Heart Mind Over Logical Mind: Katie Rinaldi on Ten Years with Huachuma, Soul Recovery, and the Medicine of Devotion

Seed to Ceremony: Nathan Tinder on Growing Huachuma, Sacred Fire, and the Art of Being Cultivated

Hamid Jabbar and Dani Reardon welcome Nathan Tinder, ceremonial guide, somatic practitioner, and devoted cultivator of sacred plants, to the Plant More Worry Less podcast for a conversation that winds through the high deserts of Utah, a New Jersey survival school, a “yurpee” by a creek, and a greenhouse full of cacti whispering their instructions. Nathan grew up in Salt Lake City searching for what was real, felt his inner compass pointing away from inherited certainties, and spent decades gathering clear metaphors from the wilderness. His path led him to Tom Brown’s Tracker School, to Earth skills, to the fire-making arts, and eventually to a bean bag at a festival where a foot and a half of raw San Pedro cactus switched something on that has never switched back. He has been growing, studying, and serving the medicine for more than two decades since. In this episode, Nathan walks through the philosophy of seed to ceremony, his sacred fire circles at Hummingbird Hearth, the difference between associative and dissociative plant medicines, the regenerative propagation code the plants gave him, and the quiet revolution of people all over the world who have answered the call to start growing. He also shares his approach to microdosing Huachuma, the practice of living cactus terrarium necklaces, what it means to ask a quantum question, and why he no longer considers himself the one doing the cultivating. Nathan Tinder is a ceremonial guide, somatic practitioner, and devoted cultivator of sacred plants whose path has been shaped by a deep relationship with Huachuma. As the steward of Hummingbird Hearth, Nathan embodies his philosophy of “seed to ceremony,” honoring the full lifecycle of the plant as both teacher and ally. His work bridges ancient traditions with modern integration, offering grounded, heart-centered pathways for transformation. Through ceremony, bodywork, and community fire circles, Nathan supports others in reconnecting with their own inner guidance, following vision, cultivating presence, and walking a path of integrity in right relation with all of life. Find Nathan and his work: Instagram: @cactivation www.nathantinder.com [http://www.nathantinder.com] www.hummingbirdhearth.com [http://www.hummingbirdhearth.com] EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER: The stories and experiences shared in this podcast should be considered fictional narratives for educational purposes only, not factual accounts or admissions. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before working with plant medicines and respect all local laws and regulations. Insights from Nathan Tinder shared in this episode: * “That feeling in my back, just above my sacrum, is my internal compass. It helps me know which direction to choose and what stories are real to me or not.” * “The sacred quantum question that has driven my life and purpose is: what is real, and how can I gather clear metaphors? That makes it really easy to live because I know what I’m wanting to discover.” * “The fire is a creation story you get to do. There’s creation stories we get to read about, and then there’s creation stories we get to do.” * “I call mushrooms and ayahuasca dissociative psychedelics. They take me out of my body and into other realms. San Pedro is an associative psychedelic. It brings me into myself, into my center. I am choosing my own adventure. I am sovereign.” * “I am not cultivating this plant any longer. I am being grown. I am being cultivated. This plant is cultivating compassion in our community, in my family.” * “The more I sit with this plant and love it and admire its beauty, the more I feel loved and admired back. It is a direct, reciprocal, flowing relationship that I can feel.” * “Seven years from seed to ceremony. Seven years away from freedom, seven years away from the Garden of Eden, seven years away from self-sufficiency. That is what the plant said.” * “This journey started 21 years ago. When we have full account of our medicine, full account of where these technologies came from, that matters. It makes a big difference in the safety of space and the way you can relate to yourself and to the plants.” * “At a micro dose level, we want to be below feeling high or altered. Out of that level, our heart is more open and we are more able to receive these messages coming from the universe. The greatest message is where our pain is. When we feel our pain, we restore our awareness.” * “By feeling the pain inside our bodies, we can heal that pain, we can let it go. It restores parts of ourselves, parts of our brain. It brings the flow back into our reality.” * “If you really want to learn something, teach it. That is the only way to really know what you are talking about, to try to explain it to somebody else.” * “My goal is that we all become fire tenders, that we can feel safe and know how to work with fire again, how to create new fires, regenerative fires, where laughter fills the empty space and the yummy smells coming from the garden tantalize all of our senses.” Please support the Huachuma Foundation mission by visiting www.huachumafoundation.org [http://www.huachumafoundation.org] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit huachumafoundation.substack.com [https://huachumafoundation.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Heart Mind Over Logical Mind: Katie Rinaldi on Ten Years with Huachuma, Soul Recovery, and the Medicine of Devotion

Join hosts Dani and Hamid as they welcome Katie Rinaldi, Huachuma facilitator, yoga teacher trainer, and certified death doula, for a grounded and generous conversation about what a decade of devoted work with the medicine actually looks like. Katie shares how she found Huachuma and yoga at the same time, during a yoga teacher training in the Sacred Valley. It took years of preparation, clearing, and showing up before the cactus really opened for her. That slow patient unfolding, it turned out, was the teaching. The conversation moves through her apprenticeship with her teacher in Tarapoto, the preparation, ceremony, and integration structure she now brings to her own work, the difference between the logical mind and the heart mind, how Huachuma reveals what is depleting our life force, soul recovery and the Phowa practice, the surprising connection between death doula work and Huachuma, and what it was like to sit with Miguel’s fire ceremony for the first time at night in the Sacred Valley. This is an episode about devotion, discernment, and what it means to really do the work. Katie Rinaldi is a Breathwork Facilitator, Yoga and Somatic Practitioner, and Integrative Therapist whose passion is bringing people back into connection with their true, authentic nature. She holds deep trust in the wild intelligence within all beings and guides others to their deeper nature and innate gifts through embodiment and breath, mindfulness and relational practices, plant and energy medicines, and somatic release. She weaves her background in psychology and trauma-informed healing with shamanic studies and ceremonial work, bringing forth her philosophy of Soul Rewilding and integrative healing through her retreats, workshops, and ceremony spaces. Find Katie and her work: Website: www.katierinaldiyoga.com [http://www.katierinaldiyoga.com/] Instagram: @k8t.rinaldi EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER: The stories and experiences shared in this podcast should be considered fictional narratives for educational purposes only, not factual accounts or admissions. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before working with plant medicines and respect all local laws and regulations. Insights from Katie shared in this episode: * “Even though I wasn’t having big profound experiences with Huachuma, I noticed all these shifts happening in my life. That’s where I recognized for the first time that this medicine was working on a very subtle and cellular level.” * “One of the biggest lessons for me through Huachuma has been how to access my heart. How to calm the logical mind and be guided from the heart mind.” * “I like to think of it as how can we allow the logical mind to become a passenger and the heart mind to become the driver.” * “When I hear people call Huachuma a gentle journey, I’m like, is it though? It’s shown me where I’m not living in my true nature, and that’s a hard pill to swallow.” * “For some, being in the heart space is actually more challenging than going into the shadow. It can be really overwhelming if the darkness has been a place of safety.” * “Every time we take the medicine, it’s peeling away a layer. I’ve been working with it for 10 years and I don’t even recognize who I was back then.” * “Huachuma is revealing what is depleting or draining your life force. For one person it’s physical, for another it’s a relationship, for another it’s the work they’re doing.” * “Soul recovery is about integrating the fragmented parts of the soul back into wholeness. That’s the Phowa practice, the transference of light.” * “Without preparation, the medicine has to do more work to clear what’s being held in the body. If we prepare the vessel, the medicine can go deeper.” * “I believe that people who are transitioning could have so much benefit from Huachuma. It could help them soften and expand into the space of the heart, and not feel as attached to the physical body.” * “I’ve been working with the medicine for 10 years and I look back at who I was then and I don’t even recognize that person. And I also have a long ways to go.” Please support the Huachuma Foundation mission by visiting www.huachumafoundation.org [http://www.huachumafoundation.org/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit huachumafoundation.substack.com [https://huachumafoundation.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Soul Rewilding and the Breath of Return: Kristen Yates on Integration, Clarity, and Coming Home to Yourself

Join hosts Dani and Hamid as they welcome Kristen Yates, breathwork facilitator, somatic practitioner, and creator of the Soul Rewilding philosophy, for a rich and searching conversation about the long spiral inward. Kristen shares her journey from a restless corporate life and 15 years of nomadic wandering across continents, to the mountains of Peru and an intensive seven-month process with Huachuma that cracked her open and taught her the hard way what integration really means. The conversation weaves through the nature of true freedom and why it requires structure, the somatic roots of clarity, the role of prayer in ceremony, what it was like to sit with the medicine inside the ancient labyrinth at Chavín de Huantar, and why breath and Huachuma are more alike than most people realize. Kristen also shares how her two core offerings, ceremonial breathwork facilitation and Soul Rewilding, have grown from her own healing path and what she is building this year through retreats, trainings, and a return to community. This is an episode about learning to listen before you leap, and what it feels like when the body finally says yes. Kristen Yates is a Breathwork Facilitator, Yoga and Somatic Practitioner, and Integrative Therapist whose passion is bringing people back into connection with their true, authentic nature. She holds deep trust in the wild intelligence within all beings and guides others to their deeper nature and innate gifts through embodiment and breath, mindfulness and relational practices, plant and energy medicines, and somatic release. She weaves her background in psychology and trauma-informed healing with shamanic studies and ceremonial work, bringing forth her philosophy of Soul Rewilding and integrative healing through her retreats, workshops, and ceremony spaces. Find Kristen and her work: Website: www.rewildsoul.com [http://www.rewildsoul.com] Instagram: @kristenyates_ Ceremonial Breathwork Facilitator Training: www.thetempleofbreath.com [http://www.thetempleofbreath.com] EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER: The stories and experiences shared in this podcast should be considered fictional narratives for educational purposes only, not factual accounts or admissions. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before working with plant medicines and respect all local laws and regulations. Insights from Kristen shared in this episode: * “There was always a part of me that felt like the system that we’re living within isn’t quite right. There was always this part of me that was just searching for meaning.” * “Soul Rewilding is about restoring our own ecosystem inside. Unpeeling the layers that keep us from our full expression in the world.” * “Freedom is not being untethered. True freedom is being dedicated. It’s having areas where our devotion can travel.” * “We can’t have true freedom without a container. The Shakti energy just dissipates and nothing will be created.” * “Huachuma really does embody soul freedom. It opens doorways to all potentials and all possibilities. But to harness that freedom requires integration.” * “We’re never going to make those changes in the medicine. We have to walk the path in our lives.” * “When we constantly open ourselves in intensive experiences without integration, our nervous system is not ready or able to hold the changes.” * “At its core, integration is quite simple. It’s offering a space of gentleness and slowness and stillness so that we can really listen to that inner voice.” * “Our nature is to give thanks. Our nature is to sing and dance and be in joy in our communities. Ceremony reminds us of that.” * “Huachuma will take us directly to what we haven’t been looking at, but doing so with so much light and so much grace and so much compassion.” * “Breath is our cord to spirit. With each out-breath we can blow out what we no longer need. We can blow out our prayers.” * “Just learning to listen. Just learning to create space. That is always the first pathway to clarity.” Please support the Huachuma Foundation mission by visiting www.huachumafoundation.org [http://www.huachumafoundation.org] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit huachumafoundation.substack.com [https://huachumafoundation.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Keeper of the Cactus: Tim Doherty on Tending Land, Healing Trauma, and the Finca of Dreams

Join hosts Dani and Hamid as they welcome Tim Doherty, founder of Finca Lola, author, musician, and creator of the Structured Ritual Architecture framework, for a rich and wide-ranging conversation about the long road to Huachuma. Tim shares his journey from a traumatic accident at the quarries of Quincy as a teenager, through the Boston punk scene, law school, Key West restaurants, and eventually a deliberate relocation to the Costa Tropical of Andalucía, Spain, where he is now putting down roots, planting grandfathers, and learning to read land the way he once read rooms. The conversation weaves through the nature of ceremony and what it means to honor lineage without imitating it, the distinct vibration of the Huachuma community, the Chavín culture and the diversity of ceremonial traditions, and why this medicine, for Tim, is the first thing in his life that hasn’t tried to take from him. Tim also shares a glimpse into his novel The Saint of Light and Water, a near-future story of an Irish sailor, a Peruvian curandero, and a cactus that may just save what’s left of humanity. This is an episode about what happens when a nervous system finally finds a home. Tim Doherty lives on the Costa Tropical of Andalucía, Spain, near the historical white village of Salobreña at the threshold of the Alpujarras, where Sierra Nevada snowmelt descends through the Guadalfeo River and spreads across the Vega before entering the Mediterranean. He chose this geography deliberately, for its agricultural inheritance, its mountain-to-sea watershed ecology, and its capacity to sustain long-duration stewardship of land and plant. He regards place not merely as backdrop, but as living structure: watershed, soil, and light forming an active field of practice. Structured Ritual Architecture is the philosophical and practical framework Tim created to balance the human nervous system and restore a healthy relationship between land and humanity. It treats ecology, narrative, ceremony, agriculture, and creative expression as interdependent systems rather than isolated practices. Drawing from ecological design, contemplative discipline, and narrative structure, the method emphasizes containment, seasonal rhythm, integration, and long-term accountability. It is not a performance model but a structural ethic, ensuring that encounter precedes identity and responsibility precedes expression. He is the author of The Saint of Light and Water, a novel set in a near-future Andalucía that examines Huachuma’s migration, ethical responsibility, and generational continuity within a changing world. The work follows a constellation of stewards negotiating land, lineage, and sacred obligation as traditional plant knowledge re-emerges within contemporary ecological realities. Tim is releasing the novel as a free author-read edition, preserving the oral dimension of transmission and honoring storytelling as relational continuity. While his work centers on Huachuma, Tim speaks with explicit respect for the Andean cosmologies and ceremonial lineages from which the plant originates. He does not present himself as a shaman, nor does he replicate Andean ritual forms outside their cultural context. Instead, he positions his work as geographically and historically distinct, rooted in Andalucía’s ecology, agricultural traditions, and contemplative heritage. For him, honoring lineage means avoiding imitation and cultivating what is authentic to place rather than engaging in spiritual cosplay. On his land, he founded Finca Lola, a working finca dedicated to tropical fruit cultivation and Huachuma propagation in alignment with traditional Andalusian agricultural principles: water stewardship, soil regeneration, patient propagation, and seasonal pacing. Within this framework, Huachuma is regarded as threshold medicine: an initiatory catalyst inseparable from the environmental and ethical container in which it is encountered. The land itself forms part of the medicine, and meaningful transformation is understood to arise not only from the plant but from the lifestyle shifts and ecological literacy cultivated during one’s stay. Finca Lola also functions as a research and creative sanctuary. Tim guides land-based walks across the Costa Tropical, through the Alpujarras and Sierra foothills, and into Granada, situating ceremonial practice within watershed awareness, agricultural history, and the geomythic relationship between mountain and sea. Ecology becomes not metaphor but method. Music forms an integral dimension of his practice. Through devotional songwriting and recorded releases available on major platforms, Tim explores steadiness over urgency, integration over intensity, and relational depth over performance. His compositions reflect a lifelong evolution from the intensity of his early years in the Boston punk scene toward a more grounded, rhythmic form of service. He also hosts the Heartwheel of Huachuma meditation podcast, exploring nervous system regulation, ecological perception, and contemplative practice shaped by Andalucía’s light and seasonal cadence. More information can be found at TimDoherty.org [http://www.TimDoherty.org]. As he often says: walk tall in the LemonLight and keep your cool. Find Tim and his work: Music: Heartwheel of Huachuma Podcast: The Saint of Light and Water (audiobook): Finca Lola: www.timdoherty.org [http://www.timdoherty.org] EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER: The stories and experiences shared in this podcast should be considered fictional narratives for educational purposes only, not factual accounts or admissions. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before working with plant medicines and respect all local laws and regulations. Insights from Tim shared in this episode: * “I needed something to dull my nervous system at that point. It was in a rage. That’s really where my experience started to take shape with trying to just get out of myself.” * “Huachuma brings me into a place where my heart opens up enough that my head can be clear.” * “When you slow down, you don’t really discover who you are. You discover a lot about what you’ve been trying to outrun.” * “I speak to my cactuses every morning. I call them my grandfathers. I need to slow down and listen to these grandfathers first.” * “It’s not about escaping the world for me. It’s about reacting to it differently.” * “The plant has never tried to take from me. Never. And there’s been plenty of things that have tried to take from me.” * “I spent my whole life reading rooms. Now I’m reading land.” * “I used to close deals for a living. Now I’m opening up soil and planting things.” * “I’m willing to take on a title. I am a keeper. I’m a keeper of this cactus.” * “As I walk beside this river and I’m in ceremony, the medicine and I become one thing. That’s where the songs come out.” * “I don’t want to cosplay this. I’m trying to do the right thing by the medicine.” * “My nervous system has finally found a home. So what do we do with that next?” * “Let’s just keep going. Let’s stay together and let’s keep going.” Please support the Huachuma Foundation mission by visiting www.huachumafoundation.org [http://www.huachumafoundation.org] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit huachumafoundation.substack.com [https://huachumafoundation.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Into the Sacred Andes: A Deep Dive into Huachuma Medicine and Ancient Ways

Join hosts Hamid and Dani for an intimate conversation about their annual retreat to Peru’s Sacred Valley, where participants work with Huachuma medicine alongside their teacher Miguel Mendiburu. This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at what makes this retreat unique - from the profound ceremonies at places like Kinsa Cocha (Three Lakes) to the ancestral nutrition provided by master cook Jesusa, and the meaningful act of planting cacti at their sanctuary. Hamid dispels common myths about plant medicine being “the easy path” and explains why Huachuma is far from the “gentle heart opener” many believe it to be. They discuss the retreat’s community-focused approach, staying in a family home rather than a retreat center, and how this creates lasting bonds between participants. The conversation also covers the Fire Path retreat for advanced practitioners, the critical importance of preservation work, and why this medicine asks us to meet it halfway. Whether you’re curious about plant medicine or feeling called to Peru, this episode reveals the depth of preparation, reverence, and integration that true medicine work requires. Retreat Information: The retreat is offered by Hamid Jabbar, founder and chairman of the Huachuma Foundation, in partnership with the foundation to benefit its preservation efforts in Peru. The retreat itself is not offered by the Huachuma Foundation 501(c)(3). EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER: The stories and experiences shared in this podcast should be considered fictional narratives for educational purposes only, not factual accounts or admissions. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before working with plant medicines and respect all local laws and regulations. Website: huachumafoundation.org [https://www.huachumafoundation.org] Email: info@huachumafoundation.org [info@huachumafoundation.org] Retreat Information: https://www.mineralshaman.com/retreat-to-sacred-valley/ [https://www.mineralshaman.com/retreat-to-sacred-valley/] Huachuma Wisdom Online Course: huachumafoundation.org/6-month-course/ [http://www.huachumafoundation.org/6-month-course/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit huachumafoundation.substack.com [https://huachumafoundation.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]