Spellwork Somatics
The Spellwork Somatics Podcast features conversations with healers, artists, and activists, on the magic of personal transformation and collective liberation. Every episode includes a practice to try out for yourself, adapt, or inspire you to create your own!
Spellwork Somatics
Stories as Altars for the New World Paradigm with Shaunga Tagore
On this episode, I am chatting with my magical friend Shaunga Tagore. In our conversation, we talk about her most recent podcast episode, “RED: A love letter to the chosen ones (and Christina Yang)”, that is a deep journey into healing cycles of intergenerational trauma as non-normative people and ancestral connection through the body. We also hear more about Shaunga’s play in progress PLUTO, her experience with spiritual communication with animals, and how we can study stories to build new world paradigms!
Shaunga describes herself as a queer, prizmatic theatre artist, writer, speaker, cat mama and Buffy enthusiast. Shaunga is Artistic Director and Lead Visionary of OTHERWORLDLY GIANTS: Creation Company, Storytelling School & Divination Channel.
She has spent the last decade working as an astrologer, cosmic coach, producer and performer, primarily in queer, racialized, survivor and disability justice oriented communities.
LINKS:
Website: www.shaungatagore.com
IG: @otherworldly.giants || Otherworldly Giants Storytelling School on facebook
Check out season one on the Divination Channel (podcast): Grief, Love & Buffy:
http://shaungatagore.com/season-one
Learn more about PLUTO, Shaunga's ancestrally guided play in progress:
http://shaungatagore.com/creation-company
Self study course/memoir on grief available on her website “Let Loss Make You Warm”:
https://shaungatagore.com/self-study-courses/
Stay in touch with all KAI YIN Spells & Skills updates by signing up to my newsletter on my website, and following me on Instagram and Facebook! I love hearing from you; let me know what you’d like to learn more about in future episodes! 🐉
Hey everyone! Welcome back to the podcast. On this episode I am chatting with my magical friend Shaunga Tagore. Shaunga describes herself as a queer prizmatic theatre artist, writer, speaker, cat mama and Buffy enthusiast. Shaunga is the artistic director and lead visionary of OTHERWORLDLY GIANTS, a creation company, storytelling school and divination channel. She has spent the last decade working as an astrologer, cosmic coach, producer and performer, primarily in queer racialized survivor and Disability Justice oriented communities. In our conversation today, we talk about her most recent podcast episode called "RED: a love letter to the chosen ones (and Cristina Yang)". And it's a deep journey into healing cycles of intergenerational trauma as non-normative people and ancestral connection through the body, among many other things. We also hear more about Shaunga's play in progress called PLUTO, and her experience with spiritual communication with animals and how we can study stories to build new world paradigms. And just so you know, ShaUnga is a Gemini Sun and I am a Gemini Moon. So get ready to experience a vast network of mind blowing ideas, and amazingly phrased reflections about all the things in the world. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the KAI YIN Spells & Skills podcast, Shaunga!
Shaunga Tagore:Thank you for having me!
Anabel Khoo:I'm really excited. There's actually so many things I want to ask you about but we'll just kind of dive in. Like I mentioned I didn't have any structured questions, I just have this like really intense mind map sketched out while listening to your latest podcast episode.
Shaunga Tagore:Oh my god, I'm interested to hear more about your mind map.
Anabel Khoo:Yes, I'm excited to share it with you! Yeah, I guess first off, do you want to introduce our listeners to who you are and your work or anything you're excited to share today?
Shaunga Tagore:I'm Shaunga. I've been running an astrology business for the last decade also doing a lot of, you know, performance art as a theatre artist in queer bipoc communities in Tkaronto. And then in 2022, I launched a new business called OTHERWORLDLY GIANTS. It's a creation company, a storytelling school and a divination channel, which is a podcast. So yeah, that's what I'm doing. I guess I described my you know, whenever I write my bio, or whatever, these days, I described myself as a death doula, a grief worker, a quantum communicator, an animal companion. What else... oh and a Buffy enthusiast. Yeah. That's pretty much me in a nutshell.
Anabel Khoo:Amazing. I feel like each of those roles is like a whole journey to go down. Yeah, I guess like, listening to your most recent episode of your podcast, which was called "RED: a love letter to the chosen ones(and Cristina Yang)". In it, I guess you were mentioning, just in some recent years, like this period of your life. I think you called it "red soil". I don't know if you wanted to talk more about that. Like I thought that was just so -- it's felt really fertile. Like, yeah, later in the episode, you talked about blood and hearts.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah. Well, I guess I should say to begin with that, as a storyteller, I'm an ancestrally guided storyteller. So I communicate with my ancestors in all parts of the creation process. You know, like I was saying off mic, I have an ancestral writing team. So whenever I sit down to write, I call them in and I write with them. And this ancestral healing is really just integrated into my daily life, you know, the daily meditations and altar work that I do, so they're just like with me all the time. So everything that comes up in terms of what ends up in my stories are, in some ways, you know, It's me channeling and collaborating with ancestors that want to speak through me and with me. And, yeah, the color part of it is, so I was part of an ancestral apprenticeship. With one of my friends and teachers, her name is Dr. Stephanie Burns. And, and I was part of this apprenticeship. And it was just about, you know, deepening, ongoing, like deepening our relationship with our ancestors. And in that apprenticeship, she gave everybody an ancestral directive. So she's like, a really powerful medium, and channeler. And the directive she gave to me, was called the colors of community. And I didn't know what that meant at first. But then as time went on, you know, I had been planning the storytelling podcast for quite a few years, and I didn't know that colors were going to be a part of had, like, yeah, it didn't have any clue that colors were going to be a part of like what I was going to write about. But since I received that directive, and started, it just started unfolding in my life, then all these stories started to appear anchored by these colors. So the first two, the first one was gold, and then yellow. And then the most recent one, as we record this, is red. Yeah, and so just, you know, a lot of things in the writing process came up around red, like you said, like the hearts and the blood, in the red soil. You know, I'm still kind of learning about what that means. But for one thing, you know, my family in India, in Bengali, the soil is red, right. So it is something really about that connection to my ancestral lands. And, even beyond that, or through that in deep deepening into that, I guess, you know, in a lot of places in my healing journey, I've just been like, really prioritizing, finding places of like, deep peace and rest. And even those moments, you know, where, like, the anxiety hits you or something isn't right, and you're trying to find your ground or your center again, I just, I found myself more and more often, aligning with this feeling of just, I don't know, something in my body, like, deeply, deeply, rooting into the earth, and, and just becoming, becoming like red soil, becoming the red wood and rock and clay and all that, you know, the terracotta that that exists, you know, in the earth. And it's like, that is like, the frequency that helps me release anxiety, worry, it makes me feel better when you know, I might be like, experiencing PTSD or going through whatever, you know. So yeah, there's just something about like, that element and that frequency that has been like really there for me recently. So it ended up yeah, it ended up there in the story.
Anabel Khoo:I mean, it's also something about red, I feel like it's, um, it's grounding, but it's also so rich. Like it's not like, pale, I guess, you know, it's really deep. And it almost feels like there's nothing it can't hold. Like, it's, it's, there's nothing too much for red. Like, you can't be, you know, yeah, like, that's actually the whole point of it is just, I guess how life giving it is, and that it's never too much. You can't, I guess, be too red for red. You mentioned how storytelling is sort of like, akin to being an open heart surgeon. There's a point kind of towards the end when you're talking about Cristina Yang and how she's talking about being an open heart surgeon and she had to do surgery in the dark. And she said something about being able to hear or feel the blood flowing and moving. And I kind of was wondering in terms of storytelling, like what's that kind of listening to the blood? Like for you as a storyteller? Does that make sense?
Shaunga Tagore:That makes sense. Yeah. I guess that is, you know, in this episode, I talk a lot about like, what are our ancestral gifts? And I I talk about the different gifts that you know, that I have, you know, in that I've developed in that were given to me by my ancestors, and the elements of listening and what it means to listen, you know. I said that I'm a quantum communicator, right. And so for that, that means that I have the ability to communicate with basically anything in the multiverse. And I'll say multiverse because it is across dimensions and veils, and all that kind of stuff, with anything that has an energy and an essence, right? And so what that communication really is, is listening, right? It's our ability, you know, it's listening to the trees, it's listening to, you know, people who have died and are with us, it's listening. It's listening to animals, it's listening to water. And, yeah, you know, in my practice, I call you upon a lot of ancestors and elements, right? Where I'm like, "Water, come talk to me, I'm listening," right? And even though I wrote this whole episode about blood, I don't think at any point, did I say, "hey, Blood, come talk to me, I'm listening." But, you know, just by virtue of being this kind of communicator and listener that I am, of course, I'm listening to the blood. And of course, what kind of gets revealed in the episode is that this is about lineage, and especially my feminine lineage, and the blood that connects us and, and what it means to listen to your bloodline to is, is all about ancestral healing. It's what you've inherited through blood. And I love you know, what you kind of said about the red and the blood as being it's nothing is too much. You know? So I guess Yeah. What does it mean to listen and be in communication with an energy that loves you, in your full expression, your expanding expression where you're never, it's never going to tell you that it's too much that it's too much to hold? Or what you're saying is too big? For the moment? Like, it's never gonna say that to you. So, yeah, what, what kind of gift is that to listen to? You know, in this story, I talked about the blood lineage that goes so far back that you can't even see where it began. You know, so what does it mean to listen to something where you can't even see, you know, the start of it? It's, it's an incredible gift, you know, I don't know, like, it's, it's everything. And it, I'm having a hard time finding the words, I think, because it's so infinite.
Anabel Khoo:Yeah, and there's something so I guess, like, felt and embodied about that kind of listening like, you're tuning in to something that isn't obvious, like that you can't like, quote, unquote, like, see, you know, that's not like, you know, evident, you know, and I don't know, if you've had this experience, like, you know, being diasporic, or like, just trying to connect with ancestors where, you know, different things have interrupted that connection. And it's like, you know, it would be great, you know, to have, I guess, I always used to wish there was like, a huge magical book where I can just, like, read the whole history of my lineage, but it's like, that book, it doesn't exist. And it's like, I think, maybe I think I've talked to you about this before, about that kind of grief. And I think you were like "You are the book." I'm not sure if you said those exact words, but you were just like, "whatever you do is magical," like whatever you do is your ancestors. Like you don't have to have these, like this recipe or like this, you know, step by step, kind of guide to know that you're on the right path, and you're, you know, doing the right thing. And actually, like, probably the whole process is about the listening, you know, like all the skills that you gain from starting out without the book and, you know, yeah, I think it's just, it's really cool to think about it that way.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah. And you know what, like, yeah, there is this element of, you know, displacement and invisibility and this sort of, like, how do you access something that's so big, and so old, and all these memories, and at the same time, I think, you know, what brings us back to red and blood is that it's in you. It's something that is like invisible, but it's also like, so loud and in your face all the time. Like it's always communicating to you expressing itself through you, you're always like playing out whatever it is, in all of your actions and decisions and all that kind of stuff. You know, and then I think it kind of goes back to red soil, right? It's like when you have that practice of like, just, you know, whenever I say red soil, I can hear the the Earth like, like, I can hear it sort of what it would feel like for my body to just like become it, you know, in those layers. And that's like, that's where it is. That's where that medicine is where that memory is like, it's all there.
Anabel Khoo:Yeah. Well, so again, like coming back to that, I guess, like that balance between, like the invisible and like, you know, the spiritual realm of things, but also this like intense, viscerality, that I think you mentioned also in that in the podcast about, you know, being on the one hand, like you're navigating time through, you know, the portals of numbers, but there's also this very, this very, like, yeah, visceral, tangible aspect to our being, which is our bodies. And I don't know enough about heart surgery, but I did learn through your podcast, that there's a thing called a conduit that you can use to, you know, bypass certain conditions in the heart. And I thought that was such a, like, an amazing metaphor. And a key part of the conduit being able to do its job is that it needs to be recognized, and it also needs to be of made of the body. And I thought that was just like such a really amazing way of describing that kind of healing and healing through the body and not just, you know, like a spiritual bypassing kind of, it's really nitty gritty, and it's really risky. You know, like the way I imagine open heart surgery tends to be. But yeah, I don't know if you had any thoughts around that?
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that in heart surgery, the conduit -- Okay, full disclosure, I have a friend who's a doctor. And I called him and I was like, can you explain to me how this works, because I was watching Grey's Anatomy, I don't understand, all the medical stuff goes over my head, but I got my friend to explain to me how the heart works. So the heart is made up of two pumps, right. And both pumps need to be working in order to function properly and keep you alive, but if one side of the heart stops working, then what open heart surgeons do is they place a what they call a conduit, right? And that allows you to bypass the the heart, the part of the heart that isn't working, so the blood can flow keep flowing throughout the body. And it's, you know, this really struck me when I was telling this story and using the word bypass in this, you know, context and we you know, we call it bypass surgery, right. My dad even had by bypass I think it was but it's something he had heart surgery and I think there was a bypass decades ago Yeah, so but yeah, then just how that relates to this idea of spiritual bypassing. It's interesting, right? And I guess for listeners, people talk about spiritual bypassing in healing communities where say, it's common for a lot of white dominant healing communities to talk about anything and everything about healing under the sun, except race and racism and white supremacy, right. And so if it's kind of the thing where you think you can you think you can heal yourself and bypass like our social and economic and, you know, conditions that we've been living through. And so it's very common in many spiritual communities. So yeah, I'm glad you asked this question, because the process of writing the story about the conduit was so, so wild, and kind of demonstrates what it's like to create with your ancestors. So, you know, I was telling you before we started recording that I started watching Grey's Anatomy this year, and I just got obsessed with it. And so I was watching the show and just like falling in love with Cristina Yang who's like, played by Sandra Oh, so just watching the storylines, etc. And so there was a storyline where she she did this groundbreaking surgery where her patient had this one of these conditions of the heart where the left side stopped working, but the body kept rejecting the conduit that she was trying to put into the body and this is common because the the conduit is made of completely different material, right and so the body is like "Warning! Danger! There's a foreign presence in the body!" and so they attack the conduit and so that's why in surgery, you know, it's that's one of the risks, right? It's like the body can actually kind of even reject the solution that we're that we're doing. And so she had a patient who kept rejecting the conduit. And so what she did, she did this groundbreaking thing by printing a 3D conduit, and she coded that conduit with DNA cells from the body. So it kind of tricked the body and like the body recognized it as one of its own. So that was a storyline I was watching. Okay. And then at the same time, you know, I'm going through my usual, just, whatever healing journey in my own life, and I'm sure a lot of your listeners understand that, like, it comes down to a lot of healing of family of origin stuff, your childhood, healing your healing of your child self. So that's what I was doing one day, I was just going through something, right. And so I was sitting in meditation, and I was trying to work through something going on with my heart and my family stuff. And when I sit at my altar and do that work, I usually I see images like in the clairvoyant sense, you know, I see sort of images and visuals from different timelines and different dimensions that come up to be healed and recognized and, and addressed and all that kind of stuff. And so what I saw in this meditation was I saw my family members kind of in this back and forth, fight with each other. And then I showed up, and I'm like, and then I started channeling all of their ancestral energy. And I kept hearing the word in my head. I'm like, "Oh, Shaunga is being a conduit, Shaunga is being a conduit for this energy." And so I went through this whole thing where I just saw myself as a conduit. And then after that, I was like, hold on a second, like, that's happening on Grey's Anatomy, like that's happening in heart surgery. And so that's kind of how all these different elements of this story, this podcast episode started coming together, where it's like, oh, Cristina Yang, is actually collaborating with me as a character fictional character, to tell the story about, yeah, the metaphor, or the connection, you know, between what happens in heart surgery, and what happens for us when we're healing our lineages. You know, I talk about what it's like to be, like you're saying, a storyteller and a cycle breaker as an open heart surgeon, the energetic equivalent of open heart surgeons, you know, I talk about this, you know, phenomenon really, that so many of us are experiencing, especially now in this period of time in history, we are born into our families, as cycle breakers, were here to be like, Okay, this is this is a real potent time of revolution, and big massive change on the planet right now. And so, so many of us are stopping, you know, major cycles in our ancestral lineages that have been, you know, just passed on, passed on passed on for centuries for generations. Now, we're like, oh, this cycle, this stops with me, this cycle stops with me, this cycle stops with me, you know, and so I kind of equate that to like, when that's your role, like you are an open heart surgeon for your family, like, you're literally like opening your heart, and looking at all the things that live there in terms of, you know, your most intimate, you know, relationships, the relationships, your family stuff that lives in your heart, and you're rewiring it, and you're channeling you are being this conduit that's channeling all this energy, and in creating something else out of it. And a very common thing that we all experience when we are this person in our family is rejection. So you're like, What the hell are you doing? This is so different. This is like, we don't understand this. This is not how we've done things. And a lot of the times too, we show up as children like this. So we we just are different. We just are breaking cycles based on who we are our inherent expression, we're not even trying to do anything, you know. And so for a lot of people that comes through queerness, and transness, and all different kinds of like, an expression in a family that is just so so different. But yeah, so there there is this very profound, profound connection between like what I learned from Grey's Anatomy about what happens in heart surgery, like actually, and what we do as cycle breakers.
Anabel Khoo:Yeah, and I guess it's like, it really got me thinking about this idea of recognition, like how does the body recognize that the DNA encoding or like, you know, like, is it about even having the body actually truly recognize that or is it more like, just like a almost like an integration process where it's not about being like, "look at me, this is what I'm doing." But it's like, I don't know, on a different realm of recognition.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah, well, you know what, like, I've been Yeah, like recoding in that way. Yeah, and with that, the way you thinking, I just, I really, I really connect to the concept of recognition and what it means to me. And I just think it's so so important. And I was thinking, I've been thinking about like speak of recognition, it really sounds like there's like the, land acknowledgments, you know, and maybe the difference for me between what does it mean to acknowledge the relationship versus recognize it? Like, what does it mean to acknowledge the the deeper level, you know, thinking of like, you know, body versus recognize? Acknowledge the land versus recognize, and there is something there? It's interesting, like when I just saying the word recognize right going into the deep into the heart of things versus staying now, it looks red. Like, it looks like a red word. I don't know why. But it there's, there's something very, like deep and powerful. And, yeah, just about that word itself, at on the surface. Like the most elaborate, regal, like super least for me how it resonates for me. And, you know, I don't know, like, what is it? I think about, like, what does it mean or feel like to feel recognized in your relationships, like in a well-pronounced land acknowledgement won't actually partnership, right. And I was, I was thinking about this in terms of land acknowledgments. Just because, you know, I, I'm, I am, you know, writing about this, this is going to come in, in fix a heart that is needing, a major, specific, you know, thing some of my future podcast episodes, but like, just the the trend of land acknowledgments in theatre, and how, on one hand, it's great that more and more theatre practitioners and just to happen that is ongoing. It really is relational, which is event organizers all over, are starting their events with land acknowledgments, it's great that people are starting to think about this more. But it's kind of annoying the way that like, you know, it's like, it's deep and it's messy. Like blood sometimes people are just like, just naming very formally, like this land that they're on, and then forget about it for the rest of the day, or the performance in theater, right. is not like-- it's generally like a casual affair. But like, And I was just thinking, it's like the difference between if you have a partner, and you come home, and you live with them, and every day, like, you come home from work, and they greet it's necessary. Like, we have to deal with it. So I don't know. I you, and they're like, "Hello Shaunga, I acknowledge you that I live with you. And you are Shaunga Tagore and you have brown eyes, and hello," and then just ignore you for the rest of the evening. That feels like how land acknowledgments kind of feel like, yeah, it's really cool to, to be reminded, like are, versus like, recognition, which is like your partner sees you and listens to you, and is like, "Hey, I want to know you. And I want you to know me, and I want that to be reciprocal and for me as a settler, and also like to be able to embrace that ongoing." You know. And so yeah, I think that's kind of what I was invoking in the storytelling around what does it mean to recognize the body or be recognized in your lineage, or like, yeah, like, this isn't about being, I guess, like, you not recognized, and this kind of spectrum between rejection and recognition. And, you know, like, that's, that is my healing. And what I mean, when I say ancestral healing, it's also mentioned this in your podcast, this idea of like, this about, yeah, you use the word integrating, it's like integrating, remembering the land that we're on and our relationship with it and our love story with it. And, and urgency or pressure from, you know, multiple different things. when we bring that energy back into the family, back into the ancestral lineage, it still might get us rejected from people who still have to go on their own journeys of But, you know, it's definitely like a white supremacist kind of decolonization and healing or whatever, but we're still-- we're integrating our healing with codes--DNA-- from the land from the universe from the multiverse, bringing it back into our families. That is like that process of re-recognition vibe of being perfect, like getting everything perfect from or you know, re-remembering, as we say a lot in my spiritual community.
Anabel Khoo:Yeah, that perfection, it just it hurts the get go. And that being what repair is, and it's like, no, like, that's actually not possible, you know, and it actually makes it even more difficult when there's that premise of like, you have to be perfect. On the surface, like, it's really good to strive for, like doing the right thing. But I think this kind of perfection that really stops or freezes a lot of people who are white or who are part of settler legacies, like it's just like this idea that you have to get it right on the surface, when really, it's like, not the thing that matters the most. everyone, no matter what your combination of privilege or oppression or lived experience is. It sucks. Yeah, so before we run out of time, I wanted to really make sure to ask you about some of the things that you've been working on. You mentioned there's a project you have going on, called PLUTO. And yeah, I was hoping you can tell folks more about it.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah, so PLUTO is a play that I wrote. And it is a play that I -- It's the first time I'm going to be directing a play that I wrote. And I wrote it in 2019. And so I mentioned at the beginning that my business is called OTHERWORLDLY GIANTS. And that started because I had a number of years ago, I had this vision of a musical, just, like, downloaded into my brain. And for those who don't know me, I'm just like, obsessed with musicals, even though I guess I haven't seen a lot of them because they're, they're not the most accessible thing to, to engage with. But I just, they're my happy place. I just I love musicals so much. And, you know, I'm just like, waiting for the day where my life can fully turn into a musical, you know, like, you're just like walking down the street and you feel this burst of emotion and just like start singing like, that's on my bucket list. To find the courage to do that, I guess, or the people.
Anabel Khoo:Yeah you need backup dancers.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah, exactly. Anyway, yeah. So I had this vision of a musical that, all the characters, the main characters were the five outer planets. And this kind of, you know, was birthed from my work as an astrologer. So I've been like reading people's birth charts for 10 years. And getting to know like, really building a personal relationship with the planets through that. And, and remembering that, you know, the planets are ancestors themselves, right, who speak to me. So I had this idea for a musical. And I was like, Oh, awesome, cool. And so I, I kind of went into creative space of wanting to start working on that and developing that and I wrote PLUTO, I knew Pluto was going to be my main character. And I'll tell you, like, I know what happens at the end of the musical, I just don't know what happens. Anything before that? I don't know. But I know what happens at the end. And so I decided, I was going to write a character study on Pluto, the main character, and I thought it was going to be just a short character study that would help me understand this character, but it turned out to be a whole play in and of itself. That is like a really big play actually, and a big story and I describe it as a love and loss story between Pluto and Jupiter. So it's really about the friendship between Pluto and Jupiter. And it's like what would happen if these two astrological ancestral archetypes were human? And, you know, if they were queer, you know, racialized survivors. And in the play, I didn't write it in linear time. And so it jumps around in all they they shaped shift and they time travel. So they're like, in one scene, they're 16. And then the next they're 29. And they kind of go throughout the whole play... They're mother and daughter, and then they're teenage best friends, and then they're queer lovers in the midst of a breakup and you know, the entire community is involved in their breakup. And so they just like shapeshift, and all these different identities, and really what I'm trying to do with this play is explore, like, what happens when death and faith are so intimately intertwined in the universe, and they can't let each other go, and they're so different. But they, they're so connected, and death and faith being you know, death is Pluto, in terms of its archetype. And faith is Jupiter. Yeah, so that's a play that I've been working on. And this fall in 2022, we are, I'm working with a small team, just to do a little development like workshop. And so we're, we're in rehearsals, just kind of working with actors and other, you know, creative collaborators to explore. Start building, you know, what, what, what does this play look like when it's performed? You know? Yeah, so we're just, you know, I am really it, the thing about being a playwright and, and ancestrally guided play, right, is that you really have to listen to how your play wants to unfold, and all the different kinds of iterations of that, you know, like, I know, in theater, we have this kind of, we're given this blueprint of how the workshop process is, you write a script, then you workshop it. And then, you know, you put a full production on. But ancestrally guided creation is, it can look like that, but it's different. It'll like it'll weave you in many different directions, in terms of what is the deeper medicine and healing that is, really, it's that, that it's weaving through your life. So that is a really huge learning experience. So being in a play, like this is like I'm being stewarded. You know, I'm being guided, I'm being changed. I'm being healed by this process. So I'm constantly listening, like, what do you want to do next? You know, so I don't know. But yeah, we're doing this small process right now. And who knows what it's gonna look like later. But it's just yeah, it's a gift every step of the way. And yeah, you can you can learn more about it on my website.
Anabel Khoo:Awesome! Have you been meeting in person? Like just having maybe more rehearsals like that? Like, is there going to be a physical stage or it's going to be something that's going to be recorded and digital?
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah. So we've only had Zoom rehearsals so far. And just a few. So we just started that process. And I've just, you know, I've been really, even in 2022, when most things are open, have opened up, and people aren't wearing masks, I'm still kind of living in lockdown. You know, like I have, I'm still like, needing to be very careful. Just with my life situation. Yeah, so we've done Zoom rehearsals, and I do want to try and, you know, find a way to get in studio a little bit in 2022. And, you know, my vision for this is, is kind of a hybrid, you know, like, I would love to do like a filmed stage version of this and share it online. And so there can be a little bit of a mix of, you know, that that feeling that you get in live theater, which is like, unlike anything else. But, that it can be shared online, and not just, you know, for COVID kind of stuff, but because I have, you know, I think I have a community that is international in terms of like, who's been following my work just because I've been doing it online for the last few years. And so there's a lot of people who would want to see the show that wouldn't be able to come in person. And so I want to be able to share it with them too. But I have to say, you know, this process like I haven't set foot in the theater since February 2020. And I kind of made peace with it, and every once in a while I get reminded that like something really big is missing in my life when I don't have that space of you know, being in creative-- just being near a stage like being in a studio rehearsing with people having that energy, it's just such a part of who I am and what makes me feel like myself and what makes me feel happy. And I kind of got used to, like not having that. But every once in a while I'm like, Oh, shit, like, I, I remember, I remember what part of me is missing here. And I had a moment where I like, I because I was going back and forth of like, oh, maybe we won't do any in person, you know, I'm trying to I have that whole, I need to stay as safe as I can. kind of mentality. But then I was like, I want to really give myself a gift of just even having two days of setting foot in a venue with a stage or yeah, in a rehearsal venue. And I just, like, broke down and was crying, you know, and I do that often. I'm just like wailing and like, just alone in my apartment. But like, yeah, it just really hit me like, like how much I've missed it and how much of a gift I would be giving myself by like, allowing myself just to have two days, two days to like, come back to this world that I love that makes me feel like me. So, you know, it's a whole thing.
Anabel Khoo:I guess another thing I was thinking of... I'm trying to think of a way to pivot, but I just really wanted to ask you about the work that you do with animal communication. Yeah, because I don't know a lot of people who are able to communicate with animals across planes and realms.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah, no, yeah. So yeah, like I said on the podcast, animals are really part of my life purpose. I really feel like just being in relationship to animals, is part of partly why I'm here on the planet. And that's not anything other than just like, hanging out with them, and being in relationship with them, you know? But yeah, I also have that ability of animal communication. It's interesting that you say, you don't know a lot of people who are doing that, I guess, because, you know, I've had my cats for the last 14 years. So I've ended up you know, being finding a lot of different animal communicators, just I guess, you know, through my journey of parenting them, you know, especially when, my my boy esta, he's 14 now, and he's getting older. And so anytime health issues come up... Well, I guess in the last few years, I'll say I've been able to find a lot of different holistic practitioners, and people who do this energetic work with animals communication with animals, because I've just needed to, you know, because the vet, whatever I was getting from the veterinary conventional knowledge, like wasn't actually helping me care for them, or give them what they need, or give me what I need as their caregiver. So yeah, I've just like, I found a lot of that and I find that there's like, a lot of a lot of people are coming into that gift. Now, a lot of people are like rising to that they're like, oh, I can talk to animals. And they're, like, studying the starting to practice. There's there, they're building, you know, businesses around this. And it's really amazing. And, you know, in my spiritual community, who is like my core kind of like healing space. One of the people in that community is like a master in animal communication. And in animal medicine, in general, you know, I talk about him in my podcast, his name is Maestro David. And if you go to my podcast, you can see his website because he does like one-on-one sessions with people where-- he's my birthday twin -- and I feel like he does with animals as what I do with astrology, you know, where I sit down, and I've like, for the last 10 years, read people's birth charts. He does that except he'll read what animals are with you, that kind of thing. So yeah, so I've learned so much from him. And yeah, did you have a question about animal communication?
Anabel Khoo:I just wanted to know more about it, because it sounds just really beautiful. And I wonder if like, there's a particular style that animals bring to communicating, like if it feels extra creative or playful? Or maybe it's just sassy and to the point, as you were telling me about earlier.
Shaunga Tagore:Yeah. It's really, I mean, it's just like anyone, like, they all bring their own personalities, right. But what I have noticed is that a lot of animal communicators indicate that animals communicate through pictures. So, if you have if, you know, if you have a cat or a dog in your life, and you want to communicate with them, or practice that kind of communication, like first of all, say, you know, if you if you have a long term relationship with an animal, you're already communicating energetically, you're you're learning how to communicate across language barriers, you already know how to do it. I hear so many stories of people... you know, I even was listening to The Office podcast, you know, Office Ladies, and one of them, you know, no spiritual kind of whatever in their framework. But one of them was talking about how, you know, she loved her cat, and she used to have conversations with her cat, but, you know, say what the cat was saying, you know, it'd be like, "Oh, Hi, honey," and talk in the cat voice, like, I do that, right? Like, I've always, I have my cat voice of like, when I talk and I'm, like, I'm translating when I talk out loud like that. I'm translating what I'm intuitively hearing from my cat. And so that's what you're doing, you're communicating with them, and you learn how to do it. But if you want to, like intentionally practice, then communicating pictures is very, very powerful. I think it resonates with a lot of animals. So if you, if you want, you can try this, if you have, like, if you have a dog, right, you can be like, just look at them and, and show them a picture of something that excites them like a leash to maybe they want to go outside or their food bowl or whatever, and see how they react to that. Maybe their tail will start wagging and they'll start like, you know, picking up what you're saying. So that's one thing. But I think for me, it's just like, you know, my cat understands me when I'm just talking shit, because, you know, we've had that 14 years of getting to know each other like that. So he can understand me if I'm just like, if I'm, if I'm speaking to him, he gets the message. But it really, it's the energy and the frequency of what I say too that is much more powerful, which is why you know, if I'm anxious or worried, and he's sitting next to me, he's feeling what I'm feeling, you know, because he sees the program that's operating, even if he can't see the exact words or whatever, he sees the program. Anyway, yeah, it's just, it's fascinating. It's amazing.
Anabel Khoo:I love that. I don't know, I just think, yeah, they're just out there, doing their thing, even in the-- you know, on earth, but also like on this other realm.
Shaunga Tagore:You know, they really want to help humans. That's what I know too, about so many animals. Like they come into our lives because they want to help us heal. They want to help us where we're struggling. You know, they want to help us learn something that we need to learn. I believe that animals are like, they're much more evolved than we are as humans in terms of this. They're much more decolonized even though they're affected by colonization, for sure. And the way that you know, humans have set up systems that hurt them in so many different ways. But yeah, they're here to help us heal. I think I just feel this about all like, trees, water, like, every thing that's living on this planet that isn't a human is like, "Come on humans! You can do it! Please, listen to us!"
Anabel Khoo:Yeah like "How many different ways on like every dimension can we try to get you to not destroy yourselves?"
Unknown:It's like "We love you! We don't want you to die a horrible, horrible death!"
Anabel Khoo:Oh, god. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a great place to end
Shaunga Tagore:on that note...
Anabel Khoo:or conclude our conversation for today. I don't know if you had a prompt or a practice or anything that you've been either grappling with or thinking about that you want to leave our listeners with?
Shaunga Tagore:You know what, I was going to come up with something based on our conversation. But okay, tell me something from your mind map, just pull something small, even a few words or something and then I'll see if I can come up with a prompt."Dance it out!" Oh, okay prompt... This is a I love that! And in how ever that shows up, whatever the
Anabel Khoo:Um, "Dance it out". small little practice for this week. See if you can sit down and remember a song that you loved from 1997. I don't know why I just said that. But it's because that's when Buffy started. Oh and maybe that's why-- I need to tell people about a project that I'm working on. So thank you for the reminder. Okay, so this is the prompt: look up songs from 1997. Find a song that your self from 1997 loved. And if you were not alive, if you were born after 1997, and you're listening to the podcast, then let's see, pick a number between 1 and 19. And just pick a number, and then Google songs from 1997. And you dance is, it could be subtle, it could be very aggressive. It know, if you pick number 6, then pick the sixth song that comes could be even in your mind. Again, if you listen to the up. So yeah, either pick your favorite song from 1997, that your self in 1997 loved, or do the number thing and dance it out. And so, you know, that's what I'm kind of pointing to... is your self from that year is about that kind of healing or reconnection or just allowing, you know, some silliness, or joy or anything from that part of your life to come through and, have sort of a physical release, you know, through the joy of dancing. So that's the practice. latest episode "RED", I think you'll understand. Do you want to let folks know as well what to expect in future episodes in the season? Yes, thank you. So season one of the podcast is called Grief, Love and Buffy. So it really is a mix between my personal storytelling, you know, sharing ancestral medicine and teachings. And the heart of what my storytelling school is, is that we study stories that serve as altars for building a new world paradigm. And I study in the first season, I'm going to look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer very closely, and look at it through the lens of an altar. And look at all the different pieces of what makes the story. You know, like pull out the pieces of grief, pull out the pieces of love, pull out the pieces of transformation, pull out the pieces of, you know, lineage connection and pull out the pieces of abolition. You know, it's really interesting. So my connection with Buffy is that I just, you know, I watched it since 1997 and have been obsessed with it, it was like, you know, still one of my favorite TV shows. But then in the last few years I started actually studying it very closely. And you know, it has a lot of problems with race and all sorts of different things. But I've been finding that even in the places that it's not problematic, if you look into it, what it says-- like both the amazing things about Buffy and the limits and the problems-- tell us so much about these themes that are so pertinent to us right now. So timely things like abolition things, like the transformation of a whole lineage, things like coming into your magic and your queerness and all these different things, and grief and what it means to love and be generous, and what it means to have purpose and find your purpose and lose it and reject it and reclaim it. Anyway, all these things about Buffy and kind of mixed in with my own personal storytelling and all these different things. So that's really what the full season is about. And I just started, I just put out three episodes. So, you know over the next, however long it takes, I'll be releasing that. Amazing. Thank you so much Shaunga for joining us today!
Shaunga Tagore:You're welcome! Thank you so much for asking me. I'm excited for you. I'm so happy that you're doing this and sharing your voice and your work and yeah, that's awesome.
Anabel Khoo:And that wraps up this episode! You can follow along and reach out to Shaunga at her website at shaungatagore.com where you can find links to season one of her podcast and her play in progress called PLUTO. And she also has a self-study course on her website on grief that's available and it is called "Let Loss Make You Warm". You can also follow Shaunga on Instagram@otherworldly.giants and OTHERWORLDLY GIANTS Storytelling School on Facebook. Shaunga says she will be getting new podcast episodes up at some point but she has been moving through a grief sabbatical and grief portal since her cat Estha transitioned to the spirit realm at the end of January. In the meantime, she does appreciate any love that anyone wants to send her way.