🐺 This is the first half of a longer conversation. To watch and listen to the full episode become a free or paid subscriber at http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about Carlos Castaneda and the Don Juan books and walking the fine line between literal truth and literary fiction with artist and writer Ru Marshall

Ru Marshall is a nonbinary writer and visual artist. Their novel, A Separate Reality, was released by Carroll & Graf in 2006 and was nominated for a Lambda Award for debut fiction. Their writing has appeared in Salon, N + 1, The Evergreen Review, The Kenyon Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Waxwing, The Barcelona Review, Your Impossible Voice, Another Chicago Magazine, and many other publications. 

They have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the 2016 Hazel Rowley Prize from BIO, the Biographers International Organization. Their visual work has been exhibited at Participant Inc., Studio 10 Gallery, Art in General, White Columns, Baxter Street, Cathouse Proper, and numerous other venues. They have received grants and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. They grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. They live in Brooklyn.

References:

• https://rmarshallstudio.com

• American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda https://orbooks.com/catalog/american-trickster/

• Seeing Castañeda: Reactions to the "Don Juan" Writings of Carlos Castaneda, Daniel C. Noel

• The Soul of Shamanism, Daniel C. Noel
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

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Tags: mythology, shamanism, anthropology, imagination

🐺 Watch the full 1.5 hour episode by becoming a free or paid member http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about Dionysos, bi-polar depression, imagination & creative illness with writer Forrest Wolfe (aka Luke Blanchford)

Forrest Wolfe has been living successfully with bipolar disorder for over twenty-five years. He is Taiwanese-American, has a philosophy degree from Princeton University, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Film from the University of Southern California, School of Cinema. After a brief, interrupted career in film, he has been working as a technology and management consultant. Forrest Wolfe is the pen name for Luke Blanchford.

References:

• https://forrestwolfe.net

• Questions For Werewolves by Forrest Wolfe

• Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life by Karl Kerenyi
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

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Tags: dionysus, mythology, psychology, archetype

🐺 Watch the full 1.5 hour episode by becoming a free or paid member of the HITW Patreon community http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about Homer’s The Odyssey, soul, mythology and what it means to be human with author and pilgrimage guide Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau is the author of The Wisdom of the Odyssey and over forty other books. including the bestselling The Art of Pilgrimage, and The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on his Life and Work. Cousineau is a writer, teacher, filmmaker, storyteller, and cultural historian, who has consulted on mythology and story for major studios including Warner Brothers., Pixar, and Lucasfilm, and has led mythology travel programs to Greece for more than three decades. Cousineau has been featured on NPR, CNN International, the BBC, the Smithsonian and Discovery Channels, and was the host of PBS and LINK-TV’s Global Spirit. He lives in San Francisco. 

References:

• http://PhilCousineau.com

• The Wisdom of the Odyssey: https://newworldlibrary.com/product/the-wisdom-of-the-odyssey

• Soul: An Archaeology: https://shop.philcousineau.com/products/soul-an-archaeology
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: james hillman, soul, mythology, psychology, podcast

🐺 Watch the full episode and support the podcast by joining the pack: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about the Greek titan Prometheus, technology, Carl Jung and the religious function with depth psychologist, writer and teacher Glen Slater

“An honest admission of modernity means voluntarily declaring oneself bankrupt, taking the vows of poverty and chastity in a new sense, and-what is still more painful-renouncing the halo of sanctity which history bestows. To be “unhistorical” is the Promethean sin, and in this sense the modern man is sinful. A higher level of consciousness is like a burden of guilt.”

— C.G. Jung, The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man

Glen Slater, Ph.D. was born and grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. After studying psychology and comparative religion at the University of Sydney, he moved to the United States for doctoral studies in clinical psychology. For the past 25 years he has taught in the areas of depth psychology and mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, near Santa Barbara, California, most recently chairing Pacifica’s Jungian and Archetypal Psychology Program. 

Glen is the author of Jung vs Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age (2024), editor of the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer (2005), and co-editor of the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience (2007). He has written a number of articles and book chapters for Jungian publications. His research and writing interests concern Jung and film, the psychology of religion, and depth psychology and technology.

References:

• https://www.glenslater.com

• Glen’s 1997 essay “Resink the Titanic: https://www.glenslater.com/s/Slater-ResinktheTitanic-Final.pdf

• HITW 172 James Hillman & Archetypal Psychology 101 w/ Glen Slater https://www.patreon.com/howlinthewilderness/posts/video-james-101-124500990
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: carl jung, james hillman, archetype, prometheus, psychology, podcast

Watch the full episode and support the podcast by joining the pack: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about Greek goddess Artemis with archetypal astrologer, writer and mythologist Safron Rossi

“Never, believe me, never do the gods appear alone.” 

— Friedrich Schiller, quoted in James Hillman’s essay A Note on Hermes Inflation, UE 6

Safron Rossi, PhD has spent her life steeped in literature, religion and mythology, fields in which she holds her degrees. Her writing and scholarly studies focus on archetypal psychology, astrology, alchemy, goddess traditions, and Greek myth. 

She is a member of the core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, teaching mainly in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies program. 

For many years she was the curator of the Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, and Marija Gimbutas manuscript  collections at Opus Archives & Research Center.

Safron is faculty at Astrology University and at the Centre for Astrology, Myth and Symbol (CAMS) and regularly lectures at MISPA. Her studies in Jungian and archetypal psychology, myth and alchemy informs her astrological work.  

Safron is author of The Kore Goddess: A Mythology & Psychology (2021), editor of Joseph Campbell's Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013), and co-editor of Jung on Astrology (2017). She has published articles in Jungian, archetypal, and astrological journals, and lectures across the US and internationally in Europe, South America and Australia.

Safron and her husband Glen Slater are founders of Winter Press, an imprint of Spring Journal. They also serve on the editorial board of Spring Journal. 

🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: carl jung, james hillman, archetype, artemis, psychology, podcast

References:

• https://www.thearchetypaleye.com

• https://thearchetypaleye.substack.com

• https://www.winterpresspublishers.com

• Ginette Paris, Pagan Meditations

• “Lava”, Danusha Laméris: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26895-lava

Support the podcast and join the HITW Patreon community: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling with Justine Toms about New Dimensions Radio, her late husband Michael Toms, the power of deep listening, and the life changing meetings with remarkable people she’s had over the past 50 years.

Since 1973, Justine Willis Toms has been exploring personal, social, and spiritual transformation through her work as an electronic journalist, editor, and writer. She is the Co-founder, Managing Producer, and Host of New Dimensions Radio/Media.  New Dimensions is an internationally syndicated radio series, featuring dialogues addressing “the history of the future” with the world’s most visionary wisdom leaders. 

She has also hosted the radio series In Her Company: Deep Dialogues with Women of Wisdom, and has produced many award-winning radio series, including Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, and Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature. Besides her radio work, she leads workshops on Finding Grace in a Chaotic World. She is coauthor with Michael Toms of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do, and author of Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World. She, along with Michael Toms, was selected for induction to the 2011 Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

References:

• https://newdimensions.org

• NDR Fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-692-rare-recordings-before-theyre-lost-skm3h

A few of my favourite Michael Toms interviews:

• Robert Bly on Shame https://programs.newdimensions.org/products/the-power-of-shame-with-robert-bly

• A Society Of Siblings with Robert Bly https://programs.newdimensions.org/products/a-society-of-siblings-with-robert-bly

• Into The Deep: Male Mysteries with Robert Bly https://programs.newdimensions.org/products/into-the-deep-male-mysteries-with-robert-bly

• Revisioning Psychotherapy with James Hillman & Michael Ventura https://programs.newdimensions.org/products/revisioning-psychotherapy-with-james-hillman-michael-ventura

• Shedding Light On The Dark Goddess with Marion Woodman https://programs.newdimensions.org/products/shedding-light-on-the-dark-goddess-with-marion-woodman

• The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell (series) https://programs.newdimensions.org/collections/mythology/products/the-wisdom-of-joseph-campbell-part-1-of-13

• Embracing Beauty with John O'Donohue https://programs.newdimensions.org/collections/soul-2/products/embracing-beauty-with-john-odonohue
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: spirituality, james hillman, podcast, robert bly

Become a member of the HITW Patreon community: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling about Greek gods Hermes and Hestia and the remedy for what James Hillman called “Hermetic Intoxication” with depth psychologist, writer and teacher Elizabeth Eowyn Nelson

Elizabeth Éowyn Nelson, faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute since 2003, has been a professional writer and editor for four decades. Dr. Nelson’s books include Psyche’s Knife (Chiron, 2012), The Art of Inquiry (Spring, 2005 & 2017), coauthored with Joseph Coppin, and The Art of Jungian Couple Therapy, coauthored with Anthony Delmedico (Routledge, 2025). 

“Any archetypal understanding of contemporary life must honor two gods, Hestia and Hermes, who are a very unlikely pair—though are paired in the western classical tradition. 

In our love affair with mobile digital life, we have been in a Hermetic frenzy, individually and culturally, for decades. I do not see it ending because we are fully invested in instantaneous communication—sending messages to each other at the speed of light. This is Hermes, the Greek god of communication and commerce (in the broad) sense who also is a trickster and thief.

To counterbalance Hermetic frenzy we need Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. In fact, Hestia is the hearth, the center of the home, the one who dwells. Hestia also brings us back home to the body, to soma, to our embodied home on the earth. Since Hestia dwells, she also signifies patience, slowness, settling down, the part of us who longs to stop after too much activity. You might say that Hestia is necessary medicine, the divine remedy for too much Hermes.”

— EON, “Hestia & Hermes: The Tension of Opposites in Mobile Digital Life

References:

• http://www.elizabethnelson-phd.com

• Karl Kerényi, Hermes Guide of Souls

• Barbara Kirksey essay on Hestia in Facing the Gods (edited by James Hillman)

• Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: carl jung, james hillman, archetype, hestia, hermes, greece, psychology, podcast

Brought to you thanks to the support of the HITW Patreon community: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

This month, May 2026 marks the 8 year anniversary of the podcast. To celebrate this occasion, I thought it would be fun to reissue some early episodes from back when the podcast was called Medicine Path.

Over the next few months I’ll be re-releasing some of those archival episodes that have previously only been available to paid Patreon members.

What follows is my first in-person conversation with pioneering new age musician Laraaji and his partner Arji OceAnanda, recorded the day after their laughter workshop and sound meditation at the Never Apart artspace in Montreal, Canada back in June 2018.

References:

https://laraaji.blogspot.com

https://www.instagram.com/laraaji_official

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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK * Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness * Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca * Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations * Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth * Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork * HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness * Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul Tags: music, India, spirituality, podcast

Join the HITW Patreon community: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

Howling with author, Jungian therapist and alchemical coach Thom Cavalli about Osho, Hermes, alchemy and the necessary role of the Trickster in the world

Dr. Thom Cavalli has dedicated his life’s work to revising ancient alchemy and applying its wisdom to inform modern science and deepen global consciousness. Whether as healer, writer or keynote speaker, he distills the hidden insights of history, art, and mythology to restore a lost, enchanted age of wonder. 

For three decades he has been a practicing Jungian psychologist using his consulting room to help transform misery into miracles. As a writer, he has authored two major works, Alchemical Psychology, Old Recipes for Living in a New World (Putnam 2002) and Embodying Osiris (Quest Books 2010). Writing from an alchemical perspective, he’s contributed scholarly articles, book and film reviews to print and online journals, including the Jung Journal, Reality Sandwich, and the Jungian Society of Scholarly Studies. His speaking engagements are alchemical, combining ideas from contemporary science with a treasure-trove of insights gleaned from ancient history. 

He has presented numerous seminars and workshops at prestigious organizations including Esalen Institute, the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, the Joseph Campbell Roundtable, the Vancouver Jungian Society, and most recently, the Jung-Lacan conference at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, UK. His workshops are a delightful mix of scholarship and performance art, including symbolic ritual mummification and culinary offeringsfrom recipes created by victims of the holocaust that demonstrate obscure alchemical principles, operations and procedures. 

References:

• Thom Cavalli https://www.cavallicoaching.com

• Thom’s Alchemical Works: https://alchemicalworks.com

• Paul Radin's The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (https://ia801506.us.archive.org/8/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.528967/2015.528967.trickster-a.pdf)
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: jung, archetype, alchemy, trickster, psychology, podcast

Gain access to the full podcast archives, new ad-free episodes and more by becoming a member of the HITW Patreon community: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

This month, May 2026 marks the 8 year anniversary of the podcast. To celebrate this occasion, I thought it would be fun to reissue some early episodes from back when the podcast was called Medicine Path. 

Over the next few months I’ll be re-releasing some of those archival episodes that have previously only been available to paid Patreon members.

This is my first episode featuring an interview with Ramakant Gundecha, an Indian music guru in the Dhrupad tradition from May 2018. I’ve recorded a short introduction before the original unedited episode that addresses the accusations against the Gundecha brothers after Ramakant’s death in 2019.

References:

• Gundecha Brothers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundecha_Brothers

• Usted Zia Fariduddin Dagar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zia_Fariduddin_Dagar

• Information on Sadharani Giti: https://sreenivasaraos.com/2015/06/21/music-of-india-a-brief-outline-part-twenty-one-2/
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🔥 SUPPORT & SOUL WORK

• Join the pack on Patreon: http://patreon.com/howlinthewilderness

• Depth Counseling with Brian James: http://brianjames.ca

• Archetypal Men’s Coaching Program: http://brianjames.ca/fourinitiations

• Personal Myth Program: http://brianjames.ca/personalmyth

• Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/brianjames.soulwork

• HITW YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewilderness

• Send a donation via PayPal: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoul

Tags: hermeticism, esotericism, psychedelics, podcast