I've long called my horses my physical and occupational therapy. Let's be honest, they are often my emotional/mental health therapy too because of how being around them can really calm and reset my nervous system. I get that. And there are many good professionals doing work with horses in their practices. That's just not something…
I'm getting ready to defend my thesis on Friday and one of the core aspects of it is personal gnosis, commonly called unverified personal gnosis or UPG. Gnosis comes from a Greek noun which means knowledge, and if you search the definition the Oxford dictionary (as listed by Google) gives an even more detailed definition…
What is a spiritual story? What the heck am I talking about?
Spiritual story is something I've been thinking about a lot to try and define into something I can share with others who will understand that I'm not talking about religion, and I'm talking about something that intersects with all areas of our lives.…
I spent some time with the senior mare this afternoon working on grooming her and replacing her regular fly mask for one that is in high vis orange. And as I was working with her, I thought about how this translates into horse wisdom, and how it is important to be visible. Here in the…
In an earlier podcast (Episode 4: What Does It Mean to be AutiSpiritual) I talk about the meaning of the term AutiSpiritual, which has its roots in such related terms as NeuroQueer and AutiGender. However, since publishing that blog post, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the term, it's inclusiveness, and just what…
I shamelessly have borrowed the phrase "spiritual buffet table" for this podcast because I don't know about you, but I love buffets. You can choose what you want depending on your mood, there are a lot of choices, and lets be honest, in the spiritual and religious realms, especially when it comes to our mental…
Horses are ingrained in our myths and legends. Whether it's Buchephalus, the horse ridden by Alexander the Great, the great racehorses Ruffian, Secretariat, Man o' War, and Seabiscuit, or even those from television like Mr. Ed or Trigger. Or Buck, the horse ridden by Ben Cartwright and after whom my mom named one of our…
Allow me to geek out just a bit with my religious scholar hat on, but I've been thinking about something for a while now and finally, thanks to reading a lot of Sallie McFague for my thesis, am able to do a show on it.
And that is the concept of a distant god compared…
What is spiritual bypassing? How is it embedded in most modern religions and how can understanding it help you bring more accessibility and disability liberation into your religious practice?
This episode looks at spiritual bypassing, what it is, how it affects disabled people, and why it needs to be unmasked if we're going to root…
The other week I made the comment to my therapist in response to her usual "how was your week?" question and I told her, "it was like death by 1000 chicken pecks". We both shared a chuckle, and then she asked me to elaborate. I let her know that I've been pecked by chickens many…
Religion has become a bad word because of the actions of some groups and individuals. For those who wish to reclaim religion in their lives, it's important to reenvision what religion looks like. How could we cultivate safety within a religious framework? What would that look like?
In this episode, I'm going to talk about…
Well that was a longer than expected pause to the show. Between technical issues and illness, I swear it was just April a few moments ago. Right? Right? Nothing has happened, right? You can laugh. It's okay. But we are back. A brief explanation as to why we were gone for so long. We'll be…
Mother Nature and horses have two things in common; they are subject to their own whims. In the case of Mother Nature, late summer and into fall has been rather dry here in the Ozarks and that meant I received the text I'd been dreading: my hay person would not have the bales I needed…
Today is my heart horse's 26th birthday, and I've cherished all the years we've gotten to spend together, and I hope we'll spend a few more together too. When I started training her, there was a shift toward "natural" horsemanship. Clinicians such as Clinton Anderson were claiming they used natural training methods. I was quite…
I've often talked about having a lot of tools in my toolbox to help people in uncovering their authentic selves through spiritual storytelling. Being an alchemist, I like to bring different things together to see how the energies work or how it feels. And the part of my mind that's still tied too much to…
As embodied beings we need a few things to survive. Food and water are the two that come to mind, and shelter ranks high on the list. But we also need to take care of our physical body, and part of that involves being aware of it. You might be wondering just how we can…