A Voice For The Animals

Join Animal Intuitive, Kora Goodman, as she speaks about the importance of nature connectedness on the Shaman's Notebook Podcast. Hear the story behind her first animal communication experience with a horse, and how it has guided her journey in becoming a voice for the animals.

Transcript

I am Suzanne Legrand and this is the Shawman's notebook.

Today my guest is Cora Goodman.

Cora is an herbalist,

An intuitive,

A teacher,

And an animal communicator.

Welcome.

Thank you so much,

Suzanne.

Happy to be here.

I want to start with something that you said.

You said,

Quote,

A return to nature connectedness is being asked of us.

What we love and truly understand we cannot destroy.

Could you talk about that idea?

Sure.

Yeah.

So that's something that the animals have taught me,

That we're all kind of in this co-creation of existence together.

And when we honor the plants,

When we honor the animals,

We're actually honoring ourselves and healing ourselves.

So that return to nature connectedness,

As I say,

Is something that I feel is a partnership we need to return to with nature.

And doing that through my herbalism teachings and practices,

And then with animal communication,

That's been a gentle way of kind of reminding humanity,

This is the natural way I believe things are meant to be for us.

You say that plants and animals are wisdom keepers.

What kind of wisdom do plants and animals possess that perhaps we need now more than ever?

Well,

They're so brilliant in the way that they often customize our questions to what we need to hear at the time.

So it can be pretty different for everyone.

But collectively,

I would say that there's a big push in restoring the land.

And their take on doing that is actually through our thinking process and our beliefs about ourself.

So there's a lot of animals that have been coming through lately that talk about how much of an impact our beliefs and our thoughts are affecting the energetics of the land and their environments.

And so it's kind of they're asking us all to kind of take personal responsibility and maybe gently follow their lead in returning into the natural cycles of ourselves and nature.

What beliefs do we hold that affect the land,

That actually affects the land around us?

I get a lot of images through the animals,

But the way they've shown it to me is a lot of hyper anxiety has been present in the human collective consciousness,

Especially in the last few years.

And that anxiety,

It's almost like this split energy that hangs over our heads.

And it's kind of like creating this obstruction for us to see what's right in front of us,

Which is the natural healers,

The plants,

The weather,

Nature,

The animals.

And with these thoughts kind of creating the barrier,

It's affecting the energetics of the land.

So it's more uncomfortable for us to live here with them in co-creation with them when we are just basically exuding this chaos from our minds.

And so they're asking for this presence to return and for us to see,

Like I said,

What's right in front of us,

Which is them coming to us in many different ways,

Showing us the natural ways of being and returning to holistic health.

So for me,

The way that I see it is really like a plant,

Animal,

Elemental,

This human connection.

It's all a web that we're connected in together.

In addition to there's a lot of energy that the land has been holding from past events.

So a lot of times I'll work with animals,

Horses specifically,

And there'll be a situation where the horses can feel things that have happened there,

I mean,

Decades ago,

And they're being affected by that unrest in the land.

So there's,

Like I said,

It's this total,

This holistic connection,

This web that we heal and honor the land and the plants,

The trees that have been there for hundreds of years and what they may have seen,

What they may have felt,

And the animals in this situation,

I'm talking about the horses,

Made me aware of that.

And in clearing that and releasing it and just acknowledging what has happened there and asking for peace to restore,

Just the simple acknowledgement,

Like our part in acknowledging the land,

Acknowledging the animals,

It almost autocorrects.

It's not like you have to do this intensive process.

It's just about awareness and presence really.

And it sounds like acknowledgement.

Yes,

That's a huge one for a lot of animals,

Animals that have been in service to us.

They just need the acknowledgement.

Like all of us want that.

We want to be seen.

We want to be understood.

We want to be heard.

When I think about traumas that have happened over centuries,

Just in the US alone,

Well,

How could any of us possibly heal that?

Well,

A lot of the times the animals are aware of that energy and they're working with it and they're working to resolve that and bringing our awareness to it as stewards of the land.

We live on this land too.

That's our part that we play where there's this extra witnessing of that and then it's released and you can do rituals with the land or you can have prayers or whatever your calling is for that kind of healing.

But a lot of the times the animals that I've worked with,

They have that action plan ready for us and they're just like,

Can you join us in this healing?

Let this be part of the nature connectedness.

And really it benefits us later because when there's unrest on the land and the home we live in,

That affects us in ways that we don't even know.

So when they make that an awareness and you start working with that and getting to know the plants and the old growth trees on your land and asking them their stories and working with the wild animals that show up and work in your garden with you if you have one.

That's really where the communication cycle begins and it can grow from there.

How did you get started working with plants and also with animals?

The animals actually taught me how to do this,

Which is a very amazing story.

If we have time for that,

I can get into this really incredible journey that started with horses in my early 20s.

So I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and when I left home,

I was working on a horse and cattle ranch in Hawaii and I ended up returning back to Pennsylvania just to visit.

And while I was there,

One of my childhood friends,

Family friends who had a horse farm asked me to come to their horse farm because one of their horses was dying and they just said,

We just want everyone to love her up and say goodbye to her.

So I went over there just hoping to maybe pet her and say my goodbyes.

And when I showed up,

This horse was not a horse that looked like it was dying.

She was furious.

She was,

Her eyes were just huge and angry and she was stomping her feet and swishing her tail.

And she was,

She could have gotten to me through the stall she would have.

She was pawing at it.

It was like she wanted to stampede over me.

And I was thinking,

Okay,

This is not,

You know,

The soft goodbye I was hoping to have with this mare.

And the women in the barn were kind of like,

You know,

She's been to all these vets.

She's been seen by all these specialists and they don't really know what's wrong with her.

She just stopped eating and they're giving her a couple hours left.

And so I kind of was just sitting with her in the corner of the barn and it was November in Pennsylvania.

So it was pretty cold.

I could see her breath coming through her nostrils.

And I just remember having this instantaneous download.

It was like my body was thrown back three feet and I had an instant download of this horse's experience and what she was feeling and what she was seeing and her history.

And I just started weeping,

Crying and all,

You know,

The women in the barn all came up to me and they're asking what happened.

Like,

Why are you crying?

And I couldn't even catch my breath.

I was just so taken aback by the story this horse has been holding.

And I finally got it out and I spoke with some of the women and one of the women kind of stopped and said,

Look at the horse.

And we looked over and she,

Her body language,

She was soft and calm.

She was eating,

Nibbling at some hay on the floor.

And it was like there had been this healing that had happened from her just being acknowledged,

Just being seen,

Just being witnessed for who she was and what she was holding.

And she went on to,

You know,

Live many more years and she was a show horse and she ended up having a foal.

And you know,

She had a very long,

Happy,

Successful life.

And you know,

She's the one that kind of started this journey for me.

Like I really realized on that day how much the animals hold for us and the relationship they have to the land is very important.

So to summarize what the horse told me was there was a really strange thing that had been happening on this woman's horse farm for many years.

She boarded many horses and she was a horse trainer.

And every year for maybe seven years,

One of the horses would die for some strange unforeseen reason.

And only the horses that were owned by the woman who owned the land would die.

All the other horses that were being boarded there who had different owners,

They were always perfectly healthy.

So it was this strange mystery that was going on with the owner of the farm,

Her personal horses every year,

One of them would die.

And I didn't know any of this coming onto the farm that day,

But the horse shared with me that there was a war that had happened on that land a long time ago.

And there was a river,

A little small creek stream that ran through the pastures and what the horses could see there were the bodies of indigenous people and Native American people like floating in the water face down with blood around them.

And basically just this scene of violence.

And so none of the horses would even want to drink out of the stream.

And the energy on the land was so angry that the horses were taking that on and trying to cleanse it and clear it and remove it.

But it wasn't being completely successful for them.

They were taking it on so deeply that they were becoming mysteriously ill from holding that toxic energy.

And what made me so emotional is that the horse that I was speaking with that day that sent me this information,

She shared her story with me.

She told me that if these horses throughout the years hadn't been doing this,

That the owner of the land,

The woman who owned the farm would have died in place of it from the energetics of the toxicity that lived there,

The violence and the unrest of the land.

So it seemed like a very extreme case to me to be 21 years old and not having ever had an animal communication before and all of a sudden there's this horse who's telling me not only can I communicate with you,

But I can also hold energy from the land and help humanity not become ill from it.

That is my sacrifice.

I will hold this for you.

So because I honor you,

I love you,

I care for you,

I'm going to hold this for you and make sure that it doesn't affect you.

And so there was an imbalance there because they're asking us to do this work all together.

So it's a win-win when we can do it all together versus just one of us.

And it sounds like the fact that you were able to understand this horse and her experience also was a healing for her as well.

Yes it absolutely was.

It was a healing for her so much that her physical body,

It was a matter of moments.

She released whatever was twisting her up inside.

She released it,

She felt seen and acknowledged.

She felt honored for giving that gift to her owner,

Her guardian.

She wanted to be acknowledged for that.

And in sharing her story,

She was.

And they were able to have a much more beneficial co-creative relationship for many years to come thereafter.

So that very same day after this horse had shared that communication with me,

The owner of the land took me up to what we called like the burial site for all of her past horses who had been buried over the years.

And we went up there and as soon as all the women from the barn who had witnessed this happening,

They all followed.

And it was kind of like this collective of women holding space for the horses.

And it was so beautiful.

And one by one,

I felt the spirits of the horses who had been buried there coming in and kind of showing themselves.

And I would describe them to the owner and say,

Okay,

This one is a red mare and she's about this tall.

And she'd say,

Oh yeah,

That's Strawberry.

We lost her three years ago.

And so it was almost this closing ceremony where the horses would come through and just say,

I'm glad you see what I did for you now.

I can be freed and move on.

So it was this really an intense,

Beautiful experience for me that kind of led me into a journey of paying attention,

Following in into a few more studies of the energetics of plants and animals and other animal communicators and kind of finding my own path and my own way of how to do this work.

And then it's so much bigger than just something that is enjoyable for me and for the animals.

It's like a planetary healing.

There's a larger thing that is taking place here.

And we are just,

I'm just a drop in that bucket of the efforts towards this reconnection and this healing for the planet.

And the message that comes through so often from the animals is like,

It's pretty simple.

It doesn't need to be hard.

We don't need to overthink it.

It's just the natural spectrum of our emotions of the acknowledgement,

The seeing you,

The honoring,

Taking note from people of the past who were more connected to the animals and the plants than we are now,

People that worked every day on the land and had a relationship with the bounty of food and medicine that grew there.

And I think we've moved away from that,

As we all know.

And it's not about throwing out technology.

Technology is helpful for us.

And what we're doing through the podcast right now,

Like this is helpful and makes it more accessible for people,

But there's a balance being asked to return.

And I think that that's absolutely possible.

We just need to kind of even the playing field a little bit.

You are an animal communicator and do intuitive readings for domestic animals as well.

I'm wondering what are some of the typical problems you encounter in your work with animals and their humans?

Domestic animals,

Domesticated animals are so interesting because they often are holding the exact issue,

Mirroring the exact issue of their guardian.

So it hasn't always been well received when I do readings because it's often about taking the focus back to self.

And that's why I say these animals are like our guardians.

They're like oracles.

They tell us where the shadow parts of our self are because it's asking for to be healed.

So there if you're open to it,

They can reveal this amazing amount of information and knowledge about how they're feeling.

But it's often a reflection of yourself.

So a lot of issues that I see are usually like the mental chatter,

Anxiety.

There's a communication breakdown.

So you're working with things that are still really important for the animals to feel healthy and balanced and well.

But it's so different to work with wild animals who don't have a guardian directly affecting them.

It's more of like a collective relationship that needs healing.

What is it that we need to know about animals and also plants to help support their healing and growth?

I think it just comes back to the theme that we've been on with the acknowledgment that really comes through in so many different ways.

I believe plants to be our elders.

They've been here longer than us.

They nourish our bodies and our spirits and they have information for us that helps our life.

So the acknowledgment of that I think is a big part for the plants.

Communication is also another one that I teach in a lot of my animal communication classes.

So permission is really important because that comes in as part of the honoring of them.

It's something so beautiful that the animals have shared with me is just because we're lesser body does not mean we're lesser than.

And I think about that a lot with plants too,

Because plants communicate and grow at a different pace than us.

Just because we don't hear them as we do each other doesn't mean they have less to say or share.

And that's been such a beautiful awakening for me and working with the plants because there is a communication,

There is a relationship happening with the plants around you,

With the animals around you.

It's just about tuning your frequency,

Your radio dial to be more on their frequency instead of dominating with yours.

How do we do that?

How do we tune our frequency to the plants around us and to the animals around us?

I think that a big part of it is slowing down.

I have this idea about something called ceremoniously living.

And so everything is almost this done in a ceremonious way.

So you pour your tea,

You let it steep,

You watch the steam rise,

You breathe it in and you create that time to have a slow morning.

And it sets the pace for more of the knowledge that's around you,

That cosmic energy that is always with us,

Talking to us,

Vibrating through us.

We're part of it.

In creating those small little spaces where you can just breathe for a moment.

It doesn't even have to be a full on meditation,

But just checking in with your body and being in the stillness.

I think that's when those little pieces of information can drop in and the houseplant,

The ficus that's sitting right next to you while you drink your tea,

You might notice it a little differently in that moment and realize that you haven't watered it in a few days.

Or it might have a certain amount of light shining on it and it inspires a thought or a memory that brings you peace.

So those are the very small little ways of beginning to tune your frequency to the pace of the natural world around us.

And I think slowing down is a really good place to start with that.

In addition to communicating with horses,

You also communicate with whales.

And I just saw alligators too.

One of the wild animals that we may not have direct contact with.

I'm wondering,

Are you getting messages from those animals that,

Let me say this again.

In addition to communicating with horses,

You also communicate with other wild animals such as alligators or whales.

What messages are they communicating to you or what messages are they communicating to the human collective that we perhaps need to listen to?

So part of my practice is not just doing one-on-one readings.

It's just opening myself up to channel the wisdom of the wild animal collective voice.

And that did begin with horses and it has kind of extended outwards.

And whales are a big part of that.

They kind of hold that space of the water element and emotion.

And they bring a lot of different information than the horses,

Which I see as more of like the keepers of the land.

So the whale energy is so massive and so incredibly powerful.

And there's a lot of information from the whales coming through about,

I don't know if this is directed towards just the work that I'm doing with women right now,

But a lot of encoded magic through the songs of the whales and especially the humpback whales.

How whales have culture and they communicate in ways scientists don't even understand.

And there's a piece to that that fascinates me around maternal energy.

And a lot of,

You know,

If you have as a human,

You have this trauma you've experienced in your life.

A lot of times it can be traced back to your early upbringing,

Resentment with the parents,

Or maybe your own children.

There's just a lot of themes about family there.

And I feel like with the frequency that the whales often bring in and communicate is this massive healing energy around maternal care and self-love.

And it's almost like this rocking in the ocean waves that they're bringing.

And a lot of the whales also talk about being the wisdom keepers for channeling energy from the stars and this big sky energy.

So they're working in relationship with this cosmic outer world energy and they're almost through the water,

But they're also mammals.

So there's this groundingness that they can hold.

They're bringing that down and into our planet.

And so through the water,

It's immersed through the whole planet.

And they talk a lot about how we breathe the same air as whales and how in holding that cosmic energy,

This maternal love energy,

This big sky outer world energy,

They're breathing it out into the air that we then also pick up.

And so it's a way that we're kind of networking with them and sharing with them.

There's a lot of themes also about diving into the depths of emotions and really exploring that too.

So yeah,

The whales are there.

They just have such a massive presence for ancient knowledge that is slowly coming in throughout the years for me.

And it's been kind of a compiling of what they've shared and I think over time,

That's something that I would like to make public and help people feel just a sense of safety and maternal care through that energy,

As well as many other things that the whales are bringing into us and having the patience to let us catch on with them.

If there was one thing that we could do to support nature,

Be that the plants in our houses,

The trees in our neighborhoods or our domestic animals,

As well as the wild animals that we may or may not come into contact with,

What is it that humans can do to really make a difference?

Same thing.

I really think starting small with something that affects you every day is a good place to start.

And not everyone has access to seeing wild animals out their window or having the time to connect with nature on a daily basis,

But we do breathe air and we do eat food.

So I think taking a small step in the direction of just taking a moment to imagine where that food came from.

Imagine as you're eating it,

How it began to grow,

Whether it's meat or a plant,

Thinking it for that life and having a connection with your food and taking a deep breath in and knowing that the plants around you that you may not even be able to see have been part of that breath of life for you.

I think that's a really sustainable way to start slowly and there are many other ways that you can move forward when and as you're ready,

But I think intentional eating and gratitude and that breath work is a really great place to start and more magic will show up for you as you begin to do that every day.

I really believe that.

I have been speaking today with Cora Goodman,

Who is a green alchemist,

An intuitive and an animal communicator.

If people want to know more about you and your work,

Where can they go?

You can find my website coreervels.

Com and that's core with a K,

K-o-r-e dash ervels.

Com and also on Instagram,

I post recipes for green beauty and plant connectedness and lots of information about wild animal channels coming through there and so my Instagram is core,

K-o-r-e dot ervel.

Thank you so much for being on the Shaman's Notebook today.

Thank you so much for the invitation.

This has been so beautiful for me.

I am Suzanne Legrand.

Each week I bring you new perspectives on healing from energy medicine practitioners,

Shamans,

Intuitives,

And scientists who are changing the way we think,

Feel,

And heal.

If you enjoyed the show,

Subscribe in the link below.

Thanks so much for listening.