Hermitix

A preview of Jungian shadow work and what the shadow actually contains. Exploration of how social conditioning and persona formation push parts of the self underground. Practical signs of projection and exercises to notice triggers. Discussion of integrating disowned potentials, risks like inflation, and how recovery of suppressed energy affects relationships and creativity.

Philip Pilkington, macroeconomist and author, discusses the decline of global liberalism and its roots in anti-hierarchical thought. He explores how economics became liberalism’s language, the geopolitical shifts accelerating the collapse, demographic and care crises, and policy ideas like family support and trade-bank reforms. Short, provocative takes on civilization, freedom, and near-term risks.

A brisk review of a metaphysical classic that tackles limits of the senses and the failings of strict empiricism. They explore Flatland-style analogies to explain higher dimensions and pitch time as a spatial fourth dimension. Panpsychism, evolution as growth in consciousness, and the idea that life taps higher-dimensional resources get attention. The conversation also considers a new logic beyond Aristotelian rules.

Sam Kunkel, a scholar of Orphic literature and European symbolism, discusses translating Erik Satie's Metropolitan Church of Art materials. Short takes cover Satie's odd career, proto-ambient "furniture music," his Péladan connection and theatrical parody, the church's pamphlets and mock hierarchy, and whether the whole project was satire, sincere ritual, or both.

A preview of a Jung course that maps the psyche like an inner architecture. Topics include the personal vs collective unconscious and classic archetypes. They outline ego, persona, shadow, Self, and the aim of individuation. Practical methods are highlighted such as dream journaling, active imagination, and function mapping tied to elemental symbolism.

Bogna Konior, scholar and writer on emerging technologies and media theory, discusses internet theory through cosmology and SETI-inspired ideas. She explores the internet as an alien signal, whether AI might hide or mirror intelligence, and how secrecy, deception, silence and contemplative alternatives reshape online life and future tech cultures.

A review of a satirical novel where a contagious laughter epidemic upends British bureaucracy. The conversation explores themes of meaning, purpose and the critique of progress. The narrator details a mysterious potion, a lonely tycoon at the story's center, and how spontaneous joy fractures official order. The tone praised is breezy, comic and delightfully subversive.

Bryan Counter, literary commentator known for close readings, digs into Thomas Bernhard's Gathering Evidence. He traces non-chronological structure, origin moments like the bicycle scene, and Bernhard's institutional upbringing. Conversations touch on repetition, dark humor, form, and how writing retroactively creates origins.

A fiery review of Antonin Artaud's visionary take on Elagabalus. Short bursts cover theater of cruelty, sacred violence, and sexualized ritual. The discussion parses delirious, non-linear prose and the book's theatrical logic. Themes of a solar phallic cosmology, crown-as-horror, and ritualized bodily excess are highlighted.

Mark Vernon, a British psychotherapist and writer, dives deep into the philosophy of Owen Barfield, who influenced literary giants like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Vernon highlights Barfield's idea of 'original participation' versus modern objectivity, explaining how the evolution of consciousness has shifted our understanding of meaning. He also explores how Barfield's insights relate to modernity's decline in coherent meaning and the importance of imagination. The discussion includes practical implications of Barfield's thoughts on spirituality and transformation.