Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Grief Magic: Rituals, Tarot & Gentle Conversations about Loss

In this beautifully imaginative conversation, I’m joined again by Zoë from The Runa School to explore how ritual and play can come together to help us navigate grief, transformation, and everyday life. You can listen to our first conversation on the Kind Business podcast over here. 

Zoë shares how her work designing ritual games grew from her studies in rites of passage and her deep interest in how we can bring the sacred and the playful into conversation. We talk about the ritual game she created for me, The Grandmother’s Quilt, and how this experience opened a space for healing, intimacy with the land, and a sense of being witnessed in grief.

Together we explore:

• How ritual games bridge devotion, creativity, and play

• What it means to be seen and held in moments of transformation

• The healing power of simple, repeated acts of presence

• What it looks like to root into community, ancestry, and the land

• How we might bring ritual and reflection into workplaces and everyday life

Zoë also shares her vision for the future of The Runa School: bringing ritual games into collective spaces and reimagining our relationship with technology, storytelling, and community care.

Zoë Ackerman is a co-founder of Mycelios, a game design studio, and Runa, a school dedicated to teaching and learning animist ritual. Zoë draws on over a decade of experience in participatory design, rites of passage, and embodied storytelling. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Zoë now lives in Curitiba, Brazil, on the ancestral lands of the Guarani, Kaingang, and Xetá peoples.

You can find Zoë’s work and sign up for her newsletter at runa.school.

You can join our weekly glimmer sessions here: https://griefmagic.com/blessings/

and this is the link to my business group program Rooted: https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Enrollment for Rooted 2026 closes this Sunday, January 25th, and I would love for you to join us. In this short episode, I’m sharing what to expect inside the program and a few new updates that make it an even more beautiful experience.

You’ll hear about:
🌿 The six themes we’ll explore together in Rooted
✨ The new series of short pep talks you can download and listen to anytime
🕯️ Two new Sunday co-working sessions for peaceful focus and accountability
💛 The new six-month payment plan and sliding-scale options (starting at £50/month)

If you’ve been thinking about joining but haven’t said yes yet, this is your moment. Rooted begins on Saturday, February 1st, and I can’t wait to get started.

👉 Learn more and enroll here: https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted

Today I want to talk to you about something really simple but surprisingly life-changing:  the emotional support bag.

I started this practice in 2021, after my friend Francis died. I was deep in grief, and at the time I was mostly homebound due to an accident and lockdown. My days blurred together and it was just hard to keep track of things. I noticed that the things that could give me comfort, like a soft blanket, a lip balm, my stimmy toy or a good smell were always scattered around the house. So I began gathering them into a small zip pouch that I could keep near me at all times.

Over time this became what I call my emotional support bag. It’s small enough to fit in my backpack, but full of things that make moving through the day easier. I know this is super simple, but its also great magic. 

Here are the two links I mentioned: 

Weekly Glimmer sessions https://griefmagic.com/blessings/

Rooted group program https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted/

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I'm delighted to greet the new year by sharing a beautiful conversation I had with Eileen March of My Luminous Life. Eileen brings such a rich background and really touching insights to the table. Here is some of what we talked about: 

• Simple ways to live a more magical life 
• Slowing down enough to notice what we actually want 
• Embracing what we can learn from loss and good grief
• Listening to our bodies even if we don't always get the message we want to hear

Eileen March is a spiritual coach, energy healer, podcast host, author, and slow-living witch devoted to helping women reclaim their power, reconnect with their bodies, and re-enchant their everyday lives. With a background in both midwifery and religious studies, Eileen bridges the sacred and the practical—weaving together science, spirit, and soul.

Eileen is the founder of My Luminous Life and the creator of Unleash Your Inner Witch, a powerful program designed to help spiritually curious women remember their magic and live with more meaning, fulfillment, rest, and peace. She’s passionate about dismantling hustle culture, listening to the body’s rhythms, and creating brave, nurturing spaces where women can feel held, seen, and safe enough to transform. When she’s not coaching or holding ceremony, you’ll find her reading stories of hope and healing, tending her garden, or snuggling her sweet kitty.

• Connect with Eileen on IG 
• Download Awaken to the Magic Within (free eBook) 
• Follow Eileen on Insight Timer 
• Send Eileen an Email eileen@myluminouslife.ca

You are still welcome to join in the winter season of weekly glimmer sessions over here and here is the link to Rooted, my business group program over at Pink Well Studio. 

Thanks for listening,

Yarrow

Happy New Year! I wanted to share a few small and gentle rituals for the beginning of 2026, little ways to mark this moment without rushing toward big resolutions or putting pressure on ourselves to reinvent everything overnight.

I am still hibernating over here, so all I am trying to do is to prepare the soil for what will grow later in the year.

I’ll walk you through a few of my favourite winter rituals: clearing and tending to your home, creating more space in your calendar, and checking in with friends who might need extra care this season. I’ll also share a reflection practice around defining your own sense of enoughness so you can move into the year with a little more peace and clarity.

Finally, I’ll guide you through a simple ritual of writing a prayer for the year or the season ahead. It can be something short and personal that you keep close to remind yourself of what you most want to feel.

This is also an invitation to join the winter season of our weekly glimmer sessions. These are beautiful drop ins on a Monday where you can be creative or do little rituals with other like minded people who want to begin the week (and the year) as they mean to go on: https://griefmagic.com/blessings/

Thanks for listening,

Yarrow

In this solo episode of Grief Magic, I share some gentle reflections on protecting your time and energy in the year ahead, so there’s room for meaningful connection with your grief, your body, and your creativity.

I talk about how we can be intentional with the spaces we inhabit, both physical and digital, and create an environment that supports healing and rest. 

You’ll hear about:

• Making physical space in your home by decluttering gently and reconnecting with what you already have

• Reviewing spending and prioritising experiences and community over buying new things

• Curating your digital world by choosing what you engage with and using blockers or breaks to make space for stillness

• Spending social time more intentionally and finding joy in making things together

• Asking what your grief actually needs from you right now, and creating rituals that allow it to move through you with tenderness

This episode is also an invitation to join the winter season of glimmer sessions, which start next week: https://griefmagic.com/blessings/ This is a beautiful space for creativity and renewal and there are sliding scale options available. We would love to have you!

Thanks for listening,

Yarrow

I wanted to close out the year with one more solo episode, talking about how I am celebrating and keeping things soft and simple. I am also sharing ideas for including loved ones we lost into our rituals, setting boundaries with family and making travelling more comfortable. Finally, there are some rituals for the winter solstice and a Rauhnaechste practice I am doing in here. 

Whatever you are up to, I hope you are ending the year with lots of rest and permission to dream. 

✨ The Winter Glimmer Sessions begin in early January: weekly creative and ritual circles where we can rest, create, and tend to our inner worlds together. You can find all the details at https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

Love,

Yarrow

Misha of Hafez Death Care, my guest for today's episode, has a really beautiful podcast I hope you will check out too - it's called Halva for the Heart and I was honoured to be on episode 14. In this conversation for Grief Magic, we went both deep and wide into some really meaningful topics that I hope you'll enjoy too: 

• Dying and grieving in diaspora
• Small and big rituals that help us navigate losses
• Listening to our bodies in the face of death
• Continuing connections with people we have lost 

Misha (she/he/they) is an Iranian-American death doula and grief tender whose work honors the sacredness of death and the political power of mourning. Their path into this calling began at the tender age of twenty, when they were blessed with the gift of witnessing their mother’s death. Today, through Hafez Death Care, Misha offers culturally-rooted, anti-imperialist support for dying people and their loved ones before, during, and after the dying process.

They also provide grief tending for personal, collective, and ancestral grief, teaching that grief is both an emotional process and an act of resistance. They facilitate community grief events, offer one-on-one death midwifery and grief support, and host Halva for the Heart, a podcast exploring death and grief through a diasporic lens. Misha’s work is grounded in the belief that by caring for our Dying and tending to our grief in community, we strengthen our movements for justice and deepen our capacity for collective care.

https://hafezdeathcare.com/

You are invited to join the Winter Magic retreat here: https://glimmerportal.com/tarot-for-grief-winter-solstice-retreat/

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I loved the chance to talk to Alexis Cunningfolk again - we did an interview back in 2019 for episode #82 (in the before times!) and now got to catch up about their new book and expansive, beautiful and inspiring magic. Here is some of what we covered:

• Building a collective library of plants, magic & spells
• Economic justice & supporting access to community education
•  Slowing down and setting a place for grief at the table
• Building sustainable and magical creative practices

Alexis J. Cunningfolk is creating plant-led spaces of healing because none of us are meant to do this work alone. Practicing as an intersectional herbalist for over fifteen years and as a witch for nearly three decades, her work has led her around the country, presenting at various magickal, herbal, and academic conferences, as well as facilitating rituals for groups ranging from a handful of folks to hundreds. Alexis focuses on evidence-based and embodied plant healing while drawing on her experiences as a lesbian, a woman of mixed ancestry, and a third culture kid to create practices that help folks re-enchant their world and call themselves back home to their bodies. In addition to working with plants, she has been reading tarot since she was twelve, teaching since she was nineteen, and sneaking off to places in-between since she could walk. Alexis offers much of her work for free or low-cost, wild seeding wisdom as an act of gratitude and a spell of collective liberation.

Find her work at www.wortsandcunning.com.

Join my virtual winter solstice tarot retreat over here: https://glimmerportal.com/tarot-for-grief-winter-solstice-retreat/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I am so honoured to share a beautiful conversation with Gabriela de Golia, who was also on episode #158. This time, we had a chance to go deeper and check back in on how the last few years have shaped us. Here is some of what we talked about:

• Discerning our unique relationship with the divine
• Grief and mortality as a gateway to understanding the mystery
• The politics of spiritual care
• Ritual practice for tending, resilience and resistance

Gabriela De Golia is the amalgamation of many beings, experiences, and possibilities. Weaving from a wide range of ancestral, spiritual, intellectual, political, and creative lineages, she serves as a spiritual care provider, ritualist, artist, writer, and a devotee of the mystery from which all things emerge and to which all things return. They support people in accessing the holy depths within and beyond us, to help co-create a world where all beings can be truly and deeply free.

https://gabrieladegolia.com/

Join us for weekly sessions here: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

Receive a grief blessings tarot reading: https://glimmerportal.com/grief-blessings/

Thank you so much for listening!

I am falling back in love with the tarot at the moment, as is custom each fall, and wanted to share some ideas and inspiration. These practices are sweet and simple to easily fit into your life and hopefully bring you some comfort and insight as we go deeper into the cozy season. 

Here are the spreads I mentioned:

• Daily Cards
• Drawing Closer - intentionally choosing a card and then drawing cards to explore what to release or invite in order to bring more of this energy in 
• Past, Present, Future on specific areas of life
• A relationship spread: 1. How to stay grounded in my centre? 2. What do I have to offer? 3. What do I really want? 4. What might come up?

The deck I told you about is the Nova Witch deck by Suki Ferguson and Ana Novaes and the two books I mentioned are She is Sitting in the Night by Oliver Pickle and All of our Stories by Beth Maiden. 

If you'd like space to practice, come join us for weekly Fall Blessing sessions: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

or request a reading here: https://glimmerportal.com/grief-blessings/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Welcome to October! This is a beautiful interview with Charlene Lam, a creative and thoughtful voice whose work weaves together storytelling, curation, and deep personal reflection.

Charlene speaks with honesty about the sudden loss of her mother and the early days of navigating grief and shock. We talk about how she approached the emotionally complex process of going through her mom’s belongings, and how her background as a creator shaped the way she honoured her mother’s memory. She offers practical, meaningful tools that can help anyone who is navigating grief to move forward with more ease and gentleness. 

Charlene Lam is a certified grief coach, TEDx speaker and the founder of The Grief Gallery. After her mother died suddenly in 2013, Charlene leaned into her creativity and instincts as a curator to guide herself through grief. Her Curating Grief® framework is a creative, accessible way grievers can navigate dealing with the physical stuff and the emotional stuff. Her first book, Curating Grief: A Creative Guide to Choosing What to Keep After a Loved One Dies, is out now.

Website www.charlenelam.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charclam/

Instagram ​​https://www.instagram.com/curating_grief

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thegriefgallery

Join Fall Blessings: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

Get on the waitlist for ROOTED: https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted/

Friends, I am so happy to share this beautiful conversation with Uma Girish with you. We talked about loss as a portal, honouring all kinds of grief, letting relationships evolve and transform and finding ourselves in a steady and loving way in the process. 

Uma Girish is a Grief Companion for women who feel lost as they’re grieving a loss. She serves as a loving witness and companions them on their journey so they can feel seen, heard, and supported as they heal.
Her Substack publication is called “Light After Loss.”
Uma is also the author of four books, the latest being “Sacred Fire: Memoir of A Marriage” which speaks to the grief in a long-term partnership when two people who love and respect each other deeply choose to walk different soul paths.
You can learn more about Uma and her work at https://umagirish.com

Join us for Fall Blessings sessions here: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is an invitation to join me for supportive, affordable sessions every Monday this fall. We continue on from the summer blessings series, every Monday from 7-8pm UK time, with gentle space to write, make art, do rituals or dream. No pressure, come as you are and use the code FRIENDS to join for free if you can't afford the normal price of 60 GBP. 

Sign up here: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

and join the branding & canva fundraiser workshop over here: https://pinkwellstudio.com/fundraiser-workshops/

Love,

Yarrow

What happens to the poetry, the paintings, the sketches and songs of our loved ones when they pass? In this beautiful conversation with Sarah Sawyer we talked about her friend and award-winning poet, Andrea Werblin Reid, who left us a stunning collections of poems called To See Yourself As You Vanish. It gave me so much precious food for thought about final wishes, the things we leave behind and what we can do for those we love as we say goodbye. 

In the last 3 years of her life, Andi 150 fierce, frank, witty poems on living with ovarian cancer and end of life. Before she died she asked a group of friends to do what we could to get it into the world. Sarah Sawyer is of those friends and is thrilled to share that this, her 3rd and strongest book yet--To See Yourself As You Vanish--is being represented by Rob McQuilken and will be published by Wesleyan Press September 9th. 

The book: https://www.weslpress.org/9780819502070/to-see-yourself-as-you-vanish/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrea_werblin_reid_poetry/ 

Sarah Sawyer is a writer and a chaplain specializing in psychedelics and end of life. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and is proud to be helping to shepherd Andi's work to publication. Sarah's work: https://www.sarahksawyer.com/ 

You can join Fall Blessings over here: https://glimmerportal.com/blessings/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Last week was the first anniversary of my mum's passing, so I wanted to share an episode on what surprised me, what I needed, how I changed and what we did to mark the day. I hope this episode will offer you some space to reflect on your own grief and feel less alone in the process <3

If you have a question, you can send me a voice note here: https://speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Much love,

Yarrow

This is a little waffle about who I used to be when I was younger and what it was like to slowly but surely slow down to honour my health and be honest about who I actually am (not a super charged over achiever). I hope it helps you make space for your own grief around abilities, health and past versions of self. 

You can join my free monthly Spark sessions via Substack: https://yarrow.substack.com/

This is the sign up for Summer Blessings, which starts tomorrow: https://glimmerportal.com/summer-blessings/

And this is the sign up for my next fundraiser workshop on July 17th: https://pinkwellstudio.com/money-workshop/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I have two invitations for you:

1. Please join me for a fundraiser workshop on money, shame & pricing: ⁠https://pinkwellstudio.com/money-workshop/⁠

2. Come make weird & beautiful art with me in weekly creative sessions every Monday in July & August. Come as you are, work on your own project and enjoy gentle togetherness. GBP 40, no one turned away for lack of funds: ⁠https://glimmerportal.com/summer-blessings/⁠

Hopefully see you soon!

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am sharing a few ideas to help us remember loved ones we have lost. It was my mum's birthday last week, so this is fresh on my mind and I hope that some of these ideas will feel sweet for you to try. 

If you'd like to send me a question, you can do so here: https://speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Here is the sign up to the fundraiser workshop on money, pricing & shame: https://pinkwellstudio.com/money-workshop/

and here is more info about grief companionship: https://glimmerportal.com/companionship/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Firstly, thank you so much for the warm reception, support and encouragement for this new podcast chapter and business adventure. I appreciate all the feedback and reviews so much! In today's episode I am offering five ways to connect in grief, organised in an introvert-friendly way by amount of social energy required. 

Here is the link to send me a voice note question: https://www.speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Here is my Substack (which includes free monthly Spark sessions): https://yarrow.substack.com/

and here is the link to my new Grief Glimmers course, on pre-sale until June 11th: https://glimmerportal.com/courses/

The books I mentioned were The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Frances Weller and Bright Hour by Nina Riggs

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is a reflection on how grief moves through the body with a guided meditation practice at the end. All you need is a quiet space to sit or lie down. Enjoy!

More episodes are over here: https://glimmerportal.com/

and you can send me a question over here: speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I'm so happy to share my first interview in this new podcast chapter with you! I spoke to the wonderful Lynn of Full Circle of Love, who has also been touched by grief and shared lots of her insights & magic. Here is some of what we talked about: 

• Navigating the depth of grief & letting it change us 
• Building community in which we can fully be ourselves 
• Slow stitching and art practices that gently slow us down
• Being sensitive and living a creative, resilient & connected life 

Lynn Salmon-Easter is a Reiki practitioner and artist living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. Lynn finds deep purpose in guiding individuals home to their heart and body using energy work and art making. She finds slow stitching to be magical in bringing mindfulness and awareness alive through its practice, and she vows to bring this experience to life for others through her artwork and classes. Lynn has trained in the Usui lineage with David Kaley of Minnesota. 

Her website: https://www.fullcircleoflove.com

instagram: @fullcircleoflove

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullcircleoflove

Rest advocate Octavia Raheem mentioned in the episode: https://www.octaviaraheem.com/And her books: Pause, Rest, Be https://www.pauserestbe.com/Rest Is Sacred https://www.octaviaraheem.com/rest-is-sacred Thanks so much for listening!Love,Yarrow

Today is the new moon in Taurus, international grieving in public day and time to launch a new chapter on the podcast. 

This space is called Grief Glimmers now and I have a whole new website over at GlimmerPortal.com that you can check out. In this episode I am re-introducing myself, telling you more about how this project came to be and what to expect. 

You can send me a question over here: https://speakpipe.com/yarrowm

and join my Substack & Spark sessions over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Grief Companionship: https://glimmerportal.com/companionship/

Grief Glimmers course: https://glimmerportal.com/courses/

Custom grief quilts: https://glimmerportal.com/custom-grief-quilts/

Thank you so much for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I am finally back with an interview for you! This was a real balm to my sore heart -  lots of textile explorations, community arts magic and just true delight with Cordy of Transmissions Quilts. Tune in for encouragement, giggles and a gentle restoration of faith in humanity. 

Cordy says - I am a white trans quilter living in the East Bay. Alongside my quilts, I work as an arts educator and childcare worker primarily with trans teens and queer families. I hope to exist in a lineage that sees quilts as radical objects that not only represent our collective hunger for freedom but also, through making them, allow us to take active steps towards that freedom. I come from a bloodline that has largely forgotten its creativity and I am interested in resuscitating that, starting in myself. I’m trying to move slower and talk less. One current poetic guide is Chessy Normile.

https://transquilts.net/

https://www.instagram.com/coanofsilence/

Welcome back, I'm still here and still grieving, thank you for joining me in this weird and wonderful process. For this episode I had a beautiful listener question about finding balance and seeking simplicity when you're also kind of a maximalist in some areas of your life. 

You can send me a question over here: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

And you can join my Substack and Spark sessions over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow

I received a really good question about how creativity can heal or harm from a listener and am answering the best I can! I talk about how being creative makes me feel, key creative experiences and also ways in which structural problems show up in creative practice. 

I would love to hear from you if you have a question for me too: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

and you can join my Substack and Spark Sessions over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am talking about craving even more simplicity in my life, decluttering really hard and planning for a low buy year. I pulled everything out of my wardrobe again, sold a whole bunch and made a few well considered purchases. I feel peaceful in my commitment to buy very little next year and really hopeful to grow as a maker and learn more about why I buy for comfort and how I might shift that. 

You can join my Substack and the free Spark sessions over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am catching up with you, fellow grievers or curious podcast listeners, about entering a new phase of grief, preparing for the holidays and imagining a new kind of future. I hope that it makes you feel gotten, even if not everyone gets it.

You're welcome to join our Spark sessions here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow

I'm so happy to bring you a new interview episode in amongst all these recent solo grief journals. My wonderful guest is Danette Relic, who was also on episodes 116 and 48 (back in 2018, the before times!). Danette is sadly a fellow griever who also lost a parent this year, so in this episode we're chatting about keeping our magic safe, what we learned from past heartbreaks and how we see the value of feeling all the feelings. There is, in short, a whole lot of permission in here, plus a very exciting giveaway for Danette's book Crash Bloom (which will be such a great winter companion/Christmas gift). 

Danette Relic is an author, artist and coach, married to herself since 2001. From a young age, Danette was inspired by reading, drawing, using her imagination, and falling in love.  She is a self-projected Projector in Human Design, a Sagittarius Sun, Libra Rising with a Gemini Moon who takes her pleasure seriously. Her passion for self discovery, relationships and creativity shapes her work and her life in every way.

You can hear her explore these themes on her podcast, The Soft Shoulder. You can receive Letters from Danette via her newsletter by signing up on her website, Radical Creative Sanctuary dot com. Her first book, Crash Bloom: a creative guide for growing through your breakup was released this year and is available wherever you most love to buy books

Sign up for Danette's newsletter and reply with a note to say that you listened to the episode to take part in the book giveaway: 

https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/1061093/132924347441481224/share

Thank you so much for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Thank you so much to Becky for asking about my quilting & making practice! In this grief journal episode I am talking you through what I love about making small improv quilts, what my practice looks like, how it helps with grief and what I am sewing next.

I'd love it if you want to send me a question too: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

In this grief journal episode I am talking about yesterday's birthday, dealing with big and small anniversaries as well as my current daydreams. 

You're also welcome to send me questions via Speakpipe here: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

Love,

Yarrow

Today I am talking about the value and magic of anger, about how I am trying to be intentional with where I am directing it and about how I am trying to get comfortable with this feeling. 

Feel free to send me questions here: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

Sending blessings and love to your day,

Yarrow

Hello my fellow grievers and soft folks, here is another chapter for you - this one is about building your whole life around your nervous system and what that looks like for me at the moment. 

Also, feel free to send me a little voice note if you want to say hi and/or wish to request a topic for the podcast: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM

Love,

Yarrow

Welcome to a new format on here - little weekly check ins about grief, process and slow seasons. I promise it wont all be sad, it will also be weird, expansive and sometimes wonderful. 

I know a lot of people who lost really significant loved ones this year and I know that we all need to feel less alone in that strange adventure. I hope these episodes can be with you and your sadness. 

I will still record about all kinds of other creative things too and if you like you can request me covering a specific topic by sending me a speakpipe note: https://www.speakpipe.com/YarrowM Its free, it can be anonymous and I would really love to hear from you! 

I would also like to invite you to Gentle Hands, a four week group program starting November 6th: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/gentle-hands/

Thank you for listening,

Yarrow

In this episode I am chatting about a few simple ways in which I am staying connected with creativity while my brain is adjusting to the loss of my mum. In short, it's about lowering the bar, being realistic and appreciating a wider net of expression.

I hope it feels helpful!

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is dedicated to my mum Marina, who passed away suddenly at the end of July. She was incredible - resilient, creative, full of life and hands down the most loving person I know. She taught me how to live a good life full of pleasure and connection even in late stage capitalism. I had 38 years with her and am so proud to call her my mum. 

The wonderful Narinder Bazen joined me for this conversation to talk about grief after sudden death, saying goodbye in the best way we can and staying connected to the present moment in a mammal body while we have one foot on the other side. 

The title of this episode is a nod to one of my favorite books - The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Frances Weller. 

Thank you for listening and sending some love to my mum,

Yarrow

The world is a lot, but then what's new? In this episode I wanted to share a few ways in which I am staying grounded this summer, including excellent book selection, gentle rituals and activism that is doable and kind on my nervous system. I hope it's a helpful space for you to think about your own summer and orient towards the pleasure & joy that is available to you.

Here is info about the tech day I mentioned: https://pinkwellstudio.com/magic/

Thank you so much for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Patient and appreciated listeners, I am bring you another wonderful conversation with Lara Irene Vesta. I hope this find you well, with a bit of sunshine on your face and a quiet moment to dive in. Here is some of what we talked about:

• Writing beautiful books from bed
• Growing wild gardens that tend to themselves 
• Rites of passage and spiritual sinkholes 
• Finding ways to stay connected to enchantment when things are hard 

Lara Irene Vesta is a writer, artist and educator exploring sacred stories and lineage traditions. She is the author of the Moon Divas Guidebook, Wild Soul Runes and Year of the Dark Goddess: A Journey of Ritual, Renewal and Rebirth. Her current creative practice is reclaiming offline life, renewing faith and remembering ancestral crafts and skills. She shares this journey in the Olden Practice newsletter and through by-donation classes at the Wild Soul School.

https://www.laravesta.cohttps://www.oldenpractice.com Olden Practice Substack

Newsletter:https://laravesta.substack.com 

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/larairene 

Year of the Dark Goddess Book Links:Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Year-Dark-Goddess-Journey-Renewal/dp/1578638275
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/year-of-the-dark-goddess-lara-vesta/1144014419 

Thank you for listening,Yarrow

This episode is such a heartfelt deep dive into grief, creativity & enchantment with the wonderful Narinder Bazen. Here is some of what we talked about: 

• The space that death awareness inhabits in our lives
• Making simplicity & minimalism our own
• Thresholds & finding a place in the world 
• Meaning making and ritual through hard times

Narinder Bazen is an artist, death midwife, enchanted life guide and death midwifery trainer, living on unceded Penobscot land. (Maine, USA) Her greatest passions include helping to midwife new paradigm death care and grief care and living as a minimalist full of enchantment because of all of the bounty found in nature. When she's not guiding new death midwives, she's spending time painting with watercolors, writing, and playing with her dog Oak.

https://www.narinderbazen.com/

You can sign up for the next Spark session over here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I've been such a fan of Christi's work and especially her book Mystical Stitches for ages and so it's a real joy to bring this beautiful interview to you! Here is what we talked about: 

• Finding one's own voice with shapes, colours and composition 
• Rituals and creative process
• Writing books and sharing skills
• The beauty, magic and resilience of textiles

Christi Johnson's personal work combines cosmic visions and botanical beauties, a hypnotic dance of symbols stitched slowly and methodically into fabric. She is the artist behind Mixed Color, a textile studio based in the foothills of the Catskills, NY which provides functional pieces that are thoughtfully made, as well as educating others in creativity and textile arts. Through books, kits, and online courses on embroidery and garment making, Christi guides her students through the skills they need to embrace self expression through handcrafts. She is the author of, Mystical Stitches (Storey Press, 2021), which explores embroidery as a tool for personal empowerment and magical embellishment to bring more meaning into stitches. www.mixedcolor.net

Here is the ethical marketing workshop I mentioned: https://pinkwellstudio.com/ethical-marketing-workshop/

Thank you so much for listening! 

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am sharing five sweet & simple things I'll be doing to make the month ahead more beautiful. Think home spa, love letters, self-commitment and flowers. I hope you'll feel inspired! 

You can join my monthly Spark Sessions for extra ritual support via my Substack here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

and here is more info about the upcoming donation based workshop on ethical marketing: https://pinkwellstudio.com/ethical-marketing-workshop/

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is a dream come true for my nerdy heart - I had a chance to talk to Dr. Isabella Rosner, whose podcast Sew What? I've been a fan of for years. We talked about how she got into textile histories, her PhD research and work at the Royal School of Needlework, about what textiles can teach us about what it means to be human and making time to create. 

Dr Isabella Rosner is the Curator of the Royal School of Needlework and Research Associate at Witney Antiques. She recently completed her PhD at King’s College London, researching Quaker women’s needlework, waxwork, and shellwork circa 1650 to 1800. Passionate about schoolgirl samplers and early modern women’s needlework, Isabella hosts the “Sew What?” podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it. She is a 2023 BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

https://sewwhatpodcast.com/

Thank you for listening!

This episode is my first interview with a guest in about eight months and I could not feel more excited & honoured to speak to Chaney Williams. There was so much in this conversation that was a balm to my soul - we talked about life-changing moments and accidents, listening to the whispers of your ancestors and our bodies, quiet spaces to create and dreaming new dreams. I hope you love it as much as I did!

Chaney Williams (she/they) is a full spectrum doula, ritualist, and writer. She lives in Kentucky and has been a southerner since birth. Chaney strongly believes that all people deserve access to trauma informed, intersectional, sex positive, reproductive care. For Chaney, writing specifically their poetry and creative non-fiction essays are confessional in nature because they create what they know and what haunts them because it is the way they make sense of the world they exist in. It is how she finds belonging in the universe and connects to her ancestors, future descendants, and the collective.

https://chaneywilliams.squarespace.com/ 

https://chaneywilliams.substack.com/ 

Stitching Together Community: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/ 

Thank you for listening,

Yarrow

In this episode I'm sharing more about an oral history project I'll be running this year - I want to find out how people with disabilities, like myself, used needlework to explore a sense of place and heritage during lockdown. I'm excited to explore topics like resilience in isolation, material and making vs consumption, connection with family stories and more. 

This of course relates to my Stitching Together project, which you can find out more about here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Thank you, as always, for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Happy new year!

In this episode I'm talking about how I am centring mental health & wellbeing in my creative practice this year - removing barriers, creating space for accessible participation & dreams, finding the sweet spot of gentle accountability and indulging wildly in flow states! 

More info about my web design work is here: https://pinkwellstudio.com/

and you can join Stitching Together here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

Perhaps an odd day to publish a new episode, but I thought this might be nice to share today for anyone who also feels a little overwhelmed with the festivities at a time of so much uncertainty and upheaval.

Finding and exploring one's creative voice is something I have been thinking about a lot this year - I explored stripping back the media overwhelm, identifying core messages and symbolism and, as always, unraveling perfectionism.

I hope this episode gives you something interesting to think about too!

Here is more info about the Stitching Together community: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Love,

Yarrow

If you're like me, having gentle accountability to slow down & be creative makes it much more likely for you to do things that bring you joy. Maybe you too feel that you need it more than ever. 

After a bit of a break I am bringing my Patreon back, because I miss our creative time together and also because I am excited to share my research on radical needlework with you. In this episode I am sharing the new structure for my Patreon/Stitching Together in 2024 - a community space focussed on making, mending, writing & wellbeing. 

Learn more here: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am talking about what slowness means to me in my practice right now and how I've learned to still appreciate the process when chronic illness and disabilities slow me down. I'm taking a longer view on things, thinking about how slowness makes space for observations and stories to be woven into my work and how stitching and carving supports my wellbeing in so many ways. I'm also asking questions about devotion, the value of time and the beauty of simplicity and simple aesthetics. 

I hope that if you've ever felt too slow you'll find comfort in listening! 

Here is more info on Stitching Together in 2024: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/stitching/

Love,

Yarrow

In this episode I am talking about taking a specific question into the darker time of the year, thinking about what spiritual practices I want to commit to this season, trying something new & gathering tools that are meaningful to me.

You can join my Substack here if you like: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow

In the second instalment of my Getting Ready for Winter series I am sharing things that have helped me pay more attention to what I love - making, cooking, wandering and having conversations. As the days grow shorter many of us feel we want more of those things, but it can be so so hard to make time. If you feel the same I hope this episode will offer you some ideas & inspiration. 

You can join my Substack here: https://yarrow.substack.com/

Love,

Yarrow