Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Podcast International School of Temple Arts

Asis Aviv is one of a kind, and the newest faculty member of the International School of Temple Arts. A self-described “rich witch, radical faerie, love priestexx, and shy-ning diva,” they are here for falling back in love with being humxn. In this conversation with Simon Marvell, Asis–a name which means “JUICE!” in Hebrew–shares their reflections on a vast array of topics, all anchored in the idea that we are so much more than our identity, whether influenced by parents, society or anyt...

It has become common to talk about creating safer spaces for healing work. And this is a good thing. Everyone in the field of conscious sensuality, embodiment, and healing work should be looking to improve their practice and rise to higher standards of care, support, awareness, and sensitivity.At the same time, it has also become common to resist this advancement in favour of the idea that self-development spaces should reflect the level of safety in the outside world. And sometimes, for some...

Over the last couple of years, Dave Boda has been really critical of ISTA. He’s composed blog-posts and spoken openly about how some of the people involved need to improve, and how some of the ways ISTA approaches its work need to fall away. In this episode, he talks with ISTA facilitator, the podcast founder, and his old friend, Ria Yoshida, about how important it is to not only have these frank conversations about improving the sacred sexuality space, but to do it in an engaged and lov...

There’s a lot of hot debate about the ethics of transformational spaces right now, driven by questions of how power should be held in these spaces. Who should be responsible if something goes wrong? Just what are the limits of what gets taught?Maybe it would be easier not to create spaces for transformational work, for looking at shadows and how power moves. Maybe making such spaces, if they are still to exist, should be made so anodyne as to neutralize whatever challenges people might feel a...

In this episode, Ria talks with Dr. Jen Howk about the collision of science and mysticism in the field of evolutionary psychology. With her feet planted firmly in both worlds, Dr. Jen delves into the how and why of our psychological quirks, revealing some of the mysteries of our development as a species.In particular, she tackles the intriguing phenomenon of cancel culture. In doing so, she explores the historical roots of our collective drive to create ‘in’-groups and ‘out’-groups, explainin...

Do you ever feel like you’re being held back in life by events and circumstances that are out of your control? Maybe you find yourself in uncomfortable, even terrible, circumstances thinking to yourself: how did I even get here? And, how do I get out? These are questions that arrived powerfully in the life of Carolyn Elliot, transformational guide and author of the book, Existential Kink. We won’t give too much away, but as she explains in this episode, she was really in a bind. And then, alm...