Mundane Miracles is a biweekly podcast where author and host Sonya Renee Taylor shares stories, reflections, anecdotes and epiphanies from her daily existence i...
11. The Great Collapse and the Great Awakening (Part 3)
For the last installment of this 3-part tale, Sonya recalls how she rode out the remainder of COVID lockdown in Aotearoa post-breakup, post-passing of her soul dog, her life simultaneously unraveled and illuminated by spiritual messages from the divine. She reflects while recording this episode on the 5th anniversary of the beginning of her spiritual awakening.Episode guide:* Sonya's meditation about being afraid of her own power (00:06:58)* Every moment is god / love (00:12:00)* To be a human on earth is to be in a state of forgetting (00:17:34)* Experiencing the divine through multiple paths and modalities - Orishas, Buddhism, more (00:21:30)* Mice as a lesson of trauma and displacement (00:24:30)* Astrology and tarot aren't inherently spiritual - they can be used to be nosey! (00:28:07)* Healing Sonya's story of home (00:31:52)* Sonya's Chiron return (00:34:25)* Wanting out of Blackwood Manor (00:37:25)* Surrendering to the divine during Sonya's breakup aftermath (00:39:40)* The nature of awakening and enlightenment, featuring Tanzanian monks (00:43:38)* Driving to Piha Beach in the middle of the night (00:48:44)* The energy of ancestors and angels (00:55:52)* The glorious rainbow light and shimmering sea: a gift from the universe (00:57:45)* Challenging materialism and staying spiritually awake (01:01:00)* The point of awakening isn't to "sustain the light" - the work is to allow everything in (01:06:08)* Moving out of Blackwood Manor - and help with a trigger (01:10:12)- - -Listen to Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/xj-mmF92VTgAnd Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hry9N8M81Q- - -Miraculous Musings:* What type(s) of awakening(s) would you say you experienced during 2020?* How do you define "home"? Do you have wounds around home? What differentiates "home" from where you happen to be living?* Have you experienced spiritual bypassing? What have you gained by sitting with the dark as well as the light?Resources:* Astrologer Colin Bedell: https://www.colinbedell.comProducer: Sonya Renee TaylorEditor: Dr. Shannon WeberMusic: "Joy & Grief" and "Dying", The BengsonsInterested in a deeper conversation? Support Sonya's creative work as a Black queer neurodivergent cis woman midwifing new worlds of liberation and transformation. Partner with her in right relationship and join her Patreon starting at $1 a month (with video episode drops a day early): www.patreon.com/sonyareneetaylor
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10. The Great Collapse and the Great Awakening (Part 2)
In Part 2 of this three-part installment, Sonya reveals how she began receiving audible spiritual messages in the midst of 2020 lockdown and life breakdown. She shares the painful and tender story of the last days of her soul dog Anastasia's life, being called to drive to the ocean every night at 4 AM, and her complete surrender to the universe on an island off an island at the bottom of the world. Stay tuned for Part 3 to see how Sonya's great collapse paved the way for her great awakening.Miraculous Musings:* Where in your body do you feel this episode? * Can you get still, sit with that awareness and those feelings, and send love, grace, and healing to the wounded and lonely parts of yourself?* What have your rock bottoms taught you? If you're currently at rock bottom, what do you think may be being transformed?Resources:* YEBBA, "My Mind": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXwE1G7_U9M* Piha Beach: https://www.piha.co.nz/gallery/piha/Producer: Sonya Renee TaylorEditor: Dr. Shannon WeberMusic: "Joy & Grief" and "Dying", The BengsonsSupport Sonya's work and get video episode drops a day early: www.patreon.com/sonyareneetaylor
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9. The Great Collapse and the Great Awakening (Part 1)
Part 1 of a 3-part special in which Sonya tells the tale of her 2020 experience, which she calls her "great collapse" as well as, paradoxically, a time of great spiritual awakening. She outlines the unfolding of one life-shattering week in March 2020: her precious dog Anastasia being rushed to the emergency vet (Monday) and diagnosed with terminal liver cancer (Tuesday), her partner confessing falling in love with a coworker (Wednesday), the demise of Sonya's relationship (Thursday), the entire country of Aotearoa / New Zealand shutting down due to COVID (Friday), and Sonya asking her partner to move out (Saturday). In this episode, Sonya discusses leaving the US for Aotearoa in 2017; the global emergence of COVID while she was on a 3-week book tour in the US; coming home to Aotearoa; and the implosion of her relationship and seemingly her entire life in the course of one week.On the edge of your seat for what happens next? Part 2 drops Monday, March 3rd for Patreon and Tuesday, March 4th for everyone else. Stay tuned ♥️ Support Sonya's work and get video episode drops a day early: www.patreon.com/sonyareneetaylorMiraculous Musings:* Where might abandonment and/or codependency pop up in your relationships? What aspects of Sonya's tale resonate with your own relational experiences?* Are there times you've felt different timelines (adult you, little you, memories of parents / loved ones / friends, outside observer you, etc.) melding and collapsing in on each other as Sonya describes here?* How have 2020 and COVID reshaped your life assumptions and expectations?Resources:* Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America by Mark Ehrman: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/getting-out-mark-ehrman/1100408680* Edmund Hillary Fellowship: https://www.ehf.org* "My Time" by Kindred the Family Soul (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akk7tu0I75YProducer: Sonya Renee TaylorEditor: Dr. Shannon WeberMusic: "Joy & Grief" and "Dying", The Bengsons
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8. From Pentecostal to Pathless Path: Sonya's Toolkit for Living an Aligned Life
In response to a Patreon request to learn more about Sonya's meditation practice (shout-out to Dana!), this episode covers Sonya's spiritual journey and toolkit, from her youth Pentecostal church attendance to the development of what she terms her "pathless path" into all things spiritual. She covers the range of modalities she has drawn on, emphasizing that folks should explore whichever modalities call out to you "to strengthen our energetic literacy". With a focus on developing a gratitude practice, "getting quiet enough to listen to your own inner knowing", and asking for guidance from whatever folks consider to be sacred, "the goal is for all of us to be whole".
Sonya's spiritual toolkit covered in this episode (in order but also sprinkled throughout):
Finding a Pentecostal church in her youth (00:04:08)
Questioning Christian dogma and embracing divine love (00:09:54)
12-Step participation and cultivating a prayer practice (00:13:44)
Gratitude practice as a gateway to spiritual practice (00:17:28)
Entering into Buddhist-influenced therapy (00:21:05)
Accessing the spiritual through the body with The Body Is Not An Apology (00:23:33)
Meditation (00:24:07)
Tarot (00:32:13)
Sonya's hives as a presentient response to energy fields (00:34:00)
Ancestral veneration and altar creation (00:37:02)
Land and water rituals (00:43:44)
RUHCUS as a ceremonial healing practice (00:45:03)
Astrology and natal chart reading (00:47:27)
Movement-based practice like yoga (00:52:12)
Miraculous Musings:
What spiritual modalities do you use? Have you found that certain ones work best for different inquiries or needs?
Which modalities are you curious about? What makes you interested and/or hesitant about them?
In what ways has your spiritual toolkit evolved over time? What do you think your past selves would think of your journey today and how you've grown?
Resources:
10 Tools for Radical Self-Love: https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/the-body-is-not-an-apology/
Osho Zen Tarot: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312117337/oshozentarot/
The Ghetto Tarot: https://www.ghettotarot.de
Sonya's RUHCUS vlog series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvlluBXxhzg&list=PLAD2C6FF3DB5AA877
The Embodiment Institute: https://www.theembodimentinstitute.org
Bessel Van Der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313183/the-body-keeps-the-score-by-bessel-van-der-kolk-md/
Producer: Sonya Renee Taylor
Editor: Dr. Shannon Weber
Music: "Joy & Grief" and "Dying", The Bengsons
Support Sonya's work and get video episode drops a day early: www.patreon.com/sonyareneetaylor
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7. For the Love of Grandmother Yagé
In this first episode of 2025, Sonya gives some brief astrological insight for the year before digging into the story of how she came to the decision to participate in a multi-day ayahuasca plant medicine ceremony in Costa Rica. She outlines her life experience as the daughter of a mother who struggled with addiction, her resulting caution around any type of substance use, and her limited experiences with psychedelics prior to arriving in Costa Rica.
Sonya draws on journal entries to explore the wisdom she gained from Grandmother Yagé (the divine feminine accessed through ayahuasca), including visions of cosmic love and Mother Earth; the ways the body and soul are "divine collaborators" led by the soul; the epigenetic reasons behind Sonya's seeking of extremes and the connection to chattel slavery; the ways the extremism of centuries of white terrorism has shaped the souls and bodies of Black people as well as white people; and how Sonya was able to purge codependency and love addiction by placing them into the sacred cleansing fire of Grandmother Yagé. Sonya also allows space for critically thinking about how to protect Indigenous spiritual modalities and the multitude of ways we can access these lessons in our own lives without being extractive to Indigenous communities, drawing on our unique lineages of spiritual wisdom.
Miraculous Musings:
*Who have you become? Is this in alignment with who you aspire to be?
*In what ways can your healing be gentler?
*Are there ways you might be better able to relate to your body and soul as divine collaborators rather than as in tension or competition? What would that look like in your life?
*What lineages of ancestral and cultural wisdom might you have access to that you may not have known about? Where can you look to find it?
Producer: Sonya Renee Taylor
Editor: Dr. Shannon Weber
Music: "Joy & Grief" and "Dying", The Bengsons
Support Sonya's work and get episode drops a day early: www.patreon.com/sonyareneetaylor
Mundane Miracles is a biweekly podcast where author and host Sonya Renee Taylor shares stories, reflections, anecdotes and epiphanies from her daily existence in an effort to collect evidence that life is truly loving and kind, full of intention, and guiding us all toward greater love, grace, and compassion. Proving that if we learn to look and listen, we will hear and see that life is indeed unfolding for our highest good.
Join Sonya each week as she shares weekly evidence that life is happening on purpose, with love, and for our highest good... even when it sucks!
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