This podcast episode is sponsored by Ritual + Shelter.  Are you looking for a magical place to shop and hold space? Check out Ritual+Shelter online or in Homewood, Alabama. Browse through their bookshelves, which cover topics such as Energy Healing, Reiki, Chakras, Auras, Accessing the Akashic Records, Shadow Work, Astrology, and Earth-Based Healing.

You can also find herbal teas and tinctures alongside crystals and oils to help establish a mindful mindset and fluid ambiance before meditation, ritual work, and reflection.

Ritual+Shelter is dedicated to providing one-on-one, in-depth conversations with customers to help them find the most efficient healing methods and resources that match their unique interests and energy. They offer Tarot sessions, Reiki, sound bowl, and Crystal healing. Visit ritualshelter.com to book an appointment and bring peace back to the body, mind, and spirit. 

It’s been an unexpectedly intense week.  How perfect that the topic of today’s episode is about spiritual, cultural, and the ancestral aspects of aging and dying. 

I lost a dear friend who was like an adoptive mother to me.  My life went on pause.. no podcast.. no blog. 

Many people don’t know this about me… part of the work I do is in helping the soul through the transition into death, preparing the body for burial and helping the family as well.  When it is someone close to you, the work can be harder. Although it does hold great honor to serve at this stage of life. So I took the week to offer the rituals, the ceremony, to help the family, and to mourn.

My Aunt Micky as she was know to the entire community, also left me a gift, a gift in the reflection of my work back to me and how important it is for me to talk about this work and bring the conversation forward.

We are at a time in humanity that is asking us to understand this cycle of life for death is a part of it.

As we discuss in this episode, how we live is how we die. Having a spiritual practice can help you throughout your life to understand your soul, how you work through traumas, and what you choose to carry forward.

Being a Spiritual Mentor allows me to live my purpose and do this work.  I wanted to offer another glimpse into the mentoring that I offer. My student, Summer, came to me with huge gifts.  Gifts she didn’t understand, which made it hard for her to trust her abilities.  She is also highly empathic and was taking on so much more energy from others than she needed to.  

In today’s episode, my guest is S. Kelley Harrell who explores the spiritual, cultural, and ancestral aspects of aging well.  Her latest book, From Elder to Ancestor: Nature Kinship for All Seasons of Life, presents practical exercises and rituals to help you intentionally craft yourself as a fit elder on the path to Ancestorhood.   She explains the importance of creating a direct personal connection with nature and of respecting the spirits who surround us. 

In this episode, we explore the concept of Animism and how it is key to becoming an Elder who will go on to become an Ancestor;  we examine what it means to die well, the deep spiritual work with the Sacred Self, deathwalking and what that means, the role of a death doula, and the oneness that this works brings forward.

S. Kelley Harrell is an animist, deathwalker, and death doula. Through her Nature-based soultending practice, Soul Intent Arts, she helps others ethically build thriving spiritual paths through runework, animism, ancestral tending, and deathwork. She is the author of several books, a teacher as well as a podcast host. She lives in North Carolina.

Website. Instagram.  Book. Facebook. Podcast: What in the Wyrd

Animism – Awareness that everything is alive, consciousness, everything is related, we are in relationship with all that is.

How we live is how we die.

We all have trauma. How we manage them helps us to live well so that we can die well.

Conversations are needed at death.

Deathwalker – Some one who assists in helps souls release their trauma of death to move on to become elders, teachers and ancestors in the Spirit World.

Bring forward the awareness that you have thousands of ancestors colluding for you waiting to be active in your life. Call them in.  Make space to receive their guidance.

We do need to have more conversations about this topic.  Our elders are very important to our community.

Be sure to check out Kelley’s work.

Don’t wait for crisis or even your dying days to create a spiritual practice for yourself.  It can help you in so many ways… like understanding your soul, your purpose, and the lesson you come to learn.

Thank again for listening.

To your Spirit,

Terri

PS… Reiki 2 Certification is coming up on Sat, August 17-18. This is for anyone who has completed the first degree level.  

PSS… Freddy Silva’s new class,  The Bridge Between Material and Magic.