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Monthly Archives

February 2024

Feb 23
Love0

Episode 148: Pine Tree Riot

By My Shamanic Life Podcast
The last thing I expected to hear when Sheri Kurdakul, of Glitter Witch Gardens, shared about the eastern white pine was that it once caused a riot! You’ll hear about that plus the ecological, medicinal, and magical properties of this common but absolutely wonderful tree. Sheri starts us off with another of her herbal poems, which are always so good.…
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Feb 17
Love0

Interfaith Ceremony with a Nature Theme

By Handfastings, Interfaith and Nature-Based
This couple has Christian and Jewish backgrounds but are now members of a Unitarian Universalist congregation and have been exploring Buddhism. They wanted to make all their guests comfortable with the ceremony but to acknowledge their beliefs and their concern for the environment. Nature is the unifying theme for the songs and readings included in this twist on a traditional…
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Feb 16
Love0

Winter Solstice Ceremony

By A Magical Rite, Handfastings
A Wiccan bride and eclectic Pagan groom wed on the Winter Solstice at a Unitarian Universalist Congregation. They both prefer the Roman pantheon and wanted to acknowledge Saturnalia in the ceremony, which includes a handfasting and a unity candle lighting. Candles are included throughout the rite, symbolizing the return of the light. The seating for their 75 guests was in…
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Feb 16
Love0

Episode 147: Embodying Love

By My Shamanic Life Podcast
Valentine’s Day turned my thoughts to love while I was also contemplating the web of life and making dream webs for an upcoming metaphysical expo. They all fit together, and I tried to explain how in this episode, although it was a challenge to do so. In the end, I fell back to a practice from Shamanic Reiki that I…
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Feb 13
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The Hard Work of Standing Up

By Inspirational Talks
In my first presentation at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Glens Falls on March 13, 2022, I share my spiritual approach to overcoming the challenges of the pandemic and a back injury. As last summer began, I paid the final month’s rent on a lease on a building that had been empty since March of 2020 because of the pandemic,…
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Feb 13
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Spiritual Ecologies

By Inspirational Talks
This talk, presented to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Glens Falls on May 7, 2023, summarizes my exploration of ecological consciousness and environmentalism within the world's religious and spiritual traditions. During my second year of seminary, one of our monthly assignments was to pick a person off a list of religious and spiritual “big names we should know” to research…
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Feb 13
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All Those Souls

By Inspirational Talks
Presented on October 29, 2023, to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Glens Falls, on the topic of All Souls Day. This talk is about death. I have changed it several times, right up until yesterday, because current events have brought death into the spotlight in ways I didn’t anticipate. The conflict in Gaza, Otis slamming into Acapulco as an unforecast…
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