This episode is personal. It's sacred. It's a threshold.

I recently visited the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and it completely shifted something in me. As I descended into the depths of their “From Slavery to Freedom” exhibition—three basement levels below ground—I felt like I was traveling through time. And when I reached the bottom, what I saw broke something open inside me: brittle receipts documenting the sale of human lives. Names reduced to numbers, stories reduced to stock.

And I realized... those receipts didn’t die with slavery. They became a blueprint we’re still using today. Now we call them promotions, productivity, and praise. We trade our souls for safety, our joy for just one more credential. But we weren’t born to be receipts. We were meant to be rivers.

What you’ve been experiencing this season hasn’t just been a podcast—it’s been a rite of passage. A liminal space. A sacred threshold between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming. And now? Now you're standing right at the edge.

What we explore in this episode:

• My powerful experience at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
• How receipts from slavery mirror the way we’re still measured today
• Why overachievement is a colonial legacy and what we need to unlearn
• The phases of a rite of passage: separation, liminality, return
• The sacred invitation of the threshold—and what you must be willing to leave behind
• Stories of two women who stepped into sovereignty and freedom
• A reminder that your rest is not a reward, your liberation is not a trophy—it is your birthright
• A powerful closing invocation from our ancestors and an invitation to name the one you are becoming

If you're standing at the threshold, I have a question for you:

What shall we call your sovereign self—the one waiting on the other side?

DM me the word “invitation” on Instagram @blackgoddesswithin and let me know what you’re ready to name her.

Final words to carry with you:

You are not a receipt. You are not a machine.

You are the altar. You are the offering.

You are the dream, unfolding.

There comes a moment in every sacred journey where you feel it in your bones—you can’t go back. You might not know what’s ahead, but you know something is shifting. This episode is for that moment. The one where you’re standing at the edge of your old life, hearing the whisper of what’s next, and wondering what it means to truly prepare for transformation.

Inside this episode, I take you through the deeper meaning of the altar—not just as a place of ritual, but as a sacred space we carry within us. We begin with the altar and end at the threshold, exploring how these spiritual anchors can hold us through seasons of change, especially when the world offers no ceremony for our becoming.

What I cover in this episode:

• What it means to stand at the edge of your own becoming
• Why everything might feel tender or unfamiliar lately
• The deeper meaning of altars beyond objects and aesthetics
• How we've been building altars our whole lives—sometimes without knowing it
• Why your body is your first altar and how it’s asking to be honored
• The sacred rhythm of commissioning, decommissioning, and returning to the altar
• The role of the altar in liminal space—between what was and what’s not yet
• Why transformation needs ceremony (not just checklists)
• A loving reminder that you don’t have to cross this threshold alone

In this moment of transition...

Whether you’re grieving, visioning, unraveling, or rebuilding—this is your invitation to slow down, to listen deeply, and to remember that sacred change deserves to be witnessed. You are not alone in this becoming.

A gentle next step:

Choose one space in your home—a corner, a windowsill, a shelf—and place something there that symbolizes who you’re becoming. Let it be honest. Let it be yours. This is not about perfection. This is about presence. Let it mark the beginning of this sacred transition.

Feeling called?

If this stirred something in your spirit—if you felt a yes rise up—I want to hear from you. DM me the word altar or come find me on Instagram @blackgoddesswithin. We’re not meant to walk these thresholds alone. Let's do this work together—in rhythm, in ceremony, in community.

Forty years after they died, I found my two baby brothers—unnamed and buried in an unmarked grave. I didn’t know why I needed to find them, only that I had to. What I discovered wasn’t just their resting place…it was a missing piece of myself.

In this episode, I’m inviting you into a deeply personal story about ancestral directives, intuitive knowing, and what happens when we follow a call that makes no sense—but changes everything. This isn’t just about grief or loss. It’s about healing, remembering, and reconnecting to the pieces of ourselves empire tried to slice away.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• What it means to receive an ancestral directive—and how it shows up
• Why our liberation journey includes (and requires) our ancestors
• The different types of ancestral connections: bloodline, milk line, and spirit/soul line
• How overachievement became the armor many of us used to survive
• The unexpected, unexplainable call that led me to find my brothers
• What happened when I listened, followed, and remembered
• How ancestral reconnection heals more than just the individual
• A guided moment to check in with your own quiet callings

You might not have a story like mine—but I believe you do have a thread to follow. A whisper you’ve ignored. A name you haven’t spoken. A pull that doesn’t come with a reason. I invite you to listen. Breathe. And trust the call.

What if I told you your desires aren’t gone — they’re just hidden? That everything you’ve been chasing is already inside you? That’s exactly what we’re diving into today.

In this episode, I’m inviting you to remember the parts of yourself that got buried under layers of survival, performance, and expectations. This conversation is about reclaiming desire, not as indulgence, but as direction — as the compass of your soul.

I’m sharing stories and reflections from my recent Goddess Activation journey, where we walked with Kianda, the shapeshifting sea goddess of Angola. Her teachings helped us explore what it means to shape-shift on purpose — not into what the world wants us to be, but into who we truly are.

• Why desire is not gone, just buried — and how to reconnect with it.
• How systems of control disconnect us from our desires (and why that’s not an accident).
• The difference between shape-shifting for survival vs. shape-shifting into joy
• Powerful stories from our Shapeshifting Goddess Council — real women naming their truths.
• The roles we get cast in (caretaker, fixer, the strong one) and how they become cages.
• A simple practice to remember what you loved before the world told you who to be.
• Why your “dream self” isn’t a future version of you — she’s already here, waiting.
• How survival shape-shifting holds the wisdom for your liberation.
• A breathwork moment to help you take up your full shape, right now.

Remember what you loved.

Not what made you productive or impressive.

But what made you feel fully you.

That memory — no matter how small — is your breadcrumb back to aliveness.

If this stirred something in you, don’t let it float away.

Say it out loud. Whisper it. Write it down.

DM me. Email me. I want to hold that truth with you.

We’re talking about calling in our ancestors to support this journey of remembering who we are. Now that we’re identifying what we want, we get to call in the support we need.

Until then, keep listening inward. Keep honoring your desire.

You are coming home to yourself.

In this episode, I’m inviting you into the beginning of your liberation journey — not as a destination, but as a living, breathing process of coming back home to yourself. Together, we’ll explore what it means to unhook from grind culture and perfectionism, and why it’s so important to define liberation for yourself, not according to systems that benefit from your exhaustion.

This conversation is about more than just healing — it's about remembering. Remembering the wisdom of your body, your spirit, and your ancestors. We talk about what happens when we start listening to our inner knowing, reclaiming our sacred “yes” and “no,” and reimagining freedom beyond “free-ish.”

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why defining liberation for yourself is a revolutionary act
• How colonialism severed us from our embodied wisdom — and how we reclaim it
• The seductive lie of "free-ish" and why it's not enough
• My personal journey from overachieving to realignment
• What ancestral technology of freedom looks and feels like
• The LIBERATE Framework and how it supports your transformation
• Real-life stories of women who reclaimed joy, rest, and embodied truth
• Gentle practices to help you begin your liberation journey today
• Questions to ask your lineage and yourself as you reconnect with what’s sacred

If something stirred in your bones as you listened, that’s not a coincidence. It’s your spirit remembering. You don’t need to wait for liberation — you get to define it. You don’t need to earn rest — you get to embody it. And the journey begins right now, with a single question:

What does freedom feel like in your body?

Place your hand on your heart and ask. That’s where this work begins — and every step from here will help you live your answer.

What if everything you needed to know about rest, joy, and power was already within you - passed down by your ancestors? In today's conversation, we dive deep into Black Goddess Wisdom, exploring how spirituality is not meant to be an escape, but a way of life. You'll hear about the personal journey that sparked the creation of the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck, the spiritual erasure many of us have faced, and why reclaiming ancestral wisdom is essential for true liberation.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why spirituality is meant to be woven into daily life, not reserved for special occasions
• The pivotal moment that sparked the creation of the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck
• How colonization severed our connection to ancestral spiritual traditions
• Why the dominant image of God impacts our sense of power and worth - and how to challenge it
• The role ancestral wisdom plays in healing, leadership, and community
• Why Black Goddess Wisdom matters for everyone (including non-Black listeners)
• Examples of goddesses and the lessons they offer for rest, sanctuary, and self-preservation

Ancestral wisdom isn’t about looking back with nostalgia -it’s about reclaiming the strength, beauty, and divine power that has always lived within us. Whether you are Black, non-Black, or somewhere in between, this journey into Black Goddess Wisdom offers a radical blueprint for healing, liberation, and true spiritual freedom.

Picture this: You’ve been everything to everyone all day. You crushed it at work, made sure everything ran smoothly at home, handled a million things no one even noticed—then crawled into bed feeling like somehow, it still wasn’t enough. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and this episode is for you.

Today, I’m talking about the Good Girl Trap. You know, the one that teaches us to be polite, accommodating, hardworking, self-sacrificing... and ultimately invisible. For so many of us—especially Black women—this trap was set before we even knew who we were. And it’s exhausting.

In this episode, I’m breaking down what it means to be caught in the “Good Girl” archetype, how it shows up in our daily lives (and bodies), and why it’s costing us our peace, health, and authenticity. And most importantly, I’m sharing how we begin to unlearn this and come back home to ourselves.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• The invisible labor of being “good” and why it’s so deeply ingrained
• How the good girl conditioning shows up in our bodies as burnout, anxiety, and resentment
• The connection between people-pleasing and survival, especially for Black women
• Why saying “yes” when you mean “no” chips away at your peace
• The generational weight of watching our mothers, aunties, and grandmothers never sit down
• How childhood roles-especially for eldest daughters shape our adult identities
• That moment when I ignored my body and regretted it (a New Year’s Eve story I won’t forget)
• What it really means to reclaim yourself- and why rest isn’t a reward, it’s your right

You are not selfish for having needs. You are not ungrateful for saying no. And you are not alone in the exhaustion you feel from trying to be everything for everyone.

The good girl doesn’t exist for your freedom, she exists for other people’s comfort. But here, we’re choosing something different. We’re choosing wholeness over performance, rest over burnout, and truth over politeness.

If you’re realizing you’ve been carrying way too much for way too long, I see you. You’re not broken. You’re conditioned. And the good news? You can unlearn it. So start small-say no when you mean it. Sit down when you’re tired. Ask yourself what you want, not what will make everyone else comfortable. Reclaim yourself, one brave choice at a time.

In this episode, I open with a personal story a moment when my body quite literally forced me to stop. A swollen hand, a holiday hosting disaster waiting to happen, and a prescription I didn’t want to hear: “You need to rest.” But the deeper I sat with it, the more I realized rest wasn’t just about recovery. It was about reckoning with guilt, with conditioning, with history.

We dive into why so many of us feel like rest equals failure, how this belief is rooted in systems designed to keep us exhausted, and what it looks like to reclaim rest as a radical, ancestral, and liberating act.

What we cover in this episode:

• The story of how my body forced me to slow down right before hosting 25 people for Christmas
• Why rest felt like punishment and the guilt that came with pausing
• The historical roots of our resistance to rest, especially for Black folks
• How enslavement, capitalism, and white supremacy taught us to equate stillness with worthlessness
• Why “rest is torture” rang painfully true for me and so many others
• What ancestral wisdom teaches us about sustainable rest and community rejuvenation
• Examples of rest traditions from Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa
• How to reframe sleep and stillness as spiritual practices
• My favorite tool for reclaiming rest in the moment: The Ancestral Pause

Rest isn’t laziness. It’s legacy. If you’ve been feeling guilty for slowing down or unable to sit still without spiraling- know that it’s not just you. There are systems, stories, and deep ancestral memories behind those feelings. But there’s also power in reclaiming rest on your own terms. And you don’t have to wait for burnout to begin.

Let’s start now with breath, with intention, with one unapologetic pause at a time.