Think Spiritual

I found out about Andy Grant a couple of months ago when he did an episode of his podcast Real Men Feel on the Hero's Journey. I became fascinated with the title of his podcast as I believe that men accessing and dealing with their deep emotions is the true meaning of the Hero's Journey.

So, I contacted Andy and asked him to be on this podcast and he was kind enough to grant me some of his time online. Welcome to Andy Grant's personal spiritual journey.

Today on Think Spiritual Podcasts I am out to prove that Nancy Adams (Blake Lively) is a more complete Hero than Carol Danvers AKA Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).

Honestly, I expected that The Shallows was going to be a terrible movie and, thankfully, I turned out to be wrong.

Welcome my Dear Heroes!

Today is half-way day! This is the half-way point of the Hero's Journey! This is the half-way point of the series! This is the abyss! This is the time when you face what holds the most power over you.

I am excited today, Dear Listeners! While Step 10 is my favourite favourite part of the Hero's Journey, Step 9 - Atonement with the Father - is my favourite stage because this step is the entire point of the journey. This is the part where you face the very thing that sent you on your journey and when you make it past this part...oh ho ho! The best parts are still to come!

The subject of archetypes has been something that I've been wanting to delve into for a while. I did an interview with Beth Martens that was an introduction to the subject, but I think it's about time that I began to discuss them in more detail.

The "Hero" is the most common archetype I talk about on Think Spiritual Podcasts, but all Heroes must eventually mature and the most common path is towards Ruler/King/Queen.

So, let's start at the end as I introduce you to the archetype that is the goal line of almost every Hero's Journey.

Andrew Jasko is a former Pentecostal Christian minister who transitioned out of organized religion to the wide, wide world of Spirituality. It is perhaps easier for him to say what Spirituality isn't than what it is (and the same would be true for most people).

Andrew aids others through personal coaching, public speaking, and through his website https://lifeafterdogma.org/to heal from the trauma(s) of leaving a system of rigid beliefs and move into a place of spiritual peace.

TECHNICAL NOTE: I was using a new microphone setup and hadn't had a chance to test it, so my audio is a little blown-out for the first 15 or 20 minutes of this episode. This is quite a long episode overall, but I hope you take the time to listen through it.

I'm making some moderate changes to how I title new episodes of Think Spiritual, so Examining the Spiritual Elements of will now become The Deeper Meaning of. I think this makes much more sense, is easier to say and perhaps it will draw more interest to my content. Always have to try new things!

In this most recent episode, I want to tackle a very, very new movie - the Netflix film Io: Last on Earth (which I just call Io). I think this was a fantastic story with a great Hero's Journey, a lot of mythological symbolism and an overall thought-provoking message.

Bernardo and Gonzo wanted to leave the 80s for a short time and show me the amazing, Russian-produced film Mongol from 2007. Based as closely as possible (within 2 hours) on The Secret Life of the Mongols, this movie portrays Temudjin's (Genghis Khan) early life before his rise to power.

The ensuing conversation winds through topics of the Hero's Journey, archetypes, Heavy Metal music, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, and growing into manhood.

This episode of Think Spiritual was such a struggle to produce, that it became a Hero's Journey of it's very own! It just never seemed to turn out right. Something was always off and I even had to ask myself if it was "supposed to be" produced at all. There was genuine Temptation to quit!

However, the struggle and the Temptation just made the end result that much sweeter. Always persist!

I made contact with business coach, archetype reader and creator of the MerPreneur’s Journey, Beth Martens - a fellow journey-er who had quite the story to tell and she was more than happy to share some of her experience with archetypes with me on the podcast.

This episode of Think Spiritual Podcasts is a dive into the vast and complex subject of archetypes and how they are constantly at work in our lives. I hope that it is only the first of many discussions we will bring you on this fascinating and extremely useful topic.

I enjoy watching YouTube movie reviews from such content creators as Nostalgia Critic, Brad Jones, Say Goodnight Kevin and Cinemassacre. There was a time, quite a while ago now, when I thought I might try my hand at reviewing movies: I wanted to talk about movies that I love and everyone else hates.

Apparently I now have become a movie reviewer of a sort, but my take on films is much more about what I call their spiritual content and I examine this from an emotional perspective...as I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve listened to or watched any previous episodes of Think Spiritual.

So, let’s combine these two approaches today and examine the spiritual elements of a movie that I love and almost everybody hates: Lady in the Water.