SPECIAL EPISODE
Greetings,
For a while now, I have been considering how our collective disrespect for the land is intrinsically related to our levels of collective self-hatred. That is, if we can’t love ourselves, is it even possible to love the land from which we emerge?
It’s a topic I have explored from a public policy perspective over at my flagship newsletter, docu-mental: mapping the american states of mind, where the genesis for this line of thought is rooted in my observation that the more corporate power has grown, the more personal agency has diminished, correlating with a massive spike in mental health concerns over the decades.
In this special episode of News from the Ensouled Universe, which will be taking the place of the Off the Charts: A Stellar Newscast weekly podcast for the rest of the summer while Elisabeth and I are on break, my guest is former O: The Oprah Magazine beauty director Valerie Monroe.
Val I explore how this dynamic between corporate power and individual agency leads to women believing themselves to be deformed, defective, and unacceptable to others.
We review how this violation of our freedom and individuality is done on purpose, and how it began with the witch trials of the late 1600s, only to become more amplified as the beauty industry gained power. We also review its connection to the current trends in transgender expression, which underlines the absurdity of the hierarchical constructs of control placed upon us all by faceless power mongers.
We end our discussion back where I started these show notes: by considering how living in an environment that aggressively denies natural beauty, wholeness, and compassion also strips our capacity for self-love.
Sites of interest mentioned in this podcast:
BBC Witch Podcast by India Rakusen
How not to F*ck Up Your Face by Val Monroe
Also in this series…
CASSANDRA TYNDALL
Coming up later this summer, I have on deck a conversation with Australian astrologer and columnist, Cassandra Tyndall. Cass is one of my favorite astrologers because of her utterly down-to-earth, practical approach to the stars, and her unwavering dedication to telling it like it is, no fluff.
Earlier this year when Pluto first ingressed into Aquarius, Cass released a startling video about her view that this heralds not a warm and fuzzy “power to the people” era in history, but one where we will see the return of Feudalism. It is a powerful rumination, and I aim to dive with Cass even deeper into this interpretation of coming mundane events.
You can read Cass’s work in print and online at Well Being Australia, where she is a regular columnist on a wide range of astrological topics, and where she writes the weekly horoscopes.
T. SUSAN CHANG
Also to come is a disscussion with the astoundingly polymathic T. Susan Chang, whose approach to her many disciplines, which range from policymaking to sewing Tarot-themed comforters, to teaching creative writing, to cooking, and more, is derived in part from her Classics training at Harvard University.
Although Susie’s voice might be familiar to many in this audience as a food commentator and cookbook reviewer at NPR, we’ll primarily be discussing her expertise in archetypal mythology as made practical for every day living through her latest book, The Living Tarot.
My hope is that our discussion will give you ideas for how to reframe our quotidien existence, with all its trials as well as triumphs, as an endless psychodrama where we encounter ourselves by way of encountering the Gods.
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More Great Conversations from the Ensouled Universe
While Elisabeth and I are taking some time off from the newscast, you can catch up by listening to the Off the Charts archive. If you’d like more information about Elisabeth Grace and her weekly headlines forecast, visit her at Grace Astrology.
To learn more about me, Whitney McKnight, please visit me at Ensouled Astrology.
Thanks for listening.
Peace,
Whitney
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