass, and in Paiute as Peehee Mu'huh, from becoming an open pit lithium minelooking around wherever you are to find something worth fighting forand a future we can't imagine yet, knowing we can be creative about how we transform.I have so much appreciation for the work Max is doing in the world, and deep gratitude for this wide-ranging conversation. Hit Play now, and after you listen, come to the show notes for links to the books we mention, more about protecting Thacker Pass / Peehee Mu'huh, and great resources from Max. Let's carry the weight together, and keep enacting our active hope.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode29

Here at the new beginning marked by the Lunar New Year, come back with me to the beginning of Turning Season Podcast, for what is still one of my favorite conversations yet, with dreamworker, beekeeper, and new mother, Ariella Daly.A warm hello to all of you who've started listening since this show was born. I know not everyone has gone back to Episode 1 - so please join me in enjoying this rich conversation. If you've heard it before, listen again and let me know what strikes you this time!We can each be guided by what we love, and by what breaks our hearts. Ariella Daly's heart is with the bees.If you've listened to The Dreamers' Den series, you heard Ariella in Episode 31, speaking about dream mirroring, bee shamanism, and the dreamweave of the earth.She joined me again in Autumn 2021 to kick off Turning Season Podcast, opening her heart about how she relates to this time of ecological crisis and possibility, humans as a part of nature, and teaching natural beekeeping.Click Play to hear us talk about:the 3 stories of our time -- Business as Usual, The Great Unravelling, and The Great Turning -- and how these three stories are playing out for bees, and for beekeepers.the differences between conventional beekeeping, natural beekeeping, and other ways of being with the beesthe "alarm bell" bees have been ringing, with their deaths and "colony collapse," and what we can dobees on almond trees and bees on city rooftopswhat it feels like to bring a child into the world while feeling great love for life on Earth, and going through times of ecological apathy and dreadand looking through multiple lenses to realize there are no simple answers, so we focus less on policing each other or exiting a destructive system, and more on nourishing new ways of lifeYou'll hear the voice of Ariella's baby, too (6 months old at the time of this conversation), and hear her get distracted by the beauty of leaves outside the window. I love those moments, because no matter what else we're focused on, parenthood and trees in the wind are present too, all the time.Subscribe to Turning Season Podcast to get every dose of active hope. Returning to this conversation now in February 2023, I'm thrilled by how this expanded podcast has grown and is fulfilling the original vision: bringing you into conversation with healers, changemakers, visionaries, wisdom-keepers, and all kinds of people doing the on-the-ground work of The Great Turning.Show notes and resources: turningseason.com/episode28Music by East Forest

Which is easier to feel in your own mind and body:  The sense of living in The Great Turning (aka, our transition toward a life-sustaining way of being human on earth), or the feeling of "Business as Usual," a way of being human that values being productive, consuming, succeeding, and never feeling like you've done enough or have enough? My guest in today's Full Moon episode, Nisha Mody, explores with me how these different stories live in our bodies and minds, and play out in our lives. She brings her experience as a feminist healing coach, writer and speaker.  In her work, Nisha explores the intersection of anti-oppression, intergenerational healing and relationship. She helps people sit with their feelings, claim their agency, and relate to the world with care. Click Play now to hear us talk about: relational vs. transactional connections (with other people, our own bodies, the Earth) some of the mindsets and the medicines her parents brought with them when they immigrated from Indiafeeling like a failure, and mixing up your "work" with your "worth"your healing story as a massive, epic love story... ...and how that doesn't mean it only includes loving, loveable moments; just like The Great Turning, which is an adventure story, full of positive change but also peril and heartbreak and lots more.  I have very much enjoyed getting to know Nisha over the last year and a half or so. I find her writing and coaching to be such a heartening example of The Great Turning taking place within someone in their own unique way.  I especially appreciate that even though she doesn't present her work as being particularly about ecology, or Nature, or Earth-connection, she brings her own connection with the Earth to her work, and supports clients in tending to theirs.Of course, I celebrate each and every one of us who does describe our work in terms of ecology and Earth-love - but I am also excited to see this sense of interconnection and reciprocity with the rest of the living Earth woven into all kinds of work and ways of life.  And bonus: In one of Nisha's former careers, she was a librarian, so she has great book recommendations. You can find the books she mentioned in our conversation and others she recommends in the show notes at turningseason.com/episode27. You'll also find links there to Nisha's website and Instagram. If you're listening to this episode close to the date it comes out, you still have time to sign up for a free online workshop I'm hosting on Tuesday, January 10th called: Keep it Moving: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and Deep Ecology about your Emotions, Your Health, and the State of our World.  Come to turningseason.com/moving to sign up to attend live, or get access to the recording.  I'll share with you a Chinese Medicine-inspired way of looking at stress and stress relief that might be new to you, explain how different emotions affect the body differently, and how our physical health also affects our emotions, plus teach you a couple of practical techniques from self-acupressure massage and qigong for moving the stagnation caused by emotional stress. We'll also do a little bit of the Work that Reconnects and explore how Joanna Macy and a Deep Ecology perspective teach us how our emotions about what's happening in the world can help us serve and make change - how our human emotions might be a crucial way that life on earth sustains itself.  Sign up at turningseason.com/moving to attend live or have access to the recording.Turning Season Podcast is here to bring you regular doses of Active Hope, through news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring, present, even in the face of an uncertain future.  Hosted by me, Leilani Navar. I facilitate the Work that Reconnects, I practice acupuncture and dreamwork, and I believe in the power of conversation. This podcast is one way The Great Turning happens through me. Thank you for being here. Show notes: turningseason.com/episode27

Click Play for 13 minutes of Active Hope to hearten you today, in the latest news episode of Turning Season Podcast. Hear about:the work of a young refugee in Uganda named Irenge Mudekuza Gloire, founder of Plethora Social Initiative, teaching permaculture and regenerative agriculture to fellow refugees and host communitiesFossil Free Research campaigns to get universities to break ties with oil and gas companies - and never let them fund research on climate, energy, or environmental studiesand the Declaration of Revolutionary Love, written by civil rights leader and visionary Valarie KaurTurning Season Podcast is here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.Hosted by Leilani Navar, acupuncturist, dreamworker, and facilitator of the Work that Reconnects.Free workshop January 10: Keeping it Moving: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and Deep Ecology on Your Emotions, Your Health, and the State of Our WorldShow notes: turningseason.com/episode26

It can be hard enough to find your "purpose" in the best of times - and it's a whole other level of challenging when you're reckoning with the prospect of ecological and societal breakdown. My interviewee for this Full Moon episode, Gwyneth Jones, describes herself as a "Deep Adaptation Coach," serving as a life coach for people who are aware of our collective predicament. She's rising to her role in the Great Turning also as a writer, a gardener, a teacher of her native language, Welsh, and a connector, having one-on-one conversations with people around the world in her interview series, "The Story Anew."Click Play to enjoy Gwyneth's company with me and hear us talk about:what "Deep Adaptation" is, and the 4 R's of Resilience, Relinquishment, Restoration, and Reconciliationthe stories we tell about what's happening in our world right now shifts in consciousness Gwyneth has noticed at home in Wales, and in conversations with people from the Philippines to the Democratic Republic of the Congohelping people tap into a feeling of calling, duty or mission (and how it's more than okay to have more than one, and have your work be hard to describe!)and teaching the Welsh language in connection with decolonization, as people reconnect with nature-loving ancestral cultures in the British Isles.I read the "Deep Adaptation" paper myself for the first time early this year, and it's had a profound effect on me. Gwyneth is someone who has integrated these considerations into her personal and professional life, and she remains so full of vitality and love. I'm very happy to be connected with her as we all meet these times together. Enjoy the conversation.Thanks for listening to Turning Season Podcast, your regular dose of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future. Hosted by Leilani Navar, a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, an acupuncturist and dreamworker, and a believer in the power of conversation.Show notes with links to connect with Gwyneth, hear the TED Talk she mentions, and learn more about Deep Adaptation and connect with community: turningseason.com/episode25Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects

Listen in for today's dose of Active Hope, in the latest news episode of Turning Season Podcast, covering:words from one of the courageous Iranian women protesting in Iran, about seeing The Great Turning in process, and how the type of practices we do in the Work that Reconnects have impacted herindigenous fire stewardship returning to forests in Minnesota in a collaboration between the Fond du Lac Band (a Chippewa / Anishinaabe band) and the Cloquet Forestry Centerand Robin Wall Kimmerer continuing to foster the shift in consciousness toward a renewed relationship of love and reciprocity with the living EarthTurning Season Podcast is here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future. Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode24

When I heard from Bioneers about a new children's book about the story of Thanksgiving, written by Native authors, complete with curricula for elementary school students – I signed up for their presentation right away. Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with two of the authors, Alexis Bunten and Anthony Perry.If you too have wanted to share a more accurate, more complete story of Thanksgiving with children - appropriate for their ages - you're going to love Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story. It's co-written by three Native authors, including Danielle Greendeer, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Citizen, Hawk Clan.The story is told from the perspective of Corn (Weeâchumun), and emphasizes human relationship with the plants and animals who feed us, and the generosity and care we can show by feeding each other.(And, my dreamers and dreamworkers will love this: Weeâchumun sends dreams to the First Peoples, urging them to help the hungry newcomers.)To me, the Great Turning toward a life sustaining society requires us to take a deep look at our history. Especially for those of us without direct access to the wisdom of our indigenous ancestors, it requires learning from more life-sustaining societies, past and present. As a mother of elementary school aged children, I relate to the authors' perspective that the stories we tell young children shape their views of themselves and the world around them. This means we can participate in the "shift in consciousness" dimension of the Great Turning by sharing books like Keepunumuk with our kids.Click Play now to hear me, Alexis, and Tony explore:how the mainstream Thanksgiving story landed with Tony and Alexis when they were childrenways we can decolonize and indigenize our own Thanksgiving celebrationsthe cultural shift toward recognizing and respecting the Indigenous peoples of North Americathe authors' choices about gently mentioning the history of colonization, pandemic and genocide among Native American people, before and after the first Thanksgivingcontemporary food issues, including the challenges and the possibilities around reconnecting with what we eatand curriculum resources for children in elementary through high schoolI loved hearing the care that both Alexis and Tony have for children and families of all backgrounds, as together we face the challenges of these times. I'm grateful they've written this book, and hopeful it will nurture a deeper understanding of our history, and our interconnection with the life that feeds us, and with one another.Show notes with links to more resources, and to connect with Alexis and Tony: turningseason.com/episode23Healing Season: leilaninavar.com/healingseason***Turning Season Podcast brings you regular doses of Active Hope in The Great Turning, our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. Every Full Moon, we share a deep conversation with people playing their own unique part in this shift. On the New Moons, we share brief, heartening news stories. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.Turning Season is hosted by Leilani Navar, a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, an acupuncturist and dreamworker, and a believer in the power of conversation.Music by East Forest.turningseason.com

Listen in for your dose of Active Hope in today's news episode of Turning Season Podcast, here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future. In today's quick episode: the movement to grant the "right to repair" our electronic devices, plus why we throw away and replace them so quicklyintroducing the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Western Mining Action Network, and the Climate Justice Allianceand sponge cities: what they are, why they matter, and a few examples of cities around the world shifting toward sponginess Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode22 Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

How much power do you think you have to affect rainfall, or to influence how vulnerable a landscape is to wildfire? Do we have any agency in our situation of "running out of water"? Until recently, I didn't think those things were in our hands at all. I've been excited to learn from water experts devoted to regenerative practices that together, people can powerfully impact all of these things.For this month's Full Moon episode, I spoke with Charles Upton, a land restoration consultant with Oso Eco working to leverage natural systems to rehydrate watersheds, regenerate soil, and ensure the long term vitality of human communities. He became fascinated by water while climbing in the Middle East, and then spent years studying water in a master's degree program, and on the ground, learning the traditional water wisdom of indigenous desert peoples. He continues to put theory into action, in California, Colombia, and beyond.Click Play now to hear us talk about:how working with water empowers you to do something good, right now, right where you arehow we've dehydrated our landscapes, and how we can fix that (plus, how this impacts rainfall, and vulnerability to catastrophic fires)Charles' biggest takeaway from his time spent with local people in desert landscapes like Rajasthan, India and the Arabian Peninsulanew ways to approach land management in California, in relationship with indigenous peoples and traditional ecological knowledgehow cities in deserts, even with big populations, could be more self-sufficient with watersome of the practical ways to regenerate soil, and to slow water flow, sink it into the ground, and spread itand the importance of human relationships, in cultivating a better relationship with waterThis is truly an on-the-ground example of The Great Turning in action. To connect and learn more, find all the links through the show notes: turningseason.com/episode21Ready to find balance in your personal health, how you relate to your pain for the world and your role in The Great Turning? Interested in Chinese Medicine's wisdom about how our emotions and physical health relate? Check out the 12-week small group journey I'm hosting, beginning in January: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

Click Play for your dose of Active Hope in today's news episode of Turning Season Podcast, here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future. In today's quick episode: an agreement between indigenous organizations and the government of Ecuador for a moratorium on new oil extraction and miningthe 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative, bringing large-scale educational and financial support to regenerative landscape projects around the worldand protecting Thacker Pass, an area of Northern Nevada, sacred to the Paiute and Shoshone people, from an open-pit lithium mine (plus the shift in consciousness this invites us to make about "green" technology) Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode20Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

I know Sinéad Cullen is not alone in once feeling inadequate for not being a fists-in-the-air, protest-in-the-streets kind of activist. For not taking a bold stand in that dimension of The Great Turning we call "Holding Actions." I also know she's not alone - and many of you listening will relate - in being deeply inspired by spontaneous creative expression, by powerful shifts in perspective, and by creative new design solutions. An architect, visual artist, and Movement Medicine teacher, Sinéad is deeply engaged in the other two dimensions of The Great Turning: "Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes," and "Shifts in Consciousness." Click Play now to hear us talk about: shifting from a "linear economy" way of designing buildings toward structures (and art!) that are "designed for disassembly" plus why sometimes people don't like that ideagetting lost and coming home through creativitytraveling the spiral of the Work that Reconnects through movement and visual artcreative expression as the bridge between hopelessness and possibilitysolutions that emerge from slowing down, and valuing diverse perspectivesand Sinéad dreaming up a new chapter in her life that brings her back to architecture, integrating Movement Medicine, the Work that Reconnects, and her time spent in ecovillages and indigenous communities Be sure to visit the show notes, where you can learn more about Sinéad, as well as find links to more info about the circular economy, a video of Jason McLennan's talk at Bioneers, the Living Building Challenge, and two poems that came up during our conversation: turningseason.com/episode19

Welcome to a news episode of Turning Season Podcast, your regular dose of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.In today's quick episode, 2 stories of Holding Actions (both works in progress), and 1 story that fits into the dimensions of both Life-Sustaining Systems and Shifts in Consciousness:Los Angeles bans new oil and gas drilling, and plans to phase out existing wells, thanks to activism in local frontline communitiesResistance in Ghana, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast to land grabs by global agriculture firmsand a forest that traveled through a Dutch city for 100 days this summer.Find links to more info on all 3 of today's stories at turningseason.com/episode18.Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

How do we live at a time like this? You are in for a treat in today's episode, hearing John Seed's answer to this question, and especially in hearing about how he's come to his answer. If you don't recognize his name, John Seed is a wise elder, activist and well-loved leader based in Australia, and a beautiful human being who's a lot of fun to talk with. He's made core contributions to Deep Ecology and the Work that Reconnects, and to the protection of life on Earth, for more than 40 years. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to speak with him, and to share our conversation with you.Click Play to hear us explore:how John found his calling in rainforest protection (part psychedelics, part being willing to help a neighbor, and part lucky accident)why he likes to attend a group Experiential Deep Ecology workshop about 10 times a year (like all of us, he still needs to remember to remember)one practice that you can easily do on your ownthe recent Rights of Nature win in Ecuadorhow he's able to relate to this ecologically "on the brink" time with passion, but without hysteriaand a glimpse through his words of what it's like to expand your identity through time, through the cosmos, and through different life forms on EarthThis conversation has made a lasting and very welcome impact on my heart and mind. Listen in to receive John's insights for yourself, and please do share this with the people in your life whose hearts and minds would benefit from it too.It's such a special opportunity to hear from John Seed, especially after his 6-year struggle with cancer, when he couldn't engage in leading workshops or activism like he had been. I feel blessed to have had this conversation, and I hope it's a blessing for many.Visit the show notes at turningseason.com/episode17 for more about John Seed, useful links, and related recommended books. Thank you for being here, and for all the ways you play your part.Turning Season Podcast is here to offer you up regular doses of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in. 

This is the first "news" episode of Turning Season Podcast. I had the idea to do short episodes like this while listening to a 5-minute NPR podcast a few months ago. It was a very quick, back-to-back series of stories with the sense: "Here's what you should know." It included something like, updates on war in Ukraine, the stock market, NBA basketball, and a mass shooting in the U.S. And yes, it is good for me to know about those things. To hear them, to breathe them through, to let them impact me and inform my life. But I also felt like it would be good for me - and for you - to know about other kinds of stories, stories of The Great Turning in action. To hear a quick, back-to-back series of stories about people caring for each other and the rest of the web of life. So, to complement the longer conversations I'll continue to release on Full Moons, on the New Moons you'll now hear shorter episodes from me solo, each sharing about three news items. As I was choosing which three things to include in this brief episode, I realized: Wow, I cannot keep up with all the ways, all the ideas, all the groups, enacting The Great Turning, and that is good news. In this episode, you'll hear about:The Casa de Mujeres Amazonicas (or Home of Amazonian Women) in Ecuador, where women fleeing violence directed at them as land defenders, and/or domestic violence, come to rest, recover, and reimagine,The agreement by the UN to begin writing an international treaty on addressing global plastic pollution,and the Earthfire Institute, a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center helping people and animals reconnect, awakening a sense of love in people that leads them to make different choices.Links to more info on each of these stories can be found in the show notes: turningseason.com/episode16

Have you ever noticed that little butterfly on some packaged foods, labeled "Non-GMO Project VERIFIED?" Maybe you even look for the butterfly before you buy, and feel better about eating what's inside because of it. That's you exercising your power in one of the most intimate ways possible: how you take food into your own body.In this conversation, I'm joined by my dear friend and admired collaborator in the Great Turning, Megan Westgate, founder of The Non-GMO Project and respected speaker on the issue of genetically modified foods.Click Play now to enjoy her company with me, and you'll hear about: why protecting a non-GMO food supply matters (and it's not only the reasons you'd think!)the agency each one of us has to impact food systems -- plus the rest of reality, tooorienting to "right relationship" with life on Earthevery bite of food as sacrament -- even when the food is not necessarily non-GMOand how The Non-GMO Project takes part in all 3 dimensions of The Great Turning: holding actions to prevent or slow damage to the web of life; nurturing life-sustaining systems; and shifts in consciousnessPlus, how Megan learned to spread out her toes.May this episode inspire you, spark new questions, and remind you of your power, as you too collaborate in creating the change you wish to see in the world.Find all the links mentioned in the show notes: turningseason.com/episode15

How do we get from, "We know we have to change," to "We're actually changing"? As a society, or even as individuals? As you'll hear my guest Petra Bongartz say at the beginning of this episode, we've known for a long time that we need to change – and yet, we haven't changed.Why not?For Petra, the doorway to change is the body. If we don't address the patterns and stories in our bodies, which are THE way we experience and engage in the world, change is incredibly difficult. Petra works with somatic and Earth-based practices to help people move on from their old stories, find more clarity and inspiration, and feel resourced, so we can be changemakers in a joyful, meaningful and sustainable way.Click Play now to hear:some reflections from me, as I'm "seeing with new eyes," about speaking less of change for the sake of the future, and more of change for the sake of the presentPetra's insights on how our own bodies are the central places we can effect changethe "Great Unraveling" going on inside each of us, too, as we let old stories goPetra's work with clients, including "nature connection" (plus, problems with the word "nature")braving our frozen or blocked feelings in community, freeing up the energy to be well, individually and collectivelyhaving hope in the intelligence of life, and things that are beyond human understandingand moving on from the orientation of "being enough," to, "being is enough."I'm grateful for this true conversation, this rich exchange, with a wise and beautiful soul.More about Petra: In addition to movement practices, somatics, and connection with outer and inner nature, Petra has a background in international development work. All these have provided her with a "personal and professional learning laboratory when it comes to the question of: How do we create change on both individual and collective levels?" Based in South Africa, she also works with people online worldwide. Shownotes & links to connect with Petra: turningseason.com/episode14

How are you dealing with the stress of these times? If you're turning to (or curious about) talk therapy, yoga, other spiritual and energetic practices, or learning to regulate your own nervous system, you'll be interested in my guest for this episode, Morgan Starr-Riestis, therapist at Mind Psy Guidance and creator of the Seven Centers Practice, which combines Western psychology and Eastern philosophy (specifically, the chakra system). You also might be interested in hearing from her if you're a younger adult, looking for more people your own age engaged in conversations around The Great Turning.I loved the flow of this conversation. Click Play now to hear us talk about what Morgan loves about being alive and what breaks her heart, and to hear her insights on:collapse, catastrophe, and the possibility of "unraveling consciously"techniques you can use to tend to your own nervous system, like bilateral stimulation and cultivating present awareness the need for therapy that addresses body, spirit, community, and daily practice – and doesn't focus only on mental processingand an example of moving through the Seven Centers for an imaginary young architecture student I invented, to give us an idea of what it would be like for someone grappling with global crises to come to Morgan for supportI was grateful to learn more about the tools Morgan uses and teaches, and for the way she clearly honors each individual person as unique and deserving of personalized care. Click Play now and enjoy.In the beginning of this episode, I mention two organizations you might like to learn more about and support: CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education), and Project Drawdown. Links to those websites are in the show notes, along with links to Morgan's website and Instagram: turningseason.com/episode13

Adrián is one of the many people I am just so glad to know is out there, enacting The Great Turning in the ways that he is uniquely moved to do. He's a longtime facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, in Spanish and English, in North, Central and South America. I feel like I can hear in the way Adrián speaks that he is, as he calls it, a "practitioner of contemplative disciplines," who has a yearning for personal transformation and socio-ecological viability. You also might hear the influence of the lineages "of beauty, wisdom, and compassion" that he honors, including teachings of the Native Americans, Central and South American Plant Shamanism and ritual, Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga, and Daoism. Click Play now to hear this conversation, one that was especially nourishing to my heart and mind, and listen to us reflect on:the Work that Reconnects as a kind of "truth-speaking work," that can liberate the energy that was busy keeping the truth suppressed uncertainty as something to love about lifethe balance between taking the lead and trusting in life, in parenting and in facilitatingAdrián's experience bringing the Work that Reconnects to Mexico and to Central and South Americaworking with ritual as a way of re-orienting ourselves more compassionately and mindfully to ourselves, our relations, and the mystery that underlies everythinga simple, profound way to relate to the living world: the practice of gratitudeand the possibility of de-centering human ingenuity and human thinking in addressing global crises, opening up to the creativity and wisdom of the more-than-human world. I loved connecting with Adrián and I hope you find our conversation as supportive as I did.Leave a comment and connect with Adrián on the show notes page: turningseason.com/episode12Music by East Forest

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienThat's a favorite quote of my guest Judyth Shamosh, which she relates to seeing each person's health as a whole system, and as part of even larger whole systems. How can we really understand a cell by looking at it only once it's been removed from the body it was part of? Removed from the pattern of life in which its true nature is expressed?Judyth is an herbalist, trained in Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicine, as well as in modern physics. Her role in The Great Turning involves practicing and teaching herbal medicine and systems thinking. Exciting for me, of course, because these are passions of mine as well. I see all holistic medicine, and especially medicines that use therapies which are low-impact on the ecosystem, as ways to serve both personal and global healing.Judyth has been practicing since 1994, and has held multiple leadership and teaching positions including with the American Herbalist's Guild and Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. She's brought together much of her wisdom in her new book, The Physics & Poetry of Eastern Herbal Medicine: How Modern Physics Validates Eastern Medicine, which is geared toward herbalists and other medical professionals, as well as laypeople. Click Play above to hear us talk about her book, and so much more. You'll also hear:an intro from me about the idea that some approaches to medicine "just suppress symptoms," and how to understand when Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine practitioners say things like, "cold and damp is stuck in your body"how ancient medical wisdom and the new language of modern physics are giving us ways of seeing what it takes to have a life-sustaining societyhow even herbal medicine and plant-based diets need to be looked at in context, as parts of whole systems, if they're going to truly support health and sustainabilityand some practical info about how to eat healthfully with the six tastes, or flavors, according to Ayurvedic medicine (like how sweet foods can make us more "heavy and damp," and why we need bitter and sour foods too)Be sure to check out the Turning Season resources page as well, to find ways to keep learning and, if you'd like, take a quick, simple action in support of The Great Turning by donating to one of the organizations I'm highlighting right now:the Rainforest Information Centre (also currently collecting signatures on a petition to protect Ecuador's rainforests)TreeSistersand the Nonviolent Peaceforce.Show notes & more links: turningseason.com/episode11

This one's a treat for you lovers of wild lands, you who are curious about wilderness survival, my dreamers and dreamworkers, and anyone seeking out their path in a world of so many possibilities, and so many needs.I knew that in conversation with Claire Dunn - who lived alone in the bush for a year, spent almost a decade in grassroots environmental activism, has authored two books, and facilitates vision quests, re-wilding, and the Work that Reconnects - there would be so many directions we might go. And that was even before I found out she loves dreamwork.Though our time went by quickly, it was a delight to find such depth and richness in our wander. Click Play to hear us talk about:what Claire loves (there are flying foxes…) and what breaks her heart her path from childhood on a farm, to an eco-awakening as a young adult, becoming an activist, and then devoting herself to re-wildingthe choice to change her focus from "holding actions" (protecting forest and marine ecosystems) to "shift in consciousness" workClaire's time in the bush, practicing the skills of survival, and surrendering to the unknowna recent dream of mine (and being "enlivened by uncertainty")and how healing the rift between ourselves and the more-than-human world brings each of us into deeper contact with ourselves, fostering "a culture of initiated adults" who can bring their own gifts to the world.Claire Dunn is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature's Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild. Her soon to be released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives in Melbourne where she lovingly tends her garden, community and her own wild heart.Connect with Claire, find links to books, and leave a comment at: turningseason.com/episode10

What do desire and pleasure have to do with The Great Turning? Oh so deliciously much.I asked Ann Nguyen to join the Turning Season conversation not only because she facilitates trauma resolution – which is a huge piece of personal and global healing – but also because she facilitates a deepened connection to Love itself, and to a thrumming, radiant kind of aliveness that many of us are longing for. She helps women experience pleasure as liberatory, and as fuel for personal empowerment and stronger leadership.Click Play now to hear us talk about:the aliveness and satisfaction that's available to us (and might make us less inclined to be consumeristic or extractive)how the awakening of self-love in more individuals gives rise to more voices being expressed and heard, nurturing that essential characteristic of healthy ecosystems: diversitythe desire for “more” as not necessarily destructive, but as a regenerative, life-giving forcehow Ann's been influenced by Black feminist thought leadership about eroticism and pleasurewhy some of her online groups are for women of color only, where connection through joy, power, and pleasure is part of the medicinehow pleasure can fill us up enough to serve from our overflow; or help us stay within the nervous system's “window of tolerance” (even when “overflow” feels far away)and an invitation from Ann into “ecosexuality”I checked the little “E” for explicit on this one. For some of you it won't seem very explicit at all, but I also know that some of you will decide this one isn't for you (or maybe not for the ears of little ones you're around). You'll hear the word “p*ssy,” and general enthusiasm about erotic aliveness. So, if that sounds great to you, hit Play, and if not, no hard feelings, you can catch the next one. As to how working with Ann has impacted me, you've probably felt her influence on my approach if you've joined me in the past year to learn acupressure, or be part of group exploration of physical and emotional health through Chinese Medicine. She's helped me open up to the wonder of our bodies as miracles of nature, see them through the eyes of love, and not be afraid to talk about it. She's also helped me along my path to discover how to serve from my own overflow.I've learned through this process that self-acceptance is one thing. A beautiful, vital thing – but not necessarily pleasurable. It can even have an air of resignation to it. But then there's self-LOVE, which is indeed pleasurable. Something to sink into, to be held by, to savor. Ann and I touch on a related theme in the podcast conversation, when we talk about wanting to survive on Earth vs. desiring to thrive on Earth.Always such a pleasure for me to talk with Ann. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly.To connect with Ann or see the books mentioned for diving deeper into the interconnections between pleasure, sensuality, community and shifting into a life-sustaining society for all, visit: turningseason.com/episode9Music by East Forest.

Have you ever donated to "save the rainforest?" I remember placing a globe-shaped piggy bank on the secretary's desk at my elementary school in about 1991. The Kids for Saving Earth club asked people to drop in their spare change so we could buy a $25 acre of rainforest, and protect it "forever." It's been eye-opening to connect with Liz Downes, who works with John Seed, who has himself been devoted to rainforest protection since 1979. Liz is the director of the Rainforest Information Center in Australia. The Center recently supported a successful legal case in Ecuador's constitutional court. The court's decision was announced at the end of 2021: Los Cedros Reserve will not be open to mining. This was an area that was protected "forever" as a reserve, but had been opened to mining exploration in 2017. Wouldn't this be counter to the "Rights of Nature" enshrined in Ecuador's constitution? A couple months ago, Ecuador's constitutional court ruled that yes, mining here would violate the Rights of Nature, and the reserve is protected once more.I loved hearing from Liz, someone devoted to the day-in, day-out tasks of activism, of "holding actions" to protect the Earth and all of us living beings.Click Play to hear her talk about:being an activist in "David and Goliath" type situations (local communities vs. mining corporations)how she is fueled somewhat by anger, and more deeply by lovewhy, as John Seed said, human activists are not defending the rainforest, they are "the rainforest defending itself"a problem with our tech solutions to the climate crisis, like electric vehicles: the need for copper, much of which is under indigenous homelands and some of the world's most biodiverse ecosystemswhy activists with so much common ground come to different conclusions about what's most urgentEcuador's unique biodiversity, from Andes to Amazon rainforest to cloud forestsissues with how mining companies interact with local communitiesand how the idea that "people are bad for the Earth" seems to overlook all the human beings who are not only living in a less destructive way, but all the human cultures that have solutions to our ecological crises in their ways of thinkingHow about you? I'd love to hear what "holding actions" or protections you are supporting. Share them in the comments at turningseason.com/episode8Music by East Forest.

When you click Play, you'll hear the voice of Jamie Harvie, reflecting on the mindset that's at stake as he works on one practical project: ending the use of single-use bags. When I first connected with Jamie, he told me about this campaign in Duluth, MN, to move on from single-use bags and promote a culture of reuse. Pretty quickly, though, I learned how much wider his scope of action and reflection has been: he led the effort to phase mercury out of healthcare here in the U.S., he's involved in a Rights of Nature campaign, he serves as the executive director of the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), and he holds questions like how can we have an economy that's in service of the sacred? How do we see the sacred in one another? What kinds of shifts in perspective can come out of the Rights of Nature conversation, that are even more important than any laws?Click Play now to hear us talk about all that, and:how Jamie relates to "the three stories of our time," and the importance of loving the parts of ourselves that are still living in "Business as Usual"our bodies, all life forms, and the planet as complex, adaptive, self-healing systemslegal campaigns for Rights of Nature, the paradigm shift they can usher in, and the paradox of taking away or giving rights to "nature"the magic of seeing individuals recognize their potential to create changehow inseparable we are from one another (as in, this isn't about "good" people stopping "bad" people with laws)working with physicians and healers who use psychedelic plant medicines (or, plant teachers), the mystical experience, and how all 3 stories of our time play out in this fieldand betting on the possibility that The Great Turning will involve unpredictable "emergence", as the shifts in different places continue to connectOnce you listen, leave a comment at turningseason.com/episode7 and let me know what you think, what you feel, what you wonder. Let's keep this conversation going! And be sure to share this episode with a friend. You can click on the Share icon wherever you're listening to this, and text it to someone who'd appreciate it.Show Notes: turningseason.com/episode7

Have you ever glimpsed your interconnection with the rest of the living world? Felt it in your own body?Maybe breathed in that knowing for a moment, or a few, but then slipped back into our dominant culture's habitual perspective of separateness?I adored this conversation with Skye and Miraz, who are devoted to re-membering our interconnection, as many times as it takes. They have walked through many doorways into this mode of perception, and they help guide others through these various doorways, too. Though they actively support "holding actions" to slow damage to the Earth and all of us living here, they are most passionate about addressing the "crisis of perception" that has led us to our current ecological and social situation.I can't wait to share this conversation with you. Click Play now to hear us talk about all of the above, plus:the practice of dieta, which Skye and Miraz learned from their years with Shipibo teachers in Peru, and the relationships they cultivate with the more-than-human worldfulfillment through primary satisfactions, vs. trying to fill our voids with secondary satisfactions (as taught by Francis Weller)experiencing The Work that Reconnects (aka Deep Ecology), as taught by Joanna Macy and John Seedhow Skye and Miraz relate to "the three stories of our time," and to the three dimensions of The Great Turning (holding actions, structural alternatives, and shifts in consciousness)how essential it is to feel and tend to our grief in community - both the grief we've carried, and the grief we will feel as we continue to openthe hugely important legal case going on in Ecuador, around protecting the rainforest in the Los Cedros Reserve from copper mining, and supporting the local communities there who have become dependent on that miningurgency, and slow, imaginal time, and the ecstasy of eating an avocado with presenceand a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh, read by Miraz, that I long for you to hearThis conversation nourished me deeply. May it feed you, too.To connect with Skye and Miraz, support the campaign in Ecuador, and find links to learn more about the teachers they mention, come to the shownotes at turningseason.com/episode6

Do you carry stories or sayings from your grandparents, or other elders in your life? How about wisdom that comes through you -- are you a mentor or an elder to someone? Do you ever view yourself as a "future ancestor"?Click Play now to listen to my conversation with AnneLisa Vallery about supporting intergenerational connection in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & People of Color) communities.When I look to examples of more life-sustaining societies, and imagine a life-sustaining mainstream culture (won't that be something!), one for-sure piece of it is this: More intergenerational connection. So when I heard AnneLisa Vallery talk about her project, Causing Legacy, supporting connection between BIPOC youth and elders, I was excited to invite her onto Turning Season Podcast to share why closing the gap between generations matters so much to her.AnneLisa is the founder of Causing Legacy, as well as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for teens in the Los Angeles County foster care system, a holistic wellness coach, a singer and an artist. She's a beautiful example of what I'm so drawn to: people who are following the threads of what they love, what breaks their heart, and their own life story, to rise to their own role in our Great Turning.In this conversation, we speak only a little about the "big picture" ecological and social crises, and speak a lot about remembering those we've forgotten, and connecting with older and younger generations, through stories of AnneLisa's own experiences. Click Play now to hang out with us, heart to heart, and notice where you recognize yourself in AnneLisa's stories.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode5

The one where a grandfather & permaculture designer points out my "old paradigm" thinking. And where this seasoned teacher, André Soares, founder of Ecocentro Ipec in Central Brazil, talks with me about:his more than 25 years in international permaculture design and teachingunlearning "business as usual" thinkinghealthy home designthe abundance of our planet, coexisting with the inequality between people on different parts of the globebeing a grandfatherthe view that thriving living systems are true wealthhow to understand "sustainability"and shifting our old paradigms (like mine, where there was such thing as "building from scratch")André Soares is a trilingual permaculture designer/teacher and natural builder, and since 1994 has trained more than 7 thousand designers in Brazil, Portugal, Australia and the USA. Co-founder of The Permaculture Institute of Central Queensland and NAG community radio in Australia and Ecocentro Ipec in Central Brazil, a living and learning ecovillage centre that has seeded the Permaculture and Natural building movement in many regions of South America. Andre has received multiple design awards for his work with Ecovila Santa Branca and Boom Festival, a biannual gathering of 50,000 people in Portugal. Andre was the first representative of GEN in Latin America in 1998 and has been recognised since as Social Entrepreneur in three continents.Show notes: turningseason.com/episode4

Matt Cochran joins me again, this time to share how dreamwork, especially in connection with men's work, is a part of his role in The Great Turning. Click Play to hear us talk about:how Matt relates to the "three stories of our time" (and how these compare to a rite of passage, or initiation)what dreams are for him and the people he works with (a navigational tool; a fierce, viable presence; a glimpse of the mythic level of our lives)men's work in Matt's life (including his shift from the loneliness of a lone wolf to non-competitive brotherhood with other men)how "the initiated masculine" is a part of The Great Turningmapping and protecting landscapes, from inside and outside of existing legal structureslooking to the Earth as a role model, not as a victimand one of Matt's own most significant dreamsAfter you listen, leave a comment at turningseason.com/episode3 and let me know what struck you. I'm curious what you think/feel/wonder about this conversation.And remember to share your book recommendations for Turning Season's bookshop!Matt Cochran is a dreamworker, wilderness guide, and modern homesteader. Raised in California, he's spent his adult life in the Innerwest. First as a wandering poet, then as an Exploration Geologist in Nevada, a Surveyor/Mapper in Colorado and Montana, and a wilderness guide in the Southwest, he's had a continued relationship with the wild landscapes of the Innerwest. With his partner, he's created a world-built-by-hand and they spend much of their time running their modern homestead. In midlife, Matt earned an MA at Pacifica Graduate School in Depth Psychology focusing on dreams and ecopsychology. In hindsight, he sees that he took his mapping skills to the inner territories, and recognizes that the language of wild nature corresponds to the language of dreams. He's trained in Rites of Passage with Animas Valley Institute and been involved in Men's Work through Michael Meade and the Rising Man Movement. Matt is now blending all these worlds into the offering of Raven Dream Tracking, where he focuses on dynamic dreamwork and works with men in what he calls Wolfpack Dreaming. As Matt says, “Dreams to me are an incredible navigation tool and a fierce, viable presence. They give us life from the hidden places within, and a generative, creative and visionary capacity in the world without.”Show notes: turningseason.com/episode3Music by East Forest

Click Play now to hear my conversation with Jay Wong, who's developing "regenerative smart villages" in Portugal.What would it look like to have residential, commercial, and agricultural life happening in a multi-generational community, one that handles waste, water, food and electricity sustainably? That's a big question, and Jay's learning about all aspects of the answer, in the project he co-founded: Inspira Villages.Inspira Villages is a real estate development and design firm based in Portugal dedicated to building Regenerative Smart Villages designed around healthy living, holistic sustainability, and local resilience.Jay grew up in Southern California, and has lived and worked in the US, India, and Portugal in technology, health, nutrition, wellness, finance, and media with a focus on innovation in product and service design, sustainability, and systemic transformation. He's also a meditation teacher offering workshops and retreats on stress management and personal development. He helps run a yoga school with his wife and is a proud father of 3.And, he's my little brother. I'm so excited to be having these kinds of conversations with him and to get to share this one with you.Listen in to hear us talk about:Jay's journey from living in "business as usual," through deep sadness about "the great unraveling," to his current role, generating solutions at the perimeter of mainstream societyhow to bring these topics up with people who aren't already thinking about themwhat he loves about being alive on Earth, and what breaks his heartour need for a whole-systems approach, thinking about ecological health, not just carbon and our ticking clocknew ways of designing cities, with innovations at the level of infrastructure and core utilities (rather than making incremental changes in existing cities)plus dry toilets, circular economy, cradle to cradle, and moreShow notes with links to all resources: turningseason.com/episode2

We can each be guided by what we love, and by what breaks our hearts. Ariella Daly's heart is with the bees.If you've listened to The Dreamers' Den series, you heard Ariella in Episode 31, speaking about dream mirroring, bee shamanism, and the dreamweave of the earth.She's back now to to kick off Turning Season Podcast with me, opening her heart about how she relates to this time of ecological crisis and possibility, humans as a part of nature, and teaching natural beekeeping.Click Play to hear us talk about:the 3 stories of our time -- Business as Usual, The Great Unravelling, and The Great Turning -- and how these three stories are playing out for bees, and for beekeepers.the differences between conventional beekeeping, natural beekeeping, and other ways of being with the beesthe "alarm bell" bees have been ringing, with their deaths and "colony collapse," and what we can dobees on almond trees and bees on city rooftopswhat it feels like to bring a child into the world while feeling great love for life on Earth, and going through times of ecological apathy and dreadand looking through multiple lenses to realize there are no simple answers, so we focus less on policing each other or exiting a destructive system, and more on nourishing new ways of lifeYou'll hear the voice of Ariella's 6-month-old baby, too, and hear her get distracted by the beauty of leaves outside the window. I love those moments, because no matter what else we're focused on, parenthood and trees in the wind are present too, all the time.Subscribe to Turning Season Podcast to get every dose of active hope. I'm thrilled to be bringing you this new, expanded podcast including conversations with healers, changemakers, visionaries, inventors, and all kinds of people doing the on-the-ground work of The Great Turning.Show notes and resources: turningseason.com/episode1Music by East Forest

Something new and much more personal for this Full Moon: You're about to hear me share a series of 3 of the most potent dreams of my life, and how they've been woven into my healing.There's the personal physical level, the ancestral, and the societal levels. There's a yurt at the sandy confluence of two rivers; a computer to reprogram; a devil prince; an invader and a martial arts master; a golden sword; and a poem about autoimmunity, hatred, and living “In the Time of Choice.” It's a full two hours!May this bring you some a-ha's of your own, a different perspective, or new questions to explore.I'm the guest in this conversation, hosted by my friend Steve Ernenwein, the dreamer in our recorded dream group (Episode 33). This is an episode of the podcast Steve hosts with JM DeBord, called The Dreams that Shape Us. They are breaking down the myth that “dreams don't mean anything” one powerful story at a time. I know if you're here, you probably don't think “dreams don't mean anything,” so for you their show is a delicious chance to hear individual people thoroughly share their powerful dreams, with original music and dreamy sounds by Steve in every episode. So after you listen to this, be sure to check out their podcast, The Dreams that Shape Us, for more.This is Episode 35 of The Dreamers' Den Podcast and the final one that will be released under this name. After a pause for some deep, slow breaths, quite a bit of website work, and a few exciting conversations, I will be back on the Full Moon in September and this podcast will show up in your feed under a new name:Turning Season.You'll be hearing conversations between me and all kinds of healers and changemakers of “The Great Turning” — which is a name for this enormous transition humanity is making toward life-sustaining societies.If you're feeling concerned (or beyond concerned!) about “the great unraveling,” this podcast will become your regular dose of active hope, heart-to-heart connection, expanded awareness of how much is being done already, and glimpse of what's possible.The first few conversations will be with dreamworkers whose contribution to the Great Turning includes their dreamwork. You'll hear from Ariella Daly again, about natural beekeeping, and bees as wisdom teachers. Matt Cochran will return to talk about men's work. I'll share more about my role as a Classical Chinese Medicine practitioner, parent, grower of food, and … host of Turning Season Podcast!With future guests I'll be diving into everything from circular economics to personal trauma healing; composting toilets to decolonization; art as activism to protecting thriving ecosystems; new technological innovations to pleasure as revolutionary…You get the idea.I'm also excited to talk with people who might not identify as a healer or a changemaker, an activist or a visionary, but are rising to their role in the Great Turning in the way they live their everyday lives. If you have any suggestions for interviewees, or you want to be interviewed yourself, contact me through thedreamersden.org.Show notes: thedreamersden.org/35

Do you recall any dreams of being back together with an ex? How about needing to pee and not being able to find a bathroom? These are more common dream-themes than you might realize, and there can be much more going on here than the obvious. Click Play to hear a deep-dive on these themes, in excerpts from two bonus podcast episodes originally released for Dreamers' Den members only. In the first, I talk about bathroom and gotta-go dreams. It may be a little uncomfortable, but you're here for dreamwork, so... uncomfortable is a cherished part of it, right? It's all about dreams of needing to find a bathroom, finding problems with the bathroom, and the urination/defecation dreams that are oh-so-common, but not so commonly talked about. I share my Chinese Medicine viewpoint on these dreams (including the Metal and Water elements, and our inner plumbing), some of Jeremy Taylor's insights (like sh*t in alchemy), and an example dream of my own (compost, baby chick, and ancestral healing).In the second, you'll hear a conversation between me and dreamworker Kezia Vida, exploring one of her favorite topics: dreams of exes. For all the intensity that these dreams can bring up about past relationships, there are many other rich possibilities of why the dream has come. We talk about dreams where the ex is ignoring the dreamer, dreams of being back together in love, and a juicy example dream where there's an ex, a new potential lover, AND a bathroom.Click Play and see what a-ha moments are waiting for you.Show notes: thedreamersden.org/34

I could try to describe group dreamwork to you. Why we do it, what it's like, how wow'd and moved I am every time. But I couldn't do it justice. There's nothing else like this. I couldn't have imagined it before I'd taken part, no matter how it was explained.A current dream group member who's been loving our time together was thinking along these lines, and suggested that I record a dream group session. She's relatively new to dreamwork and remembers a not-so-distant past when she was curious about dreams, but had no idea why she'd talk about them in a group - and maybe, some of you are in that place, too.For this session, Steve Ernenwein (host of The Dreams that Shape Us podcast) shares a recent dream with me and three other members. He knew it was a big dream, but still, we opened something deeper than he expected. You'll get to hear how each member of the group contributes questions and reflections (in the “projective dreamwork” format) that help Steve on his way to the a-ha's of this dream.It takes him a little bit by surprise - but then again, the dreams always surprise us, so at least being surprised isn't a surprise.If you've been curious about what a dream group with me is like, considering “projective dreamwork” for your own group, or if it intrigues you to hear five people connect about dreams and to listen to someone in a growth and healing process, as he becomes the man and the father he wants to be… then this one's for you. I'm going to leave my written words there. Dream group is hard to describe, and that's why this episode exists. So, enough reading. Click Play and dive in with us.Show notes: thedreamersden.org/33

Raise your hand (or, better yet, leave a comment on the show notes, so I can see it too) if you've ever dreamt of a political figure you strongly dislike. When they showed up in dream-form, how did you engage with them? When dreamers have shared dreams of political figures who were the object of anger or disgust, I've seen transformative shifts in perspective unfold.In this episode, my guest Cythera Wilkerson (another acupuncturist and dreamworker! yes!) talks about, for example, dreaming of Trump, and discovering the connection between feelings toward him, and feelings from childhood. This type of realization is one of the things I value most about dreamwork, on the personal and the collective level: when we are more aware, more clear, and less clouded by reactivity or trauma, we're available to take more wise, heart-ful action in the world. I highlight that moment in this conversation because, in the very near future, I'm expanding this podcast to include much more than dreamwork. Along with dreamworkers, I'll be including guests doing all kinds of work that contribute to The Great Turning of human society toward a life-sustaining way of being on the planet. I share a little more about that in the intro to this episode, and there's much more to come. Click Play to hear about it, and to hear me and Cythera explore:Being simultaneously drawn to and resistant to dreams, which are a place of “darkness,” where we haven't yet shone lightA powerful dream of Cythera's, about smoke and an obstacle in the road, in connection with a transformational process she was in around addictionHow she turns the energy wrapped up in suffering (or anger or sadness about suffering) toward energy for healingDropping into what Classical Chinese Medicine calls the “yuan level” by speaking about dreams (I know her descriptions of the body levels will strike a chord for someone!)Healing by letting our bodies respond to dream imagesUndesirable characters and bathroom dreamsHow she's seeing yin and yang and the Five Elements in dreamsand how when we find what we need ourselves, we can offer that as medicine.Cythera Wilkerson is an acupuncturist and bodyworker who incorporates the world of dreams and the exploration of the personal myth into treatments. She has a Masters in Oriental Medicine and has been active in a dreamwork training through the Haden Institute that opened up a whole new world of healing. She practices in her beloved Appalachian mountains at Medicine of the Heart. Cythera honors the work of the divine feminine, which is subtle, body-focused, and slow. She feels that in our fast-paced society it is a space that we and our earth are desperately asking for us to honor.It's so fulfilling to connect with Cythera and her beautiful work, and I hope you'll be filled by this conversation too. Listen in now and come leave a comment on the show notes at thedreamersden.org/32Links in show notes. Music by East Forest.

“Bee shamanism” is ancient, but its existence was recent news to me. Ancient Greek priestesses who dreamt with the bees? A European folk tradition tied to women's spirituality and beekeeping? Tell me more! In this episode, Ariella Daly tells me so much more. I was enchanted. Click Play to hear us talk about dreamwork in connection with bee shamanism, plus:dreaming with the Earth (or the bees) vs. dreaming of the Earth or beesthe honeybee and the snake: beings who regenerate themselves, important allies and sources of wisdomworking with the body as a dreaming vessel (especially the womb, for female bodies)the dreamweave that circles the earththree powerful dreams of Ariella's: a python in a river; two roads; and women, trees, and weavingone dream of mine (I was grateful for Ariella's pointing out that the underground setting of my dream places me in the earth, and connects the dream to “subterranean wisdom”)and the technique of “dream mirroring” in groups (which could include listeners sharing their body sensations, emotional experiences, spontaneous songs, or even drawings), plus tips for listening to dreams in this way.Listen now and come leave a comment on the show notes: thedreamersden.org/31Ariella Daly is a dreamworker and a natural beekeeper living in Northern California. She fell in love with bees in 2010, when a swarm of wild bees moved into the wall behind her bed. Ariella teaches and speaks about natural beekeeping, the honey bee organism, and the human relationship to bees. She believes that through learning to listen to the bees with all our pathways of knowing, we are learning to heal our own disconnect from the natural world.Her work with bees is also informed by a decade studying European bee-shamanism with the Lyceum in England. This tradition holds the honey bee as its central motif and ally. She is trained in dream work, oracular seership, The Pollen Method for healing, and Nektary work. Ariella sources from both the bee tradition and living with bees to facilitate retreats, workshops, and personal sessions to support healing, intuition, womb wisdom, and our inherent connection to the vitalic life force energy of the earth.Show notes including links to Ariella's website + upcoming course: thedreamersden.org/31

Have you dreamt of a loved one, after they passed away? Has that dream stuck with you ever since? Dr. Joshua Black has had that kind of dream -- and heard thousands of those dreams from others. He's devoted his academic research to these "grief dreams" and to continuing bonds after many types of loss (including prenatal loss and pet loss). I thought it might be heavy or tearful, talking for an hour about dreams of deceased loved ones, but instead I found this conversation to be full of life. I appreciate Joshua's combination of the methodical, discerning mind of a researcher with compassionate curiosity and willingness to sit in the mysterious space of dreams.Click Play to hear me and Joshua talk about:How dreams began to matter to him because of one powerful dream, after a childhood of rejecting dreamsHis own grief dream of his father, which brought the color back into his life after a period of depressionOne of the most common questions he hears: why am I NOT dreaming of my deceased loved one?Across cultures and belief systems, what does and doesn't vary about grief dreamsHow common these dreams are; and how common it is for them to involve the presence of love and continuing bonds"Negative dreams" where the deceased is dying or ill, or chasing or wanting to harm the dreamerHow important it is to understand the culture and viewpoint of the person who's had the dream in order to provide a safe space Why it's best to be very cautious about labeling dreams as "visitations," or naming criteria for a dream to be considered a visitationAnd more! Listen now and leave a comment on the show notes: thedreamersden.org/30Music by East Forest.

If you've ever heard me or another dreamworker say, "Pretend I'm an alien," and then ask you to define the object you dreamt about, that's because we want to know about your "personal symbology." Laura Suzanne and I have very different relationships with cats. If you were to ask each of us to explain what a cat is, you'd get totally different answers. So, the insights a cat dream carries in my dream could be vastly different from those in hers. Click "Play" to hear us explore that, andthe personal symbology of roses and motorcyclesimportant questions to ask about any dream, including, was I participating or observing? Was a relieved or disappointed when I realized it was a dream?sharing dreams in online forums vs. in person or on Zoomand how to relate to dreams that might be warningsAs usual, I had my own "aha moments" in this conversation and it's already enriched my dreamwork. Listen in and then come tell me what you thought, by leaving a comment on the show notes at thedreamersden.org/29