Human Equals Paradox

This is an archetype that I think is quite misunderstood and unappreciated, so I'm very glad to be speaking about it and helping y'all to understand it more clearly! The Peacelover/Diplomat is easy to see as "weak" or "lightweight", or (because like other archetypes the shadow side is easier to meme) "people-pleasing" or "a doormat". This is disrespectful - and also wrong , because this is the arc...

In this one I talk about why I created Paradox School and how that ties in to my whole worldsense that I'm slowly laying out through the podcast. Paradox School begins every year in late June, so if you're interested in checking it out you certainly can: www.theparadoxschool.com But understanding why I've created the School, and how it reflects my archetypal framing of human nature, is key for any...

This is such an important archetype, but also one that can be very tricky for many people. The Challenger is always driving forward, excited by taking risks and trying things that don't seem easily doable (or doable at all!) so it can find out what happens . That "excitement of the unknown" is what makes a challenge - if you know you will win, it's actually really boring, and if you know you will...

Since the Pluto Cohort episode was SO well-received, I decided to go on and do the Neptune cohorts as well. Where Pluto is describing a collective survival urge, Neptune is describing a collective urge for redemption . This is a weird word for us, because it has specifically religious connotations, but redemption is actually an archetypal experience that goes beyond and beneath any specific religi...

Swinging back to the up-and-out archetypes with the Adventurer/Seeker/Believer! This inner figure is full of optimism and enthusiasm - I often refer to it as "Tigger" - so it's easy to think it's just all fun and "let's do it" and continually seeking out an unfolding sense of the meaning of life. It certainly can be all of that, in really beautiful ways. It also has a shadow that can be quite dest...

The sign that Pluto is in, for anywhere from 12 to 34 years, forms a very particular vein of our archetypal nature - it tells us some essential things about what collective survival looks like for each group, and in a broad way, for each individual in that group. Because generations tend to be in different Pluto cohorts (even though they're not actual generations), these different survival imperat...

One year ago today, the first episode of Human Equals Paradox came out. With the help and encouragement of MANY people, especially my producer Mattia Mauree, I made 18 episodes last year and kept them coming in a pretty steady flow. I have a background as a data analyst, and when I realized we were almost at this year mark I was fascinated to see that those 18 episodes had been downloaded over 3,2...

This will be a spicy take for some folks, but it's true. People tell you what to do - but when they are basing that on their interpretation of astrology (or tarot or human design or anything else), THAT IS THEIR INTERPRETATION. It is NOT "astrology" telling you you'll never have a happy relationship, or that it's your karma to be a mother, or that your chronic health issues are punishment for past...

I'm finding it very appropriate that this episode is coming out as we enter (in the northern hemisphere) the winter season that holds this archetype most closely. The Responsible Adult/Elder is the archetype that is most concerned with the pragmatic needs of living together in groups, and since that is the fundamental basis of human experience, it's an incredibly important one to know about. Becau...

At least there is an archetypal root to it, underneath socialization and the horrific pressure of modern culture. We all have an innate speed (pace) and an innate rhythm (pattern) to us, as a baseline broad-spectrum way that we work. We also live in a world that generally says there is only one right way to be, and that includes both speed (basically: fast) and rhythm (basically: continuous). As a...

This archetype, more than any other, is UNCOMFORTABLE - it's difficult to carry if it's part of you, yes, but honestly the whole idea of an unhealable wound is UPSETTING to many many people. This is why I think it's so important to talk about it instead of just shutting down the conversation, or (as many people do) focusing only on the "wounded healer" part and not talking at all about the wound t...

There are some common experiences that we tend to lump under "confusion" when they're actually not. The issue with this is that if we're really confused, the effective response is to 1) gather more information or 2) weigh and analyze the information we already have so that we can come to clarity. But if we're not actually confused, those things don't help, and we struggle more. I talk about the tw...

This is the third of the Big 4 archetypes that seem to be the most difficult for humans to carry well. The Visionary/Revolutionary/Fire-Stealer is the figure in us that sees what COULD BE - big, audacious, radical new and better ways to be - and wants to make that happen no matter what it costs. That last bit, of course, is the kicker. Remember, the Visionary isn't necessarily political - the visi...

We have been socialized, especially in American or American-influenced culture, to believe that the FORM of our experience is the important part. This leads to obsession (not overstated!) with the structure and shape of jobs, careers, relationships, parenting, spiritual practice, creative projects...pretty much everything. What I have found through the archetypal work is that form actually matters...

The archetype of the Mermaid is, in my experience, the single hardest one to live well with. Talking about it, teaching about it, and helping people to understand and integrate it has been some of the most profound work of my career. This episode is longer than usual because this archetype has some special dimensions to it that need more space to dig into! The Mermaid is the part of human nature t...

We do a lot of discussion of paradox here from a more cognitive perspective - but ultimately, it's not a cognitive experience. In fact it tends to make our cognitive minds lock up entirely. Entering the experience of paradox through the body is a crucial dimension of our exploration, and this conversation with Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Betsy Kudlinski is a fantastic window on the topic. Be...

One very useful application of the archetypal-and-paradox lens is on the experience usually labeled "hypocrisy." That kind of ethical disconnect is a very real thing - and yet this is a place we also run into expecting people to be "all one way" and have one singular consistent set of values, and that's just not how humans work. Different parts of us care about different things, and that often tra...

The archetypes are the core of my work, and now that the previous episodes have laid out the worldsense and frame of ideas that hold the archetypes, we can start getting into these inner figures in detail. The Primal Animal can be one of the more difficult archetypes to live well with, especially (because of socialized judgment) for nonbinary, gender-fluid, and female people. Its raw, intense, and...

This is my first interview-ish episode, with the FABULOUS Mattia Maurée who podcasts, teaches, does deep magic with neurospicy humans, and also happens to produce Human Equals Paradox. We are jamming about my personal pet peeve - the way cultural biases have gotten plastered over the core framework of western astrology and then the whole mess presented as if that is what astrology is . In this cas...

In this episode I give a basic introduction to the way that archetypal parts of us can end up "in the basement" - i.e. semi-conscious or unconscious, and how that leads them to express in twisted and compulsive (shadowy) ways. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode outlines my not-a-trained-therapist understanding of projection, what that has to do with archetypal nature, and why it's so very relevant in our understanding of ourselves and other humans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I focus on understanding people through applied paradox - how it looks in real-world, real-human examples, from literary expressions to political behavior to relationship issues. I also talk about common misconceptions about how people work, and why we get high-centered when we try understanding people that way. This, hopefully, will illustrate why the lens of paradox is ALWAYS more effective, pra...

In this episode we explore what "archetype" means, how this awareness of human nature is very very old, and how it looks (in a broad sense) in human experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I lay out my understanding of the qualities I describe as "down-and-in" and "up-and-out" as core parts of human nature. Two categories can seem very broad - but I've found these sets of qualities REALLY useful, and I hope my listeners will too. I talk about both the strengths and the shadows of each set of qualities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing the idea that we're made of so many different sets of needs, desires, and priorities. They're all real and none of them are automatically a "problem" - the trick is just to learn how to live life as an endless discussion-slash-squabble amongst our many selves. Fortunately that's a very doable thing! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.