Episode 86
The Goddess as Trickster with Danielle Dulsky
My guest for this episode is the wild and wonderful Danielle Dulsky. Danielle is the author of The Holy Wild, Seasons of Moon and Flame, Woman Most Wild, The Holy Wild Grimoire, and most recently, Bones & Honey: A Heathen Prayer Book. A heathen visionary, painter, poet, storyteller, and word-witch, Danielle teaches internationally and has facilitated circles, embodiment trainings, communal spell work, and seasonal rituals since 2007. She is the founder of The Hag School, and believes in the emerging power of wild collectives and sudden circles of curious dreamers, cunning witches, and rebellious artists in healing our ailing world.
On this episode we discuss:
- Her formative experiences in a fundamentalist Christian church, and why she believes we choose the families that will wound us in exactly the right way for our own growth
- How she met the Goddess during time spent in Ireland as a young woman
- What it means for her to embrace the term "heathen," and how she sees it as living on "untamed spiritual ground"
- How she came to know the Goddess a trickster and fringe dweller, and what shifts when we embrace her in this way - as opposed to a victim of oppressive patriarchy
Plus Danielle reads two beautiful prayers from her latest book, Bones and Honey!
Show Notes
- If you’d like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/
- You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history.
- Please – if you love this podcast and/or have read my book, please consider leaving me a review, and thank you for supporting my work!
- You can watch this and other podcast episodes at the Home to Her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hometoher
- You can learn more about Danielle and her work at her websites: https://danielledulsky.com/ and https://www.thehagschool.com/.
- Danielle's latest book is Bones and Honey: A Heathen Prayer Book.
- During this episode, Danielle mentioned the book Mysteries of the Dark Moon, by Demetra George.
- She also mentioned the work of depth pyschologist Bill Plotkin and philosopher Bayo Akomolafe.
- I referenced the activist Valarie Kaur, and specifically her "Breathe and Push" speech. You can watch it here (I've watched this so many times and every time I end in tears): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCenwgheIBs
- Favorite quote from this episode: "The ancestors are in us, whether we want them there or not. We are the living ancestral altar."
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Mentioned in this episode:
We Are Sovereign: A 9-Month Transformational Leadership Program for Women
We Are Sovereign is a 9 month transformational leadership program designed specifically for women who are ready to claim full authority and power over their own lives. The program includes a deep dive with: • Powerful Sacred Feminine figures, drawn from history and mythology, who will serve as our sovereignty guides along the way • Transformational practices rooted in creativity, play, energy work, ritual, ceremony and even magic • Embodiment practices, including dance, yoga, and other intuitive movement exercises to tap into the wisdom of the body • The Enneagram as a tool for understanding the human psyche and our individual personality types • Yogic philosophy, creative writing and journaling exercises, and much more • The power of the group field that we cultivate to dive deep and be witnessed fully for who we are, allowing the property of emergence to support our becoming The journey kicks off with an opening retreat on the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii, September 12-15, 2024. From there, we’ll gather twice a month over the next 9 months via Zoom, and we’ll wrap up in June 2025 with a closing retreat at Hestia Magic Retreat Center, located in the shadow of majestic Mount Shasta, California. To learn more, apply, and/or book a discovery call, visit: https://www.hometoheracademy.com/course/we-are-sovereign