Wisdom Keeper Podcast

Widely respected author and blogger in fields ranging from nature spirituality, Druidry, ceremonial magick, hermeticism, alchemy, mundane astrology, and the future of industrial society, John Michael Greer (JMG) is the prolific author of more than seventy books, including sixteen novels, and blogs weekly at ecosophia.net. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife Sara. In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper Podcast, JMG and I discuss: - an intellectual history of esoteric traditions from ancient Egypt and Greece to India and China, cross pollinating via the Silk Roads. - ancient and advanced civilizations such as Atlantis and Lumeria, that might have influenced Egypt and Sumeria, and which have been lost in the historical record. - the thread that binds all esoteric traditions, the art of resurrection: dying before you die, in order to be reborn. - The history and practice of Alchemy from early textual sources to the Middle Ages, including the meaning of the alchemical notion Solve et Coagula - The relationship between Western alchemy, magick and Tibetan Buddhism - Astrology, its history, relevance, and how it works including Jung's notion of synchronicity. - How we need to live from a symbolic or mythologic perspective to experience a more meaningful life. - Mundane astrology and how to use planetary alignments for predictive purposes in worldly affairs from politics to economics. - Catabolic collapse and the slow descent of our civilization. - How to "collapse now, and avoid the rush", and advise for preparing for the inevitable cycles of death and rebirth on the civilizational level. John Michael Greers books can be found here.   *** The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify. CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage https://www.gradualpath.com/ 25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/ Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper Podcast I’m delighted to host Freddy Silva one of the worlds foremost experts on ancient civilizations, crop circles, and the use of sacred monolithic sites and structures for transformations in human consciousness. Freddy leads us on a journey to rewrite history gathering clues from diverse cultural sources that point to an ancient, high civilization lost in last ice-age, but far older and more advanced than our current, mainstream picture of the world would suggest. What this ancient pre-diluvian, sea fearing civilization knew about the cosmos and of the psyche is nothing short of staggering, and anyone with interest in esoteric wisdom and initiatory rites will be sure to enjoy this conversation.  Freddy Silva is a bestselling author, and leading researcher of ancient civilizations, restricted history, sacred structures, and their interaction with consciousness. He is also the leading expert on crop circles and leads pilgrimages to sacred sites in England, France, Egypt, Portugal, Yucatan, Peru/Bolivia, and Scotland.  Freddy has produced thirteen documentaries and published seven books in six languages, among them The Missing Lands, The Divine Blue Print, the Lost Art of Resurrection, and his most recent release Scotland’s Hidden Sacred Past.  His website is https://www.invisibletemple.com/  Freddy and I discuss his:  Departure from corporate advertising to follow an inner call to study crop circles and other mysteries. Learning to trust what he calls “the management” - unseen spirit guides of alternate dimensions that aid him in his research and quest. Theory of an ancient, lost civilization of prehistory and its sacred wisdom of navigating the cosmos and the soul. Attempt to thread together myths and prophesies found across cultures about a lost, pre-diluvian sea faring civilization possessing high art and technology.  Fascinating common accounts of the “shinning one’s” or the “people of the serpent“ who may have taught the Mayans and Egyptians, and cultures as diverse as Armenia, India, Japan, Scotland and Easter Island.  The cataclysmic impact of a meteor around 10,500 BCE, its ensuing effects of sea level rise, and relationship to the universal presence of flood myths throughout culture.  Freddy responds to his critics of the ancient civilization hypothesis.  The connection between sacred monolithic sites, astrological positions, and ritual initiations.   The Maiden’s Cave in Scotland and its ritual use for a rite-of-passage leading to resurrection of the soul.  His new book Scotland’s Hidden Sacred Past is available here. *** The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS GOOGLE PODCASTS  SPOTIFY   CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage  https://www.gradualpath.com/ 25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast I’m delighted to be joined by Tjok Sri Maya Kerthyasa, a food and lifestyle journalist based in Bali and co-author along with Chef Wayan Kresna Yasa of the newly released book Paon: Real Balinese Cooking. In this conversation we follow Maya’s on her pilgrimage to heal from our modern culture of systemic disconnection, as she rediscovered her Balinese spiritual roots, transform her kitchen into a temple, and becomes the keeper of her grandmother’s sacred wisdom. This dialogue is filled with tenderness of the divine feminine as well as delightful surprises relevant to anyone embarking of the heroic journey of personal rebirth.   In this episode Maya and I discuss:  Her dark night of the soul, as she faces the mind-body symptoms of modern culture’s systemic disconnection. How she embarked on a pilgrimage of rediscovering her Balinese spiritual roots and came under the guidance of her grandmother. How food can be a vehicle for the transmission of sacred wisdom  How to transform the kitchen into a temple The alchemy of transforming obligation into love The delicate balance between preserving and innovating tradition.  Her newly released book  Paon: Real Balinese Cooking (April 2022)  Encouragement that people embark on pilgrimage to rediscover themselves.  Buy the Book: Paon: Real Balinese Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1743797532/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_S6D1H5HQ58HDART511B4 *** The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS GOOGLE PODCASTS  SPOTIFY   CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage  https://www.gradualpath.com/ 25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

TASHI MANNOX is one of the world's foremost contemporary Tibetan calligraphers and Dharma artists, regularly exhibiting his art in New York, London, Moscow and Bhutan. He was formerly a monk in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and completed the traditional four year closer retreat under the guidance of renown Tibetan masters. He is the author of Sacred Scripts: A Meditative Journey Through Tibetan Calligraphy (2016) and has recently released a new course on Tibetan Calligraphy host by the prestigious Wisdom Publications and the Wisdom Academy Online. https://wisdomexperience.org/courses/tibetan-calligraphy/  In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast I’m delight to be joined by Lama Tashi Mannox, one of the world’s foremost dharma artists and Tibetan Calligraphers. In this conversation we follow Tashi Mannox from his most magical and auspicious childhood, into his deep four year Vajrayana retreat where he offers us an intimate glimpse of his limitless imagination, and right on through to his karmic fortune to work directly with the King of Bhutan. Throughout we see just how essential it is to collect karmic merit in order to create a truly inspiring life for oneself and others. Lama Tashi Mannox is an embodiment of integrity and joy that few can resist. I know you’ll enjoy this podcast. In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast Lama Tashi and I discuss: ・The magic of his childhood immersed in the first wave of the transmission of Buddhism to the West. ・Tashi’s early life and education as an artist, and how he happily never quite fit into the mainstream. ・His experience of being in a formal Tibetan four-year meditation retreat including day-in-the-life of his rigorous schedule. ・We get an intimate look at the mind of a visual artist as Tashi explains the construction of a mandala in his own visualization practice during retreat. ・How Tashi Mannox became a calligrapher, and what calligraphy means to the preservation and transmission of Dharma. ・Exciting experiences on his first pilgrimage to Tibet and the ethos of wonder in which Tibetan culture experiences the world. ・Finally Tashi discusses the role and honor he played in preserving the cultural legacy of calligraphy in Bhutan, and how we must go back in order to move forward. What an honor to bask in the glow of Tashi’s humility and radiance. *** The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS GOOGLE PODCASTS  SPOTIFY     CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage  25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

***Join us for a solar eclipse Vajrasattva practice, April 29 at 7pm EDT in the CSP Courtyard. Become a member https://www.gradualpath.com/courtyard*** With the very auspicious Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces on April 12 - a magical and mystical energy occurring only every 165 years - and book ended by a solar eclipse at the end of the month, I thought it would be a great opportunity to sit down with my friend, polymath, artist, astrologer and sound healer George H Lewis to discuss his astrology forecast, the paradigm shift and transition to the Aquarian age, and the relationship between cosmos and psyche. GEORGE LEWIS is a New York based artist, polymath, astrologer, and sound healer committed to raising consciousness. His paintings have been exhibited around the world, and his books include The Boy and the King (2019) and Arthur and Bun Bun (2018). George is the founder of Jupiter Rising, a retreat center for holistic healing and conscious living in the Catskills, New York. More on George Lewis at: https://www.georgehlewis.com and https://www.jupiterinpisces.com/ *** CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage https://www.gradualpath.com/ 25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER Dr Miles Neale | https://www.milesneale.com On Social Media: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/ Soundcloud | https://soundcloud.com/milesneale

DR. IAN BAKER is a Tibetan scholar, yogi, explorer and author with more than 40 years experience studying and teaching Tibetan Buddhism. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club and was honored by National Geographic Society as one of six ‘Explorers for the Millennium’ for his ethnographic and geographical field research in Tibet’s Tsangpo gorge and his team’s discovery of a waterfall that had been the source of myth and geographic speculation for more than a century. Ian is the author of seven critically acclaimed books on Himalayan and Tibetan cultural history, environment, art, and medicine including The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place, The Tibetan of Art of Healing, and The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple, a collaborative work with His Holiness The Dalai Lama that illuminates Tantric Buddhist meditation practices. Ian’s latest book, Tibetan Yoga: Secrets from the Source. Ian has also written for National Geographic Magazine and has contributed to academic journals in the fields of Tibetan yoga in Vajrayāna Buddhism. Ian also leads pilgrimages to sacred sites in India, Tibet, and Bhutan. In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast Ian and Miles trace his own Hero’s journey from his childhood expeditions in mountaineering, to his first pilgrimage to Nepal at 19 where he met some of the most celebrated Tibetan masters of the last century, to his first experience of awakening, kensho, during meditative retreat, and to his pioneering efforts to practice the Tibetan yogas under the advise of His Holiness the Dalia Lama in solitary retreat in a secret cave. The conversation cuts to the heart of dzongchen, where we dance between illusion, the self-imposed limits of mind, and the boundless luminosity of our own true nature. This is one pilgrimage you won't want to miss. In this episode Dr. Ian Baker and Miles discuss: ・His childhood interest in adventure and mountaineering which helped him learn to push beyond self-imposed mental limitations and would later inform his yogic practices. ・His college junior year abroad that took him to Kathmandu and changed the course of his life when he meet some of the greatest Tibetan masters of this century. ・Ian discusses his first break through meditative experience into the nature of mind during a college retreat and its residual impact on the course of his life. ・He describes his return to Nepal for intensive meditation retreat in a High Himalayan cave practicing the advices given to him personally by the Dalai Lama.  ・We frame Ian life as one that converges the outer, inner, and secret forms of pilgrimage.  ・Ian discusses the union of wisdom and bliss found within the nervous system and accessed through Tibetan Yogas.  ・We discuss the intersection between psychedelics Greek and Tibet mysticism, including a new research project of his exploring the use of soma in a very secret Tara cult in India. ・Finally we reflect on what it means “to go back in order to go forward.” The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS GOOGLE PODCASTS  SPOTIFY CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage https://www.gradualpath.com/  25% off all courses with coupon code WISDOMKEEPER More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

In episode 3 of the Wisdom Keeper podcast 'Prophesy, Healing and Global Regeneration in Bali' Miles and Tjok Gde discuss: ・His lineage tracing back to the Majapahit Empire of Java and its exodus to Bali. ・The astrology and mythology surrounding the global pandemic. ・The roles of ritual, ceremony, and community in Balinese culture. ・The Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, harmony with others, nature, and spirit. ・Perspectives on the coronavirus, vaccines, natural remedies and our human emotions. ・The need to preserve one’s sovereignty in a time of governmental control and societal collapse. ・A call for courage as we proceed through the archetypal dark night of the soul. TJOK GDE KERTHYASA Holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Homeopathy) from the University of New England, and an Advanced Diploma of Homeopathy from the Australasian College of Natural Therapies, Sydney. Tjok Gde Kerthyasa is well known throughout Indonesia for his pioneering television show about natural medicine, ′Nature Life′, which was aired nationally on the Trans TV network, as well as in Singapore and Malaysia, and his book on natural medicine “Sehat Alami Secara Holistic” which is sold throughout Indonesia. More on Tjok Gde and Tirta Usada: https://tirtausada.com/  The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-keeper-podcast/id1605486380  GOOGLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcHAua2FqYWJpLmNvbS9wb2RjYXN0cy8yMTQ3NDkxNzI3L2ZlZWQ  SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/3XS7wPneL9STu8kMltzmFd?si=a24b1d4fe4c74b6d  CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage https://www.gradualpath.com/  More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

Lama Glenn Mullin is a Tibetologist, Buddhist scholar, and teacher of Tantric Buddhist meditation. He divides his time between writing, teaching, meditating, and leading tour groups to the power places of Himalayan region. He studied and received vital lineage transmissions from over thirty-five of the greatest masters of the time from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Glenn Mullin has authored more the 30 books on Tibetan Buddhism, many of them focused on the lives and translations of the works of the lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  Glenn Mullin’s website: https://www.glennmullin.com  In this conversation, Lama Glen Mullin and Dr. Miles Neale discuss: ・The meaning and role pilgrimage plays in Tibetan Buddhist Culture ・The outer, inner, and secret forms pilgrimage ・The relationship of mythology and sacred geography ・The power of pilgrimage to heal sickness ・The magic of the Kathmandu valley ・Secrets of the Boudanath and Swayambunath stupas ・Psychedelics in Hindu and Buddhist tantra ・Padmasambhava cave and Vajrayogini shrine in Pharping ・Advices for embarking on pilgrimage The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on: APPLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-keeper-podcast/id1605486380  GOOGLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcHAua2FqYWJpLmNvbS9wb2RjYXN0cy8yMTQ3NDkxNzI3L2ZlZWQ  SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/3XS7wPneL9STu8kMltzmFd?si=a24b1d4fe4c74b6d  CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM | Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage |https://www.gradualpath.com/ More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/  Follow Miles Neale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milesneale/

In the lead up to our epic Buddhist pilgrimage to Nepal and India in October 2022 led by Tibetan Master Geshe Tenzin Zopa I wanted to curate a series of interviews with scholars and guides to help shed light on the ancient practice of journeying to scared sites and its relevance to a post pandemic world. Nat Geo has recently said pilgrimage will be the next travel trend after Covid as people search for new meaning to help restore their lives. I could not be more delighted in this, our inaugural episode of the Wisdom Keeper Podcast, to host mythologist and multi award winning author Phil Cousineau.  PHIL COUSINEAU is prolific writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, lecturer and travel leader, storyteller and TV host. His fascination with the art, literature, and history of culture has taken him from Michigan to Marrakesh, Iceland to the Amazon, in a worldwide search for what the ancients called the “soul of the world.” With more than 35 books and 15 scriptwriting credits to his name, the “omnipresent influence of myth in modern life” is a thread that runs through all of his work. His books include Stoking the Creative Fires, Once and Future Myths, The Art of Pilgrimage, The Hero's Journey, Wordcatcher, The Painted Word, The Oldest Story in the World, The Book of Roads, and The Accidental Aphorist.  Phil Cousineau’s website: https://www.philcousineau.net  Phil and I Discuss:  The purpose of pilgrimage from its ancient roots to modern times  The power of physical places whether they be sacred or secular sites  The importance of reconnecting, remembering, and revitalizing our lives after centuries of fragmentation and disconnection from spirit  The Long Discussion, Phil’s approach to taking the art of conversation on a deep into the heart of vulnerability.  Phil also describes contemplation on the road, how a multi sensory experience can be internalized through intention and attention.  Phil discusses his relationship with his mentor Joseph Campbell, and the need to innovate the epic hero’s journey from a mostly male rite of passage to a more collective, inclusive myth. We discuss the difference between taking from and giving back when on pilgrimage  The Wisdom Keeper Podcast is available on Apple podcasts, Google Podcasts, Youtube and Spotify. For Courses, Community and Buddhist Pilgrimage visit the Contemplative Studies Program More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website https://www.milesneale.com/ Follow Miles Neale on Instagram @milesneale

Who will you trust for guidance as the world transitions to a new eon? Wisdom keepers are the elders, mentors, yogis, scholars, and holders of sacred knowledge committed to guiding us through a process of spiritual transformation. As we ride the waves of the emerging paradigm shift more of us will be looking to these reliable guides to help us sense make and navigate the challenges and complexities of the human experience. Each episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast brings you into an intimate conversation designed to deepen your self-reflection, integrate your shadow, inspire your contemplative practice, and enliven your experience of being in the world. Your host Dr. Miles Neale curates mini-series complementing depth with breadth on a wide range of topics from spirituality and psychology, mythology and astrology, to sacred art and pilgrimage. The Wisdom Keeper podcast is available on Youtube, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts and Spotify For courses, community and pilgrimage visit the Contemplative Studies Program. More about Dr. Miles Neale on his website. Follow Miles Neale on Instagram.