This episode is an investigation of the father wound.  I'll be exploring our own wounded fathers, the kind of wounds the masculine receives, and the shape of our own wounds as sons and daughters in a "time of no father," to quote Robert Bly.  I'm interested here in the archetypal and mythic terrain of the wounded feeling function, as Jung calls it.  I'm relying heavily on the Robert Johnson's book The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, as well as Iron John by Robert Bly.  I'm curious what these important myths tell us about our wounded fathers, or the wounded masculine more generally.  This is the beginning of a two-part dive into this realm.  Enjoy!   

Some personal reflections on public/private life tensions, moving to another state, thresholds spaces, and a few other things going on in my life.  Thanks for all your support.  The title is a reference to a poem by Jan Richardson called A Blessing in the Dust, which I read at the end of podcast.  Enjoy! 

Check out my conversation with Ian MacKenzie, filmmaker and creator of The Mythic Masculine Podcast.  We're experiencing a current renaissance in men's work right now, which is so important for the health and healing of our culture.  Ian has been exploring and bringing forth voices who are contributing to the conversation, and he has his own story of how the mythic masculine has been shaping his life. Check out his work at https://www.themythicmasculine.com/ 

"I do not know exactly what a prayer is.  I do know how to pay attention...how to kneel" (Mary Oliver). What do you think about prayer now, with the unraveling of religious categories, and traditional practices?  Does prayer still have a place in the spiritual life? If so, what do we mean by prayer?  Enjoy

Here's my conversation with Rebecca Wildbear about her new book Wild Yoga.  She's a guide with Animas Valley Institute, she also teaches Wild Yoga, and other soul-oriented offerings.  We discuss the art and craft of listening, the nature of prayer, and Wild Yoga as a way of being.  You can find her work at https://www.rebeccawildbear.com/

Enjoy!

Psychedelics is the hottest topic in spiritual and therapeutic circles.  Are we ready?  What are the dangers and opportunities?  Ryan Meeks and I have been wrestling with these questions for the last few years.  This podcast is an unscripted conversation about drugs between two friends, not an authoritative final word on the research, or a formula for what's best for each individual.  Ryan has a lot of experience in this world, I do not.  I hope you enjoy our back and forth, as we search for hints and guesses about what's going on.  

Here's a conversation about rituals in the modern world with my friends at Eastlake Community Church, outside of Seattle. We talk about meaning in Target, our human craving for transcendence, the Starbucks holiday cup, the Vatican, and wonder together whether or not new rituals can be created and how much of what's still available might help us.  Special thanks to Jordan Gilliam for the original soundscape, In This Together.  Find him on Instagram @jordan_tyrone78.  

Turning to the archetypal patterns of Advent, the birth of the Soul, the Christ, and the forces that try to cut us off from our radiant center, our possibilities, our creative incarnation.  Special thanks to Jordan Gilliam for the original soundscape, In This Together.  Find him on Instagram @jordan_tyrone78.  The main quote, and a few of the ideas used in this episode, comes from Trauma and the Soul, A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Human Development and its Interruption, by Donald Kalsched.  Enjoy!

Here are a few ideas, images, stories, hints and guesses, about the Feminine and Masculine, as sacred, as archetypal realities, as something we all carry in the psyche, and as something to be honor and respected.  Enjoy!

This episode is about the religious instinct, our proclivity to worship, the fact that we bow down to something, and what might happen if we consent to the inner compass which seeks ultimate meaning.