MindThatEg • Aug 8, 2024 • To honour the milestone 50th episode, I’m joined by Richard Tarnas, a renowned historian and archetypal cosmologist. August 8th is the peak of the astrological event known as the Lion’s Gate Portal. The Sun (in Leo) aligns with Sirius, Orion’s Belt, and Earth. Simultaneously, Orion’s Belt aligns with the Pyramids of Giza. Ancient Egyptians revered Sirius, the “spiritual star,” and associated it with gods Osiris and Sopdet. Each year the rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile. As author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, Richard is the ideal guest to mark the occasion. He is the founding director of the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He teaches courses in the history of ideas, archetypal studies, depth psychology, and religious evolution. For ten years he lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, studying with the likes of Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, and James Hillman, later serving as Esalen’s director of programs and education. In re-enchanting the Western worldview, Richard traces the historical and cultural roots of the modern mind. Although much was gained, much was lost, including the ensoulment of the cosmos, and a sense of participation with higher forms of intelligence. Is civilisation experiencing a mythological fall from grace due to human hubris? Is global chaos a symbolic manifestation of humanity’s descent into the underworld? How can a new worldview support spiritual transformation, sense-making, and flourishing on a global scale? Before we begin, one more special announcement: Richard is one of a number of contributing authors, including myself, for the new volume by the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences: The Playful Universe: Synchronicity and the Nature of Consciousness. The book is released late August, with an online symposium scheduled for the 26th or 27th September. ???? Introduction to The Playful Universe: Synchronicity and the Nature of Consciousness (https://www.mindthatego.com/wp-conten…) ???? Article: Is The Modern Psyche Undergoing a Rite of Passage (https://cosmosandpsyche.com/wp-conten…) ???? Epilogue to Passion of the Western Mind: (https://cosmosandpsyche.com/wp-conten…) 00:00 Intro 02:30 Worldviews Shape Worlds 10:00 The Western Worldview As Inherently Nihilistic 14:00 Separation of Mind and World 17:00 The Shadow of Modernity and Moral Issues 20:00 Man Replacing God As Superior to Nature 24:00 The Crisis of Vision 28:00 Primal Worldviews, Animism and the Interior Continuum 31:30 Numinosity, Anima Mundi, and Spiritual Value 36:00 Ancient Egypt, Aztecs, and the Porous Self 38:30 Meaning, the Myth of Progress, and Greek Tragedy 43:00 The Descent Into the Underworld and Rite of Passage 47:00 How Worldviews Shape Madness 54:00 The Idol of Literalism 58:00 Participation Mystique and the Sacred Marriage 01:01:00 Synchronicity and Archetypes 01:07:00 Archetypes as Channel to the Divine 01:10:00 Individuation Embedded In the Cosmos 01:13:00 Archetypal Meaning 01:22:00 The Value of Subjective Data In Defining Reality 01:25:00 The Playful Universe 01:27:00 Re-Enchantment of the Universe