I want to start a weekly recommendation thread, to share things I’m enjoying. We’ll see if I keep this up ;)
1. The Girard Course
Rene Girard is having something of a moment. The reference to mimetic theory in the recent season of The White Lotus is only one example. Luke Burgis’ book Wanting, which is kind of Girard as self-help (and which I also recommend), is another. Peter Thiel is probably his most famous student and evangelist, but please don’t let that put you off.
I first encountered Girard from peace and justice loving Catholics, and I really don’t think his work maps easily onto left or right ideologies. What it does do is illuminate our polarized cultural and political divides, and the perverse, envy-based incentives of social media that are driving our natural instincts for conformity and exclusion beyond all reason.
The class is taught by Geoff Shullenberger, one of the editors at Compact Magazine. I really recommend this piece he wrote if you want an overview of Girard. But I also recommend the course.
2. The Pattern App
I’m an astrologer who doesn’t really follow the astro-weather all that closely. I know when I’m having big transits to key points in my chart, but I honestly can’t be bothered with the day-to-day stuff. I’ve tried to write about it, and I just can’t. I’m much more interested in what a birth chart reveals about a person, and how they can use the bigger planetary revolutions for transformation at key points in life. But worrying about Mercury in retrograde? Whatever.
The Pattern app is the first app that actually gives me helpful, supportive info about the daily astro-weather that actually seems accurate. I know people were really into Co-star, but that one never really resonated for me. The Pattern will even compare you with your friends (only if they mutually friend you) and offer worryingly on point insights into your dynamics. There is a paid option, of course, but the free version is pretty robust and I enjoy it.
3. A Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast
If you are like me and you swoon at the mention of Pythagoreans, Essenes, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Neo-Platonism, this is my #1 podcast at the moment.
The presenter, Earl Fontainelle (is that even a real name?) is both scholarly and, I suspect, a practitioner. He leans toward the academic but seems to take this stuff seriously as wisdom for living. He’s compiling a very thorough history of all the currents feeding into Western Esotericism, episode by episode. It might be too deep for some, but it’s just right for me.
I’d love to hear your recommendations! Please share them below.
And have a lovely Easter Weekend.
i want to thank you for the Shwep podcast rec--i have started from the beginning--it is just so good!
Thanks great article cant wait to review EOD, happy Easter to you & yours, looking forward to being at Good Friday service tonight 😇