In this episode, Emily has an expansive conversation with the prolific poet, writer, and Earth worshipper, Jacqueline Suskin.

Jacqueline and Emily wax poetic about their shared love of the Earth and seasons, including what guided Jacqueline to write A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression.

Jacqueline shares original poems, including "How I Fell in Love with the Earth," "The Mind is a Joke," and "The Suffering of the Mind and Body," from her latest book, The Verse For Now.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What does it mean to be an Earth worshipper?
• Questioning the mind and whether it is part of the body
• The struggle and ease of aligning life and creative practice with the seasons
• Oscillating between hope and hopelessness in times of great change
• Retreat, sleeping, and dreaming as practices for communing with Winter

Subscribe to Jacqueline’s newsletter, Poetic Purpose, connect with her on Instagram @jsuskin, and read her books.

If you’re struggling with burnout, Lunar Living: Rituals For Recovering From Burnout is a free guide to help you slow down and attune to the gentle cycle of the Moon.

Tune in, share this episode with someone you love, and subscribe to the Soil and Stars newsletter for free or become a patron for $5/month or $50/year.

Thank you Bre Legan for our artwork and Paul Krasnoshchok for our music.

In this episode, Emily sits down for a magical conversation with Ayana Madrone, who has authored an eight-book series on the pagan Wheel of the Year.

Emily and Ayana discuss how the Wheel of the Year supports our collective healing and re-enchantment by guiding us into meaningful connection with the Earth.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What the Wheel of the Year is, and how it serves as a portal to ancestral remembrance, re-enchantment, and Earth-honoring ways of being
• The roots of Yule and Imbolc, and how to celebrate these seasonal shifts
• How aligning with the seasons grows our capacity for presence and stillness, and supports burnout recovery
• Honoring the grief of the lack of elders to guide us in these times and turning to the crone within and the crones of our ancestral lineages

Subscribe to Ayana’s newsletter, connect with her on TikTok, and find her Wheel of the Year guidebooks on Patreon.

If you’re struggling with burnout, Lunar Living: Rituals For Recovering From Burnout is a free guide to help you slow down and attune to the gentle cycle of the Moon.

Tune in, share this episode with someone you love, and subscribe to the Soil and Stars newsletter for free or become a patron for $5/month or $50/year.

Thank you Bre Legan for our artwork and Paul Krasnoshchok for our music.

In this episode, Emily explores how the rhythm of the seasons can guide us into right relationship with the Earth by shifting culture from endless growth, extraction, and scarcity to reciprocity, regeneration, and abundance.

Winter is a season of stillness and rest. We see this in the longest nights of the year, in the life cycles of deciduous trees, and in mammals that hibernate. Emily invites listeners to contemplate how we can weave Winter's wisdom into the fabric of our lives.

If you’re struggling with burnout, Lunar Living: Rituals For Recovering From Burnout is a free guide to help you slow down and attune to the gentle cycle of the Moon.

Tune in, share this episode with someone you love, and subscribe to the Soil and Stars newsletter for free or become a patron for $5/month or $50/year.

Thank you Bre Legan for our artwork and Paul Krasnoshchok for our music.

Happy birthday Soil and Stars! This podcast was born on December 30th, 2025 at 10:10 a.m. CST. They are a Capricorn Sun, Taurus Moon, and Pisces rising. In this first episode, Emily makes the case that healing is not a luxury, a declaration inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay Poetry is Not a Luxury.

Healing is expansive and multidimensional. It is physical, emotional, spiritual, individual, communal, cultural, and planetary. Centering healing in everything we do is a practical strategy for repairing culture and birthing new worlds into being.

Tune in, share this episode with someone you love, and subscribe to the Soil and Stars newsletter for free or become a patron for $5/month or $50/year.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Poetry is Not a Luxury, an essay by Audre Lorde
• Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
• What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill
• Chiron the wounded healer

Thank you Bre Legan for our artwork and Paul Krasnoshchok for our music.