Why punk matters: Talking with punk-mod legend TED LEO on the latest Against Everyone with Conner Habib

21 Mar

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Advertisements from sponsors don‘t fit with the mission of AEWCH. So: SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

So I ask listeners if they’d like to support the show by sharing what they can via patreon. Give an annual or monthly pledge to  Patreon.com/connerhabib.

Friends,
I’m so excited to share this episode about punk rock with you. Not only does it weave in and out of where the source of many of my ethics come from, it also features a reunion between myself and an old friend, the musician Ted Leo, who I haven’t spoken with for almost twenty years.

Ted is best known for his band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, but also for his project with Aimee Mann, The Both, his solo albums, and his hugely influential mod-punk band, Chisel.

On this episode, Ted and I talk at length about how punk changed our lives, but – perhaps more importantly – why that punk rock network and community matters now.

And as a bonus, Ted plays two of his songs!

But don’t stop there – Ted’s oeuvre is wildly varied… with a line of mod pop music running through. I’ve created a playlist of some of my favorite Ted Leo songs for you on spotify.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
One of my favorite AEWCH moments was when Fugazi/Minor Threat frontman and Dischord Records founder Ian MacKaye agreed to be on the show… and our conversation on AEWCH 119 was really incredible. A very different kind of conversation than this one with Ted, but still adjacent to everything.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
A great introduction to the ways art and politics and mutual aid interwove during our punk coming of age is We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews which features longform interviews with musicians, but also leftist political figures of the time.

MORE ON TED
Ted’s website is here, and he also posts frequently on bandcamp, where you can support his music via donation. Here’s Ted’s Stereogum interview about his solo album The Hanged Man. And just for the fuck of it, here’s Ted singing a karaoke version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” with comedian Paul F. Tomkins in tow.

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Minimalists Moralia – Conner Habib in conversation with The Minimalists’ Joshua Fields Millburn on AEWCH 216!

15 Mar

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Advertisements from sponsors don’t fit with the mission of AEWCH. So I ask listeners if they’d like to support the show by sharing what they can via patreon. The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to  Patreon.com/connerhabib. You can also subscribe to the show and give it a 5-Star writing on Apple Podcasts, as well as buy my novel Hawk Mountain.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Friends,

There’s so much talk about “uncertainty” in the public sphere. “We live in uncertain times” and etc etc, yes we’ve heard it so many times. But what brings certainty? Not a job or stuff; not materiality in any form.

I wanted to talk about this, so I brought Joshua Fields Millburn on to the show to talk about it with me.

Along with Ryan, authored the books Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works and Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life , and he’s also the co-host of The Minimalist Podcast. He also created the documentaries Minimalism and Less Is Now.

We start with talking about my storage unit in LA, then we spin off into a discussion of fiction vs nonfiction, how time is changing, the spontaneous combustion thought experiment, and more.

It’s a non-moralistic inventory of the morality of dissolving your inventory.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
My episode with philosopher Brian O’Connor – AEWCH 89 – is about the virtues of being idle and the arguments against it (as well as Adorno (author of Minima Moralia, which the title here is riffing off of). It’s one of those favorite lesser-known episodes of the show that has SO much in it.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
One of my favorite nonfiction books of the 2010s was Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. It;s a look at hoarders – back when hoarding loomed large in public consciousness – and how it overlaps with our own intense attachments to objects.

MORE ON JOSHUA
The Minimalists website – which has soooo much on it offered as free resources – is here. And The Minimalists patreon is here. Joshua is the also the author of the novella, As A Decade Fades , which is also avaialble as an audiobook.

Until next time,
CH

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Wrestling with the Angel in Realtime – Gang of Youths frontman Dave Le’Aupepe returns to AEWCH!

7 Mar

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to  Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Friends,

All good art has a spiritual component, but how? Sometimes it’s obvious, of course; for example, a book or film will have spiritual content. But what about art that isn’t apparently spiritual but has deep spiritual meaning and resonance? I wanted to talk about the spirit in an unlikely place: rock music. So I invited my friend, Dave Le’Aupepe, frontman of Gang of Youths, back onto the show. Dave was last on the show back waaay on AEWCH 31 back when the show was primarily video.

Dave’s latest album with Gang of Youths is Angel in Realtime, which was one of the most celebrated albums of 2022, particularly in Australia. It’s a beautiful meditation on death and discovery, blending rock, minimalist composition structures, and excessive layering.

This is a wide-ranging episode covering angels, mythology, representation, politics in music, the dead, and more. I’m so happy to share it with you.

CH

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
Since the episode begins with a little back and forth about how people don’t know what to ask musicians, here’s AEWCH 109 with Stephen Malkmus about music and Giles Deleuze. One of my favorite eps, for sure.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
To compliment Angel in Realtime, I suggest the most profound expression of loss ever written as a novel, Jame’s Agee’s A Death in the Family.

MORE ON DAVE
If you’re new to Dave’s music, listen to it! It’s brilliant. Here’s a playlist of Gang of Youths songs that I love. And the last time Dave was on the show, he played the Gang of Youths song “Persevere” and also a great cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel No. 2” And obviously, you can go to the Gang of Youths site for Merch, tour dates, etc.

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MARCH 11 EVENT: THE MYSTERIES OF THE TAROT: IMMERSIVE WORKSHOP + READINGS with CONNER HABIB, RACHEL TRUE, and SARAH MARIA GRIFFIN – Early bird discount on tickets before March 1!

24 Feb

Three readers. Three decks. Infinite journeys.

TICKETS

Friends:

The landscape we find ourselves in in 2023 feels uncharted and dangerous, filled with new possibilities and new challenges. It’s no surprise that so many are turning to a time-worn and powerful tool for guidance: The tarot.

But what’s the best way to read the cards? What are the cards and what’s behind them? And when and why should we consult them, anyway?

This year, let’s investigate

THE MYSTERIES OF THE TAROT

Join Conner Habib, Rachel True, and Sarah Maria Griffin for a unique and potent one-time workshop on the secret truths held in the cards, and how to best relate to them for guidance and revelation.

This workshop and Q&A – with an option to receive a reading from the teachers – will alter your perception of the tarot by coming at cartomancy through three different decks, three cards, and three perspectives.

Each of the three readers has different experiences with the tarot and uses different decks; so instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to the tarot, we’ll show you the many, many paths the decks open for you… as well as what is more fixed as what, if anything, is fixed and foundational to reading the cards.

Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned reader, the three-pathway approach in this workshop will point you in new and exciting directions.

Together, we’ll:

  • Investigate what is it that you’re accessing when you read the tarot, anyway.
  • Examine which deck you should choose and why.
  • Consider when should you consult the tarot?
  • Create a spread using cards from three different decks to show how a spread and each card can be interpreted in many ways.
  • Look at why the cards matter on a personal level.
  • Talk about the process of learning the 78 cards, as well as how to best remember what the cards mean.
  • Uncover whether or not each card has a fixed meaning or if it’s up to the reader
  • Look at the differences – and challenges – in reading for yourself vs reading for others.
  • Listen and respond to participant questions about tarot.

And much more!

Plus, participants who want readings from the course teachers can sign up for the READINGS ticket and stay on after the workshop for an EXTREMELY LIMITED engagement. Readers will be assigned AT RANDOM.

All participants will receive 30 days access to a recording of the talk.

In 2023, let’s move forward… with 78 helpers from the deck by our side, and infinite pathways at our feet.

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AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 214: PETER ROLLINS on SIX SPIRITUAL REVELATIONS

22 Feb

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to  Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Friends,

The intellect is important, but only serves as a two-dimensional reflective surface without the combined depth of experience. I try to make as much of what I say as possible stem from the ways my life has been shaped by spiritual experience meeting my philosophical and political outlook. I wanted to pull on this thread a bit, and to push the boundaries of what I discuss on AEWCH.

So I invited one of the most frequent (and liked!) guests on AEWCH to meet me in this: my friend the theologian and philosopher Peter Rollins.

This episode is a bit different: Peter and I each tell three short stories about moments of spiritual revelation and formation in our lives. Then we discuss them with each other and try to find the patterns there.

It’s a very personal episode for both Peter and I, but it’s also a picture of friends walking our separate paths, together.

I am so excited to share this with you.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
Though it’s not directly related to the content, I’m recommending AEWCH 81, with theologian and writer (not to mention Peter’s friend)s, Padraig O’Tuama, as a complement to this episode. Padraig and I talk at length about God, but rather than grounding that in experience per se, we ground it in poetry. It’s another way to address revelation.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
Since we’re on the topic of spiritual autobiography and revelation, you may want to read Rudolf Steiner’s Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life, 1861-1907, to look into the life events of a spiritual teacher and how they informed his path forward.

MORE ON PETER
Support Peter’s patreon here. And also, there’s lots on Peter’s website . Two of Peter’s many books include The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith and the first book I read by Peter, The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. Two recent appearances on the podcast include AEWCH 167 on Lacanian therapy, and AEWCH 200 with Mark O’Connell about transhumanism and God.

Until next time, friends,
CH

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What is LOVE? What is DEATH? How do they entangle? It’s a special Valentine’s Day episode of AEWCH with CAITLIN DOUGHTY!

14 Feb

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Friends,

Happy Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about love and death. They’re companions, themselves lovers. To have this discussion, I invited my favorite death worker, and also someone I love so much, mortician Caitlin Doughty.

We start with, you know, the small stuff: What IS love? What IS death? And of course, it opens up from there into many dimensions.

I’m so excited to share this with you.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
My experience of death, and its implications for us, is expressed at length on AEWCH 150: The Spiritual Politics of the Dead.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
For a good overview of the occult concept of love, maybe Rudolf Steiner’s Vision of Love: Spiritual Science and the Logic of the Heart by Bernard Nesfield-Cookson is where to go first.

MORE ON CAITLIN
Caitlin’s been on the show many times, most recently on AEWCH 200 in conversation with me and paranormal research John E.L. Tenney. Here’s Caitlin’s website. And my favorite book of Caitlin’s is From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.

Until next time!
Love yourself.

X O

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Is nature spiritual? Listen to AEWCH 212 on How To Live: Beyond Nature Worship with legendary spiritual teacher, David Spangler!

31 Jan

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Friends,
Welcome to the How To Live Beyond series of eps on AEWCH! To open 2023, each episode in this series will consider a set of tools or way of thinking that are useful but that we’re ready to go beyond in 2023. We’ll be looking at abundance and manifestation, magick and entheogens, the wellness industry, and more. The first episode (AEWCH 208) featured Mitch Horowitz on How To Live: Beyond the New Age. The second (AEWCH 209) featured Lisa Romero on How To Live: Beyond Psychedelics & Sorcery. The third (AEWCH 210) featured Pilar Lesko on How To Live: Beyond Money Magic. And on the fourth (AEWCH 211), we went beyond wellness with Fariha Róisín.

These are the techniques and traditions we use to cope with and confront the challenges of our time, but risk –  if we can’t consider them deeply – getting us stuck in those challenges or worse, funneling their strengths back into those challenges. These episodes aren‘t a call to forget about these techniques and traditions, but instead a call to bring forward what they‘ve offered without the barbs of the problems they’re tangled up with.

This time:

Everywhere we turn, there are conversations of ecology and disaster, the environment and its needs, the planet’s and humanity’s shared future. If they are not purely materialistic conversations (and the majority are), they often offer only a shallow sense of the spiritual. People talk about “nature” as having its spiritual work removed from relationship with us, as if no more exploration into its actual spiritual orientation is needed. Or we have (some, not all, of course!) neo-pagan views that don’t go much further than translocating the names of old gods and onto the natural world. Or we have neo-primitivism and object oriented ontology which in which humans are supposed to somehow be de-centered, even though humans are the ones coming up with these concepts and pretending to the magically decenter themselves.

So how can we approach nature from a spiritual perspective? And how can we work with the being and being-ness in nature in a real way? For example, should we engage with the trees? The formative forces of the trees? The postmodern assemblage of “tree” or “becoming-tree?” The “dryads” in the trees? The tree gods? The “nature spirits”? We don’t have the taxonomy or the navigational aptitude to even know what we’re encountering, so how can we hope to know how to help?

So I invited David Spangler onto the show. David’s huge and generous body of work includes being the person who coined the term “New Age;” being a prime developer of the Findhorn Community in Scotland; popularizing the concept of manifestation as long ago as the 1970s; founding the Lorian Association, which helps people encounter the lessons developed by David and others on the path of Incarnational Spirituality, authoring many books (including the one we touch on the most here, Techno-elementals); and more.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
I went into the exploration of fairies (particularly fairies in Ireland), and why we don’t take them seriously enough, with anthropologist Dennis Gaffin on AEWCH 187.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
Although David does some of the best work expressing the many different kinds of elemental beings, for a one of the greatest expressions of how the elemental beings intermingle, no one to my mind does it in plainer, easier-to-udnerstand language than Cypriot healer Daskalos. I recorded an episode of the show – AEWCH 67 – with one of Daskalos’s students, Daniel Joseph. His book, Swimming with the Whale: The Miracles, Wonders & Healings of Daskalos & The Researchers of Truth is very helpful in this area.

MORE ON DAVID
Many of David’s books (and related books) are available from Lorian Press, which David developed in conjunction with the Lorian movement. You can also find self-study modules on David’s site here. David’s lectures on manifestation, written decades ago, are so far advanced that they move us beyond most people’s current writings on the topic. You can find them in this book The Laws of Manifestation. And one of my very favorite books by David, which is not so easy to find these days, is Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture.

A photo I took earlier this month at the stone circle in Drombeg, Co. Cork

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Wellness isn’t good for you. Here’s how to move beyond it on AEWCH 211 with Fariha Róisín!

24 Jan

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to  Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Two other ways to support the show and my other efforts:

  • Buy my debut novel, Hawk Mountain (and if you’ve bought it and loved it, give it a great review on Amazon and/or Goodreads!). All my creative projects end up supporting each other!
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts (and subscribe if you haven’t already!).

Friends,
Welcome to the How To Live Beyond series of eps on AEWCH!
To open 2023, each episode in this series will consider a set of tools or way of thinking that are useful but that we’re ready to go beyond in 2023. We’ll be looking at abundance and manifestation, magick and entheogens, paganism,  and more. The first episode (AEWCH 208) featured Mitch Horowitz on How To Live: Beyond the New Age. The second (AEWCH 209) featured Lisa Romero on How To Live: Beyond Psychedelics & Sorcery. And the third (AEWCH 210) featured Pilar Lesko on How To Live: Beyond Money Magic.

These are the techniques and traditions we use to cope with and confront the challenges of our time, but risk –  if we can’t consider them deeply – getting us stuck in those challenges or worse, funneling their strengths back into those challenges. These episodes aren’t a call to forget about these techniques and traditions, but instead a call to bring forward what they’ve offered without the barbs of the problems they’re tangled up with.

This time:

We’re constantly tracking ourselves: with Fit Bits, exercise journals, food journals, mediation apps and more.

But what if wellness went deeper than tracking and instead into witnessing the wounds of materialism and the constant reopening of those wounds by colonialism, capitalism, racism, homophobia, and more?

To discuss this, I invited Fariha Róisín, artist and author of the excellent critical memoir, Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behindonto the show.

Together we examine the hidden woundings that are so frightening to us that we seem to only be left with narrow paths for healing: wounds in the erotic, the spiritual, sacred anatomy, healing, speaking, and more. 

In the same way we fear to touch a cut on our body or look into emotional to heal it, we encounter the deepest wounds as sites of pain. So we end up pushing the knowledge of these wounds to the far edges of our consciousness until they’re that their damage is only revealed a moment that is too late, as surprise diagnosis.

This is an adventure in wellness and how to heal wellness itself. I’m so excited to share it with you.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
I talked a lot about mental health with author and psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber on AEWCH 196. It’s worth a listen because, well, everyone needs some form of therapy! (And if you want to pair it with a therapeutic look at restorative justice, you can listen to AEWCH 162 on violent offenders with Dr. Gwen Adshead!)

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
A good introduction to other models of anatomy and health is Cyndi Dale’s The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy which is richly illustrated and written in clear language.

(Also, if you’re interested in my essay on heath and wellness, here’s
“When You’re Sick You’ll Wait for the Answer, But None Will Come”)

MORE ON FARIHA
Subscribe to Fariha’s excellent newsletter, How To Cure A Ghost (which shares its name with her debut poetry collection). And here’s Fariha’s website which is a good hub for her earlier work. Also, you can engage with a different layering of her consciousness by reading her novel Like A Bird(which is also available on audio). And here’s a short profile on her novel in the New York Times.

Until next time, friends,
Seek wholeness.
CH

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HOW TO LIVE: BEYOND MONEY MAGIC – Moving Past Abundance & Manifestation with Pilar Lesko on AEWCH 210!

17 Jan

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

The best way to support this show, my writing, my events & courses, is to give an annual or monthly pledge to Patreon.com/connerhabib.

When you use patreon, you’re not only supporting me, but accessing an economic model that isn’t about paying people for their labor, and instead showing care and appreciation of who they are.

Two other ways to support the show and my other efforts:

  • Buy my debut novel, Hawk Mountain (and if you‘ve bought it and loved it, give it a great review on Amazon and/or Goodreads!). All my creative projects end up supporting each other!
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts (and subscribe if you haven’t already!).

Friends,
Welcome to the How To Live Beyond series of eps on AEWCH! To open 2023, each episode in this series will consider a set of tools or way of thinking that are useful but that we’re ready to go beyond in 2023. We’ll be looking at abundance and manifestation, wellness and self development, entheogens, paganism,  and more. The first episode (AEWCH 208) featured Mitch Horowitz on How To Live: Beyond the New Age. The second (AEWCH 209) featured Lisa Romero on How To Live: Beyond Psychedelics & Sorcery

These are the techniques and traditions we use to cope with and confront the challenges of our time, but risk –  if we can’t consider them deeply – getting us stuck in those challenges or worse, funneling their strengths back into those challenges. These episodes aren‘t a call to forget about these techniques and traditions, but instead a call to bring forward what they‘ve offered without the barbs of the problems they’re tangled up with.

This time:

The problem with money magic – abundance training, vision boards, manifesting, not to mention all sorts of team-building corporate exercises and so on – is… that it works!

But what’s the cost of just focusing on and trying to make money? After all, if we’re all connected to the economy, is it good for others to be extracting what we need from that sphere by just magicking what we need from it? And is it good for the magick-er?

And why does it seem like some of these money making rituals have diminishing returns for some people? Is it just that they’re not manifesting hard enough? Is The Secret too public now to be effective?

And what about all the above in the times of so-called “recession”?

To talk about all of this, and to create new pathways forward, I invited my favorite journeyer into the realms of money and business, PILAR LESKO back on the show. Pilar’s first appearance was on AEWCH 154, and it was one of the best times I’ve had talking with someone: Pilar is funny, lighthearted, and also completely devoted to real spiritual growth and relationship. Like last time, this is a fairly mind-blowing episode. Mind-blowing for me, and I hope it will also help blow out the restrictions of the money magic world.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
I love the deep economy episode I did with occult economic historian John Bloom and Marxist economic historian Conor McCabe on AEWCH 110.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
The book that got me on my money magic journey, and which still has merit, even though it’s good to start moving in new directions, is the excellently titled You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero. Instead of considering it as merely “how to get what I want,” consider it instead as training for who you are.

MORE ON PILAR
Pilar’s hub is her website. Sign up for her excellent (at times hilarious and strange) newsletter. And to truly level up your life, you can consider working with her. She’s incredible.

Until next time, friends! C

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Conner on the esoteric christian podcast The Light In Everything talking about the spiritual truths of horror.

16 Jan

Friends,

I’m so honored to be on one of my favorite podcasts, The Light In Every Thing, talking about horror with AEWCH 181 guest, Rev. Patrick Kennedy!

The Light In Every Thing is a podcast of the Christian Community; which is the non-dogmatic christian tradition developed in consultation with Rudolf Steiner, with over 100,000 members worldwide and churches on six continents.

I discussed this topic at length on AEWCH 201, a solo episode. But here, Patrick and I go deep into how, exactly, horror relates to Christ and the spirit. It was such an enlivening conversation for me.

Listen, enjoy, share,
X
C

***

Here’s the description of the episode:

What begins to unfold and unfurl when we explore the presence and meaning of horror in art, in life and in the story of Christmas and Epiphany? We hope you will join us for this nearly two hour conversation between Patrick and Conner Habib. Its a wide-ranging conversation that takes us down many paths, including the call to christen Paganism and the wild nature spirits in our time, all while Conner and Patrick begin to uncover the meaning of the horrific elements woven into the mystery of Christmas and Christianity.

Many of our listeners will already know Conner from when Patrick was interviewed on his podcast, Against Everyone with Conner Habib. Conner is truly a rare voice in our time, connecting with people in the arts, sciences, philosophy, politics, music, literature, and spirituality and sharing these deeper conversations built on honest thinking and compassionate listening. Conner has schooled himself in entering what is often uncomfortable, uncommon territory and finds true treasure there.

One of those ‘territories’ is horror.  A long time fan of horror fiction and film, Conner is also a published author, with his first full-length novel, Hawk Mountain, releasing in July of 2022.  You can hear his own uninterrupted reflections on the value and power of art that includes the element of horror in this episode from his podcast.

In our conversation, we turn our attention to the Christmas mystery and look to understand the presence of horror – of true darkness – at the birth of Christ.

The festival of Christmas in its full form is not a one day event. It begins on the Holy Night of the 24th and lasts over twelve days, culminating in the festival of Epiphany on January 6th. Spiritually, there is a profound path taken from the shepherds, angels and peace of Luke’s gospel on Christmas Day to the Kings, the star and Herod’s massacre of children to protect his power and crown as described in Matthew’s gospel.  From the paradisiacal innocence of Christmas we are led into the depths of moral darkness, danger and threat to the child, the true king, who is born.  All of these “icons” of Christ’s nature foreshadow what we will all turn our attention to during Holy Week and Easter. The Christian story is told, without doubt, with profound elements of horror.

But why? And why does the genre of horror itself seem to be growing in popularity in mass culture?  What is it that is revealed in the art of horror that has a role to play in our human becoming?  What is it in the reality of true evil in our time that has to do with the new appearance of Christ?

A great and hearty thank you to Conner Habib for his willingness to explore these questions with us.

New Year’s and Epiphany blessing to you all!

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