Howl in the Wilderness

This is part two of my conversation with Australian intellectual, writer and scholar of Jung and religion David Tacey . In part one we spoke at length about his time in analysis with famed post-Jungian writer James Hillman, including David’s critique and praise of Hillman’s psychology. In this second half we get into a discussion around Jung and religion, David’s book Religion as Metaphor, and the...

On this episode I speak with David Tacey , an Australian public intellectual, writer and scholar. David has written and taught extensively on Jung, spirituality and Christianity and is Professor Emeritus of Literature at La Trobe University in Melbourne and Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. On this episode, David shares his memories of meeting and working wi...

Wondering about belonging, mystical experience and religion with writer and activist Stephen Jenkinson. On this episode I welcome back Stephen Jenkinson for the fourth time on the podcast. If you’re not already familiar with Stephen’s work I recommend checking out episodes 14, 45 and 69. For those of you who are familiar with Stephen’s work, you’ll know that he is a special kind of teacher. I know...

Professor Sean McGrath is a former monk who studied at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich which makes him a perfect person for me to talk to about wrestling with my Christian heritage and encounters with the Christ I've had through yoga and psychedelics. Sean J. McGrath researches and teaches in the areas of metaphysics, classical German philosophy (Kant to Heidegger), phenomenology and hermeneutics,...

Scholar, writer and psychotherapist Mark Vernon joins us once again to guide us through Dante's Divine Comedy as a map of the spiritual journey. Mark's podcast: https://www.markvernon.com Learn about my counseling practice, books and events at http://brianjames.ca

This is perhaps the most important podcast I’ve recorded so far, because it deals with a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant with the growing popularity of psychedelics, magic and other occult practices. On this episode I speak with Norwegian healer and author Are Thoresen about his 2020 book Demons and Healing: The Reality of the Demonic Threat and the Doppelgänger in the Light of Anthro...

Dedicated to the respectful exchange between Indigenous teachings about health and healing and mainstream Western psychology, Richard Katz received his Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard, where he taught for nearly 20 years.  Over the past 50 years, Dr. Katz has spent time working with Indigenous elders and healers in various parts of the world, including the primarily hunting-gathering Ju...

Although perhaps not as well-known as his colleagues and friends Thomas Moore and James Hillman, Robert Sardello has nonetheless been a deeply influential presence for both of those thinkers and the countless students and clients he's attended to over the past 40+ years as a teacher, psychotherapist, author and spiritual guide. Robert Sardello , Ph. D, is Co-founder and Co-director of The School o...

Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and author, living and practicing in London. His most recent books are Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey and A Secret History of Christianity which is the subject of this conversation.  We talk about a number of topics that we've been wrestling with on our own spiritual journeys, like how psychology, mystical experiences, non-heteronormative...

Eivind Skjellum is the founder of Reclaim Your Inner Throne, a program for men based on the work of neo-Jungian Robert L. Moore and his book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. Eivind and I recorded an episode last week that covered the details of his 3-month program, which unfortunately was unusable due to poor sound quality.  When we sat down to try it again, our conversation turned into a broad and...

On this episode teacher, author and counselor Rick Jarow talks about his long spiritual journey through the worlds of academia, yoga, shamanism and plant medicine, along the way offering some insights into finding right livelihood and avoiding cultural misappropriation while benefiting from the gifts of living spiritual and healing traditions. Rick’s website: http://rickjarow.com Name drops: Hilda...

On this episode psychotherapist and author John Lee discusses his book Half-Lived Life: Overcoming Passivity & Rediscovering Your Authentic Self. John Lee is a pioneer in the fields of self-help, anger, codependency, creativity, recovery, relationships and men’s issues. In the mental health field, he is considered the therapist’s therapist and regularly trains and mentors therapists on how to...

This is the third and final episode in a series that pays tribute to the poet, teacher and activist Robert Bly, who passed away on November 21 of this year. That was Robert you heard at the top of the podcast, from the excellent film A Gathering of Men with journalist Bill Moyers. You can find the full video on the Medicine Path YouTube channel. In this episode I speak with his old friend and coll...

This is the second in a series of podcasts that pay tribute to poet, activist and author Robert Bly, who died a few weeks ago. That was his voice you heard at the beginning of the podcast, reading the 15th century Indian poet Kabir and accompanied by live musicians. I think that little excerpt gives you a feeling for Robert’s spontaneity and humour, qualities that he helped awaken and nurture in t...

Poet, activist and men's work pioneer Robert Bly died on November 21 at the age of 94. This is part one in a series of conversations with some of the people who knew him intimately. Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth and author of numerous books including his latest, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass . He founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stan...

Edward Tick PhD has been has been working to heal the invisible wounds of war and violent trauma for over forty years and has led pilgrimages to Greece and Viet Nam for the past 20 years. He has published many books and articles on healing veteran’s PTSD, including the award-winning  War and the Soul , and his 2001 book  The Practice of Dream Healing  is a classic in depth psychology, offering the...

On this episode I welcome back Jungian therapist and shamanic practitioner C. Michael Smith, founder of Crow’s Nest Shamanism and author of Jung & Shamanism in Dialogue. In this conversation we look at the topic of shadow work from both the Jungian and shamanic viewpoints and offer some personal examples of how the shadow shows up in our relationships, the realm of spirituality and personal de...

Jeremy Narby is a Canadian-born anthropologist and bestselling author who became an early pioneer of ayahuasca research while living with the Ashaninka people of the Peruvian Amazon in the 1980s. He works as Amazonian projects director for Nouvelle Planète, a nonprofit organization that promotes the economic and cultural empowerment of indigenous peoples. Jeremy is perhaps best known as the author...

Julian Vayne is a British independent scholar and author with over three decades of experience within esoteric culture: from Druidry to Chaos Magic, from indigenous Shamanism through to Freemasonry and Witchcraft. Growing up in the Britain of punk and then rave culture, Julian immersed himself in the philosophy and techniques of magic. His journey into group ritual practice began within the Wester...

Bill Plotkin, Ph. D. , is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision fast. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of...

Thomas Moore is the author of the bestselling Care of the Soul and twenty other books on spirituality and depth psychology that have been translated into thirty languages. He has been practicing depth psychotherapy for thirty-five years. He lectures and gives workshops in several countries on depth spirituality, soulful medicine, and psychotherapy. In his latest book Soul Therapy the New York Time...

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 Di...

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 In...

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...

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 psychologi...