Imagine yourself under a Starry Sky around the Warm Glow of the secret fire as your hosts are in potency Jim to stay in Caitlin storm Breakers talk about Shaman and psychology. Welcome to a show inspired by those late-night conversations by real-life spiritual practitioner, don't you come and join us?round grandfather fire It is the Harvest Moon on gilded veins and roofs of villages on Woodland Cress and their aerial neighborhoods of nests deserted on the windowed panes of rooms where children sleep on country lanes and harvest Fields. Its Mystic Splendor rests gone are the birds that were our summer guests and with the last sheaves return the Laboring Wayne's all things are symbols, the external shows of nature have their image in the mind as flowers and fruits and falling of leaves. The songbirds leave us at the Summers close. Only the empty nests are left behind the pipings of the quail amongst the sheaths. Welcome everybody to another episode of around grandfather fire. You're listening to episode number 29. I am Jim to snakes joined by my good friend and co-host and student Caitlin Stormbreaker. How are you doing tonight Caitlin? I'm doing great. We are at the very peak of our fall season. So I'm kind of getting brutalized right now by work and also beat up by my original teacher who is putting me through the works of a whole bunch of That's right back with your with your yoga training again. No, it's more of the spiritual side of yoga that we're going through now less less of the asanas but more of the spiritual practice and kind of sussing out a lot of the shit that's going on in my life and trying to make us a semblance of something and it's so it was so funny. I was thinking about it earlier today. I was like, I have legitimately and literally come full circle on my path because she was my very first teacher who kind of awaken my mind to this whole other realm of beings and now I'm like eight years later. I'm back to working with her one-on-one and I'm like, oh that's what that means. Gotcha. Yeah. So how is good? Anyway, I see how that happens busy. But you know, that's always the par for the course. I know I realized when I was sitting down that we have not done. Episode 4 literally a month, we had a couple guests that had to reschedule and it was a month since we recorded our last episode. Can you believe that? I actually can I was thinking about that and I was really missing you guys because I really hope you enjoy and look forward to these hour hour-and-a-half episodes that we do so you can go ahead and hang out nearly as much as I wanted to at Ann Arbor Pagan Pride. But yeah, I heard you had a date night and I hope that went well. And you guys weren't really time and went really well class went well is you attended my class, right? That's right. Yeah, you were at the back row there. I did. Yeah and did it go well for you? What did you think of it? I well I of course. I'm a little biased even working with you for how long now long enough. They should be over your bias. But no my bias is actually a lot worse now. I think you're awesome go, man, but no. I thought the glass the class went really great you the structure of it was really well. I wish we had a little bit of a longer time slot for right? So at the end we could discuss a little bit more what went on but from what I experienced. It was really amusing because you know, I work with the same Spirits you do and so Tango and Condor we're there before you even call them and I was like, oh, hey guys what's going on? Like why are you here? And then you called him and I was like, oh, that's why. Okay, cool. So then I had my spirit animal come in the first time and it was an elephant and she just sat down and looked at me and I'm like, okay. Well now you have to go away because you're my ego talking and she's like no, I'm not leaving I'm it and it was like the literal elephant in the tent. Is that what a pretty pretty much like, nope. I am at this is me and so I went through it two more times and like I even asked oats, And go in condos. Like are you guys going to help me out? Like we got to get this one out of here and they're like no this is this is it I was just like, oh, well, that was easy. All right. So what do you have to tell me and she goes wisdom without compassion means nothing. Oh, wow, especially to yourself. Yeah makes a lot of sense. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense and being in there's an elephant. You can never forget that message would ya bad jokes puns, you know, it's part of my routine. No, we got to do that because it keeps us in in line. I think that's right. That's you serious. Well, I'm going to go ahead and let's welcome in our guest tonight. We are really happy and pleased to be joined Again by Ron. Smith and if you guys remember Rondo's on with Sarah tonight earlier this year we had a fantastic conversation where we went really deep into talking about Shadow work and it was actually a very popular episode and Rhonda is back to talk with us tonight about a book that will be coming out very soon. And when you're listening to this podcast, you'll be able to pre-order it still for tonight because we're going to be airing this on the last day of the month, but tomorrow the very next day it's available for sale on Amazon and all over the place. s and welcome back Rhonda Thanks for joining us today. Oh good to be with you. Thank you so much. Rapid. Yeah - oh, this is like family, right? Oh, I forgot to mention the title. What is the title of the book that's coming from title is the whole method the whole method? Yep. It's the method into which we find our wholeness. That's awesome. That's really great. Actually no method. It's about us finding our own method, but it's about stopping the whole need to have somebody else tell us how to do it and figure out how to do it ourselves. Right? Isn't that vital iíve come Really appreciate in the last couple years how important it is that we don't need gurus. We just need people to help us ask the right questions, right and and and the whole space and to be like I'm not going to respond you. Yeah, like you need to find your answer right your teacher like but like my best teachers never told me anything. They just listened and like Saddam if that's what you think or even though. They're not really that what you think see, right? Yeah, but I think there's too many methods out there. There's too many systems. There's too many ways. There's too much personal development. I think personal development is what keeps us in this like endless loop of like seeking more and that we're not enough and made more have to have more and it's really about finding what's enough are enough number are enough for our lives. And then what hmm, you know, then what then what then I think a lot of the methods that we have nowadays are almost too structured like you absolutely 100% have to follow this path step by step you do this one first and that one and then eventually you'll reach Enlightenment where personal Enlightenment is more fluid than that. It's more. Based out of your own thoughts and memories and feelings and to have someone there who understands that and ask the right questions of you I think is more important but we don't always have access to that. So the fact that you wrote a book to be a guru to help people get that. They're on their own. I think it's awesome. That was such a great idea. So I am in no way a guru. No way. Do I relate with Guru? Please don't ever call me that I'm just a chick. Yeah, right buck and would have Billy sit in a circle with you and learn from you as well. So like that's a big piece of this all and I think getting comfortable like being in the dark cave and learning how to feel our way through and learning how to hit our heads and you know how to have something bite us and like that whole piece of just like finding our way into tapping into that internal wisdom and and you guys are in a little bit of a different community in your community is a little bit different too but a lot of the deities that I'm involved in or like coming out of Tony Robbins and they're coming out of all these things, you know, I understand that was that was part of our expansion but like it isn't about Changing State it's about being present to our state and it's like so they're right and and we're visualizing people live for a visualized State people live for an affirmation. I'm like, whoa, who are you really because that's not who you are. You're pretending something. Hmm and you're wishing something. So that's a big part of this work for me is really getting people to be present with what is because my life didn't change with all these things. Like I visualized I even did a dream like a vision board, which I Silly now, but and I don't mock anybody who does it everybody has their own jam. It just didn't work for me right like and then all the affirmations and all the things and I'm like I'm lying to myself because none of these things are true. I am not at awesome. I am not rich. I am not famous, like whatever we ask and I'm not perfect. I'm not ends the finding our way inside of ourselves into this thing's so that's why this book is really meant to do them. Yeah, that is such a great set of observations to because I think you know, For their time like, you know, 20 years ago Anthony Robbins and that they seem so revolutionary to a lot of people because a lot of people had never really focused on improving themselves that same way but the the problem that we're running into is now it's almost like part of the capitalist system where it's always about expansion expansion expansion growth for growth's sake and I don't think that's a healthy thing to do anymore. Nothing are like are our companies to call the expanded human, but that's not about like it's not about offending. It's not about just going up. It's about going in every direction now out and all of it right and like it's you know, there's a there's a phrase that you got that if you're not growing you're dying and I think that that is cancer because I feel like people run this special stealer. I think you can slow down and when people come from to me that people actually sit with themselves, Like listen to The Quiet the only people ever stick in a cabin in the woods for 30 days with like Justin notepad notebooks and see like what happens? Most people are beautiful experiment now, that's a TV show. Yeah, I think a lot of people couldn't handle it without this the constant input. A lot of people would struggle with that quite a bit. Oh, not me. I would love it. I would disappear into the woods every single day and they would be selling an empty house. Really go. Where did she go now? Exactly. I mean it's being present to sitting into the apple tree, right? It's the things that we you know, and I'm overly connected right now because I'm trying a launching this book and we're launching so many things and the output is way like I'm not living the way I say, there is a point when we get to charge the mountain and we get to create our things right and then then there's a point where we could bring back and like see how it all unfolds and just like today with a show. My router guide right before the show and it's like okay. I mean what am I gonna do? You know, we'll just keep going so now the word Enlightenment was used and I actually I want to touch on that a little because I feel like a lot of times and I think we might I might have talked about this with other guests, but people think that Enlightenment is like even a Lightman itself is the end goal where I tend to find that something that you get these brief and beautiful flashes of her moments to sit with but it but people can't at least I can't Just live that way constantly. It's one of those things where you have that Revelation, but then you have to kind of find a way to to live it to Earth it to to bring it to fruition. Well, I mean Enlightenment is this like new age idea that we're sitting like Lotus position at the ocean complete and total Divine connection and we're all happy all the time enough. That's just not a realistic. I mean Enlightenment is a destructive process that shed the way the untruths of who we think we are as feeling get closer and closer to ourselves. And of course we have to have like waves and Peaks and and you know Plateau the time and I think I came to Big Revelation. Should I don't want to be the soldier spiritual person? Like I want to study human sometimes I want to let my Winnie the Poo belly out. Maybe something that's not good for me. Maybe don't I don't do it. I don't I don't know, but I know that when I'm too spiritual and to on the path, like everything's to clean. I can't handle the like the Resonance of let the frequency of people voices how everything's coming at me so some Times I have to create a little bit of a disrupter in there. So it's like I don't think there's any yeah, I mean it's like it's just a little bit. Coach and they want to they're bored. They're successful in their life, but they don't have to film it. And that's typically where people were at like they've done all the things I've read all the things are gorgeous and personal development. They're like, wow, this isn't it nothing but looking for to see what it's all about and to reach success is significant since somewhere along the way you realize. Wow. This isn't it? Like I'm not happy. You're not fulfilled. I'm not being me and it's really finding that that internal wayfinder to really figure out like I don't enjoy doing what you enjoy and the beauty of that is that that's what makes his hand. I think everybody's trying to like a live for this. Wonderin. Not it's not my dream. I want I finally realized that was I was trying to create a dream. That was some fine. I was like well shit, no wonder it's not working, right? Yeah, it makes complete sense. So when people have kind of gorge themselves on the on the personal growth path with some of the traditional materials, I noticed one of the things in your your bio that kind of caught my eye a little bit was with your new company the expanded human that you're saying what comes next after personal development. I think that's an interesting question. What kind of Venues, are you hoping or Avenues? Are you helping people explore with that? Well, we we can't just take out the recycling. We need to have things on a system scale if that's where Earth is right, like we're in planetary / like we've got some things happenin right now that we need to be aware of and if we don't have empathy and compassion, you can't teach that you can't teach someone to want that so like the extended human is really an idea of like taking people into We have a one-year mentorship of call the Inner Circle and it's to really kind of take the leader who maybe is disconnected has success maybe has like some connections but like how the community had can ripple effect and really I don't like to use the word impact because I don't want someone's impact. I don't want ever want anyone to impact me with their impact if I like what you're doing. I'm going to magnetically be attracted or connected to you. But so the inner circle is created for that person and then we're going to do a different member membership for people at a completely different price back if we want to offer something for everyone. We have a free community. We would offer something a little bit more high level and something a little bit high level. So we're trying to hit like all things but expanded human is really about what's enough for you. Hmm, like really getting to the point of like this consumerism and need for like significance and more. It's like a rat trap and it just keeps us on this Perpetual wheel of like never being satisfied and my friends who have enormous networks and and Got it. And it Jim Carrey I quoted him in my book and he says I hope everybody gets successful and famous so they can realize that this is not it. Hmm, right? So yeah connection. It's family. It's how we have our tribe if you want to use that word or though you the communities that were in it's how we engage with a sister or brother. It's sitting next to somebody and by a fire listening and sharing right? So when people come to you at like at what point are they at like in their lives are they are they at the point where they're just realizing this isn't a good fit or is there one of those moments of Crisis where they're like, you know, they just lost their job or work. What do you think is like the seed for a lot of those people coming and looking for more? Well in the expanded human I would say it's simply like typically like we've done a lot of market research on on our tribe and like who were like trying to support and for women it's completely different than it is. For men. Hmm so women she's a Healer. She is some type of Medicine Woman or medicine person. She's maybe a coach or in the realm of wanting to support and help people. She's connected to the suffering that's on the planet. She doesn't know what to do about it and she has all of these amazing gifts but like there's still some intimidation or there's still some, you know, resistance and to stepping into who she is in our power because typically women need to be in community supported with tribe right to feel confident enough to do their thing. Right like so that part's really missing. So maybe the relationship part isn't working or their Partners not showing up or the partners not wanting to wake up is a factor and then with our men, you know, they've done everything to try and be seen and done everything to really fit in physically. I mean I owe one of my business partners like ran an Ironman just to get someone to like it just this have somebody here like yeah and like hit. Yeah. I mean like the level of what you had to do and and he's comfortable. We're sharing the story. This is part of his expanded story. But he he struggled with his weight. So he ran an Ironman. He was still struggling with his weight like that never change. So what was happening internally weights a symptom weight is not like something which you know, we're focusing on weight if people want to lose weight. It's a symptomatic thing of something else. Right? Right. So like he did this whole thing and then he ended up like herniating a disc in his back and was bedridden and didn't know like how his life was going to be and he was like 23 years old all trying to get somebody's attention hue. After the race like never talk to you again, and it was just fascinating. He's like, I betrayed myself my whole life and my body was trying to tell me something my entire life, but I was like making the body work for the head and really like that's what it is. So our men have had the level of success they've achieved but they're still like now there's a lot of men that come to me for private coaching or like wanting to open up open relationships or like want to explore polyamory and I'm like, I don't I really think that's what you're looking for. Yeah, like there's work to do before that to even see if you're the person that's open to that kind of thing and like so that's typically a lot of our men or you know, they've just questioned a lot of stuff. So, yeah, so it's a really interesting Dynamic to see where people are out there and people are suffering. Yeah, we're hiding and people don't know what to do. And you know, I have a lot of people come to plant medicine like still seeking and if you're just curious you can't come sit in a secret. Ceremony like it has to be something deeper than just being curious that we don't have enough medicine on the planet to be just curious. Right? So it's it's interesting weeding out people and sometimes people I've had one guy come if you listen to this episode he'll go but he's like I'm coming because this is on my bucket list, and I knew I knew his past he had a very very very difficult past just incredible trauma, and I said you would never be here. You're coming for your bucket list. Like I know your life and I understand your history. That is why you were here. So it's you know and everything and we talked about this on your last episode. Like everyone thinks that like psychedelic medicine is the way yeah, and it's the wave and like there's definitely healing there's definitely some benefits to it. It helped me in my life in so many profound ways, but it is not for everybody. It is not a long-term path for everybody. And I think that the way it's being promoted out there is dangerous and scary and there's a whole bunch of people who have you know, they've never sat in a plant data. They've never sat around a fire in learned any grow like they don't even know what a medicine song is and it's like they're just doing it for profit. Hmm. So yeah, we're in very interesting times. Yes. We are Caitlyn when she was describing some of the things that her or the women clients are going through it reminded me of aspects of your story. Can you relate to some of that stuff that she was talking about? I definitely can and it's something I'm still I feel like I'm currently still going through even though I'm stepping into the more and more comfortable role for myself. And it's it even like it goes all the way back to before I started my path. I grew up in the car industry in the car industry is largely lorded over by men and they think they know everything and they're the cure-all bn2. Everything out o parts and I fought for years to be recognized and to be noticed for what I knew and and my abilities in within that company and finally one day. I just realized I don't have to do this. This is this is not me. This is not my my job to make you realize that I'm capable of doing whatever it is. I need to do instead. I just did it. And then when I got into the Pagan Community, I kind of saw the same nuances, but I was a little more timid about coming forward and just doing because it was a new area. I wasn't a quote on quote expert. I didn't know hardly anything or anybody. I didn't have a tribe in the beginning until I until Jim scooped up and said, all right, you're coming with me come to love the scoopers. I had a quasi teacher a little bit before him and he kind of threw me in the deep end off of the ship in the middle of the ocean. And Jim was like, oh, hey, here's a life raft. Come on aboard. Let's figure this out. Why not? But pull yourself up, right? Yeah. He right life raft with the Rope. You have to climb into the boat. And it's been really interesting. Just seeing the shift of people noticing me, I guess and I've always been kind of like a Wallflower anyway, so it's fine being in the background. I was fine being the Weaver of energies off over there that you have no idea what she's doing or if she's doing anything at all, but suddenly, I feel better about myself because I walked past her. And I'm fine with that. But I've had people especially at Michigan Pagan Fest be like, oh, hey, you're that fire tender girl, like in the I've noticed all these wonderful things about you and I'm just like I'm absolutely terrified of you right now because I'm mildly introverted. It's amazing. What happens to her voice when that happens right? Like it completely shuts down. Yeah. It's just kind of like went away. But yeah, I I can totally relate to that in one of the things that My teacher Beth and I are kind of working on is that aspect and she's kind of helping me come into my own being and who I am and how she describes it as we are a spiritual being within an animal right? Our body is an animal. We are classified as mammals, right and our spirit is just the thing that our animal agreed to allow to Company it within this journey. And so there has to be that connection there has to be that balance between the two while my spirit may think. Oh, yeah, you have to work in go to school and gain all this knowledge and do Spirit work and have friends and etc. Etc, etc, etc and have sex and be a partner and cook food and take care of yourself and all of the things right? Yep. You have to do all of the things all at once you don't you somehow along the Lines get that disconnect between the animal body in the spirit body. Whereas there shouldn't be that disconnect. There should be that connection where they communicate well with each other where the body says. Okay, I can't do this anymore in the spirit says, okay. I understand. There. There there there. I understand. Let's take a break. Let's take a nap. Let's drink a cup of tea. Let's do something that appeases you the animal body. And so that's one of the Avenues that were exploring with myself and the the shift I've noticed in myself has been really interesting entertaining to say about her word. But well, right like I mean for me I go to bed. So I have depression really bad depression and I have really bad anxiety. So like eight weeks ago, I completely crashed and burned and went to bed for almost three weeks. So two-and-a-half. Wow. Yeah, and like I call my partners as like remember that thing I said that's going to happen one day. and they're like, yeah, and I said, um It's happened. We were expecting it to happen later in the year, but it's happened. So it's really interesting to to be okay with being an entrepreneur and being all the things that we're creating and like this is who I am. This is the animal body. I've been given just Lifetime and I have a very sensitive and unhappy nervous system when I too much stress and and you know, we were talking before the calls it goes a time when we have to charge the mountain and then there's a time when we just get to see On the mountain and my being is ready to no longer charge. The mountain has been that I'm ready to you don't want to what I've been kind of forced into. I don't know you're in Northern California. Is that correct? Yeah, so you probably don't have the seasons like we have here in Michigan we get we get eight feet of snow to how do you okay? So one of the things I'm really forced to learn over the last couple years is I can't just keep going full throttle. all winter Like my instinct is to really close down during the winter and my stubbornness is always kept me going through the winter. It Full Tilt ahead. But I'm just getting to the point where you know, only took 50 years to realize that I need to actually listen to that a little bit more and yeah, you're right. We can't always be charging the mountain that just doesn't work. That way there has to be so much of life in the universe is cyclical and we are part of those cycles and So that's an important thing to realize I lived in Florida and Southern California and I was I was never been so depressed really all that sent know all that Sunshine. Like I never had a rainy day and I never had a day. Like I I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and it's near Lake Tahoe. Of course, we're like 7,000 feet elevation. We can amazing snows and lots of seasons and I can't I live here. I split my time between here and San Francisco The Sims. Stove area and I go back to San Francisco because it gets it this place will starve you like no other and feed you like no other but like there's there's only 1800 people in my town. So I have to go be in like some electricity and city where things are happening and people are doing things and people are curious and here it's just very slow. So I very much need both so I get that. Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so I was as I'm is I'm thinking about your book. I got curious too. So the book that's coming out. What what can people expect from it. Like is it like I have some books are very much a here's a bunch of information and I don't feel like this is going to be the case on that one on yours and other books have like a real kind of almost workflow to them like you're going to do this and they're your do this can do that, but that doesn't seem right for the what you're talking about for. People finding their own way. So what can people expect in the book and how is it kind of structured? Well, I can first say that I didn't I didn't write the book that I sat down to write. So that's definitely half a hint in this process. So there's a beautiful story that's in each chapter that really kind of takes you on a journey of my journey and you know, it's not specific but I kind of brought all my medicine Journeys into one and and then and then there's a whole bunch of Commentary which is specific to you know, what's happening on Earth and what the Quest for wealth and riches is doing to our planet and right and like where we're at with the deforestation and the animals and and even how we like eat food. I mean, I don't promote veganism. I was a vegetarian and vegan for five years, but I just couldn't do it. My body doesn't have the Constitution to do it. So, you know how we create how we grow food how we choose? Choose food. I mean what's happening to farmed animals is just right kind of karmically we can ever heal what we've done to pigs and and cows and chickens, but it's being smart. But you know part of that book really wants me to have you know, I have a friend who is going to create Retreats and helping her. I'm coaching her through this right now, but to teach women how to hunt and coming from being a vegan to actually going out like I need to be able to know how to hunt food. I need to understand the process and like I need to be more and it's really about being Self-reliant so the book is that it's how we talk to ourselves when we're in times of pain and discomfort like that's success to me like the conversation you have then how much you love yourself and it's the journey back into self and I think that you know, we have a lot of things that need healing on the planet without a doubt but we can't just go save the world like the world doesn't want to be saved. She wants to be loved and the only way for us to do that from a place that's not of wounding or Narcissism or ego is to do our own work first and it doesn't mean like not do anything for the planet, but right if we just come at it from where we're at, you know, there's a lot like I said like a lot of conversations that we really need to be having different conversations. You want to be engaged and when this week right like it's like really right like it's just learning how to talk to each other about different ideas and learning how to sit in it comfortably and like to understand we're going to have opposition and different opinions and that that we may not agree all of us. These are okay. Right but it's we need to sit down at the table of truce and how like some some conversations. Yeah well and like disagreements in that they happen and it's not even necessarily that one side is right or wrong because that's what doing way too much value on right or wrong and and too much ego into thinking that your opinion is right, but if there is an acknowledgement that people have different priorities and that's okay, right? So your priority what you're concerned with might be different than mine and and and I have to accept that and we all need to accept that you know, and there's those things where I also think that social media and I this is one that I harp about a lot but it doesn't do us any damn favors because you and I sitting here and we're having this conversation and I can see your face and you can see mine. We can cover so much more territory in a much more loving and caring manner than we can with just text on a screen. And I think social media is doing us a great disservice in a lot of time regards are there are there are benefits which is as I have friends all over the world and I get to be connected to you know, today I was able to connect all these multiple channels of people together in this weird way. So I hear you but like we started a master class Series where we're bringing people together and zoom zoom is so magnificent because you know, like we had to call the other night for men on about sex and relationships and you know women are It's like men and women aren't meeting right now like our growth and expansion is not happening at the same level. So it's really interesting to watch the energy and being that like that the combat that imbalance and like Bernard went through always says, there's no right or wrong or good or bad. There's only balance and imbalance and like that Parts interesting. So we're trying to bring people together in a kind of face-to-face electronic face-to-face to start talking about these really deep conversations that need to be have women under the with Men are going through this process. You know, there's a lot of women out there who haven't I don't know if it's okay to talk about a new show. I didn't ask you about this before but I'm going to go ahead and do it the best there's a lot of women out there who don't have orgasms. There's a lot of women out there who are like kind of just faking this life and like that's not okay with me. Hmm. You know, I'm not okay that we have made a decision if Humanity that you know, we have hungry and homeless people we have made that decision that that's okay. I could probably stick 5 or 10 The absolute best Minds I know in a room and I don't know how long it would take but I guarantee you they would come out with some type of solution. Hmm and like but we got to care to want to have that conversation, right? Well, I think part of it is that we do have the solution to those. There's just the problem with the greed of money and ownership of certain things and what we need to realize as humans is that we don't really own anything. We're just taking part in this life. We're just here living a life alongside all of these other beings and until we can heal ourselves. No amount of healing is ever going to come out of that. You can be the greatest environmentalist and greatest humanitarian, whatever until the end of days, but if you are not a whole person you can only do so much. You know, you can't be a Healer until you've healed. And you can only heal what you have healed and I don't even know if there is healed. I think there's healing yeah, right like you're right and like I think these things are in this lifetime and I don't know what the word is. I need to look it up because I've referenced in a couple times but there's a word that talks about like what this Quest is that were on and it talks about the spiritual Quest and we go on and life and then we die and we never really know how it ends and then we do it all over again and it's like, oh my gosh, we're working for like an answer that we met. Forget and then we do it all over again and we do it all over again. So I completely agree like whole people just like relationship that whole term like you're my better half or you're my other half and like there's we have to be whole in ourselves. We love ourselves like the greatest loves of Our Lives. Then we can come together with someone else who's the same and then together you can be in love in the wholeness. Right? Like there's just there's so many so many things that we get to work on. It's a again a very interesting time to get to learn and Walk through this dark cave. I like to think of it as a very exciting time, you know, because people are waking up so quickly now like so rapidly it's rapid-fire every nail. You see so many people like coming to these conclusions. I was like, oh my God, there's a whole world out there in front of me and I've been locked into this tiny device that has all the information I've Ever Needed on it, but I'm dumber than a box of rocks, but now I could go out and Perience this thing called life and it's amazing. Look at those flowers. That's awesome, you know, and I used to be very Very doomsday or type mindset but being the more observant individual and actually stepping into my role as a Wallflower. I've been able to observe people in their mannerisms and how they interact with each other and how they interact with their world in it. It actually brings me a modicum of Hope in a deeper understanding of the beast called human You know, it helps me to understand that everybody is fighting their own their own battles and they have their own and balances that they're working with and it's so fascinating to see to avidly watch somebody else go through life and realize that they are living their own life. and they have their own version of me and they have their own world that they see and perceive and bring in and then I also have my own world and you have your own world and we all perceive it differently and that's okay because we can We're allowed to do we're not going to have all these experiences on one planet, right? That's the whole that's the bleep. Yeah, it's for me. I went through a lot of fear several years ago about like stepping in and waking up to what was like happening here. And then one day I just finally wasn't afraid anymore and it was essentially like I'm energy. It is human is having a human experience and for me, you know, I was driving in my car and this is a little bit dark but I was like, maybe it's going to take an apocalypse to like get a celebrity. Okay, like okay, like whatever and like you say regardless the however what I learn in a day is then you chop the wood and carry the water right like you still go do your thing, but I think for people like that whole idea of how am I going to lose my human existence or am I guess that's where am I going to go through? We all listen to this part of the human experience, but it really is deriving and surrender on a daily basis humility. Surrender Grace all the things on a daily basis and you know like so much more heat in the body when you can just let go and be like, I'll just go through whatever happens. I'll figure it out figure it out, like whatever that means and I mean some of my deepest sacred medicine ceremonies He's were really showing me that transition of like moving into that new time and space and there are terrifying for me. So I'm not going to say by any means that that's the progression of is you go into reality what is and then people we're going to have a reaction that's it's normal to have whatever reaction you may have but getting to a place where we can find peace with it, but this is what's happening and then do our part the car boys since they are things and and you know share what's coming through us. I think that's one of the most important. Things is that like my Dharma isn't your Dharma why I'm here is not why you're here. And what's beating on me to come out of my soul isn't the same thing as yours and it's like respecting that process and each other. Sometimes I wish my Dharma were different the things that are like beating to come out of me were different but they're not they are with cars. So it's just finding surrender and not to I can agree to an extent on your Dharma is not my Dharma and everybody's Dharma is different, but I can also see how people's Dharma can align with each other at least for a period of time like their goals come together and they can work as two individuals but together on the same path for a short amount of time or even for a lifetime even in and that you would get a sense of tribus and Of foundation and understanding with other people. You wouldn't be totally alone walking this path. You would have somebody there that is walking the same path as you even if their Dharma is a little bit different. Right and like from my life my whole existence, especially as a very young child was like literally Clinging On to anybody that I could so that I didn't have to do it alone. Like just such Terror and such anxiety and me and really my work. This lifetime is really allowing myself to trust in myself listen to myself and find more ways and time for my packaging more self-guided and to listen to my Intuition or other. Have you know, they're super independent and they don't have those things. We're all it's also varying. But for me if when I was a child if you had swam back to save me I would have drowned you because the need was just so intense. So that's where like story comes in. Right like it's like sharing your story is like while this is who I bad. This has been my experience people. Like wow, that's this is my experience and then we care a little bit more. We actually sit and looks a little bit more. Which is what's so great about your show is because it's exactly targeted to sit around the fire and how conversations right like it. It's that whole piece. So so maybe I might even take a third position here on Dharma because I can agree that you know, your Dharma is not mine and I can also agree that it's great. It's a wonderful thing when I find someone else that my Dharma is in alignment with but can we also say that our Dharma is push each other's darkest. Was around like the the path that you're taking or that you've been put on can definitely affect the path that I'm on. Absolutely I and I 100% believe that somebody else is Dharma. I can begin a Dharma for somebody else like your Dharma could create a Dharma for one of your students. You pushed them into that Dharma you help them find that that life goal or that life path. So yeah 100% I agree with that I didn't just probably watch the way to explain it right to express it and then came part about that. Yeah, letting lending what has lied Blum. You just come out. Surrounded would you think would you say that and I'm curious the the we, you know, we keep saying that we're living in a very interesting time or an exciting time for transitional time. But is a lot of the deepness of the Shadows that people are facing both individually and culturally because we're resisting it so hard because I've always found with Shadow work the harder you resist the the deeper and more firm that they get. When we don't listen to The Whispers we get to hit the screen, right and that's typically that was my case. This is where I ignore it. Peril when they finally come back I need your help because I don't know what to do anymore. So yes, but that's the call and it's I think it's typical for us to ignore the call because a lot of us lives but enough for a manageable enough life. So it's you know, it's it's funny to see how people and I work with people from a client of experience. I think that worth it. They absolutely lose everything. NG to really find me listen like and anything like not everybody some people listened before but for some it's really a big call or relationships or you know, and typically a lot of these people are being called into some type of shamanic path or work. Hmm, right that's just seems to be who who comes from my way. But yeah, it's this whole time even who are government has selected in our president and Whatever you played. I don't really like to be super political but we couldn't have had a better way to see the shadow of what's actually happening been to be going through what we're going through. I think that we would have had on some blinders had it just continued to go the way it was. So again, not not a choice, I would ever choose but right I'm grateful for like the realization that are happening. You know, that's it. That's a beast. So trying to find something in In it that it's salvageable and and things so, yeah, I think there's different conversations happening now for sure. Hmm. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I think that you know, we're hearing the scream right now. It is never to me been so in our face how very few people are controlling so much. I don't think that in my lifetime it's ever been as evident. It is right. Now how much the the the Quest for money and power has got things so out of balance and that gets us totally away from the wholeness thing that you've been speaking of them. It's those are not the same thing having the biggest bank account is not wholeness. And again my opinion a very from yours, but esoterically I think that certain families got access to information and knowledge then took that to like create the system. Like I think where we're at isn't by mistake. I think it's more by Design and now that we're finally waking up to it. It's yeah, you know, you look at the things I ate as a kid and like wondered why I was so unhappy. Eating food and I book I call it Chow, right? Like it's pretends to be food. And it makes you feel full but there's absolutely no really so then we look at you know, what we feed ourselves and how we do these things but and grateful for the new can step into this time and to unlearn all the crap that I learned and so that they're you know, there is benefit into the part of like I've never been able to have this level of output or to be this like this level of person. I've never had access to information or trusted myself so much and that really for me required me to lay deeply in my shadow. Hmm. I think a lot of people are afraid of Shadow because it's painful and it's ugly and it's uncomfortable and they don't want to look at it because our main goal is humans is to become in comfort and without fear and you know, we have the whole fight or flight Instinct for a reason and usually when you at least for me, I can't speak for everybody. But for me when I face shadow that instinct Layers up and it's like instant. Alright, my heart is racing. I my palms are sweaty and freaking out like I've got to run or I've got a fight to survive. But once I quell that feeling or at least sit with it and understand, okay, this is just my response to the situation that's going on. I need to observe the Shadow and see it for what it is and then make it my Ally. I need it because I'd lost my train of thought good. Sorry about that. It's okay. Yeah, we I think the Shadows our greatest teacher. I think that I learned a fair amount of stuff when I'm happy and life is joyful. But I really believe that the shadow is the teacher and when we can learn to sit and face with it and feel of our feels and you know, there's a lot of breathing techniques out there. I have brutal anxiety. So sitting in plant medicine wasn't really late and I worked I did it for several years, but after that I couldn't do it anymore and Practitioner of a lot of medicine so that's very interesting Dynamic but when we taken breath and we breathe in fast enough and then we let it out and we hold it. We trigger a parasympathetic nervous system which helps activate like and help the fight or flight. So like learning all of these things. I like, how can I help with a toolbox of my own tools of how to help myself go through a situation. Like that's the gold. That's the interesting part because we're all so different in Unique and you know Murr I held Marin ceremony with me for three years, which Myrrh is like energy. It's like bleach for energy. So we're learning how to use the spirit of. Myrrh. And like now I don't have to excuse me to work with the spirit of. Myrrh. I don't even have to open a bottle of myrrh have one in my hand or really even have it in the room with me. I can simply work with the spirit of myrrh and have that same element because you know, depending upon what you believe are junk DNA is every living thing on the planet. It and so we are we armor so it's learning how to be this things. That was my experience anyway. I like that. So it's really really coming to learn how to resonate well with the state the this other spirit that you're interacting with to the point where you're resonating with it. So well that it doesn't even need to actually physically be there with you anymore. Right? I spent a year working with rose. I never really liked roses. My mom was a florist. She loved them. I never really got it. I thought they were expensive and they're kind of you know, whatever and they smell right but like I really understood I had some friends that worked with rose heavily and like there was a frequency with them. In their medicine and how they sat with medicine that was really fascinating to me. There was like a deep peace and wisdom. So I spent a whole year learning to work with rose and it really was transformative to me and it really helped me step into my feminine. But in this like very confident strong way and such a beautiful flower and you know, we have people who in ceremony prayed a lavender printed basil and my friends that diet all types of plans, you know Master plans from the Amazon and sometimes they'll do a rosemary diet. It where they'll sit and diet Rosemary for 10 days and Dewberry, you know, very little calorie and all the things just to kind of bond their DNA with it. So yeah, it's amazing when you think everything has a spiritual nature. So it's not something we eat. I was sitting with spinach today and I dropped a piece of it on the counter and I was just going to throw it away and I was like, I should eat you like your food. I don't want you to waste and I was like, well, maybe I should sit with you so I had lunch with a piece of spinach today as I myself. I like that I know but like, you know, I mean we have this element like when we eat animals, they're sentient. I mean plants can feel the sense fear like they know if they're going to be burned. They secrete a different hormone. Like there's things that are happening. It's just being more aware about our environment and how we feed ourselves and how we choose to be in relationship with all those things. What do you strikes me? If there was a person that I was talking to recently who was struggling with some Diet issues. Oh and it kept occurring to me that they were only thinking of it of food as how many calories it contained. What is nutritional content was that sort of thing and I kept coming back to the thought that if you sat down with it and had lunch with it had treated as the spirit that it is you could probably go a long way towards changing that relationship. So it would be much more nutritious than just food. Alone, well, I'm in even looking at it and like like through the chakra system. You know, your root chakra is based on food clothing and shelter and if you suddenly go from having whatever you want in food having a huge variety of eating whatever you want to suddenly very limited diet that kind of kicks that chakra that energy into overdrive telling your body. Like I need to consume more I I need more and more and more because that that resources now threatened or there's a perceived threat to that resource. And so there's like a stifling of the energy and so it actually kicks that root chakra into overdrive enforces you to consume more than what you normally would have if you hadn't of Taken on this perceived diet, so maybe even for people who are struggling with weight making your meals kind of like a ritual based. Being where you focus on the food as raw elements and then cook it into a meal and arrange it beautifully onto a plate and sit down say prayers to the spirits that are on the plate actually eat the food. Don't just mindlessly shove it in your mouth while you're watching TV, eat it taste it. See what you like about the food. See what you don't really take it into your body really reconnect with your food. You know, that might hope Nope, absolutely listening to the body like when it's hungry and the very first thing we put on the belly every morning is like the foundation of the day. So if you start your day with celery juice, which the medical medium has an amazing book out. I think there's a actress named Maggie. Oh who just created a Prebiotic probiotic greens formula and it's super easy like put a scoop in a glass of water. You drink it down and like it starts your whole day. Oh wow, and like and I'm a person who I'm a I eat cookies when I'm stressed. I eat cookies I did. Pounds and I weigh 200 pounds. So I'm always like somewhere in the middle and so like my life's journey of listening to my body what it needs and how it deals with stress and cortisol has been super interesting and I found that like the very first thing I put in the belly in the morning lemon water celery juice some type of greens really helps me not crave the same foods and make different decisions with my food, so I couldn't agree more and like Tantra Keating taking a piece of chocolate and hold it just to add on to what What you had said hope you know rather than just throwing a piece of chocolate your mouth Chuck. It's amazing. I would say eat like good organic chocolate but rub your tongue against the chocolate like feel it like let the chocolate like melt-in-your-mouth and have the sensations like this is living like this is all the things that we like trying to seek outside of ourselves. These are the moments like you are in relationship with yourself only, you know what it feels like when you have to poop but really, you know what it feels like right when you're going to rub chocolate in your mouth. No, you you really hit me when you said this is living because eating literally is living if you don't eat you're gonna die. So you might as well enjoy it. Yes, absolutely and listen to your body. Your body is sacred deep intelligence your body know what it needs and like if you're craving chips, you typically are looking for something crunchy your body's low in sodium. Right, like if you're if you're thirsty you how our way dehydrated it's way past the time that you should have drank water. So when we're point of thirsty, it's too late like go drink water and do better but like for me, I know my mental health is all based in my belly. So like what I'm eating what I'm doing all of those things. It's like I've had too much wine and the try and have organic wine, but still or you know, I'm emotionally eating I'm having more cookies and you know, I do so much better. I'm so much happier. When sugar is not a part of my diet. Quick Side Story because that's me right Galen that he the the enjoying the chocolate and that sort of thing. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories about a pro wrestler of all things Caitlyn. You might have heard this one before when I told it I but there was this old story about a wrestler called The Ultimate Warrior. He just he lived this, you know, because of his professional and he was just very obsessed with bodybuilding and being in the perfect shape and that sort of thing and the other Slurs used to talk about a story where he didn't want to eat any junk food, but emotionally he knew he craved. So there was all these stories of where he'd come back into the Katie room catering room and he'd take a cookie and he'd crumble it up and he'd take a big Sniff and just kind of enjoy the smell for a minute and then he'd throw it away and he'd leave the room because he had he had filled the emotional and the the neurons excited the neurons that he needed to excite to get that feedback, but he didn't actually need to eat the junk food. I always thought that was an amusing story and there is some sort of wisdom in there that that I really kind of find fascinating. It's really knowing what you need. And sometimes you need the cookies. Yeah. So when you eat the cookies trying to eat healthier cookies and really like that's like have if you have amazing ingredients in your cookies, then don't ever feel bad. Louder shame your food or as you're eating it, you're feeling bad. Like dude. That's like medicine. You're putting it in your body. Mmm, you know, like make a cookie find out organic cookie. There's lots of yummy things out there, right? Yeah, never ever ever feel bad about eating the cookie when you need to eat the cookie sit down enjoy it and eat the cookie because you're going to eat 12 more after it. If you're like man, I feel so bad about eating this one cookie, like just enjoy that one cookie take small bites. Enjoy it roll it around on your tongue. You'll the flavors feel it. Don't even taste it feel it. Take it in and enjoy that great because you deserved it man. Everybody deserves a cookie be human. Yeah. Yeah cookie. Yeah, right exactly. Yeah, that's kind of what I was aiming at. You know, it's like knowing what your needs really are. That's that's a key part. I Feel Love of that holistic sort of approach and I think it's really difficult for people to know what those needs are. Our because we have so much like even with social media or commercials or Billboards or ads on Facebook or ads on any social media. Really? I mean, they're just like throwing shit at us left and right and we're like we don't even know what we need anymore what you need to live and survive as food clothing shelter tribe and transportation. Those are the things you need to survive. Make sure those are all covered and taken care of and then go get your Starbucks. Once you're happy and satisfied with all this go buy yourself a new phone. If you've got the funding for it, you know, you don't need the phone. You don't need that new desk. If you have a desk that's totally functional like the one I'm sitting at right now. I bought for five bucks at a garage sale. You don't need to be bombarded by all of the stuff that they these companies feel like they need to bombard you with and I gave you a book. Recently John, but I'm hoping you've either read it or you don't care that I'm going to spoil something for you at the end because I just I cannot keep it in anymore. So I gave you this book. It's about the anishinabe Mana to use and it's all stories of from the anishinabe tribe of North about the various magnitudes that they work with and worship in kind of venerate up there and at the very end there is a section on wendigos. And in our 21st century, they believe that Wendy goes are no longer what they were but have in fact transformed into corporations and to oil companies. Wow, when I read that it punched me in the gut and I was like, oh my God. Yeah because Wendy goes can tickly or lower and traditionally where once human they got either kicked out ostracized or lost from the tribe became cannibals became this needy greedy never satiated creature that would rip you out of your home drag you off into the woods consume you and Continue to consume everything that they ever came across that was flesh. But now they believe that the windy go as it was is no longer. As it was it is now the big corporate companies because that's how it fits into our world. That's how it feeds. That's how it gets its it's needs even though it's never satiated. Wow. That's pretty powerful. Yeah. I was just like, oh my God, we're really say cheated. Yeah, and this goes back to a thought that I had earlier, but it wasn't able to get out the going back to shadow. Was and how you're talking about that one family and how they got it all figured out and imagine the shadow that they cast across the entire United States or even across the entire world and how their Shadows the ones that they are unwilling to face how those affect us as human being right? Yeah yours and that is that is really something to think about because at what point do you do all of the Shadow work? That you begin to realize that. Oh, that's not my shadow. Hmm. That's your Shadow or that's their Shadow or not Collective Shadow. Yeah. I was behind it really low levels, you know, as you know, I'm involved in a couple different nonprofits and and some low-level government things that I volunteer for and I even see that on my level, you know, I totally believe that higher levels. There are some very nefarious schemes. So I'll just freeze it that way but even at the lowest levels, I see people Shadows play out and they think they're making really good decisions. But really they're just following these shadow patterns and creating some really I mean won't call out anybody out by name but I'm participating in a group that is all about conservation and River Health and we're I have another board member that will swear up and down that the climates just fine Oh, I find this a little confusing. I have to admit, you know, whether he's right or not wrong. You know, I definitely have my opinions on but it just seems that a very strange place that that a lot of things he's will be unwilling to even look at for some reason. That's dissonance. It's cognitive dissonance. It's we've been programmed to fight for this one way and it's funny. I was like you're fighting for something. You don't even really know if you believe in right like you've done the research, you've gone through some some mean came across your face book. So now you believe like that's the way or like your dad told you this once when you were six and like now that's everything and I always encourage people like don't believe me go research for research it for yourself, but people don't want to like that's work or that see you know, and it's I was uncomfortable. Mmm. It's uncomfortable. You don't know I wrote a paper years ago for creative writing class and it was comparing organic food versus natural food. And I wanted to do organic versus Monsanto. I could find zero information on Monsanto and I did anything any opposing articles on Monsanto. We're just completely gone wiped off the internet completely. I was just like Huh? Well, right then I know but they're they're all part of it. Like that's if you look at that 1984 interview with Rockefeller who standing at the Bilderberg meeting and he's like, it's too many humans. We got to do something and that's like when Monsanto in place like there's a lot of things that went in place right after that so it's really fascinating to see and if you watch that whether you believe in Agenda 21 or not, there are some interesting pieces to like some of the content where Bill Gates gets up on a TED talks and says this The equation folks there's too many humans. You create too many of this. This is a something in this equation has to change and get close to 0 which is us and like whether you believe in vaccines being an issue or not. There's thousands of different ways that were being, you know, how our dogs and grass and cancer and like what's in our are they did a perfect grid pattern over my house this morning because we're getting ready to have a storm and I do believe in still weather and I do understand that we are like, you know, definitely issues on planet. But some of it is engineered some of it is we have to an article just today. We're just a stupid little tea bag some of those stupid little tea bags you get billions of microscopic plastic particles from a bag anteriorly. I'm being healthy. I'm having some nice tea. No you're not. Well, it's like everyone that's on the BPA movement bpa-free is like such a joke because there's a chemical and plastic called BPS. It's way worse for us, you know. Yes, and like so like drinking out of plastic isn't even an option like so if you have a plastic water bottle, please go get rid of any drink out of a mason jar. You don't have to drink out of anything expensive but it's just it's crazy and you look at like Hashimoto's and all of the thyroid issues. That's all coming from like it's not all but a lot of it's coming from plastic, right? And so it's just like we have to be more aware and clean like I have a bamboo straw. Right, like trying to be out of my glass with my lemon and it's like it's a lot of damn work a lot of damn work. Well, I don't want to keep you all evening. Although I certainly could but I just want to remind everybody too that go out go to Amazon and put in your order right now for the whole method book which is going to be coming out. It rolls out October 1st, and you're gonna have a lot of really great information in there on To find the wholeness in your life. That's what we've been talking about this entire episode how to make your life more whole and complete for yourself. So it's the internal validation that you need and and how not to be that wendigo yourself. So how to how to find that wholeness. So Rhonda thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. I think we're going to have to have you back on one more time at least sometime in the near future because we're going to have to take the Deep dive into some of the conspiracy stuff and I'm going to air quote. The conspiracy because we all know some of it is is definitely real but I think that you and I we need to have a conversation about how to have those conversations. I think that's a conversation and if you want to check us out go to the whole I'll go to that expanded human hu EMA and calm forward slash truth and join some of the stuff that we're doing over there, but I would love to sit down and learn how to have a conversation left me learning not necessarily you but how to have these deep conversations so that we can, you know, learn how to learn from each other take the pieces that work for ourselves. Oh, trust me. I need to learn to yeah. Me too Perpetual student over here. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And we really appreciate it. Oh, thanks for having me. It's always a blessing and I really appreciate what you're doing in the world. And for I don't know just the medicine aspect of all this in all that you do is like really it's you know, it's just it's it's peaceful. It's grounding. It's important to all of these crazy chaotic times. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. call Holly's Take off the dummy.
Around Grandfather Fire - Episode 29 Copyright 2019 -- Jim and Cailtin interview the remarkable Rhonda Smith about her new book The Whole Method, shadow work and more! Rhonda Smith was born and raised in picturesque Northern California. She spends most of her time between the San Francisco Bay area and the Sierra Nevada mountains with her majestic little wiener dog, Saylor Love. Rhonda shares her message on stage, as well as through podcasting, coaching, and her work with sacred plant medicine. She uses all of these modalities to support people in remembering the truth about who they are. Rhonda believes that only when we embrace the darkest parts of ourselves, do we learn the lessons that lead to remembering and living our deepest truth. The greatest work of our lives is being willing to stand naked with all of our masks removed. The current state of our planet (living earth) and humanity is a catalyst to understand the way we've been living isn't working! This was the spark that ignited Rhonda's mission. Her newest company, "The Expanded Hueman," is set up to answer the question "What comes next after personal development?" It's an invitation for us all to stop the madness of endlessly seeking outside ourselves. Her book, The Whole Method, is about remembering how to journey back into ourselves and once there, discover everything we need. 