June 13, 2024

Living the dream with author and multifaceted individual Angell Deer

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In today's episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, host Curveball is joined by Angell Deer, a multifaceted individual passionate about holistic wellness, environmental conservation, and spiritual enlightenment. Angell shares his journey from a corporate career to becoming a teacher of ancient cosmology and spirituality, and the founder of The Sanctuary, a place dedicated to reconnecting people with ancestral wisdom and nature. Tune in to learn about Angell's transformative work with permaculture, his new book on creating sacred spaces, and his vision for a harmonious future.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the living the dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about environmental conservation. We're going to be talking about spiritual enlightenment and holistic wellness as I am joined by Angel Deer. He is a multifaceted, uh, individual and his commitment are, as I said, for holistic wellness, environmental conservation, as well as spiritual enlightenment. So we're going to be talking to him about everything he's up to and about his passions. So, angel, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Angel Deer>Thank you, Curtis. I'm really glad to be with you this morning.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.

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> Angel Deer>Um, I am a teacher of ancient cosmology, spirituality in the lineage of andean cosmology. I'm based on a land that's on the lenape territory, upstate New York, called, uh, sanctuary here. And, um, I'm a permaculturist, beekeeper, um, and I offer people profound transformation through ancient wisdom. And I've been doing that for close to 20 years now. And, uh, my teachers are mainly based in Peru, in the andes, in the sacred valley, but also I, um, study with, uh, native american, um, many lakota teachers, um, here in the United States.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So you own a place called the sacred.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So tell us about that.

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> Angel Deer>Yeah, the sanctuary was opened in sanctuary.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, sorry about that. I read that wrong.

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> Angel Deer>That's okay. The sanctuary was, uh, yeah, it was a vision I received. I, you know, I moved, I used to live in New York City and I always been very close to nature and wanted to have a place here and found this beautiful land, uh, almost a bit more than 15 years ago, I think, now. And as I spend the first few years on this land, uh, living first part time and then full time, uh, this vision, uh, to use, um, the land to be with the land and help people reconnect to ancestral wisdom, to the wisdom of the trees, wisdom of nature.

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> Angel Deer>And at the same time I was studying, uh, ancient shamanic practice and, uh, I was experiencing profound transformation for myself. And, uh, because of that, and my teacher encourages me to start teaching, to bring this teaching to people that, uh, were interested, that needed, uh, healing, needed clarity on their path. Uh, and, you know, I kind of had, uh, this vision to open that place.

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> Angel Deer>And now we're more than ten years later and we have been serving, I don't know, thousands and thousands of people over the years now. And it's, uh, been quite extraordinary. But now a lot of my work is also online, you know, I do most of my teachings, uh, online because people, uh, that are interested in this are, I would say a little bit everywhere, not just local people here.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So tell us about your environmental conservation work.

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> Angel Deer>Um, well, we do a lot of work with the land, you know, growing our food, uh, growing medicinal, uh, plants. Uh, we have greenhouse flower gardens, medicinal, um, plant gardens. We grow mushrooms, uh, on logs, uh, we have chickens, bees, uh, and also, we also replanted most of the forest here as an edible forest, a medicinal forest. Though we have brought back a lot of the original, uh, native plants that used to be in those forests and trees. I think we've planted over 2000 trees and plants. Uh, and uh, yeah, the land is for me kind of a magical garden, but it's also the base for our teaching.

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> Angel Deer>And because of those efforts, you know, we also put bee houses for white bees, bath houses for bats, uh, etcetera. Because of all those efforts, uh, we've been rewarded by many certifications as a uh, pollinator friendly, as a wildlife habitat, as a monarch butterfly waste stations, um, and we've completely also converted, uh, the premises and the land into green energy. We are fully, uh, solar powered now with community solar, um, and we try to implement principle, uh, where we work with the land, not against it. So with the water conservation and landscape, uh, what people would call permaculture principle, but I would say more, you know, nature principle, uh, trying to really understand what the land wants and needs and try to follow, um, that lead, uh, of the land.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>But you didn't always start out like this. You also had a corporate career before you started doing this.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So tell us about your corporate career and why you decided to make the switch.

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> Angel Deer>Yes, I train as a veterinarian, I have a PhD in veterinary medicine. And I spent, I would say, the first 20 years of my career in the corporate world, uh, either running companies or as an, ah, entrepreneur. So running my own business and you know, I did that in UK and then in us, um, and as my career was building or growing, as I was experiencing success, uh, uh, business success, I would say I would feel less and less successful inside myself. I would feel like, uh, the purpose of life was not about this career, was not about just making more money, it was not the goal. And I went through, ah, a big, what you would call maybe life crisis or big shift, uh, where I decided to quit everything to go find what my life should be about. Um, that was, you know, almost 15 years ago now. And I spent a lot of time volunteering in different nonprofit organizations around the world, at Mazatriza in India, in the Philippines, in Nepal. Um, and it became clear to me that my purpose, my life should be oriented towards the service of others. And when I say others, I mean not just people, but also nature, animals, um, things that I didn't do when I was in my career, it was not about that. Uh, and as I started doing that, I started to experience more joy in my life, better sleep, better, uh, relation, better, uh, wholeness in general. And so that's what really, uh, guided me into that completely different, uh, life. Life in so many ways today. Yeah.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, speaking of life today, you talk about how you bridge ancient teaching with modern life. So explain that to the listeners and how you do that.

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> Angel Deer>Mhm. Well, I think, you know, we are in uh, a culture and in a society that never had uh, such access to knowledge, I guess in some ways, right, when you look at the Internet, uh, you can literally pretty much learn anything online today. Even uh, the big university now, a lot of their programs, you can just take it online.

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> Angel Deer>So um, we have all this access to uh, knowledge from all around the world. And despite that, there is a huge, um, um, gap, I think heartbreaking pain in the world, uh, of search for wisdom. I think many people have come to realize that the way we are living our life is not sustainable, is not in alignment, uh, with nature, is not in alignment with each other's, uh, there is a lot of social injustices, there is a lot of people suffering. You know, even in the United States of America, that's one of the richest country in the world. There's a lot of poverty, uh, there's a lot of children that go to school. Hungary, uh, there is a lot of people struggling with mental illnesses and other issues and addictions, um, and a lot of people are turning towards ancient wisdom, uh, towards the people that over thousands of years have learned how to live a good life, to live in harmony with each other, to live in harmony with nature. And so that's my belief. But it's also been my experience. It's not just that I believe it, it's been the experience of it, not just for myself, but the people I, ah, work with. When you start learning and discovering ancient wisdom, that we can also call timeless wisdom, a, ah, wisdom that has never died for a reason, because it's still very relevant. People discover that they are feeling better, that their life has more meaning, that this anxiety they've been living with for so long is fading away, that their sleep is getting better, that they finally find purpose and make sense of life. Um, and despite those teachings, you know, and their own cosmology, they don't really know how old it is, but they say 5000 year old, 10,000 year old teaching, we don't really know because it's an oral transmission tradition. Uh, there is no writing about it. Um, when people that are from a very different culture, the western, uh, culture, discover those teaching and start implementing them, they are like, that makes sense. This feels like home.

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> Angel Deer>Wow. I finally understand what happened to me and why I'm feeling that way. So I feel it's time and that's why there's a rise of ancient wisdom. That's why people are turning towards this teaching. It's time for people to rediscover that. And I would say, you know, um, brother, since COVID I've seen an acceleration of that. Uh, because I guess people were home and uh, they were isolated and they were looking for connection. I uh, could see how, you know, all our offering now people are just really looking for it.

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> Angel Deer>And there's what you would call the unexpected, um, people that are reaching out. You know, it used to be people that were in spirituality, maybe, you know, interested in meditation, in yoga, um, that type of teachings. But uh, now we have people that are coming from the politics, from um, our lawyers, that are psychotherapists, that are coming from jobs and way of life. That is people that you would not expect to go and come to those teachings. And that gives me hope. That gives me hope that now there is um, a feeling that is shared, uh, globally that we need to find another way to live together, to relate, to live in harmony with the environment.

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> Angel Deer>Um, and I think people are looking for that. And they finding that Hindus teaching, they can find the answers they've been looking for.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So tell the listeners about your book. Tell us, uh, why you decide to write it and where to get it and what we can expect to find when we read it.

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> Angel Deer>Uh, so my book is called the sacred web, the magical craft of your sacred shamanic space.

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> Angel Deer>Uh, and the book is, you know, it's a small book, uh, quite simple in many ways. Uh, I wanted the first book that I write to be, uh, easy access for anyone, someone that has no knowledge of anything spiritually, no background about it. But uh, I also wanted to make sure that if people had knowledge about spirituality and already have a sacred space in their home, that they could find additional knowledge in it. And the book is for people to start creating sacred space in their home to return to the original teaching that everything is sacred and our uh, homes are sacred and that we can find spiritual connection there, that we don't need to travel the world or go anywhere for it. And how do we do that? How do we create a sacred space?

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> Angel Deer>How do we do it from the lenses and perspective of the people in the world that have maintained sacred space in their life. And so, uh, it's a guide to help people creating that first step, that first connection, which is to have a place in their home where they can connect to themselves, that they can reconnect to purpose, that they can get guidance, um, and kind of feel their own sanctuary in many ways, as like, yeah, you know, I have this place I call the sanctuary here. But most importantly is to find a sanctuary in your home, to find a sanctuary in yourself. And what we call an altar, which is a personal sacred space, uh, is the way, and I designed the book in a way that, yeah, either you not religious at all, but you could be also. You know, I work a lot with jewish people, christian Muslims, Hindus, people that have a religious background. It also works for them. Right. So the goal is that anyone that wished to deepen their connection to meaning, to purpose, to the sacred in their life, that wish to foster that, I uh, could have a guide about it. And the book was, uh, released, um, on January 1 this year, and it's doing really well.

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> Angel Deer>I'm happy with that because it's reaching people. I uh, keep getting emails saying, wow, that really helped my practice, that really supported my practice and that's my goal, you know, as a teacher. My goal is to be of service of people, uh, wherever they are at in their life. And so I feel the book is, that first book is uh, a good milestone into that. And uh, I'm writing my second book already. So, uh, that's going to be a much bigger book and it's going to be a uh, deep exploration of shamanic practices. But that's going to be for, I believe, the end of the year. This year.

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> Angel Deer>Yeah.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, that was my next question. Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that we need to be aware of.

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> Angel Deer>Well, I, you know, I just became a father.

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> Angel Deer>Uh, my daughter was born three weeks ago. So that's kind of my project at the moment.

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> Angel Deer>Uh, but yeah, I'm writing a second, uh, book, uh, that is going to be about transforming yourself to become medicine for the world. You know, how, ah, do we become the medicine?

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> Angel Deer>How do we become, uh, the ones that are in service of the world and how do we do that for ourselves first and then for others. Uh, and that book is going to have a lot of the core practices in shamanism helping people to really understand this practice, uh, to apply them.

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> Angel Deer>It has journaling, it has meditation, it has rituals and ceremonies in it. But also the book is mixed, uh, with my own personal story with those practices. So for each chapter, let's say there is a chapter on shamanic journeying and discovering your spirit animal, your power animal.

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> Angel Deer>There is also a good section on my personal story about that and how I came into this encounter.

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> Angel Deer>You know, I came from a scientific background. I have a PhD in veterinary medicine. I was very cartesian in my thinking. And then I discovered those ways are very different from the way I was thinking. So I wanted to share with people also my process with it, you know, that it was not easy, that it was not just an overnight process, um, and also show that it's possible for anyone to access that. So I'm almost finished writing it, I think, you know, I probably have 20, 30, 40 pages to write. Uh, and I'm really, yeah, I'm really excited about that.

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> Angel Deer>We have uh, you know, every year we bring people to Peru for deep initiation.

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> Angel Deer>People are looking for big transformation and we have our next retreat coming up in October.

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> Angel Deer>And you know, I'm also started, uh, you know, since last year to teach in retreat centers across the United States.

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> Angel Deer>And you know, I'm expanding that offering, uh, and finally, and that's been a kind of a demand of a lot of my students, uh, people, you know, we have an online school, uh, where people can come, you know, through Zoom and you know, from wherever they are. But people wanted to have access to more like on demand classes, meaning that you can do it at your own pace, from your own home, whenever you want. And so we have launched already two, um, classes like this. And I'm expanding that so people, yeah, can learn from whatever they are, uh, about those teachings, do it at their own pace based on whatever they're looking for. You know, we have, you know, meditation and rituals for anxiety, uh, for creating abundance, uh, for connecting to the higher self. So I'm working at the moment to expand those offerings so anyone can, uh.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Access it, basically throw out your website for those who would like to access it.

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> Angel Deer>Yeah, so my website is sanctuaryheal.com. the th e sanctuary, like a sanctuary, heal the sanctuaryheal.com. and uh, we just relaunched a new website, in fact, a couple of days ago. Uh, so, uh, we made all that offering, I think, quite clear and easy for people to access now.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay. Close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to touch on that you would like to talk about, or just any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Angel Deer>Yeah, people can just, uh, you know, go there. They can find me on social media. I write a lot. You know, I'm not just writing books, but every weeks or twice a week, I release, uh, a long blog, which are about those teachings.

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> Angel Deer>Um, you know, those are free, uh, to access for people. We have a lot of free classes, too. My goal is that there is four for every budget, right. Not everybody can go, uh, for a ten day retreat in Peru. So how do you do that if you don't have money, if you don't have resources? So we have a, uh, podcast, we have a blog, we have a YouTube channel with a lot of interviews from, uh, elders, wisdom keepers, uh, so people can, you know, our website also access to a lot of teachings, a lot of content for free. And that's, ah, also part of my goal to make sure that, you know, all of this is accessible to everyone, uh, especially the people that need it, which often don't always have, you know, financial resources to access those teachings.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, the sanctuaryhealing.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>uh, go check it out. Pick up Angel's book.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Follow rate review. Share this episode to as many people as possible. Whoever you feel like needs it. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, see Jackson 10 two, uh, net is the place to send them. As always, thank you for listening and supporting the show. Be sure to get on your favorite podcast app. Give us a follow and a review.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Angel, thank you so much for joining us.

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> Angel Deer>Thank you so much. Curtis was a pleasure to be with you today.