Howl in the Wilderness

If you’d like to gain access to early release of full, ad-free episodes and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. We are an independent production and rely on the support of listeners like you. Make a one-time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with writer, ecophilosopher and activist Derrick Jensen.True to our Sagittarian natures, we have a wide-ranging conversation that covers a lot of ground, including personal stories of childhood trauma, healing, activism and the journey toward realizing your gifts and offering them to the world.Before we began recording I told Derrick that I was feeling a little blue that morning, and thought it had something to do with the total solar eclipse that had just occurred. By the end of our conversation I felt the heavy mood lift a little, which speaks to the therapeutic effect of sharing your troubles out loud with someone else who is also troubled. So, although our conversation delves into some heavy and painful topics, I hope that by the end of it you feel a little less alone with your own troubles. That’s one of the key intentions behind this podcast, and one of the main reasons I continue to do it: so that us lone wolves howling in the wilderness of modernity can find the others who are similarly afflicted, and perhaps find some comfort and community.Derrick's website: https://derrickjensen.orgTopics: ecology, psychology, trauma, recovery, healing, purpose

If you’d like to gain access to early release of full, ad-free episodes and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. We are an independent production and rely on the support of listeners like you. Make a one-time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with Stephen Aizenstat, who I had the pleasure of learning with a couple years ago when I participated in his Dream Tending program.Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute, Dream Tending, and the Academy of Imagination. For more than 35 years, he has explored the power of dreams through depth psychology. He has collaborated with Joseph Campbell, Marion Woodman, Robert Johnson, James Hillman, and Native elders worldwide. He conducts dreamwork and imagination seminars throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.Steve and I have a wide ranging conversation where we talk about the power of imagination to heal individuals and restore the soul of the world, and pay homage to some of the spiritual mentors who he’s worked with and who have inspired me.Links to Stephen's work:https://dreamtending.comhttps://dreamtending.com/the-imagination-matrix/

This was an excerpt of a 2-hour conversation. If you’d like to listen to the full episode and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. Support this independent podcast by making a one-time donation to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with psychologist, writer and activist Bruce Levine.Dr. Levine writes and speaks widely on how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. His most recent book is A Profession Without Reason: The Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry―Untangled and Solved by Spinoza, Freethinking, and Radical Enlightenment (2022).A practicing clinical psychologist often at odds with the mainstream of his profession, he is a regular contributor to CounterPunch, Salon and Mad in America. His articles and interviews have been published in the New York Times, Skeptic, Adbusters, The Ecologist, High Times, and numerous other magazines.Dr. Levine is on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and he is on the medical and scientific advisory board of the National Center for Youth Law. He is also an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs. A longtime activist in the mental health treatment reform movement, he is a member of the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry and MindFreedom. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America.Bruce's website: https://brucelevine.net/

Support Scott's GoFundMe:https://www.gofundme.com/f/kathryn-kloos-fundraiserIf you’d like to gain access to early release of full, ad-free episodes and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. We are an independent production and rely on the support of listeners like you. Make a one-time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with Scott Kloos, a plant medicine practitioner, teacher and ceremonialist located somewhere in the wilds outside Portland Oregon.Scott and I first crossed paths in a Santo Daime ceremony about ten years ago and I’ve been watching the development of his work ever since. We have a deep and intimate conversation about our relationship with plant medicines and teachers, and how plants can help us become more humble and humane people.Scott guides The School of Forest Medicine and Cascadia Folk Medicine and is author of Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness.You can find out more about his online and in-person offerings by visiting forestmedicine.net Topics: plant medicine, Santo Daime, psychedelics, animism

This is an excerpt of a 2 hour conversation. If you’d like to gain access to early release of full, ad-free episodes and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. We are an independent production and rely on the support of listeners like you. Make a one-time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with artist and scholar Mary Antonia Wood about her book The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create.Mary has been a visual artist for over thirty years, working in a variety of media. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been collected by both public institutions and individuals. She is chair of the Depth Psychology and Creativity program at Pacifica Graduate Institute and the owner of Talisman Creative Mentoring, a practice that supports artists and creators of all types.This was a lovely conversation where we go deep into all aspects of what it means to be a creative being, the influence that Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and James Hillman have had on her work, and the parallels between the shamanic archetype and the artist — some of my favourite topics.Mary's website: http://www.talismanmentoring.comTopics: creativity, art, shamanic archetype, carl jung, james hillman

This is an excerpt of a 2 hour conversation. If you’d like to gain access to early release of full, ad-free episodes and support the podcast, consider becoming part of the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness. We are an independent production and rely on the support of listeners like you. Make a one-time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulOn this episode I speak with cultural historian and archetypal astrologer Richard Tarnas about his book Cosmos & Psyche, his journey from Harvard to Esalen in the 1970s, and how his psychedelic research with Stanislav Grof and encounter with James Hillman were integral to the development of what he calls archetypal cosmology. I really enjoyed this conversation, and it was an honour to have such deep and personal conversation with someone who’s depth of experience, scholarship and concern for humanity is truly humbling.Richard's website: https://cosmosandpsyche.comArchetypal Cosmology journal: http://www.archai.orgThe Planets article: http://www.archai.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Tarnas-%E2%80%93-The-Planets-%E2%80%93-Archai-Issue-1.pdf

This is a preview of a longer episode. To listen to the full conversation and gain exclusive access the first 100 episode archive, join the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness Send a one time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulShow Links:http://brianjames.cahttp://instagram.com/brianjames.soulworkDonate: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulWatch and subscribe on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewildernessEpisode Description: On this episode I speak with Glen Slater about his new book Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman AgeI feel that this is one of the most relevant and important psychological texts for our current time, but you don’t have to take it from me. Noted trauma psychologist Donald Kasched writes:“Glen Slater’s brilliant and passionate analysis of online culture and its insidious seductions of hyperreality, virtual companions, and cyber presences—all run by artificial intelligence—opens up that imagination in ways that are both terrifying and illuminating. To become conscious of these dehumanizing forces in our midst and how to combat their dissociative effects on the inner life of the soul should be a major focus of all depth psychological training in the 21st century. I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of this book.” I couldn’t agree more.Glen studied psychology and comparative religion at The University of Sydney before coming to the United States in 1992 for doctoral work in clinical psychology. He has been teaching at Pacifica for over twenty years and is currently the Associate Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization. He also teaches in the Mythological Studies program. His publications have appeared in a number of Jungian journals and essay collections, and he edited and introduced the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer, as well as a collection of faculty writings, Varieties of Mythic Experience: Essays on Religion, Psyche and Culture. Beyond his work in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology, he writes on psyche and film as well as the psychology of technology. He lectures internationally in these areas of interest.

This is a preview of a longer episode. To listen to the full conversation and gain exclusive access the first 100 episode archive, join the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness Send a one time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulShow Links:http://brianjames.cahttp://instagram.com/brianjames.soulworkDonate: http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulWatch and subscribe on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewildernessEpisode Description: On this episode I speak with Susan Rowland about her work in Jungian Arts Based Research as well as her career as a writer of what she calls “cosy mystery novels about undervalued women.”Susan Rowland (PhD) teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute and is the author of ten books on Jung, the feminine, literature and the arts. Her last (with soul mate Joel Weishaus) is Jungian Arts-Based Research and the Nuclear Enchantment of New Mexico (2021). For a decade Susan has been working on a project to examine feminine heroism as a way to cultural renewal. Her first novel, The Sacred Well Murders, was published by Chiron in 2022. The book explores marginalized women becoming involved in epoch-defining events that entail literal and symbolic violence. The Alchemy Fire Murder: A Mary Wandwalker Mystery, is the second in the series. You can find the link to her website in the episode notes.I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you find it as interesting and inspiring as I did.https://www.susanrowland-books.com 

This is a preview of a longer episode. To listen to the full conversation and gain exclusive access the first 100 episode archive, join the pack over at patreon.com/howlinthewilderness Send a one time contribution to http://paypal.me/brianjamessoulShow Links:http://brianjames.cahttp://instagram.com/brianjames.soulworkWatch and subscribe on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@howlinthewildernessEpisode Description:On this episode I speak with Dr. James Maffie, about his book Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion. James Maffie is senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and affiliate of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Maryland.This was a fascinating conversation about the sophisticated metaphysics of the Mexica people, which in many ways bears a striking resemblance to Eastern Taoism and Tantra. In our discussion we speak quite a bit about the Mexica concept of Teotl, which can be thought of as a universal energy of movement and transformation. For the Aztecs, like the Taoist, the purpose of life was to maintain a balance of the opposing manifestations of Teotl, such as light/dark, life/death, masculine/feminine. Living an ethical life meant fulfilling what Dr. Maffie calls the “original obligation” of the human to feed the holy, rather than, in the Judeo-Christian world, struggling to overcome the stain of original sin. Go deeper:Aztec Philosophy book: https://www.ubcpress.ca/aztec-philosophyLecture by Andres Segura Granados: https://youtu.be/GwXMc2VP9y8?si=Y--88jhWOatyPrcXTopics: Nahua, Toltec, Aztec, Mexica, philosophy, metaphysics, Taoism