Be Mythical

This was the first episode of the new Be Mythical podcast with Lian and Jonathan. In this conversation, we discuss the launch of all things Be Mythical, including the work of living your soul's truth, the challenges faced by old souls in the modern world and the need to reconnect with nature and rewild oneself, the power of community and ritual in the journey of self-discovery. We also shared more details about the upcoming Mythical Academy and improvements to this show. Resources and stuff that we spoke about: Register your interest in the new academy HERE Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode each week, if you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your phone every week automagically (that way you'll never miss an episode): Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Android Lian and Jonathan

This week's show is with Tad Hargrave. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again). Despite years in the non-profit and activist world, he finally had to admit he was a marketing nerd and, in the end, he became a marketing coach for hippies. Maybe it was because he couldn't stand seeing his hippy friends struggle to promote their amazing, green and holistic projects. Maybe it was because he couldn't keep a 9-5 job to save his life. Whatever the reason, for almost a decade, he has been touring his marketing workshops around Canada, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organizations and businesses (without selling their souls).  He has also offered most of his workshops on a modified pay what you can basis (a small deposit to attend and then people choose the amount they want to pay at the very end). This all feels like a minor miracle as Tad spent his early marketing days learning and applying some very inauthentic, high pressure, extremely gross and pushy marketing approaches. This has made him suuuuper allergic to these kinds of approaches because he discovered they made him feel slimy (even in personal friendships), he didn't sleep well and he's very sorry to all those people he spoke with back in the day. After a decade of unlearning and unpacking that whole scene – he now feels ready and able to help other people find ways to market that feel wonderful. In this show, we spoke about community - true community and online communities, and the stark contrast between them, how we can go about creating them consciously, and then how this might link to us creating community with our business, and in the particular form of memberships. This turned out to be a deep and luscious conversation - and actually a really important one for our time. I'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below. What you'll learn from this episode: We have a surplus of humans around us, and yet, we're lonelier than ever... true community needs to include the local land, other beings and Spirit Online community can't replace true community, but what if we can create it consciously as a path back to creating true community? Whether you're a business owner or not, notice where you're putting your time and why, and whether there's a way of spending that time that's more aligned, especially when it comes to you living a whole life held in true community Resources and stuff that we spoke about: https://marketingforhippies.com/ Thank you for listening! There's fresh episode each week, if you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your phone every Tuesday (that way you'll never miss an episode): Subscribe on Apple Podcasts/iTunes Subscribe on Android Thank you! Lian & Jonathan

All The Everything is Lian's solo show where she dives deep into a topic, often woven around a myth or fairytale that she's been journeying with. The LIVE making of All The Everything is recorded live on YouTube… to join Lian for the one: Make sure you're subscribed to our Moonly News email list and are a member of our Facebook group and we'll let you know when the next one is happening. Lian explores what creates a soulful Christmas, beginning with the way the season stirs old memories and sudden tenderness, then circling through the frantic pace that pulls so many of us away from what we actually long for. She speaks about ancient midwinter traditions flickering beneath the surface of modern life, the hush that falls when the light begins to change, and the quiet ache that arrives when we slow down enough to notice what is really happening inside us. From there the conversation moves into the practices that help you hold your ground in the middle of family dynamics, sensory overwhelm and the expectations that seem to gather in the dark of December, settling finally on how vision, community and small daily gestures shape the kind of Christmas you actually want to live. Listen if you have ever felt both joy and dread rising together, wondered why familiar patterns return each year, or longed for a holiday that welcomes every part of you. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll receive from this episode: How the old rhythms under Christmas reveal themselves once you stop trying to perform the holiday and start listening for what is already moving beneath it Why acknowledging longing, memory and discomfort can create a steadier, warmer Christmas than pushing for cheer ever could What happens when you root your Christmas in real soulful practices rather than pressure, and how this transforms the way you experience community, self-care and the season itself The Soul Practices Lian invited you into: 🌿 AWAKENING YOUR WILDNESS PRACTICES Wild Practice 1: Sunrise or Moon Greeting Make an intentional devotional choice to go outside each morning or night (depending on whether you're a morning or night person). Go out even for a very short amount of time (even one minute). Greet the sunrise or the moon. Pause and commune with that great being. Let the light (sunlight or moonlight) touch your face. Imagine your breath matching its ancient rhythm. Allow its blessing into you. Receive the gift of light. Wild Practice 2: Choose a Place in Nature & Make an Offering Choose a place in nature (a sit spot, special tree, or a place you feel drawn to). If you don't have one, go and find one. Take a small offering that won't damage the environment or wildlife. Offer it intentionally (for example, seeds for birds). Whisper your gratitude. Make this an intentional act of giving at Christmas in a way that is wilder and older. The offering can be for the place itself or the creatures who live there. Wild Practice 3: Mini Wild Wonder Walk Go for a short walk (even five minutes). Do not set a goal or destination. Allow your belly button to lead you. Notice your body and your breath as you walk. Notice what shifts as you return to belonging to the earth. Come out of the busy, material world and return to your body and the earth. Do this intentionally, even briefly. 👑 ACTUALISING YOUR SOVEREIGNTY PRACTICES Sovereign Practice 1: Inner Child Christmas Inquiry Ask your inner child: What do you wish for Christmas this year? What do you fear? What do you crave? What do you long for? What would allow you to feel safe and welcomed? Allow your inner child to answer you. This can be a daily practice, especially in the mornings. Keep your inner child present with you through the Christmas period. Sovereign Practice 2: Throne of Sovereignty (Before Family Gatherings) Before a family gathering (or before guests descend): Stand or sit with both feet on the ground. Breathe into your belly. Imagine yourself sitting on the throne of your life. Feel yourself rooted to the earth. Imagine a crown on your head, opening to spirit and allowing it to flow through you. Let this remind you of being centred, grounded, and guided. Return to this embodied memory whenever you feel pulled out of centre or old patterns arise. Sovereign Practice 3: Permission to Leave the Room If a situation becomes tense, difficult, or painful: Give yourself permission to leave the room. It can be brief. Even knowing you have permission can be enough. Use simple excuses if needed (loo, letting dogs out, stepping into the garden). Take a moment to ground yourself, reconnect with your inner child, and return to yourself. Recognise this as a sovereign choice. ✨ AWAKENING THE SOUL PRACTICES Soul Practice 1: Read a Nourishing Poem Read a poem that nourishes you. Poets mentioned: David Whyte, Mary Oliver (or your own favourites). Make it a daily ritual, ideally in the morning. Notice the line that speaks to you that day. Journey with that line throughout the day. Ask: What is it wanting your soul to know? What is it opening your soul to? Let the poem be a soul touchstone through the day. Soul Practice 2: Soulful Meditation / Being With Your Soul Meditate in whatever way feels nourishing. It does not need to be long (even five minutes). Avoid forcing or obligation. Create beauty: Light a candle. Gaze into the flame. Simply be with yourself and your soul. This may not even feel like "meditation" — it is a moment of communion with your soul. Soul Practice 3: Listen Deeply Listen to something nourishing: Music An audio (e.g. Richard Rudd / Gene Keys) Let one phrase, melody, or sound shape the tone of your day. Allow it to move through you. Notice what your soul is being called to. Let it remind you of your inner light, especially in bleak or wintry times. The questions Lian asked: Question 1 "If I could shape Christmas around what my soul actually longs for this year, what would it look like?" Question 2 "Will you hold that vision?" Will you hold the vision of what Christmas would look like if your soul was met and fulfilled in what it longs for? It is a sovereign choice to hold a soul-aligned vision. Resources and stuff Lian spoke about: To join Lian for the next LIVE making of All The Everything: Make sure you're subscribed to our Moonly News email list and are a member of our Facebook group and we'll let you know when the next one is happening. Share what showed up for you listening to this show, including any questions, either in the Be Mythical facebook group or in UNIO. Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

This week's show is with Isaac Wortley and Eddy Elsey, both practicing apprentices of a traditional Mongolian lineage holder, who founded Mother Tree Shamanism. Isaac is an English shaman, who experienced a calling from a very young age. This led him to search out an authentic traditional teacher of Mongolian shamanism. Over ten years ago, he was initiated by his teacher, the founder of Mother Tree Shamanism, and has been an apprentice ever since. He has also studied traditional Mongolian/Tibetan medicine for last three years. He currently lives in the Midlands in England providing shamanic and traditional medicine services for people in the West. Eddy has been studying as an apprentice with Mother Tree Shamanism for the last 3 years after transitioning to traditional shamanism from his previous background in neo-shamanism. He lives between the Midlands and London, and works as a traditional massage therapist. He is passionate about helping people discover authentic and traditional forms of spirituality. In this episode, Lian, Isaac and Eddy explore why traditional shamanism matters so deeply for those of us in the West. They touch on Eddy's descent into illness through neo-shamanic practice, the shock of meeting Mongolian shamans who can name events and symptoms with startling clarity, and the gap between learning shamanism in a weekend and a cosmology that allows a traditional shaman guide a herder to lost cattle on the steppe. From there the conversation turns to the forgotten role of the shamanist, the everyday person who knows how to live in balance - a first aider rather than a surgeon, metaphorically speaking, and what spiritual hygiene might look like in British life rather than faraway cultures. Listen if you have ever felt your life unravel around the edges from shamanic work, wondered whether your symbols and visions are actually helping, or wished for community instead of having to do it all on your own. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How understanding spiritual hygiene and universal law changes the way you move through sacred sites, daily rituals and the hidden consequences of your practice Why becoming a shamanist, with grounded cosmology and everyday balance, may soothe the hunger to be a practitioner more than yet another training ever could What happens when shamanism becomes practical again, from dealing with health and relationships to the tangible, measurable changes that follow real ritual Resources and stuff spoken about: Mother Tree Shamanism on Facebook & Instagram Eddy's Website & Instagram Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

This week's show is with Caitlín Matthews. Caitlín is an internationally renowned author, a teacher of shamanic training programme, a facilitator of Systemic Ritual® and the co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS). Caitlín is the author of over 80 books, including Diary of a Soul Doctor, Singing the Soul Back Home, the Art of Celtic Seership, Celtic Devotional and The Celtic Book of the Dead. Her books have won a number of awards. She is known internationally for her work on the spiritual, mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. She teaches and works with communities and spiritual institutions worldwide from Iceland to Portugal and from USA to Australia. Caitlín is a co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS), which is dedicated to the sacred arts that shape the landscape of the soul, via vision, dream and memory. FÍOS hosts masterclasses with exemplars of living, oracular sacred traditions that are rarely recorded in writing or given an honourable place in modern society. Caitlín has had a shamanic healing practice in Oxford for the last 30 years, working in the community to deepen connections to the ancestral traditions which are our heritage. In this conversation, Lian and Caitlín explore what a real, living spiritual practice looks like in the midst of modern life, touching on the way people become porous when they have no spiritual resource, and the jittery fear that grows when we only trust material safety. They share what actually helps in the every day: small repeatable practices, honest prayer that uses different prepositions, and rooting myth and archetype back in the land beneath your feet so you stay human rather than trying to become a god. Listen if you have ever longed for a daily practice that feels real, wondered where to begin, or worried that you are somehow "not authorised" to walk a spiritual path. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How simple, daily gestures of attention to body, land, weather and soul can turn spiritual practice from a guilty obligation into a steady resource that stops you feeling like that unglazed china cup Why Caitlin's way of praying for, with, from and to reshapes responsibility, dissolves the fear of "doing it wrong", and widens who and what you understand yourself to be in relationship with What happens when you root archetypes, myths and personal practice in actual soil, seasons and place rather than abstract psychology: the stories come alive, your own life steadies, and you remain a person in service to the myth rather than being swallowed by it Resources and stuff that we spoke about: For Caitlín's books & courses see: www.hallowquest.org.uk For more of Caitlín's writing on a range of topics, including a year-long course, Blessings of the Celtic Year, see her Hallowquest Sanctuary at https://substack.com/@caitlinmatthewstigerna Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Episode on the 3 cauldrons with Rhonda McCrimmon How to cultivate a sacred relationship with life - Sara interviews Lian Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined by Jane Teresa Anderson BSc Hons. Jane Teresa is a dream analyst, dream therapist, author, podcast host, and mentor, living in Hobart, Australia. Published by Hachette, Little Brown (Piatkus), Random House, and Harper Collins, Jane Teresa Anderson is the author of seven books about dreams and dreaming, and her 2024 debut fiction novel, Ninth Life. She is a frequent guest in the media and an accomplished radio dream talk-back expert, interpreting callers' dreams for more than 1,500 shows across commercial and ABC stations. Jane Teresa hosts a long-running podcast series, The Dream Show with Jane Teresa Anderson, where she analyses her guests' dreams and shares dream interpretation tips and insights. The Dream Show celebrated 16 years (and 290 episodes) in May 2025.  With an Honours degree in Zoology specialising in developmental neurobiology from the University of Glasgow, (graduating as Jane Teresa Newton), Jane Teresa has been researching dreams since 1992 and developing and teaching dream alchemy practices (exercises) that shift perspective and reprogram unconscious limiting beliefs.  In early 2017 she established The Dream Academy as a platform to deliver her courses online. Jane Teresa's approach to dream analysis, dream therapy, and dream alchemy is based on her independent research and on deep work with clients since 1992. She consults by Zoom. In this episode, Lian and Jane look at dreams in the most grounded and personal way. Jane shares her journey from neurobiology to a radio experiment that became a major research project. They explore how dream images grow from the last day or two of lived experience, how the mind pulls old memories into the mix, and why this approach differs so deeply from symbol-driven or archetypal methods. The conversation turns towards what actually makes sense in practice… how personal dreamwork reveals what the mind is trying to update and how a symbolic image changes the moment you speak it aloud. Listen if you have ever been chased by a recurring dream, wondered whether outlandish scenes mean anything, or sensed that your dreams are trying to move something in you that daylight has not touched. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How personal dreamwork differs from symbol-based or archetypal interpretation, and why it lands more cleanly Why telling a dream aloud brings new clues to the surface and begins to shift the inner pattern What happens when you rewrite a dream image through simple dream alchemy and feel the effects the next day Resources and stuff spoken about: Jane Teresa's Website The Dream Academy Join Jane Teresa on Instagram & LinkedIn Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

This week's show is with Tad Hargrave. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again). Since 2001, he's been weaving together strands of ethical marketing, Waldorf School education, a history in the performing arts, local culture work, anti-globalization activism, an interest in his ancestral, traditional cultures, community building and supporting local economies into this work of helping people create profitable businesses that are ethically grown while restoring the beauty of the marketplace. Tad did improv comedy semi-professionally for 25 years, co-ran Edmonton's progressive community building network TheLocalGood.ca, founded streetcarshows.com and the Jams program of yesworld.org. He speaks Scottish Gaelic and helped to launch and co-facilitate the Nova Scotia Gaels Jam. He is from Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy [Beaver Hill] and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan [Beaver Hill House]) and currently lives in Duncan, BC (Quw'utsun territory). In this episode, Lian and Tad explore how living stories form culture, meaning they're more than psychological metaphors, they're teachings tied to the land and beings around us. They touch upon Tad's Waldorf childhood and the years he drifted, the Gaelic homecoming that pulled him to Scotland and an elder storyteller. They follow the thread from archetype to architecture… sun, soil, and seasons. From there the conversation turns to how stories remember what a culture must not forget, why punishment poisons, and how initiation is smuggled into folktales so boys and girls grow into people. Listen if you have ever felt imprinted by myth then somehow lost your connection to it, wondered why archetypes can feel lacking, or longed for belonging. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How Tad's own hunger for ancestral story led him from activism to Gaelic study, reawakening a lineage of belonging How old stories once carried medicine, mapping the plants, elements, and ethics that kept a people alive Why myth without land becomes psychology, and what returns when stories are rooted back in place Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Tad's Website Tad's Ethical Marketing Starter Kit Find out more about Membership for Marketing for Hippies Join Tad on Instagram & YouTube See Tad's Upcoming Events Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined by Stephanie MacKay. Stephanie is a mythologist, wilderness guide, and cultural craftswoman devoted to the long, slow work of remembering how to belong—to land, to lineage, to story, and to each other. As founder and director of Fianna Wilderness School, she has spent the past 15+ years guiding rites of passage, seasonal myth circles, and nature-based mentorship rooted in the wilds. Stephanie's work braids together her Celtic ancestry, years of deep study with Martín Prechtel and the Animas Valley Institute, and a fierce love of story as medicine. She is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of ancient European stories. Drawing from the wellspring of these old mythologies, she seeks to uncover the hidden pathways that lead us to our cultural origins—reviving traditions long forgotten and reawakening the deep cultural wisdom carried in our bones Whether she's guiding wilderness quests, tending seasonal myth circles, or walking the long road of cultural regeneration, Stephanie's devotion is to the deep remembering of who we are and how we belong—through mythic threads that call us back into sacred relationship with the world. In this episode, Lian and Stephanie explore how old stories court the soul. They touch Angela Carter's Red Riding Hood and Stephanie's visceral surprise of feeling Eros as a living thread, the way Lian was moved by Skeleton Woman and the Fisherman's skin against skin, and what union in stories like these is really calling us towards. They trace how desire becomes devotion: noticing where longing really points, letting projection soften so love grows more human and more sacred, and beginning with small ceremony that says 'yes'. Listen if you are moved by myths of great love or sense that what you hunger for is older and deeper than romance. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How Eros in fairy tales reveals the soul's appetite for the sacred, and why that changes how we read love stories in ordinary life Why projection makes partners carry the sacred, what breaks when they cannot hold that projection, and what becomes possible when the sacred is welcomed directly What happens when you treat ceremony as a first language, even a few words and an offering, and let the next step show itself Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Stephanie's website Fianna Wilderness School website Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).  

In this week's show Lian is joined by Hugh Newton. Hugh's life began in the midst of a war in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). Growing up in such harsh conditions meant that he had to work hard to overcome his complex childhood trauma. Hugh began his self-development journey 30 years ago, and has been passionate about both supporting men to step into the fullest versions of themselves, and strengthening and uplifting the African continent that he loves so much. Hugh works as the lead male facilitator at Celebration of Being, and was a certified leader at A Band of Brothers for 7 years. He's also a trained shadow work facilitator and coach. His body of work supports men to show up as their best selves in the world, overcome their wounding, and build rich, nourishing lives for themselves and those they love. In this episode, Lian and Hugh explore men, trauma, and the long road back to wholeness. They touch Hugh's childhood on a remote Rhodesian farm under civil war, the day a nine-year-old was trained and armed to protect his mother and sister, the years of numbness that followed, and the moment he named the predator within and chose to meet it. They turn to what creates healing: men's work that faces danger with love, simple daily honesty instead of performance, and steady boundaries that make intimacy possible. Listen if you are or love a man who can't feel, wondered why good men go numb, or wanted to understand how even the deepest wounds in men can become strength. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How men's childhood survival strategies become adult numbness, and the concrete steps that begin to thaw it without collapsing into chaos and overwhelm Why naming the predator within changes behaviour, desire, and trust in relationship, and the practices that keep it in the heart rather than the shadows What happens when women respond to men's early, imperfect vulnerability with steadiness and praise… and how that accelerates genuine masculine healing Resources and stuff spoken about: The Sovereign's Journey - May 2026 edition Hugh's book on Amazon Regular online workshops for men Join Hugh on instagram Join Hugh on Facebook Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

This week's show is with Caitlín Matthews. Caitlín is an internationally renowned author, a teacher of shamanic training programme, a facilitator of Systemic Ritual® and the co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS). Caitlín is the author of over 80 books, including Diary of a Soul Doctor, Singing the Soul Back Home, the Art of Celtic Seership, Celtic Devotional and The Celtic Book of the Dead. Her books have won a number of awards. She is known internationally for her work on the spiritual, mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. She teaches and works with communities and spiritual institutions worldwide from Iceland to Portugal and from USA to Australia. Caitlín is a co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS), which is dedicated to the sacred arts that shape the landscape of the soul, via vision, dream and memory. FÍOS hosts masterclasses with exemplars of living, oracular sacred traditions that are rarely recorded in writing or given an honourable place in modern society. Caitlín has had a shamanic healing practice in Oxford for the last 30 years, working in the community to deepen connections to the ancestral traditions which are our heritage. In this conversation, Lian and Caitlín explore the very real but mostly forgotten 'small print' of working with myth and archetypes. They touch the older meaning of myth as something that never happened and is always happening, the danger of lifting archetypes out of their living stories, and the cost of hubris when we claim what is not ours. They look at what actually helps: context, reciprocity, and clear human boundaries. They name moments that have taught them: Lian's unexpected meeting with Athena on a sunlit hill above the sea, Caitlin's doorstep story that fused life with the horse goddess, and the terrible Bali tale that shows why respect matters. Listen if you have ever felt the call of a god or goddess and wondered how to answer it whilst keeping both your wonder and your wits. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How sacred contracts, offerings, and manners keep archetypal work sane, grounded, and mutually respectful Why context and lineage matter, and what goes wrong when archetypes are severed from their myths What happens when identification replaces relationship, and the simple practices that restore right distance Resources and stuff that we spoke about: For Caitlín's books & courses see: www.hallowquest.org.uk For more of Caitlín's writing on a range of topics, including a year-long course, Blessings of the Celtic Year, see her Hallowquest Sanctuary at https://substack.com/@caitlinmatthewstigerna Join UNIO, the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined by Serdar Hararovich. Serdar is a Relationship & Secure Attachment Specialist offering integrative, attachment-based coaching and healing. He supports both men and women to heal early attachment wounds, establish inner security, reclaim their deepest self, and cultivate the emotional skills required for deep, soulful, and secure love. Serdar works with a wide variety of individuals - including, but not limited to, therapists, relationship coaches, and other practitioners. The common thread among his clients is a deep desire to go beyond the surface - people tired of quick-fix techniques and oversimplified approaches to healing. Those ready to do the kind of work that awakens their deepest potential - allowing them to master the art of true intimacy and experience the kind of love that transforms everything. In this episode, Lian and Serdar explore what it really means to honour the differences between men and women without turning them into prescriptions or performances. They touch the gap in how partners want to communicate between dates, why anxious attachment can pile five issues into one talk, and what withdrawal can really signal. They look at emotional safety in plain terms, the pull of projection and transference, and how simple, steady awareness shifts the tone of a relationship. They look at what actually helps: recognising difference without blame, letting curiosity replace judgement, and using relationship as a mirror for self-knowledge. Listen if you've ever wondered why men and women so often miss each other, felt uneasy naming masculine or feminine traits, or wanted a way to see those forces as sacred, human, and alive rather than stereotyped. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How honouring difference deepens intimacy without falling into polarity roles Why curiosity and emotional safety make real understanding possible What happens when you stop performing gender and start living it as energy and truth Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Serdar's Website Serdar's upcoming course Join UNIO, the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this episode, Lian tells the ancient allegory of Plato's Cave, a story of awakening and the painful beauty of learning to see. Each month, Lian's shared a mythical tale as a doorway into your own soul. These stories are one of the oldest ways ancestral wisdom has been carried down to us, a living inheritance that continues to speak when we meet them with reverence. And this one feels especially poignant, because it will be the last story Lian tells in this way. Our community is evolving into its next form, UNIO: the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls. UNIO now becomes the living home for the Wild Sovereign Soul path, where together we reclaim our wildness, actualise our sovereignty, and awaken our souls. Rather than gathering for story and ceremony, we'll now meet twice each month in our community Guidance Circle so Jonathan and Lian can meet you exactly where you are and with whatever challenges you're experiencing from relationships and health, to money and parenting, to guide you to meet the material for liberation your soul is calling you to so that you may become truly free, living the life your heart longs for. You can find out more, and walk with us, at bemythical.com/unio The allegory tells of prisoners bound in a dark cavern, of shadows mistaken for truth, and of one who dares to turn toward the fire and climb into the blinding light of the sun. Lian tells the story of what happens when old beliefs begin to crack, when freedom calls but belonging pulls us back, and when the warmth of truth burns before it heals. Together, we follow the soul's climb from illusion to insight, from comfort to clarity. Listen if you've ever felt caught between the safety of what you know and the wild unknown of what could be. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll receive from this episode: The prisoners' world of shadows shows how easily belief can bind us, and how truth begins the moment we dare to question what we see. The climb from the cave reminds us that awakening is rarely gentle… it asks for courage, endurance, and the willingness to let old certainties fall away. Plato's allegory endures because it still speaks to our souls today, carrying ancestral wisdom about seeing clearly, walking together toward truth, and remembering the light that was always waiting. Resources and stuff Lian spoke about: Join UNIO, the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined once again by Mike Bais. Mike is Lian's own Kabbalah teacher, a physiotherapist, counsellor, university lecturer and author, also having had his own practice for many years. He is a trained priest in the esoteric christian tradition, which lead him to follow the mystical side of this lineage called the A.S.A. (Apostolic Succession of Arimathea). He believes that the Teachings of Christ are universal and should not be limited to a religious structure. His esoteric training comes from the western mystery tradition and the Toledano Kabbalah. Living in the Netherlands (Utrecht) he extensively worked with teachers and groups in the UK.  After some decades of study and practice in the western esoteric tradition, the inner work came together in these three streams or disciplines that make up the Circle of Avalon. Mike sees it as his life's work to teach these traditions to whomever wishes to receive them. He is a mystic and teacher by nature and through his groups, individual sessions, workshops and writing, transmits them in the most pure and true way he knows. Mike is the author of 3 books: Paths on the Tree of Wisdom – A course in 21st Century Kabbalah, A Kabbalistic view on science: Book 1 and A Kabbalistic view on science: Book 2. In this episode, Lian and Mike look at manifestation through its deeper metaphysical roots. They touch on how morality shapes what we bring into being, the psyche as the passage between the unseen and the physical, and the limits of trying to manifest from the surface of the mind alone. Together they reflect on how unconscious manifestation plays out all the time and why consciousness changes everything. They look at what actually helps: focus that holds steady in a distracted world, alignment across mind, body, and soul, and devotion to a principle that keeps us centred when life pulls us apart. Listen if you've ever questioned why vision boards only go so far, wondered what really makes manifestation work, or felt the tension between your desires and what serves something greater. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How the psyche acts as a filter for manifestation, shaping not just what we want but why we want it Why alignment across body, psyche, and soul is the difference between scattered wishing and true creation What happens when focus and devotion become your North Star in a culture set up to scatter attention Resources and stuff spoken about: Mike's websites: http://www.circleofavalon.nl http://www.kabbalahmysticalschool.com Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him. Nick's shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects - such as bronze shaman's mirrors, phurba daggers and many other Mongolian and Tibetan shamanic and Buddhist ritual objects - for which he holds traditional teachings and, where required, traditional initiations. Despite being a 'rather uneducated Buddhist,' he is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist lama, a type called a ngakpa, whose role is similar to a shaman's. Ngakpas are non-monastic, non-celebrate lamas who live in the community, specialising in ritual and magic for people within their community. Nick is the editor of Sacred Hoop Magazine - a leading international magazine about shamanism - which has been published since 1993. He is also a musician and artist.  He is the author of several books including, 'Walking with the Tiger,' 'Sacred Drums of Siberia,' 'A Little Book of Revealing,' 'Voices From The Earth,' 'The Book of the Shaman,' 'The Shaman Box,' and 'The Resplendent Other'.  He runs the large Facebook group 3Worlds Shamanism, has done a podcast called the 3Worlds shamanism podcast on and off since 2006 and also has a somewhat neglected YouTube channel, also called 3Worlds Shamanism. In this conversation, Lian and Nick trace the line between animism and shamanism. They explore how industrial life thinned our old ways, and what simple rites restore a living conversation with the more-than-human world. They look at what actually helps: a small daily offering that slows you down, a tree-side ceremony that teaches you to listen, and the humility of walking behind the sacred rather than in front. Listen if you have felt the pull back to nature and wondered whether it means animist, shamanist, or simply human… answering an innate way of seeing. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How a living-matter view changes our lives, and why calling it "animism" might clarify the pull you already feel Why simple offerings reshape your pace and attention, and how reciprocity steadies you when life gets noisy What happens when humility leads, and the subtle signs that tell you a deeper calling is knocking Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Nick's websites: Sacred Hoop Magazine 3Worlds Podcast Buy Nick's books Join Nick on YouTube Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined by John Kippen. John is an entrepreneur, professional magician, speaker, resilience and empowerment coach and published author. John was dealt a bad blow in 2002 when he was diagnosed with a large benign brain tumor. Its removal, although successful, left him with permanent facial paralysis which stopped his forward momentum forcing him into hiding for more than 12 years. As John hit bottom, he rediscovered his childhood love for performing magic and storytelling. Now filled with passion and hope, he discovered that his facial paralysis had become his greatest superpower. This new mindset gave John the strength to live life with joy and become a sought after resilience and empowerment coach who uses the lessons and tricks he learned overcoming his adversity to inspire and assist his clients to get out of their own way and live their best lives. His two mottos are "Being Different is your Superpower!" and "Feed your Heart with your Art". In this episode, Lian and John explore identity, being seen, and the simple choices that change a room. John shares the day a brain tumour changed his face, the eight years he avoided mirrors, the child who asked what adults wouldn't, and the moment he chose to name the change to his face before anyone else did. Together, they look at what actually makes the difference: saying the obvious thing first so people relax, letting repetition and craft rebuild confidence, and making the person in front of you the point. Listen if you have ever dodged photos, worried about what strangers notice, or wondered how to begin again after a big change that impacts you at the level of your identity. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How naming the visible difference at the start eases tension, answers unasked questions, and opens real connection Why steady practice, honest story, and self-acceptance can rebuild identity after a big change, without waiting for perfect conditions or permission What happens when you put the person in front of you first with presence, names, and attention: tension drops, curiosity softens, and trust grows Resources and stuff spoken about: There's a free book but you can only get it by listening to the episode :) Visit John's website Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show, Lian is joined by Sophie Messager. Sophie bridges worlds that rarely meet. A former reproductive physiologist with a PhD, she traded her microscope for holistic practices after experiencing the transformative power of an empowered birth. Her decade-long journey as a doula, birth educator, and author of Why Postnatal Recovery Matters deepened her exploration of the rhythms surrounding women's transitions. Now a holistic life transition mentor, Sophie guides women through significant life thresholds – from birth to perimenopause and beyond. Her unique combination of scientific expertise and spiritual insight allows her to serve as a compassionate space holder for those seeking to harmonise their analytical and intuitive selves. In this episode, Lian and Sophie explore the ancient and immediate power of the drum… how it once belonged to priestesses and women of the land, how it was silenced by culture and religion, and how it is now returning as medicine for body, mind, and birth. Together, they trace the threads of history and lived experience, revealing why rhythm has always been a companion in times of transformation. Sophie shares her journey from research scientist to doula, and the moment a single drumbeat opened a path that has carried her ever since. They speak of birth rooms where drumming restored sovereignty, of hospitals where rhythm returned power to a woman's body, and of the everyday rituals that root us in calm and clarity. They also explore what happens when women collectively reclaim the drum: the nervous system shifts, the mind quiets, and a deeper wisdom becomes audible. At its heart, this is a conversation about remembering… rhythm as medicine, voice as courage, and community as the ground of healing. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How women once held the drum as a sacred tool of fertility, labour, and trance… and what was lost when that rhythm was silenced Why a steady beat can shift brainwaves, calm anxiety, and even transform the experience of birth How reclaiming the drum today awakens both personal sovereignty and a wider cultural remembering Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Sophie's website Buy Sophie's book: Why Postnatal Recovery Matters Sophie's online courses about perinatal & life transitions rituals: Drumming for birth Postnatal rebozo massage and closing ritual Rebozo techniques for an easier birth The art and science of postpartum wrapping How to run a Mother blessing How to prepare for a nurturing postpartum Join Sophie on social media: Instagram Facebook Linkedin Youtube   Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this week's show Lian is joined by Paula Robinson. As an intuitive interior designer, Paula understands the profound effect that the spaces where we live and work have on our health, happiness and success in life. Often called the 'space whisperer', she helps people to create living and working environments that transform their lives on all levels. Paula has been an interiors columnist for The Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and Move Or Improve? magazine, and is the author of "The Healing Home & Garden: Reimagining Spaces for Optimal Wellbeing" and "The Room Planner: Over 100 Practical Plans For Your Home". Paula is happiest in nature - especially by the sea - and loves designing outdoor spaces. She is passionate about the environment, sustainable design, re-purposing furniture and objects, and supporting craftspeople over mass-producers. In this episode, Lian and Paula explore how our homes shape our bodies, minds, and mythic lives… the primal ways space soothes or unsettles us, and the quiet work of making a dwelling that heals. Together, they trace the path from head to heart, from trend to truth, and from copybook rules to the felt sense of sanctuary. Together, they journey through refuge and prospect, the simple power of moving a chair, and why bedrooms and workspaces ask for special care. Paula shares how intuitive design emerges, how objects carry the craft and energy of their makers, and how plants, animals, light, and air restore a room's vitality. At the centre of this conversation is a gentle invitation… listen to what your home is already telling you, let your instincts set the first mark, then let practicality refine it. Beauty follows when a space begins to mirror the soul that lives there. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: Start with feeling, then refine with form: notice how each room lands in your body, create refuge and prospect by seeing both door and view, then let measurements and plans serve what already feels right. Small changes shift everything: rearrange to interrupt stale traffic patterns, personalise even temporary spaces, and enliven rooms with plants, natural light, fresh air, mirrors, and the quiet presence of animals. Design as living story: choose objects that speak to you, honour their makers and materials, and when a house feels unsettled, consider energetic space clearing so the home and its history can move with you rather than against you. Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Paula's Website Work with Paula: Paula has kindly offered our listeners 20% off her virtual one-hour consultation if you quote BEING MYTHICAL when booking. She also offers a free 30-minute Discovery Call. Buy Paula's book: The Healing Home and Garden: Reimagining spaces for optimal wellbeing Join Paula on Instagram Steve Pavlina on priming your mind Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

This week's show is with Tad Hargrave. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again). Since 2001, he's been weaving together strands of ethical marketing, Waldorf School education, a history in the performing arts, local culture work, anti-globalization activism, an interest in his ancestral, traditional cultures, community building and supporting local economies into this work of helping people create profitable businesses that are ethically grown while restoring the beauty of the marketplace. Tad did improv comedy semi-professionally for 25 years, co-ran Edmonton's progressive community building network TheLocalGood.ca, founded streetcarshows.com and the Jams program of yesworld.org. He speaks Scottish Gaelic and helped to launch and co-facilitate the Nova Scotia Gaels Jam. He is from Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy [Beaver Hill] and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan [Beaver Hill House]) and currently lives in Duncan, BC (Quw'utsun territory). In this episode, Lian and Tad explore the hidden terrain where creativity and commerce collide… the trap many artists, healers, and visionaries fall into without even realising. Together, they map the archetypal dynamics between the artist and the entrepreneur, illuminating the often-unseen pattern that keeps soulful work from fully flourishing in the world. Tad shares his potent visual model of collapsing and posturing — revealing how both are twin expressions of the same wound, and why neither offers true freedom. Lian reflects on the parallels with shadow work, the conflation of collapsing with nobility, and the ache many feel when faced with the false binary of authenticity versus success. They also touch on the ancient roots of these archetypes, and the wounding of both beauty and provision in our modern age. At the heart of this conversation is a deeper possibility: a marriage of the artist and entrepreneur, not rooted in proving or hiding, but in composure… wholeness… a quiet trust in one's being. It's a profound remembering of how businesses — like children — are born from the union of devotion and provision, creativity and care. A call to beauty as the ground beneath it all. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: How the 'trap' reveals itself through posturing and collapsing — and why both are driven by the same underlying fear Why the true work is not balancing opposites, but moving beyond the binary into composure, where nothing needs to be proved or hidden How the artist and entrepreneur are ancient archetypes… and how their marriage creates the conditions for beautiful, ethical, and effective work in the world Resources and stuff spoken about: The trap - image of the quadrant, and quadrant with thrid column Visit Tad's Website Tad's Ethical Marketing Starter Kit https://majikmedia.com/series/ https://majikmedia.com/signature-workshop/ https://marketingforhippies.com/product/the-trap-webinar-recordings/ Find out more about Membership for Marketing for Hippies Join Tad on Instagram & YouTube See Tad's Upcoming Events Join UNIO, the Academy of Sacred Union. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).

In this episode, Lian shares the ancient and evocative Chinese myth of the White Snake Spirit, a story of prayer, healing, and a love that endures across lifetimes. Each month, Lian tells a mythical tale… as spell, as memory, as invitation... to be felt, stirred, remembered as a magical doorway into your own soul. These stories are one of the oldest ways ancestral wisdom has been carried down to us, a living inheritance that continues to speak when we meet them with reverence. She first shared this live with our beloved community in UNIO, our Academy of the Soul, in which we continue to journey more deeply together with it in a month-long quest. To join us for the next mythical quest, you can join UNIO here: bemythical.com/unio The tale of the White Snake Spirit is one of the most beloved and enduring stories in Chinese folklore. Here, a humble herbalist faces plague and despair, a wife reveals her hidden power, and devotion is tested through death, deception, and decades of prayer. Passed from tongue to tongue across generations, this myth carries not only a love story but the deep ancestral knowing that prayer itself is a living force able to heal, protect, and transform. The question at its heart is profound: can love survive truth, time, and the weight of destiny? The answer, when it comes, shakes even the heavens. Through this myth we are offered a mirror: of prayer that carries across lifetimes, of love that cannot be broken, and of stories as vessels of ancestral wisdom that still work their medicine within us today. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll receive from this episode: The Power of Devotion: Xu Xian's decades of prayer at the pagoda show how steady, daily offerings can move heaven and earth. Prayer as Living Force: In this tale, prayer is not passive but a current of devotion that heals, restores, and even brings miracles into being. The White Snake Spirit reminds us that myths are not relics but vessels of inherited wisdom, carrying truths about prayer, love, and transformation from the ancestors into our own lives. Resources and stuff Lian spoke about: Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).  

In this week's show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him. Nick's shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects - such as bronze shaman's mirrors, phurba daggers and many other Mongolian and Tibetan shamanic and Buddhist ritual objects - for which he holds traditional teachings and, where required, traditional initiations. Despite being a 'rather uneducated Buddhist,' he is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist lama, a type called a ngakpa, whose role is similar to a shaman's. Ngakpas are non-monastic, non-celebrate lamas who live in the community, specialising in ritual and magic for people within their community. Nick is the editor of Sacred Hoop Magazine - a leading international magazine about shamanism - which has been published since 1993. He is also a musician and artist. He is the author of several books including, 'Walking with the Tiger,' 'Sacred Drums of Siberia,' 'A Little Book of Revealing,' 'Voices From The Earth,' 'The Book of the Shaman,' 'The Shaman Box,' and 'The Resplendent Other'. He runs the large Facebook group 3Worlds Shamanism, has done a podcast called the 3Worlds shamanism podcast on and off since 2006 and also has a somewhat neglected YouTube channel, also called 3Worlds Shamanism. In this episode, Lian and Nicholas explore what it means to walk the path of shamanism in the modern West. Together, they trace the winding threads of Nicholas' life… from the windswept fields of his Midlands childhood to the birth of Sacred Hoop magazine, through encounters with medicine wheel teachings, Mongolian and Himalayan shamans, and the long shadow of Castaneda. What unfolds is not a how-to or a prescription… but a living braid of animism, discipline, and devotion. Nicholas reflects on the unexpected gift of dyslexia and how neurodivergence shaped his initiatory path, as a different kind of perception… one that enabled a direct, embodied relationship with the unseen. He and Lian explore the tension between psychotherapeutic frameworks and authentic shamanic practice, and the danger of mistaking surface form for deep structure. What makes a shaman, he says, is not sensitivity or interest, but being chosen by the spirits themselves. Woven through the conversation is the question of lineage. What does it mean to carry teachings from other lands onto this one? How do we honour both the transmission and the soil we stand upon? From the cosmology of the medicine wheel to the pitfalls of cultural appropriation, from core shamanism to the necessity of cosmological bone… this episode offers a rare encounter with an elder who has walked the shamanic path for many decades. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: Why the word "shaman" is often misused… and how understanding deep structure versus surface form can clarify what is truly sacred. How neurodivergence can shape perception in ways that become part of our gift, especially when navigating the unseen or the unknown. What it might mean to birth a Western lineage… one rooted not in imitation, but in integration, initiation, and real relationship with land and spirit. Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Nick's websites: Sacred Hoop Magazine 3Worlds Podcast Buy Nick's books Join Nick on YouTube Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth. Be Mythical Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly Discover your kin & unite with your soul's calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper Follow us: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Thank you for listening! There's a fresh episode released each week here and on most podcast platforms - and video too on YouTube. If you subscribe then you'll get each new episode delivered to your device every week automagically. (that way you'll never miss a show).