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Luna Alchemy and the Lakota Medicine Wheel – a conversation with Sydney Francis.
1 Plays3 seconds ago
Reverend Sydney Francis provides trauma-informed spiritual healing who helps people transform emotional pain into spiritual purpose
In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation, Rev Sydney and host Michael Millward discuss her latest book Activating Lunar Alchemy.
During their conversation Rev Sydney and Michael cover:
- Rev Sydney’s journey to ordination, and the founding of Soul Gardener
- Trauma informed spiritual healing
- What lunar alchemy is and how it can be applied most successfully
- The origins and applications of the Lakota Medicine Wheel.
- How modern life and the natural world conflict
- How Michael has subconsciously implemented these in his own approach to work life balance
This episode of Rest and Recreation is ideal listening for anyone who wants to live a life that is more in-tune with the way the natural world functions.
Discover more about Rev Sydney and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform that really does make every stage of the podcast production process so easy.
00:00:16
Speaker
Use the link to Zencastr.com in the description. It has a built-in discount. Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abysida.
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm your host Michael Millward.
Guest Introduction: Sydney Francis
00:00:33
Speaker
Today i am going to be discovering soul gardening from Sydney Francis who is the author of Activating Lunar Alchemy.
00:00:43
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Sydney is an ordained reverend spiritual teacher who guides people to reclaim soulful rest and inner balance by working with lunar cycles, seasonal rhythms and the body-mind-emotion-spirit connection.
What is Soul Gardening?
00:00:59
Speaker
As part of her lunar alchemy process, she teaches the Lakota medicine wheel as a powerful framework for restoring wholeness, helping people move beyond collapse culture and into conscious regenerative living.
00:01:16
Speaker
Her approach is called Soul Gardening. It offers mystical yet grounded practices for making free time truly nourishing and enriching.
00:01:27
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Instead of zoning out in front of a screen, her clients learn to co-create with nature's cycles, use ritual as rest, and develop meaningful hobbies that feed the soul.
00:01:38
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Sydney is based in Arizona in the United States. That is not a part of the United States that I have visited, but when I get the opportunity to go, i will be sure to utilize my membership of the Ultimate Travel Club so that I can pay trade prices on my flights, hotels, trains, package holidays and so many other travel related purchases.
00:01:59
Speaker
I've included a link in the description to the Ultimate Travel Club which has a built-in discount so that you can become a member of the Ultimate Travel Club as well and travel at trade prices.
00:02:11
Speaker
Now that I've paid some bills it is time to make an episode of Rest and Recreation that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to. perhaps even worth sharing with your friends, your family and your work colleagues.
Sydney's Journey to Spiritual Healing
00:02:28
Speaker
As with every episode of Rest and Recreation, we will not be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think. Today's Rest and Recreation guest is Sydney Francis, the author of Activating Lunar Alchemy.
00:02:44
Speaker
It is great to be able to say hello to Sydney Francis. Hello Sydney. Hello, Michael, and thank you so much. I'm excited and happy to be here. I'm excited that you are here as well because you are my first ordained person to have on Rest and Recreation. So a great big special welcome for that. Thank you very much. i do appreciate it.
00:03:04
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I want to know how you got to the place where you are now, being a ah reverend and involved with this lunar alchemy. What's been your journey?
00:03:15
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I ended up being a reverend perhaps because of my own story of healing. My father died when I was 10 and i was an only child, very isolated.
00:03:26
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i was not allowed to grieve for him. so i would say my teenage life and my yeah adolescent life and young adult life were pretty challenging. When you say that you weren't allowed to grieve for him. Yes. For most people, that would be, I think, quite a a strange experience for most people. what What do you mean when you say you weren't allowed to grieve for him?
00:03:51
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Well, I'll tell you as I remember it, I went to the memorial service for my dad. and after the end of it, my mom said something to the effect of,
00:04:01
Speaker
Okay, your dad's gone now. she didn't say forget about him, but you know, she kind of said, put him behind you and look forward. You have your life to live. Emotions were very uncomfortable to my mom. So if i cried or got upset, I would get in trouble. I did grieve my dad, but I really had to hide it. i wasn't It was not a comfortable environment for me to be at home and feel the emotion of grief. so yeah I understand what you mean now. yeah yeah there's different Grief is is one of those things that people deal with in different ways and the way in which individuals deal with it has an impact upon how the people around them deal with it as well. I i understand. yeah Thank you very much.
00:04:42
Speaker
no You're welcome. so I went to to university at 16, 3000 miles from home. That was when I had the freedom to really explore psychology and explore my grief. And that's kind of part of the story. And then when i graduated from university, I wanted to work in mental health and healing fields. So I started working with teens with mental illness, I would say in parallel to that. So for my career, I was working with teens with mental illness in, um,
00:05:15
Speaker
in homes that were designed to give them the cognitive behavioral therapy and the support they needed. These were severely mentally ill teens. And parallel to that, I started studying at the Healing Light Center Church, which provided a theology program, but also an energy healing program. So like laying on of hands.
00:05:37
Speaker
I would say over the years, my work developed from there of wanting to, the laying on of hands and energy healing and spiritual healing to help people with trauma.
00:05:49
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I mean, this is over, let's say, this was like 1993 when I graduated from university. So this is over 30 years of developing kind of learning, doing the theology program and the ministry program, but also learning laying on of hands and also working with in mental health.
Aligning with Natural Cycles
00:06:06
Speaker
I also worked in education. So Kind of combining all of those is how I've arrived at what I do today. It's worth remembering, I think, as well, that back in 1993, I remember it as well. Yeah. um The world was a very, very different place when it came to mental health.
00:06:23
Speaker
Very different. I worked in a program that the teens, they knew of the childhood trauma, like these teenagers had been sexually and physically abused, and they were really horrific situations like you know One girl had been gang raped as a young child, for just as an example. And they knew of the trauma, but there was not really, not like it is today. a lot We've learned a lot about emotional trauma that was not ah available in 1993. It's changed a lot in 30 years. Yeah. You've learned an awful lot in those 30 years. And yes they say the world has changed immensely since those times when i think it's fair to say that we didn't really understand psychology in the way that we do now. yeah We're here to talk about how all this developed into soul gardening. So what is soul gardening? So soul gardening is a practice of, i would say, attuning your energy to both the moon cycle, the monthly rhythm of the moon cycle, and then the seasonal rhythm um to the seasonal rhythms like like you would in a garden. So i would say it is ah similar to a gardening practice, but that's for your personal development or your spiritual development. And I'll give you an example Okay, so with the moon, the day we filmed this is October 16th, and the moon is in the last quarter phase. So the moon is waning, getting smaller.
00:07:54
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And to attune to that, I recommend that people start getting more rest, right? The moon is getting close to new. It's more of an inward time. So this is related to the balance. And And you moon work part of it, you do a releasing ritual that helps you to let go of any of the stress or any of maybe emotional situations that have come up or maybe a habit or behavior that you want to change. This is the time to make that change in the moon cycle. And then in terms of the solar year here in the U.S., at the Northern Hemisphere, it's fall. So in terms of the garden, we're putting the garden to bed, you know, finishing the harvest,
00:08:35
Speaker
So right now in my garden, I'm actually gathering up the herbs and the fruits from this year and getting ready because we're going to have our frost maybe in two weeks, first frost in the next few weeks. Again, it's a time because fall, we're kind of finishing up the agricultural year and getting ready to go into the holidays where we are more inside and celebrating with other people. And also a time of the year that's more, i think, quiet and restful in the winter. you know, after the holidays, i'd like to take some extra time to be quiet and go inward. Yeah, it sounds sumps almost like soul gardening then is like not looking at every day as being the same as every other day.
00:09:21
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but adjusting your behavior in every aspect of life so that you are more and if you are more in tune with your environment, then you are going to be healthier. yeah and and I'm thinking like silly things probably. As the climate changes, you change the clothes that you wear so that you're either cooler or you're warmer, but you do the same sort of thing with every aspect of your life to adapt to your environment while you will end up more balanced.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yes, it's exactly what you said. In farming, right, if you're farming, again, more in the like northern latitudes or the southern latitudes where there's more extreme temperatures, right, there's a time of the year where you need to rest because, like, in the winter, there's not really anything going on in the garden. But if you think about how hard a farmer works in the spring and in the fall, you know, planting and preparing the the fields and and then in the fall doing the harvest,
00:10:17
Speaker
The winter and summer are more restful periods. And so you end up getting a balance because if you attune your energy to that agricultural cycle, if you will, you're getting some balance and rest that you might not get in the modern world where we're taught, you know, in the U S it's like, go, go, go all the time. You're supposed to be productive all the time. And in soul gardening, there's times where there's more energy in terms of the work, and there's times when there's more energy in terms of the harvest. But there's a lot of opportunities for rest within the natural cycle.
The Lakota Medicine Wheel and Lunar Cycles
00:10:52
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Like in winter, this is a wonderful time to rest if you're able to do that. It is about reclaiming that balance. Yeah. The words was thinking of was reclaiming the harmony with your environment.
00:11:05
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Oh, yes. I like that. Yes. What am I understanding from what you're saying is that we almost live in an artificial world because of the way in which industrial societies work.
00:11:16
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mean Yes. The machine in the factory, whether that is a computer or something mechanical, is always going to be working at a rate that it's been set to work at.
00:11:28
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Right. If you are working that way, then... My understanding from what you're saying is that that wouldn't be the healthiest way to live. The healthy way to live is to be more in tune with your environment, the cycles of the moon, the seasons.
00:11:45
Speaker
Well, I suppose it's like if you are in summer, then the bright sunshine, warm temperatures, that creates a state of mind. When you go into winter, Things that were easy during the summer somehow become a little bit more difficult. The darker mornings, the darker evenings, things become more difficult.
00:12:07
Speaker
I think it's more difficult, oh yeah, when there's less light and the days are cold. And yeah, it's definitely more difficult in the winter yet. But that's almost nature's way of saying you were very busy during the spring. You were very busy during the summer. Now, as you get into autumn and into winter, now the natural cycle is to slow down somewhat, recharge so that next spring you can come out all systems roaring and and get on with with things again.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yes, I love how you've described that. It is about being in harmony with that. So do attune to the seasonal rhythm and even the moon rhythm, right? There's a dark time of the moon, which we're in right now, which is um you need more rest. They've even done a sleep study in in Switzerland at a chronobiology lab that shows people get less sleep in the full moon and more sleep in the you know last quarter, a new moon. that were It's not just because of the light, that we're already attuned to the moon cycle
00:13:06
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If we honor these rhythms and recognize them, we can get the rejuvenation. But i would say, like, just work more efficiently with the rhythms, right? Instead of working against them and trying to work so hard and be productive all the time, there is kind of a rhythm of productivity.
00:13:27
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Yes. You know, in nature, if you work with, you know, if you're trying to grow something, right, you don't plant your seeds in the winter, right? You wait until The ground is soft.
00:13:38
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It's plenum whilst the ground is soft and warm and everything is right for the for the seed to germinate and grow. Exactly. You're in tune with the cycle. what is The other thing is, like what is the Lakota medicine wheel? It sounds like something in Indigenous North American. Yes, it is a, I would say a framework or maybe even a cultural paradigm of an Indigenous Native American tribe.
00:14:05
Speaker
There's an actual wheel. it's It's a map. On one hand, it's a map, the wheel. On another level, it's a cos it's a cosmology of understanding oneself and how they fit in the universe. The wheel has been used to organize community. So people sit in different lodges around the wheel.
00:14:25
Speaker
There's a men's lodge and a women's lodge full and they play different roles in these lodges. It's a very, i don't know if complex is the right word, but it's, there's many layers to the Lakota medicine wheel. And so the way I work with it, I guess I would say is as a map for the self. It's a circle and it has an inner circle called the children's fire. Like if you think of it in terms of the community, the children's fire is where like very young children, babies and toddlers would be with
00:14:56
Speaker
the elders tending the central fire. And then there's these other lodges on the outer part of the wheel. The wheel is a dynamic tool. I'll say that not so much a static tool.
00:15:08
Speaker
The way I use it is like a circle of the self, like a way to look at the the self because there's the four directions, east, south, west, and north. And then it's also organized by different parts of self. So there's like a mental part of so a part of the wheel, a mental quadrant, a physical quadrant, an emotional quadrant, and a spiritual quadrant. One of the gifts of working with the medicine wheel is balance. Like it's actually, as you can imagine, a wheel, like on your car or on a bicycle, it needs to be balanced in order to work effectively.
00:15:45
Speaker
So it's a tool to create balance and harmony in the community and balance of the self. So it runs contra to the 21st century culture almost of everyone's an individual. We're all in it for ourselves.
00:16:01
Speaker
It's about placing an individual within a society, identifying roles at different stages of that individual's life, the contributions that they make into other people and receive from other people, leads to a more balanced, healthier life.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yes. Yes, I like that. Yes. Yes. It's very community or community. But at the same time, it's something that is best left alone unless you've done all the training and how to use it. It sounds very straightforward. Your explanation is is really very good. And I picked up and sort of said, yeah, I get what what it is. But at the same time, I also get that it's it's comprehensive. It covers every aspect of life. And as such, it also covers all the ways in which different aspects of life are linked together. So it's not something that you could pick up and learn in an afternoon.
00:16:59
Speaker
Definitely. It's one of those frameworks that you could spend a lifetime on or multiple lifetimes. i learned to use the Lakota Medicine Wheel at the Healing Light Center Church. It's something that you learn more from by working with it.
00:17:12
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i don't know if infinite is the right word, but you can keep you can keep learning about yourself and the community and and your spirit by working with it.
Balancing Life with Natural Rhythms
00:17:22
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it's It's a very profound cultural system.
00:17:28
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How does the lunar alchemy and the Lakota medicine wheel fit together? So this is something that I paired together. i studied the moon cycle, um, partially with garden, you know, gardening. Like if you look at the farmer's almanac, you know, what day do you plant your seeds and what day do you fertilize and stuff like that? So the lunar alchemy process is about attuning to the moon cycle, getting in harmony with the moon cycle.
00:17:57
Speaker
The medicine wheel is, i use it as self-reflective tool. So you take a wheel and you write down or draw in the new moon. I'll just say we're in the new moon. You write down and draw what what goals you have or what you want to bring into your life. So you think about what are your goals? Do you have goals at work or do you have financial goals? Maybe you put that in the Eastern part of the wheel and do you have physical goals? do you want to do more exercise? You would put that in the South part of the wheel. And then, you know, maybe you have some relationship, like I have four kids, you know, like, what do you want your family life and your relationships to look like and feel like you'd put that in the East or I'm sorry, in the West. And, know,
00:18:43
Speaker
then maybe your spiritual and creative goals, maybe that could be your passion project or or some other spiritual goal. You'd put that in the north. And so you use the wheel throughout the moon cycle in different ways to look, really to focus on yourself, but with the intention of balance. So you use it to put your focus and attention the You're different parts of self, right? We can't.
00:19:13
Speaker
Well, we can, but it's optimal if we tend to our health and our spiritual well-being and our relationships as much as we attend to our work life.
00:19:25
Speaker
And what you're saying, i suppose, is that writing those things down, positioning them on the Lakota medicine wheel in the right place means that we're able to then give our life balance by identifying when is the time to focus on a particular aspect of life and when is the time to leave it alone. Yes, I think, yes, exactly. Right. You could look at each day as a wheel, right? You know, this, cause you know, the sun rises in the East, you could use this as, as a map of the day.
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah So if you think time is circular, right? If you think of time, right, the day has a rhythm to it and the month has, the week has a rhythm to it and the month has a rhythm to it and the year has a rhythm to it. You know, how do you create balance within those different rhythms?
00:20:17
Speaker
Right. Okay. So within every day is a circular, within every hour is a circle. So people who are thinking, oh, I'm so busy, I'm so busy, I'm so busy.
00:20:27
Speaker
i live in ah in an area where there are primary school. I see parents walking their children to school. The child is walking behind them, dragging their bag along the ground because they're They have no interaction with their parent because their parent is focused on their smartphone and the messages that are coming through because work needs me, work needs me. Whereas actually, if people followed this Lakota medicine wheel and the lunar alchemy, they would be more likely to say, know, this is the time that I'm going to spend with this child, having a conversation with this child.
00:21:03
Speaker
I'll do that for the period when it is appropriate to do that. And then i will move on to the next thing. And lo and behold, that even just saying that makes me realize the logic of that means that you're able to give something or someone 100% of your attention because you have compartmentalized your day based upon that Lakota medicine wheel.
00:21:32
Speaker
Yes, that's how I use it. Yes. Like I have my time for family and my children and time for work and I have time for prayer or the spiritual work and time for my, yeah, for my health and, you know, fitness and all that. So yes, that's how I use it.
00:21:48
Speaker
It's interesting for me because I made a decision years ago that I would live my life on the basis of four hobbies. One that was going to pay my bills, one that was going to keep me fit, one that would feed my soul, and a last one that would create my legacy. Oh, wow. thank So it's like within, i didn't know about Lakota medicine wheels and lunar alchemy processes, but through some sort of way, I decided that that was a healthy way to try and structure my days, my weeks, my months.
Impact of Lunar Cycles on Modern Life
00:22:20
Speaker
my years and to focus on each one. And what you're saying is like, yeah, you have the Lakota medicine wheel.
00:22:28
Speaker
It's structured around the same type of things. Yes. And yeah, i feel I do feel extremely proud of myself at the moment. I will allow myself a few seconds to feel very pleased that what just felt like a sensible thing to do actually makes an awful lot of sense. And i understand a little bit more about it now.
00:22:49
Speaker
I can see the logic of lunar alchemy. Yes. It's all very well to sort of say like, well, of course, the tides are at the sea, you know, are determined by the the phases of the moon. Yeah. and And to believe that that happens, I do. So why would we not believe that At the same time, the phases of the moon would have an impact on other things as well. It's not just whether you have a high tide or a low tide. It's the phases of the moon are legitimately impacting everything that happens within our world.
00:23:27
Speaker
And then it's just a ah minor sort of step to extend that into the seasons and different temperatures, different winds, all sorts of various different things. Mm-hmm. from the natural world impact how we live.
00:23:42
Speaker
And yet, in many ways, we have forgotten about it because we've joined the industrial societies and one of the things that makes industrial societies successful is that they rely upon people to be consumers of what the industrial society creates,
Conclusion and Further Engagement
00:24:00
Speaker
produces. So that becomes the focus, it's about consumption of things rather than creating the harmony that we should all enjoy right yes
00:24:16
Speaker
It's like really, it's like, it's fascinating. I wish we could talk for many more hours and hopefully we will get the chance to do that. But yeah, I probably have more questions now than I did at the beginning because I'm sort of like, yeah, I get that. I get that. um Is there a place where people can go to to make contact with you? um Yes. My website is soulgardener.com.
00:24:45
Speaker
dot me so that's soul s-o-u-l gardener like g-a-r-d-e-n-e-r dot m me is my is my website that's a great place to contact me for today know sydney i really do appreciate your time it has been fascinating i've really enjoyed it but thank you very much thank you so much michael and and i want to say i'm i'm If I can say I'm proud of you too, I'm glad that you came up with that. it sounds like a very balanced way too that you described about focusing on those four different areas.
00:25:18
Speaker
or have to admit, Sydney, that um the intention is there. I am not claiming to have cracked it yet. No. But the intention is very much there and I and i' think is the process yeah and the decision making that you go through to work out whether something is going to pay a bill, is going to keep me fit, is going to feed my soul, will create a legacy. And by legacy, I don't just mean what happens after you're dead in 100 years or whatever. I mean,
00:25:49
Speaker
the legacy that you leave after every conversation that you've had or every interaction that you've had with someone. I like to think that we create positive legacies in every interaction that we have with people, even if we have to tell them something that they're not particularly going to enjoy. We can still do it in a way that creates something positive for them.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yes, definitely. Thank Thank you. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Sydney Francis, the author of Activating Lunar Alchemy.
00:26:28
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us by using the links in the description. At Rest and Recreation, we believe in living healthy, balanced lives. An important part of staying healthy is knowing the risks early.
00:26:41
Speaker
That is why we recommend the health tests from York Test, especially the annual health test. The annual health test from York Test provides an assessment of 39 different health markers, including cholesterol, diabetes, various vitamin levels, organ functions, the list goes on.
00:27:01
Speaker
The annual health test is conducted by an experienced phlebotomist who will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests are carried out in a yeah UKAS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory in the United Kingdom and similarly accredited laboratories elsewhere in the world.
00:27:20
Speaker
You can access your easy to understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime via your secure Personal Wellness Hub account. There is a link and as you would expect a discount code in the description.
00:27:35
Speaker
I'm sure that you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Rest and Recreation as much as Sydney and I have enjoyed making it. So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere.
00:27:48
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:28:01
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye.