The Queer Spirit – Details, episodes & analysis

Care Chats are short conversations we have about topics top of mind.  Listen to this little chat TanyaMarck + Nick have about boundaries.  

Links + Resources + Invitations:

• An invitation to the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 
• Join us for FREE virtual Care Circles meditation + chanting + breath work circles online. We meet monthly on the 1st Saturday, 3rd Sunday + 4th Sunday. 
• Follow us on BLUESKY + IG!
• Join our mailing list to get news, Care Cirlce + podcast updates sent directly to you.
• QS Resources: News, Education + Care.

We honor with Gratitude + Thanks the sacred Practices + Traditions + Peoples + Lands​ + the teachers who have carried this wisdom and shared it with us. ~ Gracias ~   To support our work via energy exchange​ we invite you to do so here:​ ​Venmo - TanyaMarck​ ​PayPal - Nick​

 

QS Community Care Circle recording of February 16th, Chant + Breathe.

This year we're are posting recordings of our monthly CareCircles to the podcast - this is our "CareCast."

We invite you get comfy, grab some hydration and join us in chanting together.

The Queer Spirit Community gathers on the 3rd Sunday of each month for practices in devotional chanting, toning and song, as well as breath work + movement. These practices are faciltated by TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) and Nick Venegoni (he/they). They are curated + inspired by the planetary + astrological + pagan wheel of the year energies in mind.

For this Care Circle we worked with the Four Immeasurables - a set of Buddhist practices and virtues that include Equanimity, Loving-kindness, Compassion, and Joy.

We honor with Gratitude + Thanks the sacred Practices + Traditions + Peoples + Lands: Yoga, Ayurveda – Sanskrit, Mantra, Raga, Hindustani Music, Buddhism + Tibet + Meditation; Tongva + Kizh + Chumash + Ohlone; Tarot + Astrology + Magic + Witchcraft; the teachers who have carried this wisdom and shared it with us ~ Gracias.

As always, you can find all things Queer Spirit HERE. 

 

Links + Resources + Invitations:

• An invitation to the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 
• Join us for FREE virtual Care Circles meditation + chanting + breath work circles online. We meet monthly on the 1st Saturday, 3rd Sunday + 4th Sunday. 
• Follow us on BLUESKY + IG!
• Join our mailing list to get news, Care Cirlce + podcast updates sent directly to you.
• QS Resources: News, Education + Care.

J.P. DerBoghossian (he/they) is the founder of the Queer Armenian Library - the world's first library devoted to literature, film, and television by, about, and for Queer Armenians. He serves on the Board of the International Armenian Literary Alliance and is a past President of the Armenian Cultural Organization of Minnesota. He hosts the podcast This Queer Book Saved My LIfe which is a 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow and his essays have appeared in We Are All Armenian (University of Texas Press), The Sun Isn't Out Long Enough (Anamot Press), and Emerge (Lambda Literary). He started his career in television broadcasting and then transitioned to a ten-year career in higher education where he ultimately served as the Chief Diversity Officer for Normandale Community College and Saint Paul College. With This Queer Book Saved My Life he returns to his broadcasting roots, as he additionally hosts The Gaily Show for AM950-KTNF in Minneapolis. He holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Minnesota. He resides with his partners, splitting their time between Minneapolis, MN and Barronett, WI.  

Episode Highlights

Season 7 premieres with our first cross-pollination episode, where we share space with other queer podcasters and creators.

• We start by floating into a round of: I will share mine (show you mine), if you share yours (if you show me yours) - a lovely space where we each share books/authors that have impacted our queerness.
• We reflect and share about the books and the aspects of our queerness that are awakened.
• TanyaMarck & Nick get into some queer spirit medicine and drop into some breathwork + movement + toning with the intentions of bringing and sharing all of theses beautifully awakened frequencies with our bodies and systems sprinkling it all with gratitude.
• Thank you to books and their authors: Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunnigham; The Velvet Rage, by Alan Downs; The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, by Ann Rice writing as A.N. Roquelaure; & Tales of The City, by Armistead Maupin.

Web links

• Find J.P. online at ThisQueerBook.com
  
• You can also connect with them on Instagram @thisqueerbook

 

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for FREE meditation + chanting + breath work circles online. 

 And follow us on Instagram!

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Join us for our season finale: Nick (he>they) + TanyaMarck (they/them) share about their queer story and connection.

Episode Highlights

• We flow into and explore the potency of cultivating queer connections.
• We take a dip into queer spirituality. 
• And finally we are honored to share and announce upcoming queer spirit offerings in 2024.

Web links

• Follow us on Instagram @thequeerspirit
• Find TanyaMarck online at TanyaMarck.com and on IG @tanyamarck
  
• Find Nick online at QueerHealingJourneys.com and on IG @holisticqueerhealing

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram!

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

 

Ruth Camillia (they/she/ella) is a bilingual, bicultural, healing arts practitioner, reiki master, akashic records practitioner, and tarot reader. With maternal Indigenous roots from Los Altos de Jalisco, México, they integrate curanderismo and other ancestral practices into their daily life and work. As an intuitive and trauma-informed practitioner, Ruth believes healing is sacred.

Episode Highlights

• Ruth shares their queer journey and story in the most delightful ways. And we explore aspects of Queerness alongside them.
• We get curious about and drop into the Akashic Records. Ruth collaborates on a reading for Nick.
• Ruth offers a Tarot reading for the queer collective  -  it’s cute + juicy. 
• Thank you magic and animal medicines of: hawk + black phoebe  + Akashic Records, Cosmic Tarot by Norbert Losche, Sanskrit tools and practices 
• Queer spirit fingers to Leah Garza @crystalsofaltamira + Linda Howe @drlindahowe + Salva @salvatattoo.

Web links

• Find Ruth online at RuthCamillia.com
  
• You can also connect with them on Instagram @ruth_camillia

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram!

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

*Audio Note: Volume and clarity varies during some parts of this interview.

Rekara Gage (she/her) is an herbalist who focuses on the importance of ritual, safety and community when it comes to personal healing and growth. Her approach to wellness is based in food medicine and spirituality, emphasizing new ways to add plant medicine to the routines that you already have in place. She loves helping people reconnect with their intuition and do things with meaning, making everyday feel special. In her practice, it's important to provide access and information to the public so that they can make the best health choices for themselves. Rekara is a student of Traditional Western Herbalism with Julie James at Green Wisdom Apothecary and School of Herbal Studies in Long Beach.

Episode Highlights

• Thank you to our grounding plant medicines and their energies: dandelion root (clarity), mullein (lung support + moisture), tulsi ( aids with stress + clear headed + relaxation) , and elecampane (breathwork).
• Rekara shares with us about her healing journey and how the medicines and magic of storytelling, food, movement, plants, family, community and curiosity play active roles in finding herself and herbalism.
• We learn about the medicines of ritual and practice that Rekara partakes in throughout her personal herbalism journey, and how they are connected to her culture.
• We learn what herbalism is: understanding plant medicine (the chemistry), how we can benefit from plants being here, how we can learn from them, and how they support us.
• Rekara reminds us that when working spiritually with herbs and plants, important aspects to explore and consider include: connection, intention and being open to answering the call to mindfully interact and work with them.
• Rekara drops an herbal tea recipe that will nourish our queer hearts, bodies, spirits , and souls.  Thank you to these plants  for sharing their medicine and energies:
• Rose (color + reminder of boundaries + protection + safety) 
• Tulsi (aids with stress + clears the mind) 
• Damiana (spicy + sassy + libido + reminds us who we are)
• Cinnamon (unsung hero that moistens us + grounding + supportive)  

Web links

• Find Rekara online at Re-ngage.com
  
• You can also connect with her on Instagram @rekaraneal & @rootedherbalcollective
  
• Find Green Wisdom Herbal Studies & Apothercary & IG @greenwisdom
  

 

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram!

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Crystal Mason (they/them) is an artist, activist, dreamer, consultant and coach. They believe in the power of community and necessity of hope.
Jason Wyman (they/them) is Queerly Complex. Using appreciative inquiry, deep listening, and creative conjuring, Wyman taps the Cosmic Mysteries in all to reveal moments of Chaos Poetry. They live, love, and create on Yelamu / San Francisco, and share a home and family with their husband and pride of house and feral cats.

Episode Highlights

• Crystal + Jason share their personal queer-stories and drop some queer wisdom nuggets
• Sweetness alert: We get cozy + comfy while Jason + Crystal take us for a saunter and share about how they met and their connection.
• We learn about the medicine + magic of dreaming in public and how sharing those dreams with others can lead to co creation and action.
• Crystal leads Nick + TanyaMarck through a dream practice that includes a share/reflection of what we experienced.
• Behind the scenes and during our shared time, Jason has been alchemizing some chaos poetry which they share with us; it’s very queer + yummy.
• We learn about the offerings and practices that both Jason + Crystal share with our collective.

Jason's chaos poetry from our collective dreaming practice lead by Crystal:

Take  a deep breath... Take a deep breath & soften your gaze... Take a deep breath & flow... Flow like a river as it snakes its way through the jungles...        through the forests...       through the deserts...       through the valleys...       through the mountains...       through the prairies...       through the lands of your ancestors & ancestors of these lands, including those unnamed & unknown... Listen for the birds, the animals, the critters, the wind blowing from the Southwest, from the energies of dreams & wishes... Smell the flowers & the lush green flora thriving all over this world... Flow on this river & arrive in queer paradise... Where the water glistens & glitters... And queer beings of all bodies--        clothed & naked...       serene & making love...       joyous & free...       alone & in community-- Celebrate completely... "I do not want to leave..."  "Me neither..."  Remember...  This dream is within you always & in all ways... You can come back here... Take a deep breath... Lay in your hammock... Dream queer dreams... Here we will always be free.   

Web links

• Find Crystal online at CrystalMason.net & on Instagram @ham_job1
  
• Find Jason at QueerlyComplex.com & on Instagram @queerlycomplex
  
• And their collective work at TreeOfChange.net 

 

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram!

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Rae McDaniel (they/them) is a non-binary speaker, author, therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, coach and Transgender Diversity & Inclusion Educator. Rae helps audiences gain the sheer audacity to be themselves in the world through play, pleasure, and possibility.
Their book Gender Magic is a first-of-its-kind practical guide to achieving gender freedom with joy, curiosity, and pleasure for transgender and non-binary individuals, gender explorers, and those who love them.
Rae is also the founder and CEO of Practical Audacity, a Gender & Sex Therapy practice in Chicago, serving over 300 clients yearly.

Episode Highlights

• During our shared time we explore what it means to be in flow with the unfolding journey of gender.
• Rae shares that coming out to their family took a couple of years - they were blessed and lucky to have built a supportive strong queer community prior to coming out.
• They share with us  how pandemic quarantine removed a lot of the external barriers trans people navigate on the daily. During this time, Rae honored their trans identity by getting top surgery and working more deeply with testosterone injections. 
• Rae drops some queer wisdom nuggets: How do we connect to ourselves, to each other? How do we bring more pleasure + joy + play into our lives right now even while holding all the heavy stuff?
• In their new book, Gender Magic, Rae poses that we position gender exploration and transition as just another part of self growth. 
• Rae shares an excerpt from their book with us and it’s filled with such yummy nuggets of queer wisdom. 
• Pleasure + Joy + Play remain integral ingredients of their growth.

Web links

• Find Rae online at campsite.bio/theraemcdaniel
• Connect with Rae on Instagram

 

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram:
- Nick Venegoni, he>they
- TanyaMarck Oviedo, they/them

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Welcome to Season 6 of the show! 

Nicholas Pearson (he/him) has been immersed in all aspects of the mineral kingdom for nearly 30 years. As one of the leading voices in crystal healing today, he offers a unique blend of science and spirituality alongside a grounded, practical approach to working with crystals. The author of several books, including Crystal Basics, he lives in Orlando, Florida.

Episode Highlights

• We learn about Nicholas’ journey and connections with science, stones, energy, folklore, animals.
• Nicholas shares about what stones he is currently drawn to and working with & how he is embodying them into his daily navigation, practices and work.
• We receive some medicine about how to choose, care for, sit with and let go of crystals.
• Nicholas shares with us  how to explore, be curious and embody all the aspects of stones.
• We receive Nicholas’s recommendations of what stones could be included in our magic tool-kits that support our queer liberation.
• Thank you Tongva, Ohlone, Seminole lands; essences and energies of magnolia tree, limestone, moonstone, emerald, opal, aegirine & animals.

Web links

• Find Nicholas online at linktr.ee/theLuminousPearl
• Connect with him on Instagram

 

Join the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners. 

Join us for First Saturday's FREE meditation & breath work circles online. 

Grab your FREE Mini-Course: The Self-Confident Queer - start here.

And follow us on Instagram:
- Nick Venegoni, he>they
- TanyaMarck Oviedo, they/them

 Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Season 6 of the podcast will launch next week on Monday, March 27th, 2023.

We're excited and grateful to share this season with TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) as a co-host on the show. You may remember them from the last episode of season 5 last year. 

We want to share about some of our online offerings…

First Saturdays Online Meditation + Breath Work
This is an opportunity and an invitation for us to be in and with queer community while we meditate + breathe together.


And If you’re seeking queer community, we invite you to join us and others in our virtual and private Queer Spirit Community group. It’s a space where you can connect with like-minded queer beings, share and receive support, and build community  
Join us at queerspirit.mn.co


We hope you enjoy this upcoming season!