The Fertile Feminist

On this episode a totally different guide to getting pregnant. From a feminist and fertile perspective, outside of the language of the patriarchy (which permeates the medical world), we discover we are fertile through and through. If you are struggling with fertility or infertility, this guide is not about going shopping or buying another supplement or class. This is about ideas. And ideas are free. And we are free to change our ideas. When we change our ideas about fertility, we increase our fertility. And your fertility is a native birthright. Infertility is a construct of the patriarchy. Fertility is not our ovaries and eggs and sperm; it's not our age; it's not how long we've been trying. Fertility is life, life-force. Join host Samantha Wilde for an introduction to the Fertile Feminist's way to get pregnant--or to feel more fertile and alive in any other part of your life.

Who or what is the Great Mother Archetype? What happens to us when we invoke her? When we think about her? When we put her into our personal and collective consciousness? Take a first step in exploring a journey to the transformative power and possibility of the Great Mother archetype. Host Samantha Wilde talks about her personal experience and her collective work with the Sacred Order of the Great Mother. Doors open, wholeness returns, and restitution and resolution arrive when we welcome in the most ancient and most malignantly destroyed (by the patriarchy) archetype. It is a beginning to a most magnificent and life-shifting journey.

Losing ourselves. Losing our identities. Feeling lost. These are normal (and powerful) parts of life for everyone. When we feel lost, we are desperate to "find ourselves." In fact, finding yourself is a huge pastime initiated in adolescence when kids are encouraged to go out and find out who they are, and continuing through every major life event. Patriarchy effects and defines the way we think about being lost--and being found. You probably haven't considered how patriarchy changes your lens on being lost and found....but it does! In our culture, feeling lost is a terrible, scary, urgent situation that needs immediate remedy--it's an aberration. But how can that be? This common life event happens to ALL. If we think about it differently, being lost and getting found becomes easier, more transformative and more positive in ever way. Join host Sam Wilde for a new feminist look at being lost and the journey to getting found.

Girls are raised to be nice women. But is "nice" what we want to aspire to? Is "nice" even possible? Who does "nice" serve? When we go into women-only spaces, we might have expectations, as I did, about what it will feel like. Wouldn't a women-only space be so loving and nurturing and..."nice?" Join host Samantha Wilde as she shares an adventure into women-only space that raises questions about expectations, perceptions and misperceptions, and what it means when we look for the "nice" woman in others AND discover that what that means about ourselves and our own inner expectations about having to be "nice."

Finding our inner teenager is about finding the people we belong to; it's about finding where we belong, who we belong to, and what language we speak. Our longing for a common shared language, a shared way of living and understanding life, is a deep and real longing inside each of us. Teenagers know this; but in those adolescent years, we lose our authentic desire for belonging and just try to "fit in." We can't find those who speak the same language until we find our own inner voice, our true voice. Join host Sam Wilde for an exploration on discovering the deep longing to belong and allowing it to lead us to our authentic language--which then leads us to the shared language with others, and to that incredible sense of belonging.

How many times have you been told, "You can have it all!" Can you have it all? Well, sure. If you want to burn out and feel like a failure! Did you ever consider that the myth of "having it all" is a creation of the patriarchy established to keep you exhausted and hating yourself? Just think about what "all" really means: good marriage, family, important job, time for self-care, healthy exercise, soul-activities, and on it goes. If you aren't able to "have it all," who is at fault? The system that doesn't give us maternity leave and proper childcare? No. It's YOU. In the "have it all" mentality, we are always the ones to blame and it brings us back to a central and crippling refrain: "What is wrong with me?" Diving deep into the patriarchal lie of "having it all" and knowing that you CAN'T have it all will ultimately bring you into a place of greater freedom, liberation and feeling good, energized and most important, having what you WANT--not the "all" that they are selling us. Join host Samantha Wilde in this powerful and clarifying episode.

The huge success of Brene Brown's work about shame tells us all almost all we need to know about how shame rules our lives. But what happens when we seek to be truly, powerfully creative? The shame comes up. Shame and creativity wind around one another and the shame prevents us from living in our creativity. Feelings of shame and the drive to perfectionism will keep us from full expression--and full expression is a pathway to healing. It's important to know that the shame/perfectionism goal is a goal of patriarchy that keeps us half-alive. Moving through the shame as it arises whenever we dare to be fully creative, will bring us more fully into our power. Join host Samantha Wilde in an exploration of healing the shame and getting free. Find the short companion video on instagram @thesamanthawilde

At best Mother's Day is a cheerful, shallow celebration that ends with more cleaning for mother. But mostly, it's complicated, so far removed from its original purpose, and so far away from what it could be, that it leaves many feeling more empty, alone and even less appreciated than the day before. In this Mother's Day episode, dedicated to reflections on the meaning, possibility and mistakes of the day, you'll join Samantha Wilde in a journey towards what the day can, should and will become when we actually honor mothers. The goals we truly long for, safety for our children and equity in work and paid maternal leave, all of these are symptoms of our confused consciousness about mothering itself. Find a way to celebrate that will leave you feeling more connected and the good in the world--and in motherhood--more possible.

A divorce survival guide for strong, creative women. Divorce survival wisdom for feminists. And how to have a feminist divorce mindset, all in this episode. Whether you are thinking about divorce or going through, know someone who is who you want to support, lived through one as a child, or want to reframe how you think about it in general, you'll find in this episode useful, different ideas for approaching un-marriage in a non-patriarchal way. The patriarchy has its fingerprints all over our understanding of divorce and it cripples us, emotionally and mentally, when we have to either think about it or live through it. Join Samantha Wilde of the Fertile Feminist as she shares powerful and different ways to consider the big, bad D word.

What do you listen to all day? Other people? The thoughts in your head? Social media? Your family? Most of us are never taught to listen for that inner voice and yet, listening to the deep, true voice inside of us is like pure fertilizer. And this is the season of fertilizer! How do we hear that voice? How do we learn to listen? And how do we obey when we hear it? In other words, how do we trust it? Patriarchy wants us tuned into one channel--a constant playing over and over of shame, guilt, smallness and judgement. We have all the power to change the channel. And when we do, what happens? Real creativity and real change. In this episode, some thoughts on how to change the channel and find the one you can really trust.

What happened to abundance? Isn't there an abundance movement all around us? Isn't manifesting one of the most popular pieces of the modern self-help/spiritual movement? In this episode, a Fertile Feminist perspective on the topic of abundance, asking questions like having more of WHAT? How much is enough? Does my abundance improve anyone else's life? Does my poverty--of mind or stuff--help anyone else? In this nostalgia trip to previously published episodes, old concepts about family, children, worth, and wealth get turned on their heads. But if abundance is so popular, why wasn't this episode??

Come back with me to my yoga teacher training, a month-long adventure of a life time that culminated in a wild drama of sex in the woods. Not ME, folks. This was someone else having sex in the woods. But that adventure brought to light all kinds of ideas about what we do and why, especially in the yoga and spiritual world. What's the standard that we hold ourselves to? What defines us? Our clothes, our marriages, our hobbies? Our moral code? In a culture field with infidelity and sexual abuse, what changes in the world of yoga? In the world of spiritual practice? Hint: not much. This episode, originally the very popular, "Sex in the Woods," is making a come-back so all the Fertile Feminist listeners can enjoy this piece from the original Sermons from the Mat podcast.

All around we hear the imperative to find and live our "best life." Which seems like a pretty good idea, doesn't it? But when we take a look at it through a feminist and life-giving lens, we actually find the directive of patriarchy--that strict adherence to hierarchy, to either/or/ black and white thinking and a way of limiting ourselves. Having our "best life" may not even be what we want. How about having an "alive life?" How about letting go of better/best/worst as a way of defining ourselves and our lives, and living into a richer, more fruitful experience? That's what this episode is all about. Originally recorded on Sept. 16, this reprise is part of our "nostalgia trip" through certain episode from the Fertile Feminist.

We don't see gravity, but we see the effects of it. We don't see love, but we know it's there. In this episode, a look at what's going on behind the scenes of our lives. Weaving together a story of roadblocks to adoption with the message of the famous bumper sticker: The Goddess is Alive and Magic is Afoot, this episode will help you see the unexpected gifts in your life, the strange gifts, the ones that arrive in unusual packages. Sometimes things arise in our lives that seem like they are working towards the bad, and then, you turn a corner and come to see that all along you were being nudged toward the good. Yielding to the possibility that the "goddess is afoot," is a powerful doorway to our aliveness, our fertility, our fullness, our wholeness. Join me for an enlivening, surprising episode.

Knowing when to love - and when to walk away - is fiercely feminist. In this episode, a love story. My love affair at 20 years old with an 87 year old woman. Well, not your typical love affair! But one that opened thought and heart for me about how to love. Because this wasn't an ordinary love affair and she wasn't an ordinary person--she was a very imperfect and broken person with a very old fashioned mindset I didn't agree with. Yet, I loved her anyway. And then one day I walked away. The power of our love is a feminist practice when we use it right--which means letting it in and letting it change us as well as learning how to love from afar, when it's necessary. Because the truth is all of us find ourselves loving people who aren't perfect, or wanting to love people who aren't the most lovable. Can loving them help us become more fertile even if they don't hold our same values? Yes, it really can.

Research tells us that men have been allowed to--and taught to--take up more space than women. Reversing that troubling symbolic act of gaslighting requires us to find our inner spark, a spark that can light a real fire, inside of us and inside of others. But not only that, it allows us to become laser clear about what we will and will not do with our time. Learning to take up space means deconstructing and taking down patriarchy--"the rule of the father"--and recognizing it for what it is: a lie. Whether we follow a religious path or not, the deep rooted patriarchal morality--who gets to take up space, what it means to take up space--effects our consciousness. There are two kinds of fires: the kind that's destroying our climate and our souls and the other one, the one that brings us alive and allows us to create ourselves and restore our world. This episode is all about the second kind of fire and how to find it.

Good defined by the patriarchy is shut up, sit down, listen to us, do what we say, and bring us some dinner. But that's not good for us. And ultimately, it's not good for anyone. A truly confessional, honest episode about my first marriage and the experience of so many women in marriage, particularly those who have fallen into being, or have been cultivated to be, a "good girl." The lies of patriarchy, coupled with our "new age spirituality" aimed at women who become more loving and forgiving, can land us into dangerous situations that harm us, hurt us, or leave us feeling invisible. Check our Zawn Villines https://www.zawn.net whose work and research I talk about in the podcast. It's time we think differently about what it means to be fertile in our marriages and partnerships--what it truly means to be alive--and what it actually means to be GOOD, living for the good, working towards the good, and creating good for one another as we claim it for ourselves.

Take a trip with me back to a childhood where I often felt lonely, but found comfort and company in nature. Is there fertility in loneliness? Where does nature take us? And what does it teach us about fertility and feminism? In the world of the divine feminine, women are often equated with nature, but what does that really mean? If women are connected to and represent the moon, then men get the sun. And that's not right. Even that is a patriarchal lens. Feminism is not the ocean and the grass and the seed and the leaves as if women are only their material body parts; that's limiting and inaccurate. Just like nature doesn't healing us by meeting only our material and biological needs. Wholeness is wholeness, never one and not the other. In this episode be restored to a sense of the Creatix!

Your fertility is NOT about how many children you do or do not have! For recent history, woman as vehicle for children has been the standard. But this is a profound lie of patriarchy. Do we still, even today, consider those who have no children or a smaller family, as "less maternal" or "less motherly?" Mothering, however, is a quality that anyone can awaken, use and realize. Having more children does not make us motherly. And having fewer children doesn't make us less so. We have to get clear about what a women is for to understand truly for ourselves and those around us what we are for and what our value is. Is motherhood the ultimate reality for women? Is a woman only valuable as "she who can produce children?" That's the myth, a myth both wide and deep, with lingering effects that inform the decisions, feelings, and sense of value that the contemporary women possesses about herself. In this episode we explore the fertility of no children, the fertility of mother-quality without children. 

Creativity. The big one. Fuels our life, our work, our success, our personal satisfaction. People often ask me HOW to have more creativity in their life. This episode is all about what I've uncovered about the fertility of creativity. But creativity is not just fun, not a segregated world of "arts and crafts" or having a hobby. Creativity is part of our wholeness. Accessing our true creativity means expressing it in every area of our life. In order to get to the real SOURCE of creativity, we have to notice what we're thinking about creativity, old myths, even patriarchal myths about being creators. The feminist understanding of creativity gets us out of a limited linear mindset and into a more circular, fluid, vital, real and alive practice of engaging our native ability. This is fun! Let's get creative together.

Prayer artist, mystic witch and producer and director in the Theatre of the Miraculous, and mistress of the threshold between worlds—the mystical theta brain wave state--is with us this week on the podcast and wow. Sit down. We talk depth patriarchy, changing our language, the path of obedience, soul writing, the word "witch," claiming the truth for ourselves, the power of language, and the process of listening in deep soul writing. "Patriarchy never wants you to leave conscious mind," says Janet--and her practice of leaving conscious mind is the source of her personal, potent transformation. Listen to the end for her magic formulas to move into theta brain wave state.

On her divorce and transformation: 5:41

On the power of soul-writing: 12:24

On our waking up to Her: 21:12

The Witch: 26:31

The glorious title: 41:41

Find Janet: https://janetconner.com

Don't forget to sign up for her weekly letter; it is amazing.

To a regenerative, cyclical, circular, seasonal you! Yes, in the age of patriarchy the patriarchy of age has us on a linear path where from the moment of birth, us egg-carriers are heading straight for the barren, dry, old season. After all, what's worse than an old lady? From the fear of wrinkles to the obsession with skin care, when we examine the myths all around us about age, and the influence patriarchy has on our understanding of age, then we can truly free ourselves to a more true way of living, one that is circular, not linear. Just think of the terror sent into the hearts of women about their "fertile window." What about men? How do they have an ageless sensibility to them? It's sexism, friends, not reality. Let's change this and wake up!

Heartbreak, loss, grief, sorrow, despair...no one is untouched by these, but as Rumi wrote, "The wailing of broken hearts is the doorway to God." Who has taught you about the fertility of loss? The new forest growth that comes after the fire? From barrenness and emptiness, the worst feelings we can imagine, comes powerful fertility, potent creativity, and the birth of the new. To know about the fertility of grief, is to understand a fundamental truth of life itself. It's also part of our work in smashing the patriarchy/hierarchy dynamics of our infertile culture. Hope for the hurting here, new ideas for our journey through loss, and a fresh vision of personal and collective growth that rises from the ashes.

Listen to Sam channel the Great Mother! The Great Mother archetype is the most potent, powerful, ancient, and universal of all archetypes. Yet she is invisible. Patriarchy has effectively eliminated the presence of the Great Mother from our culture (though she has presence in many other cultures). Bringing her back is our work as feminists, as folks devoted to human liberation. How cool would it be to sit in her presence and listen to her, then? Yet we have to be careful, because "channeling" or "embodying" the Great Mother requires humility, playfulness and a consciousness that every single person has direct access to this or any archetype. 

Find out more about the Sacred Order of the Great Mother: https://thesamanthawilde.com/home/the-sacred-order/

Our body, our fertility and our choices--all of these are feminist issues. Swimming in the sea of patriarchy, our choices are plagued by judgement, condemnation, guilt and confusing. Whether we have one child, no children, or ten children, how we make decisions about our physical fertility is a burden. From the mystery of our cycles to the political control of the womb, the mental atmosphere around fertility is so clouded it can be hard to even see ourselves, let alone what's true. But knowing our preciousness and seeing our physical fertility as neither burden nor miracle, liberates us to be truly free to choose how we use our life force. Our life force is ours; we are as precious as possible children; we direct the waters of our lives.

Ever heard of "manifesting abundance?" Would you love that for 2023? Who wouldn't want an abundant new year? So how do we get there? What do we need to do? Manifesting teachers tell you how to "create" this abundance. But that leaves out both the whole power of fertility/life itself AND perpetuates a patriarchal/capitalist focus on ME, MINE and MORE for me. If the increase of your own good lowers the good for anyone else, then it is not abundance. True abundance benefits everyone. Don't believe me? Listen in to an episode all about the fertile abundant universe.

There is some version of the future in which we are connected, powerful, living outside of patriarchy, abundant and alive. Welcome 2023 with a heart yearning for life, for ourselves and the whole world. Fresh ideas for healing, moving into liberation, accepting ourselves and smashing the patriarchy with LOVE and LIFE. A reprise from an earlier episode, this one is all about shaking off old language, old ideas, and coming into a vibrant new language in the new year.

This special holiday episode focuses on one of the greatest gifts we can ever have--or give. Panic of patriarchy, fear over world troubles, worry over unsolvable problems, being scared of the pandemic, terrified of what might happen to us or our children, all of these permeate our minds, lives, worlds. We've gone through years of scary times. They don't seem related to patriarchy, but they are! Capitalism and patriarchy rule us through fear. The restoration of our safety, a sense of protection, and healing the inner wounds from patriarchy, come with one powerful practice. Open your heart this season to receive a gift that will ease your mind, lower your anxiety, soothe your heart AND assist in demolishing the patriarchy.. Oh yes, really!! In this episode, a practice of safety and protection for ourselves and those we love.

An episode on the power of innate knowing and the journey of waking up our innate knowing. Every person faced with caring for a small child or newborn, every new mother, every new caregiver, has the moment of asking: how do you DO this? Our patriarchal, consumptive, capitalist culture can help us BUY things when we don't know what to do, but that won't ever help us access our deeper innate knowing. This knowing is not only useful, practical, efficient and free, it's also a potent tool for smashing the patriarchy. How do we get it? Where do we get it? And once we have it, what will it do?

If we're going to go about the business of smashing patriarchy, then we're going to have to take this deep dive. Strap on your seatbelt for this episode all about mean girls, mean grown up women, hating other women, being dissed by other women, "the potential oppressor within"--bell hooks, and how it came to be that the woman I thought liked me didn't like me and I didn't know why. Smashing the patriarchy is an inside job and here's where the rubber hits the road: compassion and understanding towards the part of us that doesn't like "those women" and the part of us that doesn't like "that woman within." It's one thing to have the right philosophy and another thing to live it. How do we treat other women?

Don't forget to visit me and sign up for the weekly message: https://thesamanthawilde.com/

An episode on opening up to the infinite possibilities that arise when we let go the things that feel too small for us. Patriarchy is all about making us smaller and more infertile--in mind, body, heart and soul. Opening up to a more infinite sense of our choices brings us alive and expands our life. Starting with the profound words of poet David Whyte, "anyone or anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you," we'll explore what it means to get rid of what is too small as we become bigger, more whole people. Because how DO you get rid of those things that don't bring you alive? Learning to take the small steps to our freedom, brings us, eventually to that larger version of our life. And that's something to be truly thankful for!! (Happy Thanksgiving.)

An episode exploring the 3 keys to bringing your heart's desires into the world. We all think we want to birth these desires but what gets in the way? Our own criticism and judgement about our desires is often present and often hidden. To bring our heart's desires in our lives requires that we get behind them, stand in solidarity with them, make space and room for them, but that's not all. Meeting our anxiety and fear head on, finding the courage and strength to push forward, believing that we are bringing things through us, all of these components allow us to come closer and closer to the lives we so long to live. Actively working and actively surrendering come alive for us when we truly stand with and for our heart's desires.

Make sure to sign up and receive my weekly message: https://thesamanthawilde.com/

A journey into how to build our inner scaffolds to recover our worth and value as mothers and for mothers. In this episode learn how to love yourself as much as you love Santa Claus! If you haven't noticed, we have a cult of the father going on. In order to correct the system, we don't just need to change the effects of that oppression, we need to get to the cause and that means realigning ourselves with the archetype of the Great Mother. This is how to smash the patriarchy 101--in a way you've never heard it before and it directly addresses the underlying causes of the experience of mothers as living without a safety net of any kind. Once you've listened, join the revolutionary community of The Sacred Order of the Great Mother. https://thesamanthawilde.com/home/the-sacred-order/

We need you! We want you! Let's do this together.

An episode exploring the truth about the witch hunts, the journey of finding the deity within, being an iconoclast, and the cost of becoming yourself. When we find ourselves at the intersection of variable identities, how do we become whole? Can our very being, who we are in the world, be a form of iconoclasm? Can we live out our authenticity as people full of opposites and variables and nuance? The archetype of the witch rises up as we investigate a fertile concept of witch. A better understanding of the witch allows us to "swing open the doors of our prejudice" and become more alive, more ourselves, more in service to a free and kind world. From a witch/minister/mother/iconoclast, an invitation to wear YOURself this Halloween for a costume.

Take a trip with me to Salem, Massachusetts, home of the famous Salem Witch trials where I discover the "Witch House." But who lived in it? There actually IS no witch house, as I discover. The witches are erased and what we get instead are halloween celebrations that leave out of the equation who this story is really about. Lessons in manifesting, representation, and patriarchy, rise up as I search the town for a figure of the Great Mother. Where are the representations of the Divine feminine? And where are the witches? Where did they live? Why are we still celebrating the perpetrators and missing the images of powerful women?

More on the Great Mother this week on youtube: https://youtu.be/ViC9p3trPUI

And even more: https://thesamanthawilde.com/home/the-sacred-order/

What is the effect of thinking out of the box thoughts? A total rethinking of the lens we look at life with--and nothing less--in this podcast. Hear about a revolutionary thought I came across that I had literally never thought before and what it means for us as we struggle with old problems in search of real, new solutions. In the spirit of Einstein who understood we needed a new consciousness to solve the stuckness of our culture and of our own lives, when we stop looking through the lens of patriarchy, amazing new possibilities open up. This is base line on how to think creatively, uniquely and fertilely about everything and the story that inspired it will surprise you.

From naked women on instagram to my life as a would-be ballerina, a podcast about the "slavery of the external gaze" and the power of self-possession. Because naked and sexy don't really mean anything. The power is in our life-force, the way we claim ourselves, the way we give up on being something consumed and become the creator--of ourselves and our lives. Patriarchy takes out the fertility from the naked and sexy, feminism puts it back. Fertility as life-force returns us to ourselves. What are we supposed to look like? What do we look like? Whose gaze matters? What would it mean to have a body, a life, a gaze, for its own sake? An short adventure through some answers.

What would YOU like to give birth to, to bring into the world? Every kind of birth has its own story. Collectively we are in the middle of a BIG birth. The birth of a new archetype. Queen Elizabeth II just died and with her comes the death of the Queen archetype. What next? Gone is the archetype of hierarchy and division and monarchy. Now comes the (re) birth of the Great Mother archetype and with it nurturance, collaboration, new structures and systems of equality and liberation. Recognize those words? It's the re (birth) of the true power of fertility. That means big things for each of us personally, for you and me, but also for the culture itself. Revolution on the archetypal level!

It happened on an ordinary summer day. I feel under a spell. It was like being hypnotized. I didn't even know how much I wanted "eternal beauty," until he beckoned me into the store. But so begins a journey through age, fertility, longing, struggle, ovaries and moisturizer. This episode focuses on the cult of youth, the effects of patriarchy on the concept of "infertility" and the power of a single idea to change our lives. All by way of realizing that changing ourselves for a crazy world is CRAZY! It's time for us to keep ourselves and change the world.

It's time to smash the "best" life philosophy. It's a bunch of patriarchal baloney--but I bet you've never thought about it that way. So what is better than your best life? Be entertained by new ideas of how to get there, some confessions and a few true inspirations, in this second inaugural episode of the Fertile Feminist. We're still talking what's "fertile," and what's "feminist," and why it matters now more than ever the words we use. From objectification of women's body to systems thinking in the garden, to why trying for your best life often leaves us at our worst, this episode is for you.

A little primer on the F words begins with a story of judgement in CVS. So begins the journey into the world of the Fertile Feminist where our number one question is: how do we come more alive in a more alive world? Fertile and feminist may not be the words you would use but cracked open each of them presents an inventive, healing, liberating way forward. We're in a world that seems inert, decaying, violent, oppressive and we need new tools to smash the patriarchy because the old ones aren't working. That means we need new thought, fresh ideas, a new language and a different understanding of what's behind our language as we propel ourselves forward and bring the world along with us. A new, though-provoking episode every Wednesday to help you come more alive and change the world while you're at it. 

This podcast is presented by: https://thesamanthawilde.com/

Go deeper into this work with me: https://thesamanthawilde.com/mentorship/

Discover the Sacred Order: https://thesamanthawilde.com/home/the-sacred-order/

Want to think like Mr. Rogers? Think like a Swami? Simply survive the day? The practice of putting our mind in the right direction is an ancient spiritual one as relevant and useful in our car as on a mountaintop. Listen to a story about the recent Nantucket Fire and be a little more like Mr. Rogers....