EPISODE · Jan 22, 2026 · 47 MIN
#218 Ritual, play, and grief with Zoë from the Runa School
from Grief Magic: Rituals, Tarot & Gentle Conversations about Loss · host Yarrow Magdalena
In this beautifully imaginative conversation, I’m joined again by Zoë from The Runa School to explore how ritual and play can come together to help us navigate grief, transformation, and everyday life. You can listen to our first conversation on the Kind Business podcast over here. Zoë shares how her work designing ritual games grew from her studies in rites of passage and her deep interest in how we can bring the sacred and the playful into conversation. We talk about the ritual game she created for me, The Grandmother’s Quilt, and how this experience opened a space for healing, intimacy with the land, and a sense of being witnessed in grief.Together we explore:How ritual games bridge devotion, creativity, and playWhat it means to be seen and held in moments of transformationThe healing power of simple, repeated acts of presenceWhat it looks like to root into community, ancestry, and the landHow we might bring ritual and reflection into workplaces and everyday lifeZoë also shares her vision for the future of The Runa School: bringing ritual games into collective spaces and reimagining our relationship with technology, storytelling, and community care.Zoë Ackerman is a co-founder of Mycelios, a game design studio, and Runa, a school dedicated to teaching and learning animist ritual. Zoë draws on over a decade of experience in participatory design, rites of passage, and embodied storytelling. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Zoë now lives in Curitiba, Brazil, on the ancestral lands of the Guarani, Kaingang, and Xetá peoples.You can find Zoë’s work and sign up for her newsletter at runa.school.You can join our weekly glimmer sessions here: https://griefmagic.com/blessings/and this is the link to my business group program Rooted: https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted/Thank you for listening!Love,Yarrow
What this episode covers
In this beautifully imaginative conversation, I’m joined again by Zoë from The Runa School to explore how ritual and play can come together to help us navigate grief, transformation, and everyday life. You can listen to our first conversation on the Kind Business podcast over here. Zoë shares how her work designing ritual games grew from her studies in rites of passage and her deep interest in how we can bring the sacred and the playful into conversation. We talk about the ritual game she created for me, The Grandmother’s Quilt, and how this experience opened a space for healing, intimacy with the land, and a sense of being witnessed in grief.Together we explore:How ritual games bridge devotion, creativity, and playWhat it means to be seen and held in moments of transformationThe healing power of simple, repeated acts of presenceWhat it looks like to root into community, ancestry, and the landHow we might bring ritual and reflection into workplaces and everyday lifeZoë also shares her vision for the future of The Runa School: bringing ritual games into collective spaces and reimagining our relationship with technology, storytelling, and community care.Zoë Ackerman is a co-founder of Mycelios, a game design studio, and Runa, a school dedicated to teaching and learning animist ritual. Zoë draws on over a decade of experience in participatory design, rites of passage, and embodied storytelling. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Zoë now lives in Curitiba, Brazil, on the ancestral lands of the Guarani, Kaingang, and Xetá peoples.You can find Zoë’s work and sign up for her newsletter at runa.school.You can join our weekly glimmer sessions here: https://griefmagic.com/blessings/and this is the link to my business group program Rooted: https://pinkwellstudio.com/rooted/Thank you for listening!Love,Yarrow
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#218 Ritual, play, and grief with Zoë from the Runa School
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