The Waking The Wild Show Lian Brook-Tyler & Jonathan Wilkinson: Waking The Wild

This week’s show is with Wendy Dooner. Wendy Dooner is a Medical Herbalist and Shamanic Practitioner from Scotland who is passionate about reconnecting women with the innate healing wisdom of nature and their bodies.
Wendy graduated from university in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science (honours) degree in Herbal Medicine (Phytotherapy) and, more recently, a 3-year advanced Shamanic Practitioner course. Weaving back together the threads of science, magic and spirituality in herbal medicine has been a major focus of her practice recently and is a cornerstone of her teachings; she now practices what she has called Shamanic Herbalism. Through her online courses, workshops, or one-on-one consultations, Wendy ensures that this wonderful blend of ancient wisdom and modern science reaches all her students.
At the heart of Wendy's practice is her profound connection with her native medicinal plants. She believes that these plants hold the answers to many of our modern ailments.
In her practice, Wendy doesn't just prescribe herbs; she introduces her clients to a world where plants are people; they are teachers, guides, allies and elders. She believes that every plant has a story to tell and a lesson to impart, and it's her mission to facilitate these transformative conversations between nature and the individual.
She lives happily in a small community in the foothills of the Cairngorms in Scotland with her husband and 2 young sons, where she forages in the wilds of the moorlands, grows herbs in her messy garden and skateboards at every spare opportunity.
In this show, Lian and Wendy explored our experience and understanding of autistic people, and maybe especially women, being designed to be healers, how the very aspects of ourselves that have created struggles, can be used in service of helping others to heal, and what we’ve seen can be helpful to alchemise those challenges into gold.
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:
As both Lian and Wendy’s experiences showed, being late diagnosed as a woman can bring its own emotions and challenges - there’s a reckoning and grieving needed in order to move forward into claiming the gifts that autism brings
Pattern recognition, empathy, adherence to ritual, openness to spirits and other realms, and attention to detail are all aspects of autism that can be used in service of supporting others in their journey to wholeness
Diving into the work of reclaiming the unwanted and hidden parts of us is challenging for most people but maybe especially for autistic people for whom there has been an even greater challenge, necessity, and effort needed to fit in and function - it requires the right support and readiness, and we can be helped by understanding and using some of the very same gifts we will ultimately serve to others.
Resources and stuff that we spoke about Visit Wendy’s Website:
wendydooner.com
The Center for Shamanism: Shamanic Herbal 1:1 with Wendy
Follow The Center of Shamanism in Social Media:
Facebook: Wendy Dooner
Instagram: @wendy.shamanicherbalist
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Lian and Jonathan

This week’s show is a round table conversation with five medicinal souls sharing their journey of becoming their medicine. They are Sara Sanderson - a soul guide and seer, Pablo Meccano, a coach, shadow worker, science fiction writer & grower of medicinal plants, Kate Barsby - a soul guide, Georgie Anstey - a community farmer, and Karl Brooks - a drum circle facilitator.
All of whom are alumni of different cohorts of our signature crucible Medicine, which guides medicinal old souls to discover their purpose, uncover their unique gifts, and become their medicine.
The journey they went on is an ancient journey, experienced in different ways in different cultures across the world and throughout history, and so the episode was a rich exploration of their own personal journey of this archetypal journey, traveling deep into their sacred wounds, to alchemise their medicine, first giving it to themselves and then serving it to others.
Lian was called to hold the conversation in a circle-style way, similar to Medicine itself, so you’ll hear each person speaking themselves into circle using their medicine name, something that was uncovered during their work in Medicine. Notice what intrigues or activates you, both in the medicine names and also throughout the episode - and what it might reveal about your own soul’s calling.
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: I loved how each of the medicinal ones had different experiences of Medicine, including why they joined, even though the work journeyed through was apparently the same - this is because the work is really happening inside them - their own soul’s longings, wounds, alchemy, and medicine.
What Karl said, and Pablo echoed, about the power of not knowing and journeying with the mystery, is an important principle of initiation, and is required when we are journeying into territory beyond the ideas and tools we have learned and clung to.
Kate and Georgie both shared about how their medicine was first taken by themselves - we can only alchemise that potency and uniqueness of medicine ourselves - and this is true nature of healing.
What Sara shared about truth and expression is something that is so important for all medicinal souls to hear - most of us are meant to express ourselves in ways that are different to most people in our modern culture. That’s the most challenging thing of all for so many of us, and why we benefit from doing this work in a circle of others who can witness and support us in that unfurling into our truth.
Resources and stuff that we spoke about: Medicine ‘24: find out more and book your Medicine Illumination call HERE

Sara Sanderson has a background in coaching and mentoring across the arts, business and community sectors with a passion for supporting people to bring out their creative expression. She sees the potential in others and love to help them to see it too and live fully. Sara has an open and honest approach to life offering a nurturing, loving, truthful, and playful connection with the people she meets and works with. Sara guides and liberates people to live from the truth of who they are, fully expressed to be and do what their soul came here for. She does this professionally through her role as Connection Creatrix at Waking The Wild, and for her own 1:1 clients. She is currently on a journey to undertake an apprenticeship to become a Soul Guide with Waking The Wild Ltd, and to rebirth the social enterprise she co-founded in 2020.
 
Pablo Meccano is a life coach, shadow worker who was once an accomplished designer/maker, turned to living his truth and works from a cabin as a writer and guide, landlocked but never bored in Hertfordshire. He is a grower of herbs, a forager who advises on nutrition and some of nature’s more medicinal gifts, and describing his latter-life, as the differenc

This week’s show is with the amazing Dr Joanna Laprade. Joanna LaPrade, M.A. Ph.D., is a Registered Psychotherapist, author, speaker, and educator.
Joanna LaPrade, M.A. Ph.D., earned her doctorate in Jungian and archetypal psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is now the founder of Aion Psychotherapy and a practicing Jungian psychotherapist in Colorado. Her therapeutic work focuses on helping clients find a meaningful connection to their inner worlds.

Outside of her practice, Dr. LaPrade is a speaker and educator whose expertise focus on myth, psyche, and the Jungian and archetypal perspective. She is also the author of Forged in Darkness: The Many Paths of Personal Transformation, a book that unites self-discovery with mythology, to handle an important dilemma of our times—how to navigate the darkness of life.
In this conversation, Dr Joanna and Lian dived deep into the underworld, what that means for us personally and in our work with others, the challenges of that given the functioning bias of our modern culture, and how we can better honour and become intimate with the dark places in our psyches and our work.
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: Our culture is so focused on functioning, the direct route, bigger, brighter and braver, it can be very unwelcome to be pulled into the underworld to meet the parts of ourselves that have been left there, especially when that entails a risk of not functioning
As change workers we need to go first, embodying and modeling an intimacy with the darkness, it is only from here that we can hold the space for our clients to do the same
The myths can illuminate the path into and out of the darkness - allowing us to see the deeper, collective, and archetypal nature of what we’re experiencing
Resources and stuff that we spoke about: For more information about Dr. Joanna’s work, visit www.aionpsychotherapy.com
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):
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Lian and Jonathan

This week’s show is with Michael Meade. Michael Meade, D.H.L., is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology.
He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.
He is the author of Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn't End, The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul; editor, with James Hillman and Robert Bly, of Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart; and the creator of the Living Myth Podcast.
Michael Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artists, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples.
In this conversation, Michael and Lian explored the wonderful topic of how mythic narratives reveal hidden knowledge for healing and making things whole, especially for those of us working as change-makers and healers of others.
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: I’ve noticed that so many people can connect the dots back to events in childhood that seeded their destiny, or marked their soul, as Michael said. Michael’s own story of being gifted the book of mythology was a beautiful example of this. I also loved how he said that our calling will keep calling!
Stories are a way we can enter the dream, the other world, as a group - and discover our place in the story.
As Michael said, archetypes come with vital energy and intention - which is exactly what we need right now for healing ourselves and the collective
Myths show us that beginnings come with endings and that as Michael said “the cracks are where the archetypes get through.”
Resources and stuff that we spoke about: Mosaic Website: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/
Living Myth Podcast: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/podcast
Michael Meade Events: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/events
Michael Meade Courses: https://courses.mosaicvoices.org/
 
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):
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Lian and Jonathan

This week’s show is with Jessica Howard, an author and a mentor who has been a practicing witch for over 20 years.
She has dabbled in a wide array of magick, including Ceremonial Magick, Chaos Magick, Heathenry, as well as less witchcraft based spiritual practices like Buddhism and Taoism.
She is the author of 'The Art of Lithomancy' and 'The Water Witch: An Introduction To Water Water Witchcraft', and she has a passion for all things spiritual. Jessica currently mentors as a part of an online group, specifically in Energy Work, Kitchen Witchcraft, Guided Meditation and Visualisation and Lithomancy.
In this conversation, Jessica and Lian explored the fascinating topic of divination, and specifically through the lens of healers and guides using divination as part of our work when serving our clients.
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: As change workers, there’s a powerful distinction to relate to divination as a way to awareness of what’s at play now, rather than as fortune-telling, for both ourselves and also in our work with others
What are we connecting with: specific spirits, our own subconscious, or Spirit/God as a whole? Or maybe all three.
Wild nature is perhaps our oldest and most innate form of divination and is something that holds deep potential for understanding ourselves in the family of things
Resources and stuff that we spoke about: Jessica’s Website: www.thecottagemystic.com
Instagram: @thecottagemysticwitch
Jessica’s Author Page: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/jessica-howard
 
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):
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Thank you!
Lian and Jonathan

This week’s show is with Rob Wildwood. Rob Wildwood is an author, a photographer, a tour guide and a folklore researcher from the North of England.
Rob Wildwood was born in a seaside town in Yorkshire and spent his childhood exploring the local countryside and the myths and folklore of the North York Moors. He was introduced to Norse shamanism in his early twenties and had a keen interest in history, particularly the history of Britain’s pagan past. He spent many years taking part in Viking festivals all over Europe and spent some years living in Scandinavia where he expanded his online business called ‘The Jelling Dragon’ which sells hand-crafted reproductions of Viking artefacts.
He was fascinated by the animist beliefs of primitive cultures, which see everything in nature as being imbued with spirit. This led Rob to travel the world experiencing indigenous cultures, including spending time with the Kalahari Bushmen, the nomadic Penan of Borneo and the forest Naikas of India.
These travels revived his interest in shamanism and he eventually returned to England to study core shamanism in Glastonbury. While there he also became involved in the faery scene where people dressed as magical beings and even practiced a form of pagan faery spirituality. This marked the beginning of another long adventure where he sought out and photographed magical places all over Britain, tuning into the energies of these places and receiving channelled messages using shamanic journeying techniques. This led directly to the publication of his first book ‘Magical Places of Britain’ which is a richly illustrated photographic guide to the folklore of these sites. His spiritual adventures and visionary experiences while visiting these sites have now finally been collated into this book you are holding, ‘The Land of the Fae’.
Rob has subsequently visited many more sacred sites and magical places, both in Britain and while travelling extensively around the world, including sites in Ireland, Scandinavia, North America, Hawaii, New Zealand, Indonesia, India and eventually Australia, where he spent several seasons studying Aboriginal culture and exploring the dreamtime legends of the sacred landscape there. These experiences led to the publication of his book ‘Primal Awareness’ which seeks to answer the question: “Why did mankind become so separated from nature and world of spirit?” The book also offers exercises that seek to redress this imbalance.
Rob also became interested in dowsing, ley lines and earth energies, and has followed ley lines extensively across Britain and Europe. He eventually settled down in Glastonbury, Somerset where he still lives and is self-employed as an author, photographer and tour guide.
In this conversation, Rob and Lian explored the magical history of Britain, how we can reconnect to this land and its spirits, and reclaim the magical, mythical worldview that’s our human birthright.
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: The folklore and tales of the land can act like maps showing us the magical places and beings that inhabit those places that are waiting for us to re-discover them
To commune with the spirits of the land, we need to create the right conditions to open to them - whether that’s a shamanic journey, following the breath or entering trance in some other way.
Rob has seen that the beings of the land want to be recognised and honoured again - we can give them that with our attention and offerings
Resources and stuff that we spoke about: For more information about Rob, visit his website and Facebook page:
Website: themagicalplaces.com
Facebook: Rob Wildwood's Magical Places
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 automagica