“I was hungry for some sense of the sacred, I think, from quite a young age.” - Isla Macleod, Ceremonialist, Ritual designer, Soul guide and Companion at the thresholds

From her yurt in the vales of Somerset, Isla Macleod lives close to the rhythms of the land; following the turning of the seasons and tending what is needed. A ceremonialist, ritual designer, soul guide and companion at the thresholds, Isla’s work is rooted in a lifelong longing to remember what is sacred and to help others find their way back into relationship with the natural world.

Her journey has taken her through the study of history, photography, shamanism, indigenous traditions, ceremony and ritual, including a formative period living in solitude in the ancient woodlands of Sussex, where nature became her teacher. It was here she “re-wilded” herself and returned to a conscious and alive relationship through ritual with the more than human world and her indigenous ancestors.

In this conversation, we explore the question that has guided much of her life and work: what gives meaning to human life? We talk about belonging, lineage, ritual and the sacred, and what it might mean to cultivate a more intimate, meaningful and reciprocal relationship with the Web of Life.

We explore nature as teacher, the importance of seasonal rhythms, and the possibility of bringing ceremony into the everyday. We talk about the stories we have inherited, the need to re-enchant the world, and how changing those stories might allow us to imagine different ways of living as humans on Earth.

The conversation also moves into darker territory: grief, death, endings and the underworld. Isla reflects on the discomfort of being alive during a time of profound ecological and societal change, and how learning to be with darkness, uncertainty and loss might create space for something new to emerge.

Bio

Isla Macleod is a ceremonialist, ritual designer, soul guide and companion at the thresholds, supporting others to create meaningful spaces for times of transition and explore the bigger questions that life asks of us.

Isla’s work is an exploration of how we can reclaim the ancient human practice of ceremony for contemporary life and reimagine our relationship with the more-than-human world. Facilitating retreats, pilgrimage, crafting workshops and a tapestry of seasonal, community, and individual ceremonies and rites of passage, Isla is devoted to restoring the sacred in our everyday lives.

In her book Rituals for Life, she shares practical, creative and nature-rooted rituals for bringing greater meaning to both extraordinary milestones and the ordinary moments of being human.

Based in Somerset, Isla’s offerings are deeply rooted in the living landscape, natural wisdom and cycles, and remembering the ways we belong to the earth.

Website: https://islamacleod.com/

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Substack

Resources

Hermes Amāra Foundation — Rob Burbea

Carolyn Hillier

Mac Macartney

Daniel Foor

Glennie Kindred

Sharon Blackie

Grace Hempshall

Leigh Brooks - Firebelly Films - Magic in the Mundane

Gaia House

Embercombe - The Journey

Rooted Healing

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

“Out of a very terrible burnout and depression came actually something beautiful” – Kim Taylor

Kim Taylor, founder of the Little Dutch Farm, joins us from her traditional Dutch ‘Stolp’ farmhouse, just north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands as autumn starts to arrive in Northern Europe. She shares her journey from a career in cleantech and sustainability, through burnout, miscarriages and the death of her father, to discover the restorative power of nature and creating a very different way of working and living.

The conversation touches on grief, nature connection, garden therapy and regenerative leadership, and how time on her land gave her the space to slow down, reflect, heal and reconnect. She is now on a mission to support others and offers different experiences to support individuals and small groups at the Little Dutch Farm. Research is currently underway on her six-week garden therapy programme in partnership with academics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam) to explore the evidence behind nature-based approaches. It is hoped the results will build credibility with GPs, psychologists and the wider mental-health system in the Netherlands.

She recently launched Little Regenerative Farms, a network of small regenerative farms around the world, where her vision is beautifully simple: places where nature restores people, and people restore the planet. Kim talks openly about the practical realities; from financial barriers to land access and challenges of renovating a 1900s farm, alongside the power of collaboration and building a sustainable business model.

From growing food and restoring biodiversity to creating a global network of small regenerative farms, Kim offers a hopeful and practical vision of what a different future could look like: one rooted in connection, community and taking things one zone at a time.

Bio

Kim Taylor is a nature coach, garden therapist and founder of Little Dutch Farm, a regenerative farm in the Netherlands where nature is used as a guide for personal growth and leadership. After 19 years in high pressure, fast growing companies, Kim's own burnout became the beginning of a different path, one rooted in soil, seasons and the nervous system rather than performance and productivity.

Through nature coaching, garden therapy and regenerative leadership programmes, she works with individuals, teams and leaders who are ready to slow down, reconnect and lead from a more grounded place. Her work sits at the meeting point of planetary health and mental health, showing how the two restore one another.

Kim has just launched Little Regenerative Farms, together with Little Portuguese Farm, an academy and license model bringing this way of working to farms around the world. The vision is simple: places where nature restores people, and people restore the planet.

Website: www.littledutchfarm.com / www.littleregenerativefarms.com

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To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

"The more I read and the more conversations I have, the further I seem from any form of answer. And perhaps that's a healthier place to be." - Anna-Marie, Rooted & Rising Podcast Host

In this first-ever solo episode of Rooted & Rising, Anna-Marie steps away from the interview format to share personal reflections on coaching, ecology, spirituality and the questions that she’s been musing over in her mind.

Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, she explores observations from her coaching practice: exhaustion, uncertainty and the growing tension between human wellbeing, organisational demands and planetary health. There’re no easy answers, and instead invites listeners into a space of curiosity, asking what coaching is really for and whether it is evolving quickly enough to meet the challenges of our time.

Anna-Marie also reflects on her own journey over the past year navigating personal change, redefining spirituality beyond religion as a deep sense of relationship with the living world, starting to write a new book on ecospiritual coaching and creating her home in Somerset, England.

This is an honest, contemplative conversation about slowing down, embracing uncertainty, and remembering what it means to belong not just to our professions, but to the Earth itself.

About

Change agent, connector, coach, collaborator and podcaster Anna-Marie combines her passion and curiosity for peak performance across her work and life. She brings a wealth of over twenty-five years’ international experience to craft a portfolio career.

She is a self-certified learning junkie with a Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Coaching from the University of Derby and Master’s in Teaching from the University of Sydney; amongst other psychological and psychometric based coaching tools. Happiest outdoors Anna-Marie loves to escape the confines of four walls and co-create coaching conversations with nature.

Anna-Marie is on a mission to encourage a different approach to work where our natural environment is valued within the business world. She facilitates outdoor coaching supervision circles; co-hosted the biweekly ‘Coaching Outdoors’ podcast for five years; co-wrote chapters in ‘The Coaches Handbook’ and ‘Succeeding as a Coach’ on eco-coaching and co-edited 'The Outdoor and Nature Coaches Handbook'. She was a driving force behind the two successful Coaching Outdoors Podcast LIVE @ Henley Business School festivals.

Former British Army Officer, she has worked in challenging environments from snowy Arctic tundra to hot and sandy deserts though currently resides within the rolling countryside of Somerset. Alongside her passion for performance and coaching Anna- Marie has a severe ultra-running habit and has raced competitively at an international level.

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Instagram

Resources

• Dan Burgess – Spaceship Earth podcast (becoming "crew" rather than passengers)
• Ali King-Smith – Rooted & Rising Podcast episode 16 discusses the commercial realities of coaching
• Alison Jones – book proposal writing programme and Bootcamp -
• Lesley Roberts – Coaching Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Partnering with Nature in Your Coaching Conversations
• Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass and her work integrating Indigenous wisdom with Western science
• The Outdoor and Nature Coaches' Handbook co-edited by Anna-Marie Watson, Jonathan Passmore, Paul Lawrence and Alex Burn
• Coaching Outdoors Podcast archive

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com