Why we need magic now... Secret histories and spiritual revolutions
This week's show is with Daniel Pinchbeck. Daniel is the New York Times bestselling author of Breaking Open the Head, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, How Soon Is Now, and When Plants Dream (with Sophia Roklhin).
He hosted the talk show Mind Shift on Gaia TV and was featured in the 2010 documentary, 2012: Time for Change. He has written for many publications including The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, Dazed & Confused, Purple, and ArtForum. He is the director of Liminal.news, an online course platform, and publishes a regular newsletter, Danielpinchbeck.substack.com .
In this conversation, Daniel and I explored the fascinating topic of Secret Histories and Spiritual Revolutions, why we need magic right now, and how our relationship to myth can reawaken our imaginative and intuitive faculties.
The quote we mentioned:
“What if at the higher levels of meaning consciousness is like a hyperspace in which each point is equidistant from the other and where ‘the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere? … The mythologies of the occult seem like baroque music: there is an overall similar quality of sound and movement, but, upon examination, each piece of music is unique; Vivaldi and Scarlatti are similar and different.” - William Irwin Thompson, Passages About Earth
I’d love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
Even as someone who spends a lot of time contemplating the importance of magic, it impacted me deeply hearing Daniel share about how Western esoteric knowledge in particular is largely missing in today’s world
We, as a culture, have ridiculed and denied the truth and power of magic and esoteric knowledge, and there’s something very healing in reclaiming it
I loved what Daniel said about how our relationship to myth can reawaken our imaginative and intuitive faculties. Humans live and think mythologically, that we are scientific and logical just isn’t true, the more we can make our mythical nature conscious, the more we can engage with myths in a generative and opening way
Resources and stuff that we spoke about:
The article that inspired this conversation
Daniel's Official Newsletter: Liminal News
Daniel’s Website: theliminalinstitute
Thank you for listening!
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Thank you!
Lian & Jonathan