Hints and Guesses: Recent Episodes
Kent Dobson
Conversations about Spirituality, Religion, Doubt, Sacred Texts, Nature, Soul, Love, Death and all the Good Stuff
Here are a few thoughts on Bryan Johnson and the Don't Die movement, Nietzche's image of the Ubermensch (beyond human), and the Prometheus myth. Enjoy!
Here's an episode exploring the human shadow. I offer here an image of the psyche, a way to think about projection, and a myth that helps. Enjoy!
This episode explores Robert Bly's poem, One Source of Bad Information, how I got my Enneagram number wrong for 20 years, and a little of how ended up back in the church. Special thanks to may Patrons who keep this podcast going. Enjoy!
It's the time of year to do a like searching spiritual inventory, a Great Annual Examen. This requires discernment, a word that's not all that common anymore. I also want to talk a little about AI and about becoming the kind of person who joins the Cosmic Dance. Happy New Year. Enjoy!
Happy Thanksgiving! Here are a few thoughts on blessing, pilgrimage, monastic creativity, and the new dark age. Wishing you all many blessings. May the road rise to meet you. Enjoy!
The ancient prophets were something like the first shadow detectors, and had the courage to externalize their vision of the world. What ever happened to such prophetic imagination? Are there any lessons we can metabolize from the prophets in our age of madness? What would it be like to stand between the way of power and the way of denial, a creative alternative to the tantalizing polls of scapegoating and blame? Enjoy!
I'm borrowing this phrase "covenant with limit" from Martin Shaw. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how freedom is actually found. In this episode, I discuss briefly Wendell Berry's poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, the ancient art of fasting, and the imaginative possibility that we might want to make a covenant with limits before we go mad in the wrong direction. Enjoy!
What if we inherit not only biological material but existential and spiritual questions from our ancestors? What's ours to carry that's been handed to us? I've been wrestling with these questions for a while now, and some big changes in my life have brought them into new focus. I hope you hear and hint or guess for your own spiritual life. Enjoy!
"We have to know the darkness to be able to search for the light," according to Henri Nouwen. And he goes on to claim that we need lostness, in the search for meaning. With so much disorder, lostness, darkness, denial and confusion, I'd like to read most of a letter written by Nouwen that seems to address our age, people like you and me. I hope you'll hear something encouraging, no matter how wild and meandering your path. Enjoy!
In an age obsessed with "knowing oneself," how do we not get stuck in endless autobiography and self-absorption? At its best, a healthy spiritual and religious life helps free us from the cul-de-sac of narcissistic feedback. In the episode, we'll look at a story from Saint Antony, a paragraph from C.S. Lewis about hell, and I'll outline the four foundations of a spiritual life from the book Journey Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn (a book about Dogen, Merton and Jung). See below for the link I promised in the episode about the Cree mountains of human development. Enjoy!
https://decolonialfutures.net/portfolio/fourmountains/#:~:text=Each%20mountain%20represents%20a%20stage,one%20mountain%20to%20the%20other.
https://www.patreon.com/c/kentdobson
Here's the final episode of The Christ Symbol. This episode is about Authority and Resurrection (stage 6 and 7). What does real authority look like? What does it mean for a "grain of wheat to go into the ground and die?" What is the nature of real change? Hope you hear something from Jesus own transformed life, that may in fact trans-form your own. Enjoy!
Here's the next episode in The Christ Symbol. This episode is about Wilderness and Mission (stage 4 and 5), the necessity of the desert and the nature of a soul-oriented mission in the life of Jesus, a life transformed. Hope you hear a hint or guess for your own spiritual growth. Enjoy!
Here's the next episode in looking at Christ through a symbolic lens, a life transformed. This episode is about Transcendent Encounter (stage 3), those moments we could not have predicted, manufactured, controlled, or made up. Those moments when we know we are ushered into something larger. Hope you hear a hint or guess for your own spiritual growth. Enjoy!
What's going on with our thumbs? Plus, the next episode in this series looking at the life of Christ through a symbolic lens, a life transformed. This episode is about calling, the first nudges of our sense of meaning and destiny. Hope you hear a hint or guess for your own spiritual growth. Enjoy!
This is a long-format, unscripted, very personal conversation, with Paul Vanderklay. We talk a bit about our stories, what it's like to be a pastor, what's been happening in the changing landscape of Christianity, and what the future might hold. Check out Paul's YouTube channel for more content. Enjoy!
This episode is part of my series, Wandering through the Bible, where I look again at these ancient stories through a symbolic lens. Beginning with a quote from Teilhard about the slow work of God, we then turn to the first stage of a life of Christ, a life transformed, the birth stories. Special thanks to my Patrons. Enjoy!
In this episode, I describe the changes faces of Jesus over the centuries, and what I mean by the Symbolic Christ. I also explore in more detail what I call the three chords of listening to the Bible: story, context and symbol. This is part of a series called Wandering through the Bible, where I return to some of the most important stories and images from the Christian tradition. Hope you hear a hint or guess. Enjoy!
I'm starting a new series on the Bible, particularly through the lens of symbol. It feels like I've come back around again to the central stories and images of my tradition, but seeing and hearing new things. To begin with, I'll be releasing parts of my audio book (A Grain of Wheat), which had only been free for my Patrons. In this experimental audio book, I look at the stages of Christ's life, and the symbols that still feel potent. Clearly Jesus lived a life transformed, and left a few hints and guesses. No matter how you feel about the Bible, or what you might think, I hope you'll hear something meaningful and rich. Enjoy!
We use the word love for sports teams, friends, partners, food, and even God. What are we talking about? What is love? And how might we grow into more loving people? Here are a few hints and guesses about romance, love of self, love of the other, and the possibility of divine love. Inspiration for this podcast come from John O'Donohue's book Anam Cara, Robert Johnson's books He and She, and St Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Enjoy!
There are many ancient stories about making a deal with the Devil. What happens when we no longer take these seriously? What is lost? What are we missing? I'd like to explore the consequences and opportunities in taking seriously what happens when we make a deal with the Devil through stories of the Handless Maiden, Faust, and the Temptation of Christ. Enjoy!
Here's a conversation with Quique Autrey, therapist, author and podcaster, about his new book Green Flags. What does it look like to become a person who's a little more like a "green flag" than a red flag? Where does one even start with "depth psychology?" Quique's highlights a number of accessible ways to turn the gaze inward, toward a healthier relationship with ourselves, which seems necessary in order to be a more generative presence in the world. You can find out more about Quique, and buy the book, at https://www.quiqueautrey.com/ Hope you here a hint or guess for your own path.
The word sermon implies a threading together, and I'd like to thread together some lines from St Paul, T.S.Eliot, and Jung. I hope you'll find some encouragement and challenge from these voices, who in their own way, point beyond themselves to the transcendent, to God. I can't think of anything more important in our age of mistrust.
Here are few thoughts on feeling stuck, big storms gathering at the window, what it's like when our stories and imagination seem disconnected from the present, a few musings on intuition, the still small voice, the melody below the melody, being defeated, and less metaphorically, moving back to Michigan. The poems that I quote are from Rilke and Annie Lighthart. Enjoy!
What's the difference between mood and feeling? Between emotions and values? How do we grow our capacities for relationship, for deep values, in other words, how do we access the "feeling function" (Jung)? This episode is an exploration of the feeling function, the common wounds associated with it, and some possibilities for developing a healthier "masculine" psyche. I pull mainly from Robert A. Johnson's book He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, but also a little from Jung, and from my own experience. Thanks for supporting this podcast. I hope you hear and hint, a guess, for your own life. Enjoy!
I'd like to explore the mystical, not as an expert, but a student. Lately I've been inspired by Evelyn Underhill's insights in her book, Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Conscious which I quote in this podcast. My sense is, that despite the darkness of the age we live in, something of the Absolute wishes to break in, to rearrange our consciousness. When this happens, the old dream and the young see visions. What might it look like for modern people, spiritual - religious - not-so-religious, to open up to the possibility of the transcendent, so that our present mode of consciousness, our small egoic frame, might grow? What if Reality is not what we thought? The mystics left us a few clues for how to listen and how to be.
Here's a followup to Religious Problems, Religious Medicine, a further exploration of the tension between Law and Spirit, tradition and innovation, which seems to be natural and important. I also have a few musings on the Wandering Desert God of the Hebrew people, as a kind of symbol for the religious outsider. And I turn again to Jung's highly unusual sense for "God," which might open a few doors to the transcendent. Enjoy!
Here's a follow up to Religious Problems, Religious Medicine. Just a few thoughts on the Wandering God of Hebrew Bible, and a few hints and guesses about the tension between Law and Spirit, the Wild Galilean, and Jung's understanding of God as a sort of disrupter to our plans and intensions. I'm still arguing, I think, for a religious life of sorts, a turn toward the sacred, even though we live in a age of suspicion toward the Divine and mistrust of institutions.
I want to explore some religious questions that have been troubling me lately, where I've gotten things wrong over the last few years, and some hints and guesses about what's calling my name; namely some very ancient invitations...worship, prayer and sacrifice. Enjoy!
We discuss Tony's new book, which is great (www.reverendhunter.com). We talk about theology, leaving the church, Tao and redemption, sacred places, and some personal things. Enjoy!
I hope you'll appreciate this conversation with Jason Adam Miller about his new book on Jesus' most paradoxical and misunderstood words at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. I loved this book, When the World Breaks. I've not read anything so personal, rich and thought provoking on the Beatitudes. It's worth your time, especially if you're interested in a way of being, more than a way of believing, a way that might well upend our frames and call us into a deeper life. Jason Adam Miller is a pastor in South Bend and someone worth paying attention to (www.jasonadammiller.com) Enjoy!
Here's another shorter podcast in my series, where I turn to poems, prayer, passages that have been important to me. I hope you'll hear your own hints and guesses. This week, we turn to Mary Oliver's classic, The Journey. Enjoy!
I'd like to explore the possibilities, the postures, and the terrain, of feeling lost, a certain kind of lostness. Rather than being prescriptive, I hope to just describe a little of what it's like, and a few hints and guesses from the poets and mystics, that I hope you'll find meaningful, and possibly helpful. Enjoy.
Here's another shorter mediation on Rilke's passage about leaving home, about following a calling, the cost and terrible possibilities hidden in walking toward the East, toward a church forgotten, a sacred place ignored. Enjoy.
For my 100th episode, I'm introducing a new dimension of the podcast, shorter mediations based on poems, passages, and prayers. Thanks for all your support, can't believe I've made 100 episodes. I hope you'll hear some hints and guesses in this David Whyte poem, Coleman's Bed, or in my own reflections. Stay tuned for more shorter episodes, as well as my longer format contributions and interviews. Special thanks to Jonas Dobson, my son, for the music. Enjoy!
In this episode, we turn our attention again to the language of dreams, particularly the ways in which the dream experience seeks to have an effect on the dreamer. This is really part 2 of a podcast series on dreams, the first episode being called The Language of Dreams. Special thanks to my friend Emma who was willing to share her dream in a such a public place. We hope it serves you in some way. Thanks for listening and supporting. Enjoy!
On the longest night of the year, I'd like to explore dreams, dreamwork and surrendering to the intelligence of the dream. "We have forgotten the age old fact that God speaks primarily through dreams and visions" (C.G. Jung). Enjoy!
Eloise Skinner's new book is called, But Are You Alive? How to Design a Life Worth Living. In this conversation about her book, we discuss existential therapy, ancient practices, work life, monastic possibilities, and questions of meaning. You can find her on Instagram, or through her website www.eloiseskinner.com
I hope you hear some hints and guesses for your own everyday spiritual life. Enjoy!
Here's the second conversation with my wife Mandy about Israel, about the troubling questions we think this conflict raises, the hyper-charged language being used, a bit of historical context, the cultural climate of oppressor and victim, plus a few hints and guesses about deception and the power of seeking the truth.
Here are a few thoughts and reflections about out life in Israel with my wife, Mandy. We thought we'd share a few personal reflections about out time there, what we learned, and a bit of what we find troubling, plus a few things we've found helpful. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."
"People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in other to avoid facing their own souls" (C.G. Jung). Here's the most recent way I've been thinking about Soul, along with some very personal stories. You can check my previous podcasts, What is Soul? Part 1 and 2 if you want to see how my own thoughts have evolved and grown. Enjoy!
This is a further exploration of the unique ways the masculine, or the unhealthy patriarchal world, wounds the son and the daughter. We'll explore the nature of these wounds using two ancient myths, one about a rat, and the other about the handless maiden. Like all sacred stories, a few hints and guesses are hidden here that can help us navigate the ways our fathers are wounded, and the ways we all received wounds when we were innocent, and small, and vulnerable. Although myths rarely spell out the path of healing explicitly, or tell us how to translate it, they nevertheless show us that healing is possible, and that our wild instinctual core can burn brightly again in our lives, opening us further to a life of value and meaning. Enjoy!
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 our 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 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.
Merton, Nietzsche, Buber and a few thoughts on the opportunities when we no longer know what we mean by God.
I'd like to turn to Thomas Merton's writings on the True Self. I find his mystical understanding of identity to be counter-cultural, challenging and ultimately hopeful. I hope you hear a hint or guess from Merton, as I am, for your own descent beneath the ego's demands and stances. Enjoy!
What is deconstruction? Or the Dark Night for that matter? And what is it that we are being invited into, during certain seasons of life? These are only hints and guesses.
In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about the lost art of the feminine, eros, the divine, the needed work in the world around a more sacred view of the feminine and the masculine, among other things. This was originally recorded for the Westwords publication for Animas Valley Institute. Check out Kate's work at dancingserpent.org, and the work of Animas at animas.org. Enjoy!
This week is about the sacred, the holy ordinary, trees lit from within, Annie Dillard, Moses, and a few suggested practices for deepening our quality of attention. Enjoy!
A podcast about the golden calf, the absence of God, the center which has no center, and the nutrients left in the compost heap of our spiritual ancestors.
The first in my Monday series on ancient texts, Biblical images, and the compost heap of the wisdom tradition. This episode is a musing on Babel, power, greed, pride, Putin, borders, invasion and the Wind. Enjoy!
Excited to chat with Brie Stoner. We chat about courage, art, motherhood, divorce, unknowing, mentors and geography. Enjoy!
This episode is about the mysterious relationship between our wounds and our gifts. Perfect for the holiday season. Enjoy!
What stories are we carrying about human purpose, or destiny, or about the how any of us are actually here, right now, in this life, in this era? Are we mere accidents, among countless accidents? What needs to be remembered for us to really flourish, or find some sense of deeper meaning? Just a few questions I'm wrestling with on this podcast. Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy our unscripted conversation about surprises, form and creativity, what is currently speaking to us, and finding a life-giving pace in the madness and anxiety of our age.
In this wide-ranging chat we talk about Tony's story, being canceled, the Emergent Church, epistemic humility, not losing faith, finding wild places, hunting, contact with death, Israel, and whether or not the Jesus story still has power. I hope you hear a few hints and guesses for your own unfolding. Enjoy!
Abraham Heschel, unflinching awe, Yellowstone at night, sublime grandeur, and what happens when the only value system we have is the market. Enjoy!
More in my series, Stuff That Helps! This time, Iron John by Robert Bly. In this episode we explore the opening of the myth Iron John and what it has to teach us about growing up. It's very challenging right now to talk about the masculine, much more what I call the Sacred Masculine. I hope you hear something that helps. Enjoy!
The death of God, the unconscious, Freudian slips, why you can't find your keys, are all in this wide ranging conversation with my friend Peter Rollins. You might have to listen more than once. Special thanks to my Patrons for supporting this podcast. It's great to be back after a strange and challenging month for me. Enjoy!
How long does this whole spiritual transformation stuff take? Shouldn't I be enlightened by now? Why is all this old stuff still getting dragged up? Well, let's talk about it.
Just before the pandemic shut down the world, I recorded a conversation with two friends from Jerusalem while I was leading a tour there, both pastors at the small congregation I attended when I was a student. We dive into what life is like in Jerusalem for Christians, our thoughts and feelings about the ongoing tensions, what it's like to raise kids in such a complex environment and more. Our conversation is completely unscripted and wide-ranging. I hope you hear something fresh and interesting here as we discuss ideas and realities that tend to sharply divide the world in camps. Thanks for being a part of this podcast, for sharing it, for making it happen. Enjoy!
Back to the origins of the podcast with Paul Moore! Hope you enjoy another unscripted conversation, from racism, to meditation, to the nature of how the ego changes.
What do we stand to learn from 2020? What sort of spiritual stance is needed in 2021? These questions keep turing over in my heart and mind. Part of the answer seems to require some curiosity and clarity about mass movements, how they work, their intoxicating power, how the individual gets swallowed and dehumanized, and what to do about it. I'll be turing to some Jung and T.S. Eliot for a few hints and guesses. Enjoy.
Check out my interview with the eco-depth psychologist Bill Plotkin! We discuss his new book, The Journey of Soul Initiation, and the challenges of growing into a true adult. I'm so grateful for his books and the time I've spent in wild places with him and other Animas Valley Institute guides. Enjoy!
The Forum is a place for conversations with inspiring people. Ryan Meeks is a friend, guide, and a former Mega Church pastor (just like me)! We talk about what threads we started following later in life, and what the current edge of our sense of calling and spirituality is right now. I hope you here a hint or guess for your own story. I'll occasionally be dropping these conversations as part of a project I'm calling the The Forum. Enjoy!
Join me in starting off the New Year with some needed self examination. Enjoy (perhaps)!
The final advent reflection, based on the traditional scripture readings. Merry Christmas and happy Solstice.
Episode 3 in my short Advent series. What the nature of the Messianic kingdom that Jesus embodied? Enjoy!
Here's the first in a series of Advent reflections based on the traditional Advent readings from the Christian calendar. I hope you hear some ancient wisdom, a hint, a clue, a guess, that's a little light during the darkest time of year. Enjoy!
Understanding why we scapegoat and how to stop it. A viable and generative future depends upon it. Enjoy!
One week from the election here in the States, let's talk about the wounded king, the Fisher King, and what brings vitality and new life to the individual and the culture. Enjoy!
What does the prophetic consciousness have to teach us, right now, in all this madness? Enjoy!
Lets' talk about mentors, Telemachus, slapping the master, apprenticeship, Rabbi Zusha, and a few personal stories. Enjoy!
So excited to release this podcast about the Christ symbol, and my new audio book called A Grain of Wheat: The Christ Symbol now available on my website. Enjoy!
"We are here to awaken from the illusion of separateness," says Thich Naht Hahn. In a culture hell bent on separateness, canceling, disassociation, shaming, and division, no wonder we are having such a hard time. In this episode, I'd like to begin a conversation about the Third Way, a way that emerges between the poles. I hope you hear something that helps. Thanks for all your support. Enjoy
Crisis means "turning point," an opportunity, as much as a struggle. This week I discuss practical ways of unplugging from the machine, finding some deeper source, which is needed now more than ever. "What if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?" How do we return to what matters in an age that is deciding for us, what to think, what to buy, what to protest, what to post, what to care about, what to promote, what flag we should fly, and who we should be. Time for a Sabbath from all this nonsense.
Feeling heartbroken and troubled, now is the time to listen, to the caged bird, to voices from the edge. I hope you hear some hints and guesses.
What are the fantasies we'd like to maintain so our worldview doesn't have to change? Plus, change your batteries! Thanks for listening. Stay safe, stay smart, be courageous.
Just holding the question, "what really matters," seems to be more important right now than quick answers. This week is about that question, as well as the gifts of silence, severance and solitude. I also turn to some voices of wisdom, Merton, Berry and Rilke, who have lived through a few things, and still their words ring true. This time period is nothing short of a global invitation to change, but how and when and at what cost all seem to be unanswered. I hope you hear a few hints and guesses which inspire and challenge. Stay safe, stay smart, be courageous.
Collision of opposites, Corona, survival dance, sacred dance, abandonment, overwhelm, extrovert, introvert and the possibilities of a greater consciousness. What a world we live in! Stay safe and smart and courageous.
Let's talk about vulnerability, over-sharing, wounds and the fundamental nature of being. I Hope these hints and guesses are helpful. Enjoy!
Does anger have anything to teach us in a world with so much violence and suffering? Join me this week for an exploration around anger. I'll weave threads from David Whyte, Bill Plotkin and Joanna Macy, plus share a few personal stories about my own relationship with anger. Enjoy! Or get pissed off.
A podcast on advent, incarnation, the womb, Rilke, holiday parties, the mall, and the pregnant possibility of sweet darkness. Happy holidays my friends. Enjoy!
This week is about conspiracy theories, fantasies and our strategies for avoiding impermanence and the abyss. Enjoy!
Sick of the news? Let's talk about Echo and Narcissus, a David Whyte poem, flannel shirts, and Gandhi's well know imperative, "be the change you want to see in the world." Enjoy!
"You complete me!" Not really. As a follow up to the last episode on the Shadow, I'm diving into the image of the Magical Other. Let's talk about projections and fantasies in intimate, long-term relationships. And how to grow up. This episode is in my series Stuff that Helps!, where I popularize stuff I've found helpful. This week will be about the work of James Hollis, a Jungian Analyst and author who coined the phrase the Magical Other. According to Hollis the fantasy of the Magical Other is one of the chief sources of suffering in long-term relationships, not to mention a kind of false god in the Western world. Enjoy!
With so much finger pointing and blame right now, let's talk about the shadow and projection. Ken Wilber calls shadow work the great gift of psychology in the 21st century. So what is it? How do we get close to the possibilities and invitations hidden beneath our conscious awareness? Enjoy!
We've lost the plot again! Let's talk about The Apocalypse, which really means "to reveal." With so much anxiety and fear, is there a reason to be hopeful? What does the destruction and renewal symbol have to teach us right now? "No one ought ever love their suffering/but no one ever loves without its pain/as we die we come to wondering/if there was something we could not yet see/that winged Thing that merges with Earth's suffering/to make us what we would otherwise never be." (Rilke)
The last podcast created some controversy, so let's go further. In this episode, I bring in some other voices on the subject of "know thyself" - I discuss the early adolescent tensions of authenticity and social acceptance from the work of Bill Plotkin, the traps of identification according to Cynthia Bourgeault, radical consciousness from Ken Wilber, and the Cosmic Dance of Thomas Merton. Enjoy!
This week, woman's soccer, Exodus, liberation, co-creating a better world and the gift of the sacred feminine imagination. Enjoy!
Through the analogy of dreams and how they work on the ego, I argue that parables, because they're archetypal and symbolic, are meant to disrupt, disrobe and dismantle the ego - who we think we are in the world. This week, in my ongoing series on the Bible, I explore how parables can work on us. They're not just clever stories with moral lessons that need to be deciphered or interpreted correctly. Listening on this deeper level does not mean you need to believe the stories, or hold certain views about the Bible, or even believe in God. It's more like we're being invited to open up to the characters, the emotions, the landscape, and images of a parable (or any mythic story for that matter). This way of listening helps reveal the hidden contours of our own psyche - where we need to grow, where we're stuck, the leading edge of change for us. Being worked by parables feels like, "Surprise! You're not who you say you are, or who you think you are. Change your life!" Enjoy!
Stuff I've been pondering - the soul's code and her aims, raising kids, our post truth culture, the underworld pool of memory, "what to remember when waking" (David Whyte), the un-lived life, "concealment of Being" (Heidegger), and the relationship between the past and a new imagination for the future. Enjoy!
Episode 5 in losing the plot, my Biblical series. I'm following the last podcast on Holy Week with a few musings on resurrection. Did Jesus really resurrect? What's the meaning intended by such a radical and complex image? Reflecting on the experiences of Paul and Mary Magdalene, some important patterns emerge that take us beyond the debates about belief and history. Enjoy!
Back with another musing on the Biblical stories. This episode is about Holy Week, the last week of Jesus life, the Sacred Fool, eating the Divine, and one of the more troubling and enigmatic teachings of Jesus to buy a sword. Plus, Peter needs to eat his shadow in order to grow up. Enjoy!
This episode is about our cultural and "spiritual" obsession with safety, the human ego, translative and transformative religion, and whether or not the deeper path of soul and/or God is really all that safe. Enjoy!
Still losing the plot! This week we work backwards from The Tower of Babel to Cain, a few of the darker stories in the entire Hebrew Bible. These ancient stories keep provoking, challenging, inspiring, alluring, much to my surprise. What do you think? Does the Bible still matter?
To my own surprise, I keep returning to the Bible, a book that allures and repulses, inspires and confronts. The archetypes, stories, symbols and metaphors are like a bridge between the transcendent and nameless, and the ordinary and mundane. This week, the polar vortex, Trump tweets, and the Creation story make an appearance in the ways we've lost the plot. Enjoy!
To my own surprise, I keep returning to the Bible, a book that allures and repulses, inspires and confronts. The archetypes, stories, symbols and metaphors are like a bridge between the transcendent and nameless, and the ordinary and mundane. I don't think the Biblical narrative has runs its course when it comes to meaning. In fact, the way we misunderstood, dismissed, derided and ignored the great stories has contributed to more narcissism and nihilism and loss of meaning. We've lost the plot. In this series, I hope to recover some of the ancient wisdom that runs like a mysterious thread of meaning from antiquity to the present.
This week, intro to Bill Plotkin! We'll take a look at Plotkin's nature-based map of human wholeness in his book Wild Mind and why we desperately need this sort of work in the world right now. I hope it helps!
Paul Moore and Kent Dobson have an unscripted conversation about dreams and dreamwork. For both of us, dreams have been an important and surprising part of growing out of our old ways of being in the world. We're not claiming to be dream experts; we're just curious and open. This conversation is more like a 101 introduction. Enjoy!
Paul Moore, Kent Dobson. Two friends chatting about…90’s worship music (really?), shame, the esoteric and exoteric, moments of transcendence, manipulation, learning to swim, and perhaps the universal experience of having been cheated by whatever system we happen to be in.
Back with Paul Moore! We talk about the cultural epidemic of not growing up, the first and second half of life, and how the soul is always trying to get our attention (plus zombies and MC Hammer). Enjoy our unscripted, not claiming to be experts, conversation.
Paul and Kent have another unscripted chat about what happens when the world is not on board with our wandeing, shedding social roles, cycles of change. Enjoy!
This week, intro to Ken Wilber! I focus on the troubling and life-giving notion of "transcend and include," specifically as it relates to spiritual growth, intelligence or worldviews (from magic to integral). I conclude with a few thoughts on the virgin birth and the crucifixion and my own evolving way of holding these stories. I hope it helps!
The second installment of, Stuff that Helps! This week we'll look at the work of Joanna Macy. I'd like to focus on her way of describing transformation and change. And personally, I'd like to talk about the relationship between grief and change. Her work is extensive, so this is just a taste (more than an hour's worth). I hope this helps!
I’m very excited to talk about, Stuff that Helps! (Updated Version) Ideas, people, books, maps, etc. have shaped who I am and I think you'll find them helpful too. This first episode is rooted in Richard Rohr's work on the initiated (male) adult. In other words, what does a healthy adult look like? His focus is on healthy adult males, something we obviously need in this crazy culture we live in, but I think his ideas move beyond gender roles. Anyway, I hope this stuff helps. For futher reading, check out Rohr's book Adam's Return. Enjoy
How can we be people of responsibility, action, vision and courage? How can we be "Warriors for the Human Spirit" (Margret Wheatley)? In this episode I wonder how we might turn our attention toward the painful and difficult realities of our culture in the midst of yet another tragedy, as leaders interested in a more generative future.
In this episode I take a closer look at the different levels of consciousness hidden in the story of Jonah. This might have something to do with Jesus’ cryptic line about no sign being given, “except the sign of Jonah.” In any case, the invitation at the heart of this mytho-poetic story is more urgent than ever. Enjoy.
Back by popular demand, Paul and Kent sit down for an unscripted chat. We discuss our age of Narcissism and Nihilism, how we played a role in electing our president, and the deep need to tune into other frequencies if there is any way out of this mess.
What wants to be born in the soul during the darkest time of year? What Christ consciousness, what seed of your own soul, what gift, what child, what is pregnant again, waiting to bring forth a sacred vision of life in a world consuming itself to death? Merry Christmas everyone.
This podcast was recorded in Jerusalem, in the middle of a seemingly unworkable situation. Rather than attempting to offer solutions like every other talking head, I wonder how the stalemate, or the status quo, might just be the fertile ground for the needed shift in consciousness. I’m reminded of Jesus’ teaching that new wine needs new wine skins, and that trying to shove the complex new reality of the middle east into old narratives, or old ways of thinking, seems to ruin everything. This episode is more like a prayer that some imaginative dreamers will emerge in middle of all this suffering whose consciousness is no longer dominated by tribal affiliations, who use their gods to defend violence and who scapegoat any "other." One can hope.
This final episode on the soul feels more like a starting place than a definitive ending. I attempt a definition of soul using poetry and image, and I also turn to an old favorite, Mary Oliver, for some help. In the end, I hope something of your own inner voice, or depth, or truer self, or soul comes a bit more out of hiding.
In this episode I explore the question of soul again by taking a brief look at the words ego, soul and spirit, referencing the work of Bill Plotkin. I discuss the needed task of ego growth (growing more whole) as well as the invitation of transcendence and “inscendence,” the upward pull of spirit and downward descent of soul. Because these things are difficult to discuss and are best approached symbolically, I end with a David Whyte poem.
I'm starting a three part series on the soul, what is it and why it matters. In this episode I discuss certain life patterns that deepen the question and pursuit of soul. I also take a look at the origins of the word itself. And most importantly I look at the archetypal temptations of Jesus as a necessary wilderness in his own soul initiation and how that relates to our unique predicament. I end with Dante and his opening line, which is a line about the descent to soul.
In this episode, I discuss why moving to the mytho-poetic is important and how it relates to awakening to the conversation that only we can have with world. I also discuss the tricky notion of stages or levels of consciousness we bring to our reading of sacred texts and to our spiritual lives. I wonder what movement or growth looks like in this respect. I look at the story of Jacob's ladder as a symbol of moving up and down the ladder of perception, a glimpse that our identity is not fixed in the way we think it is, and that our view of reality is limited but fluid. And finally I mention a few lines from Adrienne Rich's poem Diving into the Wreck, as an image of diving into our own wreckage, the great myths and stories in hand, only to find our names are not written in these myths but can lead us to find our own true names in the world.
In this episode I struggle with making any sense of the rising tide of bad news coming from just about every source. In some ways, we are living in apocalyptic times, meaning a time of both destruction and renewal, Noah-like times. There is so much to grieve and there is so much that makes me wonder what "slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" It seems like we need the poets, the storytellers and the dreamers to tell us the truth, like Yeats does in this dark poem. We need the truth beneath the truth. We need the deeper truth in a rising sea of facts, some of which are glaringly un-factual to begin with. In the end, I wonder what waits in each of you, what dream wants to be born, in the middle of this apocalyptic mess.
In this episode I provide a little background on what has influenced my own approach to reading stories, particularly sacred texts, using other windows of knowing and thinking that we often forget about. I'm curious about ways to descend from a surface reading into the deep well. Using the work of Bill Plotkin, Michael Meade and Walter Brueggemann. I try to highlight useful patterns or frameworks for how to begin reading more mytho-poetically. Behind all this, I'm also wondering about the question of how we see and am drawn to rather cryptic saying of Jesus about the Bad Eye.
What is meant by the mytho-poetic power of story? What about the Bible? In this episode I discuss different levels or ways of reading the stories of the Bible, including the mythic, where the real power resides. I turn over the Jacob story in an attempt to dive into the mytho-poetic realm. This kind of approach to this story works on the level of transformation, which is what all great stories take us to the edge of. What is true both within and without about being human? Let me know what you think and if there is a story you’d like me to dive into next.
This is from a few years ago, but this talk at Christianity 21 inspired my book which comes out Aug 1, 2017. This was also the first time I ever talked about what happen to me on Mt Sinai. Enjoy
Kent Dobson and Paul Moore discuss the loyal soldier, inner authority, out of body experiences and more. Check it out. Let us know what you think.
Paul Moore and Kent Dobson hit record again and have another unscripted chat. We are not experts, just curious about spirituality. In this one we talk about demons, how the truth comes out when our kids ask us about God, and a few thoughts on myth. Hope you enjoy.