In this Living the Spiral: Magicians episode, host Alison Dale frames magic as making the invisible visible through attention and intention. She interviews Rachel Simon Stark, founder of Widening Circles Collaborative, about ancestral reclamation, cultural repair, and collective liberation. Rachel describes being contacted in 2018 by her grandmother Ruth during a rock-bottom period, which initiated Rachel’s ancestral work and led to her nine-week course Cultivating Culture that emphasizes grounding, guided tools, community processing, and service. Drawing on urban planning’s focus on belonging, Rilke’s “Widening Circles,” and identity as a fluid river, she discusses chosen ancestors, more-than-human ancestors, boundaries rather than walls, and meeting ancestors in their wholeness. The conversation addresses trauma, shame vs humility, colonialism and indigeneity, being future ancestors, releasing victimization into agency, and Rachel’s plan to offer the course again around October/Samhain.Thanks for tuning in!

Work with Rachel:To learn more about working Rachel and the Widening Circles Collaborative, visit her website at wideningcirclescollaborative.com.

Follow Rachel on Instagram and on Substack at Rachel Simon Stark, where she writes the deep and thoughtful publication hi•ne•ni : here i am.

Work with Alison:Book a reading or explore more of what I offer on my website at hearthandspiral.com, follow along at @hearthandspiral on Instagram, or on Substack at livingthespiral.com.

00:00 What Magic Really Is

02:31 Meet Rachel Simon Stark

04:41 Grandmother’s Wake Up Call

07:23 From Dreams to a Course

10:46 Urban Planning Meets Soul

14:22 Why Widening Circles

18:37 Homecoming to Lineage

22:46 Inside the Nine Week Container

28:22 Future Ancestor Mindset

30:35 Identity as a River

39:22 Resistance and Hard Histories

43:09 Beyond Shame Toward Humility

49:57 Beyond the Melting Pot

51:27 Ancestral Creativity

54:37 Grandfather on the Road

58:04 Calling In Ancestors

01:00:16 Wise and Well Debate

01:06:46 Boundaries Not Walls

01:11:58 Roots Over Progress

01:23:18 Indigenous Marrow

01:27:38 What Ancestors Need

01:33:57 Course and Farewell