Soul Studies is a new series of podcasts where I read excerpts from books that are currently inspiring me. In this episode I read from the first chapter of Rollo May’s 1975 book “The Courage to Create”. It struck me as a book that feels incredibly relevant to our cultural moment, particularly on the topics of despair, cultural divides and ideological fanaticism.

“People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one are dangerous. Such conviction is the essence not only of dogmatism, but of its more destructive cousin, fanaticism. It blocks off the user from learning new truth, and it is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. The person then has to double his or her protests in order to quiet not only the opposition but his or her own unconscious doubts as well.”

Rollo May (1909-1994) taught at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, and was Regents' Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An influential psychologist, he was the best-selling author of Love and Will, as well as the author of The Courage to Create, Man's Search for Himself, The Meaning of Anxiety, and Psychology and the Human Dilemma.

If you enjoyed this episode and want me to continue sharing work I find in the course of my Soul Studies, please let me know!

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On this episode I welcome back archetypal astrologer and teacher of depth psychology, Safron Rossi to speak about her recent book on the Kore archetype.

Safron is Core Faculty in the Pacifica Graduate Institute Jungian and Archetypal Studies program, teaching courses on mythology, symbolism, archetypal cosmology & astrology, and scholarly praxis. For many years she was Curator of the Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, and Marija Gimbutas manuscript collections at Opus Archives. Her writing and scholarly studies focus on Greek mythology, archetypal psychology, archetypal astrology, and goddess traditions. Safron is the author of The Kore Goddess: A Mythology & Psychology (2021), co-editor of Jung on Astrology (2017), and editor of Joseph Campbell’s Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013).

Safron and I have a wonderful conversation that explores the archetypal significance of the Ancient Greek Kore figures, who are often depicted as young strong women. Safron describes the Kore as, “…the archetypal Virgin or Maiden, a youthful figure who is one-in-herself … associated with psychological integrity … to be grounded in one’s essential nature as an individual. As the figure most directly concerned with our connection to the interior rhythms of our being, contact with this archetype brings a sense of sovereignty and potency…it is the function of the Kore to safeguard us from losing ourselves to collective forces by turning us inward.”

As you might imagine, this feminine archetype is relevant to both men and women, particularly in times like these where collective forces are constantly trying to get us to pick a side and go to battle for one ideology or another, and spend all our energy feeding the social media machine. The Kore invites us to turn away from the screen and look inward to find what is true and good for each of us.

Safron's website: https://www.thearchetypaleye.com/

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This is an excerpt of a longer 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

On this episode I speak with Jack Mason aka The Perfume Nationalist.

Jack describes The Perfume Nationalist podcast as a continuing radio soap opera in which art and culture, high and low, are discussed through the historical lens of fragrance.

In our conversation we talk about what Jack describes as the war on beauty and how wearing perfume can be an act of disobedience to the increasing sterility of public spaces and a liberating psychedelic aesthetic experience in and of itself. We also talk about our shared love of feminist cultural provocateur and 90s icon Camille Paglia, the therapeutic value of soap operas and trashy novels, and (thanks to Jack’s podcast) my newfound appreciation for the North American shopping mall as one of the last remaining temples to the goddess Aphrodite.

The Perfume Nationalist: https://www.patreon.com/perfumenationalist

Support the podcast by making a small monthly contribution. https://plus.acast.com/s/medicinepath.

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