Plant Cunning Podcast

Today AC & Isaac welcome herbalist and teacher Olatokunboh Obasi back to the Plant Cunning Podcast for a second interview, now speaking from outside Nairobi, Kenya. Obasi shares that she’s finishing a doctorate in clinical nutrition while working toward opening an integrative women’s health clinic, and explains how nutrition, changing food systems, and modern indoor life affect herbal outcomes. She discusses divination and geomancy, genetics as “codes” responding to environment, and how she navigates multiple traditions—Yoruba as her root, alongside Taíno and Kenyan indigenous practices—without collapsing them into one. They explore Kenyan healing culture, including lineage-based herbalism, diviners, birth workers, and bone-setting (lila) meridian work, plus a story of discovering an East African betony for headaches. Obasi also defines traditional African medicine as diverse, spiritually centered, and regionally distinct, and critiques material reductionism in Western herbalism while pointing to figures like Culpeper and Hildegard as bridges back to spirit.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:45 Ola’s Life in Kenya
03:50 Why Clinical Nutrition
05:52 Divination and Genetics
09:31 Lineages and Training
11:41 Navigating Multiple Traditions
16:47 Plants Calling in Kenya
22:15 Healing Culture in Kenya
24:40 Bone Setting and Lila
28:32 Community-Based Medicine
34:32 Defining African Traditional Medicine
36:16 Spirit First Healing
36:47 Lineage And Bioregions
37:45 Cross Cultural Herbal Exchange
41:37 Reclaiming Spirit In Herbalism
44:02 Traditional Western Medicine
45:44 Astrology, Culpeper, Hildegard
50:17 Centering Over Scrolling
53:07 Rest Boredom And Reading
54:07 Rethinking Academia And Art
58:27 Craft Culture And Kenya

In this Plant Cunning Podcast episode, AC & Isaac interview Kimberly Steele about her first book, Sacred Homemaking, on making the home a sacred space through everyday practices. Steele shares her path from a casual Christian upbringing and decades of atheism into Druidry and daily spiritual discipline, including meditation and long-term practice of Sphere of Protection rituals, and discusses gratitude and generosity as transformative forces. She explains perceiving multiple “planes” (physical, etheric, astral, spiritual) and how tidying, thanking household objects, cleaning (especially the toilet), and avoiding both hoarding and sterile perfection can shift a home’s “vibe.” Steele offers practical suggestions such as removing “haunted” objects, using sprays and salt, and placing symmetrical sacred geometry patterns as “demon traps,” critiques materialism and doomscrolling, and introduces the idea of “astral pyramids” and group spirits.00:00 Show Intro and Announcements00:39 Meet Kimberly Steele01:27 Her Spiritual Origin Story05:27 Gratitude and Generosity09:09 From Atheism to Spirit10:27 Planes of Existence Explained12:45 Sacred Homemaking Basics18:44 Spirits at Home and Influence22:21 Protection and Banishing25:22 Sacred Geometry Demon Traps29:41 Order vs Sterile Living33:48 Toilet Cleaning and Money Luck35:26 Recognizing the Spirit of Place37:34 Gratitude Improves Relationships38:25 Marriage Scorekeeping Trap39:42 Sacred Beauty And Illusion40:31 Looksmaxing And Dysmorphia41:39 Ozempic And Willpower44:38 Health Complaints Culture46:10 Astral Dumpster Fire47:46 Screens With Boundaries49:08 Kids Gaming And Enchantment52:19 Kung Fu Daily Discipline54:38 Gratitude Raises Consciousness59:16 Home Vibe And Spirit Of Place01:00:56 Astral Pyramids And Egregores01:06:40 Music As Prayer And Earworms01:11:22 Book Wrap Up And Where To Find Her

In this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, hosts Isaac & AC Hill talks with Sian Sibley—witch, author of Black Paths and Green Cathedrals, and founder of the Dragon Oak Coven in Wales—about building real relationships with plant and tree spirits, including mugwort as an initiator and yew as a teacher around death and continuity. Sian shares how to approach trees respectfully, how to recognize a clear “no,” and why taking plant material without permission can undermine magical work. They discuss key allies like hazel, apple, hawthorn (including timing Beltane by local hawthorn bloom), and elder’s seasonal “three faces,” plus practical astral/meditation safety and grounding. The conversation also critiques modern pagan and wellness habits that harm ecosystems—crystals, frankincense, wasteful candles, and commodified entheogens—calling for smaller, more local, less consumerist practice.

01:24 Meet Sian Sibley
01:54 Springtime Blackthorn
02:29 Finding the Plant Path
03:07 Mugwort Opens the Gate
06:06 Yew and Death Mysteries
08:53 Patience and Plant Consent
09:37 Blackthorn Says No
13:57 When Plants Reject You
14:37 Buttercup and Monks Hood
17:30 Who Is Charubel
19:54 Sigils and Personal Practice
22:55 Astral Safety Basics
26:33 Protective Tree Allies
27:41 Hazel, Apple, Elder, Hawthorn
28:20 Elder Medicine and Folklore
30:45 Elder Initiation Poem
32:22 Pruning and Asking Permission
34:37 Elder Tree Lore
35:41 Hazel Nuts Wisdom
36:29 Hawthorn Beltane Timing
39:51 Local Time Cycles
42:44 Circadian Clock Health
47:13 Rest, Boredom & Imagination
47:43 Eco-Spirituality Critique
48:55 The Ethics of Crystals and Frankinscence
57:21 Living Smaller Solutions
01:04:20 Closing Poem
01:06:06 Where To Find Sian

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On the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac & AC Hill interview Alan Chapman (at Barbarous Words.com) —magician, mystic, and writer—about his path from chaos magic to teaching Magia, a Western tradition oriented around awakening. Chapman describes a deepening in 2013 following awakening in India (in Tiruvannamalai) that led to his book Magia and a shift toward a more “miraculous” view of realization beyond standard nonduality frameworks. They discuss delusion as mistaken identity, “silent knowing” as the impulse behind seeking, transmission and its seductions, the limits of maps versus the need for cosmology, and a gardening metaphor for traditions that avoids both perennial “mush” and rigid traditionalism. Chapman shares how he works with students through practices that let experiences disclose their nature, and he points to his site and retreats for further study.
01:29 Meeting Alan Chapman
02:45 Baptist's Head Era
05:17 Awakening Deepens 2013
13:12 What I Know Sure
17:29 Silent Knowing Faith
21:15 Gnosticism Labels Rejected
24:21 Traditions as Garden
27:42 Universals and Particulars
31:44 Fear and Running Away
37:37 Delusion and Trust Thread
44:24 Morality After Awakening
46:01 Ramana Self Inquiry Myth
47:09 Who Am I Inquiry
48:34 Transmission Explained
49:46 Seduction of Control
52:24 Guru Yoga and Institutions
54:43 Why Teachers Help
56:28 What We Really Seek
58:04 Entrainment and Dependency
01:00:17 Cautionary Guru Stories
01:04:42 Maps Versus Cosmology
01:06:07 Let It Disclose
01:07:12 Gardening the Path
01:13:36 Faith and Silent Knowing
01:19:13 Practice and Awakening
01:22:44 Enjoying the Garden
01:23:33 Extreme Awakening Chasing
01:24:06 Two Worlds One Heart
01:26:09 Farming Incarnation Metaphor
01:27:39 Transmission Life and Death
01:30:28 Minimal Tree Cosmology
01:32:35 Unbinding Practice Steps
01:34:41 Mounting Cosmology Stages
01:36:49 Journal Envy and Comparison
01:40:37 Dry Paths and Fireworks
01:48:25 Cosmological Binding Method
01:49:28 Unconditional States Test
01:58:29 Cutting Down the Tree
01:59:21 Resources Retreats Farewell

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Sign up for Pam Montgomery's free class here: https://plantcunning--wakeuptonature.thrivecart.com/co-creative-partnership/699392e4e6629/In this episode of the Plant Cutting Podcast, Isaac & AC welcome back Gordon White of Rune Soup to discuss his life between his permaculture homestead in Tasmania and travel in South America, including training in Bolivia and Peru. Gordon shares updates on regenerating depleted soil, orchard yields, and plans for a first cider vintage, plus reflections on seasonal living. He describes Paraguay’s everyday herbal culture around tereré and fresh medicinal bundles, and recounts a powerful Amazonian dieta with the master plant teacher Piñón Blanco, including diagnostic Shipibo weavings and a peak mystical encounter that reframed ideas of unity, imagination, and reality. The conversation explores universals vs. local correspondences in magic, discernment amid modern “performative” scenes, and where magical culture may be headed.00:00 Welcome and Guest Tease00:36 Book and Consults Plug01:16 Pam Montgomery Gateway Herbs03:18 Gordon Returns to the Show03:54 Tasmania Farm and Travel Split07:04 Homestead Updates and Harvests08:25 Permaculture Wins and Cider Plan14:17 Why South America Calls17:15 Paraguay Mate and Herb Culture26:30 Dieta and Plant Spirit Rules27:56 Pinon Blanco God Encounter35:11 Weavings as Plant Signatures38:02 Ancestors Tolkien and the Real40:47 Same Truth Different Paths41:26 Ayahuasca Cosmic Medicine42:46 Universals Beyond Language46:21 Directions and Relationality50:21 Instagram and Right Relation53:05 Cunning Traditions Everywhere58:49 Magic After the Golden Age01:02:49 Beginner Discernment Online01:05:54 Cringe Initiation Story01:08:35 Fourth Turning Magic Depth01:11:27 Chaos Magic Reframed01:15:26 Next Wave in Magic01:19:38 Fallen World Cunningcraft01:23:21 Paraguay Lessons Letting Go01:26:00 Book Update and Farewell