In this episode, we are joined by Philiswa Makhaye, a traditional Zulu healer from South Africa. Initiated as a Sangoma at the age of 12, Philiswa has dedicated her life to ancestral communion, intergenerational healing and ancient earth-based spiritual wisdom.

This conversation offers a rare glimpse into animistic spirituality, free from the limiting frameworks of non-animist worldviews. It continues a thread of enquiry explored in a recent episode with Dr Andy Letcher, who highlighted the animistic discourse as one of the most disruptive to the reductionist Western paradigm. Through Philiswa’s insights, we delve into the deep relationality between the land, the ancestors and the healing traditions that have traversed across generations and cultures.

Philiswa’s presence at this year’s Medicine Festival left a lasting impression, particularly during a powerful collective ceremony for peace, where wisdom keepers from around the world offered prayers from each cardinal direction. Her songful prayer, graciously recorded for this episode, is woven into the conversation - a gift to carry in your bones.

For those who wish to experience the full, uninterrupted recording of Philiswa’s prayer, it is uploaded on our patreon, available for all listeners.

Additional meditations and resources are also available for those who wish to support the show.

We have recently launched a free hour-long workshop on embodied deep ecology.

Bookings have now opened to join us at Earth Medicine, our signature ceremonial retreat.

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In this heartfelt episode, we are joined by the wonderful Marina Delamar, an artist, educator, and ceremonialist who explores life through the twin lenses of death and beauty. With a lifelong connection to the natural world and its more-than-human kin, Marina creates installations, shrines, and environments that invite transformation, reflection and storytelling.

Drawing from her background in event management, outdoor education, animal husbandry, and animist principles, Marina collaborates with communities to co-create ceremonies and educational offerings that honour life, death, and the in-between. She is currently working at a nature school, while apprenticing as a death doula and funeral celebrant.

Marina is also a beloved participant of our 2024 Deepen Your Roots cohort and will be returning this year as a community tender to support the next circle of participants. For those new to Deepen Your Roots, it is our year-long, life-affirming programme in embodied deep ecology, Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, and an animistic, folkloric exploration of the ecological Self. Together, we weave belonging and relationship to place as a healing response to the uprootedness and disconnection many feel in modern life.

Learn more at rootedhealing.org/deepen and enjoy a 10% discount with the code ROOTED10 as a thank you for being part of our listening community.

In this conversation, Marina shares her personal mental health journey, a mystical encounter with a very lost emperor penguin, and how moments like these with the natural world can guide us back to belonging and offer healing amidst the rising tide of disconnection in modern life.

We’ve also added Marina’s full story, written beautifully, along with photographs of her encounter, as a free offering for all listeners at our patreon page. For our patrons, this year we’re introducing new meditations every moon cycle alongside our guests’ offerings, making a truly nourishing time to support this show. As always, we begin by inviting our guest to root us into the lands that shape them and to call in a being or beings in spirit, opening the door to a broader, porous sense of self and connection.

Learn more:

• Deepen Your Roots: rootedhealing.org/deepen
• 10% Discount Code: ROOTED10

Music in this episode is from Bonnie Medicine and Nathalie Nahai

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In this rich and winding conversation, we are joined by Dr. Andy Letcher — Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, former Programme Lead for the MA in Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College, and author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom. With doctorates in both Ecology and the Study of Religion, Andy is a singular voice in contemporary psychedelic research, animism, and the revival of folk wisdom.

We explore the deep well of his research into the ritual and animistic use of psychedelics by British Druids, hints of myths and traditions of the Fly Agaric mushroom, and the discourses that shape our understanding of psychedelic experiences. Andy’s insights bridge folklore, embodied ecology, and mythopoetic storytelling, offering a compelling perspective on how we frame and make meaning within animate landscapes.

This episode is laced with music from Andy’s former folk band, Telling the Bees. For our Patreon supporters, we’re offering a curated selection of Andy’s most elusive and fascinating writings — rare gems that are otherwise difficult to access.

Andy will also be one of 14 special guests on our upcoming Deepen Your Roots programme — a year-long journey beginning on Imbolc (1st February 2025). This programme offers a slow, spiralling incubation of Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects, guiding you to unearth your ecological niche and mythopoetic calling amid the Great Turning. Registration is now open — visit rootedhealing.org/deepen to learn more.

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