Priestess Initiations: Where Psychology Meets Sacred

Casey Dunne—Somatic Psychotherapist & Priestess
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Spirituality
  • Updated Weekly

We invite you to deepen into embodied goddess exploration through somatic psychology, Jungian philosophy, and archetypal mythology for holistic wellbeing, cyclical living, and healing the witch wound.  Hosted by Casey Dunne—Somatic Psychotherapist and Priestess | MA in Mental Health Counseling: Body Psychotherapy | BA in Psychology with Jungian training—this podcast bridges psychology frameworks, reclaimed goddess mythology, and shadow integration with divine feminine intuitive wisdom for nervous system healing.  In Season Two, we descend into the philosophical root system of the soul—leaning into Celtic mysticism, earth based spirituality and goddess archetypes, the medicine of herbalism, and the reclamation of our lineage through intergenerational healing, ancestral reclamation and ancient holistic healing including cyclical living for hormonal support. Whether you’re exploring individuation through archetypes, astrology, Human Design, folk witchcraft, the Akashic Records, tarot and divination, dark moon philosophy—or ready to go deeper into embodied shadow work—this is where spiritual inquiry of the soul meets grounded transformation. This isn't clinical therapy. It's holistic spiritual education and embodied shadow work for empowered women, witches, healers, and initiates walking the path of transformation on the maiden-mother-crone journey through descent, integration, and power reclamation. The path to collective healing—reclaiming a true alchemical balance of the masculine and feminine in the world, begins with our own descent into wholeness. Claim your power. Embody the goddess within. Trust the spiral.   | Subscribe to the Intimate Inklings Feed: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2571277/subscribe   | Join the conversation on Substack: caseydunne.substack.com  | Website & Educational Resources: priestessinitiations.com

  1. 3d ago

    Persephone’s Descent and Individuation, Virgo New Moon | S2 Ep.17

    Mabon and Autumn Equinox Preparation with Virgo New Moon, Venus, Persephone, Demeter and Mercury | Maiden and Mother Archetypes Maiden to Mother Poetry Book Something shifts when the season starts to turn, and you can feel it before the calendar confirms it. I’m naming that threshold and using it as a portal into the Virgo new moon, the approach to Mabon and the Autumn Equinox, and the deeper descent that always arrives as we move toward fall. If you’ve been craving a reset that is practical and soulful, this is the kind of grounding that doesn’t bypass your body. We talk about routines, nervous system support, and why Virgo medicine is less about perfection and more about discernment, structure, and real nourishment. From there, we drop into myth as psychology through Persephone and Demeter. Persephone’s descent becomes a powerful mirror for individuation: separating self from family roles, loosening enmeshment, and returning to relationship with clearer boundaries and sovereignty. I connect that to modern life in a tangible way, including the small “leaving the nest” moments that reveal where we are still clinging, still avoiding independence, or still refusing to receive support. Astrology adds heat and depth this week: Venus moving into Scorpio spotlights feminine shadow work and the golden shadow gifts we haven’t claimed yet, Mercury moving into Libra raises themes of equality and reciprocity in relationships, and Uranus retrograde asks what is awakening within you right now. I offer simple journaling prompts and a permission slip to focus on the one thread that calls to you most, instead of trying to do everything at once. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s feeling the seasonal shift, and leave a review so more people can find Priestess Initiations. What are you choosing to reclaim as you begin your descent? Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  2. Aug 30

    Integration Portals: Opening to Receive Magic with Hecate and Hygiea | S2 Ep.16

    Integration Happens When You Stop Forcing The Magic | Navigating Your Window of Tolerance for Grief and Joy in Liminal Spaces | Somatic Yielding Practice to The Earth and Opening to Receive | Spontaneous Transmission The weirdest part of spiritual growth is not the breakthrough, it is the quiet that comes after. I am recording from that partly cloudy in-between, the portal between eclipse seasons, where your life looks the same on the outside but everything is rearranging on the inside. If you have been feeling unmotivated, untethered, or strangely disconnected from your usual goddess work, I want to offer a different lens: liminal space is not a mistake, it is where integration happens.  I bring in Hecate, queen of witches and guardian of the crossroads, to name the paradox of this season. The in-between can feel like stuckness while it is actually the place where movement occurs, where the unconscious shifts into new paradigms you have been building toward. I also talk about Hygia, the goddess of hygiene and daily tending, and why the most spiritual thing you might do right now is refresh your habits, care for your body, and let the “human life” part of you be the altar. We also explore what it means when tools like tarot or ritual lose their charge, and how that can be a call to trust intuition without props.  From there, we get practical and somatic: receiving as a yin state, yielding through the body, and simple practices like lying on the earth, breathing into the belly, and using heart-opening yoga poses to soften bracing. I share a personal story from officiating a friend’s wedding and the grief that hit on the drive home, unpacking how joy and grief travel together and how expanding your window of tolerance helps you hold more of both. If you are navigating eclipse season integration, nervous system sensitivity, or a quieter phase of spiritual practice, this one is for you.  Subscribe, share with a friend who feels in-between, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. P.S All episodes are now spontaneous transmissions unless otherwise stated. I'll mention more on that next episode! Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  3. Aug 15

    Desire, The Witch Wound and The Shift of the North Node | ST S2 Ep.15

    Leo Eclipse Season 2026 and Unlocking What you Want Through Reclaiming Desire from Shame and The Witch Wound | North Node in Leo South Node in Aquarius Collective Shift | Wanting a Home and Partnership Can Be Feminist Too | Spontaneous Transmission Episode Desire is supposed to feel like a pull toward life, so why does it so often feel like a threat? I’m Casey Dunne, and I recorded a raw, unscripted spontaneous transmission on the hidden ways we resist wanting, especially when we’re sitting in uncertainty and the not knowing of an eclipse portal. If you’ve ever gone numb around your dreams, your work, your relationships, or your future, this is a gentle but direct invitation to look at what’s really underneath the shutdown.  We start with the bigger cultural field: the anger and exhaustion that comes from medical gaslighting and the long history of female desire being ignored, under researched, or dismissed. When the system teaches women not to trust their own bodies, it makes sense that many of us look elsewhere for wisdom, including spiritual education, ancestral knowing, and elder guidance. From a somatic therapy perspective, desire isn’t a performance goal. It grows from safety, truth, and embodied self trust.  From there, I bring in astrology as a meaning making tool: the collective North Node shift into Aquarius with the South Node in Leo, and why the path isn’t about abandoning your past. It’s about integrating your gifts, reclaiming your shine, and meeting the witch wound that says being seen is dangerous. I also share how dreamwork can surface shadow material right now, plus a practical exercise: two islands, a bird, and the seeds you choose to carry into your next chapter.  If something in you is ready to want again, press play, then share what landed with you. Subscribe, send this to a friend who’s in a “what now?” season, and leave a review so more people can find the work. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  4. Jun 23 ·  Bonus

    The End Of Overgiving and Opening to Reciprocity with Venus Trine Saturn | Inkling S2

    When the feminine and Lilith says NO to extraction in boundary work | Post Solstice Integration | Saturn as metaphor for Patriarchy and asking the masculine to grow  If you’ve noticed a quiet tightening in your body when someone asks for “just one more thing,” we’re naming what’s underneath: extraction from the feminine. After Solstice, that theme drops in with real clarity for me, and I follow the thread from climate grief to relationships to the invisible labor so many women carry. The core question is simple and fierce: what happens when we stop offering our energy as the default and start requiring reciprocity? I use the astrology of Venus in Leo trine Saturn in Aries as a mirror for this cultural moment. Saturn isn’t only restriction and punishment. There’s an immature Saturn that sounds like grind culture, patriarchy, and capitalism, where you must earn rest and prove your worth through depletion. But there’s also a mature Saturn, an evolved divine masculine, where boundaries are care, structure is safety, and the “container” protects what is tender and creative. When that kind of Saturn shows up, Venus doesn’t have to dim. She gets to shine, receive, and create. From there we bring it into the nervous system: how overgiving becomes a strategy to manage other people’s emotions, how boundarylessness masquerades as love, and how Lilith draws the line without apology. I also lean on the rose as a teaching, soft petals and sharp thorns, a living example that openness and protection can coexist. We end with Chiron in Taurus and the two big wounds many of us carry, “I’m too much” and “I’m not enough,” and how to relate to them in a way that fuels growth instead of collapse. If you want more grounded astrology, nervous system insight, and language for boundaries that actually work, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  5. Jun 19

    Litha: Summer Solstice, Embodied Sovereignty, and the Courage to be Seen | S2 Ep.14

    Litha mythology and astrology, 2026 Summer Solstice ritual, and the Oak King’s surrender at his peak | somatic psychoeducation, nervous system safety, embodiment, and the courage to be fully witnessed The summer solstice doesn’t just bring more light, it brings more you. As we move into Litha, I’m holding the longest day of the year as a real threshold: a moment when the world is bright, the season is loud, and the body has to decide whether it will open or brace. This is priestess work in real time, rooted in the Wheel of the Year, nervous system wisdom, and the ancient human instinct to mark the sun’s peak as sacred. We walk through the roots of midsummer traditions as a fire festival: bonfires, ritual leaping, protection petitions, fertility symbolism, and land-based practices that honor both ecology and spirit. Then I name what often gets missed, water. Sacred wells, rivers, dew, and bathing aren’t side notes, they’re the balancing element that keeps solar energy from turning into burnout. If you feel more yin than yang, or if summer intensity hits your system hard, water rituals can be a direct path into solstice without forcing yourself to “perform” the season. From there we enter the mythic heart of Litha: the Oak King and the Holly King, and the teaching our culture has nearly forgotten, yielding at the peak. We also go straight into visibility as a somatic state, the witch wound thread that makes being seen feel risky, and the current astrology amplifying it all: Venus in Leo opposing Pluto, and Chiron moving into Taurus and asking whether your body is safe to inhabit at your actual size and pace. You’ll leave with simple, grounded practices for sun beings and moon beings, plus a relational reminder: we need people who can witness our light without consuming it. If this lands, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s learning to take up space, and leave a review so more people can find this work. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  6. Jun 13

    Blood Mysteries | Somatic Wisdom for PMS, PMDD, and Cyclical Wellness with Gabby Rivas-Field, MA, LPCC | S2 Ep.13

    The week before your period can feel like a different personality takes the wheel and it’s terrifying when no one can explain why. Gabby Rivas-Field, MA, LPCC, a somatic psychotherapist who works at the intersection of hormones, mental health, and the female nervous system, joins me for an honest, clinical, body-based conversation about PMDD and what actually helps. We name the lived reality: irritability, rage, anxiety, depression, shame spirals, sleep disruption, and that disorienting “light switch” after ovulation. Then we ground it in a clearer model: PMDD is often a nervous system sensitivity to normal hormone fluctuations, not a moral failure and not proof that you’re too much. [Work With Gabby!] We also talk about why PMDD is so often misdiagnosed, including the painful and common confusion with borderline personality disorder, and why cycle tracking is essential for getting the right diagnosis and support. We walk through the menstrual cycle as inner seasons, with practical nervous system tools for each phase: rest and warmth in inner winter, gradual momentum in inner spring, connection and preparation in inner summer, and boundary-setting plus vagus nerve support in inner autumn. From there we widen the lens to trauma physiology and attachment. We explore how early life stress can sensitize cortisol and survival responses, why somatic therapy can reach what talk therapy can’t, and how relational safety, co-regulation, and community support can lower stress and increase steadiness over time. We also discuss the fuller treatment picture beyond “just birth control,” including SSRIs that can be used cyclically, integrative lab work, and realistic lifestyle shifts that honor the world we actually live in. [PMDD Wellness Guide by Casey] If you want language for what’s happening in your body and a path forward that includes both psychology and the sacred, subscribe, share this with someone who needs validation, and leave a review with the one insight you’re taking into your next cycle. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  7. Jun 3

    Plant Medicine, Body Sovereignty, and the Plants Your Ancestors Knew | S2 Ep.12

    Nutritive herbs, mineral-rich teas, and reclaiming your own medicine — earth-based spirituality, plant sitting, and somatic psychoeducation for chronic illness, hormonal health, and learning to receive what plants are trying to tell us. Half your medicine cabinet may have started as a plant and once you see that line, you cannot unsee it. I am Casey Dunne, a somatic therapist and priestess, and I am deep in a community herbalism certificate while living with fibromyalgia, endometriosis, PMDD, and the hormonal-metabolic terrain of PMOS. This is my first spring without allergy shots and without daily antihistamines, and I share what that withdrawal taught me about the nervous system, sensitivity, and why “gentle and steady” can be its own kind of power. We move through the grief and nuance of modern pharmaceuticals: foxglove, willow, yew, and the long history of extraction, optimization, and patenting. I am not anti-medicine. I am pro-truth, pro-dose awareness, and pro-remembering that many bodies do better with sustained nourishment when the goal is long-term support for chronic inflammation, seasonal allergies, and cyclical health. Then we get practical with nutritive herbs and mineral-rich infusions, including the “weeds” you might be pulling from your lawn. I break down why nettle, raspberry leaf, and marshmallow matter, how an overnight tea draws out minerals, and why safe sourcing and pesticide history are essential. We also widen the frame into earth-based spirituality and ancestral remembering through plant sitting: a simple, receptive practice of listening with the body. If you want herbalism basics, nervy-system-aware wellness, and a grounded approach to plant communication, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves herbs or needs allergy support, and leave a review so more people can find the work. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

  8. May 27

    Chiron, Hygieia, and Tending Yourself in a System That Profits From Your Depletion | ST S2 Ep.11

    Spontaneous Transmission: The mythology of the wounded healer — somatic psychotherapy, healer burnout, and what it actually means to tend yourself in a system designed to extract from you. If you’ve ever been the person everyone leans on, the one who can hold a crisis with calm hands while quietly falling apart inside, this one is for you. I’m taking you into the archetype of Chiron, the wounded healer, and asking the question that sits underneath so much caretaking: who holds the mantle when the healer is bleeding too? I tell Chiron’s myth as a mirror for modern healer life: rejection, difference, mastery earned the hard way, and the kind of chronic wound that won’t “positive mindset” itself away. From there, I name what so many systems try to keep hidden. Burnout isn’t just a self-care issue, and it isn’t a personal failure. Under patriarchy and extractive work culture, professions like nursing, teaching, therapy, and social work are asked to give endlessly while being structurally undervalued. When we keep the wound personal, the architecture stays untouched. Then I turn toward Hygia, the goddess of hygiene and maintenance, as the counterspell to the quick-fix fantasy. We talk about unglamorous daily tending, boundaries that actually protect your nervous system, and what it means to build a sustainable life inside real limits. With Uranus entering Gemini, I frame this as a longer arc: a seven-year re-write of what your wound means and how your limits can serve you, not cost you. If this lands, subscribe, share it with a fellow caretaker, and leave a review so more healers can find their way back to themselves. What boundary would change your life the most? Send us Fan Mail Support the show Subscribe to the Show for Bonus Content! Follow Casey Dunne on Substack  Educational Resources and Priestess Initiations Website Books I Love Shop through this link to support independent bookstores and this podcast.Discover Your Goddess Astrology PlacementsWellness Guides by Casey This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. Intro music composed by my dad, Mike Dunne: [Spotify link]

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We invite you to deepen into embodied goddess exploration through somatic psychology, Jungian philosophy, and archetypal mythology for holistic wellbeing, cyclical living, and healing the witch wound.  Hosted by Casey Dunne—Somatic Psychotherapist and Priestess | MA in Mental Health Counseling: Body Psychotherapy | BA in Psychology with Jungian training—this podcast bridges psychology frameworks, reclaimed goddess mythology, and shadow integration with divine feminine intuitive wisdom for nervous system healing.  In Season Two, we descend into the philosophical root system of the soul—leaning into Celtic mysticism, earth based spirituality and goddess archetypes, the medicine of herbalism, and the reclamation of our lineage through intergenerational healing, ancestral reclamation and ancient holistic healing including cyclical living for hormonal support. Whether you’re exploring individuation through archetypes, astrology, Human Design, folk witchcraft, the Akashic Records, tarot and divination, dark moon philosophy—or ready to go deeper into embodied shadow work—this is where spiritual inquiry of the soul meets grounded transformation. This isn't clinical therapy. It's holistic spiritual education and embodied shadow work for empowered women, witches, healers, and initiates walking the path of transformation on the maiden-mother-crone journey through descent, integration, and power reclamation. The path to collective healing—reclaiming a true alchemical balance of the masculine and feminine in the world, begins with our own descent into wholeness. Claim your power. Embody the goddess within. Trust the spiral.   | Subscribe to the Intimate Inklings Feed: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2571277/subscribe   | Join the conversation on Substack: caseydunne.substack.com  | Website & Educational Resources: priestessinitiations.com

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