11: Music, Sexuality, & The Sacred. A conversation with Rodney Waters.

The discussion begins with Rodney’s musical biography starting at the age of 9, this early interest in music then transforms into a life calling by the age of 11. Currently, he is in training as a Jungian analyst, and therefore he speaks eloquently about the integration of music and depth psychology. Rodney’s life has provided him the ground to understand how music can give an individual an invitation to consciously and unconsciously explore their creativity, sexuality, and their worldview. Rodney considers his early sexual development through his childhood growing up in West Texas and emphasizes how music provided him a container to hold onto the “life-force” that needed a location for expression. Music eventually could not contain the life-force any longer, and he began searching and expanding his sexuality and his identity. One academic and personal arena of study for Rodney is sexuality, and in particular male sexuality, therefore we consider the modes through which men feel they can and cannot talk about with each other and find means by which to connect. Rodney’s interests are each located around the central theme of intimacy and self-expression – including music, relationship, sexuality, tattoos, depth psychology, and the beard. Rodney Waters is the Scholarship Director for Music Doing Good, a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas that transforms children’s lives through innovative, music-based programming. As a pianist he has performed extensively in Japan and Europe, and in Houston with the Houston Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Da Camera, Musiqa, and St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society. In April 2016, his recording with Curt Thompson of the complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano by American composer Charles Ives was named one of the top 10 recordings of Ives’ music by Gramophone Magazine. Rodney earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York, where he studied with Richard Goode. A long-time advocate for the use of art in service of social causes, Rodney has created projects to support local resettlement of refugees through Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston and HIV prevention programs through AIDS Foundation Houston. In 2016 Rodney composed and recorded music for Jungians Speaking, a DVD series released by Chiron Publications. He is currently in training to be a Jungian Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich. Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/