#I like to think spellcasters can just feel one another's magic...like they all have certain unique characteristics that just

[recitedemise]

Caleb looks ready to run for the hills. Contrarily, Gale wants most desperately to run toward him.

How odd. To be fair, however, he supposes it could've been just about anyone. Gale's a wanting little thing, a blighted, hollowed man hampered foul with need. He'd sequestered for a year, nursed little beyond the depths of his miserable heart, and to feel his magic? To humor friends? Why, it'd be a deal too poetic to think Gale a rose, but to be met with company with that same fondness for spellcraft... Well, after a lifetime of winter, it feels like spring. Hope.

--a hope, of course, that leaps right back to autumn. 

His orb ripples nastily. Come the wilting month.

Gale, fingers curling into those grooves in his chest, sees it, his flicker of caution all a mountain. Caleb's worry flares keen, colored at its fringes by a not-distant fear. He shouldn't hasten to hope and shouldn't reach for comfort. He's already so wary, and Gale's a threat. "You propose a bargain," Gale breathes, ignoring that deep, deep, mind-haunting doubt. "Were it that I hadn't already seen you casting, I'd have thought you more a trader than a fellow wizard down on his luck." Yes, gifted in ways that had spurred his intrigue--just, as Gale's sure, he had spurred his own. That said, Caleb, bright, is far too clever to not have noticed his orb. The others study him, too, trading whispers in secret when he retreats for the night, but that scrutiny of a soul who can feel his spells? Dead flesh and death lumps! He'd taste it, too. It curls in the air, Gale's magic like a graveyard with the immolated dead. Caleb's hair burns warm like that fire off his fingers, (and there in his eyes looms corpses, too.)

"All the same, I like to believe I know better than to peddle a lie to a man that sells them." Oh. So, Caleb, too, isn't quite that subtle. Still, Gale holds his gaze, and the sour scent of wasting things twines ugly between them. "I won't do you the disservice of selling that mind of yours short. When I pull from the Weave, it would be my presence you'd feel on the borders of your mind. You could no sooner deny me than I could deny you." The way their Weaving is so instinctually felt... Orb glowing through his fingers, Gale harshly bows. "Ah— There's certainly no escaping you. I'm sure you've your share of theories. I imagine I don't inspire much delight."

Cerulean eyes are transfixed on the burning figure before them, a fierce flame engulfing their enemy, ever-consuming in its intense heat. Remnants of a fire-based spell cast by Gale leave behind a faint dust of magical energy in the air. The smell of burning flesh, thick and acrid as the charred body crumbles to the ground, singed. And Caleb's feet are rooted to the ground, struck by a wave of memories that wash over him with such force he cannot move… cannot focus. Struggling to escape a relentless onslaught of emotions, ears ring as his chest tightens, suffocating him.

Until a voice breaks through and Caleb is left with little choice but to focus.

Stay on task, Widogast.

His eyes flutter uncontrollably, trying to shake off the panic that has taken hold of his mind. “I am fine,” He insists, averting further unwanted inquiry, and turns to face Gale, who mirrors his own state by clutching at his chest… though this wizard’s reasons for doing so are entirely different from his own. At the mere mention of his amulet, Caleb's hand instinctively flew to his chest, protectively tucking the necklace back under his shirt where it had come loose during the battle. And he fights the instinctual urge to lie, to assert he has no other enchanted items in his possession to provide… but Gale looks ghastly. The stench of rotten magic, like decaying flesh and spoiled fruit so concerning that even years of survival and selfishness are temporarily lost on Caleb. “Ja, okay... and if I did provide you with such an object would it come with an explanation in return?”

[jeff-from-marketing]

So I've had a pretty extended amount of time to sit down with Baldur's Gate 3 and mull it over in my head, and I have some thoughts.

Up front, the game is still fucking great, however it's very telling that all of my problems with the game actually stem from the fact that it's a D&D 5e game. It's hard for me to pick what the "biggest" issue I have is, so this will probably be a little all over the place, kinda like my general thought process.

Something that sticks out to me a lot is to do with spells, namely "save or suck" spells like Hold Person or Hideous Laughter. These spells feel awful to use. Because you either get an absolutely game changing effect that drastically changes the tide of the battle, or you get literally fucking nothing but you've still wasted a precious resource (a spell slot). Damage spells for the most part at the very least still do half damage, so you're always getting something out of your resource expenditure. The thing that makes this stick out to me in particular is because I've already seen this problem be fixed in other games and systems, including Larian's other games. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is built all around different armour types and tactical usage of crowd control abilities, because you can guarantee when they'll go off. It's honestly a lot of fun for a combat system. Pathfinder 2nd Edition also saw and fixed this problem with its Degrees of Success system. It's very rare that you'll spend a spell slot and get literally nothing out of it, you'll often get a weaker effect or shorter duration on control/debuff spells against enemies who make the save, but you still get something worthwhile out of it. Compared to BG3/D&D 5e where you get literally nothing, that's a massive boost in not just effectiveness, but in terms of how it feels. Nothing feels worse than spending a very precious resource and getting literally nothing out of it. But again, this was a D&D 5e problem to begin with, so Larian are stuck between "do we make a faithful D&D game, or do we make a fun game?" Personally, I would've gone for the latter on this one, but I know how some portions of the D&D 5e community are.

The other issue I have is the disparity between martials/spellcasters, and across classes in general. Now, to Larian's credit, they have done a lot of work to bridge gaps closer together. The discrepancy between certain classes is massive in base D&D 5e, so it's actually rather impressive the amount of work that's been done to rectify that. Things like Rangers don't suck by default, Berserker Barbarians are not only actually playable, but also just fun now, familiars and summons have interesting uses in combat and don't cripple your character, etc. But it's not all perfect. Monks still have some very glaring problems, like why do they need to spend resources to do the exact same things Rogues can do for literally free? Martials in general, even with all the things Larian have done, are still lacking in options and tools compared to spellcasters. Mostly because so many of them are tied to once per short rest, so unless you're doing a short rest after literally every combat (which honestly, sometimes it feels like the game expects you to do that, which is another thing I'll get to) you'll often end up in a situation where your only options are "how do you want to hit the attack button this time?" Again, this is a problem that have been solved already, and by Larian. Divinity: Original Sin 2 had so many warfare, huntsman, and scoundrel skills you could learn without going anywhere near flashy magic if you wanted to. And they were all just as effective! Pathfinder 2e gets around this problem by not only giving martials a bunch of abilities they can use, but also just saying "yeah go hog wild with them, use them as much as you like!"

Another aspect of this, that I think is just personal taste, is that I'm not super big on the "here's your daily resources, don't spend them all at once, the game will make sure you have to burn through them though" gameplay style that D&D 5e promotes. With so many abilities only recharging on long rests, to me it promotes being overly cautious with resources and just simply not using them. It's the "I have 900 health potions because what if I need them later?" and then never using them problem. Though adding onto this: this can mean that some combats can swing wildly in difficulty. Because there's no guarantee that the players will be at full resources, or just about to run out of steam, the same combat can be anywhere between "this is piss easy" to "oh god oh fuck we're all dying." Which I find leads to a lot more save-scumming, because you often have no way to tell if you don't have enough resources for a fight until you're actually in the fight. Hell, sometimes whether or not something actually is a fight is right down to RNG, which leads to my next problem...

Larian, I get that you're trying to emulate a TTRPG here, I really do. RNG for dialogue choices is not fun. There's a reason other cRPGs moved away from them in favour of binary "do you meet the skill requirement, yes/no?" checks. There's a reason you used that very system in Divinity: Original Sin 2. Because it takes agency away from the player, and means you sometimes just simply may not be able to do something simply because the dice said fuck you. If you don't meet the requirements for a check, you can just say "ah I didn't build my character this way, that's fair, I'll have to try that out sometime." or you feel rewarded for having built your character for speech checks by being guaranteed new options and solutions to problems. With the dice rolling system though, you can invest as much as you want into those skills, but you can still roll low and get completely fucked, making it feel more like "why do I even bother investing in that skill?" The reason the dice rolling works for a TTPRG is because you have a GM there with you to talk things out and apply some reason. You may roll low, but a GM can still adjust things, or you may have a character specific reason as to why the outcome should be different, or you can employ my favourite TTPRG tool of "yes, but-" A computer game can't do any of that. So it ends up feeling a lot harsher and a lot less fair and fun. This leads can very easily lead to a lot of save scumming, and it also makes spells like Guidance feel damn near mandatory to have in a party. Which means: I hope you like Shadowheart or playing a Cleric yourself, because you can't just not have a Cleric in the party.

This also extends to things like perception checks as well. Sometimes these are progression blocking, or at least feel like it, but I also think a lot of the issue actually comes down to telling the player too much information. If everyone in the party just failed a perception roll, well... I still know there's something there. The game is just saying "but you don't get to see what it is :)" I know the game doesn't do fake perception rolls (and I also think those are bad practice as well) so I instead know that there's just something there that's probably either about to fuck me over like a trap, or something that's near vital to progress something like a secret door or button, but I don't get to interact with it. If I was never told that the perception checks failed, I'd actually have no reason to suspect there's anything there at all, and the feeling of "well I may as well go fuck myself then" would be a lot lower. Though I think traps would feel extra unfair. I don't have a good solution for that one. This actually leads into a big tabletop problem of "oh one person failed a roll, time to get everyone in the party to make the roll even if they have no reason to" just to game the system. If you're going to keep this as something random as well (I'd argue that it's probably better to have the same "do you meet the skill requirement, yes/no?" binary system that Divinity uses, but that's definitely a debatable thing) I'd actually steal from Pathfinder 2e and hide those rolls from the player entirely. Secret rolls are so good for preventing the "well I rolled low, so I still know something is up, but I'm not allowed to act on it" problem that D&D 5e has.

Going further is a little bit of spoilers narratively, so I'll put those under a cut. If you don't want to keep reading though, I'll just put my conclusion here: I still love the game, you can still tell a lot of heart and soul has been poured into it, and Larian has done a lot of work to make D&D 5e a much more fun and enjoyable experience. It's just unfortunate that it still has some of the same fundamental issues that D&D 5e has on tabletop.

Though I think the real conclusion is: Larian, how much do I have to pay you for a Pathfinder 2e based cRPG?

Going on a brief narrative tangent real quick, and bearing in mind I'm only up to Act 2: I'm not fond of how certain aspects of the world are handled.

I think the goblins at the beginning are the biggest example of where my issues lie. They are, nigh universally, portrayed as quote unquote "evil." They're all raiders, pillagers, torturers, murderers, cultists, etc. And... I don't like that. I don't ever like portraying a race as "this is the evil race." I think it's not only boring and unimaginative, but I also think it's problematic. I get that a lot of people go to fantasy to escape real life, but surely seeing "every single member of this race you come across is defacto a bad guy" has to be raising questions, no? Even ignoring that though, it just stifles narrative creativity. By saying all members of a race are evil, you're removing a bunch of possibly very interesting stories. It's why I love Pathfinder 2e gnolls and goblins so much. They're so fascinating because there's so many facets to them, they're not just all evil. Hell, even whole ass demon lords can find redemption and become forces for good in Pathfinder. D&D has the problem of "evil is evil, and always will be evil" with not much room for the grey area inbetween. Which is a shame really.

I could also get into the problematic nature of "the dark skinned dwarfs are all evil slavers" and "the dark skinned gnomes are all used as slaves by the aforementioned dark skinned dwarfs" but... let's not. That's a debate that's been had a lot already, and it's not one I feel like having here.

I do appreciate that Larian at the very least tried to not fall into that entirely. The hobgoblin and illithid you meet in the underdark in act 1 were actually quite refreshing, it's just a shame (at least so far as I've experienced) there's not more like that. I'd love to have little goblin friends that aren't just The Worst(TM) people ever. And so far I've actually been quite intrigued by Lae'zel's (and by extension the entire Githyanki) storyline, I'm actually quite fond of how that's turning out so far.

That's not to say the writing is bad. Larian are still good at what they do, and there's still some very damn good stuff in here. It's just unfortunately still got to deal with some of the inherent D&D issues by nature of it being a D&D game.

[thedarklordgivenofucks]

Excerpt from a Diary

It became apparent quickly that Sparrow and I were very similar. They were good with their hands, good with a blade, motivated to miracles by even the promise of gold. Even their casual, easy-going smile masked a world of hurt not unlike my own. They were human, still very young, but the way locks seemed to spring merely at their suggestion was as if they’d been a thief for hundreds of years, not a couple of decades of human life. It was startling, to say the least. They can do anything I can, with as much or more efficacy. Terrifying.

Fear is not new to me, and I doubt anyone would have the right to judge me for being afraid: First the nautoloid, the mindflayers, the tadpole - and then being lost in the gods-fosaken wilderness with nothing but a dagger and the clothes on my back. Even when I first met Sparrow and their merry band of misfits, the first thing I’d thought upon seeing other people in the woods was that surely they were Cazador’s lackeys, here to return me to his service. I was fortunate to be proven wrong - perhaps the only fortune I’ve ever received.

Nevertheless, the fear that they’ll tire of me is stalwart. I can’t survive out here on my own, not with all the nonsense that’s going on, and knowing that I could become a mindflayer at any moment without the protection of the artifact they carry is reason enough to be terrified.  I need Sparrow if I am to survive, no matter the cost. But as it stands, our talents are very similar, and I’m not certain why they keep me around.

Sparrow is afraid of magic - whether because of street superstitions or purely due to their uneducated background I cannot say. Regardless, they refuse to touch the stuff, relying purely on their wits and mundane talents. Therefore, naturally, when Gale offered to teach me a few spells, I accepted. I was so desperate to prove that I can still be useful, despite Sparrow and I’s similar abilities.

I fear I may have miscalculated. My attempt to gain versatility may have left me at a weaker position than before. As it stands, I am not as good of a thief as Sparrow, nor as good of a spellcaster as Gale. I feel like a child, mimicking their parents’ professions with toys in an inferior attempt to be noticed. It’s disgusting. Pathetic, even - but I’ve made my choice. I’ve put too much effort into the facade to drop it now.

I don’t understand why they keep me around, to be honest, I feel worthless in a fight, and anything outside of a fight Sparrow can handle themselves. Despite that, they do more than just keep my company - they take me everywhere, almost not even letting me out of their sight. Even when they’ve dismissed Gale or Shadowheart to camp in favor of other company, they keep me by their side. Their smile seems easier when they lay eyes on me, and they laugh even at the worst jokes in my repertoire. I don’t understand it. “I’m just glad to have another crim around to be honest,” they’ve told me. “I was worried I’d get stuck with a bunch of hero-types and get lectured about how stealing is wrong and whatever else. Much better to have an honest criminal for company.” Honest. Surely they can’t be that dense. Sparrow is also a shameless coquette. I don’t think there’s a single member of our camp they have yet to flirt with - save the dog, of course, but even then I wouldn’t be surprised. It seems like they develop an attraction to anyone who can stand to talk to them for five minutes. Naturally, that includes myself, and I’ve indulged them in it - even gone so far as to return the flattery. Loath as I am to return to using my bed to keep people’s attention, there are worse partners I could take. Sparrow is charming, a pleasure to be around - even a bit handsome, all things considered. If I can get to them before one of the others do, it may be all I need to cement my position in the group. Besides - who better than an honest criminal for company?

[tameblog]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I���ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[ramestoryworld]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[alexha2210]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[angusstory]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

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How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[romaleen]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[monaleen101]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[iamownerofme]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[shelyold]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[iammeandmy]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[januishstory]

How Kate Fisher found herself at the brink of death, having to choose between this world and another. Plus one of the best foods to feel grounded, to help you keep a level head and even make better decisions! OK enough hints from me, I’m sure you have no idea what that food is…or maybe you do, so let’s get on with the story. Our guest, Kate Fisher I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Kate Fisher. Kate is a shamanic practitioner who specialises in helping others to connect with the power that is already within them. She is also an artist, and she works with drums, paint and clay to create shamanic tools, paintings and ceramics. And she works with people not only face to face, but also at a distance which I think is very cool. She has a pretty incredible story to share which I think you’re going to love! So Kate, welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast! Kate: Thanks Barbara. Me: Yeah, it’s great to have you. I’m looking forward to sharing your story. Kate’s story Me: So you work in Norfolk, you live in Kent, but do you have a lot of trees surrounding you now? Because I know that you spent a lot of your childhood in trees, is that what you told me? Is that where your story begins? Kate: Yeah, it kind of is, I was much more into sitting in trees and hanging out there and not really with the other kids. It just felt calming and I later found out that what was actually happening was that I was speaking with the tree deities and the tree spirits themselves. Imaginary friends…with a difference Me: So like when most kids had imaginary friends, like little playmates and stuff, then you just had your playmates that were like in the trees and nature spirits and everything. That’s really cool, when I was little actually, I didn’t play with the other kids either. I was with them but I was a tiger roaring and crawling on the floor. So there were no nature spirits for me, just a bunch of crawling around. On to herbalism At one point you studied herbalism, is that right? How did you come to study that? Kate: Well, I began studying it. After doing my art degree, I actually got a job in Neal’s Yard Remedies in Norwich. And so that just kind of brought me back to plants and their uses. The medicinal uses were the sort of thing I was drawn to. I was going to move to Australia to do the whole course of naturopathy. There was something still missing from that for me. So from that I actually found magical herbalism. Me: Okay. Kate: Yeah, so that’s kind of like hedge witchcraft. It’s understanding that everything has an energy and you can use that energy to help heal and help rebalance. Me: I know about wild plants, you know, and collecting wild plants and just eating them because they taste really good, and I know that nettles for example are really good for arthritis, just little things that you kind of pick up. But that’s kind of all I know. So is it like making teas for people and poultices and things like that out of plants and stuff? Kate: No, no, it’s purely energetic, so it’s basically like spellcasting. Me: OK. Magic herbalism, then on to the Philippines Kate: So you would use certain herbs and plants that have certain attributes and they often correspond with the medicinal uses as well. And you’d kind of enchant them and then you’d make them into little sachets to hand to people and once they’d got their use from it, they would bury it. It was always just for an energetic purpose. Me: Oh OK. Kate: It’s like the old wives’ tale of putting certain things above the door so things can’t come in. Me: I get it. OK. So you were doing herbalism but then I think you stopped, is that right, and you moved to the Philippines? Is that right? Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So magical herbalism still wasn’t doing it for me and I still felt there was something more. And I came across a book and it was called Chance Spirit Shamanism, and this just sent me off! I knew that I had to do something with this because it would take me deeper into that plant realm. The way I actually got to the Philippines was through my ceramics, with a job as a teacher over there. The House of Happiness Me: How did you get that job? That’s really cool. Kate: A Filipino lady, her family ran the college there and she approached me and asked if I would teach there. Me: Wow! Kate: Unfortunately it was in Manila and for me that was just too busy. It’s a really built city with really rich and really poor areas. I found this place called Bahay Kalipay which means the House of Happiness. So I went there, I volunteered and from there I taught this process called The Inner Dance, and this was precisely when my Saturn return hit. I had just turned 28 and I decided to drop everything, I sold everything that I owned in England basically, and I decided to move to the Philippines. Kate’s Saturn return Me: Wow. So can you just…sorry, can you explain to people, some people that may not know, what is a Saturn return and why does it just – cause I’ve experienced one too – what is a Saturn return and why does it turn your life upside down? Kate: Yeah, well, OK. The Saturn return is…Saturn’s in a certain place in the night sky and what happens is when that then comes around which obviously it takes 28 to 30 years to come round in your astrological chart, that changes everything. You’re then kind of pushed or encouraged onto a path that you should have been taking that you may have been diverted from. Some people’s is really turbulent, other people it can be quite free flowing depending on what their life path life has taken. And then this happens again normally in women’s time, it’s normally around the menopause. Me: Well it would be like 28 years later, right? Kate: Exactly, yeah, it’s on that time scale. So it really can turn your life upside down because Saturn’s known as the teacher. If you haven’t learned your lessons, you’re gonna learn them! Why the Philippines Me: Yup! I’ve experienced that so I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, so it can be quite big life changes and stuff, right? What made you decide to move to the Philippines? Kate: Well, in all honesty a man. Me: (laughs) As so often happens… Kate: And he worked at the retreat center that I went to. Yeah, I kind of knew that it wasn’t gonna work out but I’m always this kind of romantic person, I’m just gonna follow my heart…I loved it there anyway because it was just so beautiful and I felt so held there, just on the land. Me: Yeah. So you moved to the Philippines, so if you moved because of him, did you stay with him and then, like, what happened? Releasing inner blocks Kate: Well, I think I moved in with him to begin with, him and his family. And then I went back to work at the retreat center for meditation and the inner dance which is kind of meditative. It allows the flow of energy and any blockages to come out, it can be quite cathartic and transformative in itself. So I went back there and lived there, and I did that for 8 months. I was looking for land to buy as well. Me: So you were gonna buy land in the Philippines? That’s very cool. You said at one point that you had a kind of like dark night of the soul, was that related to the guy? Or… Kate: It was all, you know, a whole lump of stuff rolled in together (laughs). That’s what happens, isn’t it? Me: All at the same time, of course, yeah. Crying in paradise Kate: All at the same time. So yeah, for me, I was in paradise but I was crying my eyes out every day. Me: Oh! Kate: Yeah, and it was just this kind of ultimate depression, but this was something different, it was a transformative kind of time. And I ended up not really seeing the point in life, so I went from, you know, being on a real high and feeling the connection between all things and all of this and then just fell apart and thought, “Well, if everything is nothing and nothing is everything, then what’s the point?” Me: Oh, yeah, I’ve felt like that before so I can relate, yeah. Wow. From the Philippines to Peru Me: And so from there, how did you…you said that you then went to Peru, right? So how did you go from the Philippines to Peru? Did you just one day up and decide to leave, or was there a specific incident where you thought ‘OK I’ve had enough, I’m going to leave now’? Or… Kate: Well I, I’d gone to America to visit my friends over there and then while I was there I phoned this person… Me: Somebody in Peru? Kate: No, sorry, I phoned my boyfriend at the time. Yeah, and he ended up going “Oh I’ve decided I’m going to be a Peace Pilgrim”. Me: A Peace Pilgrim? What’s that? Kate: So it’s someone who walks around without anything, but just goes spreading peace and basically relies on anyone around them to support them. He said “This is my highest excitement”. So I was like, “OK, fine”. Obviously I was a bit heartbroken because I’d just travelled the other side of the world, but it made me suddenly realize that I wasn’t following my highest excitement. So I thought “OK, what’s happening right now? Where’s the mother of all plant learnings?” And it’s happening in Peru, with Ayahuasca, with Huachuma… Ayahuasca and Huachuma Me: What’s huachuma? I mean, I know Ayahuasca and in fact I spoke about that in a previous episode, but what’s huachuma? Kate: Huachuma is also known as San Pedro. San Pedro was the Catholic name they gave when they kind of came over to the South Americas. Huachuma is the original name for it. It’s a cactus that is mescalin-based, so it’s similar to the peyote which is a mescalin-based medicine. Me: Oh OK. So it’s a similar kind of experience with…like a journey like you would do as if you were taking Ayahuasca but you’re taking Huachuma? Kate: It’s similar, yeah. Huachuma’s much more about the earth and less cosmic. Ayahuasca is out there, attaching to everything that is. Huachuma’s about the heart, about connecting back to the earth. Me: Wow. OK, so you did both of those when you were there? Kate: Yeah, that’s right, so I spent 6 months being an apprentice to both of those plants. Me: Oh wow! So now are you able to perform Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies for other people? Kate: I believe I can hold ceremony for Huachuma for other people. With Ayahuasca I decided that I’m just always going to be her apprentice (laughs). I just don’t see how people hold space for that, it’s such a powerful thing. Temazcals (sweat lodges) Me: OK. So you did those, and you also mentioned temazcals, you know, the sweat lodges, what were those like? Kate: It’s really magical. So for somebody who doesn’t, who doesn’t know about a temazcal, can you say a little bit about like what it is? Because I’ve done one, but not everybody knows about it, right? Could you say a little bit about like what it is and what happens and why you might want to do a sweat lodge? Kate: OK. It’s a really sacred ceremony and our ancestors have always used it to cleanse, to rebirth. To go into those sweat lodges is like going back into the mother’s womb. You go in there with thanks, knowing what you want to get rid of or what you want to transition into. And you bless the rocks which are put into a sacred fire. Me: Sacred fire? Kate: Yes. They then heat those for several hours and then you will go into the lodge. You normally go through about four, yeah, four rounds. They’ll bring in a certain number of rocks, and then water is poured onto the rocks once the door is closed. Me: And it gets really, really hot, I remember. Kate: It does. But it builds, it’s not like going into a sauna. Your body gradually kind of gets used to it until it gets so hot that you’re just like “Oh no I can’t do this!” But quite often, we always say that the heat is your friend. Because that heat is sometimes not physical heat, it’s sometimes you know, coming up against maybe a blockage of the energy of the thing that you’re trying to shift, so if you can, stay in. The eyebrow of the Peruvian jungle Me: And so how did you…how did you go from doing the sweat lodges and the Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies to the jungle? Cause you said that you were…I know that you mentioned to me that you were in the jungle with some friends and you had a pretty scary experience there. Can you say a little bit about like how you came to be there, and what happened? Kate: Yeah, definitely. I was – I suppose – an assistant to the woman that owned the retreat center. And we’d become really good friends because we obviously worked really closely together. We were offered a piece of land possibly in a part of the jungle called Manu which is known as the eyebrow of the jungle of Peru. So we went to visit. And our friend who also went with us, he was also an Andean priest. He went and hired a boat and took us to this special island which had quite rare breeds of certain animals, mammals and things. So he takes us over there and we’re just so excited to see a different part and see rare species. Onto the land, you know you just start walking around and admiring things. I think it was about a third of the way around this island and all of a sudden something hit me. When the jungle gets angry Kate: It felt like I’d suddenly started menstruating but it wasn’t that time, it felt like all of my guts were just turning around. I just suddenly went white. Me: Wow! Kate: Literally it just felt like, I don’t know, I could have eaten something that didn’t agree with me, all that kind of stuff. So my friend tried to do an echo cleansing on me. Now all that did – this is the dirty part of the story – was give me diarrhea. It was awful. My body was emptying, everything was too heavy. I was getting rid of everything. It was really quite scary as it progressed. And then this feeling came over me that the jungle was angry. There was always this element of kind of doubt, skepticism I guess. Getting lost in another world But I was about to get lost in another world. The jungle felt like it was pulling me. The world that I knew, that part of the jungle that I was seeing with my physical eyes was disappearing. Me: Wow! That’s scary! Kate: Terrifying. And interesting at the same time. Me: Yeah, kind of like ‘this is really scary but this is really cool!’ Kate: I mean I got really scared up until the point where I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to leave this other world that I know and I’m gonna be taken to another world’. And when I reached that level of acceptance, you know, that strange place of like ‘OK this is just happening’, I told my friends to go on without me. I said, “This is where I stop”. And it was like, it was, I don’t know, it was like I was disappearing. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I…after feeling scared it was suddenly this peace that took over. But then my friends became scared because they realized how real this had become. You know, they couldn’t just leave me in the jungle. Me: Yeah. Kate: And the Andean priest, he was suddenly panicking around me. He was saying in Spanish, in Quechua, panicking about “Oh I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it!” He was going on about the ritual or the ceremony that we were supposed to do when we arrived at this land. A hurried ceremony Kate: And so all of a sudden he’s scrambling in his pockets to get things out and I was just flopped on the ground at this point and I had no idea what was going on around me other than his scrambling. He got out the cocoa leaves and he made like a little fan of these and he started doing ceremony. And he was doing all these different things around me but I didn’t have any awareness to be able to learn or witness or anything, it was like I was being absorbed into the jungle floor. The next thing I know he’s yanking me up off the ground saying “Stamp on the floor! Stamp on the floor!” Like this. And I was just like “I can’t do it, I can’t even lift my leg,” like I had nothing left, no physical ability whatsoever. But he was so persistent I just went and I just, I just kind of just flopped my foot on this space and I later found out that he’d buried the cocoa leaves there. And as I touched my foot down, something happened and I felt a little bit stronger. So then he went, “Again!” I stamped again a little bit harder with the strength that I’d found. And he said, “Again!” I stamped my foot even harder, and every time we did this, my energy started coming back and my color started coming back and I felt myself being drawn in, like my energy bodies being drawn back into this physical body. Until we’d done it enough that they felt comfortable with us making our way away from there. Me: Wow. Yeah, and then you just left at that point? Were you supposed to stay longer? Kate: I had to lay there while they went off in the boat for a while so I had to lay in the jungle for a bit and stop. Just to kind of recoup and make sure that I’d gathered all the parts of me back together I think. Me: Yeah, of course, yeah. Fear as teacher Kate: And I gave my thanks and you know, and I said, “Sorry for not knowing better”. I should have known better, that’s what I was there to learn, you know. How to respect these places. Me: Yeah, but you were there to learn. I would have thought the Andean priest would have… I mean, I would have been blaming him! (laughs) Right? Wasn’t he kind of there to, you know, to guide you and look after you? I mean I would have been like, “Dude you forgot something! Look what happened to me!” No? Kate: Well, I suppose, but I didn’t see things that way at that time. I kind of overtook responsibility if that makes sense. But I gave my thanks to the jungle at that point because that’s when my skepticism left and I really started to trust that Spirit is there to guide. And it really showed me its strength, and the only way it could do that was through fear. Me: Wow. Kate: Yeah, I was really, really grateful to have learned that lesson because without that I wouldn’t be able to practice, you know, the techniques that I do today. Me: I bet the Andean priest learned a lot too, right? I bet he never did that again! (laughs) Right? Kate: (laughs) I don’t think so! Me: Almost killed a tourist, can you imagine? Oh my goodness. Wow! What Kate does today So then you said that that experience helped you do the techniques that you do today, so how? Like, how come? What was it about that particular experience and what did you take from there I guess is what I want to ask, that you now use? Yeah, that you use now? Kate: Well it’s just the level of trust. Me: Ah, OK. That makes sense. Kate: When I’m doing the healings or ceremony or anything, I endeavour obviously – I mean sometimes ego gets in the way and makes you feel small. But that’s quite rare these days. I just allow Spirit and the ancestors to guide me. Me: Yup. Yeah, because you have that trust now thanks to your experience in the jungle. I get it, yeah. Wow! So then, yeah, what do you do now to help other people? Because I know you do lots of different things, do you want to say a little bit about that? Kate: Yeah, well the main thing that I endeavour to do, like anyone that I come across I try and support and empower. Even if it’s the smallest thing. And give people that different perspective on themselves. I think we’re so made to feel belittled and that we think that, you know, to think good of ourselves is to be arrogant. But actually we need to come to a space where we can be comfortable and love ourselves without that. Me: Yeah. Kate: It’s really hard to explain! I lead retreats and… Finding The Wild Woman Me: So what kinds of things do you do at the retreats? For example, do you take people on shamanic journeys as a group? Kate: So for the retreats, what I focus on at the moment is women. And I do this alongside a lovely lady called Amy who runs SoulShine social enterprise and we, well we call it Finding the Wild Woman. And it’s all about rewilding, so finding that part of you that’s been repressed through, you know, all the things that we should and shouldn’t do and expressing your authentic self. Me: Oh I like the sound of that, yup! Kate: So we do all sorts of things. Me: Wow, that sounds quite fun. Kate: Yeah, we use all the different elements as well. So you know, we run through kind of water, earth, fire, air, spirit…so people can connect back with those. The very base elements of this world. Me: Wow, that’s very cool. Individual help (even at a distance) Me: So you do those at the retreats, and then I think you said for individual people you help them find balance and things? Like what do you do for individuals? Because I know you also said you do some things at a distance as well. Kate: Yeah, so whether it’s distance or whether people are there, I’ll connect with them and I’ll allow Spirit and ancestors again to work through me. I use my drum, rattle, feathers, anything. I always ask if the person’s comfortable with it. Yeah, and then I use the vibe to kind of realign, as everything’s made of vibration. The intention is to realign those things, on any level that person wants to work. Me: OK. So do people normally come to you…yeah I would imagine people would come to you with a really specific problem, right? Can it be any kind of problem? Like, I don’t know, like everything from physical problems like physical ailments to maybe emotional problems or mental problems? Kate: Yeah, definitely. Me: So a bit of everything. Super! OK Kate: The most common tends to be physical or emotional, but actually you find out that they’re all interlinked so you just follow that path until… Me: Yeah, I know what you mean. Training for the Celtic sweat lodge Me: So do you run sweat lodges? Do you use that tool in your work at all? Kate: I’m not running them yet, I’m gonna do another 2 years learning the Celtic lodge. Me: So how long does it take then to train to learn the Celtic sweat lodges? Kate: Well, I’m taking three years to do it. Me: Three years, OK. Is that your choice to do it over a longer period? Kate: Yeah, I know that you can learn the practicalities in a couple of weekends, but to have the experience of actually supporting people through that process… Me: Oh yeah, that’s the biggest bit, yeah. Kate: It’s a very different ballgame. My own experience in a sweat lodge Me: Yeah, of course, cause I know, I mean I know for me that when I did a sweat lodge, yeah it was years ago now. And at the time I was…I was a total mess! And so when it got really, really hot, I could feel that kind of…how can I describe it? It was kind of like as if there was a well at the bottom of my being that was filled with all these like dark stuff. You know, fears and things like that that never got to come up to the surface, you know? That never got acknowledged. Just like really primal stuff, you know, almost as if you could tap into your most primal fears because there was no cultural barrier. There was no mental barrier, you know. You were just so hot that your mind…I mean for me my mind almost just left my body really because it was just so hot. And I thought that was…that was quite an amazing experience. I mean for me I was like wow! It was scary but it was also really cool and I can imagine that for some people… I mean, I like to think that I’m a pretty strong cookie but I imagine it would be scary for people to come to grips with what they find and to have to kind of, yeah, deal with that. I mean if they uncover something they didn’t know about themselves before, maybe something that’s super scary, then yeah I would imagine you have to have the tools to deal with that, right? Kate: That’s right, yeah. You’ve got to be able to support people after they’ve kind of gone through the sweat lodge process. Like you say, sometimes people are left with things that they need to kind of then kind of speak through or go into a bit more. Me: Wow, yeah. But I’d definitely say better out than in, right? All that stuff. Where to find Kate Kate thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There’s a friend of mine that also mentioned that when you hold any kind of retreat or workshop or any kind of event in nature, she said just ask the spirits there for permission so you’re on their terrain as it were. So that’s a really good example of what can happen if you don’t, right? I’ll have to tell her about it. Well, I’ll have to get her to listen to the episode. But thank you so much for sharing that, I really appreciate it and I’ll link to everything that you do below, but do you just want to say where… Where can people find you? What’s the easiest way to find you? Kate: Yeah, it’s easiest to find me on Facebook at the moment because I’m still working on my website but that’s at kfheartwisdom. Me: Super! OK. I’ll put the link to your site as well. Is it katefisher.co.uk? Is that right? Kate: Yeah. Me: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and I think I’m going to dive into our food tip. Foods to feel grounded And it’s really funny that there was all this stuff about stamping on the ground and everything because… I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that I would share one of the best foods to feel grounded. And first I do want to kind of emphasize what I mean when we say grounded. When we feel grounded, we feel more connected to the earth. Now this might sound airy-fairy, but it’s actually really important. So you can think of feeling grounded as the opposite of scatterbrained. In other words, instead of feeling confused, all over the place, not knowing what to do, when you’re grounded you actually have a clarity of purpose. It enables you to not only get things done but to know what those things actually are that you need to do for your own happiness. And believe me, this is really, really important. I speak from very personal experience. The other way that you can think of being grounded is eating foods to feel grounded. It’s kind of like getting the benefits of comfort food without gaining weight, if that makes sense. You do get that, yeah, that sense of comfort from these particular foods, but you’re eating good food, you know? Rather than junk. And for those of you who want to do some of your own shamanic journeys as Kate did, this particular food that I’m going to talk about can help you stay connected to this world too. So although there are many foods to feel grounded, the ones that I want to mention here, or the one specific one is…squash! Benefits of squash And when I say squash, this actually covers a variety of vegetables: so you’ve got spaghetti squash, summer squash, zucchini, marrow and pumpkin. Those are all types of squash. Gourds as well, those are squash. Squash is one of the oldest foods around – it’s been cultivated for at least 10,000 years, and it may look kind of ordinary, but it has a lot of health benefits. Now you may not know this, but squash is listed as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory! It contains vitamin A, several B vitamins, folates, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and beta carotene among other antioxidants. So it’s insanely good for a whole host of things, including managing our blood sugar, keeping our lungs healthy, helping keep our eyes sharp and strong, having strong bones, and reducing the risks of many diseases including lung cancer, emphysema and glaucoma, and that’s just to name a few. Squash has many other benefits and I’ll link to an article in the show notes if you’d like to read more about it. Now however before you decide to start eating bushels of squash, I do have to warn you about one thing. Squash is very good at lowering blood pressure, and if you have low blood pressure already, squash could lower it even further. So if that’s you, best to eat other veggies instead. Fortunately there are lots of other alternatives that I do mention in other podcast episodes! How you eat squash Now as to how you eat squash, well there are so many ways to eat it! Most people puree it and make pancakes, or they slice it and fry it. My favorite way to eat it – and if you know me you’ll know what that is – it’s to spiralize it! I’ll link to an article in the show notes where I show you how to do just that. You can make great pasta using squash, and you don’t even have to boil it. Plus it’s naturally gluten-free, so everyone can eat it! I’ve also got some delicious recipes that use squash in my 5-Minute Mains recipe ebook that I’ll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? Which brings us to the end of this week’s story – and if you’ve got a true story to share (and you’d like to know what food could have saved the day or enhanced your particular situation), I’d love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below in the comments, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen ‘on the go’ in iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES How to spiralize veggies: Benefits of squash: Link to 5-Minute Mains and other recipe ebooks: Kate has studied many esoteric and spiritual practices to a basic level from an early age (13). When her Saturn return began (age 28), Kate moved abroad to study different healing techniques with healers and shaman of Philippines and Peru. She learnt that to know and embrace all parts of yourself is where true healing happens. With a holistic attitude to life and endeavouring to approach life from the heart, Kate believes that all aspects of the self – mind, body and spirit – play a part in the health of the person. Finding balance in all these aspects, we can live to our full potential. Kate’s website: http://katefisher.co.ukFind Kate on YouTube Source link

[pixelwixard]

10/23/2023: Changing technology to magic

This is probably the concept I'm going to spend the most time thinking about, since the main reason I'm doing this fantasy Trek conversion is because I don't want to deal with the sci-fi of it and instead stick with the fantasy I'm comfortable with. So, let's just get into it. Spell Trek magictech!

Oh man, where do I even begin with this one? I'm just recreating all of science and technology for a new universe! No biggie!

Hmm. Well, let's start with this much: I don't think most people are going to be just throwing spells about. Or will they? Dang, now I'm not sure. Okay, let me start at the beginning of my train of thought and go from there.

My initial thought was that, instead of having a bunch of wizards on a spaceship, all the magic would be channeled through devices. So, phaser wands, for instance. There would basically be a magical equivalent of all ship systems. Warp core, shield generator, weapons, all physical objects designed to channel specific magical effects. Probably a lot of crystals involved, or runework or something. Maybe both. Maybe it depends on the species.

Most people wouldn't be actual spellcasters, though I imagined any ability you see in a non-human race could just be magical instead of biological. Mind magic for Vulcans and Betazoids, for example. Can't really think of any other species abilities outside of those at the moment.

So, that was my original intent. I might be changing my mind because the idea of a bunch of wizards flying around on spaceships sounds so cool. I guess it could be a mix of the two: some enlisted wizards, some non-wizards utilizing magical devices as I described. Perhaps some career paths are more suited to wizards, while others can go either way. Engineers would be wizards. Most science officers, probably, but not necessarily all of them. Security could be either. Command could obviously be either. Funny that I only imagine engineering as the only track with solely wizards involved. I suppose that non-wizards could be engineers if I wanted, but I imagine the ship-scale devices as needing a certain magical touch to operate effectively.

Okay, so what I got from my rambling is that all tech has magical counterparts. I'm just debating whether the people themselves have magic of their own. As much as I love the idea of wizards flying around in spaceships, it feels like it might be departing too much from Trek. Have to find that balance, like I've been saying. So, this is another aspect of Spell Trek that is not yet set in stone.

Speaking of which, though, I am leaning more towards the setting I want to write. If you didn't read that part, I narrowed it down to two choices:

1. Space, but magic. Simple, less fuss.

2. A universe that consisted of a flat, unending landscape broken up by bodies of water. No space, but endless lands to explore. Probably the more unorthodox of the two options, but I liked it.

I'm pretty sure, like 75%, that I'll just go with option 1. As much as I liked the strangeness of the second one, it didn't feel the same. They wouldn't be space adventures anymore, which is too much of a deviation.

I've run out of time for brainstorming today. Man, I'm happy with myself. I finished writing a full draft of my T'Lyn fic AND did this brainstorming. It's probably the most creative I've been in some time. I actually find myself yearning for creative time now. After so long, it's a welcome feeling.

All right, see you folks later. Avoid death and cower!

Spell Trek brainstorms

Okay, so I thought it would be a good time to start brainstorming Spell Trek in earnest, since I’m giving my T’Lyn/Mariner/Tendi fic chapter a few days to marinate (probably pick it up tomorrow, actually). I decided to live-blog my thoughts and just go through the entire process here because why not. It will be messy, but fun. Plus, people could leave feedback if they wished. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but for now, you all will witness the process. Might leave some questions unanswered, but I can at least go through possibilities. Let’s go!

In case you haven’t seen me talk about it before, and in case the naming wasn’t too obvious, Spell Trek is my fantasy conversion of Star Trek. While I’m a fan of some sci-fi (obviously), I am personally a fantasist, so I thought this would be a good way for me to write slightly bigger stories than I could if I stuck to the canon universe. My knowledge of science is not extensive. Magic, I can do.

I guess the best place to start is with the big stuff and work my way down. So, what’s the cosmology of this setting? Obviously, the original Trek is in space. Should I basically just keep it space, but magic? Planets, nebula, black holes? Maybe it would be analogous to space, but modified. Actually, if you’ve ever heard of Spelljammer, that’s a possible way to do it. I don’t know much about the setting, but I skimmed the Wikipedia article for it, and it’s kind of what I’m talking about. Might have to do more research into it.

Perhaps instead of traveling through space, it’s all interplanar travel? Each species could come from a different dimensional plane instead of planet. Might be some kind of “space” between planes that the ships would travel through, which is where the actual space stuff would occur and would allow for actual travel instead of just blinking from plane to plane. Almost the same as the previous paragraph, I guess, just…worded differently. Planets, planes, same diff. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same concept. Magic space.

It COULD all take place on one world, and each species is a different race and nation. Kind of limits the scope, though, unless I introduce some ways to expand it, like the Underdark, parallel planes, etc. Still would have a physical limit. Unless…it didn’t? Okay, THIS is new to my brain. When I’ve thought about the possible setting before, I’ve usually thought about the previous two paragraphs, really sticking as close as possible to outer space. I briefly imagined it as one world before, but dismissed it due to limited space, and therefore lacking in terms of exploration. But what if…the landscape just had no known limit? One unending (as far as anyone knows) physical landmass/watermass? Could still have ships, but they would be airships instead. Warp could still work, as the landscape is basically infinite. Exploration is still doable. It being a flat world instead of 3D space, that would make travel slightly different, but that’s not important. Actually, maybe the travel could still be 3D? Could have underground species, perhaps landmasses in the sky, too. Or maybe…what if there are multiple physical planes stacked on top of one another? A big lasagna of reality. Cosmology is fun to play around with, huh?

Well, this brainstorming session has given me some things to think about. To summarize, it seems like I have two options for the overall setting (with some sub-options thrown in):

Basically outer space, but magic instead of science (like Spelljammer).

Replace the infinite space with infinite landmass and watermass (and possibly multiple layers).

Not sure which I prefer. I like the latter because it’s the shiny new idea I just came up with, and I wouldn’t have to worry about astrophysics or anything like that, but I guess I could always fudge it all if it’s magic anyway.

Is anyone reading this? If you want to give an opinion, you can. Oh hey, I can do a poll! I love you, Tumblr. So just take the poll. Well, you can reply or reblog/tag too, if you want, but if the poll is easier for you, by all means.

Okay, bye now.

[cloudselkie]

Glass Slippers - Thoughts On Creating a Personal Divination Deck

When I was a kid, I was enamored with magical girls - Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Magic Knight Rayearth, Kiki's Delivery Service… I could go on. However, Cardcaptor Sakura is the show that eventually led me to tarot, and through that, witchcraft. The Clow Cards were the very first form of divination that I ever owned (twice in fact - I bought a bootleg deck off of eBay in 2012, but had to leave it behind due to going off to finish school at a religious college. The second, an official vintage deck, I purchased in 2018). I have yet to find another oracle deck with the same balance of diverse and yet simple representations that allow for a lot of flexibility and depth in readings.

However, the further I get into my journey into the craft, as I have experimented with other forms of divination, and have recognized and honed my abilities in sensing energies, other forms of divination, and astral work, most decks I own have lost their shine. I have purchased decks with the hopes that they would have the same feel, but none have really lived up to what I want. Tarot is too constrained, most oracle decks contain too much positive without enough or even any negative (all good decks should be balanced in this respect, in my opinion), and almost all feel energetically empty to me.

I feel like the essence and energy of divination tools often gets overlooked or not even considered when it comes to the modern witchcraft community. People talk about cleansing their tools, but do those tools really need it? Why would we chase out what gives them life?

But, in the same vein, why would we allow anyone else to program the energy of a tool except for ourselves? Maybe Nature, should your tool be a natural object, but other people? And this is why I cannot resonate with decks created by others, even if they claim in product descriptions to have done XYZ to impress energy into a deck (whether they actually managed to do so is a discussion for another day). How could their tools possibly speak clearly to me? Their energy is not my energy. Their experiences are not my experiences. Their spirit allies are not my spirit allies. Their journey is not my journey. Their craft is not my craft.

And so, I have come to my current project, inspired by the Clow Cards.

My goal is to create a deck of cards, where each card acts as a physical seat for each of my ally spirits and synthetic spirits I create myself for certain tasks. This deck will then be able to be many things for me - a spellcasting tool, a divination tool, a devotional tool, and a sort of energy index I can use as a quick reference.

This means that this deck will be personal to me, my journey, and my specific experiences. Now that I think about it, the current Clear Card arc of Cardcaptor Sakura has Sakura doing exactly this with all of the new cards, except her cards/spirits are created by accident. I have to put much purpose and intent in each card to create them. And some will require asking ally spirits to use the card as a seat, rather than forcing them to ("capturing" them).

Artists often use language like "giving birth" to their works. But I think that takes on a much more visceral meaning when speaking of creating places for spirits to inhabit. These may just be cards, but each one is also a body for them in a way, and therefore great care must be taken to get things just right for each spirit, just as the human body creates just the right new body for a new person to inhabit. And in this same vein, each card will be "birthed" for each new spirit who takes an interest in having a card seat created for them (I am not arrogant enough to assume all spirits I meet and have a relationship with will want to have one).

It's not going to be easy, but I think it might be one of the most rewarding projects I take on in my craft, and one that will be ever changing and evolving. And now, I challenge everyone who reads this to evaluate your relationships with your tools and see if, like me, you have spent too long trying to make the glass slipper of another fit on your own foot.

- Hagging Out, Feb. 2022 -