Sophie Strand writes wild and glorious essays that upend everything we think we know about our myths, legends, stories, and beliefs. Maybe Jesus isn’t who we’ve been told he is. Maybe Mary Magdalene is far, far more important in the story. Maybe we’ve been so bamboozled by patriarchal religion that we don’t even know who she is anymore. Or what her name is. In this rich conversation, Sophie unravels story after story about The Magdalene and brings her alive in her own time—a time when her people and her land were ravaged by the Roman Empire. Then, Sophie invites us to come along as Magdalene flees, but not to where you’ve been told. This is the Magdalene, you’ve never met before.

Thanks to the bible story, Jezebel’s name became a slur that strikes terror in a woman’s body. Being called a “Jezebel” smears a woman as slut, harlot, whore. But how did that happen? Because there’s not one word in the bible about Jezebel being unfaithful. She and her husband Ahab, the king of Israel, were married for 30 years and had 1 daughter and 2 sons.  So how did her name become the worst thing a woman can be called? Guest Allison Charron is the 9th great-granddaughter of Susannah Martin North, who was hung as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Who better to bring the first witch in The Return of the Witches Jeanne d’Arc Pilgrimage to life?

As I researched the 13 witches for The Return of the Witches pilgrimage, I started learning about the witches in Scotland and sensed deep in my body that Scotland had an essential place in the pilgrimage. I began to read about the Burning Times in Scotland and stumbled upon an organization called Witches of Scotland which is seeking an apology, pardon, and memorial for everyone persecuted as a witch. One of the founders introduced me to Sheila Gaul of RAWS, Remembering Accused Witches of Scotland. When I told Sheila about the pilgrimage, she told me to stop what I was doing and contact Cali White in England immediately. And OH was she right! Cali has done the work: explored the history, found the wounds, led women’s healing circles across the UK and Ireland, and created the Silver Spoons Collective to honor women murdered as witches. In this powerful healing conversation, Cali shares: how the collective unconscious from the Burning Times emerged in her body why she was obsessed with the Standing Rock community in South Dakota what happened at Stonehenge when a voice said, “You have your own ancestors.” what she discovered in her 13 cycle Full Moon ceremony pilgrimage how the vestiges of fear, grief, sadness, rage, and terror still show up hundreds of years later the interconnection between colonialization, Burning Times, and the Land how the Burning Times shattered our natural feminine sisterhood how to find and heal the witch wounds in your body

It’s been 9 months since the last show. And it’s not Covid’s fault. Or is it? In this episode, you’ll discover what happened last August that brought the show to a screeching halt, why Janet is proud to embrace the once-terrifying label “witch,” and who Joan of Arc—the greatest witch of all time—might have been. Listen as Janet and Perdita Finn discuss: what happened in quarantine when Janet began to listen—really listen—to her body why the podcast has been silent for 9 months what happened when Janet received a wild endorsement from Rabbi Tirzah Firestone why Janet had to fire her agent what happened when Perdita told Janet to watch Groundhog Day and name her “puddle” mysterious connections between Joan of Arc who was murdered in 1431, Clark Strand’s apparition in 2011, and Janet’s revelation last August why Joan of Arc’s name isn’t correct clues to some of the mysteries that swirl around Joan how Perdita fell in love with Joan what the court transcriptionist wrote in the margin about Joan Joan’s purpose today in raising an army of the dead and of the living how you can meet Joan and explore her mysteries with Perdita and Janet

This is a conversation unlike any other on Praying at the Speed of Love. Because the conversation isn’t really with Clark Strand. It’s with Ma Kali herself. And She’s quite the conversationalist! In the gentle hands of her boy, Clark Strand, we meander through some deep and even dark prophetic territory, hearing Kali speak in Her own voice and seeing Her in both her terror and beauty. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/31.    

Prayer really comes alive in this conversation as we meander through the relationship with the divine as a relationship with a wise loving parent, a parent who wants nothing more than to give us all the mystical strength and vision we need to fulfill our tikkun olam, our contribution to the universal call to repair the world. And oh, does our world need repairing, does it not! Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/30.  

This is the perfect conversation for a time of pandemic and quarantine. Christine invited us to explore how the monastic view embraces all of life—treasures and sorrows, cygnets and compost. She offered rich insights into the practices of Stability, Wild Edges, Grief, and the paradoxical state of Holy Indifference. She took us into a gentle meditation of memory—a heart practice to rediscover the gifts in small experiences. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/29.  

Phil Cousineau startled us with the dangers of medieval pilgrimage—half did not return! Then, he reminded us pilgrim in Latin means “to put the sole of your feet to the soul of the world.” Think of that as we embark on our internal pilgrimages. All that in the first minutes! This conversation is a feast of history, meaning, and possibility. Just the food we need to transform quarantine to radical pilgrimage. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/28.  

Estelle Frankel kicked off the conversation with a prayer: “Open my heart, open my mouth.” And then our hearts and mouths were opened and the conversation dropped deep into The Mystic as Estelle led us into wordless prayer, cries of the heart including howling, the prayer of silence, and how the three octaves of unknowing. Then she told the Passover story and suddenly it has a whole new meaning for everyone at this moment. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/27.  

We opened with a gorgeous prayer Robert Corman wrote years ago. Then we dove into Journeys and Awakenings: Wisdom for Spiritual Travelers. Reading any of the 48 profound offerings feels like meandering through a mystical forest hand-in-hand with a wise and warm guide. Robert introduced us to a few of those guides and left us hungry for more, much more. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/26.  

We began in Hong Kong with 7-year old HeatherAsh staring in awe as people bowed to rocks. We followed her to Thailand and India and back to the US, where the lack of reverence was startling. We got to listen in as a dream announced that a man was coming who would change her life. And he did. Don Miguel Ruiz introduced her to Toltec wisdom and HeatherAsh began her walk to becoming a powerful author and teacher of the heart. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/25.

Everything you think you know about the “Our Father” or “Lord’s Prayer” goes up in smoke as Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz guides us into the sound and meaning of the prayer in Aramaic. From the get-go, it’s a shock. Our father? Maybe not! Whether you have loved this prayer or avoided it like a plague of patriarchy, you are in for a sweet surprise. As Neil extracts the prayer from 2,000 years of mistranslation, you just might find yourself falling in love. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/24.

In this intimate conversation, Mark invites us to feel what he felt singing the Torah and experience his grandmother’s living presence in a dream. He explains “indigenous perception” and invites us to hear the apple trees tell him he will survive cancer. Then, Mark welcomes Albert Schweitzer, Mechthild, Ghiberti, and Martin Buber into the room. He even gives us an unpublished poem on the truth about prayer. There is wonder in every moment of this sacred conversation. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/23.

This is a multi-layered miraculous conversation. On one level, it is a beautiful conversation with a beautiful woman, Dawna Markova, about how she evolved into the midwife and author we adore. But on another level, it is a conversation with a ghost—Dawna’s illiterate, Russian-Jewish, challah-baking grandmother, who may not have a name. You meet this woman. And find yourself tumbling head over heels into love. Because maybe, just maybe, Dawna’s grandmother is the wisest and holiest guru you’ve ever met. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/22.

If your heart is hungry for love—big love, mystical love, life-altering love—this is the conversation for you. Peter Booth answered the questions not with his stories or opinions, but with ghazals, couplets of love straight from the Persian mouth of Hafiz, the ultimate poet of love. By the end, we were in altered states, deep in The Mystic, just as Hafiz intended. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/21.

Clark Strand and Perdita Finn take us on a deep dive into the Rosary to uncover her ancient mystical goddess secrets hidden in plain sight right under the nose of the patriarchal Catholic church. One big mystery is “The Mysteries” themselves, 15 stories that tell our story of human life and the story of human history. And then they talked about the Novena—and Janet revealed what she’s praying for. Oh My. NOTE: Episode 20 is part 2 on The Way of the Rose. Episode 19 with part 1 of this conversation aired  December 5, 2019. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/20.

Sit down. Get ready. Love is coming. She's knocking at the door. When you start praying the ancient pre-patriarchal goddess worship hidden in every bead of the rosary, you will discover what my theme song has been telling you all along: “You are not praying; you are being prayed, prayed at the speed of love.” That is the power and promise of the rosary. And this is the power and promise of this life-altering conversation with Clark Strand and Perdita Finn. NOTE: Episode 19 is part 1 on The Way of the Rose. Episode 20 with part 2 of this conversation airs  December 19, 2019. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/19.  

As a boy, Stephen Post has a recurring dream with a strange prophetic message. Following the dream, he gets on Route 80, leaves his broken-down car on the side of the road, thumbs his way West, and—surprise—the dream unfolds in real time on the Golden Gate bridge. You couldn’t make this story up if you wanted to! It’s a wild ride filled with mystery, love, and prayer. And we get to take it with him in God and Love on Route 80. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/18.

Hallie offered her personal prayer practice and how it has evolved into action. Prayer without action is 1/3 effective, prayer with personal action is 2/3 effective, but prayer with collective action is 3/3. She created All One Ocean to excite collective action. Every piece of plastic removed is a prayer. We talked about the dramatic difference when divinity looks like our bodies, what is transmitted when we gaze at a goddess image, and what happens when we embody a goddess’s pose. To make it real we became Guanyin! Visit https://janetconner.com/17 for more. 

Kimberly opened with a prayer that quite literally opened our hearts. She shared how prayer has transformed her life from a miracle on the beach at 16 to the radical prayer that restored her to health after years of pain. That prayer opened the path that took her from financial consulting to angel consulting. We shared stories of being saved from death and the angel who did it. And finally, Kimberly taught us the 3 steps in effective prayer. You might not like the last one. Visit https://janetconner.com/16 for more.   

We began hearing Mandara sing Gregorian chant in a gothic cathedral and watching halos on saints vibrate in response. We followed her as she followed sound to the Rig Vedas, Indian temple construction, Ayurvedic science, Chinese medicine meridians, even the Roslyn Chapel where sound is frozen in stone. Everything comes together in the new science of sound healing through cymatics. Listening to Mandara, your ears will open to a whole new love affair with the sacred power of sound.   After a lifetime of exploring the relationship of ancient sacred healing arts and sound, Mandara Cromwell invented the AMI, Acoustic Meridian Intelligence device, an advanced sound technology nominated for the Thomas Edison Award for Innovation in the Fields of Science and Medicine. She studied cymatics with Dr Peter Manners and coined the term cymatherapy to refer to wave therapy based on his work. Groundbreaking images of the healing frequencies of her sound therapy devices are now available in her book Soundflower. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/15.

Mallorie Vaudoise’s Neapolitan ancestors migrated to the US at great sacrifice to build a firm foundation for future generations. Mallorie grew up knowing life is not about being a consumer; it’s about being a steward for the next generation. She talked about ancestors beyond our bloodlines and how to venerate them and receive their blessings. In perfect synchronicity, Janet realized her desire to be “home” in the Hudson River Valley is the call of her Huguenot ancestors who came to America in 1624! Mallorie Vaudoise has a spectacular array of spiritual credentials. She is a witch of Italian Catholic descent and apprenticed to the world-renowned Italian folk musician and shaman Alessandra Belloni. In addition, Mallorie is an initiated Olorisha priestess in Lucimi and a Quimbandeira com licenca in Brazilian Quimbanda. Mallorie writes a wildly popular blog, Italian Folk Magic, and just published Honoring your Ancestors. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/14.

Christine was nurtured by her Scottish Fae mother and grandmother who knew the land as “sovereign queen.” Perfect grounding for Dr Page’s life’s work helping women remember we are made in the image of the Great Mother. She talked about how our wombs mirror the waxing and waning of the moon, culminating in the dark moon when we are most powerful. And she gave us a 3-day ritual to embrace that dragon power. Now you know why the patriarchy has to kill the dragon! Dr Christine Page received her medical degree from the University of London and practiced allopathic and complementary medicine for 40 years. When she developed breast cancer, she recognized it as a wake up call from her soul teaching her to put herself first. She listened deeply, healed, and wrote The Healing Power of the Sacred Woman to help all women embody their true female gifts. Join our community and get your free gift at janetconner.com/13.

There are conversations, and then there are conversations. This intimate conversation with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, author of Wounds into Wisdom, drops into a whole new place—a holy and sacred place. A place where everyone is holy. Everyone is sacred. There is no “other.” A place where there are no concentration camps. No traumatized children. No ancestral pain passed on and on and on. As she chants and prays, we are welcomed under her prayer shawl. Learn more and get your free gifts at http://janetconner.com/10.  

This week's conversation is a bit different, a bit radical. There is power in praying together. As we pray as one heart, we create a drumbeat of love that flows around the world. They Are All Our Children is a radical love prayer practice created with the sacred intention to close the migrant detention camps and free the children. Today, we are all the mothers and fathers of thousands of children held in internment camps. Please join me in this alchemical prayer of radical love and forgiveness to transmute the consciousness that creates, perpetuates, and profits from this political system of separation and fear. Visit https://janetconner.com/children/ and pray with us. 

There were more than two women in this conversation. Maeve, aka Mary Magdalen, was not only in the room, she took over. Elizabeth Cunningham spent twenty years following the directives of that voice to write The Maeve Chronicles. Join us for wild stories, hair-raising biblical quotations, and spontaneous goddess songs. But in the end, the conversation landed where Magdalen and Jesus wanted it to: asking us to close the concentration camps by praying for those who persecute us. Talk about real prayer! For more information about Elizabeth Cunningham and to find your free gifts, visit the show notes page at https://janetconner.com/11.

From lying in the grass on her grandfather’s Italian home-farm, to tying Lakota tobacco prayer ties, to creating a chant for Ho’oponopono, to lying under the Solstice sun, Celeste Yacoboni shares her love for prayer from the many deep chambers in her heart. How does her prayer story end? She realizes prayer has become love. This gorgeous conversation will evoke your own prayer memories and it may well cause you to fall in love with prayer. As part of her personal path to explore prayer, Celeste Yacoboni became an ordained Minister of Walking Prayer by the Center for Sacred Studies. In 2012 she was awakened with a question, “How do you pray?”, knew she was being given a vision of a book, and answered “yes” not knowing where that vision would lead. Visit http://howdoyoupray.com/ and her upcoming project, thevoiceofthefeminine.com. Visit https://janetconner.com/9 to get your free gifts!

How were you taught to pray? How have your prayers evolved? How are you redefining prayer? These are the questions that sparked this juicy, funny, slightly erotic conversation between a magician and a prayer artist. It opens with Briana’s 4 insights into magic, shifts to “praying down hard” at her Nana’s Baptist knees, carries us into the foundational prayer of the Yes-No breath, and emerges on the other side with a whole new magical definition of prayer. Briana Saussy is a vibrant spiritual counselor and ritualist dedicated to the restoration and remembering of the whole array of sacred arts. She has a wide background in world religions, folk magic, divination, storytelling, philosophy, mathematics, ancient Greek and Sanskrit. She brings it all together in her groundbreaking book, Making Magic. Visit the show notes page at https://janetconner.com/8 for your free gift and more!

Timothy Frantzich invites us to traipse the marshes of Minnesota with his child-self until we feel our own hearts open. Then walk with him as he discovers the “theology of addition,” until it’s all prayer, especially singing together. Carin shares her personal definition of prayer—a fresh idea you have not heard before, then carries us into the healing “practice of unbroken sound.” This is a truly magical conversation about the mystical music of prayer. Visit https://janetconner.com/7 to learn more and to get your free gifts! About Sofia: “Sofia” is Timothy Frantzich, Carin Vagle, and Dean Magraw. They collaborated with Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz to record Sofia The Beatitudes in the original Aramaic, creating chants that bypass the mind and drop straight into the heart. Sofia will be performing with Janet Conner at the first Speed of Love prayer concert at Unity of Minneapolis on June 12.

This conversation transcends the word “conversation.” It is more of a mystical journey marrying the ancient past and the present. We travel to southern Italy with Alessandra Belloni, get lost with her, stumble upon Our Lady of Freedom in Benevento, hear the caretaker’s call to pray for freedom, and begin to chant. This is so no longer a podcast. This is living prayer. Living devotion. Living sacred chant. Alessandra Belloni is a world-renowned percussionist, singer, choreographer, and creator of I Giullari di Piazza, an Italian music and dance theatre company devoted to performing and teaching the ancient devotional music and rituals of the Black Madonna—traditions that have been kept alive for millennia in Southern Italy and are just now being introduced to the world through Alessandra’s mystical thriller, Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna. Visit https://janetconner.com/6 to download two free gifts!

How does one become a kahu—keeper of the ancient Hawaiian Shamanic ways? Lahela Johnson shares her amazing childhood talking to plants, ocean, mountains, and animal spirits. Even as a young child she sensed she had a kuleana—responsibility. One day, her kumu—teacher—asked her to be initiated as a kahu. Lahela protested, “but I’m not qualified!” Kumu Karen responded with the single most important truth we all need to hear. About our guest: Kahu Lāhela Johnson is a mystical treasure. She co-created five “The Goddess Forgives” Ho‛oponopono prayer intensives with Janet Conner, bringing the alchemical power of forgiveness to heal hearts across time to hundreds of people around the world. At home on O’ahu, Lāhela conducts traditional blessings and ceremonies to bring more light and love into people’s homes, businesses and lives. For additional show notes, transcript, and your free gifts visit http://janetconner.com/5

After thousands of years of prayer formulated by the patriarchal religions, the divine feminine is asking us to change the way we pray and repair our broken world. Not by transcending the body—that’s the old patriarchal way. She’s inviting us to embrace and embody Her. She is here. She is alive. And Mirabai Starr brings Her shining and singing in and through each one of us! View the Show Notes and get your free gift at https://janetconner.com/4

The Conversation Welcome to an intimate conversation about the evolution of a mystical life. Meghan Don’s story begins at 3 lying in a bush paddock on a farm in New Zealand, moves to dancing at 19 in the sacred waters of the Yamuna River where Krishna and Rahda cavorted, all the way to a vision of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene dancing in joy on Easter morning.   The Person Meghan Don is an evolutionary mystic, author of The New Divine Feminine, founder of The Sanctuary of Sophia, feminine mentor, and death & dying guide. Her work incorporates mystical prayer, meditation, sacred chant and dance, Jungian wisdom, and Tree of Life mysteries, bringing ancient wisdom into accessible, contemporary form. She has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, and Interfaith Training Institutes. She is co-teaching Praying with and as Mary Magdalene prayer intensive.

How does a girl go from praying The Book of Common Prayer in an Anglican cathedral in York England to a woman who hears the call of the sacred land of Hawaii? In this conversation with Emma Kupu Mitchell, we get to witness a soul falling in love with sound and its healing powers. And then we get to experience those powers through the practice of humming. More about our guest: Emma Kupu Mitchell has so many mystical talents, Janet christened her a “Soul Essence Alignment Artist.” Her arts include Plant Medicine, Depth Numerology, Elemental Astrology, Sound Healing, and more. In addition to creating all the sacred anointing oils for Janet’s prayer intensives, she is co-teaching The Moon and Me in 2019. Emma also co-created the “Awakened Woman Self Care” podcast.  To learn more about Emma visit her website at https://www.emmakupumitchell.com/  

Janet went to bed a writer and woke a prayer artist. And everything changed. Who should be the first guest on Praying at the Speed of Love? Janet came up with a list. That is until she startled awake one night: The first guest has to be me! In episode 1, she tells the story of going to bed a writer and waking up a prayer artist, and how those two words changed everything. She shares her the patriarchal definitions of prayer and her new definitions. Then, she asks the same questions she’s going to ask all her guests: How did you pray as a kid, how do you pray now, and how did you get from there to here? Listen as she goes from saying the Rosary on her knees at 7 to dropping all spirituality at 19, to waking up 39, pregnant, and desperate for a spiritual life. Her best story? The three-year-old who asked, “Where’s God the Mother?” It’s a party, so come get your gift bag, too! Visit her website at http://www.janetconner.com/podcast to discover more!