Mystical Mermaid Lounge
Dive deep beneath old currents in the Mystical Mermaid Lounge, where we shed limiting beliefs like ocean waves wash away driftwood. Together, we reclaim our power, rewrite our stories, and swim into new waters of healing, truth, and spiritual freedom. Come nurture your soul and rise with the tide.
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Mystical Mermaid Lounge
Exploring the Sacred Cycles of Life with Deb Bowen
The iconic psychic, author, podcaster and instructor Deb Bowen doesn't just teach spirituality—she lives it. With bare feet touching the earth and altars scattered throughout her home, she embodies the earth-based wisdom she's cultivated over more than five decades of metaphysical study.
Details
Our conversation with this beloved spiritual educator and co-host of the Psychic Teachers Podcast reveals how profoundly her approach to intuitive work has evolved. "I don't think of myself so much as a psychic anymore," Deb confesses, explaining that her mission has shifted toward helping humanity reconnect with Mother Earth. This environmental consciousness permeates everything from her writing to her teaching, grounded in the belief that we exist within "the great giving circle" where humans hold no special place above other beings.
Deb's new book, "Crafting the Wheel of the Year," co-authored with Claire Gelder, guides readers through the eight Celtic seasonal celebrations with historical context, spiritual teachings, and accessible craft projects. From Samhain (October 31st) marking the Celtic new year to Mabon at the autumnal equinox, these observances reconnect us with natural cycles too often forgotten in our supermarket-supplied lives. "We forget that bag of carrots used to live in the dirt," she reminds us, "and we forget the people who grew them and picked them."
Throughout our discussion, Deb weaves together threads from numerous spiritual traditions while emphasizing discernment—the critical thinking that helps each person discover their own truth. Her inclusive approach mirrors her experience teaching Tarot, where she sees the cards not merely as divination tools but as guides to understanding our connection with ourselves and the world around us.
Whether discussing the Beatles' influence on her spiritual journey or offering her friend Joel's wisdom—"push pause, be present, see the spirit"—Deb delivers profound insights with warmth and authenticity. Her teachings remind us that true spirituality isn't about escaping the world but embracing our place within it more fully.
Want to learn more about connecting with seasonal rhythms? Pre-order Deb's book at www.debbowen.com before mid-September to receive special thank-you gifts including meditation recordings and craft patterns.
Contact
Deb's Facebook Profile: Deb Bowen Author Facebook
Deb's Website: www.debbowen.com
Claire Gelder's Website: www.woolcouturecompany.com
Book References
Women Who Runs with the Wolves. Author, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD
A Gift of Prophecy: The Phenomenal Jeane Dixon. Author, Ruth Mont
Shameless Promotions
Chloe Brown is the graphic artist behind all of the Mermaids’ delightfully whimsical branded reels, stories and picture posts on social. Contact her at MysticalMermaidLounge@yahoo.com for artistic consultation and design work.
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Welcome to the Mystical Mermaid Lounge podcast, a space where all spiritual seekers are honored and celebrated. This podcast was born from the journeys of your hosts, who have each faced her own dark night of the sun, but they've emerged with an unshakable belief in divine connection, cosmic inspiration and her true life's calling. Join us on a journey of personal growth, transformation and magical self-discovery. Your first co-host is Chloe Brown, a gifted intuitive empath and shadow work life coach. Your second co-host is Keoni Starr, an intuitive energy worker and acclaimed past life regressionist. The Mystical Mermaid Lounge podcast starts now.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Mystical Mermaid Lounge Podcast. Today, my fabulous co-host, Keone, and myself, Chloe, love to introduce to you Deb Bowen. Thank you so much for being here today, Deb. We are so excited to dive in and get to know the real Deb.
Speaker 3:Deb Bowen is a spiritual educator, teaching courses ranging from working with the auric system and astral body to tarot, to working with sacred symbols. She co-hosts the Psychic Teachers Podcast, which has been on air since 2010 and has been downloaded from iTunes more than 6 million times. The basic tenet of Deb's beliefs and work is connection to the Universal Spirit, to her spirit guides and spirit animal people, and to every being on earth, to Mother Earth herself, and this is reflected in her writings and teachings. Her new book, Crafting the Wheel of the Year, which is co-authored with Claire Gelder, is available now for pre-order. In fact, if you order directly from her website, wwwdebbowencom, which will be in the show notes before the release date in mid-September, you will receive thank you gifts along with the book when it is released, which I'm personally so excited for mine to come in the mail. I love pre-ordering books. It's so exciting to mine to come in the mail. I love pre-ordering books. It's so exciting to get that surprise in the mail Plus, it supports authors in such a big way.
Speaker 3:She is also a co-author of many other publishings, one of which A Good Friend for Bad Times, Helping Others Through Grief. Her creative nonfiction and poetry focuses on living in harmony with the environment and have been published in literary journals in the United States. The materials she creates for her workshops, courses and retreats invites participants to explore a deep connection to nature and the metaphysical world and beyond. Deb has been both a student and a teacher of metaphysics for more than 50 years, studying the work of spiritual masters and other wisdom seekers such as Edgar Cayce, AE Waite, Carl Jung, Carl Sagan, Greg Braden, Maruso Emoto, Raymond Moody, Joseph Campbell and so many others. Her journey toward connectedness led her to study the divine feminine and ecofeminism with Starhawk, Jean Shinoda, Bolin, Margot Adler, Sue Monk Kidd, Phyllis Carrott and others. The search led her to the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene, and to the Morgans of Avalon. We are so excited and honored to have you here at the Mystical Mermaid Lounge today. We have so many questions and so little time, so, if you're okay, we'll just dive straight into it.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. Thank you, Gail, so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation.
Speaker 3:I am Chloe and I have my lovely co-host, keone, here with me today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining us, Deb. I am really interested in getting to know you a little bit more. I've heard your amazing podcast and listened to you on opening the door and I'm really looking forward to this.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Me too Psychic Teachers feels like it was such a foundational offering. You created or co-created this podcast during a time where not only was it considered taboo, but I believe it was a call and talk radio show at first. Could you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 2:please. I think we were actually one of the first podcasts out there. 2010 was a long time ago. Actually, one of the first podcasts out there. 2010 was a long time ago, okay. So there was a time a long time ago when I used to teach Tarot in my living room and Samantha took my introductory course and we became friends and we would talk on the phone a lot at night about all this mumbo jumbo stuff and she said let's do a podcast. And I said I don't know what that means, but OK, and so the only podcast outlet there really was, I think back then, was blog talk radio. I can still hear the woman's voice in my ear and there was no editing option. There was none of that stuff.
Speaker 2:We called in on a landline to a toll free number and when we started talking there, we went that's it. What it was was what it was, and our initial plan, as you have mentioned, was to be a call in psychic show and I guess about three weeks into that, we started getting hundreds of emails from folks saying stop with the questions, just teach. So we did and we changed it from a call-in show to a teaching show, which is what it has continued to be now below these many years, and podcasting, of course, has changed dramatically. The fact that I'm talking to you all in this new, crazy way is testimony to that. Samantha has dragged me kicking and screaming into all of these new technologies. I now have this million dollar fancy microphone in front of me.
Speaker 1:And you sound lovely. You do have great audio quality.
Speaker 2:I do give Samantha the credit for that. Besides all of that, me being such a Luddite I am very grateful for this technology because it allows me to connect with you and students I have from around the world who take my courses and folks from around the world who listen to the podcast, so there are many blessings to it as well. So that's how Psychic Teachers came to be.
Speaker 3:Gosh, how intimidating to talk about something so taboo and have no capability of editing like we do in a modern world. So bold it was what it was.
Speaker 1:It was what it was. I'm wondering why you're kicking and screaming in the 21st century. We were just talking about that coming into a different age. Do you feel that it has any sort of barrier or provides a barrier to connection? I can't imagine that, but I'm just wondering do you feel more comfortable at another time?
Speaker 2:I'm a real control freak. I know that about myself. I am, and all this technology controls me. Before we started recording, my internet server went out right and I had to do all this button pushing to make it work again. Well, there was a time when I had a landline, the old-fashioned landline. We could just talk on the phone and we'd be done. All would be well. I lived for 21 years in a house that I heated, primarily with a wood stove. I have all this stuff because I got it. I would really live much more simply if I could.
Speaker 1:It's the simplicity of it and also being able to control and understand how to control. I think that's the big thing, right, Because it's become so complicated that just the lay person, like you said, we're all just pushing buttons so we're not really understanding fully how everything's connecting. But there is no barrier, right, as far as having any sort of psychic or mediumship connection with people over the phone. Clearly, people were calling in and you were having no issue that way. No, no.
Speaker 2:I don't think. I'm not sure I'm accurate about this. I need to ponder this. I'm not sure that intuitive connection works through the internet. I think it works on something bigger than that 100% agreed with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. We're just lucky enough to have the internet to do the face-to-face, while everything else is doing the work. What was it like to speak openly about intuition, different energies, the spirit of the world? It wasn't always, I'd imagine, wasn't always receptive. And how has the spiritual community evolved since you first started, whether it was in your personal journey or your podcast history?
Speaker 2:I think that the world in which we lived, samantha and I, initially with the podcast was a double-edged sword. We both had day jobs in academia, we both had responsibilities. Otherwise, our interest in metaphysics really could depending on how we couch the language, it could be taken to be an academic exercise. How are we interested in this from a philosophical perspective, however? But when you get to the working of real intuitive work, it became a different thing. We both maintain that you're not special because you're intuitive. We're all intuitive. All of us are intuitive. We all have that ability. What is special is those folks who cultivate it and work with it a lot, but we all have that, and so part of what we have done all these years is to foster other folks' awareness of their own ability to be intuitive, to do intuitive work, to see the world around them in a deeply connected way.
Speaker 2:Samantha and I are dramatically different. If you have listened to the podcast or looked at our pictures, you know that Samantha is pink, fluffy and bubbly, and I'm old and curmudgeon-y, and I know that. I'm aware, we're both aware of it. In addition to that, samantha is a cradle Catholic, and so she had that very Catholic background, some of which really demanded that what she was doing was wrong. I grew up in a Protestant tradition, but I grew up with a father who encouraged my exploration.
Speaker 2:When I was in high school and you've probably heard this story before when I was in high school and came home and announced I was going to be a Buddhist, my sweet little Presbyterian daddy said then be the best Buddhist you can be. And that gave me that lovely permission to explore, and so my interest in world beliefs and cultures and how they interact and how they support and nurture each other. They don't have to be diametrically opposed in any way Once you realize that there's lots of different ways of saying the same thing. That's my perspective, and so Samantha and I have been a mirror for each other in those explorations. Ironically, my knowledge of Christianity is far greater than Samantha's, and she will tell you that we talked about it.
Speaker 2:If there's a Bible verse to be quoted, I can do that. She can't. We just laugh about that stuff. So one of the things that we wanted to accomplish although we didn't set out with it consciously at all with the podcast was to model how folks of very different backgrounds, very different beliefs, could come together and be respectful of each other and honor and support each other's beliefs, and we've done that now for 15 years.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering what you found with your relationships with the Lakota people and meeting different people culturally around the world. As you know, tribal people have a very different relationship with their creator. It is not necessarily a fear-based belief system we'll put it that way and there's an understanding that we are all co-creators in different ways. And yet, when the Catholic influence came in, my mom shared that with me and said you have to go with what guides you, which is very much what sounds like your father said to you. Not that this is right or this is right, but your search for your own meaning in this process is what's important. I'm wondering if that is how you ended up finding your path and your belief system, or is that still even changing?
Speaker 2:first of all, I cannot, nor will I ever speak for my Lakota folks. I can't do that, I won't do it. I'm a white girl. But what I will tell you that I have taken away from the teaching from my elders on the reservation with which I have connection, is that there is this lovely honoring and acceptance of so many differing beliefs. Our ways may be different, our language, how we address that creative energy, whatever it's called, however it's named, is okay, that's just fine. If I were to go to a Catholic church on a Sunday morning, I would sit in that church and absolutely honor the Catholic way of doing what they're doing. If I were on the res, in a sweat lodge, I would honor that way of doing things, and church and sweat lodge are not the same thing. Let me make that real clear. So I think it becomes a matter of being curious and saying this may or may not be my path right now, it may be later, but at this moment it may or may not be, but I certainly respect that. It's your path. That's what I do with that. To answer your bigger question about how my beliefs evolved you know when the Beatles went to India, my world changed, because you know, that's what you do when you're in high school and you think that George Harrison's the cutest on the planet, and so there's that. And so that opened the door for exploration of Eastern thought, but not wide enough, because I didn't at that time know the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism, for example. Neither did Daddy. But that was OK. So from that there came this interest in world beliefs and so forth.
Speaker 2:I'd always been a student of mythology. I got my first copy of Edith Hamilton's mythology book when I was in the fourth grade book when I was in the fourth grade. So I have always studied mythology Greek and Roman and Egyptian and Celtic mythology all of that for many years. And then when Ruth Montgomery wrote that biography of Jean Dixon called the Gift of Prophecy, that opened up a whole other world and gave me a bunch of other names to research, like Arthur Ford for example, and all that kind of stuff. So that sort of gave me a segue.
Speaker 2:And then I met the two people who have been for more than 50 years and who still are today, my best friends, my wonderful friend Granny Jean, the palm reader and basket weaver, and my friend Joel the crystallologist, and the three of us set out on this path together of exploration, and we were initially, like so many of our podcast listeners, kids in candy stores. We just took it all in and at some point we realized, well, wait, this is all fun and interesting, but what's for me? What do I really believe? And I suggest to people that they ask for the gift of discernment. What I mean is really critical thinking. I'm really talking in terms of making a decision as to what is your truth, what is really the path that works for you, and so that exploration never ends. I pray, I never stop learning. In fact, I say that I know I can't do this, but when I die, I want to go to the other side with a notepad, a pen.
Speaker 1:I have questions, but I noticed it wasn't an iPad. What the?
Speaker 2:hell's that no.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:No, I just want a little notepad, thank you very much, like the kind that I carry with me wherever I go. So there's, I think, the answer to your question. Keone, did I answer it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did, because I was kind of sharing how my pathway was, I was presented with these very two different thought processes and kind of said, what does that mean for me? And your father gave you that bandwidth to be able to explore and discern the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism. And thank God for the Beatles? Yeah, absolutely. And I always thought George Harrison was the cutest too. My sister was all about Ringo and I'm like he wasn't even the first. There was Peter Best and then we go down that path.
Speaker 2:You're right, we could talk about that for days.
Speaker 3:I love that you brought that up, deb, because actually, when I first started really listening to myself and really trying to discern what works, I feel like I get most of my knowledge not in this physical realm, through music, and so, as I've heard you speak about that through years, those two things have just really deeply resonated with me and allowed me to learn that I do not need anybody else to believe what I believe, that as long as I'm not harming anybody or myself, that it's okay, and that's really what I learned from your podcast. So thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, oh yeah. We can have a whole conversation about music and how that guides us every day.
Speaker 3:Looking back, what would you consider one of your biggest personal struggles and maybe one of your greatest successes on the path of becoming the iconic voice that you are today in this earth-based spirituality, intuitive wisdom and crone work? And I love that you don't add labels, so that it never feels exclusive. It always feels inclusive.
Speaker 2:I try, gosh, that's a great question. Thank you for that, chloe. I have never felt like I do enough. I don't feel like I do enough, and here's what I mean by that. If I were truly walking my talk, I wouldn't be sitting here with you this morning. I would be at some kind of organization or some kind of meeting or some kind of political event, lobbying for the rights of coyotes, lobbying for the rights of the trees, working towards saving Mother Ocean from that horrible trash thing out there.
Speaker 2:That's why I say I don't do enough, because, to me, when I think about the journey that I have come along, I don't think of myself so much as a psychic anymore. I really don't. I don't know if it ever really goes away, but that's not the primary label or energy of the work that I'm doing right now. It really is the idea that if we don't save this planet, we don't have a planet to live on. And I don't mean we as human beings. Remember, I don't believe in a hierarchy. I believe in the great giving circle and that we all are equal. The ant people have no less respect and responsibility than the elephant. People and humans are not at the top of a hierarchy top of a hierarchy, and it is that circular way of thinking that really makes me say I don't do enough.
Speaker 2:That's why almost all of the articles and creative nonfiction work that I have in Salvation South, all of those pieces, are focused in some way on our connection to Mother Earth, and that really is so much more of where I see the need for me. I can't speak for other people, but it's the need that I have to be deeply connected to Earth energy, because if I'm not doing that, then how am I connected to anything or anybody else? In real life? I have to go to the grocery store, clean the toilet and stuff. I mean all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Real life does all of that too. So how do I balance that? It's one of the reasons I love Tarot so much and have taught it for so many years is because Tarot teaches us connection. All those different belief systems and mythologies and cultures that you can see on any given key is about connection and how we can work together. And the other thing it teaches us is finding balance and connection within ourselves. You see that on all so many keys, and so when I teach Tarot and I teach a lot of Tarot when I do that. It's another vehicle where I can talk about how we can see ourselves beyond our internal self but our connection to the broader world around us, our internal self but our, our connection to the broader world around us.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's a so relatable. We might've heard you on opening the door podcast with Haley B oh that was a great interview.
Speaker 2:I was so happy to talk to her.
Speaker 3:She's phenomenal. She is absolutely an investigative journalist in my opinion, and, gosh, I just adore her. I could rave about her forever, but she asked you a question that we wanted to pick up on. She asked if you had a favorite Tarot card and you said you had two. Yeah, and I believe, unless I missed it, you only told us about the temperance card. Could you tell us what your second favorite card is, the Hermit?
Speaker 2:In the traditional Waitsmith deck. The Hermit is garbed in gray, he is standing on a snow-covered mountaintop, he has a staff in one hand and a lantern in the other, and the light inside that lantern is a six-pointed star. That's it. That's all that's on that card.
Speaker 2:And yet the incredible wisdom, the numerology, the incredible wisdom, the numerology, the connection to the cosmos, the notion that the teacher is a guide but also always a student and always supported him or herself because they have a staff. And that mountaintop upon which the hermit stands is the same mountaintop that we see in the very first key, where the fool is standing. And so the hermit is a teacher for the fool. And if you watch, if you lay out the major arcana in order take my class you'll get the same exact little lecture. If you lay out the major arcana in order, you can watch the flow of that ice melting from the fool until the figure in the world is swimming in it, dancing in it. So that's why I love the hermit so much. In a nutshell, there's more, but I love that six-pointed star, that notion of as above so below, the whole notion of sacred geometry and the platonic solids, and on and on and on it goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sacred geometry can definitely be that rabbit hole for a long time.
Speaker 2:I taught a course on sacred geometry this spring and had such a nice bunch of people in that class.
Speaker 3:So another question that I did have. That's something I've been trying to get myself to actually email in, because I love the monthly episodes that you do with readers questions, but for some reason I just couldn't get myself to do it. So, since we have the luxury of you here, do you believe all empaths are psychics, or all psychics or empathic, or what do you think about that connection?
Speaker 2:I don't know a lot about the notion of empaths. I really don't again, I think we're, we're all those things that's exactly why I wanted to ask.
Speaker 3:I figured that would be a very simple, straightforward answer for you.
Speaker 2:There you go you know, I'm just not gonna put all these people in boxes, I'm just not gonna do it so one.
Speaker 3:What do you attribute your ongoing popularity to, and how do you stay grounded, not only as you've become such an iconic voice and such a well-known name, but more so in this tumultuous environment that we're living in, I think?
Speaker 2:there's several things that that we can attribute the listenership to psychic teachers to. One is that we have a base of folks who have been with us since day one. Truly, there are people who go back and listen to all those episodes over and over again. Bless their hearts. I've not done that.
Speaker 3:It took me a long time to get through them, but I work a day job where I can listen to those things in my ears while I'm working, so I eventually got through.
Speaker 2:Wow, bless you for doing that. Thank you so much. So this is core, this is large core group of people who've been with us from day one, and there are new seekers out there. The podcast that you gals are doing, haley. I've got another interview next week sometime with folks who are just putting a bubble around this work, and so when folks are looking for two friendly voices, one of whom sounds like your great grandmother or some old woman and the other is sweet and lovely, samantha, and it sounds like we're just sitting at the kitchen table having tea, you want to listen in and we're happy for you to listen. In fact, absolutely honestly, there are times that we forget we're recording because we'll get into a conversation and at some point I'll say, samantha, we're recording this, and she's like, oh crap, okay, I'll fix that. So we do. I mean, you know, so we do get into those conversations and I think it's that real part of who we are.
Speaker 2:Samantha has been beyond open about her life experience, right, you know about her breast cancer. You know about her marriage and her divorce. You know about her raising her beautiful daughters, who are amazing women y'all. They've grown up to be gorgeously kind, wonderful people. And her new fella. You know that stuff about Samantha and that makes her very real and very relatable. And then there's Deb, deb, who says well, you should be studying this. And blah, blah, blah. So there's that. So we know that we have new folks coming in who are like whoa, I don't even know the questions to ask. And that's okay, because we've all been there, but we didn't even know the questions. And even if you do know some questions, how do you put the information into some kind of logical sequencing, right? And we realize that we're forever having to teach in both arenas folks who know stuff and have been there for a long time and who may need reminding, and folks who are brand new to this. Like, for example, when I say 101, learn to balance and align and spin your chakras. And when somebody says I don't know what that word means. Okay, so we got some more work to do, and that's fine, because we're happy to teach that. We're happy to teach that. Those are how we stay with the folks who are interested in what we're saying.
Speaker 2:How do I stay grounded? I don't wear shoes unless you make me put them on to go into some place where they will kick me out if I don't have them on, no more shoes. I taught in a classroom barefooted for 21 years. They couldn't make me wear shoes. I mean I just I don't have any on now. Do I go outside and touch Mother Earth with my bare feet? Do I walk on the beach? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I literally ground myself with bare feet and I believe in that notion that energy comes up and I have a responsibility to send it back down and share it. So there's that again, that idea of needing balance. Another way that I ground myself is every morning in the shower. That's where I align my chakras. I talk to all eight chakras, so don't forget that one up here in the sky, you know, and that helps every day. And I also use that chakra balancing time as a prayer time as well. It's like, oh, help me say nice words today, as I'm working on my third chakra. You know that kind of stuff. So that's what I do. What I'm describing to you is just a routine of my real day. Are there altars in my house, everywhere? My friend Jamila says give Deb a flat surface and she will build an altar. And that is true. There are altars everywhere.
Speaker 2:There are rocks everywhere it's true, there are rocks everywhere and seashells. There are rocks and seashells everywhere. Those are things. Incense I burn incense a lot.
Speaker 3:That helps Love that.
Speaker 2:That's kind of my practice and routine, okay.
Speaker 3:I love that. Thank you for sharing. You're welcome. Could you speak to your primary offerings and who's your ideal client?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm always happy to have all sorts of folks. It's that diversity that makes us fun. At the moment, my website is very focused on the book that's being published, so a lot of the stuff is on that. In fact, I should probably go take my Tarot courses off of there.
Speaker 2:I just finished up a round of intro courses, my Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot. In the fall and I'm not quite sure when later in the fall I will offer my advanced course, my advanced Tarot course. I do numerology reports. I do animal people guides reports. I have some couple of e-booklets that are literally that. They're PDFs on gardening, connecting with nature to garden, asking the plants to work with you, moon phases, crystals and tarot for the major arcana. That was an interesting process to meditate and ask each of the major arcana keys which stone it wanted to connect with. That was interesting. Each of the major arcana keys which stone it wanted to connect with, that was interesting. That's what's on my website mostly right now it's wwwdebbowencom. Two Bs With an E-N.
Speaker 3:Yes, bowen E-N. What about your approach? Do you feel like resonates or is particularly effective within this community? Really connects you to others?
Speaker 2:What folks have told me is that they appreciate that part of me. That's very straightforward what you see is what you get, and that I really do expect that our relationship will be collaborative. One of the things I tell my students in my Tarot course is I promise them only one thing. I won't promise them they'll learn to read Tarot. That's a lifetime journey. What I promise them is that I will learn something, and I believe that I learn something every time, and sometimes it's weird stuff, like, for example, in this last course. The two of wands appeared and for the first time I realized that the globe that the figure in the key is holding only shows the world as it was in the 1400s. So the one part of Europe is how they saw the world. I'd never noticed that before. I mean, you know, we're so acculturated here where we live that when we see a globe, we see North and South America. Right, that's not what's on that card.
Speaker 3:It's just weird, fascinating little stuff. Yeah, I love those little moments Like we were just talking about how long it took me to catch that one word that you repeat regularly on your podcast. It's like, wow, has that been there the whole time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those words are there, love it. For example, if you look at the temperance key and you look at the figure, the winged figure on the key and the yoke of the gown, if you blow it up, what you see is the Hebraic word that says Yahweh. It just looks like folds and wrinkles in the gown. It's actually a Hebrew word, so it's just much fun, but that matters. The fact that symbol is hidden in that key is something that can be very helpful if you're working with the key, and one of the things I also teach my folks is that reading tarot is great and fun and wonderful, but there are a zillion other ways to work with the keys rather than just doing divination work.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with the keys. Rather than just doing divination work. Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree. I'd like to start talking about your book if you're good with that. Absolutely, just to remind everybody, it is called Crafting the Wheel of the Year.
Speaker 2:It is scheduled to release on September 16th Around September 16th.
Speaker 3:Perfect and fingers crossed, yes, yes, and I just wanted to her site and pre-order. You'll get some goodies. I don't want to take away your spiel, so I'll let you talk about it, but it's something I really wanted to mention because it's exciting. So, with that book coming out around September 16th, which looks lovely, which you co-authored with Claire Gelder, it feels like a timely offer.
Speaker 2:Claire was a student of mine in a lot of classes and she emailed me and said would you be interested in co-authoring a book with me? Would you be interested in co-authoring a book with me? And what I've learned in conversation with Claire is that she is the owner of an international corporation called Wolcotour. She won I'm not sure I'm going to get this right, whatever that shark tank thing is, but in England, the England thing, whatever that version is Claire won it and so that gave her investors to build this amazing business. And this book is her eighth book. Her other seven books are all craft books, just craft stuff. So when she emailed me and she said what if you and I partner in writing a book where I do the craft stuff Because Deb doesn't do crafts, y'all I confess, ah, what I know, I know I'll come back to that and she said but if we create a book that talks about the eight seasons in the Celtic tradition and you write the history and the culture and the spirituality and all that stuff, if you write that and I do the craft piece, we could have this lovely collaboration. And not only can we have this collaboration with the history and that piece and the craft piece, but also across the ocean. I mean she, she lives in England and I said, well, okay, let's see what happens. We wrote a proposal, sent it to her publisher who said, yeah, let's do it, and off we went.
Speaker 2:The process of creating the book was so much fun, gosh, I had such a good time. What lovely people to work with. Claire is a delight. Her creativity does not bounce. She is something else y'all. And the woman who was our editor was just lovely. She was very kind. She was a little nervous about working with me and I said to her I spent 14 years as a technical writer. I spent 21 years in academia. I'm used to being edited. You can't hurt my feelings.
Speaker 3:Oh, I was going to ask why she was nervous that answers it.
Speaker 2:I said you can't. I mean, I'll be fine. And interestingly, other than a couple of little things, the only thing she changed that I wrote was she added the use in the British spelling of words. So that was fun. So what you see is what I wrote, where she added the use in the British spelling of words. So that was fun. So what you see is what I wrote, and it was a long time in the process and the photography and all that stuff, and I wish I'd been across the pond to be able to have been there at some of the photo shoots, but it couldn't work out the way it all happened. So the book is a labor of love from both of us, and I included, with each holiday, suggested crystals, suggested essential oils to help folks kind of think about other ways in which they can connect, in addition to doing the projects that Claire has suggested and there are two for each of the holidays, and then there is a 17th project that incorporates the symbology of all eight of the holidays together. So that's in the book too.
Speaker 2:So, yes, you can order it from either of our websites. Devbowencom or woolcouturecompanycom is Claire's website and you can order hers from anywhere in the world. I am only shipping to the US, but Claire order hers from anywhere in the world. I am only shipping to the US, but Claire can ship from anywhere in the world. When you place an order, you get a confirmation email from me with a note telling you around September 16th. I have no control over what the printer is doing in yet another foreign country. So there's that mess you know. But see, I'm back to Devin control again. See, I think you're absolutely right, but if you order from either of our websites.
Speaker 2:Here's what you get when the book is published, we will snail mail you the book with a card inside. We didn't want to just do a bookmark, so it's a postcard size card with a blessing on it and a note from the two of us. So you get the card in the mail with the book and then we'll email you a downloadable MP3 that's a meditation that walks you through the eight holidays a Merlin the Magic Cat crochet pattern and a Minerva the Owl knitting pattern and that was Claire's idea. Isn't that lovely, isn't that sweet? So you get all that stuff if you order, and there will be a deadline. I'm not quite sure yet. I've got to talk to some book dealer friends, but there will be a deadline as to when that offer will end on my website.
Speaker 2:You can also, of course, order it through online retailers or your local bookstore. Please, please, if you don't order it from me but you don't get the goodies if you do that. You only get those if you order directly from me or from Claire. If you order from the online website called bookshoporg, bookshoporg automatically sends a portion of the book to my favorite bookstore, to a brick and mortar bookstore Gets a little bit of money from that. Yeah, so there's that. So I hope y'all enjoy the book. I mean I'd love to have you buy it.
Speaker 3:I already pre-ordered mine. Thank you, of course. How do you envision crafting the Wheel of the Year to help people live a more soulful and connected life? Yeah, that's more in natural rhythmic patterns.
Speaker 2:So, whatever spiritual tradition you are, a part of Christianity, for example, you know what day Christmas is, right. I mean, christians know what Christmas is Exactly, definitely. But we don't always pay attention, regardless of our beliefs, to what phase the moon is in, what zodiac sign we're in when Mercury goes retrograde. That's the one that everybody, at least, does pay some attention to. But do you know when Saturn goes retrograde? Most folks don't. Do we pay attention to the day, the moment that we move in to from one season to the other. For example, on June 21st we moved into summer, right, moved into summer.
Speaker 2:Well, the holiday that corresponds to that in the Celtic tradition is Litha. It's a beautiful holiday that honors that father-son and that connection to the growing things and the ripening of the grain. Remember, these are agrarian holidays and we forget when we go to the grocery store store and we forget that bag of carrots used to live in the dirt right and we forget the people who grew them and the people who picked them. Right, we forget that stuff. So it's that kind of an awareness of that we are not separate from and distinct from that cycling of the seasons that we're a part of that too. For example, just a few days ago we celebrated the first of the harvest festival. There are three, and the first of them is called Lunasa, and it's named after the Celtic god, lou, who created the holiday in honor of his mother, who was the queen of the Tuatidana.
Speaker 2:That's fun historical mythological stuff, but what does it mean? What it means is that now everything is ripening, the corn is ripening, the grain is ripening. And when I say the grain is ripening, we go okay, that's a big field of all that sort of beigey stuff. No, that's the bread. That's a big field of all that sort of beige-y stuff. No, that's the bread that's on your table tonight. And how'd it get there? And who do we honor that? Got it to us right? So it's the connection to the land and to the people who do the work, and that, to me, is really so much of what honoring that cycles of the season is really all about. So we have the four solar seasons right Winter, spring, summer, fall and in the between each of them we have what we call cross quarter days, and Lunasa is a cross quarter day. It's a whole long story and too much to talk about today. I'm sure about why the year begins at Samhain, which is October 31st, but that's a whole other story, but it's in the book.
Speaker 3:I was driving to work and I felt almost like a season shift. It was very interesting. I felt this energy. It was very evident what I felt. It was very clear. Once I got to work, I did some Googling and I realized oh my gosh, it's April 1st. It is what you were talking about and that's what I meant. Yes, but this is also my first year that I've had a huge, successful garden and everything is really into bloom. I actually had a panic this morning with the water. So, yeah, I'm finally getting the connectivity that I wanted with the nature. So I'm so grateful for a book like this that really helps me understand what resonates Right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you know, many of the craft projects that Claire has in the book are fun and easy. It's certainly family oriented. How to dye eggs with natural things like onion skins and that sort of thing and then turn them into planters and whatnot. It's fun. But there's also more complex craft exercises in here as well. But some of what we think of today as crafts were also a part of what you just did in olden days. Miss Luddite here loves this stuff, of course. Think about, for example, there's an instruction in here on how to make a broom. Well, a broom that's a small one, you know, but it's. You can do whatever with it. But the idea is, can you imagine not having a hearth broom in olden days? Of course you did so. Not only was that lovely and creative and whatnot, but it was also quite functional. To this end, yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you feel each Sabbath has a distinct sacred lesson or energy and, if so, which one speaks to you the most currently, and if there's a seasonal shift that continues to challenge you or transform you or call you?
Speaker 2:Wow, you know you're right. They all have very distinct energy, very distinct intent. And yes, I'm like you. I can feel that shift. When we move. You can see a marked shift in the sunlight across the living room floor on a certain day. I mean, it's just, that's the kind of stuff that's really fun.
Speaker 2:I love all of the holidays. I think I love Samhain because it's the beginning of the year, it's a time to begin to rest, it's the third harvest, everything should be done and cleaned and put away and the wood pile finished and you know, and the canning and all that stuff is done and it's time to just breathe for a little bit. And you've got time to go within as winter is coming on. You've got time to gather the family around the hearth and friends and make preparations for Yule, which comes next in December. And it's one of the crafts. In the book, claire has taught folks how to use rowan berries to make garland. Rowan berries have little five-pointed stars at the tip of the bottom of them, so that's fun, you know. So how do you do that kind of stuff? I grew up in a world where we did popcorn and cranberries right, so you can use this in whatever culture and world in which you live. But then you move into that Yule. And now at Yule, this is the darkest night of the year, it's the shortest day, so it's a time to really think about that within us. That is dark, and I don't mean dark in an evil way, but that needs that quietness and that resting time, because tomorrow the light grows and it moves on onward to imbulk in February, which is the word means in the belly, and it's a time of early lambing, means in the belly, and it's a time of early lambing, it's a time of quickening. Underneath the dirt, mother Earth is waking up.
Speaker 2:Clarissa Pinkoli-Zestes, in her wonderful book Women who Run With the Wolves, says when it's time, it's time, and that is truly one of my favorite sentences in all of literature. When it's time, it's time, and that's what the shifting of the seasons mean in all of literature. When it's time, it's time, and that's what the shifting of the seasons mean. And so in the Northern Hemisphere, at Imbolc, we honor the goddess Bridget it's because she was the goddess of early lambs, poetry, smithery, fire, sacred wells and some other stuff. So that's that cross-quarter time between the dark of Yule and the light coming full on at spring, at Ostara, at the vernal equinox. And now the world is waking up and we got bunnies and chickens and everybody is all over the place. You know, spring is springing and that's just so much fun.
Speaker 2:And from the vernal equinox in spring we go to a cross quarter day, the first of May, called Beltane. I don't know if they still do that in schools, but when I was a little girl we had a maypole and we danced around the maypole with big, bright ribbons, right. I don't think the school knew what they were doing, because it's a fertility holiday. I don't think they did so. Beltane really is an honoring and a prayer and a ritual to ask for the seeds that are getting ready to be planted for a good crop, right. And from Beltane in May we go then to Litha in summer and we're at the summer solstice and the counterpoint to Yule and all that bright light. And from there we go to Anassa and then on to Mabon, which is the second holiday of the harvest, at autumnal equinox, and then back to Samhain and the wheel spins again. Oh, that was the year in 10 minutes or less.
Speaker 3:That's impressive, quite remarkable what you just did there and with good information, but yet done that a time or two.
Speaker 2:But when you live it when that is just a part of what you do and how your world is. That's easy. It's the same thing as if, whatever other belief you may have, and you know what you're going to do at a certain holiday.
Speaker 3:Totally makes sense. What's the one main takeaway or feeling that you really hope your readers gain after reading the Crafting the Wheel of the Year?
Speaker 2:Joy. I hope they come away from this book with joy, with oh, isn't this fun, and isn't it interesting that these kinds of crafts and this kind of connection to the shifting of the seasons has been going on longer than we can name.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. I just love the agrarian look at the year and there's a time to plant, there's a time to harvest and there's a time to rest, and I just love that your book puts that in a joyous way for people who love to craft and then build in that mythology and these earth-based practices that so many of us are new to, and so I look at how easily you named those different seasonal holidays as oh, this is a jumping off point for me. So I'm just thankful that you went through that and I really look forward to digging into it, because that is something that is not overwhelming that I can definitely look at as a jumping off point. Great Good.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you. I'm so glad to hear that Wonderful. Yeah, it's just fun. It's so much fun yeah.
Speaker 1:Right Life doesn't have to be such a drag.
Speaker 3:Such a checklist all the time.
Speaker 1:Hence the reason I was looking into Buddhism. How do I get out of the drag? I?
Speaker 2:hear you and you bring up a really good point with that, because the world is pretty draggy. What do we do to nurture ourselves in the midst of chaos, confusion, whatever. What do we do? You turn off the TV, you give yourself a news moratorium. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen, whether I'm watching it on television or not. I actually don't have a television. There's that. Yes, I do watch stuff on the computer. I confess I do. But give yourself a break and go out and touch the earth, say thank you. That is the first word. Those are the first words out of my mouth in the morning and the last words at night. And I go out and stand outside and talk to the trees with whom I share space and say thank you to them. Talk to the bird people and the squirrel people.
Speaker 1:That helps people, and that's that helps I. I love it because it's been here all along.
Speaker 1:All we had to do was notice yes, I so agree with you and I think that was one of many cool things with having a native american mother. But she was very much into oh, oh, here comes the sturgeon moon. That means blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then she would go down the path of explaining the moon phases and understanding how that tied into seasonal shifts and what that meant for plants and crops and animals, and it just seemed like such an amazing, in touch way of living that we certainly don't have now. And I just wanted to say one more thing, deb, that I've noticed with my daughter who's? She's the alpha after the millennials, or Zalpha, whatever they call the next generation, but none of them have TVs, because they can always pop up a laptop and watch when they're ready, and there's something to be said for that, isn't that?
Speaker 2:interesting.
Speaker 1:Wow. So where we were deluged constantly, right, as a way of staying in touch, they've chosen to and maybe it's money because they're young and they can't afford all the cable connections and who knows.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I remember watching television. As a child we had a tv. I remember watching the news when I was a teenager and tremendous arguments with my sweet, wonderful daddy about the Vietnam War. Cannot tell you how many times I left the dinner table in tears. We had very differing views on that. Eventually he came around to my perspective, which was critical. It was as a result of that that I quit watching TV. I said I don't need to know, I just don't watch it all this time. You know, it's interesting to hear how younger people see the actual equipment. I've watched folks just throw their computer on the floor. I paid too much money for that darn thing.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing that, you know so funny you say that and they cover them in stickers and all kinds of things that I'm thinking that thing costs. Do you have any idea? It's just a different value proposition. But the other thing that you said is really important is that the news programming that we had whether it was Vietnam War reports and such they're not looking at traditional news, the way that we received our programming. So they're searching. God help me, whether it's YouTube or TikTok I hope it's something a little bit more informed. But the point is they're searching out their own venue to receive their news.
Speaker 2:They are indeed, and I hope that they are asking for the gift of discernment which really concerns me a great deal. I'm old enough that I remember when we had ABC, nbc and CBS and they just told what happened and that was the end of the news. There was no commentary or pundits or any of that stuff. It was just here's what happened today. Have a nice night. I mean, I can still hear Walter Cronkiteite in my head, but that's not what it is now. And and anyway, what is news? What is truth? And there's a whole other conversation, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, truth is what we agree it is oh, that's true they don't want to make us run over time. We just talked about that yesterday actually we'll hush on that.
Speaker 2:Anyway, what else do you all want to know? Or ask Are we good?
Speaker 3:Those were all great things. I just wanted to say that I was very excited also about this book, because, whether you're a crafter or whether you're somebody who just genuinely wants to maybe understand all of the different religions, genuinely wants to maybe understand all of the different religions or philosophies or thought processes, we've encountered a lot of people who think in that path instead of just one box, and I love that, and so this book speaks to me for those reasons, because it feels like a book that was created for everybody.
Speaker 2:The craft projects go from very simple and fun to much more complex, and regardless of your beliefs. Summer solstice is coming, Winter solstice is coming. The seasons are doing what they do, no matter what you believe, and isn't it fun to look at them from varying perspectives? And isn't it fun to look at them from varying perspectives? I mean, for example, and I'll push after this but if you look at Imbolc in February, if you're a Catholic, you're celebrating Candlemas is the name for it in Catholicism right Again, there's that notion of we're far more connected than we are apart. There's that, Well, we're so connected than we are apart.
Speaker 3:There's that Well, we're so, so grateful to have you here. One of the things we always ask our guests if there was any guidance mantra affirmation, anything you felt so called to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you for asking that. That's a great question. Many years ago, that's a great question Many years ago, I had a crazy thing going on at work and I was just nuts and I called Joel and I said talk me off the ledge, there's crazy stuff going on here, what do I need to do? And he said push pause, be present, see the spirit, push pause, be present, see the spirit. And those three suggestions work together to remind me to sit down and shut up and be still a minute. Push pause, to be present right here, in this moment and right now. What can I really do in this moment and for whoever or whatever is involved? What is the spiritual aspect of that question and that person? Thank you, joel.
Speaker 2:Yes thank you.
Speaker 3:Joel, I see the spirit in you.
Speaker 2:The spirit in me Namaste. The spirit in me sees the spirit in you.
Speaker 3:Exactly so grateful for your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, have a wonderful day, thank you, and thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun. We'll talk again soon. Indeed Bye everybody.
Speaker 3:Thanks for diving into the depths with us today. If you enjoyed this episode, show your support at buymeacoffeecom forward slash mystical mermaid lounge, as every little ripple helps keep the magic flowing. Would you like some more deep, soul yearning conversations? Well then, swim on over to our sister podcast, past Lives Cafe, where Keone deep dives into those past life experiences. Also, we'd love to hear from you. Please don't forget to rate and review and drop your feedback and comments at our website, mysticalmermaideloungebuzzsproutcom. Thank you again so much, and don't forget to catch us at the next high tide. Bye.
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