#138 - Brian James - The Cult and Myth of Trauma - Trust Your Soul’s Response - Howl in the Wilderness

"Culture looks and acts a lot like a religious cult, and as writer and magician Alan Moore has said, every culture started out as a cult." (quote from Brian James, Traumadelic, 2024) In this conversation, my very Jupiterian guest says: EXPANSIVENESS IS THE KEY and he also says "sometimes we just loose our shit!"

Listen to this thought-provoking conversation about the so-called myth of trauma. It is a longer episode, but I invite you to stick around, because we get into so important themes like what is is that attracts so many people to trauma work - and what you can do when you are caught by a belief. Brian James is a depth counselor, archetypal coach, and podcast host (see link below), and we share a love of yoga, interviews, depth psychology, and a mutual tendency to question overly simplistic views!! You could even say we “trauma bond” over our experiences in (leaving) therapy schools........a little into the conversation. Like I said -please stick around!

For those who care to read this text, I will mention I mix up an important word, but I mean to talk about the parentalism, a term that contains an objection within it!!! The heart of that critique in parentalism and in this conversation is actually captured in a quote from James Hillman, quoted in Brian James’ Traumadelic:

“The more I believe my nature comes from my parents, the less open I am to the ruling influences around me. The less the surrounding world is felt to be intimately important to my story. Yet even biographies begin by locating the subject in a place; the self starts off amid the smells of a geography. We are ecological from day one."

TAP in with us as we explore:

- Brian’s experience with a series of remembrances
- Another way of understanding causality
- Radical ambivalence
- A critique of “small t” trauma
- Experiences with Gabor Maté and other role models that are not always easy to engage with in a nuanced way
- Being right or wrong is constructed ! Go beyond!
- Are we truly responsible for all our actions?

-What it means to be triggered, and how we understand it without trauma
-The importance of finding your own path
-A howl in the wilderness of modernity
-The experience of being an outsider, while still longing for connection
-The myth of trauma within the psychedelic world
- The cliché of non-reactivity vs. responsiveness – and the risk of overriding one’s instinct to be affected
– Thinking in elements, because it is all archetypal

-Attending to the soul
- Understanding suffering and authentic reactions

-Our animal nature

-Ego defenses and reactions that upsets others

-disillusionments of our time

-It is an affront to nature and the soul when we can't challenge what we are to learn and speak up about what we feel

-Still reactive? Thank God!!

TO BE OF THIS EARTH !!!

-in terms of astrology we mostly speak jupiter, and I mention a danish therapist, that is Ulla Rung Weeke and if you do understand danish, I recommend this interview with her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz05yQCSBrE&t=380s

I hope you enjoy it, I truly did, and I am not trying to sell anyone anything, but I did really feel like Brian would be such a safe space to be in depth therapy with. I loved to be free and personal in this interview.

HEY if you want to SEE this interview - you will find it here: https://youtu.be/D-PCzdFyh9I

Follow the links for more in this energy:

Brian James:

https://brianjames.ca/

Brain James podcast, HOWL IN THE WILDERNESS:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/howl-in-the-wilderness/id1381115676

 

Mannah:

https://www.therapeuticastrologer.com/