Birdsong with Caiyuda

If you're going through a season of darkness, or a loss of meaning, purpose, identity, direction, fulfilment --or even any kind of intense discombobulation-- I've got you.

I'm reporting from the thick of a existential crisis, as grounded and centred as possible; to rechart a map of the territory to know that there is a way through, and to hopefully provide something useful for those standing at a similar threshold.

We’ll explore the hallmarks of an existential crisis, the collapse of the old, the initiatory descent, some insight into my private struggles, confronting the wounds in the underworld, the early beginnings of reorientation and re-emergence, and how to navigate it all with as much awareness, honesty and care as possible.

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CONNECT WITH CAIYUDA

If you're curious about our 2026 initiatory thresholds, please send us an email introducing yourself and we'll open the thread about getting you more information.

🔹More details on Vision Quest: 
https://www.caiyudakiora.com/vision-quest

🔹Join the Newsletter and get your free eBook:
https://www.caiyudakiora.com/newsletter

🔹Enrol in the Visionary Medicines Program:
https://www.caiyudakiora.com/visionary-medicines

🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caiyudakiora
🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caiyudakiora
🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caiyuda
🔸Twitter: https://x.com/caiyudakiora
🔸Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/30AGOxSHAtdxs8xnCw1STa?si=fad30c997d474a07

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AFFILIATE LINKS:
Get 10% off some of the best Medicinal Mushroom, Tonic Herb & Adaptogenic Blends at Superfeast:
https://www.superfeast.com.au (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
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This is the opening chapter of a new program that I've been sitting on for a while now, which I call: Anchoring The Vision... which is a step by step guide of how to ground your vision into tangible reality. 

A lot of people have peak experiences and catch a glimpse of future timelines; of what could be (the greater vision), but have extreme difficulty in staying committed AND in knowing how to ground this vision into the physical world.

If you want to learn how to do so with time-tested systems, frameworks, structure and more, drawing from ancient wisdom and modern mindset, consider this your program to learn exactly how to do it.

If you want access to the entire first Module for free, punch your email into the link below and I'll send it out as soon as it's released.

⏩ https://www.caiyudakiora.com/vision

See you in there.

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CONNECT WITH CAIYUDA

🔸Enrol in the Visionary Medicines Program: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/visionary-medicines

🔸Join the Newsletter & Access the Free 21 Page eBook: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/newsletter

🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caiyudakiora
🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caiyudakiora
🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caiyuda
🔸Twitter: https://x.com/caiyudakiora
🔸Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/30AGOxSHAtdxs8xnCw1STa?si=fad30c997d474a07

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AFFILIATE LINKS:
Get 10% off some of the best Medicinal Mushroom, Tonic Herb & Adaptogenic Blends at Superfeast:
https://www.superfeast.com.au (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off your Certified Organic 100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef Organ supplements at Cell Squared:
https://www.cellsquared.com.au/?aff=140 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off Blu Blockers and Red Light Therapies at BaxterBlue:
https://www.baxterblue.com.au/?ref=CAIYUDA10 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)

It's a cliché critique: that there's too many cowboys in the medicine space.

And sure, the immature uninitiated cowboy has a lot of shadow. But what if that's not the full picture though?

Because as we know, all archetypes have their dark and light qualities. And that's exactly what I explore with you here in this four chapter episode:

🔹The Cowboy Critique: Deconstructing the Archetype
🔹The Unintegrated Cowboy & Personal Reflections
🔹The Wild Bridgewalker: The Evolved Initiated Cowboy
🔹At the Edge of Collapse, a Bridge Appears

I'll guide you through the shadow / dark qualities of the cowboy in question, followed by an intimate look at my own personal experiences of this archetype, what the mature initiated evolution of this mythic archetype might look like, and bridging the gap between old and new, tradition and innovation, and the many threads inbetween. See you in there.

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CONNECT WITH CAIYUDA

🔸Enrol in the Visionary Medicines Program: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/visionary-medicines

🔸Join the Newsletter & Access the Free 21 Page eBook: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/newsletter

🔸The Pilgrimage: Shamanic Wilderness Expeditions:
https://www.caiyudakiora.com/pilgrimage

🔹Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caiyudakiora
🔹TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caiyudakiora
🔹YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caiyuda
🔹Twitter: https://x.com/caiyudakiora
🔹Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/30AGOxSHAtdxs8xnCw1STa?si=fad30c997d474a07

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AFFILIATE LINKS:
Get 10% off some of the best Medicinal Mushroom, Tonic Herb & Adaptogenic Blends at Superfeast:
https://www.superfeast.com.au (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off your Certified Organic 100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef Organ supplements at Cell Squared:
https://www.cellsquared.com.au/?aff=140 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off Blu Blockers and Red Light Therapies at BaxterBlue:
https://www.baxterblue.com.au/?ref=CAIYUDA10 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). ⁠She has her own Forest School in Sweden, in a remote place where the Forest Meets the Sea and where wolves (sometimes) howl at night.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism. She has also presented her work on Sounds True and The Shift Network.

 Her five non-fiction books include:

🔹Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (2016)
🔹Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (2019)
🔹Medicine of the Imagination: Dwelling in Possibility (2020)
🔹North Sea Water In My Veins: The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries (2022)
🔹Portals, Patterns and Pathways - A Handbook for Rune Magicians (May 2026)

The Green Bear is her series of picture books for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The Scandinavian stories and vibrant artwork invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

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TOPICS WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

🔹Writing as a Spiritual Practice

🔹Dream journaling since teenage years

🔹Writing as spirit-led, not a conscious decision

🔹Imelda's forest school as a place for spiritual and shamanic development

🔹Sitting on grave mounds as an ancestral practice

🔹Imelda's painting sabbatical in Greenland under the northern lights

🔹Ceremonial work in Greenland honoring local deities like Sedna and Sila

🔹Reconnecting with neglected deities and ancestral spirits

🔹How imagination serves as an interface for spiritual connection

🔹The importance of discernment between real connection vs projected fantasy

🔹Imelda's time connecting with the Arctic people, including the Sami

🔹The complex dynamics of ancient tradition vs modern lifestyle

🔹The impact of historical trauma on indigenous cultures

🔹Imelda's initiation into elderhood

🔹Embracing the Hag archetype as Baba Yaga's daughter

🔹And much more...

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CONNECT WITH CAIYUDA

🔸Enrol in the Visionary Medicines Program: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/visionary-medicines
🔸Join the Newsletter & Access the Free 21 Page eBook: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/newsletter

🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caiyuda
🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caiyudakiora
🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caiyudakiora
🔸Twitter: https://x.com/caiyudakiora
🔸Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/30AGOxSHAtdxs8xnCw1STa?si=fad30c997d474a07

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CONNECT WITH IMELDA:

🔸Website: https://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk
🔸Substack: https://imeldaalmqvist.substack.com
🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@imeldaalmqvistTHEPREGNANTHAG
🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda
🔸Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist

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AFFILIATE LINKS:
Get 10% off some of the best Medicinal Mushroom, Tonic Herb & Adaptogenic Blends at Superfeast:
https://www.superfeast.com.au (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off your Certified Organic 100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef Organ supplements at Cell Squared:
https://www.cellsquared.com.au/?aff=140 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off Blu Blockers and Red Light Therapies at BaxterBlue:
https://www.baxterblue.com.au/?ref=CAIYUDA10 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)

Jordan is a devoted practitioner of the shamanic healing arts and a teacher dedicated to the medicine path. His initiations first came through a decade of gnostic studies in Asia.

After confronting severe illness, Jordan shed a career as a producer to walk the road of personal transformation, finding his medicine in shamanic study of plants. trees, breath and fasting.

The “plant dieting” practices of the Amazon have radically transformed Jordan’s life, vision, health and purpose and come to him primarily through Cocama elder, William Llerena Murayari.

After 7 years of mentorship under Apache elder, Iron Eagle Joe, Jordan received the name Mockingbird and was given the blessing to teach through ceremony.

He carries a facilitator certification from Embodied Masculine granted under the supervision of Amir Khalighi.

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TOPICS WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

🔹Tobaccos dual nature of teacher and healer vs addiction and poison
🔹Romanticizing traditional practices
🔹Do indigenous folk have unhealthy relationships with tobacco?
🔹Unsafe ceremonial practices involving tobacco
🔹Shadow dynamics within tobacco / ceremonial practice
🔹Tobaccos evolutionary intelligence across species
🔹How humans aren't they only ones with nicotine receptors
🔹Different preparations and routes of administration
🔹Right relationship and reciprocity
🔹The bioelectric mechanics of tobacco purging
🔹Jordan's initiatory threshold crossings with tobacco
🔹Contextualizing Tree Diets
🔹The archetypal qualities of Oak / Birch / Sequioa
🔹The mechanisms of healing and teaching from the trees
🔹Safety profile of the trees
🔹Psychological / spiritual risks of dieting trees
🔹The nature of initiation and reflections on initiatory pathways
🔹And a stack more...

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CONNECT WITH CAIYUDA

🔸Enrol in the Visionary Medicines Program: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/visionary-medicines
🔸Join the Newsletter & Access the Free 21 Page eBook: https://www.caiyudakiora.com/newsletter

🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caiyuda
🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caiyudakiora
🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caiyudakiora
🔸Twitter: https://x.com/caiyudakiora
🔸Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/30AGOxSHAtdxs8xnCw1STa?si=fad30c997d474a07

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CONNECT WITH JORDAN:

🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mknbrd
🔸Sacred Tree Keepers Website: https://sacredtreekeepers.com
🔸Tree Diets Website: https://www.treediets.com

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AFFILIATE LINKS:

Get 10% off some of the best Medicinal Mushroom, Tonic Herb & Adaptogenic Blends at Superfeast:
https://www.superfeast.com.au (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off your Certified Organic 100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef Organ supplements at Cell Squared:
https://www.cellsquared.com.au/?aff=140 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)
---
Get 10% off Blu Blockers and Red Light Therapies at BaxterBlue:
https://www.baxterblue.com.au/?ref=CAIYUDA10 (Use code CAIYUDA10 at checkout)