Episode Transcript
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Welcome to the mushrooms, apprentice. I'm your host, Shona, home. Well, today I have Natalia Oganessian. She is a medicine woman, guide and spirit whisperer. Through her own healing journey and spiritual path, she has received initiations and acquired direct experience from several cultures, from navajo medicine women to Lakota chief. She mentored for over eight years under healers of Inga and Siona traditions of Colombia. She is a graduate of the cosmic energy school in Russia and was initiated into the highest level known as huta. She is currently studying the esoteric arts of ancient Persia. Skilled in the fire extraction technique used by the monks in certain tibetan monasteries and many healing modalities coming from her own homeland or Armenia, she offers a vast variety of healing practices. Natalia has a special gift and passion for working with herbs and is bringing her own armenian ancestral wisdom forward. An avid painter and musician, Natalia's painted instruments have been used in ceremonies around the world. She is the founder of Eredu, a place for the embodiment of loving stewardship of our spirit. Through Eridu, Natalia offers private sessions, retreats, rites of passage, drumming circles, and more. And that website is Eridu. Eridu dot life. Well, my dear Natalia, welcome. I am so excited to have you share your wisdom today.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Thank you, Shawna. Thank you for having me.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Absolutely. I want to start with the backstory because I'm always interested in how did you get here?
What was the way forward for you? And if you could start with, you are armenian?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Were you born there?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Yes, during the Soviet Union. Oh, my.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Okay, so let's start from there and move forward, because this is just so interesting.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So coming from armenian heritage, I was taught certain traditional values. The society is very patriarchal in Armenia, so women are not as revered and honored as in certain cultures these days. It's moving a little bit and transitioning a little bit into empowerment of women. But when I was growing up, this was not the case.
What I was taught a lot of my energy, the fiery energy that I was born with, and I didn't know how to navigate these waters. My parents didn't have tools to give me. I call it the dragon energy, you know, that wild intensity that we carry, and we always think there's something wrong with us.
So I wasn't given tools, and I went into the dark side. I call it my dark ages, where I was very lost and confused. And through all of this, I learned to numb my emotions through drugs and alcohol. I don't even know if you know this about me.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: I do.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: I remember yeah.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Telling me.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And the beauty of armenian heritage, there is a certain amount pride that these people carry. So it. I never hit the rock bottom. I never ended up on the streets or did, did something that wouldn't honor my body or something out of alignment with my understanding. So that I think that part saved me and my darkest of the dark times. And what happened is I just started seeking. Something was calling, something was off, and I understood this, and I was seeking through different healers, through different, mostly healers and guides and different modalities, books. I remember there was a time that I just started reading a lot and traveling a lot and going to different seminars, finding, seeking and seeking something was off and finding the plant medicine.
And that was a big turning point for me.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: How old were you at that time?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: This was already like late thirties.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Late thirties, okay. And you say plant medicine. Is this ayahuasca?
Yeah, I was good.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: The first, very first guides in the plant medicine world have been the mushrooms, the magic mushrooms. And then I experienced eboga with real incredible african shaman, Mugenda. And then I transitioned into different circles that were holding space with ayah plant, and, and then being guided to meeting my teacher back then.
And, yeah, this was the turning point for me.
The plant medicine, and through all of these and studies and healing and shedding and remembering and rewiring, came into a place of having this call to give this back to people who are going through the same feelings and the same path.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: And you're also a mother.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: So how did that work through your seeking? You were long past the dark night, shall we say, and you were in your seeking, and then you were about how old when you had your child, your son?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: I think I was 37. 37 or 38? 37, yes.
So this is about a few years before that, that the seeking started. And obviously, we all know having a child is the biggest initiation. So this is the massive rebirth.
Yes. And, yeah, I was so desperately seeking that I would travel with him everywhere, taking him with me to Costa Rica and to all different places to just do what I needed to do.
And it wasn't easy at the time, but it all taught me an incredible amount of resilience and strength and wisdom and patience.
And I think he has been definitely the biggest master teacher outside the plans and everything else. The biggest teachings that I get on my soul. Evolution is from my son.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, I so hear you on that. With two daughters. I absolutely get that, yes. Yeah. Was your husband in partnership at all with the seeking? Was he interested in that at all?
In the spiritual state? No. Okay. It was just. You were on your own.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: And with this wee boy at your.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Side.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Where did you take him? Natalia?
[00:07:57] Speaker B: We would just travel. It wasn't too.
We travel around the world a little bit, but mostly for the plant medicine. I would just take him to Costa Rica.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And around. Not California, USA.
Yeah. I was too scared to take him to Africa back then.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I would agree. I would agree. But that is very special that he has grown up in that arena.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: How would you say it has affected him?
[00:08:37] Speaker B: You know, the interesting thing that I observe with him being in this space, with this type of healing, he, and I know you'll understand this, he would just drop into the frequency of all the healings that are happening. And people, a lot of people will have epiphanies because of the words he would say, even though when he was four and five.
But I observed his memory to be awakened and this deeper intuition and deeper knowing that he just knows this and he's done this. And he was just very comfortable in the space as he started maturing. Now he's eleven, he's going to be twelve.
He's like, that's not cool anymore. But when he was that raw eight, at that raw age, when they don't try to impress you or they don't know what's cool or what not cool, he would just morph and shape, shape shift into the healers and.
Yeah. Into the scene and ceremony and the circles and just speak like them and be like them. And I know that kind of memory, it helped him awaken some inner intelligence, even though he doesn't.
He doesn't show any interest these days, however. That help him.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. I think he's developmentally right where he needs to be, you know, to have that autonomy. But yet that seed is in him.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Oh, it's beautiful. He's a lucky boy.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: I'm truly lucky to have them, too, as a mother.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And speaking of mothers, so you are also very close with your mother, who's also an artist.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Like you. And so does she participate in any of these ceremonies with you? Does she have a role?
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
Good.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Let's hear. I mean, I just don't hear that enough, you know?
[00:10:47] Speaker B: So my mom, Rima, is 73 now.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: She's been traveling and participating in most of the ceremonies I've done with me.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: And everybody who's been experiencing her in the space, she just adores her and loves her. And a lot of times I hear, like, we don't want to do it unless Rima is there. Yeah. She's just a very strong spirit, and it's just been a profound journey to do this as mother and daughter and have my son there running around.
And so there is definitely karmically we're together in this lifetime, very strong bond between three of us.
And, yeah, it actually helped her profoundly as well. The plant medicine and sitting with it and being with it. Yeah.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Beautiful, beautiful. My goodness. I mean, three generations to be on that path together is. You don't hear that every day.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really wonderful.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: And also, you are armenian, and I came out to see you a number of years ago. I can't believe now it's quite a while, quite a while ago. But one thing I was so struck by was the strong sense of community that I felt among the armenian crowd that you are with at just like so much support and love and fun and most amazing food and just.
It was wonderful. It's something that is missing from a lot of people these days is that real sense of cultural belonging.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: This has actually been incredible influence with what I want to bring with Eridu and the shift and the way the company has been morphing into more of the space for community to come together because it's such a yearning in my heart to have a community. This has been since day. I had maxi going through these challenging times again, navigating these waters, turbulent waters of being uncomfortable and alone as a pretty much single mom back then and not having the experience that I really would have loved to have coming into a place of understanding. This is my path and I needed to go through this in order to birth what is coming.
However, I wanted really to give this to other women so they are held and supported in this vulnerable place and time as they remember, relearn how to be a mom and take care and make sure to take care of time to nurture yourself with the community, with the sisterhood. Because in Armenia, very few women will go through. Well, I don't remember anybody, like, when my mom had us, right, the grandmothers were home. My mom would just lay there for weeks and just feed us and then the mom or the grandmothers will wash and cook and do the massages and herbs and anything that is needed. So you don't have this pressure that I need to get up and clean up or show up or none of that was happening. And you felt very held, a very strong community, even the neighbors. I always tell the story of me growing up. We lived on a 16th floor building in 16th floor building. I used to live on the 6th floor. 6th floor. And on each floor there was four neighbors and I, we all would know each other by names. All 16 floors for. Yeah. And everybody's family. You're out of salt. You can run on the 7th floor to grab some salt or everybody's doors are open. Women usually have their coffee and they're reading each other other's coffee. So I remember women will have a lot of kids because the door will be open and the kids will be crawling out into our home. Or like we had a neighbor who had like four kids and they're all like crawling like little Mowglis and I would grab them because I was a little older already.
So the sense of community is huge in Armenia. Huge.
And I feel like that's one of the most important things that has been lost here. It's just incredibly painful to be doing all this without support and love.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Yes. I think community is ancient.
We've always had community.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: And so we're in a very unnatural construct right now. And so this is why I just think your work is so important, because it's inspiring and it's inspiring for others to do the same. So you. When did Erdo actually come together?
[00:16:24] Speaker B: I think it was 2010 ish. Eleven ish. In this meditation, I just was gifted this incredible vision, incredible vision of what's possible.
It's almost felt like I was teleported somewhere, temporary because it was so vivid. I was exactly seeing everything, the place, what it felt like, what people were doing. It was just like a village and what was happening in, I feel like on energetic or quantum level, this memory was pulling some information from some lifetime that it was needed for me to remember certain things. And I know you came and visited around 2012. I don't remember when it was around those time. And, you know, I was not in exactly the place to create anything. I was still at the very beginning of this self discovery and healing and a certain amount of spiritual maturity that. And I know you will understand this certain amount of maturity as a woman.
It's just that does not happen in your thirties. It just doesn't. I don't care who you are.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: No, I agree.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And it gets sweeter and sweeter as you mature and you step into this wisdom.
One thing I took from my studies with colombian shamans is like in their traditions, when a girl gets her lunar cycle, moon cycle, which we call the menstrual cycle, she steps into the magic. So when she finishes the cycle, she becomes the magic.
Yes. And, you know, that that's really true statement.
However, we're so lost trying to look like a 20 year old in our fifties that we completely missed the point.
Yeah. So now, looking back at 20 1112, I just understand that I was not in the place at all to hold the space. What I'm holding right now. And even now, I'm just like. I feel like a child that is, with the guidance of the spirits, doing this work in humility and listening, deep listening.
But when I saw that vision, I just. Back then, I was really naive, and I just decided, like, that's it. I'm building a center.
I was getting this huge land in Malibu, and I spent a lot of money in designing the buildings with this architect. I was so inspired. But there was something in me just knew. I knew exactly what to do and what. No one. No one taught me these things, how the women's basing house should be or what's needed in the gardens. Like, I just. I just saw everything back then.
And when the center didn't happen, the funds didn't come through. I went through this massive heartbreak where I think I cried for about a year. And I went to Costa Rica, and I did this ceremony with Aya, and I sat with the mother, and in this raw place in my heart, just completely surrendering, completely finally letting go of my attachment, of what I thought is mine.
And I physically heard the voice of the mother that this is not how we do things.
You hold the seeds, and when you're ready, if you're ready, you become the magnet of people and places and opportunities all coming to you when in the. In divine timing. So. And this has been my journey with Eridu, of having the seed and being completely unattached to bringing it into material world in this lifetime. I don't know if this is going to happen, not going to happen, but I'm in peace with it because I built this faith. Not built, that's the wrong word.
I found, remembered, tuned into this faith and trust that is something that is much deeper, bigger than me, that loves me. I really experienced it in my body, in my heart. So it's like a weight came off my shoulders. So I can just bring it into play and have fun and just do one step each day and see where I'm going with it.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: You know, it makes me think that Eridu came in as a teacher for you, because it really seems like that's what it's been, a very, very powerful teacher. So that I think it's like you have become Eridu.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So true. Because again, this unattachment, it is the understanding that it's all it can be all that is just that, just being a teacher and giving me the lessons that I need without creating anything that what I saw in the vision.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Yeah, but you are creating community there, home. Right. And sessions take place there. And drumming Cirque will talk about what do you offer? What are the, what happens there. It's your Erudo special place.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: So outside the one on one healing that I really love to do was because with the healings, what it gives me opportunity is the gift of the channel that opens up when I do session with somebody is seeing something or more in more expansive, on more expansive level, what people are having hard time seeing for themselves, because we're in such a conditioning of being fearful or limited and playing safe. So I'm always given a vision for somebody that is much more expensive. And I just plant the seed and they either take it, I always hear it from the spirit. Everything is free will, free choice. You, you're given this. This is what's possible. This is a possible idea of you, a creation of you that you can create and step into, or you, you can totally play it safe as well, and not in this lifetime, or whenever you're ready. And I do work with this incredible system that I fell in love with. You know, this. The cardology.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Yes, talk about that. Explain what that is.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Cardology is a very complex calculate, mathematical system calculated that has to do with mathematics and planets, seasons and playing cards.
So it. No one really knows where it came from. And it resurfaced about 2300 years ago and was brought back by this guy, Omni Richmond. And they say, he says it's going back to Lemuria. I don't get a touch. I just know the system works. And the real. The only reason I started studying the system, or because of the accuracy of the events that was predicted. And if I would give you like in a short sentence, what it is, represents, think about it like this. This world is the stage, as Shakespeare said.
And it gives you a really good understanding of the role you're playing in this play way of life, a mask you're wearing, because we're so, again, the conditioning from the childhood. You need to be this, or you need to be a doctor, or you need to act like this. And so there's a lot of it gets lost of our true essence. So with cardiology, it helps you have a really good understanding of, like, why am I here. What is my karma? It shows you past life karma, good karma, negative karma, your relationships, and this life. It's a lot. It's like a Pandora's box.
Your overall lifetime story. Seven years. Every seven years, there is a report for that. Every year, there is a report.
And the teacher that I studied with, he did an amazing job. Like, I don't know how he did this, of creating it into software. So it looks very modern, but it's not because it's really hard to constantly count it with cards and shuffle and count, so it's too long. So he created a software that makes it very accessible and user friendly for us. Just to look at the whole chart.
I also incorporating astrology and akashic records and the healing modalities that I studied throughout the years with different healers.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Okay, so that sounds very thorough. That's a lot.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. We really dive in. It's about two hour sessions, usually.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Wow. And when you say the Akashic record, so how do you access the Akashics?
[00:26:57] Speaker B: So I know you know this probably, but for those who don't know what Akashic record is, it's just this universal records in the ether of all the lifetimes, all the information, all the soul. The. All the soul.
All the information of the soul's path that we can access by asking.
And this one can be done by anybody.
It's not like some magic and unattainable place that you need to be a certain healer or a certain somebody to go into. You can.
With certain tools and learning, you can access all of this yourself.
So what we do with Akashic records is just do exactly that. We open a prayer, and I usually do it in Armenia because it just helps me to connect to the ancestors on deeper level.
Yeah. And we ask for permission, and we usually see what comes up. And how it works is usually we start moving some stagnant or energy or blockage. What is. What they're asking me is off balance in their life, and we just help them. And usually we see what is it tied to and what happened.
It kind of a little bit like a past life regression. So because we go into your past lives and see what you brought into this life, what's leaking into this life that is blocking some of the energies that are needed in this.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: When you had your training for what you're doing now, Natalia, where did you learn in terms of reincarnation? Because I know a number of cultures speak to reincarnation.
Was there any particular training from any particular culture that had an influence on this for you?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: No. I studied the Akashic records reading with this lady, but I don't have specific training. What I have been using is just connecting to, again, my lineage, my armenian heritage.
It always takes me back. There is a certain amount of.
Not amount. It's certain entities that I'm connected to, certain spirits that are always guiding me, and they're just always there to take me where I need to go. But, yeah, there's a certain door that opens, and it is connected to my heritage because I do feel it. That's why I started, like, translating the prayer that I was given into armenian and making it my own.
And, you know, while we're on this topic, I do want to mention that one of the learning experiences on this path that has been very transformative for me is to understand that this, all of this information is within us, and this is one of the pillars for Eridu. One of the inspiration to maybe support them in the beginning, but give them enough tools to everybody who is called to come here, for them to understand that what I'm doing, what everybody else is doing, is actually they're capable of doing themselves. And if they believe and if they sit in this deep place and connecting to their heritage, which is, I really recommend, really connecting to your own roots, which I know you've been doing as well, and traveling Ireland and connecting to your roots and walking on your own land, something happens. Something happens. When I went to Armenia, after so many years of being in America, I think 25 years, 26, I decided to go back. Something happened by visiting physically my land and going into these ancient sacred places and coming back and having that kind of veil and the kind of blanket over me of ancestors. And, yeah, I love that line.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: You said, standing on your own land, that's just beautiful.
And, of course, your land, that your homeland has a frequency, it has an energy field to it. So it's almost like you went back to be bathed in that field, bathed in the breath of the mother of that land, essentially.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Something even happens when you. I did baptize myself. Not in the church, through this creek. In the creek. Sorry.
We have a lot of waters. Do you know, in armenia, only 30% of the waters are used? There's so much water in armenia, so everywhere you go, it's just like mountain water.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Oh, that's fantastic.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's all clean water, very pure water. We don't usually drink bottled water, so it just energetically.
This is another thing that I always teach in my teachings, is intention.
I went there with intention. I didn't just go like a tourist. I went with intention. And I did put my feet on earth with intention. I did plant a seed there. I planted a pomegranate tree in a very sacred place as a symbol of reconnecting, of rebirthing and remembering all of this and intertwining the energies. But even eating the food, bathing in that water, it all helps you remember, because all we do, we know this. We're just remembering.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. There's a saying that there's nothing new under the sun.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Time really isn't linear. It's a spiral.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Yes. And the more I tap in into that, because for all these years that I've been on my healing journey, I'm constantly was in this mode of, like, I need to go ask somebody else knows this better than I do. Let me just go. And I got into this habit. I need to go drink.
Let them tell me. It's not until I slowly, it's a long process for me, but I slowly got to a place where, like, hold on.
Let's tap into this wisdom within you. Let's ask yourself and let's just see what's coming to you, what do you need to do?
And, yeah, it's very empowering.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've spoken about that, too, that it's all this culture, I mean, around the world, it's all about external authority. Instead of tapping into your interior. Your own authority.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Your own godhead, as it were.
So. Well, we're seeing how your roots are really informing your work in such a beautiful way. And I would say also, especially in this day and age and in the west, it's such a grace to still have that deep connection to your roots. I mean, you're really, that's a, that's a grace, truly. Yeah.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: And I see that. It's so beautiful.
To me, this is not to separate ourselves but bring our own colors. Not because I'm this, I'm armenian. You're irish. This. No, but, like, I feel like we lost the magic. There's a reason, I always tell myself, there's a reason you were born in this land that we call Armenia. Like, again, I'm not attached. It's just the land.
But there is certain colors and traditions and just, like, essence that carries that part of the land in this world carries, and we all have that. And how fun would have been if we all had our own way of doing things, dressing up, eating or introducing our food or our healing, our dance, our singing.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Well, that I see, as that's true diversity.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: Yes, true diversity.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Not like we're all here merging into each other into, like, just nothing, but just like, you know, we all have these roots and we're connected to them. And, you know, I read that when the Scottish, the Irish, they came over here on boats across the Atlantic, and a number of people would put soil in their shoes from their motherland so that they would always be walking on the mother. In a sense, that really touched me, that connection to that motherland and everything that you talk about, the traditions, the community, the mythology, the magic.
Is much of Armenia Christianized or.
It is, yeah. Catholic, is it?
[00:36:36] Speaker B: It's gregorian.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a little different. They're on their own calendar.
And we weren't allowed to be raised religious because we were born into soviet union and everything was shut down back then.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
And, yeah. So I wasn't raised with all the traditions. I'm like a relearning right now again, and it's just beautiful and fascinating. And it's. The interesting part is that Armenia was the very first country in the world that adopted Christianity. Did you know this?
[00:37:20] Speaker A: I did not know that.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And it has the most amount of churches per square footage on the land. Everywhere you go, it's like a church, a church, a church everywhere. When I took Maximus, he's like, I can't look at another church, mom. But they're all like, ancient, ancient churches.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Oh, so they're beautiful.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: I'm sure it is. Has a certain energy.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
So I did not know that.
Well, I want to ask you, because you work with couples as well, and I saw something you posted the other day, and it looked absolutely amazing. This is like an initiation retreat for couples. Can you talk about that? It just looked wonderful. It's such a good idea.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
So as you mentioned, we have a variety of offerings, and I always, like, curated towards what's needed for this person or persons.
And I was approached by somebody who was celebrating their anniversary, and they're not into spirituality. It was, like, really interesting. Actually, originally I referred them somewhere else because I didn't think they'll be into what I'm doing. But she insisted in coming and being with me, and she had this calling and I said, okay. And we organized this beautiful retreat for her and her husband, which was lovely. We made it very romantic with candles and what it included. Again, first the reading for them to go deeper in understanding of their own essence. That's all I can say. Like, if I would describe it, like, really understanding who you truly are in this lifetime, all your gifts, all your weaknesses.
And we went into examining certain things as a couple and sharing. It was a very beautiful, vulnerable, and raw place for them to be into date with Demiana. I've been working with Demiana this month. It's a plant.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Yes. Let's hear about that.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
Because it's a February. For me, Damiana is a heart opener, a love plant, plans for lovers, and it just comes and brings this certain amount of vibration that you get into of calmness and peace. And for me, self love, self acceptance, it just works magic with me.
So we did a guided meditation with them where they drink the tea, they get into their hearts, and then they share from the heart and see even if the plant would connect to the spirit of the plant and see if there's any messages, any understanding or guidance from the plant spirit of that plant. And went into a little bit sound healing and clearing, energy clearing.
And we finished with home cooked meal that my mom made. So the couple was russian. So we made this really delicious russian borscht, which is soup and blinchiki. So all kinds of. But it was what I'm leaning towards, making it a very homey. So you come and you just stay here and you just been nurtured and taken care of on again in a space like, feels like home. This is the intention.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: I couldn't agree more.
Retreats that I do. You know, there's a retreat center. Sure. That's nice. There's the clinic. That's kind of a no for me. And then there's home.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Beautiful, well tended, welcoming home. There's just, as the saying goes, there's no place like home. And when you can use your home in that way for the healing of others, it's just. I think that's timeless. It's a very old artist, very ancient.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: You know, and this is. Takes me back to when I visited you and your healing food and place and the way you took care of me and nurtured me, and it felt very safe and. Yeah, like a warm blanket of the mother. And it is welcome experience, definitely, yes.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: People need that. And you're in Los Angeles and, oh, my goodness, if anyone needs it, it's people in that part of the country. I mean, that's an intense place.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: It is, yes.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: I've been observing a lot of people needing support these days, just really having hard time navigating this energy because we don't have. Just think about it. They're not rooted. They don't have the community. They don't have nothing to bounce off. They're all alone, running around.
I can't even tell you how many women that come these days that they're feeling something in their bodies.
The intuition and the clock within is telling them that, like, it's time to slow down and just listen and just be quiet. But no one is allowing themselves to go into this place of reconnecting with nature, with yourself, with your heart, with your womb, because we are so conditioned to go build, create, be successful, whatever it needs, it means these days, being successful.
So we've been holding a lot of spaces like this, too, to let women come and experience and remember what it is to be with other women, to just drum, to sing, to receive, to nurture, to share, to be vulnerable, and to be empowered through allowing yourself to be in this place of receiving and taking time off. Because I do feel, like, empowered when I don't take time, when I ignore that calling of slow down, then I just. I can't operate.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yes. And yet people are conditioned to do just that, you know, to just put that aside, keep going no matter what.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
This is what I feel. The urgency is for women like me and you is to hold space for the ones who are a little bit younger and not as mature in their understanding of life, to come and talk to. To come and learn from, and to come and be held so we can hold that space for them. Because I feel exhausted just remembering myself in my twenties and even thirties. It just was exhausting. And I really wish somebody was there like me and you to guide me and to hold me through all of this.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's funny you would say that, Natalia, because I was thinking the other day, I'm like, gosh, I've become the mentor that I desperately needed when I was in my late teens. Twenties really could have used someone like you or me.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: So here we are today.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: And the.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Journey to get there. It's quite a journey to get there for each of us.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Now you're a musician, and so let's talk about drumming and why is that so important for people?
[00:45:51] Speaker B: I do not consider myself a musician at all. So I want to make it clear, like, that I'm not drumming or playing to sound perfect or know the techniques.
All those who've been around me, who experienced me drumming, they know I don't even know what's going to come out. I don't have songs that I memorized. It's all channeled chants.
And every time, all I do is just connect to the spirits, different spirits that will come through animals, plant, and again, the ancestors. And to me, drumming has been the biggest tool, I have to say, the biggest healing tool and moving energy and healing and remembering and what else?
It's like I'm almost out of words to express what drumming does to me.
I always use it in the circle as well.
So the way I move energy sometimes, too, is with massive yawns and, unfortunately, burping.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Oh, yes, I remember that. Oh, that's right, yeah.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: So I can't shut down that channel. It's like a vacuum. I start feeling energy and it starts coming out and I move it with the drumming. And it's really been profound experience for me to reconnect with this ancient healing tool, which there is a incredible book called when Women were drummers.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: Yes, I have that book.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: Yes. It was like a Bible for me for a moment, and it's just a tool to understand how we as women were connected to this, to drumming. And not many people believe this, but I do believe it, because from what I see, what it does to me, and if I had 30 of me, I do believe that we can influence the weather or influence the situation. Yes, I know you know this. And through intentions and chants and drumming and evoking spirits and the land, it just becomes this, like, vortex that opens up and then you can recreate certain things without needing to go to fight against and. But just shift. Shift the paradigm and energy through drumming. And that's on a massive level.
What our ancestors used to do in the temples, all these priestesses that knew how the secrets of the universe, shall we say, that were known to very few back then.
But on a personal level, for every woman, I just cannot recommend enough to have a drum. And as you need support, as you need some guidance and assistance, all you need to do is just drum. And without thinking, just allowing your hand to move, you don't need to sound perfect, you don't need to sound certain way or know the strokes.
You just allow the medicine woman within you come through and let the energy move whatever needs to move or connect or to the spirits and allow the healing to happen.
So, yeah, that's like, really.
That's something really that talks to my heart on deep, deep level. If I wouldn't do anything on this planet but to teach people to remember this connection to the. To do ancient drums, which I like to work with. Frame drums.
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: Yeah. What I love is this is not new age nonsense. This goes way, way back in every culture, in the irish culture, we have the bower and drum.
[00:50:32] Speaker B: It's called yes.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: Sounds beautiful. It's played really, really, really fast, and, oh, it's gorgeous. And it just sweeps you. It takes you into that vortex, if you will, that frequency.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
Yeah. When you play it professionally, it is just, like, enchanting. I can't even.
It takes me places. I studied with somebody very special, Glenn Veles. He considered a godfather of the frame drumming.
However, like, again, that all goes out the window. Well, I'm sure certain things help because my. My brain is used to certain strokes.
But, yes, my intention is never to sound correct or sound professional.
My intention is to call in that part of me that knows this drama, because I know it's in me, and just allow her to express into the world, to gift whatever sound needs to be given at that moment.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: And so does this happen during healing sessions, but also in drum circles, or.
[00:51:50] Speaker B: When do you bring this forward in the drum circles? But, okay, I don't even know if we're supposed to talk about it in the ceremonies. It comes through really strong.
[00:52:02] Speaker A: Yeah, well, ceremony is innocuous word. We'll keep it that way for a second. Out.
Yes, of course. Oh, of course.
[00:52:11] Speaker B: That makes perfect sense because my studies with my teacher was very hands on healing. But where the medicine is taking me is like, you don't even need to touch anybody. It's just like, allow that vibration of the sound to go in, and I can observe. I still burp and yawn without touching them, so. And they experience the healing just through the chants.
And they experienced that with trying and playing themselves. A lot of women are starting to get very interested in this drumming movement.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: Good.
[00:52:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. We had a really beautiful drumming blessing ceremony for one of our women. So, to me, everything is like a ritual that, again, helps you kind of remember how to tune in and to reconnect to this spirit of your drum and. And make it a ritual and, like, initiation of bonding together.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: That is so important. And it is absolutely the antithesis of this whole technological construct in which we find ourselves. I mean, it's artificial intelligence. It's all artificial. I mean, it's given us this wonderful way to connect, of course, but it's just so all pervasive that most people. You'd think it's supposed to make our lives easier, but most people have little to no time for anything like what you are talking about.
So it makes it that much more important that people be able to discover this.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah, I'm still navigating this, too. My sister always makes jokes, makes fun of me, because she always says, like, you're living in the ancient times. We're, like, in the future.
So I'm navigating these two worlds, how to merge them together.
[00:54:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:54:24] Speaker B: And, yeah, I'm still learning not to deny one just because I'm so connected to the other and use it, and use it for a better.
Something better, you know?
[00:54:44] Speaker A: And even, you know, we talk about drumming, and drumming is a frequency, and then we've got that frequency of wi fi throughout the house, all the electromagnetic frequency. So just on these very, very subtle, subtle realms, there's still that kind of pervasiveness, that hum, if you will, of the technology.
So what does a drumming circle look like? So it's women. It's all women.
And how many orange? How many, what's your limit? Who come?
[00:55:17] Speaker B: Sometimes there's men, too. If they ask, I never close the door. I allow. Yeah, I trust whoever needs to come will come. But so far, the experience has been that it's mostly been women.
So to me, drumming is very connecting to your sound. And it's fascinating to watch how many of us, as women, have massive blocks in our second. In our. Hold on. 12345, 5th chakra. Sorry, in our throat chakra. And they want. Just.
They're unable to make a sound no matter what we do. And I just tell them, like, just say, ah, that they just can. So we usually start with this womb meditation.
And it's like a lot of buzzing includes a lot of buzzing with the bees that opens up the channel and depends if it's a moon, full moon, or a new moon. We do do a little ritual of letting go or inviting or planting seed. I'm very big on ritual, and ritual, to me, all it is, it's not to look all magical or, like, bring certain energy like that I've observed with other people. It's just a ritual, to me, is being present in this moment and being present to your intention.
Because again, through my own experience, if I don't create a ritual, if I don't come into this presence and do something with intention, then I'm on autopilot and constantly go, go, go, and I get off the path again. But when I have a space where I go and it's like, okay, what are we doing? Where we are at? What's this mantis been like? What are we letting go? What is out? What is asking our attention to release?
Or if it's a new moon, what are we planting seed for? So we usually literally plant it. We write something and we plant it to mother earth, because to me, it's writing is energy, and you give it to earth, and to me, it starts to reading. I've seen some incredibly.
I just like profound things happen out of little rituals like that and women calling me in a week and telling me that, I can't believe this. My intention, it's already, like, things have been shifting for me. But again, the strong intention and the strong ritual will bring magic into your life, and you'll understand how powerful. You know this, the words are, the spells. Like, we know all this, but very few actually practice it.
So we do this little ritual and we do the moon meditation, and then we kind of start working with this energy through drumming and through moving energy with drumming and through sound. So I literally asked them to go into their womb under after the meditation and allow this energy to come up through your heart, into your throat, and you open your mouth and see what comes out. And this is where they're having a really challenging time of just making some kind of sound. It doesn't even need to be a beautiful chant, but letting that energy go.
So.
And we always. So we chant usually. Then it ends up, like, dancing and moving our bodies, and then we share food, and it's always very, very magical.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: That's wonderful. Oh, my goodness. That is so needed.
And I have noted myself over the years also, how difficult it is for people, men and women, with that fifth chakra, to get their voice to release through the voice.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: Really quite something.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Yes.
And it's so. Oh, and there's so much talk going on in the brain.
I don't have a good voice. I don't. I'm not a singer. It's just, like, it's not about that at all. This is very important to understand.
It's about allowing your song to come through with you, even become your healing song, and to allow your body and yourself and your spirit to heal you. Just with that. To me, I heal myself with my sound.
If I don't feel, if I feel out of balance, if I don't feel, if something is off, I truly can just go in my backyard, put my feet on the ground, grab my drum, and just, like, I start communicating with the spirits through my sound, and I never know what's going to come out again. I just open my mouth and I see the energy going through my womb, through my heart, open my mouth, and see, like, what comes out through the sound. I start communicating with the spirits of the land, of the ancestors, and just.
I never pray God to show. Help me. This is how I talk, with what my heart desires. And if there's something that I need support and guidance in, well, sound is vibration.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: This is something else. I was thinking, if we could, because it's my own practice now, if we could think of everything, if people could think of absolutely everything as energy, because absolutely everything is energy, it almost would then depersonalize the voice thing. It just kind of depersonalizes it. Just imagine themselves as energy and that this is simply vibration moving through the energy and then other vibratory fields pick it up or repel it, whatever. Right. Depends on what the intention is, the feeling, all of that.
[01:01:42] Speaker B: Yes, yes. You know, even in ceremony space, this has been coming up that I almost cannot even listen to too many medicine songs because there's a lot of words and a lot of stories, and it almost, for me personally, the way the medicine has been working with me, it's just needed some sounds and vibrations and not necessarily words. Like, I don't even want to speak words lately I was laughing with Nicole, but I just want to have make sounds. Ka mala, whatever comes out.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But think of how music is very stirring for people. It affects people, and there's no words to it. It's just the music itself. And it's like that. We could do that with our voice, just like you're saying.
[01:02:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: And it can have such an impact.
[01:02:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: I love that you're doing this, and I love that you are encouraging people to have that experience.
Very profound.
Well, let's finish here. Yes. This is perfect timing. So finish the first hour, and I will invite people to come to themushroomsapprentice.com and join us for the second hour. And we're going to have Natalia go even deeper than she already has, so we'll see you there.
