"As human beings we have experience and we have story. We tend to shape the experience with story into a form that makes sense, is comfortable for ourselves, and presents us in the best light to others. In the case of psychosis, and other exceptional and anomalous experiences, the experience threatens to overwhelm story. In these circumstances, the obvious recourse is to go to the 'experts', perhaps the doctor, who has a ready story based on the medical model. You are ill. We can treat you." (quoted from Isabel Clarke, Conflicted Stories. A case of expanded reality.)

But there is another way..... a way of understanding the mind as permeable, porous and the self being something we create. WELCOME to a rich episode with psychologist Isabel Clarke, who has many years of experience working at the intersection of spiritual emergency and psychosis - with expanded consciousness.

Psychosis and spiritual experience both involve entry into another reality – a reality that is integral and vital to human life. As Isabel Clarke points out, this realm can be loving and expansive, but it can also smash the self. A key factor is the ability to move in and out of these states voluntarily.

In this conversation, we explore schizotypy as a dimension of human experience, involving sensitivity and openness to anomalous experiences. We speak about two ways of knowing: the scientific mode of precision and division, and a more integrative way of knowing through emotion, imagination, and poetry. Tap in with us as we go into what it means that the mind is open and what Isabel calls "Myths of Power" - and also that we need to take serious the shared world, as we can only conduct our lives full time in the shared world. (Her Capricorn Moon is very present, yet constantly balanced by her Libra placements). I also ask her about trauma and openness, and what it means in everyday life what it looks like to be porous.

Isabel Clarke is of a certain age, that is 80 years, and apart from this wonderful meeting, her experience can be found in several books and articles, including:

"Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God"

"Third Wave CBT Integration for Individuals and Teams: Comprehend, Cope and Connect"

"Meeting Mental Breakdown Mindfully: How to Help the Comprehend, Cope and Connect Way"

REMEMBER:

We er more connected than we may think!!!

I would love to hear from you, when you have heard this episode. It was such a joy to speak to Isabel Clarke and meet her heart to heart.

LINKS:

video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqEaLEL6YT0

Isabel: https://www.isabelclarke.org/

Mannah: https://www.therapeuticastrologer.com/

Okay so the Left-Hand Path is a spiritual philosophy centered on the preservation of an enduring self rather than spiritual dissolution or obedience to an external authority. Listen as Sereptie (Craig) shares how, for him, the term (with ph, lepht hand philosophy) connects to acid communism and the discovery of a portal beyond capitalistic reductionism, opening toward a transcendent renewal. You really have to hear his answer yourself, it will take you on a journey from politics to the inner dream world of truth. You will learn in this episode what he meas by lepht hand philosophy, plus I think a really central theme for ALL OF US CREATORS and ALL OF CONSUMERS of INFORMATION!!! That is: the attention economy - how do we stay true, avoid (being) noise and like "get the best, leave the rest"/try not to be totally destroyed by it? You will get some good suggestions in this episode, plus I think exactly conversations like this are so important, not to just be part of it (the noise) blindly, but reflecting as we are in that nonestop information flood, that we got going on, inside as outside.

Sereptie Craig is so intellectually stimulating to speak to, and so soulful as well as his Gemini Sun and Pisces Moon are really central to everything we discuss- and I mean, anyone who loves philosophy will enjoy when he speaks.

Tune in as Sereptie shares what his philosophical school is about, what his dream would is reaching for, and how he relates to his tarot-deck creations and personal astrological chart where we end up staying for a bit there in the end, because his curiosity turns out to be more fun than a certain scepticism he also carries.

Don't miss this one... I'm telling you... it's some good stuff right here.

-Mannah

LINKS:

video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjliAYaOJas

Sereptie: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon (find all this links through this)

Mannah: https://www.therapeuticastrologer.com/

John Michael Greer is an award-winning author of over fifty books and an initiate of Freemasonry, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Martinist Order, and several Druid traditions. He also served for twelve years as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. I'm delighted to be with him to explore some of the themes from, what at this exact moment is his newest book, "Revisioning the Tree of Life; A New Cabala for Magic, Meditation and Pathworking" – it is hard to keep track when you are such an active gemini mind that John is.

Join us as we talk about:

-How John Michael Greer came to take on the work of John Gilbert
-Why Western occultism can be understood as Middle Platonism dressed in wizard's robes
-Use the Tree of Life as a tool (not a truth)

-Here is a quote that I reflect back to John:

"As I write these words, the Western world is stumbling through a cascade of difficult cultural transformations set in motion by the failure of the cult of progress mentioned earlier, to make good on its promises. The rationalist materialism that provided that cult with its impetus has begun to crumble as it became clear to too many people that the artificial world coupled together by human reason in the service of collective ego has turned out to be unfit for human habitation. The most common response to that realization is to fight back to the dogmatic religious ideologies of an earlier day. Too few people have noticed that it was precisely those belief systems with their inevitable abuses in the hands of entrenched and often despotic hierarchies that made rationalist materialism inevitable and built the foundations for its temporary triumph."

-that leads to us talking about progress.... John says we trust progress like a superstition !

-If archetypes are not only psychological, the implications are .....? Think with us please.. how archetypes move through individuals and manifest collectively, is it energies trying to express themselves through us? John speaks about how Figuration that is a shifting pattern of interdependence formed by human beings – things are not as solid as they seem

-DESIRE (one of my favorit themes that John mentions in his book) Remember: we desire what we do not fully possess....... is all desire for the Divine? Possibly!

-Projections of shadow (can you hear how close occultism and in depth trauma therapy is?)

-The second triad with WILL, IMAGINATION and MEMORY

-the tree of life and archetypes and how it helps to have more control, to have thoughts rather than thoughts having you (again link trauma therapy and....the great Merlin!)

-John's strong Gemini emphasis, which is what I feel he refers to as his two secret weapons

-What lead John to the Kabbalah and to the Golden Dawn Order

-The Aquarian versus Piscean view of community and visions of the future (talking about the ages that last about 2160 years)

-The beautiful Gemini Saturn link that reflects how John Michael Greer became an authority on traditions that raised his curiosity and that he was and still is able to write about in understandable language.

Thank you for being with us and wishing you a wonderful end of the year, we have been through a lot together in 2025 havent we?!? Wishing you a magic transition into the new year coming up – or a lot of good energy to when ever you are, as you read this! I will be back in the new year with authors who influence and inspire us, all coming with different pieces of the puzzle!

Remember... You have a place to call WHOLE.

-Mannah

LINKS

link to video version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8p9kEZB0Fo

the book we speak of:
https://spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/revisioning-the-tree-of-life/95374

Johns interactive website:
https://www.ecosophia.net/

Mannah:
https://www.therapeuticastrologer.com/