A seasonal shift is underway: the Autumn Equinox teaches us lessons about preparing, slowing down, letting go, and healing. This year’s Equinox lines up with my own healing journey. In this podcast episode, I talk about the last few months navigating life post-miscarriage, including coming to terms with a body that isn’t fully healed. We will talk through the rare uterine scarring condition called Asherman Syndrome and what it means to do battle where you can, and let everything else go. We’ll also discuss my spiritual and ancestral connections throughout this entire process.

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Follow along on insta @redcedarway Support on patreon or tipjar

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This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

How can we return to the land, to our land-based, indigenous practices, when those practices were coopted, covered, and hidden from view through colonization? This week, I’ll take us on a little trip to a holy well in Ireland to discuss ancient practices, sacred sites, and how to seek clues to the practices our ancestors left us. Many land-based practices have been coopted by colonizers and empires, and the truth of our connection to land, spirit, ancestors, and healing lie just below the surface.

We’ll discuss the St. Michael’s Well, its fascinating healing properties, and its ancient history on the land and to healing the people long before Christians arrived and re-named it after a saint. The well’s story reveals its true roots: connection to land, understanding the healing power of earth and water, and reverence for pilgrimage to a sacred site.

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Follow along on insta @redcedarway Support on patreon or tipjar

References:

Holy Wells of Cork & Kerry: Tobar Mhíchíl, St. Michael’s Well, County Kerry

Book - Irish Customs and Traditions: How our ancestors celebrated life and the seasons by Marion McGarry

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This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

What makes someone a shaman, healer, or medicine person? Can you become one with a course, a certificate, or an instagram handle? In traditional cultures, people study medicine and healing for decades before holding themselves out as healers to their communities. Let’s talk about the modern obsession with influencers and shamans and what it means to really serve a community. We’ll also discuss the responsibilities of healers, including a deep commitment to their patients/clients and need to have a strong ethical and moral practice. I’ll also dive into why shamans and healers aren’t necessarily automatically good people and we must understand a practitioner's teachers, practice, community, knowledge, and experience before we put our trust into them.

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Follow along on insta @redcedarway Support on patreon or tipjar

References:

Indigenous Medicine Stories: Anishinaabe mshkiki-nwii-dbaabaan Onaubinisay, Walks-Above-the-Ground Part 1 and Part 2

Center for Indigenous Midwifery: Stories of Ribbons Skirts and Healing

Red Cedar Way: Spiritual Escapism & Bypassing

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This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

This week I share a bit about traditional medicine practices, and talk about good and bad medicine. I share my own experience with bad medicine and how to to fight the temptation to use bad medicine. I’ll also discuss the ethics of using bad medicine and the historical and current cultural significance of medicine people in Anishnaabe culture.

References:

Spooked: Bull Boy Spooked: Medicine People Spooked: Always Be Polite

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Follow along on insta @redcedarway Support on patreon or tipjar

**

This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Scent and the sense of smell have an incredible, and often invisible, impact on our lives. Scent can bring comfort and healing, and help us to survive. Today I chat about the different ways I’ve come to know scent - from food to fragrance to medicine and even as a means to communicate with spirit.

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Resources:

The scent of attraction and the smell of success: crossmodal influences on person perception

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**Support the pod by joining the community at Patreon: https://patreon.com/RedCedarWay **

**You can also support with a one-time or recurring tip <3 ** https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Follow along on insta @redcedarway

**

This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Today’s a big one, guys. And it may be tough to take. But it is important. We’re going to talk about who is a settler, an immigrant, a colonizer, and more. Whose duty is it to decolonize? What it means to decolonize and re-indignize as an indigenous person, as a settler (of any background/race/ethnicity), and as a white person. What are the generational impacts of colonization, imperialism, and capitalism? What is internalized colonialism/imperialism/capitalism? And what can we do to deprogram? What does repair look like? All are welcome on Turtle Island, but colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism are not!

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Resources related to today’s episode:

All My Relations: Beyond Blood Quantum All My Relations: Love in the Time of Blood Quantum All My Relations: Rematriate All My Relations: Can a DNA Test Make Me Native American? All My Relations: The Ancestors Know You: Real Life Reconnection Stories

Also check out the playlist of decolonizing/reindignizing podcasts in my instagram highlight.

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**Support the pod by joining the community at Patreon: https://patreon.com/RedCedarWay **

**You can also support with a one-time or recurring tip <3 ** https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Follow along on insta @redcedarway

**

This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

This week’s episode is a little chat on a big problem: spiritual escapism and bypassing. Too many spiritual and wellness spaces deny the inherent truth that the spiritual and physical worlds are inseparable. “Spiritual" spaces that espouse love, light, and high vibes deny or avoid the plain realities of our physical world, allowing their followers and adherents to avoid confronting or reconciling with the pain they inflict or benefit from in the physical world while seeking “spiritual” enlightenment. Connection to spirit and ancestors would never allow us to bypass our sacred duties to our relatives - human, animal, plant, environmental - in the physical world. Spiritual escapism and bypassing is a colonial construct that promises privileged individuals in the global minority the ability to dispense with their sacred duties while cosplaying a connection to spirit: to take, extract, and exploit without repercussion.

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**Support the pod by joining the community at Patreon: https://patreon.com/RedCedarWay **

**You can also support with a one-time or recurring tip <3 ** https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Follow along on insta @redcedarway

**

This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Our sacred duty as storykeepers is to hear, hold, and pass on even the most difficult of stories. The more difficult the story, the more sacred is the duty. Today, I’ll talk about how stories, especially those of pain and trauma, are often weaponized against us, to manipulate us in campaigns and elections. But if we return to our sacred duty to hold and pass along the most difficult of stories, we will honor the story and be less vulnerable to manipulation. It is also important to allow ourselves to be changed by these stories, and to then transmute the pain of those stories into action.

I will go into specific topics where it is important to bear witness and hold the most painful and traumatic stories. And I will share my own approach to holding, honoring, and passing along difficult stories.

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References in today’s episode:

Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive

PBS Legacy of Trauma: The Impact of American Indian Boarding Schools Across Generations (Scroll to the bottom for several more resources)

Healing the Past to Guide the Future w/ Ernie and Charlotte Kwandibens

Stolen Season 2: Surviving St. Michael’s

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**Support the pod by joining the community at Patreon: https://patreon.com/RedCedarWay **

**You can also support with a one-time or recurring tip <3 ** https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way

Follow along on insta @redcedarway

**

This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way