Episode 40 - How to Access Ancient Wisdom as Modern Women with Nicole Costerus

🐚 Topics covered

• Introduction to Nicole and the work she is here to do.
• Nicole’s background and initiation into the Vodou lineage in Benin.
• The role of ancient wisdom in today’s world and its importance, as shared by Nicole.
• Key pillars of the ancestral healing model Nicole practices and feels comfortable sharing.
• Nicole’s insights on body cycles (menstrual cycles, etc.) and lifecycles (conception, pregnancy, birth, menopause, etc.) that she believes are crucial for the world to understand.
• Nicole’s vision for the cyclical experience and its impact on communities worldwide.

About Nicole

Nicole is the founder of Women of Ancient Futures and School of the Mystic Arts for Women.. Nicole studied for 20 years with a wide variety of Ancient traditions. 

She received initiations from modalities and teachers all over the world. From a 2 month initiation into West African Vodou in Benin to spending a total of 26 days in dark retreats in Mexico, 1 month in the Amazonian Jungle with an indigenous tribe and studying temple arts in Finland & India. With her school she provides a space for women to weave Mystic arts like mediumship, psychic abilities, ritual and ceremony into their work as coaches, bodyworkers, healers and facilitators.

Her mission is to bring back ancient wisdom into these modern times and weave something new, something magic and something whole for the future.

Where to find Nicole

Website: https://www.womenofancientfutures.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicole.nyima.costerus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolecosterusjoy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn03RaO1kAuywhize4GSnEg

More about Iris

💬Come say ‘Hi’ on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cycleseeds/
🎓Check out our offerings https://www.cycleseeds.com/ 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Iris Josephina: Welcome, welcome friends. Oh, I am so honored to be sharing this episode with you today. It was an incredible experience to record this episode with Nicole. And Nicole is the founder of Women of Ancient Futures, School of the Mystic Arts for Women on a Mission. And Nicole studied for 20 years with a wide variety of ancient traditions.

[00:00:23] Iris Josephina: And she received initiations from modalities and teachers from all over the world, from a two month initiation into West African voodoo in Benin, to spending a total of 26 days in dark retreats in Mexico, one month in the Amazonian jungle with an indigenous tribe and studying temple arts in Finland and India.

[00:00:43] Iris Josephina: With her school, she provides a space for women to weave mystic arts like mediumship, psychic abilities. Ritual and ceremony into their work as coaches, body workers, healers, and facilitators. Her mission is to bring back ancient wisdom into these modern times and weave something new, something magic, and something whole for the future.

[00:01:05] Iris Josephina: So, before we start, I want you to know that what drew me in about Nicole was her initiation into West African voodoo in Benin. When I was studying in LA, I was doing anthropology and I had the opportunity to take courses outside of my major curriculum. And I chose a course called Voodoo and Santeria Black Atlantic Religion.

[00:01:32] Iris Josephina: And I was absolutely blown away by the magic and the tradition and the wisdom In everything that I was reading, every lecture I was joining, I was like drawn in more. I wanted to learn more. And so I invited Nicole on because she has studied one to one with, uh, West African Vodou priests and priestesses, and she really embodies this wisdom.

[00:02:03] Iris Josephina: And she's going to share with us what's her background and the Vodou lineage in Benin. That she got initiated to, and we're also going to go into the role of this ancient wisdom in our current world and how it can really help us, what the key pillars are of these types of healing modalities, and we will dive a bit deeper into the body and cycles and life cycles.

[00:02:30] Iris Josephina: And there is just something magical that happens when I gather in spaces with women who hold and guard. Such beautiful wisdom and I hope that this episode is as inspiring for you as it was for me Please let us know what you think about it. If you have any more questions for Nicole or for me, please reach out And for now, enjoy listening.

[00:02:58] Iris Josephina: You're listening to the podcast of Iris Josefina. If you're passionate about exploring the menstrual cycle, cyclical living, body wisdom, personal growth, spirituality, and running a business in alignment with your natural cycles, you're in the right place. I'm Iris. I'm an entrepreneur. Functional hormone specialist, trainer, and coach, and I'm on a mission to share insights, fun facts, and inspiration I discover along the way as I run my business and walk my own path on earth.

[00:03:29] Iris Josephina: Here, you'll hear my personal stories. Guest interviews and vulnerable shares from clients and students. Most people know me from Instagram, where you can find me under at cycle seats, or they have been a coaching client or student in one of my courses. I'm so grateful. You're here. Let's dive into today's episode.

[00:03:51] Iris Josephina: Welcome to the show, Nicole. Yeah, it's good to be here. I'm happy that you could make it. So we have many things to cover today. And I would just like to start with you sharing with us who you are and what the work is that you came to do here on Earth. 

[00:04:11] Nicole: Yes, that's a big question that actually goes beyond my business, but yeah, my name is Nicole Costeiros.

[00:04:18] Nicole: I always struggle to describe like what my, you know, what my title is, so to speak, but at the moment I would love to, I love to call myself a medium and initiated priestess, but I also mentor women. I mentor women on their journey into mystic arts, like mediumship, psychic abilities, and ancient rituals and ceremonies, so.

[00:04:39] Nicole: Women of Ancient Futures. My company is an international school of mystic arts for women on a mission because I specifically love working with women that are on a mission of their own. Yeah. 

[00:04:51] Iris Josephina: Love that. So, um, when we spoke before we decided to, to create this podcast, I shared with you that I am Very intrigued and very inspired by the Vodou lineage in Benin, where you got like initiated to, and I'm very curious whether you could share more about that, because I've always been inspired by like the Black Atlantic religious, spiritual, uh, I actually took a course in Voodoo and Santeria when I was studying at UCLA and I was so inspired by it.

[00:05:29] Iris Josephina: So I, I have goosebumps every time I meet someone who is initiated in this and who knows about it. I'm like, please tell me everything. I'm so inspired. Yeah. 

[00:05:40] Nicole: Yeah. And it's like, it's traditions that have been in the past, very secretive. Right. So it is this mysterious traditions that also, I think there is a lot of ideas that people have about it.

[00:05:52] Nicole: Like when I share, I'm a voodoo priestess. The first thing they think of is that I probably have some dolls and needles in my home and I'm hurting people. Right. I mean, it sounds funny, but in a way, that's the first thing people think about when they hear voodoo. The interesting thing, that's one of the first things I discovered As I found my way to Benin in West Africa is that these dolls and needles are not even part of the Voodoo tradition.

[00:06:16] Nicole: So it's, there's two things that create these misconceptions around voodoo. Um, the first one is Hollywood movies where voodoo has been portrayed as something, as a tradition to hurt others, these dolls and needles. Um, and the second part, which I have found across many indigenous traditions all across the globe is that through colonization, the missionaries would come and basically demonize the practices of the people that practice the indigenous traditions.

[00:06:47] Nicole: So Voodoo is one of them, but I also was in South America with the Yawanawa people, where also they were enslaved. Like the missionaries would come and preach Christianity and, and basically made their practices wrong. So I think These main two things have caused a big misunderstanding around what voodoo exactly is.

[00:07:07] Nicole: And so as I found my way there, Voodoo for me is actually a tradition very deeply connected to nature, to spirits, to clans, to rituals, to song and dance, to, yeah, to community. A very beautiful way where I would say they connect with nature through their bodies, through their voices, through their ritual practices.

[00:07:33] Nicole: So It has been a great adventure for me to rediscover my maternal lineage because my mother is from Suriname, South America, but originally the DNA comes from West Africa because of the transatlantic slavery times, my ancestors were shipped from West Africa to South America. And I really wanted to reconnect to.

[00:07:54] Nicole: Yeah, like, where are my roots, actually, beyond where I can track it back in slavery times? Where are my ancestors before they were taken from their land? And that led me to going to Benin, because my DNA is from Nigeria. But Nigeria had Code Red for traveling, and I was traveling alone, so I didn't feel very safe to go there.

[00:08:16] Nicole: And that's when Benin popped up. And through like a crazy, uh, set of synchronicities, I met my voodoo mother in Wida, in Wida, Benin. And I told her, I said, I've been looking for a teacher in voodoo for so many years. And she said, you found her. So within 24 hours of my arrival in Benin, I doubled my stay. I booked the, my stay with, with Martine, my voodoo mother.

[00:08:42] Nicole: And I went through my first initiations into the tradition. Yeah. 

[00:08:47] Iris Josephina: Wow, what a special story. And I love how when we are like on the path that we need to be on, it always comes with these crazy synchronicities and everything falling into place. So that it kind of like confirms to us, like, yes, you're on the right path, please continue.

[00:09:04] Iris Josephina: And the little, the little glimmers and beautiful magical things keep popping up. 

[00:09:10] Nicole: Absolutely. And then it's also about, do we have the courage to trust it, right? Because I was going there to tour around Benin and go to the voodoo festival just to have my first introduction with the tradition. And then within 24 hours, I feel this strong impulse to double my stay.

[00:09:28] Nicole: I was calling my partner. I said, I feel I need to stay here. I want to do my initiation into voodoo. And he was like, what are you talking about? So even sometimes our environment doesn't fully understand like, Hey, what's happening with this person? She's suddenly going there. So it asks courage to trust those synchronicities and to trust that it's right, that the intuition is guiding you in that direction.

[00:09:53] Iris Josephina: So beautiful. I had my own fair share of that. I went to Malta for five days and then I decided that I would have to move there. My family was like, dude, you've been there for five days. What are you talking about? Exactly. 

[00:10:08] Nicole: Exactly. But yeah, I think when it feels right, it's right. And I mean, I went through this process so many times over the last 20 years that I am, you know, in different spiritual practices that I think my trust is.

[00:10:22] Nicole: So strong now that I just do it. 

[00:10:25] Iris Josephina: Yeah. You just follow it. Once you have cultivated that kind of trust in something higher, but also yourself and the relationship between both. It's just like, I have to follow it and everything's going to be okay. 

[00:10:39] Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. And it was a beautiful meeting because I had tried to find teachers before in, in the voodoo tradition, but I came across a lot of men and I had this because my work is with women only.

[00:10:51] Nicole: And so I had this deep longing to be initiated by women. And she, uh, my voodoo mother turned out actually to be the mother of the guides that I booked the trip with. So she was as his mother coming to host us for a day to do the tour of the slave route that the slaves would walk, uh, many years ago from the slave market to the ships.

[00:11:15] Nicole: And as she was guiding us, she was sharing how her paternal lineage was one of the biggest slave traders in West Africa. And her maternal lineage was from, uh, was enslaved. So she had this very interesting lineage from her mom and dad. And that's where I got very, very connected with her because my mother, her lineage were also enslaved.

[00:11:39] Nicole: And my father's lineage were working for the VOC, which was the company that actually shipped the slaves from West Africa to South America. So we, we connected very strongly on that and we both started crying and that's when I felt like, yes, this is the right person to be initiated by. And she initiated me together with her daughter, so I was surrounded by.

[00:12:01] Nicole: Many women actually during my initiations. 

[00:12:05] Iris Josephina: Wow, I have goosebumps when you share this. Me too. What a beautiful story and so touching and yeah, it just feels like you had to be there at that moment in time with these specific people and it was all aligned, even though the history is quite painful and hurtful and traumatic.

[00:12:26] Iris Josephina: And yeah, I can't imagine it was also. Like very healing. 

[00:12:32] Nicole: Yeah. I think one of the things that I really connected with, because I think all of us have our own story with our ancestors. Right. I mean, everybody has like, I don't know, from wars or slavery or. intensity in their, in their lineage. And I think it's really easy to go to the pain in our lineage, right?

[00:12:53] Nicole: And I think one of the things I learned as I was walking that slave route, there was like seven stages to slaves would go through one of them being spending time in complete darkness, cause so they would be prepared for their time. in the ships where they would be underneath deck in darkness for a very long time.

[00:13:11] Nicole: And I don't know if you know, but I have a really big love for dark retreats. I actually spent a total of 26 days in complete darkness. So there were many things that connected to my journey as I was walking that route from the slave market to the ships. And one of the things I felt as I was walking it, and I felt my ancestors walked that route as well, was their power of overcoming.

[00:13:33] Nicole: Right? Because as they were being sold into slavery, They could have given up, but they kept walking to the next stage. And as they would go into these dark rooms, where some people would starve to death, or some people would just lose themselves in the fear, they continued walking. And even after that, where the weak ones were thrown into mass graves, and some of them still alive, they kept walking, you know?

[00:13:59] Nicole: And as they arrived at the ship, some of them would throw themselves in the ocean and drown themselves because they didn't want to leave their land. And They still decided to keep going. So I think one of the things I found is, is to not over focus. Sure, we can do our healing in our ancestral lineage, very important, but then also to reconnect to the power that is in there, because each of our lineage has this power of overcoming, that determination to keep going, because that's why we are here today.

[00:14:29] Iris Josephina: Yeah. That's beautiful. And I feel, especially as women. We very easily connect over our shared traumas, but it's so much more powerful, especially as women, to connect over our shared resilience and our shared power. Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:14:49] Nicole: Yeah, so this is such a precious gift that I found during my time in Benin.

[00:14:54] Nicole: And to be clear, like the moment I said, yes, I'm going to do the initiations with you. I had no idea what I was saying yes to. It was really interesting because I arrived at her land of my voodoo mother and I stayed with her in her house. And And I think it was on day two or something where they started to consult the IFA, which is their main oracle system that they do the consultations with that decide basically everything in the tradition.

[00:15:23] Nicole: It decides what you're going to eat. It decides what type of rituals and ceremonies you're going to have. It decides your, how to say, your personality, like your astrology, but then in voodoo. It decides basically everything. And so when I arrived there, I think it was on day two that they said, um, Nicole, we're actually going to shave your head.

[00:15:43] Nicole: And I was like, holy shit. I actually didn't know anything about what was going to happen. So yeah, I had a few of these moments where I was like, Oh my God, like what have I gotten myself into now? Right. Cause there were so many things unexpected in that journey there. 

[00:16:00] Iris Josephina: Wow. 

[00:16:03] Nicole: Yeah. It was luckily my second time that I shaved my head in my life, so it was not the first time, but it finally grew back and then boom, again, the shaving took place.

[00:16:13] Iris Josephina: That in itself is already such an initiation because our hair is like so connected to our spirituality and our personality and having to give that up. 

[00:16:25] Nicole: Yes, or 

[00:16:26] Iris Josephina: something higher. It's so powerful. 

[00:16:28] Nicole: Absolutely. Yeah. And it was because they did my consultation to reveal my voodoo identity, which, like I said before, is similar to your astrology or your human design.

[00:16:40] Nicole: Only their identity is revealed also through an Ifa ceremony. And when they revealed my identity, they said there are so many voodoo spirits with me that I need to become a voodoo priestess. So they said to me that this is only going to be your first initiation because you are born to be a voodoo priestess.

[00:16:59] Nicole: So this is also why I had to shave my head to acknowledge my new identity and to embrace this big rebirth that was happening. And during my two times one month in Berlin last year. 

[00:17:13] Iris Josephina: Wow, so special. And what do you feel that this, because everything that you learned is so ancient. It's so rooted in the land and what you said with the plants and the earth and the body.

[00:17:28] Iris Josephina: And how do you see this beautiful collection of ancient wisdom? How does that, apply or where does that sit in our current world? 

[00:17:39] Nicole: Yeah, I find it's a really beautiful question, one that I contemplate a lot. This is also why my work is called Women of Ancient Futures, because, for example, to have voodoo as an example, it's a tradition that is over 6, 000 years old.

[00:17:54] Nicole: So it's from such a long time ago. That in some ways, I believe it doesn't necessarily fit in our modern day to day life, right? And also, it's a very different culture, and it's not only this West African Indigenous culture. It's, so far, all the Indigenous traditions that I've come across during my travels, is that the culture is very different than how we live in our Western culture.

[00:18:19] Nicole: So, I think I always have been very aware to go through the initiations and the teachings and the studies aware that I'm wearing my western lens, first of all. Like it's very easy to be judgmental or like find things strange when I come to see it through my western lens, right? But actually, yeah, I think it's invited to see What can I bring into my daily life that actually supports my connection to community, that actually supports my connection to spirit and nature?

[00:18:50] Nicole: And you don't necessarily have to take everything literally with you. I've never been like this. I've studied with so many different traditions. I was never able to land in only one of them. It was always a collection of different traditions, different techniques, different modalities. And I would Take with me what resonates and leave behind me what doesn't because every tradition also comes with dogma.

[00:19:13] Nicole: Every tradition also comes with shadow. Right? So I would also always say whatever tradition it is that you're studying to take with you what resonates and to weave that into our modern day life because our Western society is very individualized. So I love bringing those community elements back here into my daily life, right?

[00:19:35] Nicole: Our Western society is quite disconnected from nature, from plants, from spirits. So this is what I love to bring. with women of ancient futures to reconnect to those things. And then if you're a lawyer and you want to weave it in your job, uh, at the office as a lawyer, beautiful, you know, for me, it doesn't necessarily look like we need to all live separate from society in nature to be this little bubble.

[00:20:00] Nicole: No, I believe that it's very much in daily life, woven to all types of professions and lifestyles. 

[00:20:08] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I feel that is also the, the only way it can work for most people in the Western world, because we've gotten so far away from this community nature vibe that it's very hard for people to understand that that is even an option.

[00:20:28] Nicole: Yes, exactly. And like I said, this Western lens, I can name one example that might be also immediately the most triggering example when it comes to voodoo is that In Benin, they still work with the sacrifice of animals when they do their ceremonies. And this is, this was so triggering for me when I arrived there.

[00:20:48] Nicole: But then at some point I realized most of people in Benin, they don't have a fridge like we have. They don't have meat in the supermarket or, you know, they don't go to the butcher to buy their meat. They actually buy alive animals on the market. And everybody in the family knows how to kill and clean the animal to then eat it.

[00:21:08] Nicole: So they have a very connection, a very different connection than we have with our meat and animals in that sense. So what I've also started to see is that when they do a sacrifice of an animal, they also share the meat with the community, with the family. So, it's easy to then be judgmental about something, but actually, when you look deeper into the culture, it's just how they live their lives, you know?

[00:21:32] Nicole: Yeah. Like, we have it in a very different way that we go to the supermarket or the butcher, and all the animal suffering is behind closed doors. There, they actually honor the animal, you know? They wish it well into spirit. They share the meat with the community. So, it's a triggering topic that I maybe name as an example, but I do think it's a powerful example to show.

[00:21:54] Nicole: Those differences of culture that we, yeah, that can be easy to be judgmental about. 

[00:22:00] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I think it's a great example. Thank you for bringing that up because I think it touches the core of how we as Western people have so often through lifetimes, like my ancestors have done this, like thought that our way is the best way and it's still, you know, it still exists even with this whole like topic around meat and, and how we engage with it.

[00:22:24] Iris Josephina: It's a very white, privileged, western way of approaching it without taking into consideration that the people that you're talking about have been doing this for thousands of years, from generation to generation. They did skillshare, like how to skin an animal, how to cut an animal, how to, you know? It's a huge skill!

[00:22:46] Iris Josephina: Like if everything would fall away and that would be the only thing. that we had left. Like many people in the Western world would just die because they didn't know how to do it, you know? 

[00:22:56] Nicole: Exactly. Yeah. And besides that, there are not many vegetables in Benin. Like it's actually, a lot of the land is actually covered with the palm oil industry and cotton.

[00:23:07] Nicole: So they don't actually have land for growing vegetables because it's all being used for selling cotton and palm oil. So there is like, there is a lot of nuance to examples like this that is easy to, yeah, it's actually beautiful to have a deeper look into. Yeah. 

[00:23:24] Iris Josephina: Yeah. 

[00:23:25] Nicole: I love also what you shared about the skills that have been passed on because a lot of indigenous traditions are oral traditions, right?

[00:23:33] Nicole: So you don't study voodoo in a book. Just like when I was with the Yawanawa people in South America, they don't pass their teachings on through written materials. It's passed on through stories, like it's passed on verbal. And this is also something that I found very, very beautiful. Like the way they teach the rituals, the invocations, the prayers, the songs, it's a very intuitive way.

[00:24:00] Nicole: So you, you study by repeating it and practicing it until the point that it's really in your body and in your voice and in your heart. 

[00:24:09] Iris Josephina: Yeah. I love that. I studied with some indigenous midwives. Beautiful. Yeah. I studied with a Colombian and a Mexican midwife and. Yeah, the way that things just land, like I noticed when, when you study from books, you need to read it like multiple times, you need to hear it multiple times, you need to maybe put it into practice to understand what is written, but when someone is teaching through story by showing so that you have, basically it's how children learn, like they learn by listening and by looking.

[00:24:46] Nicole: Yes. 

[00:24:46] Iris Josephina: And it's so much easier to embody something and understand something on such a deep level. And it just blows my mind that we have gotten to a point where we send children to school and have them sit at a desk and have them read books and take this way of learning away like so soon because it's the best way to learn, in my personal opinion.

[00:25:06] Nicole: Yeah, I think from the books, it lands more in our mind and through this like oral way of studying and embodied way of studying, it lands in the body. And I think this is something that indigenous traditions are here to give us to, you know, to reconnect to our bodies and to reconnect to life, living our lives from our body, from our voices, from our dance, from our songs.

[00:25:31] Nicole: And this is what I really love about being around indigenous traditions. 

[00:25:36] Iris Josephina: I so understand that. And I have loved my time with Indigenous peoples. Yeah, it's been the best, like the best experiences of my life, like hands down. 

[00:25:45] Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. What did you feel like, what were some of the biggest gifts that you received from your time with the Indigenous people?

[00:25:53] Iris Josephina: Um, well, I lived for a while in the Colombian Amazon, and it's just their knowledge of nature, knowledge of plants. I used to have like an insane diarrhea attack. I was like severely dehydrated. All my western diarrhea travel pills didn't work. And I was just there and I was like, Oh my God, I'm like six hours from like a city from a doctor.

[00:26:18] Iris Josephina: I am here in this jungle and I am getting more and more dehydrated and I don't know what to do. And then these people. There was a woman, she went out for hours upon hours to find me these special barks from a tree and leaves and all the things, and she spent like hours of her day helping me like finding all these plants, preparing all the plants.

[00:26:42] Iris Josephina: And I remember drinking what she gave me and I thought like, okay, if I'm like now allergic to one of these things, like I'm going to die here in the jungle, but I had such deep trust, like my trust was so much deeper than my fear. And she gave me the drink and it tasted like a black tea, like a very strong black tea.

[00:27:03] Iris Josephina: Like the sensation was the same. Like it dried my entire mouth. A hundred times worse than a black teeth, and half an hour later, my fever was gone. I'd had fever for days, and I was on the toilet for days. Half an hour later, I could just feel my body settle, and I was like, wow, these people just know. They have so much wisdom.

[00:27:24] Nicole: Yes. 

[00:27:25] Iris Josephina: And that's just one of the few experiences that I had that were so extremely powerful that had me like on hands and knees just in gratitude, you know, for like upholding this wisdom and being dedicated to the wisdom and being dedicated to passing it on. So yeah, that was just one, like one of my experiences, but Beautiful.

[00:27:46] Iris Josephina: So much, like so much awe, so much gratitude. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. So what are, for you, the key pillars of the ancestral healing model, if we can call it that way, that you are practicing and using in your work, if you're comfortable to share? 

[00:28:05] Nicole: You mean like the aspects of the traditions that I took with me to share in my work?

[00:28:10] Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. So, Like one of the things I studied for a long time was evidential mediumship. So that's a big part of my work. And I love to support women in crystallizing their psychic abilities, um, connecting with their loved ones in spirit and their spirit guides. I think one of the biggest differences between a tradition like evidential mediumship and an indigenous tradition is that The way you learn to read and receive information is very specific.

[00:28:40] Nicole: So it's, you could say you use more of your mind and precision, whereas in the indigenous tradition, you work with the spirits by welcoming to let them dance to your body, for example. Right? So it's a very different approach and I love to work with both. So that's one big part of my work, the mediumship and the psychic abilities.

[00:29:00] Nicole: And then from the herbs, I really love to work with the ritual baths and the ceremonial washings. So, letting women connect with the herbs, but also the spirit in the herbs. Really to get to know the spirit of the most powerful herbs that I love. And to learn to make their own ritual washings and ceremonial baths for themselves and for others.

[00:29:22] Nicole: But it's also in the, in the rituals that I came across in other places, you know, so it's, it's a big blend. I don't know if I can put it down into a short answer, but I kind of picked all the things I loved from all these different traditions and, and they are woven throughout all my programs, even in my business programs, because I have a business mastermind where I guide women in their sole businesses.

[00:29:46] Nicole: And Um, but even in there, the approach very much comes from that connection to, to your body, that connection to spirits, that connection to the spirit of your business and relating with your business as an alive entity. So I think it's something that just breathes through, yeah, everything that I offer.

[00:30:06] Nicole: So beautiful. I think it's my only way now. I would not know any other way anymore. 

[00:30:12] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I love that. And from all the things that you studied over so many years, what is the wisdom around our body cycles and our life cycles that you feel is crucial for our world? 

[00:30:27] Nicole: Yeah, one of my programs is called Rite of Passage.

[00:30:31] Nicole: And rites of passage are like transitions in life that in the Western world, many of them, we forgot to celebrate or to acknowledge. I think some of them we still acknowledge, which is when we get married, we have like a really beautiful ceremony around it. And when we die, we have like the funeral, the ceremony around it, even though it's approached very differently.

[00:30:56] Nicole: Like when I was in Benin, I attended a funeral. And it was a funeral of a high priest and this high priest, they do this when they're really high, like high in their rank, they do funerals of 42 days. So I was at this priest's funeral. I think I was on the 41st or the 42nd day of his funeral. And I shared a video online and it looks like a party.

[00:31:19] Nicole: Like, you know, when here in the west when we have our funerals, it's quite sober. Um, most of the time we are quiet. I do think it's changing, but I would say traditionally it's very quiet, really sad, maybe even a little bit heavy, but there it's one big party because they celebrate that person's life. And they are crying.

[00:31:39] Nicole: They are also crying. They're laughing. They're dancing. So I think for the whole day that I was there, maybe they talked three minutes and the rest of the time it was dancing and eating together and celebrating that person's life. So I think the. Yeah, when it comes to our life cycles, it's these celebrations or acknowledgements of these transition moments, these rites of passage that are so much still part of the culture in indigenous cultures.

[00:32:08] Nicole: So I think the ones that we have forgotten in the West is when a girl, for example, receives her first blood, her first menstruation. Like in, in Benin, what happens is the grandmother then takes the girl by the hand. Makes a really special day for her, uh, collects specific herbs to give her a few baths during that day and during those days.

[00:32:33] Nicole: hands her her cloths so that she can catch her blood. So it's a moment where also the Ifa is consulted and they will do a reading for her. So there is a whole set of practices and celebrations and ways to acknowledge this transition for this girl. And I think we, many of us in the West, we don't do that anymore.

[00:32:55] Nicole: And it's important because an old, you could say an old version of us in that moment dies. Transcribed And a new one is born. And these rites of passage, they acknowledge that death and rebirth. And that's only one example of many, right? Also, when I recently transitioned into motherhood, my daughter is three and a half months.

[00:33:17] Nicole: Congratulations. Thank you. And during my pregnancy, I was actually in Benin in my priestess initiation. So I could experience the rituals and ceremonies they do in this period of transition. And it's beautiful. So they would already do ceremonies for my daughter while she was in my womb. And they would already, like, reveal her main spirits and, and work with that, bring offerings to those spirits for her.

[00:33:46] Nicole: And then when she was born, I was here in the Netherlands, but my voodoo mother would make ceremonies for her there. And 40 days after I gave birth to her, and this is in many indigenous traditions. I know it's in the Mexican midwifery tradition. I know it's in many other traditions that 40 days after birth, you close the first birth portal.

[00:34:07] Nicole: Uh, ceremonially and ritual, ritualistically, and it's the same in voodoo as well. In Mexico, they do this with the closing the bones, uh, ritual, where you go to these five stages and a really beautiful way to energetically close your body again, because you've opened so much during the birth. But also in voodoo, they have their ceremonies and their rituals to acknowledge those first 40 days.

[00:34:32] Nicole: And I do think in some way in the Netherlands, we do have some acknowledgement around six weeks after birth, but it's very different. It's very different than. And how it's supported through ritual and ceremony. So yeah, I think this deep love that I have for these rites of passage is why I came to create this program also to acknowledge these times of transitioning through ritual and ceremony.

[00:34:59] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I love that. And I do feel that a lot of people in the Western world are actually a little bit lost because there was no acknowledgement, especially with little girls, they're just expected to like, just know. what to do, just know how to like put in a pad to name like a simple example 

[00:35:19] Nicole: and 

[00:35:19] Iris Josephina: they're like not acknowledged in their journey of becoming because it's the moment where their process of becoming like the adult person starts like it's so big.

[00:35:30] Iris Josephina: It's big. It's huge. Yes, yes, it makes me so sad, you know that So many girls go through that alone, in a moment when they actually need community the most. Like, I would never, like, my daughters, if I ever am blessed to have them, they will get, like, the most beautiful ceremonies, because they deserve it. It's such a beautiful opportunity, and we're not taking it.

[00:35:56] Nicole: Yeah. And I think it's also when we look at the transition into motherhood, for example, I think a lot of mothers are struggling with that transition because they don't fully know what's happening. And there is so much happening, like energetically, Oh my God, the amount of processes that I've been going through during my pregnancy and also the three and a half, half months after now.

[00:36:20] Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. If I would not have my friends that are Doula and are deeply connected to these indigenous traditions, I think also it would have been very, very difficult for me. But they were like acknowledging and they were saying, It's normal. Like here you have a beautiful bath that you can take to help vitalize your body.

[00:36:38] Nicole: Or maybe you can go to this Yoni's team and help your womb in this way. Or like one friend from Spain, she sent me a really beautiful belly bind so I could bind my womb in my belly. Uh, my midwife was binding my belly through a Malaysian indigenous tradition. So, there's so many beautiful practices. So it doesn't really matter.

[00:36:58] Nicole: It doesn't have to be voodoo. It doesn't have to be South American. There's Many different indigenous traditions. And if there is not one in your actual physical lineage, um, that you feel connected to, then maybe there's one in your soul lineage that you feel connected to and you can, yeah, embrace the practices that resonate for you.

[00:37:19] Nicole: I never feel there is only one way or the way. I think the way is a very dangerous thing that creates separation. So. Yeah, to follow your heart, because there's many, many beautiful practices that can support us in these transitions. 

[00:37:33] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I totally agree. I'm in my preconception phase right now. So I'm like preparing to conceive at some point.

[00:37:41] Iris Josephina: And I've actually been trying to like trace back like, what did my ancestors do? Like, I'm Dutch, I'm from the Netherlands. And I've been looking into like, is there any wisdom on like pre Christian communities? Because they existed in the Netherlands as well. And only two generations ago, there was this practice of, in English, it's translated closing sheets, but in the Netherlands, they call them sluitlakens.

[00:38:06] Iris Josephina: And my grandmother taught me about it. And I've been looking to find like vintage sluitlakens and I found them on like Marketplace. Yes, and I bought them and I interviewed my grandmother on her births and on the practices when she was still alive. And she kept sharing about these closing sheets. So, I was really, like, determined to, like, find them so that when I have my babies I can actually use the same fabrics and the same techniques as my grandmother used and her grandmother.

[00:38:40] Nicole: And that's to close your body, just like in the Mexican tradition? Yeah, 

[00:38:43] Iris Josephina: so it's a cotton sheet, like a, like a sheet from the bed that they make into, like a strong sheet, like a reposo, and then you close them and you attach them to the bed. So, it's like a wrap, and it wraps around in different ways, and they also have the ones with like strings to close, like a corset, almost.

[00:39:06] Iris Josephina: But the most traditional ones are the ones that you wrap around your body and then attach to the bed with closing pins, like safety pins. 

[00:39:13] Nicole: Wow. So, yeah. That's so beautiful. It almost makes me want to look into it because I'm also Dutch and I would love to know more about actually the Dutch lineage in these practices.

[00:39:24] Iris Josephina: Yeah. Look it up. It's called sluitlakens. And it's Sluitlakens. Yeah. And I do feel that the Dutch tradition has always been like a bit more practical. Like the close Dutch lineage that I, that I have, like from my grandmother and my great grandmother. Yeah. But I also feel there must be, like, longer down the line, like, some spiritual connection to the land and the goddesses of the lowlands.

[00:39:50] Iris Josephina: Yeah. 

[00:39:50] Nicole: Mm hmm. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you for sharing this. Because I actually have my closing a bit later because I have a friend flying in from Spain to come and close me. So I actually have it in two weeks from now. 

[00:40:03] Iris Josephina: Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look into it. Because there was a, there used to be a company. In the Netherlands, I used to sell traditional sluitlakkens, but they closed, but I found mine on Marketplace.

[00:40:17] Iris Josephina: So there may be like some around that you can find. 

[00:40:20] Nicole: Yeah, I will look into it. Thank you. 

[00:40:23] Iris Josephina: For everybody listening, reclaim like your Dutch lineage with this as you're going to give birth. 

[00:40:29] Nicole: Yes. And it's a beautiful example of when we look into our lineage, whatever your lineage is, that at some point, maybe some need to look back two generations and some need to look back 20 generations, but at some point we will come across these practices.

[00:40:45] Nicole: Yeah. 

[00:40:46] Iris Josephina: And it's beautiful to remember them and to feel them through our bodies and how right they feel. 

[00:40:52] Nicole: Yes. Yeah. I feel what it gave me, the number one gift is really arriving home within myself and in my body and in my root and in my roots, in my bones. Like I feel so much more landed in my body since I came back from Benin because I was able to really reconnect to my roots.

[00:41:11] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I understand that so much. 

[00:41:14] Nicole: Yeah, 

[00:41:15] Iris Josephina: and it's a beautiful gift that we can give ourselves But then also when we are really embodied we pass on that gift to our children And I think that's the most powerful thing that we can do. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. I love this conversation with you. I can speak with you for like hours.

[00:41:33] Nicole: Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much for this beautiful conversation and your beautiful questions. It just reminds me of how much I love sharing about these things. 

[00:41:43] Iris Josephina: Yeah, you should. I'm sure many people are so inspired by you and your story and the wisdom. That you're sharing. And to close off, I'd love to invite you to share your vision with us, your vision for specifically our cyclical experience and for communities worldwide, so that we can plant seeds for the vision.

[00:42:07] Nicole: Yeah, so my vision would be that Each one of us find our own true and authentic connection to our lineages, to the indigenous wisdom that runs through our veins. And that we can take from that whatever resonates and still feels true today. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a copy paste, but that we find our own nourishing ground in those ancient practices and wisdom and create our new futures with that.

[00:42:38] Nicole: Yeah. And it doesn't have to look any certain way. I think it's very much true. Being willing to stand in the unknown with that, deep listening. Like following those synchronicities and resonance in each moment that it naturally unfolds these new futures that are meant to come our way. 

[00:42:57] Iris Josephina: I resonate with that so much.

[00:43:00] Nicole: Nice. Yeah. 

[00:43:02] Iris Josephina: Thank you so much for coming on and coming to share. And I hope that people get really, really inspired from our conversation. And if people want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Like, what's the best way to contact you? 

[00:43:17] Nicole: Yeah, the best way is to go to my website, womenofancientfutures.

[00:43:21] Nicole: com or to my Instagram. I guess we can both link, link them below this episode. That's the easiest way. And there you can find more about my programs like Rites of Passage is always available to go through. Then there is my year training, uh, Mystic Medium. Where I, everything I shared about today is inside one year of studying with me, many different layers.

[00:43:46] Nicole: Yeah, those are the easiest platforms to reach me through. 

[00:43:49] Iris Josephina: Thank you. I will share them in the show notes so people can find them. And I just want to say thank you again for coming on here and sharing your wisdom with us. 

[00:43:58] Nicole: You're so welcome.

[00:44:03] Iris Josephina: Okay, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Want to know more about me? The best way to reach me is via at CycleSeeds on Instagram. And if you heard something today and you think, Oh my God, wow, I learned something new. Feel free to share the podcast on your social media and tag me or leave a review or rating.

[00:44:24] Iris Josephina: In this way, you help me reach more people like you. Thank you so much.