The Mythic Masculine

In today’s episode, I speak with Michael Gay, a therapist in private practice based in Boulder, Colorado.  Michael has worked in the field of counseling for the last 14 years as a guide, therapist, and trainer.  He specializes in work with depression, trauma, PTSD, grief, and families.I first encountered Michael at the Sacred Sons Convergence last October in San Diego California, where he led the men in a group process of healing through attunement to stuck energy, ultimately unlocking the deep alchemy of transformation.In our conversion today, we touch upon his own adolescence and grappling with the big questions of life, how he encountered the mythopoetic men’s movement and his time with Robert Bly, how emotions like anger can be powerful tools for healing, and why a culture of safety is fundamentally about coming back into relationship, with ourselves and with each other.Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Philip Shepherd, an international authority on embodiment. He is the author of two books New Self, New World and Radical Wholeness, along with the developer of The Embodied Present Process, a series of practices for people to undo the stress and imbalances that are caused by disconnection, and find instead what it means to rest in the deeper, connected wisdom of the body.Philip's personal path was shaped by his adventures as a teenager, when he cycled alone through Europe, the Middle East, India and Japan; by his deep commitment to and studies of bodywork; and by his experiences as an actor, playing lead roles on stages in London, New York, Chicago and Toronto.In our conversation today, we explore: why living in the head, as many men do, guarantees a state of loneliness, how to tap into the emergent intelligence of life, and why the future of humanity may depend on our ability to finally come home, to your body and the earth.We begin with a guided presence practice led by Philip Shepherd.   This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Pulxaneeks (Pul-ha-neeks), from the Eagle Clan of the Haisla First Nation, a First Nations tribe located on the North West Coast what is now known as British Columbia, Canada. Pulxaneeks is a living, loving result of the coastal Indigenous village that raised her & all that survived in the lineage she was born to. She honours the Elders, Mentors and huge family whose love she is a living result of and the Ancestors whose strength and resilience is flowing through her veins.Her recognition of the responsibility to use her strengths in a meaningful way in contribution to greater change led her to develop “Heart to Heart Indigenous Relations Consultation” based on her unique understanding from walking in two worlds, both Indigenous and Settler cultures. As an unsettled settler on stolen land, I am grateful to consider Pulxaneeks a friend and mentor for me on this path of Practicing Allyship in support of the Indigneous Peoples of Turtle Island, as well as connecting with my own Ancestry and lineage.In our conversation today, we speak of the right use of privilege, the necessity of uncovering your trauma and discovering your gifts, and how every new encounter between indigenous folk and settlers is an opportunity to heal the unresolved pain of first contact, and come back into connection from the heart.Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Clinton Callahan, an author and cultural edgewalker that calls himself a memetic engineer. He the originator of Possibility Management, a training organization that aims to empower people as bridges to next culture.Clinton strikes me as a man from the future. And by that, I mean one who has explored the edges of our current paradigm, and has developed a sophisticated and complex series of memetic distinctions that compose an entirely different gameworld than our modern dominant context.In our sweeping conversation, we cover a lot of ground including: the importance of lowering your numbness bar to develop the capacity to truly feel again, understanding our Box intelligence that keeps us from stepping outside of the familiar, and what he believes lies beyond matriarchy and patriarchy - the rise of archearchy.It’s okay if you feel a bit lost for the first half hour of our conversation. I promise, it will all make sense (maybe) by the end.Enjoy this conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Daniel Foor a teacher and practitioner of practical animism, specializing in ancestral and family healing and helping folks learn to relate well with the other-than-human world.He is a doctor of psychology, as well as a marriage and family therapist, weaving many years of immersion in earth-honouring ways- including European pagan and Native American paths, Mongolian shamanism, and West African tradition.  He is the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing, and over 15 years has given hundreds of trainings and talks across the United States.In our conversation today, Daniel and I explore a number of themes, including: the fundamental shift needed to recognize kinship with the natural world, exploring beyond the gender binary through indigenous epistemologies, and naming the practical love languages that are food for your ancestors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

I’m very excited to share my conversation today with Bayo Akomolafe, an international speaker, poet and activist in service of a radical paradigm shift in consciousness and culture. He is globally recognised for his unconventional, counterintuitive, and indigenous take on global crisis, civic action and social change. Bayo is also Chief Curator for The Emergence Network and the author of two books, including “These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home.”I first crossed paths with Bayo at the New Story Summit in Scotland, back in 2014, and since then have followed his genre-bending wonderings about how things came to be as they are, often crafting his lectures and essays with surprising and beautiful associations of language and imagery.In this episode, we cover a range of topics, including: Understanding fatherhood as a community, the need to confront the monstrosities of masculinity, and the tender wound that may lie at the heart of the patriarchy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is indigenous activist and comedian Dallas Goldtooth (Diné/Dakota).  I first crossed paths with Dallas at the Bioneers conference back in 2016, as he arrived from the height of the action at Standing Rock - where water protectors clashed with police against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This massive energy project would have cut through their sacred lands and polluted the water, and Standing Rock became a global icon of indigenous resistance.Dallas is also a key member of the media team for the Indigenous Environmental Network, a non-violent direct action trainer, and a Dakota cultural/language teacher.  When he’s not fighting on the frontlines, Dallas travels with his all-indigenous comedy troupe, the 1491s.In our conversation we touch upon a number of themes, including the subject of toxic masculinity, how much of modern men’s work unconsciously enacts settler-colonialism and cultural appropriation, and the power of humour to connect and create change.We begin with a short excerpt from one of his talk’s at the Bioneers conference. Enjoy.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Nicky Wilks, a good friend and father of 3, who has spent many years working with youth of all ages.5 years ago, he co-founded Journeymen, an organization dedicated to guiding young men through nature-based rites of passage, and honing their communities to be able to receive them properly afterwards.In our conversation we touch upon a number of key themes, including: why modern culture is currently failing our youth, why parents aren’t meant to be everything to their kids (and why that’s a good thing), and how we can truly make space for the genius of our boys.LINKS Journeymen - Official Website Journeyman on Facebook Journeyman on Instagram This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

I’m very excited to introduce my guest today - prolific author and mythteller Dr. Martin Shaw.I first encountered Martin’s writing in the foreword to Stephen Jenkinson’s book Die Wise, and was immediately hooked by the elegant and unruly prose that leapt from the page. I found the same ecstatic spirit in Martin’s popular essays and numerous books including Scatterlings and the more recent Courting the Wild Twin.Over the years, we’ve crossed paths at numerous teachings and locales, from a small island off the coast of British Columbia, to a 1000 year old pub near Dartmoor National Park in the UK, where he lives.Martin has spent many years as a wilderness rites-of-passage guide, and honed his craft as a mythteller learning directly with the greats Robert Bly, James Hillman, and Michael Meade... among many others.I knew that one day I needed to speak to Martin about his time in the mythopoetic men’s movement, alongside his teaching house Westcountry School of Myth- who are self-described as a “school of courtly love disguised as a monastery for elegant pirates.In our interview today we discuss range of topics: from a bardic role of the mythteller, why we are in the underworld (but don’t know it yet), and how this time of coronavirus might be an invitation into our collective initiation.LINKS Martin Shaw - Official Website WestCountry School of Myth Cista Mystica Press  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today is Boe Huntress, a London based musician and longtime friend, whose work powerfully explores the themes and archetypes of the feminine journey.  We first met in 2014, at The New Story Summit gathering in Scotland, where after seeing her perform, I knew I had to collaborate with her. We immediately shot a live performance of her track ‘Green Dragon’ a song about female initiation.Since then, Boe has continued to release a prolific range of albums, including Kiss the Witch, A Female Power, and the forthcoming Thirteen Queens.  More recently, Boe has undergone a quest to integrate her own inner masculine, a story which I felt was deeply fitting for this podcast.She describes how a trio of failed relationships cracked her open to the deepest heartbreak of her life, how this led her to look into intergenerational grief through her father line, and ultimately, the willingness to end the war between the polarities of her soul.Just a note: halfway through this episode, Boe performs her song “Undefended Heart”, which she wrote to crystallize the courtship of this sacred union.   The full song will be released on Boe's Patreon. LINKS:  Boe Huntress - Official Website Green Dragon - Live Music Video This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe