Rooted Healing
The Rooted Healing podcast seeks to deepen our kinship with the living landscapes around us and within us. This is a space where stories heal with words that weave us closer to our wild and inter-relational nature, bringing us closer to the expansive minds, topics and ideas that help us heal, re-imagine and co-create the world we love to be alive in. We explore and celebrate psychedelic and animistic culture, cross-cultural wisdom exchange, belonging, ceremony, community and nature-led healing. We also run psilocybin retreats, ancestral gatherings, and online courses in deep ecology. Visit rootedhealing.org to learn more.
Rooted Healing
Folk, Paganism, Psychedelics and Wyrdlore with Dr. Andy Letcher
In this rich and winding conversation, we are joined by Dr. Andy Letcher — Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, former Programme Lead for the MA in Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College, and author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom. With doctorates in both Ecology and the Study of Religion, Andy is a singular voice in contemporary psychedelic research, animism, and the revival of folk wisdom.
We explore the deep well of his research into the ritual and animistic use of psychedelics by British Druids, hints of myths and traditions of the Fly Agaric mushroom, and the discourses that shape our understanding of psychedelic experiences. Andy’s insights bridge folklore, embodied ecology, and mythopoetic storytelling, offering a compelling perspective on how we frame and make meaning within animate landscapes.
This episode is laced with music from Andy’s former folk band, Telling the Bees. For our Patreon supporters, we’re offering a curated selection of Andy’s most elusive and fascinating writings — rare gems that are otherwise difficult to access.
Andy will also be one of 14 special guests on our upcoming Deepen Your Roots programme — a year-long journey beginning on Imbolc (1st February 2025). This programme offers a slow, spiralling incubation of Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects, guiding you to unearth your ecological niche and mythopoetic calling amid the Great Turning. Registration is now open — visit rootedhealing.org/deepen to learn more.
