Hearth & Heather – Details, episodes & analysis

Join us as we share our favorite winter solstice poems. Kateri reads “Shab-e Yalda” by Anis Mojgani and Kathy reads "Shortest Day" by Susan Cooper. Happy Yule, Winter Solstice, and New Year!

Virgo season has arrived: it’s time to keep hold of our values while also doing botanical crimes. The days grow shorter; the light dips lower. Our energy is dipping lower, too. In this episode, we talk about some of the ways that we’re learning to navigate perpetual crisis (hint: with slowness). As usual, we’re also swapping stories about the things that delight us, keep us curious, and hurt our Virgo feelings. This is a shorter conversation than usual, but we packed a lot in here! 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode title inspired by the book Summers End by Juneau Black
• Falling Fruit foraging app
• Jesus That’s Weird podcast
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• Ijeoma Oluo on Instagram
• The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
• A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
• Rachel Lee-Carman’s zines
• The World of Agatha Christie 1000-piece Jigsaw
• Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, documentary
• Kathy’s Columbo Vibes playlist on Spotify
• Mother Earth's Plantasia album by Mort Garson
• The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters

Small moments of fables, stories, and poems with Kathy and Kateri, sprinkled among our quarterly podcast episodes. In this mini-episode, Kateri reads two poems for Winter Solstice: "Burning the Old Year" by Naomi Shihab Nye and "To Know the Dark" by Wendell Berry.

Our favorite season is beckoning, and we’re talking about the slow-down of the year. As we get excited about tea, sweaters, golden light, and liminal spaces, we also dig into the ways that social media can create a false sense of urgency, preventing us from integrating our experiences in deeper ways. Of course, no episode of Hearth & Heather is complete without a lot of laughing, so we also talk about our squash preferences, and a book that was so good we got mad.

Bonus Download: Along with this episode, we’re posting a PDF of a Winter Solstice Spell Jar ritual that we mentioned in Episode 5.

Mentioned in episode:

• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
• Acorn Squash Lasagna by Martha Stewart
• How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell
• Lalah Delia and sacred experiences
• “on being off social media,” Emily McDowell’s newsletter
• “Take a step back: Notes from a social media break,” Lisa Olivera’s newsletter
• We Were Made for These Times by Kaira Jewel Lingo
• Sacred Harp Singing
• Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast
• Mirrors in the Earth by Asia Suler
• Patton Oswalt, The Birthday Clown From Hell
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• How a photo and video-sharing social networking service gave me my best friends, true love, a beautiful career, and made me want to die by Marlee Grace
• Digital Wellbeing app for Android
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
• Winter Solstice candle ritual (PDF), by Shanalee Hampton

It turns out, murder plays a very large role in our relaxing times. Not committing it, of course; we would never…We compare favorite series, scoff at silly titles, and ponder the origins of the genre known as “cozy.” We take a breath to acknowledge the heavy forces that are threatening us and demanding our attention at this moment in time, and we talk about some ways that we rest and refresh our energies. Sweetly soothed by mayhem, we also find our way into talking about some more purposeful reading and the habits that sustain our hearts. 

Mentioned in episode:

• “It’s Time to Stop Living the American Scam” by Tim Kreider
• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters 
• Tender by Nigel Slater
• Wartime and ration cooking
• The Secret, Book and Scone Society series by Ellery Adams
• The Maine Clambake Mysteries by Barbara Ross
• Trauma Stewardship by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky
• How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong
• Original Plum Torte recipe from NYTimes Cooking
• WindowSwap
• Walking in the Rain, Tokyo on YouTube

Virgos navigating somatics! Habit-soothed people realizing none of our practices feel authentic right now. We’re in exploration mode, our feelings are itchy, and we’re talking about tarot fatigue, changing spiritual practices, honoring our bodies when we have low energy, letting go, trauma-sensitive yoga, breathwork, and polyvagal theory. Shoutouts to our therapists and to anchoring our bodies in bright, visceral joys. We also share an oracle card reading for the energy to bring into this Spring [cleaning] season.

Mentioned in episode:

• Tarot folks we like: Zeta Zuri, Sarah Vrba, and Corina Dross
• WTF is Tarot? by Bakara Wintner
• Decks used: Brady Tarot and Urban Crow Oracle
• Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory by Deb Dana
• The Power of Breathwork by Jennifer Patterson
• Marshmallow root infusion
• Rise Up Remedies Organic Herb Farm
• Diana Rose’s tarot insights
• Later this year, we’ll be posting a downloadable description of the solstice candle practice that Kateri describes in this episode. This practice was created by Shanalee Hampton. 

We talk about our adoration of Mole and Rat’s friendship in Kenneth Grahame’s classic, The Wind in the Willows, and why Toad can just eat a bag of *****. We also lust after Mr. Badger’s cellars and general domestic situation, dream about fictional food, and revel in how this book is a love letter to bioregion.

Mentioned in episode:

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• Chris Dunn’s illustrations for Wind in the Willows
• Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
• Sarah Andersen comics
• Evergreen Chase (part of the Shady Hollow series) by Juneau Black
• Fir needle shortbread

It’s death season, we’re leaning in! Don’t worry, there’s still swearing. We start out with goddesses, take a long walk through our altar habits, and their connections to the dark moon. We discuss the intersectional practices of deathwork and herbalism, dig into grief and where it lives in our bodies, talk about our favorite ritual oils, and using oracle decks for clarification. Finding meaning is at the heart of this episode: where do we look for it? How can we uphold it for each other, and make more room to honor it?

Mentioned in episode:

• Intro to Thanabotony class from Cole Imperi
• Piñon Pine Sacred Resin Oil from Deschampsia
• Artemisia Trinity Oil from With/In Herbals
• Radical Remedies: An Herbalist's Guide to Empowered Self-Care by Brittany Ducham
• Lune Innate and Whispers of the Wolf Reiki ASMR on YouTube
• The lungs are associated with grief in traditional Chinese medicine
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
• Accompanying the Dying: Practical, Heart-Centered Wisdom for End-Of-Life Doulas and Health Care Advocates by Deanna Cochran

Pickled Scottish birds, Street Art and it’s ephemeral nature, bird song, holly for protection and boundary magic, cheese in Spain, fertility rocks, chalk path in England.

We begin by comparing notes on two books by naturalist and wanderer Robert MacFarlane, and we end by making a pact to eat pickled birds in Scotland. Along the way, we get into the reasons why we’re drawn to street art, ways to use holly in your magic practice, how bad we are at identifying bird songs, and what Kathy’s grandmother has to do with both Spanish cheese and fertility stones. We talk about friends we love, and we swear a bunch. It’s all pretty enjoyable.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Landmarks and The Old Ways, both by Robert MacFarlane
• Landscape artist Andy Goldsworthy
• Carolee, a California artist
• Donovan Beeson, a Chicago artist
• Street artists Jason Kofke, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Jim Bachor, David Zinn, and our friend Shana Hampton 
• Alexis Nikole, BlackForager on Instagram
• The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
• Dark Skies: A Journey Into the Wild Night  by Tiffany Francis
• A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year by Ellen Evert Hopman
• Celtic Tree Rituals by Sharlyn Hidalgo
• Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe by Christina Tosi

We talk about urban foraging and how that relates to focusing on small details and slowly gaining confidence in plant identification. We also explore how murder mysteries have influenced our herbalism education, the fear and allure of poison plant gardens, and the ever-relevant question of how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Lastly, Kateri talks about how she harvests and creates her conifer herbal oil.

Mentioned in episode:

• Miss Polly, a Portland herbalist
• Leafsnap app
• Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness by Scott Kloos
• Carolee, a California artist
• Rosemary & Thyme, BBC murder mystery and gardening show
• Rebecca Altman's conifer infused oil recipe

Intro & outro music: "Veracruz" by Quincas Moreira