Jailbreak the Sacred

It’s a great pleasure to welcome not one but two of the most fabulous astrologers I know to the show this week, the inimitable Colin Bedell and mizChartreuse. We became acquainted through the astrology conference world and I reached out to have a conversation with them regarding A Course in Miracles, the seminal 1976 book which has been influential in both of their lives and for thousands (if not millions) of other individuals. ACIM has been an influential source text for both of them, and they've got some utterly fantastic insights to share with us. My idea for this episode emerged out of my own recent re-engagement with the tradition of New Thought. I think the conversation is a timely one considering Marianne Williamson’s current presidential campaign and the cultural resurgence of conscious living as, gosh, a possible force for changing the world for the better. Could you imagine? We've got not one but TWO bonus episodes, one on ACIM & Astrology, and another reflecting on Marianne Williamson's presidential campaign and the role of consciousness in political discourse. Become a patron today to get access to those when they're released: www.patreon.com/jailbreakthesacred Connect with Colin on Twitter @queercosmos and online at queercosmos.com Connect with mizChartreuse on Twitter @mizChartreuse and on the web at thevenusacademy.com Music by www.purple-planet.com

This week it's a pleasure to welcome my friend Bryan Nashed to the show. Bryan is a spooky boi, tarotist, and podcaster, coming to us from the wild and wooly world of Seventh Day Adventism. Bryan co-hosts the Badventist podcast with Anthony Rodriguez, which, aside from winning this week's portmanteau award, serves as a space for those who grew up Adventist to work on jailbreaking their own sacred stories. The conversation covers: Seventh Day Adventism Staying within a tradition and critiquing it from the inside Ancestry, the numinous, and a beautiful (and completely sober) digression into the very nature of time and sacrament Encountering meaning via the high strange Connect with Bryan on Twitter here: @jefebesos Don't forget about becoming a member of our Patreon! We've got some really fantastic bonus episodes coming your way as a treat for our supporters: www.patreon.com/jailbreakthesacred Music by www.purple-planet.com

Today's chat features a lovely conversation with Arthur Lipp-Bonewits. Arthur is an all-purpose diviner, astrologer, occultist, and ecumenical medium based in New York City where he is studying psychology, gender, and sexuality. Today we're sitting down to talk growing up neopagan and the confluence of religious, spiritual, and magical practice at the margins. Mile markers for our conversation: Growing up neopagan and present challenges with even defining what "neopagan" is Developing sensibility to the more-than-material magic, how do it do Neurodiversity and pneumadiversity Gender identity and the Venn Diagram circles of spooky culture, neurodiversity, and sexual/gender minorities gender is complicated Check out Arthur's work at arthurlippbonewits.com and connect with him on Twitter @lipandbone Don't forget about our Patreon, too! Support the Great Work by becoming a patron at patreon.com/jailbreakthesacred Music by purple-planet.com

Today on the show it’s my privilege to welcome my friend and clergy colleague, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Kye Price. Mother Sarah and I met during the trial-by-fire known as Clinical Pastoral Education back in 2015, and she was recently ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. In addition to living out her priestly vocation as the priest affiliate at Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Sarah is the associate dean for faculty development at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. This conversation was long in the works and I'm excited to share it with you. Some audio quality gremlins but nothing insurmountable! Points of interest: Formative experiences of the numinous Reclaiming troublesome language The intersection of social work and priestly ministry De-colonizing Christianity Learn more about Mother Sarah at https://socialwork.vcu.edu/about/our-team/administration/sarah-k-price-phd.html If you like the show, remember to connect with us on Patreon, too! patreon.com/jailbreakthesacred Music by www.purple-planet.com

A little late on the release due to ECLIPSE MANIA, but here we are. It's a privilege to welcome my good friend Andrew Lamont to the show. Andrew is a fiber artist, magician, and astrologer based out of Rhode Island, and today we're sitting down to talk about the process of jailbreaking Catholicism, embodiment and desire, and the importance of ritual work in developing connection to community across the boundaries of space and time. Glad to have a fellow Maryboi on the show.   Growing up Deadhead/Catholic, now spooky Ritual as guide into embodiment MARY Embodiment and desire as process—spiritual dimensions thereof. The reciprocal flow between mysticism and eroticism. Ancestral work—sanctioned or otherwise Connect with Andrew on Twitter @patron_sailor. Music by purple-planet.com

Today on the show it’s my privilege to welcome my good friend Jo Gleason! Jo is an astrologer, former ballet dancer, and writer based out of Oklahoma City. She currently serves as the vice president of the Association for Young Astrologers. This free-form conversation tracks Jo's story through her GOOD CHRISTIAN KID upbringing. We talk about disarming the fear of deconstructing one's beliefs and presuppositions about the world in order to find even deeper foundations in the mystical. Our thread also turns towards a re-emergence of a jailbroken Christianity through the influence of ancestor work and the importance of having ethical guardrails. Connect with Jo at jogleason.com and on Twitter @justjogleason Music by purple-planet.com

Today on the show, I’m sitting down with my friend Flan Park. Flan and I have been in each others orbits for several years now, having connected with one another via Gay Christian Twitter. Flan is a children’s librarian living and working in Philadelphia. Their work focuses on bringing whole person, whole family literacy and learning support work to underserved and underrepresented populations throughout the city, as well as researching and generating educational materials around gender affirming child development frameworks. While not in the library, they work alongside the young adult outreach of St. Mark’s Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish of The Episcopal Church in Center City Philadelphia, helping to coordinate a bread baking and community learning workshop called Rise. Being an Episcopalian. Milquetoast WASP-ism vs living tradition with social impact. Importance of Philly Episcopal churches roles in women’s ordination, LGBTQ inclusion in the Church, support of community during AIDS crisis. Article from RNS about St Stephen’s in city center. https://religionnews.com/2019/06/20/philadelphia-episcopalians-explore-what-happens-when-church-is-separated-from-sunday/ A Christian Post article that covers the work Rise has been doing in South Phila and Center City: https://www.christianpost.com/news/how-innovative-ministries-are-bringing-millennials-back-to-church.html?fbclid=IwAR0WQ51P0eZyLPgFjIi1SWWQ0YY6gcw8gYfnMSOBnMEEbvrNx1A9aVdyFLs, relevant info is on pg 3)  Radical Faeries Kitchen work as a means of cultural transmission. The mundane becoming magical, the ordinary become extraordinary… connexions to Eucharist and to magic as well. Spiritual significance of sourdough work. Cultural transmission as a crucial factor in sound spiritual praxis as well as activism.  Connect with Flan on Twitter at @asunflowerpose and on Instagram @cyclingsunward Music by www.purple-planet.com

Today on the show I’ve got the privilege of welcoming my friend Sam Block, with whom I became acquainted through Spooky Twitter, only to find out that he lives in my hometown, the forested wilds of Northern Virginia. Sam wears many hats; in addition to being a software developer, talented geomancer, and all-purpose magician, Sam is a prolific writer and has a robust online presence through his website, The Digital Ambler. He’s also a fully initiated priest in the Afro-Cuban spiritual tradition known as La Regla de Ocha Lucumí (also known as Santería). Today we’re talking spiritual lineage, sacred story, the ethics of magic, and the power of alternative spiritual practices and stories to shape the world for the better of all. Our conversation covers: a theory of magic (WHO IS SHE!?), the similarities between henosis in the Hermetic tradition and theosis in the Christian tradition, the role of the occult in shaping a healed world, the intricacies of being a white person in a non-white tradition, and several other stopping points along the way. An absolute joy of a conversation. Connect with Sam online at www.digitalambler.com and on Twitter @polyphanes. This week's bonus episode for Patreon subscribers (which will come out later this week) will be an introit into geomancy, with a live geomancy session! And no, it's not the terrain-based support skill from Final Fantasy. Pop over to Patreon and support the JTS community for access to that!

This week, I sat down with Drew Levanti, a new friend I connected with at the Northwest Astrology Conference in Seattle. Drew is a student of anthropology and of Hellenistic astrology (with some forays into archetypical models of symbolism). Our conversation wends its way through his experience growing up around a heavy-duty New Age community, his work as a student of anthropology, and the role of ethics in shaping our creative engagement with cycles of time measured astrologically. This conversation was a delight! Connect with Drew @FortunateFire on Twitter and @anthrostrologist on Instagram. Bonus episode is forthcoming for Patreon subscribers on the $10 tier! Music by www.purple-planet.com

We're on a weird release schedule these days due to circumstances beyond my control, but I'm glad to be back! This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome to the show my friend West Ardere! West is an astrologer and former evangelical based out of Seattle, Washington. Our lovely conversation today circles the drain on ritualized prayer, folk catholica, ancestor veneration, Tolkien, and the role of the imaginal in spiritual practice and the development of a constellation of mythic narratives—aka, a jailbroken engagement with the sacred. West's work can be found at ardorastrology.com, and you can connect with them on Twitter @westardere.

Today we welcome my good friend Eve Ettinger to talk about surviving a Quiverfull cult, the justice of rage, the power of critique, and the process of engaging with the sacred through narrative constellations when circumstance and safety have required you to leave it all behind. Eve is an essayist, tarot reader, and commentator on fundamentalist and homeschool cultures in the United States. Her writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan.com, Autostraddle, and Glamour UK, and together with Kieryn Darkwater she's a co-host of the Kitchen Table Cult podcast. (She's also an Enneagram 8 and Capricorn rising.) Lovely chat with a lovely person: be ready to be challenged! Find Eve online at eveettinger.com and haettinger.substack.com, and be sure to checkout her podcast with Kieryn at kitchentablecult.com. Music by Purple-Planet.com

On this week's solo show, I share some thoughts on cultivating the sacredness of the everyday, following a thread that I've been hanging on to since my conversation with Dayna. "All religion is spiritual, all spirituality is religious." What does that mean for the spiritual-but-not-religious crowd? More importantly for our task here, what does that mean for the process of liberating our sacred stories? Passages are from Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul. Music by Purple-Planet.com

I was #blessed to have this incredible conversation with my friend and colleague, Dayna Lynn Nuckolls. Dayna is a Chicago-based western sidereal astrologer and spiritual practitioner. Our conversation wends its way through Dayna's experience growing up black and Christian and we talk about the spiritual power that erupts from initiatory experiences, a jailbroken Christianity, sidereal astrology, and assembling cohesive narratives from fractured experiences in alignment with the cyclical nature of time. This is not one to miss, and it's a conversation I continue to think about even weeks after recording. Delighted to share it with you! Follow Dayna's work at www.thepeoplesoracle.com and à Twitter: @peoplesoracle. BONUS EPISODE (out on 9 May): Dayna is well-known as a voice for the development of a cohesive, non-appropriative Western approach to sidereal astrology, and she and I do a deep dive into the mechanics of her approach. Fascinating stuff. Pop over to Patreon and support us on the $10 tier if you'd like to join in the fun! patreon.com/jailbreakthesacred

This week features a wonderful conversation with my friend and clergy colleague, the Rev. Kimberly Gibson-Pierce, about the spiritual uniqueness of Appalachia and the revolutionary undercurrent behind such stereotyped phenomena as snake-handling and poison-drinking in certain pockets of Pentecostalism. Rev. Kim is a commissioned minister in the Disciples of Christ denomination and a scholar of Appalachian history. This discussion broke apart quite a few of my misunderstandings about the region and invites all of us into an experience of Appalachia that is deeply rooted in communal engagement with nature, family, and the spirit of the place. Bonus episode content: Kim and I do a deep dive into the myth and magic of Appalachian folklore, and our friends the Mothman and the Hopkinsville Goblin make appearances! Available for Patreon patrons on the $10 tier. Books referenced in the episode: Harry Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands Ronald D Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 Helen Matthews Lewis, Linda Johnson, Donald Askin, eds., Colonialism in Modern America: The Appalachian Case Scott Schwartz, Faith, Serpents, and Fire Elliott Wigginton, ed., Foxfire

For this week's episode, I sat down to speak with my colleague and friend Robert Bailey, a professional astrologer based in Canberra, Australia, to talk religious upbringing, learning medieval astrology to impress a girl, the precarious work of discerning new ways forward after life-altering junctures, and finding one's way back to the religious tradition of youth after taking a long detour. This episode was an absolute treat to record and I'm sure you'll find it delightful. The discussion winds a trail through such delights as: Growing up Christian in Australia Good parenting choices the Picatrix & really expensive psychoactive magic William Lilly and Christian Astrology Culturally bound critiques of astrology biblical studies razzle-dazzle and much more! Rob's work can be found at oldschoolastrology.com and you can follow him on Twitter @oldschoolastro This week's bonus episode: Astrologers Grok the Bible, exclusively for our Patreon patrons! Music by www.purple-planet.com

I drove down through the wilds of the Virginia panhandle to sit down with my friend Andrew (Andy) Ford, a quasi-lapsed Episcopalian, Zen practitioner, musician, playwright, and existential bon vivant. Andy shares about his life growing up as a Good Christian Boy and his process of coming out, sitting down, and shutting up, embracing the Dark Night of the Soul, and learning how to escape the samsara cycle of spiritual pursuit. Andy's writing can be found at https://aredstatemystic.wordpress.com/ Enjoy! For Patreon subscribers, our bonus episode covers the fascinating dramatic work Andy has written that is in production as well as desire, self-knowledge, and a touch of astrology. Music by www.purple-planet.com

In this pre-episode of Jailbreak the Sacred, Nate describes the whole point of the show and explains what "jailbreaking the sacred" is all about. Every Tuesday, listen in as I sit down to talk with leaders, thinkers, practitioners, and activists about the intersection of mainstream religion and alternative spirituality. These are people like me who have experience growing up religious that they are now working to reclaim, often through avenues of different religious traditions such as Zen Buddhism, or through particular practices like astrology, magic, ritual, meditation, or otherwise. Things are going to get deliciously weird. If you're reconstructing your own spirituality, exploring alternative ways of practice, or just want to be part of healing the world, this is the podcast for you. Music by purple-planet.com