The Wise Old Man or Sage is an archetype that is recognised by almost everyone, be it in stories, games, movies, or everyday life. In myth he is often shown as one living in isolation, meditating and living a simple life deep in a forest, in the mountains, or in other uninhabited places. The Wise Old Man is a lover of wisdom, and uses his experience to guide others. He is portrayed as a mysterious person or a wizard, in contact with nature and the numinous and unseen forces that permeate our existence.

The Wise Old man appears as a teacher of wisdom such as King Solomon from the Bible. In Hermeticism, he is Hermes Trismegistus, the fount of all wisdom and the teacher of the mystery of all ages. In China, the sage is Lao Tzu ("old man" or "old master"), the founder of Taoism, while in India there are the sadhus and yogis. In Arthurian Legend he is Merlin, in Nietzsche he appears as the prophet Zarathustra, and in Carl Jung as Philemon. In modern popular fiction we have Yoda, Gandalf and Dumbledore, among others.

In the individuation process (the lifelong journey towards psychic wholeness), the archetype of the Wise Old Man is late to emerge, and is therefore seen as an indication of the Self (the total personality).

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━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 Recommended Reading▶ Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey - Sallie Nicholshttps://amzn.to/3PH7zM2▶ Awakening the Heroes Within - Carol S. Pearsonhttps://amzn.to/3PrjcFw▶ Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzschehttps://amzn.to/3rgZuEB▶ The Red Book - Carl Junghttps://amzn.to/48jkuLz▶ C.W. Vol. 9.1: The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious - Carl Junghttps://amzn.to/45WtxAx🎧 Prefer Audiobooks? Get a 30-day Audible Plus FREE trial: ▶ https://amzn.to/332zPzN

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(1:35) The Symbolism of the Desert

(3:30) The Hermit and The Wandering Ascetic

(5:00) The Wise Old Man Archetype

(12:32) Senex and Puer Aeternus

(14:47) The Dark Side of The Wise Old Man

(18:34) The Wise Old Man and The Hero

(19:44) The Dangers of Identifying as The Sage

(21:00) The Hermit in Tarot

(24:35) The Hermit and The Madman Archetype

(27:18) Facing Death in Old Age

(28:08) The Forgotten Art of Solitude

(32:48) The Sage’s Journey: The Search for Truth

(35:20) The Eternal Inner Centre

(37:24) The Book of Ecclesiastes: Meaninglessness

(38:47) The Truth Shall Set You Free

(39:50) Conclusion

The Quest for the Holy Grail has fascinated the Western consciousness for a long time. It epitomises the true spirit of Western man and is, in many ways, the myth of Western civilisation. It is a perennial and timeless pattern that expresses fundamental concerns of the human condition.

The Holy Grail is a mysterious object guarded by a king in a hidden castle. It has been described as a cup, dish, or a magical stone that can provide healing powers, immortality, eternal youth, and unlimited nourishment. It represents the fulfilment of the highest spiritual potentialities in human consciousness, which endows the world with a symbolic and spiritual meaning. The quest for the Holy Grail is always more or less the same, it is the hero’s journey, at the end of which one obtains the “treasure hard to attain.” It is the search for that which makes life most meaningful.

Psychologically, the Holy Grail—like the philosophers' stone—is a symbol of the Self, the psychic totality and ultimate wholeness of the human being. The soul which represents the life principle, is that wondrous vessel which is the goal of the quest, whose final secret can never be revealed, but must ever remain hidden because its essence is a mystery.

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▶ Perceval, or the Story of the Grail - Chrétien de Troyes

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▶ Parzival - Wolfram von Eschenbach

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▶ Merlin and the Grail. Trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval - Robert de Boron

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(2:44) Perceval and the Grail

(9:35) The Continuations of the Grail Legend

(10:35) The Grail and The Philosophers’ Stone

(13:46) From Grail to Holy Grail

(23:17) Holy Grail: The Spirit of Western Man

(24:41) The Treasure Hard to Attain

(26:10) The Eternally Alone

(27:52) The Holy Grail as the Self

(29:19) Balancing Light and Dark

(33:12) Merlin: The Wise Old Man Archetype

(36:53) Conclusion

Fairy tales fascinate us and give us a sense of warmth and home-coming that comes from the mythical realm of the imagination, a necessary complement to our everyday life. We are fundamentally story-telling creatures, and there is much we can learn by reflecting on the fairy tales heard in childhood. They seem almost magical because they connect us with emotions deeply buried within that cannot find expression in outer life, because as we grow up, the world of imagination is shunned by our peers, considered as unproductive and good for nothing.

Fairy tales can provide us with a sense that we are not alone in our life struggles. Humans have faced these struggles in one form or another since the beginning of time, and fairy tales represent this fundamental concern of the human condition.

Psychologically, fairy tales reflect our inner landscape, and the characters can represent aspects of our own personalities. Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz writes: "Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes. Therefore, their value for the scientific investigation of the unconscious exceeds that of all other material. They represent archetypes in their simplest, barest, and most concise form."

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(3:43) What are Fairy Tales?

(8:15) The Origin of Fairy Tales

(11:39) Faërie, Fairies and Eucatastrophe

(13:00) Fairy Tales and Collective Unconscious

(18:19) The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

(21:31) Rituals and Archetypal Stories

(22:15) The Most Ancient Form of Tale

(23:16) Individuation in Fairy Tales

(25:14) The Three Feathers

(28:42) Interpretation: The Three Feathers

(30:39) Rumpelstiltskin

(34:05) The Frog King or Iron Henry

(37:15) Beauty and The Beast

(40:15) Hansel and Gretel

(43:06) Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose

(46:42) Conclusion

The Devil goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, The Great Beast, Beelzebub, The Prince of Darkness. He is the adversary, the accuser, the tempter, the deceiver, and the one who divides from God. The Devil is incredibly wicked and evil, but also intelligent and witty – he is the father of all tricksters – that is what makes him so dangerous. The English word “devil” derives from the Greek diábolos (“the one who divides”). Diabolic is the term in contemporary English. The Greek verb dia-bollein literally means to tear apart. These divisions occur in almost every facet of our lives: race, sex, religion, politics, and economics. The demonic is an inversion of order.

Temptation is the ordinary activity of the devil. It is a real thing for us in each and every day. It begins with deception, buying into the lies of the devil, who promises good, only to deliver evil. The goal of this is to create division or inner conflict in ourselves. In despair, we numb ourselves with pleasure or diversion, which can lead to addiction. Hell is that state of mind which has abandoned itself so completely to a given sin that it cannot act independently of that sin.

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(1:18) Daimon

(2:06) Pan: The God of Panic and Pandemonium

(3:24) Scapegoating, Projection, God-Complex

(5:38) The Devil: The One Who Divides

(7:06) The Characteristics of the Diabolic

(9:05) Deals with the Devil

(13:30) Archetypes, Ego-Inflation, and Delusion

(14:35) The Fall from Paradise (Felix Culpa)

(16:52) The Devil and Christ as Lucifer (Morning Star)

(20:09) Satan (The Adversary) and Job

(23:52) The Ultimate Tragic Story

(24:29) The Harrowing of Hell

(25:16) Satanism: Evil Disguised as Good

(27:02) The Psychological Activities of The Demonic

(31:08) Carl Jung on the Devil (Shadow)

(33:23) The Devil in The Major Arcana

(34:13) The One-Sided Western Image of God

(36:50) Summum Bonum: The Highest Good

(37:22) Privatio Boni: The Absence of Good

(37:56) Deus Absconditus: The Hidden Dark Side of God

(39:00) The Apocalypse (Revelation) and Enantiodromia

(43:00) Conclusion

The fool is one of the most relatable, intriguing and recurring figures in the world. There have been fools who have caused surprise and laughter since time immemorial. We worship folly by seeing it in people and in the world and by willingly displaying it in ourselves. It is one of the timeless archetypes, which we all inherit at birth.

Many of us suffer from the absence of the fool in our lives. Frenetic and upright, we take ourselves too seriously. As William Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Forgetting that playfulness is a basic human need, we wonder why we so easily become bored and exhausted, losing all capacity for spontaneity, authenticity, and passion. The antidote to this would be to give the fool archetype some space in our lives.

“The soul demands your folly; not your wisdom.” - Carl Jung

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━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 Recommended Reading▶ In Praise of Follyhttps://amzn.to/436tosq▶ King Lear https://amzn.to/3IwNkNg▶ He: Understanding Masculine Psychology https://amzn.to/3BLnt0g▶ Don Quixote https://amzn.to/3MKYbp7▶ The Idiot https://amzn.to/43d5I5J▶ Ivan the Fool and Three Shorter Tales for Living Peaceablyhttps://amzn.to/3OpeoBO▶ Tarot and the Archetypal Journey: The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light https://amzn.to/45jCKms▶ The Complete Grimms' Fairy Tales https://amzn.to/3MCUHE8🎧 Prefer Audiobooks? Get a 30-day Audible Plus FREE trial: ▶ https://amzn.to/332zPzN

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(2:00) In Praise of Folly

(3:45) The Wise Fool

(5:15) The Fool as Truth-Teller

(6:24) Fool, Clown and Trickster

(10:24) The Medieval Court Jester

(13:54) The Shakespearean Fool

(14:38) Parsifal: The Quest for The Holy Grail

(17:47) Don Quixote

(20:02) Dostoevsky’s The Idiot

(22:17) The Fool as Hero

(22:54) Ivan The Fool

(24:50) The Fool’s Journey (Tarot)

(27:57) The Number Zero in The Fool

(29:32) Symbolic Transformations of The Fool in Tarot

(31:42) The Fool: Precursor to Transformation

(34:44) The Dark Side of The Fool

(36:04) The Fool and the Child Archetype

(36:45) The Fool: The Inferior Function

(38:08) The Holy Fool

Nightmares. We all have them. But what exactly do they mean? Why do we have bad dreams? Is there any psychological meaning behind them? Nightmares are the source of much of the horror we see in stories, myths, movies and games. They are an encounter with the dark side of the unconscious, which often includes facing some of the most painful aspects of who we are. And one does not know what that part of oneself is, until one confronts it.

Nightmares are the most substantial and vitally important dreams, and are of therapeutic value. They wake us up with a cry, as if all our repressed content forms a bubble which expands until it bursts one night, and we experience a nightmare. They are the shock therapy nature uses on us when we are too unaware of some psychological danger, and shock us out of deep unconscious sleepiness about some dangerous situation. As if the unconscious says, “Look here, this problem is urgent!” The psyche tells us to “wake up” and face what we have neglected. The majority of nightmares represent opportunities for personal healing through much-needed emotional release.

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(3:00) Dream-Motifs in Nightmares

(3:37) Lilith: The First Nightmare

(5:07) The Origin & Folklore of Nightmares

(9:09) Non-REM Sleep (Night Terrors)

(10:36) REM Sleep (Nightmares)

(11:43) Nightmare in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

(15:40) Fever Dreams and Franz Kafka

(17:36) Post-Traumatic Nightmares and Recurring Nightmares

(19:00) Precognitive Nightmares

(20:36) Carl Jung and The Meaning of Dreams

(26:07) The Shadow and Nightmares

(28:32) The Devouring Mother Archetype

(30:39) Active Imagination

(33:08) Lucid Dreaming

(36:14) Nightmares and Artists

(37:40) Nightmare Artists: Beksiński and Giger

Shamanism is one of the oldest, if not the oldest system of healing known in the world. It forms the prototype from which many other forms of healing are derived, such as modern psychotherapy. The shamanic journey is an expression of the human condition, and despite the cultural differences around the world, the deeper structure appears to remain constant. A common thread seems to connect all shamans across the planet. An awakening to other orders of reality, the experience of ecstasy, and an opening up of visionary realms form the essence of the shamanic mission.

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(4:12) The Shamanic Call

(7:52) Becoming a Shaman

(9:20) Symbols of the Self: Animal Spirits

(11:28) The Three Worlds: Shamanic Cosmos

(12:15) The Gold in the Shadow

(13:54) The Underworld: Death

(15:56) The World Tree

(18:24) The Sky Realm: Awakening

(20:31) The Return to the People

(22:02) The Shaman’s Shadow

(23:10) Beware of Unearned Wisdom

(24:52) Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

(28:10) Carl Jung and Shamanism

(31:02) Psychologist: Healer of the Soul

We all have a particular personality type, and at the same time, we are all unique. To partake in the journey of discovering who we truly are, it is necessary for us to know our true and authentic personality. The quest to know ourselves allows us to better understand the complexity and intricacies of the human condition, improve our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with the world.   

Carl Jung’s model of typology is not a system of character analysis, nor is it a way of labelling oneself or others. Much as one might use a compass to determine where one is in the physical world, Jung’s typology is a tool for psychological orientation.   

The main aspects are the attitude types: extraversion and introversion, and the psychological functions: feeling, thinking, sensation and intuition.

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━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 Recommended Reading▶ Collected Works, Vol. 6: Psychological Types - C.G. Junghttps://amzn.to/3ZcZIbm▶ Lectures on Jung's Typology - M.L. von Franz & James Hillmanhttps://amzn.to/41D1hks▶ Personality Types (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts)https://amzn.to/3ZsfKOq🎧 Prefer Audiobooks? Get a 30-day Audible Plus FREE trial: ▶ https://amzn.to/332zPzN

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(0:27) Introversion and Extraversion

(5:48) Example of Introvert with Extravert

(7:50) The Four Psychological Functions

(8:36) Libido

(9:16) Thinking and Feeling

(10:47) Feeling, Emotion, Affect

(11:50) Sensation and Intuition

(14:42) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

(16:45) Dominant Function

(18:00) Differentiation and Distorted Types

(20:05) Auxiliary Functions

(21:48) Inferior Function

(27:10) Conclusion

The legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes Thrice Great) is the inspiration for the spiritual teachings known as Hermeticism. He is a syncretism (joining) of the Greek deity Hermes, the winged messenger of the Gods, and his Egyptian counterpart, the Ibis-headed moon god Thoth.  

The Way of Hermes involved altered states of consciousness in which practitioners went through a training regime that involved luminous visions, spiritual rebirth, cosmic consciousness, and union with the divine beauty of universal goodness and truth to attain the salvational knowledge known as gnosis.

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━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 Recommended Reading▶ The Way of Hermes https://amzn.to/3RKuaaa▶ The Asclepiushttps://amzn.to/3JLYIGv▶ Hermeticahttps://amzn.to/3X8g4Ad▶ The Greek Magical Papyri https://amzn.to/3JOLs3K▶ The Egyptian Hermeshttps://amzn.to/3l6Lgm7▶ The Arabic Hermeshttps://amzn.to/3jFQQM4▶ Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imaginationhttps://amzn.to/3HHOyEe🎧 Prefer Audiobooks? Get a 30-day Audible Plus FREE trial: ▶ https://amzn.to/332zPzN

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⌛ Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

3:43 Renaissance of Hermeticism

9:33 Technical and Religio-philosophical Hermetica

11:38 Where to start?

15:53 Gnosis

18:36 Hermeticism and Gnosticism

21:40 Eusebeia

22:50 The Hermetic Universe: Ogdoad, Ennead, the One

25:20 The Three Worlds: God, Cosmos, Man

28:03 The Three Faculties: Logos, Gnosis, Nous

29:08 Corpus Hermeticum: Introduction

30:48 The Vision of Poimandres (Nous)

37:05 Corpus Hermeticum: Hermes and Tat

43:05 The Discourse on the Ogdoad and Ennead

46:22 Writing as Healing or Poison (Pharmakon)

48:24 The Illusion of Death

50:30 Man as a Divine Being

Philosophy is a mode of life, an act of living, and a way of being. Modern philosophy has forgotten this tradition, and philosophical discourse has all but overtaken philosophy as a way of life. Philosophy is not just an intellectual discipline, which can get abstract and divorced from the real world, but is most importantly a way of life that teaches us how to best live our lives.   

Philosophy is a mode of existing in the world, which has to be practiced at each instant, and the goal of which is to transform the whole of the individual’s life. Real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it makes us “be” in a different way.   

Ancient philosophy proposed to mankind an art of living. By contrast modern philosophy appears above all as the construction of a technical jargon reserved for specialists.

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(2:18) Philosophy as a Way of Life

(7:12) Socrates

(8:53) Master of Dialogue: Know Thyself

(13:30) Plato

(15:58) Idealism: Platonic Forms

(17:15) Parable of the Cave

(19:33) Plato’s Cave in The Matrix

(20:16) Plato’s Tripartite Theory of the Soul

(22:36) Philosophy as an Exercise of Death

(24:56) Aristotle

(27:06) Hellenistic Schools

(28:25) Cynicism

(31:45) Pyrrhonism

(34:46) Stoicism

(39:45) Premeditatio Malorum

(41:03) Memento Mori

(42:24) Voluntary Discomfort

(43:54) Epicureanism

(50:12) Similarities Epicureanism & Stoicism

(50:57) Neoplatonism

(57:45) View from Above: Cosmic Consciousness