Accidental Gods

Accidental Gods
Accidental Gods

Another World Is Possible. The old paradigm is breaking apart. The new one is still not fully shaped. We have the power of gods to destroy our home. But we also have the chance to become something we cannot yet imagine, and by doing so, to transform the nature of ourselves – and all humanity. Accidental Gods is a podcast and membership program devoted to exploring the ways we can create a future that we would be proud to leave to the generations yet to come. If we're going to emerge into a just, equitable - and above all regenerative - future, we need to get to know the people who are already living, working, thinking and believing at the leading edge of inter-becoming transformation. Accidental Gods exists to bring these voices to the world so that we can work together to lay the foundations of a world we'd be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. We have the choice now - we can choose to transform…or we can face the chaos of a failing system. Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future. Find the membership and the podcast pages here: https://accidentalgods.life Find Manda's Thrutopian novel, Any Human Power here: https://mandascott.co.uk Find Manda on BlueSky @mandascott.bsky.social On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/ On FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/MandaScottAuthor

  1. Heart of Oak: Talking Druidry, Spirituality and the nature of Magic in the MetaCrisis with Philip Carr-Gomm

    1 HR AGO

    Heart of Oak: Talking Druidry, Spirituality and the nature of Magic in the MetaCrisis with Philip Carr-Gomm

    Druidry is the indigenous spirituality of the islands of Britain, but how does is live in the contemporary world? What are the values and practices that make it so suited to the inflexion point of the moment? Why - and how - does it mesh so well with other, more spiritual traditions? And how does the practice of Will, the honing of intent, create the magic we need to see in our world? This week's guest, Philip Carr-Gomm, has spent his life studying, and writing about all of these things. Philip began studying Druidry as a spiritual path with Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Later, he took a degree in psychology from University College London, and trained in psychotherapy for adults at The Institute of Psychosynthesis, in play therapy for children with Dr Rachel Pinney, and in Sophrology – a system of mind-body training for deep relaxation and personal development. He has also trained in Montessori education and founded the Lewes Montessori School. In 1988, he was asked to lead The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. For thirty two years, he was the Chief Druid of Britain until, in June 2020, he handed on this role to his successor, Eimear Burke. He is now involved in the work of the ACER Integration programme and the Sophrology Institute. He's a prolific author, having written or contributed to over two dozen books, mostly exploring Druidry, but more recently he has written The Gift of Night: A six step programme for better sleep, and Seek Teachings Everywhere: Combining Druid Spirituality with Other Traditions.  He is co-creator of two sets of Celtic Oracle cards and has written the text for two tarot sets. He is host of the magnificent 'Tea with a Druid' which is part of his active, pro-active YouTube channel. On his website, he says, "Something magical happens when the worlds of psychology and spirituality are brought together. Every discipline in psychology helps to reveal the extraordinary nature of the human being, but add the insights of the Perennial Wisdom Tradition – the ancient knowledge and esoteric teachings passed down through the ages – and we enter awe-inspiring territory that has the power to transform us."And this feels perfectly aligned with this podcast, and with the times. So as we head down into the long-nights of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and up into the long-days in the south, we offer the wisdom of the grove and the mountain and the river. Philip's website https://philipcarr-gomm.com/The Art of Living Well https://artoflivingwell.org.uk/The Sophrology Institute https://sophrology.institute/The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids  http://www.druidry.org/Tea with a Druid https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnjpTLSK6D733dGegH7n2wLlg-y2NiYF-&feature=sharedPhilip\s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipCarrGomm/videosThe Gift of Night https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-gift-of-the-night-a-six-step-program-for-better-sleep-philip-carr-gomm/7408262?ean=9781644119297Seek Teachings Everywhere https://philipcarr-gomm.com/book/seek-teachings-everywhere/The Druidcraft Tarot https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/druidcraft-tarot-use-the-magic-of-wicca-and-druidry-to-guide-your-life-philip-carr-gomm/5068090?ean=9781800691179The Druid Plant Oracle https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-druid-plant-oracle-working-with-the-magical-flora-of-the-druid-tradition-philip-carr-gomm/6048210?ean=9781800691599The Druid Animal Oracle https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-druid-animal-oracle-philip-carr-gomm/5777280?ean=9781800691247

    1h 32m
  2. Solstice Cheer: Three Friends uphold a Podcasting Tradition with Della Duncan, Nathalie Nahai and Manda Scott

    18 DEC

    Solstice Cheer: Three Friends uphold a Podcasting Tradition with Della Duncan, Nathalie Nahai and Manda Scott

    This is the fifth year of our traditional Winter Solstice podcast gathering in which Nathalie Nahai of 'In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai, Della Duncan of The Upstream Podcast and I sit around our virtual dark-nights fire to reflect on the podcasting year just gone and explore what has changed for us since the last time we three met in one place.  By any measure, this year has been pretty turbulent and our capacity to predict anything at all for 2025 is fairly ragged, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating Della's news, and sharing the ways we find stability and maintain sanity in a world that feels increasingly precarious. Whatever else is happening, friendship is the glue that builds community and all of us - we who make the podcasts and everyone who listens - are building a de facto community of passion and purpose.  So thank you for being there. I hope you enjoy what follows.  Della Z Duncan is a Renegade Economist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a co-host of the Upstream Podcast, a Right Livelihood Coach, a faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, a founding member of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition, and the designer and co-facilitator of the Cultivating Regenerative Livelihood Course at Gaia Education. Nathalie Nahai is an author, keynote speaker and host of the Nathalie Nahai in Conversation podcast enquires into our relationship with one another, with technology and with the living world. She’s author of the international best-sellers Webs Of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion and, more recently, Business Unusual: Values, Uncertainty and the Psychology of Brand Resilience which has been described as “One of the defining business books of our times”. She’s a consultant, artist and the founder of Flourishing Futures Salon, a project that offers curated gastronomical gatherings that explore how we can thrive in times of turbulence and change. LinksDown the Rabbit Hole - https://charliebennettauthor.co.uk/shopTransformative Adaptation - https://shop.permaculture.co.uk/products/transformative-adaptationHow to Be an An Anticapitalist in the Twenty-first Century - book  https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/933-how-to-be-an-anticapitalist-in-the-twenty-first-century?srsltid=AfmBOoq4Q9LtVqpS7BkvtrBsQwBW3eHwnbD9SKoDXxt-rT9_2BL1DdEG How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century - article in Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2015/12/erik-olin-wright-real-utopias-anticapitalism-democracy/God, Human, Animal, Machine https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/god-human-animal-machine-technology-metaphor-and-the-search-for-meaning-meghan-o-gieblyn/5885978?ean=9780525562719The Psychological Drivers of the MetaCrisis https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-psychological-drivers-of-the-metacrisis/id1680606350?i=1000639851812 Feeding Your Demons by Tsultrim Allione https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/feeding-your-demons-ancient-wisdom-for-resolving-inner-conflict-tsultrim-allione/1740345?ean=9781848501737Feeding your Demons online https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-feeding-your-demons

    1h 29m
  3. Must Read, Must Listen, Must View: Manda's favourite books, podcasts and videos this Winter Season

    14 DEC

    Must Read, Must Listen, Must View: Manda's favourite books, podcasts and videos this Winter Season

    It's that time of year - when all we really want is to curl up and reflect, go inside, become the potential that will arise in the unfolding spring.  If you want things to listen to or watch or read as you head into the long-nights, then these are (some of) the things that have caught my attention this year. Enjoy! Books: Non-FictionHospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machada de Oliviera https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hospicing-modernity-parting-with-harmful-ways-of-living-vanessa-machado-de-oliveira/6401710?ean=9781623176242Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as we Know It by Ginie Servant-Miklos  https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pedagogies-of-collapse-9781350400498/  NB - you can download the pdf for FREE!Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Foundations for Collective Wellbeing by Yuria Celidwen https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/flourishing-kin-indigenous-wisdom-for-collective-well-being-ph-d-celidwen-yuria/7727216?ean=9781649632043Right Story, Wrong Story Tyson Yunkaporta https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/right-story-wrong-story-adventures-in-indigenous-thinking-tyson-yunkaporta/7645728?ean=9781922790439Down the Rabbit Hole by Charlie Bennett   CharlieBennettauthor.co.uk Fiction: Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ministry-of-time-kaliane-bradley/7445878?ean=9781399726344 Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/venomous-lumpsucker-ned-beauman/2764635?ean=9781473613577 Denise Baden 'Murder in the Climate Assembly'  You can get a feel for the book here: https://www.dabaden.com/murder-in-the-climate-assembly/Kickstarter here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dabaden/murder-in-the-climate-assembly     Katherine Addison 'Throne of Dragons' - due March 11th US and a few days later UK https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-tomb-of-dragons-the-cemeteries-of-amalo-book-3-katherine-addison/7764905?ean=9781837864393 FilmsRichard Wain: The Oath of the Hopeful  https://youtu.be/JFNEPx9NYVkRoots so Deep https://rootssodeep.org/The Shopping Conspiracy  Trailer:  https://youtu.be/OVfZw_eqJW8    Full film: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81554996 Future Council - not yet released: https://theregenerators.org/future-council/see-the-film/ Podcasts Farm Gate 1 'What is Bill Gates doing to Africa's Food?' https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/farm-gate/id1490590788?i=1000675185519Farm Gate 2 'Down the Rabbit Hole with Charlie Bennett' https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/farm-gate/id1490590788?i=1000678521906The Great Simplification: Future Council: How Children are responding to our Planetary Crisis  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333?i=1000678061953  What is a Good Life with Mark McCartney - Rekindling our Wild Nature with Diarmuid Lyng https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-is-a-good-life/id1663668603?i=1000677421697Wild w Sarah Wilson  Indy Johar: the Starkest Collapse Prognosis I've heard  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341?i=1000677521024

    29 min
  4. The Power of (good) Food with Nick Weir of the Open Food Network

    11 DEC

    The Power of (good) Food with Nick Weir of the Open Food Network

    Clearly we're at an inflection point in the history of humanity.  Our experiment with a notional democracy is failing and either we find something that actually works, or we sink into autocracy. And given that the current global flavour of autocracy is in deep denial of the climate and ecological catastrophe that's currently underway, then that's a pretty fast road to extinction: you can't deny your way out of biophysical reality. So what can we do, we who care deeply about passing an inhabitable - thriving - world to the generations not yet born?  We need to go back to basics. We all need clean water, clean air, safe shelter and good nutritious food - and we are rapidly heading for a space where just accessing these will become more of a priority than our recent experiment with unleashing ancient sunlight has led us to believe. But more than this, the community that grows around these, particularly the growing and sharing of food - is the glue that keeps us together. We are a prosocial species. We are astonishingly creative when we put our minds to it. So what happens when we put our minds to creative ways of growing and sharing food that are founded in solid values of cohesion and connectivity?  One of the things that happens is the Open Food Network which is a global community of farmers, growers, community food enterprises and software geeks with a common belief that world food systems are broken - and that better, more connected, open, resilient systems can arise in their place.  They are building alternative food systems from the bottom up: this is their theory of change and this is a recent podcast about a new OFN project called the Power of Food. So this week, I've been talking to Nick Weir who helped to set up the Open Food Network UK. Nick has a background in IT account management, but, as you'll hear, he is also a long-term grower who co-founded the Stroudco Food Hub and Stroud Community Agriculture and is deeply passionate about the role of innovative food systems in creating a kinder, more interconnected society, and the ways in which the Network can model a new way of working which empowers people to bring more of themselves to their work.  If you're feeling crushed by the global political chaos, I hope this conversation cheers you as it did me, with living examples of change happening on the ground, and the ripple effects it can have.  Open Food Network Global https://openfoodnetwork.org/Open Food Network uk https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/Power of Food podcast  https://www.wearecarbon.earth/power-of-food-collaboration/ Open Food Network resources https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/resources/Landworkers' Alliance https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/our_vision/Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/about/Social Farms and Gardens https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do The Power of Food theory of change https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oSn8g-b-GlVku9g9TOKoVO0GvxSRSuCy/Living Justice https://livingjustice.earth/projects/

    1h 19m
  5. Avoiding Burn Out, Fall Out, Drop Out (and Freak Out): Practical Routes to a whole, healed future with Dan McTiernan of Earthbound

    4 DEC

    Avoiding Burn Out, Fall Out, Drop Out (and Freak Out): Practical Routes to a whole, healed future with Dan McTiernan of Earthbound

    How do we become the change we need to see in the world?  What are the actual, practical steps to grounding, connecting and resonating with the world? We're on the brink of cataclysmic change.  Knowing this, we have choices: we can either fold into despair, terror, rage…whatever rises up in us as we watch the whole biosphere hurtle towards irrevocable tipping points. Or we can become the change we need to see in the world: each of us.  This is a cliché by now, but that doesn't stop it being true.  Here are others: we are the people we have been waiting for and if not us, now then who and when?  We've been saying these for a long time and if you're listening to this podcast, then you're already on board, at least intellectually.   You know there is no going back, that ideology cannot win out over biophysical reality and avoiding ecosystem collapse doesn't just mean moving to regenerative farming or buying second hand clothes or even changing all the narratives of all the world's media systems - good though each of these things would be. But there's been a gap between what we know and how we behave, between where our better selves might push us and the behaviours that are locked into the core of our being, our firmware, if you like. But now - this minute now - we're hitting the buffers where the old paradigm is so obviously not fit for purpose that we need something new. The core questions are what? And how? And this is where we're going with the podcast just now - After Dr John Izzo of the Elders Action Network reminded us of our purpose on the earth, and Andrea Hiott of Waymaking helped us embrace paradox - now we're talking to someone who can help guide us into the embodied reality of a different way of being.  Dan McTiernan is a certified Transpersonal Psychology Coach, embodied meditation teacher and breathwork instructor. With is wife Johanna, he's the co-founder of embodied coaching organisation, Earthbound. He hosts the Being Earthbound podcast which is absolutely on my must-listen list, as is the Substack blog from which it arises. He's a facilitator on Alef Trust’s Nurturing the Fields of Change programme and is the project leader for the Embodied Permaculture Project - an international 2-year action research project exploring the impacts of holistic wellbeing on outer ecological change work. The first 9 weeks of this programme are about to be released as a self-study course - and by the time this podcast ends, you will want to join up with that - I'll put a link in the show notes as soon as I have one - hopefully before this goes live.   He is currently working with Alef Trust and the A Team Foundation to deliver an innovative project supporting farmers and growers in the UK with a programme of embodied wellbeing known as Calmer Farmer which will be launched in January 2025. As you'll hear, Dan is working at the leading edge of the change we need to embody. He has straightforward practices that any of us can do to help us with grounding, attunement, opening and integration so that we can be the nodes in the web of life.  This is key people: we need to stop trying to think our way out of this with our head minds. It doesn't work. It's not going to work.  We need to come into our physical bodies, find that truly calming place of peace - and then find connections we can trust with the wider web.  This is what we're here for.  And Dan has routes to get there.   For more information about this coaching approach, to book a 1-1 appointment or to find out more about Earthbound’s courses and practice group: www.earthbound.fi For more information about Calmer Farmer: www.calmerfarmer.org To read more about Dan’s work and to listen to the Being Earthbound podcast: www.beingearthbound.substack.comThe Embodied Permaculture Course is here https://earthbound.fi/embodied-permaculture-course

    1h 17m
  6. Adaptation is Here: Launching the TrAd (Transformative Adaptation) Book with Rupert Read and Morgan Philips

    27 NOV

    Adaptation is Here: Launching the TrAd (Transformative Adaptation) Book with Rupert Read and Morgan Philips

    We're teetering on the brink of ecosystem and cultural collapse.  How do we adapt and transform to the changing realities? This week sees the launch of a new book: Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible. The main editors and contributors are friend of the podcast, author, activist and co-founder of the Climate Majority Project, Rupert Read and -  new to the podcast - Morgan Philips who is an educator, currently working for Global Action Plan, an environmental charity that mobilises people and organisations to take action on the systems that harm us and our planet.  Full disclosure, I'm also a contributor - the book is published by Permanent Publications, the book-publishing arm of the Permaculture Magazine, and Maddy Harland, who edits the magazine and has published the book, brought together the five articles I wrote on Thrutopia: what it is, why we need it and how we get there, and fitted them into the mix.  The book launch has been timed to coincide with the end of COP29.  At the time of recording, we have no idea how that will go, but if it's like all the previous 28 COPs it will be a triumph of obstructionism and irrelevancy masquerading as action. We might be surprised. We hope we are. But even if the nations who truly understand the magnitude of the meta-crisis somehow manage a worldwide diplomatic miracle and succeed in making it clear that we need total systemic change - we still need guidelines that help us see how this can happen: ideas of what to do at local and national levels, examples of the kinds of deliberate democracies that we'll need to bring everyone on board; templates of how the world can be if we actually bring all our creativity to bear on the single most important issue of our time. This is exactly what this podcast is for - the whole of it - and this particular episode lays out the detail, from the concept of a 6th Mission for the UK government (and any other national government that wants to take it up) to examples of how we might shift our educational focus, to why building flood defences is really not enough, never going to be enough and how we could shift our communities to stop reacting and start…adapting. None of this is easy. We do know this.  But we can at least start the important conversations. This is what we're doing here - and we hope you find it inspiring enough to buy the book and read it, give it to your friends, family and colleagues - do whatever it takes to help your local community to find creative, flourishing, inspiring ways to meet the chaos of our world. TrAd book https://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/port/transformative-adaptation/TrAd Collective https://transformative-adaptation.com/Climate Majority Project http://www.climatemajorityproject.com/Climate Majority Complimentary Approach https://climatemajorityproject.com/safer/The Rojava Project https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/kurdish-democracy/rojava-democracy/Solar farms can be havens of biodiversity https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/solar-farms-biodiversity-pv/Kikaru Komatsu https://sites.google.com/site/kmthkr/home/publications

    1h 6m
  7. Holding the Paradox: Navigating a changing world with Andrea Hiott of Making Ways

    20 NOV

    Holding the Paradox: Navigating a changing world with Andrea Hiott of Making Ways

    We are not going back.  But how do we go forward now in a world where the old norms are under assault by people who move fast and break everything? How do we find a place of balance and compassion - for ourselves, each other and the More than Human world - so that we can move forward in a way that isn’t just a replaying of the old binaries? Our world changed irrevocably with the results of the US election on the 5th of November.  On this podcast, we talk a lot about total systemic change and now that change is happening in front of our eyes.   Clearly, there is no going back from here.  So how do we who care deeply about a flourishing future - who wish there to be a survival of complex life in all its amazing creativity - navigate this new landscape? How do we embrace the polarities and dichotomies of an unpredictable world so that we can embrace the infinite complexity - and unknowability - of the future? This week's guest is someone who has devoted her life to exploring the paradox at the heart of our existence. I first met Andrea Hiott through her 'Love and Philosophy' podcast which has become part of my essential listening list.  From the outset, Andrea struck me as someone whose way of viewing life is, if not unique, then definitely exceptional and well worth exploring. As you'll hear, she is someone who throws herself into learning: she can talk with authority on everything from philosophy and phenomenology to neuroscience and ecology and  as we speak, she's completing her doctorate, which is called Ecological Orientation.  She's an author of various books, including Thinking Small, The long, strange trip of the Volkswagen Beetle, and has long worked on issues of motoring and mobility as a consultant, writer, and ghostwriter.  She has appeared in films and TV shows, such as The Bug and Cars that Changed the World.  She's been on a whole variety of other podcasts, and has worked extensively for museums, artists, collectors, and agencies.  She is also developing the philosophical framework of Waymaking and the practice of Navigability and I have never in my life spoken with someone who has evolved their own philosophy to the extent that they can talk about it in depth and in detail and make so much sense.  There's a YouTube where Andrea does exactly this - I've put a link in the show notes. On top of all this, she is founder of the private educational consulting platform, Making Ways and pours her energy into collaborating with other thinkers and creators at the intersection of multiple different philosophical, cognitive and ecological landscapes, so that she can create a deeper, more emergent understanding of the world we live in.  We booked this conversation over six months ago and we were not particularly hinging it around the US election.  But we recorded this one week to the day after the vote that has so completely changed our world so it would have been impossible not to reflect on this. Andrea is a US citizen, currently living in Europe, so she has a particular set of perspectives - and a capacity to see beyond the polarities that feels particularly useful now.   I felt a lot calmer after this conversation than I did going into it and that wasn't all about the pony with colic that put our recording back by a day.  So in the hope that this helps you, too, to deepen into this moment of absolute change,  https://www.andreahiott.net/ https://making-ways.ck.page/profile https://www.youtube.com/@waymaking23 https://www.youtube.com/@DesirableUnknown https://www.facebook.com/TheBugMovie Thinking Small Book

    1h 8m

About

Another World Is Possible. The old paradigm is breaking apart. The new one is still not fully shaped. We have the power of gods to destroy our home. But we also have the chance to become something we cannot yet imagine, and by doing so, to transform the nature of ourselves – and all humanity. Accidental Gods is a podcast and membership program devoted to exploring the ways we can create a future that we would be proud to leave to the generations yet to come. If we're going to emerge into a just, equitable - and above all regenerative - future, we need to get to know the people who are already living, working, thinking and believing at the leading edge of inter-becoming transformation. Accidental Gods exists to bring these voices to the world so that we can work together to lay the foundations of a world we'd be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. We have the choice now - we can choose to transform…or we can face the chaos of a failing system. Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future. Find the membership and the podcast pages here: https://accidentalgods.life Find Manda's Thrutopian novel, Any Human Power here: https://mandascott.co.uk Find Manda on BlueSky @mandascott.bsky.social On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/ On FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/MandaScottAuthor

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