Exploring African Animistic Spirituality with Philiswa Makhaye

In this episode, we are joined by Philiswa Makhaye, a traditional Zulu healer from South Africa. Initiated as a Sangoma at the age of 12, Philiswa has dedicated her life to ancestral communion, intergenerational healing and ancient earth-based spiritual wisdom.

This conversation offers a rare glimpse into animistic spirituality, free from the limiting frameworks of non-animist worldviews. It continues a thread of enquiry explored in a recent episode with Dr Andy Letcher, who highlighted the animistic discourse as one of the most disruptive to the reductionist Western paradigm. Through Philiswa’s insights, we delve into the deep relationality between the land, the ancestors and the healing traditions that have traversed across generations and cultures.

Philiswa’s presence at this year’s Medicine Festival left a lasting impression, particularly during a powerful collective ceremony for peace, where wisdom keepers from around the world offered prayers from each cardinal direction. Her songful prayer, graciously recorded for this episode, is woven into the conversation - a gift to carry in your bones.

For those who wish to experience the full, uninterrupted recording of Philiswa’s prayer, it is uploaded on our patreon, available for all listeners. 

Additional meditations and resources are also available for those who wish to support the show. 

We have recently launched a free hour-long workshop on embodied deep ecology.  

Bookings have now opened to join us at Earth Medicine, our signature ceremonial retreat.