Tag Archives: Lisa Romero

Can I change the world with my own spiritual development? Lisa Romero returns to AEWCH on episode 257!

26 Mar

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Friends,

The way the world seems to come in again and again in our time is like a wave to beat us down. For some of us the wave is unbearable. In fact it is a killing wave – But for many of us, most of us actually, the wave is knocking us about. We see the swells and currents from different vantage points, and the tides at different times. Perhaps the flood started for you back in 2001, witnessing the shattering of a sense of global security; or you’re seeing water in your dreams again and again in ways that impacts your psyche; or you feel you’re drowning in responsibilities or washed out by the exhaustion of debts.

What so many share is a recognition of the unceasingness of world intensities, coming ashore and pulling away again.

The resul? We can feel pulled in our lives away from who we really are. Like when you leave your spot on the beach and walk into the ocean, only to look back a bit later and see you’ve been carried so far from the spot at which you entered.

I’ve definitely been going through this for a long time. Of course there are things in my life that I am happy about, but so much of who I am is being transformed by the waters of my life, and the life we all share. Maybe you’ve sensed it in my voice on the show?

So that leave me – like it leaves anyone else, trying to figure out what to do.

Questions arise:

  • How does my self-development match my spiritual development?
  • How do I develop with the other in mind?
  • How do I meet another person in a way that actually assists my self development?
  • And finally, how does all that lead to my spiritual development helping the world?

I talk about all of this with spiritual teacher and writer, LISA ROMERO.

Lisa starts with a question* with her own: How can I give my will to your thinking?

This is a personal, spiritual, and worldly episode. It uses events in my own life to discover how how turning point in our lives, and our relationships, can offer opportunities to help the world’s development… if we work through them properly.

MORE ON LISA:
Lisa has a YouTube channel that features her in conversation with younger people on the spiritual path. It’s called the ASTRAL ARC, and she is just about to discuss the virtues Lisa is offers courses on the festivals throughout the year. If you’d like to check into some of Lisa’s other books, they’re all on here site, where she also has a short audio clip detailing the books and her work. Lisa has also been on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, my pal Duncan Trussell’s podcast.

*Lisa opens the episode with a question, and concludes the episode with a poem, which I’ve also included here:

DIG HERE THE ANGEL SAID
by St. John of the Cross

She caught me off guard when my
soul said to me,
“Have we met?”

So surprised I was
to hear her speak like that
I chuckled.

She began to sing a tale: “There was once a hardworking man
who used to worry so much because he could
not feed and clothe his children and
wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village
where the man lived and one day while
he was praying, an angel
appeared.

The angel said, ‘Follow me.’ And he did out into an ancient forest.
‘Now dig here,’ the angel said.  And the man felt strength in
his limbs he had not known since youth and with just
his bare hands he dug deep and found a
lost treasure, and his relationship
with the world changed.’

Finding our soul’s beauty does that–give us
tremendous freedom
from worry.

“Dig here,” the angel said–
“in your soul,
in your
soul.”

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What can I do in this moment? I talk with Lisa Romero about the esoteric path forward on AEWCH 244!

14 Nov

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Friends,

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself what you can do in a time like this, and whether or not spirituality has anything to offer beyond just an often fleeting sense of calm.

In times of obvious schisms between human beings and their structures there can be a stirring-up of opportunities that only the frenetic and urgent intensities schism times can reveal. In these times, we can see that there have always been many pathways available to us, that we were stuck, that we can be there for each other and dissolve obstruction.

The old tools – that is, the tools we used to employ in a world that did NOT have the same challenges – can still help, but they’ve lost their strength. That includes psychoanalysis for personal development, socialism for economic development, and progressivism as political development.

On this episode, I invited my friend and listener favorite, spiritual writer and teacher, LISA ROMERO onto to the show to answer, esoterically, the classic revolutionary question: What is to be done?

Lisa has been on the show five other times, most recently on AEWCH 224. She’s the author of many books, including Spirit-led Community: Healing the Impact of Technology and A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances.

Instead of offering vague “just be spiritual!” advice, we try to understand the world situation and see what we can do to approach it spiritually.

In conjunction with this episode here, both Lisa and I are offering upcoming courses. Mine is called OCCULT PHILOSOPHIES: AN INTRO TO RUDOLF STEINER AND THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITION, and Lisa’s is PREPARING FOR THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES. Description below.

MORE ON LISA
Lisa is offers courses on the festivals throughout the year. The one happening just after this episode posts is on St. John’s Tide. You can find all that info here. You can also work with Lisa one-on-one here. And if you’d like to check into some of Lisa’s other books, they’re all on here site, where she also has a short audio clip detailing the books and her work. Lisa has also been on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, my pal Duncan Trussell’s podcast.

To sign up for Lisa’s course, click here.

The description:

Anthroposophy (wisdom of the human being or being human) offers an initiation path to everyone regardless of gender, race or social standing. It is a schooling that we choose today, but it is also a schooling that leads into the future because the future initiations are moving towards being inclusive to all people who seek it. Sophia is a wisdom that is whole and not a “masculine or feminine” wisdom. Rather, it is a wholeness that develops and heals the soul, helping to make whole our life and the life around us.

In our preparation for the Christmas mysteries we will deepen how with the help of Sophia we can birth the new into our lives and the life of the world. We will also explore working with the holy nights towards supporting the year ahead. As the material world rapidly brings into being more and more ways of mechanising our lives,  increasingly drawing humanity away from the spirit, we can helpfully participate in bringing the beacon of divine spiritual light into the life sphere. No matter how dark it gets, the beacon of light needs to be present so that all may have awareness that there is a choice, there is hope!

Starting the first weekend in December and running for 4 weeks, this preparation is open for anyone to join so that together we may help tend and cultivate the light and love in the world.

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What are the new Mysteries of the Heart? Lisa Romero returns to AEWCH to talk about esoteric christianity and what it gives us moving forward.

30 May

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Friends,
Here is a episode five in a series of on occult & esoteric christianity, an evolving tradition that offers vitalizing insight into how to move forward.

Across these episodes, I’ll be talking about various streams and fruits of occult & esoteric christianity, as well as some of its key figures. Rather than presenting the typically dogmatic, dominating, and totalizing christianity — which is always in danger of being seized by people, especially conservatives, with power — this series will present a different and truer form. Open, wounded, individuated, and powerless; a tradition that relates to other spiritual paths without seeking to control or diminish them.

The first in the series, AEWCH 220, featured Rev. Jonah Evans, and the second, AEWCH 221 featured Rev. Patrick Kennedy, the third, AEWCH 222, was a conversation about Peter Deunov (Beinsa Douno) with spiritual researcher and writer David Lorimer. And the fourth was AEWCH 223, a discussion on Cypriot esoteric teacher and healer, Daskalos, with Daniel Joseph and Aki Toshimitsu, which concluded with a beautiful meditation from Aki.

This time, I wanted to talk about how esoteric christianity is unfolding into new tasks, new work, new mysteries: the Mysteries of the Heart. What does that even mean? To discuss it in a clear but very in-depth way, I invited writer and teacher Lisa Romero back onto the show.

We discuss

  • What “all you need is love” means
  • How to find and dispel any inner fascistic tendencies you have
  • What the limits of “manifesting” are on the spiritual path
  • The light of the cosmic and earthly roses
  • Meeting in the mystery chamber of the spiritual heart
  • Why utopia matters

And so much more.

Lisa has been on the show four other times, most recently on AEWCH 209, when we talked about the pitfalls or psychedelic drugs and magick. She’s the author of many books, including Spirit-led Community: Healing the Impact of Technology and A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances.

One of her latest efforts is the Astral Arc, an ongoing series of videos with different themes. First, “Questions on the Path,” where she discusses spiritual development with young people. And now a series on the virtues – which can help us enter this Mystery School of the Heart that Lisa and I talk about on the show, each related to a zodiacal sign. Here’s the introductory video. And you can find the others here.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT SHOULD YOU READ?
Light on the Path by Mabel Collins is a little book that covers so much esoteric development. It’s a small $7.00 book and you can read through teh entire thing each day if you want. It’s beautiful.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO?
I looked into the heart, and why it is absolutely necessary for our political work, with journalist Abby Martin on AEWCH 160. It was a, well, heartfelt episode on which Abby got to talk about WHY she does what she does instead of just detailing the challenging pictures of the world events she covers.

MORE ON LISA
Lisa is offers courses on the festivals throughout the year. The one happening just after this episode posts is on St. John’s Tide. You can find all that info here. You can also work with Lisa one-on-one here. And if you’d like to check into some of Lisa’s other books, they’re all on here site, where she also has a short audio clip detailing the books and her work. Lisa has also been on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, my pal Duncan Trussell’s podcast.

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Lisa Romero on going Beyond Psychedelics & Sorcery. Episode two in my How To Live Beyond series.

10 Jan

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SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

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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!
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AND:

If you’d like to sign up for Lisa’s upcoming online course – On January 14 – on all the topics we discuss on this show – “Navigating Realms of Consciousness; Practices and Insights from Western Esotericism“ – go to her site and use the AEWCH option for a discount. You can sign up after the date for the recording (or if you can’t attend on the day itself).

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.

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:

It seems like everywhere we turn, we’re bombarded by messages about why psychedelics are good for you, and how we can magic ourselves into a better planet or against capitalism etc etc.

It could be Graham Hancock advising ayahuasca use to see reality, or Michael Pollan detailing hallucigenic health benefits. And there’s #WItchesOfInstagram + leftist spiritual podcasts and books on using magic to survive and combat capitalism. Techies are microdosing to support their lives and by extension gentrification and class war, feminists are reclaiming witchcraft, Marxists are spellcasting, gay men are turning to Aleister Crowley for inspiration.

And to make matters worse, people who condemn using magic and mushrooms are even worse than all that. Religious fundamentalists, tankie materialist leftists, conservative fascists, edgelords saying magic is “woke,” new age “seekers” none of whom seem to have bearings in spiritual truth.

What is going on here, and does any of it lead to real and liberating spiritual inspiration, or are we just getting driven deeper and deeper into materialistic culture, politics, and economy?

To talk about all of this and how to get beyond it, I asked spiritual teacher and writer Lisa Romero onto the show. This is the deepest I’ve ever gone on the topic, and I think it throughly illustrates the dangers of sorcery and psychedelics, and how to think about them without becoming a foot-stomping fascist or a tech-hippie psychonaut enthusiast.

What’s useful? What’s outdated? What spiritual techniques need to be allowed to die (and be reborn)?

Lisa’s latest appearance on the show was on AEWCH 200 where she and I talked with Duncan Trussell where the three of us investigated this topic. This is a natural continuation, but we go much, much deeper, using the idea that accessing and commanding the beings in the realm of magic and psychedelics – the astral realm – is the adolescence of humanity.

And we also go into what we can do and how to approach the astral realm… and go beyond it.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO
One of my favorite episodes on elemental beings, which we talk about at length on this episode, is AEWCH 188 with artist and spiritual teacher, Marko Pogačnik. Marko and Lisa have a lot in common, and I hope to get them in conversation with each other sometime. For now, listening to the two episodes can bring them into conversation within and with you.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
Conor McPherson’s play The Weir, is one of the finest expressions of encounters with the astral realm and the Otherworld (and how not to deal with them). Of course it’s best to see it, but unless you’re lucky enough to have a production going on nearby, reading it is the next best thing. It’s in this collection of his plays.

MORE ON LISA
Here’s Lisa’s website: The Inner Work Path . All of her books are worthwhile; but the one closest to this conversations is A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances. And here’s Lisa’s recent appearance on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour. Perhaps related to this episode in a sideways manner – Lisa’s book Spirit-led Community: Healing the Impact of Technology.

Until next time, friends: Live well!
CH

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Duncan Trussell in conversation with Lisa Romero AND Mitch Horowitz in conversation with Dean Spade! It’s the final installment of AEWCH 200

12 Oct

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Friends
Part three of the massive, mighty AEWCH 200 is upon us… and it’s a big episode! AEWCH 200 is three episodes over three weeks, featuring six conversations, each conversation has two previous guests of AEWCH in conversation with me on a theme. Here’s Part One in case you missed it, and here’s Part Two!

These are people I’ve loved talking to (most of them have been on the show more than once) in conversation with someone they might never talk to without AEWCH bringing them together. The idea is a sort of conversational alchemy. What happens when people in different disciplines speak? What sort of new substances arise?

For instance:

What happens when a paranormal expert talks with a mortician?
What happens when an expert on transhumanism and culture talks with a psychoanalytic theologian? What happens when a horror writer talks with a journalist of every day horrors?

This time it’s Part Three: Spirit & Hope Mystic comedian podcaster Duncan Trussell talks with occult teacher Lisa Romero + new age scholar Mitch Horowitz talks with mutual aid anarchist organizer Dean Spade!

SHOW NOTES GUEST WEBSITES & SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Mitch Horowitz – Mitch’s website • Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation

Lisa Romero – Lisa’s website, The Inner Work Path • A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances

Dean Spade – Dean’s website • Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (and the Next)

Duncan Trussell – Duncan’s podcast, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour • my latest appearance on Duncan’s show

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Being up to 200 episodes means AEWCH is in a tiny tiny percentage of podcasts that have lasted this long – something like 2%. I can ONLY keep doing this show if people support it on patreon.

I know post-pandemic times and economic roller coasters are affecting everyone in different ways. That said, the art and culture you love are great places to center support and love.

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes!

Thank you so much for everything, and enjoy all this big talk.
Love, CH

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Esoteric Christianity as the path of freedom and non-materialism: AEWCH 182 featuring Lisa Romero

18 Mar

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Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you. Do you find value in this show? If so, support the podcast. SUPPORT THIS PODCAST via Patreon

Friends, In the midst of 2022, so many of us are seeking peace and meaning. So here’s my series on one meaning-rich tradition and religious stream: Christianity.

But this will be a different sort of Christianity: occult and esoteric Christianity. Some of it might look familiar. Some might seem absolutely bizarre. All of it, I hope will stir a feeling of warmth and depth of meaning for you, whether you feel any affinity with Christianity or the occult. The first episode in the series was AEWCH 181, featuring Rev. Patrick Kennedy from the Christian Community – a religious tradition informed by occultism.

So… how is esoteric Christianity used? Or put differently, how does it work into and through our being and then act on the world? How can we form a new picture of reality out of it and proceed into thinking, feeling, and willing a new one into being?

To discuss this, I spent some time in rural Ireland with spiritual teacher and writer Lisa Romero. Lisa last appeared on the show three years ago on AEWCH 68 to discuss the occult picture of sex and sexuality. It was a profound conversation for me, but it barely approaches this one in terms of depth and breadth. We talk about Christianity at work in us, around us, and in the world. We discuss why esoteric symbols are used (why, for instance, is a star shape important and not just arbitrary?). And we discuss so much more.

Lisa the author of multiple books, all filled with spiritual exercises, including A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances and Spirit-led Community: Healing the Impact of Technology .

This is one of my very favorite episodes, I’m so happy to share it with you.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ? If you’d like to spend some time with one of the great Christian mystics, a good place to start is The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO? For another look at forgiveness and understanding, a great episode is AEWCH 162 with Dr. Gwen Adshead, who works with violent offenders and seeks to greet them with compassion. It’s a powerful episode and Gwen’s work is so utterly moving to me.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER? Lisa mentions St. John of the Cross, and there’s a great series of episodes about him on the podcast Turning To The Mystics. There’s so much there and so many episodes, so I suggest you start with this one.

MORE ON LISA Lisa co-runs the EduCareDo initiative, which offers anthroposophy-based distance learning, and she also offers her own courses and pathwork: The Inner Work Path , which stems from her own esoteric research. The book the exercise comes from is The Inner Work Path: A Foundation for Meditative Practice in the Light of Anthroposophy. And here’s a great interview with her on AEWCH 181 guest Patrick Kennedy’s podcast (in this case his co-host Jonah Evans is interviewer), The Light In Everything.

Until next time, friends, Love. CH

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Sex & The Occult: Conner Habib talks with Christian occultist and sexuality research Lisa Romero on AEWCH 68!

30 Apr

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AEWCH68 Title CardFriends,

So excited to finally be talking directly about sex and the occult on my show, and there’s no one I’d rather do that with than author and teacher, and Christian occultist Lisa Romero!

Lisa has written multiple (excellent) books on meditation and spiritual development, but the one that drew me to have her on for this episode was her excellent book, Sex Education and the Spirit: Understanding Our Communal Responsibility for the Healthy Development of Gender and Sexuality within Society. It’s a book that looks at sex and sexuality from a developmental perspective, but in a spiritual way, rather than from a materialistic perspective.This episode goes really deep and presupposes your ability to go on the magical mystery tour with us. But there are lots of insights to be had by the secular as well. I hope whatever your belief system is, you’ll stick with it.

We discuss:

  • what sex is, anyway, from a non-materialistic view, especially in the light of the evolution of consciousness.
  • how we all have individuated relationships to sex (and what that has to do with freedom).
  • the scientific definition of sex and why that matters now.
  • how sex and attraction get confusing when different aspects of our being get into conflict with each other.
  • why a Christian occultist approach to sex never takes the form of “don’t do this.”
  • how sexuality gives us the ability to transform our lives and bring our spiritual development forward.
  • the Catholic Church developing its response to sex in response to the Reformation.
  • the problems with the sex positive movement.
  • the four levels of attraction and how they relate to the subtle bodies.
  • displaced sex as a creative process.
  • what anthroposophists can learn from Freud and Lacan.
  • why masturbating men should hook themselves up to the power grid.
  • why Conner doesn’t do or care about “sex magic.”

Show notes are available here.

XO, CH

LRPromo

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