C. Michael Smith (or Mikkal as he’s known in some circles) is a Jungian psychotherapist, shamanic practitioner, breathwork facilitator and director of the Crows Nest Wilderness Retreat and Conference Center, which has outposts in the USA and Europe.

Michael is an active clinical psychologist and medical anthropologist, and author of Psychotherapy And The Sacred (1995), and Jung And Shamanism In Dialogue (1997).

He teaches and lectures on the topic of Jungian psychology in creative dialogue with shamanic studies, and has presented at various shamanic conferences and Jung Societies around the globe, including the International Conference on Shamanism in Iquitos, Peru in 2012 and 2013.

Michael's website: http://crowsnestshamanism.com 

Topics: Jung, shamanism, ayahuasca, psychedelics, spiritual practice

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Music: Royal Fern by Green House (https://green-house.bandcamp.com)

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Michael Crowley was born February 26th, 1948 in Cardiff, Wales. He began studying Buddhism with a Tibetan lama in 1966, becoming an Upāsaka of the Kagyud lineage in 1970.

In order to augment his Buddhist studies, he acquainted himself with Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mandarin Chinese. Mike has lectured at the Museum of Asia and the Pacific, Warsaw, the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His work has been published in Fortean Times, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness, and Culture, Psychedelic American, and Psychedelic Press UK. In January 2016, Mike received the R. Gordon Wasson Award for outstanding contributions to the field of entheobotany. In 2016 he published The Secret Drugs of Buddhism, exploring the role psychedelic plant medicines had on the early development of Yoga & Buddhism.

He currently serves on the advisory board of the Psychedelic Sangha, a group of psychedelically-inclined Buddhists, based in New York and he teaches at the Dharma Collective in San Francisco.

Mike's website: http://amritadzong.com

Shamanic Roots of Yoga: https://youtu.be/b9KT7rVgynk Yoga & Plant Medicine (download): https://bit.ly/3gpOmM8 Yoga & Plant Medicine (Amazon): https://amzn.to/3wkHB4U

Topics: Vajrayana Buddhism, psychedelics, meditation, soma, amrita

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Music: Royal Fern by Green House (https://green-house.bandcamp.com)

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Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.

He is the author of Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn't End, The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul; editor, with James Hillman and Robert Bly, of Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart; and editor of Crossroads: A Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artist, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples.

Michael’s website: http://mosaicvoices.org

Topics: initiation, ritual, elderhood, ritual leadership, ritual space

•••

Music: Royal Fern by Green House (https://green-house.bandcamp.com)

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Safron Rossi, Ph.D., 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 in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies program. She is also an archetypal psychological astrologer.

Addendum: At one point toward the end of the interview, I mention that it's Tuesday and Mercury's Day. Of course, Tuesday is Mars' Day (Mardi in French). I'll chalk it up to that old Trickster Mercury trying to force his way into the conversation and making me look like a fool. Thank you Hermes, you wing-footed bastard for keeping me humble :-)

Safron’s Website: www.thearchetypaleye.com

Name Drop: Carl Jung, James Hillman, Richard Tarnas, Joseph Campbell, Pacifica Graduate Institute

•••

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Martin Shaw is widely regarded as one of the most exciting teachers of the mythic imagination. He is the author of the award winning A Branch From The Lightning Tree, Scatterlings: Getting Claimed in the Age of Amnesia (2016), Courting the Wild Twin (2020), and the upcoming Smokehole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass (2021). He is director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK, and devised and led the Oral Tradition course at Stanford University.

In our conversation we touch on many topics close to my heart: storytelling, mythology, honouring our teachers and mentors, cultivating a sense of belonging and serving the spirit of the land in the place we claim as home. 

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

— Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Martin's websites:
https://drmartinshaw.com
https://schoolofmyth.com

Names invoked:
Robert Bly, Michael Meade, James Hillman, Martín Prechtel, Malidoma Somé, Federico García Lorca, Arshile Gorky, Willem De Kooning, Rumi

•••

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Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, author and farmer who now prefers the term practitioner rather than teacher. In this, our third conversation, he explains why the distinction is important and why he quit being a teacher.

We also talk about a question he posed to me a number of years ago when I attended his Orphan Wisdom school that has stuck with me ever since, and continues to provoke new insights into the mysterious ways that our unknown ancestors might be guiding us on our quest for meaning and purpose.

In the second half of the episode we touch on the topic of matrimony and patrimony, which is the subject of his next book. As usual, Stephen has left me with a lot to chew on, and after listening to this conversation a few times I think I’m just being to comprehend what he was getting at, particularly concerning the topic of Patrimony, a word I’m not sure I’d even heard before speaking with him.

As Stephen repeatedly warns us, he offers no comfort, no easy answers, no how-tos. Instead he invites us along as he wonders aloud about what it means to be fully human, how to live and die with dignity and wisdom, and how to become an ancestor worthy of being claimed.

"I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

http://orphanwisdom.com

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On this episode I speak with Jungian analyst and astrologer Christina Becker. We discuss the intersection of Jungian psychology and astrology, and how astrology can help us navigate our medicine path toward wholeness and enjoy a more meaningful and purposeful life.

Christina Becker is a registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, a clinical member of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists, a senior analyst with the Association of Graduate Analytical Psychologists, and a senior training analyst with the IRSJA. She is also a faculty member of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and a member of the Canadian Association for Sandplay Therapy.

In addition to her Jungian training, she has studied astrology at the Faculty of Astrological Studies in London as well as with Liz Greene through the Astrodeinst seminars in Zürich.

Ms. Becker has lectured at Jungian training institutes in Buffalo, Calgary, Halifax, Johannesburg, Montreal, New York, Toronto, and Zürich. She has also spoken at various astrological conferences and local Jungian societies across North America, and currently maintains a private practice in the west end of Toronto.

She is the author of the book, The Heart of the Matter: Individuation as an Ethical Process, originally published by Murray Stein’s Chiron Publications in 2004. A second edition has been published by Chiron in 2014.

http://cjbecker.com

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Anne Baring was born in London in 1931. Educated in the UK, France and America, with a BA Oxon 1953, MA 1981 in Modern History. Honorary Ph.D. from Ubiquity University 2018. Anne is the author and co-author of 7 books, and a Jungian analyst who trained with the Association of Jungian Analysts, London.

The ground of all her work is a deep interest in history as well as the spiritual, mythological, shamanic and artistic traditions of different cultures. Anne's work is devoted to the recognition that we live in an ensouled world and to the restoration of the lost sense of communion between us and the invisible dimension of the Cosmos that is the source or ground of all that we call ‘life’. 

Anne lives near Winchester in the UK with her husband, artist Robin Baring and they have a daughter and grandson. Anne's website includes many articles, talks and videos, and is devoted to the affirmation of a new vision of reality and the issues facing us at this crucial time of choice.

Show Links:

Anne's website: https://www.annebaring.com
Understanding the Shadow (lecture): https://youtu.be/t4saOQaZeN4
The Need for a Higher Vision (article): https://www.annebaring.com/the-need-for-a-higher-vision/
Anne's children's book (abridged): https://www.earthpathwaysdiary.uk/festivals/lammas/the-birds-who-flew-beyond-time/

Edward Edinger, Ego & Archetype: https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Archetype-Individuation-Religious-Foundation-ebook/dp/B01M4MRZM8
Adam Curtis, Can't Get You Outta My Head (part 1): https://youtu.be/MHFrhIAj0ME
Journey of the Universe: https://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/

Support the Podcast:
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Dr. Ryan Westrum PhD is a nationally recognized psychedelic integration expert.

For more than 15 years, his primary focus has been working with individuals and groups facilitating experiential therapy and integrating psychedelic journeys into healing and personal transformation.

Ryan is a registered integration therapist for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and is the co-author of the book The Psychedelics Integration Handbook.

Show Links:
https://www.healingsoulsllc.com
https://www.psychedelicintegration.net

Support the Podcast:
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James Hollis, Ph. D., was born in Springfield, Illinois, and graduated from Manchester University in 1962 and Drew University in 1967. He taught Humanities for 26 years in various colleges and universities before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland (1977-82). He is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C.

James has written a total of sixteen books including: 
• Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times
• Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey
• Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves
• Prisms: Reflections on this Journey we call Life (Feb 2021)

He lives with his wife Jill, an artist and retired therapist, in Washington, DC. Together they have three living children and eight grandchildren.

Find out more about Dr. Hollis' books and online courses at http://jameshollis.net 

Support the Podcast:

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Use code MEDICINEPATH or link below for 15% off the Shamanic Yoga series: https://vimeo.com/r/334h/MFJHQkFEVk

Support the podcast by making a small monthly contribution. https://plus.acast.com/s/medicinepath.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.