On the Soul's Terms

Celebrating the Astrological New Year and the first new moon of the Year in Aries: The Story of the Zodiac. We go from the Oceanic realm, the dreamtime of Pisces into the Creative Fire of Aries which begins the cycle. Each sign as an element of compensation of the sign before it. And then, eventually, back into the ocean.

Then, a take on what Astrology actually IS. The miracle of it surviving through to modern day and into the realm of Rationalist Materialism. The attempt to 'explain' how it works that often falls flat. And another way to think about it in imaginal terms (which doesn't mean not real).

And finally - a passage from James Hillman and his speech to an Astrological conference in 1997, repeated in 2005. You can find that here.

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What's that mesmerising soundtrack?  That's Marlia Coeur: Spotify | YouTube.

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Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
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James Mattingley returns to the show with another powerful poem:

The Return by Geneen Marie Haugen

Some day, if you are lucky,
you’ll return from a thunderous journey
trailing snake scales, wing fragments
and the musk of Earth and moon.

Eyes will examine you for signs
of damage, or change
and you, too, will wonder
if your skin shows traces

of fur, or leaves,
if thrushes have built a nest
of your hair, if Andromeda
burns from your eyes.

Do not be surprised by prickly questions
from those who barely inhabit
their own fleeting lives, who barely taste
their own possibility, who barely dream.

If your hands are empty, treasureless,
if your toes have not grown claws,
if your obedient voice has not
become a wild cry, a howl,

you will reassure them. We warned you,
they might declare, there is nothing else,
no point, no meaning, no mystery at all,
just this frantic waiting to die.

And yet, they tremble, mute,
afraid you’ve returned without sweet
elixir for unspeakable thirst, without
a fluent dance or holy language

to teach them, without a compass
bearing to a forgotten border where
no one crosses without weeping
for the terrible beauty of galaxies

and granite and bone. They tremble,
hoping your lips hold a secret,
that the song your body now sings
will redeem them, yet they fear

your secret is dangerous, shattering,
and once it flies from your astonished
mouth, they-like you-must disintegrate
before unfolding tremulous wings.

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What's that mesmerising soundtrack?  That's Marlia Coeur: Spotify | YouTube.

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Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
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Tara Judelle is a world renowned yoga facilitator moved by bringing humans into their innate sense of freedom and purpose. After 30 years experimenting in all forms of movement, Tara co-created the School of Embodied Flow™ in 2014, making her one of the first yoga teachers to bring the work of Body Mind Centering and Tantra together.  From a background in literature, film writing, directing and dance, Tara brings students on a journey of discovery of their numinous self through laughter, meditation, embodiment, movement & inquiry.

Tara was one of the first five teachers on the platform called Yogaglo which was one of the first online yoga platforms (launching in 2009).  Her deepest inquiry is how to bring the felt sense of capital S self into the felt sense of our embodiment to facilitate awakening. She is also interested in using the body as a gateway into flow states, and how to bring the meditative awareness into open eyed interactive awareness.  Teaching reciprocity and yielding is one of the things closest to her heart.

Recently she has been studying more somatic psychology and Internal Family Systems, and looking at how the energy of what we could call Core Self radiates as a frequency that tends to heal/melt held patterns or parts. 

"I suppose if I could do anything in the world it would be to help humans to remember their creative, dynamic felt sense of Self energy and to melt the masks that we have learned to take on. "

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Click to become a Patron

What's that mesmerising soundtrack?  That's Marlia Coeur: Spotify | YouTube.

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Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Stuart Gadenne joins the podcast to talk all things Norse Mythology.

We delve into the attempts of the Gods to punish and silence the Trickster God Loki, and how that led to the inevitable end of times in Ragnarok. The parallels with Greek Mythology are also explored. And we look into the heart of the soul of Masculinity. What do these old tales have for us modern humans searching for a place in this world?

Find out more about Stuart on his Instagram page @ragnarok.survival.actual.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with the soundtrack for the show. You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Stuart Gadenne joins the podcast to talk all things Norse Mythology.

We delve into the attempts of the Gods to punish and silence the Trickster God Loki, and how that led to the inevitable end of times in Ragnarok. The parallels with Greek Mythology are also explored. And we look into the heart of the soul of Masculinity. What do these old tales have for us modern humans searching for a place in this world?

Find out more about Stuart on his Instagram page @ragnarok.survival.actual.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with the soundtrack for the show. You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Persia Juliet joins the show and opens with the Ancient Indian Epic love story of Shiva & Sati. It's a story panning many epochs and lifetimes exploring love, longing, passion and the Yogic Path. 

Persia shares a glimpse of her own story: from spontaneously performing yoga rituals as a child to the world of Bikram Yoga and on to becoming one of the premier teachers in Sydney.  We weave this, as only she can, into the life she's living and how the teachings embedded in this story have shaped her experiences.

Persia is a teacher trainer and international retreat host, specialising in Yin, Theming & Planetary Vinyasa. Her passion for teaching is greatly influenced by energetic anatomy, the link between emotions and organs, astrology and lunar cycles. 

Her current offering, starting soon(!), is a 100 Yin TT called Soma Chandra. Discover more here.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with the soundtrack for the show. You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The Ancient Greek myth of the Labyrinth is one of the most rich, complex and compelling stories of the ages. It provides us a metaphor for moving through the winding tunnels of our own individual Psyche as well as a navigation tool for our modern days in the apparently post truth world.

Pick up Ariadne's Thread and come along for a journey into:

* The nature of ancient stories and why we need to leave the more gruesome and unappealing parts in, despite it making us uncomfortable.
* An ode to the Nodes in Scorpio - Taurus (briefly)
* Ancient Bull Cults spreading from Crete to the Indus Valley in the Age of Taurus (circa 4400 - 2200 BCE)
* Zeus & Europa, King Minos, Poseidon, Daedalus, Theseus, Ariadne and Icarus - as they all weave their way into the tapestry of this epic tale.

Cover Art: Maestro di Tavarnelle Theseus and the Minotaur, aka The Labyrinth ca 1500-1525

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with the soundtrack for the show.
You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Dr David Russell joins me on the podcast this week. David recently wrote an essay centered around James Hillman’s 1979 book: The Dream & the Underworld. I’ve posted it with David’s permission on the Abaton Blog here.

We discuss ideas about the nature of dreams as David argues for allowing dreams to be lifeforms unto themselves - perfect within their own context - and not to be simply mined for the betterment of the upper-world.

To begin the episode, David opens up about his own story. After a decade in a Catholic monastery, studying theology in Europe, he was drawn to question the literal interpretations of the scriptures. This led to an opening to the mythic realm and on a winding path out of organised religion into Psychology; eventually becoming President of the NSW Jung Society.

We then chat about Robert Johnson’s visits to Sydney and the impact that his presence had on David in the '80s and '90s; the revelation of seeing Johnson standing on stage telling stories for hours at a time as a way to engage the psyche of the room. And then how the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement of Hillman, Michael Meade and Robert Bly further informed his path towards poetry and myth as an access point to wisdom.

The conversation then moves to the mythic: the Sumerian myth of Inanna as well as Hercules' 12th task, both enduring a journey to the Underworld and back. Each, by learning the customs and rules of the Underworld, are able to bring back with them a particular gift - specific to their Age - to share with the world above.

Dr. David Russell has a psychotherapy/psychology practice in Darlinghurst (Sydney CBD). In his therapeutic work his intention is to attend to the experiential nature of desire and compulsion as experienced in everyday life. David is a past president of the Sydney Jung Society and past Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Western Sydney University.

During the episode I mention Madness Radio which can be found here.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with the soundtrack for the show.
You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In Part Two of my discussion with Melanie Reinhart we start where we left off; the ability of humans to communicate with plant life. This is considered 'ancient' wisdom, but perhaps it shouldn't be placed in the context of time, making it seem like it's something in the past. It's now. It's then. It's always the truth.

We then track the fascinating square between the centaurs Chiron & Pholus: astronomical bodies squaring each other over the span of almost a decade. The symbolism and the timing of their connections are uncanny - and may give us some clues as to another layer of what we're here to learn in these days of the pandemic.

Chiron and Pholus are connected in myth. Chiron is in the lineage of Saturn, Pholus is in the lineage of Mercury. They come together in Chiron's cave in a fateful way; Pholus opening the lid of the wine of Dionysus that he wasn't meant to have. This attracts the unruly and wild centaurs, ultimately causing his own death and the wounding of his friend, Chiron.

Pholus' story: The Lid Comes Off. These are the times we're in, according to the Centaurs.

We circle back to talk about grief; the rituals we perform as a collective to acknowledge the deep loss inherent in being human, especially in times of upheaval and change.

Which brings us to meaning and the symbolic life of having an intimate connection with one's own mythic story.

To hear the story of Chiron on this podcast go to Apple or Spotify or simply scroll back to hear Alexandre and I discuss the story when we were Tending the Sun Fire.

For more about Melanie visit her website here.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with a new soundtrack for the show.
You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Cover Art: Hendrick Goltzius, Apollo Entrusting Chiron with the Education of Asclepius. Circa 1590.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Melanie Reinhart has been a professional astrologer since 1975. She is a patron of the Faculty of Astrological Studies and in 2004 received the Charles Harvey Award from the Astrological Association of Great Britain for 'exceptional service to astrology.'

This is Part One of a two part conversation. We begin, as is the custom on the show, with land acknowledgements. This takes us on a fascinating journey into Melanie's lineage and how synchronicity played a big role in connected her back to her ancestors, just as Chiron was crossing over her IC (the lowest part of the chart and connected to our unseen origins).

This leads us into a deeper dive into the world of Chiron and the Centaurs and their position in the Kuiper Belt of the solar system. An astronomy magazine once referred to the Kuiper Belt as 'the pristine remains of our celestial origins.' We dream along with this concept and wonder if Chiron might, in fact, take us back to our very roots, so long as we're willing to see the world from his viewpoint.

Towards the end of the episode Melanie is inviting us into the ancient world view that we can commune with plants and when we do their extraordinary healing potentials are often revealed.

It's there that we take a break, and pick up the flow again in Part Two.

To hear the story of Chiron on this podcast go to Apple or Spotify or simply scroll back to hear Alexandre and I discuss the story when we were Tending the Sun Fire.

For more about Melanie visit her website here.

Thank you to Marlia Coeur who has provided us with a new soundtrack for the show.
You can find her on Spotify and YouTube.

Cover Art: Hendrick Goltzius, Apollo Entrusting Chiron with the Education of Asclepius. Circa 1590.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing please consider joining the Patreon community.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.