The Clearing

Conversations in Arcadia
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The Clearing is a project to capture my current process of sense making with others - a pod for my friends (except that was a mouthful). The intention is to focus strictly on topics that interest me and people I love listening to. Aiming to avoid pieties, performance, or excessive edification. Themes may emerge. Recording and sharing is an experiment, in the hope that something may resonate usefully with someone - if so, I’m curious to hear about it. carrie802897.substack.com

  1. #18 - Tango: the generous performance of gender (with Soroa Lear, again)

    APR 23

    #18 - Tango: the generous performance of gender (with Soroa Lear, again)

    Why do people enjoy conventional couple dances even when they eschew conventional gender roles in real life? Is there some broader virtue that is cultivated in this highly codified, chivalrous language? What’s satisfying about setting aside important aspects of identity for the duration of a dance, and instead, pracitcing a kind of whole-body-listening with a stranger? Soroa Lear is a professional dancer, though she’ll hasten to say that Tango is not her area of expertise. I’ve spoken to her about free-form dancing more generally (episode #4). This conversation is a follow-on from that, in response to popular demand :) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    50 min
  2. #17 - Non-dual reality: the experience & the science (with James Cooke)

    APR 12

    #17 - Non-dual reality: the experience & the science (with James Cooke)

    What are the stories we tell about the boundaries of Self - and why should we interrogate them with science, contemplative practice, and psychedelics? Dr. James Cooke believes that any deep first-principles understanding of the human condition requires us to tackle the fundamental construct of separateness. He’s not denying that everyday narratives of reality are predictive, rather he’s interested in the psychological wellbeing that exists on the other side of these stories of self. James is a neuroscientist and director of a new contemplative science research programme at Oxford University. He also teaches contemplative practices that draw from non-dual traditions, as well as being an author and podcaster. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    49 min
  3. #16 - Wolfgang, death doula

    MAR 25

    #16 - Wolfgang, death doula

    Nobody isn’t going there, nobody’s parents aren’t going there—and yet so many of us show up at the threshold surprised and unprepared. Modernity seems at a loss when it comes to the dying process. Among the oldest evidence of human meaning making are artefacts to mark this passage, but today we often find ourselves without any conceptual frame that dying doesn’t break. It’s outside the event horizon. Wolfgang Schmidt Ulm Dos Santos is a trained Death Doula. He’s done many other things - men’s fashion, startups - but it is in this work that he now finds joy. We’re old friends, and it was wonderful to hear him speak about this unexpected calling. Not entirely inappropriate in the run-up to Easter perhaps. To see how an appreciation of mortality is at the root of both the contemplative and the poetic impulse, and maybe all true delight, here’s One Or Two Things by Mary Oliver. In the conversation, we touch briefly on Rilke’s Todeserfahrung. 1 Don’t bother me I’ve justbeen born. 2 The butterfly’s loping flight carries it through the country of the leaves delicately, and well enough to get it where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping here and there to fuzzle the damp throats of flowers and the black mud; up and down it swings, frenzied and aimless; and sometimes for long delicious moments it is perfectly lazy, riding motionless in the breeze of the soft stalk of some ordinary flower 3 The god of dirt came up to me many times and said so many wise and delectable things; I lay on the grass listening to his dog voice, crow voice, frog voice; now he said, and now, and never once mentioned forever, 4 which has nevertheless always been, like a sharp iron hoof, at the center of my mind. 5 One or two things are all you need to travel over the blue pond, over the deep roughage of the trees and through the stiff flowers of lightning --- some deep memory of pleasure, some cutting knowledge of pain. 6 But to lift the hoof! For that you needan idea. 7 For years and years I struggled just to love my life. And then the butterfly rose, weightless, in the wind.“ Don’t love your life too much,” it said, and vanished into the world.” ― Mary Oliver This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    42 min
  4. #15 - Archetypes (iii): Penelope’s Odyssee (with Marzia Santori)

    MAR 11

    #15 - Archetypes (iii): Penelope’s Odyssee (with Marzia Santori)

    We continue the conversation with the Odyssey myth. Marzia interprets the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) as Penelope’s dream of individuation. I enjoyed this archetypally Jungian move. Rather than the story be about the return of the hero protagonist after the Trojan war, the entire thing is dreamed up by his wife, Penelope, known as the faithful spouse who for twenty years awaits his return to Ithaca. In fact, Odysseus is a projection of her “animus” - her masculine aspect - which through encounters with various female characters eventually returns and is reunited with her. In this telling, as Marzia says, “fidelity is not fidelity to a man, it is fidelity to herself.” A thought provoking perspective. Marzia Santori is a practicing Jungian psychoanalyst in London and Rome, as well as teaching at the CG Jung institute in Zurich. An economist in her previous life, she worked in the finance industry before turning to the Unconscious. This is Part (iii) of a 3 part mini series. Archetypes Part (i) discusses the concept and its application in analysis in general, Part (iii) is Marzia’s interpretation of the Odyssey with the help of an expansive Penelope archetype. (With apologies for the suboptimal sound quality this time) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    42 min

  5. MAR 11

    #14 - Archetypes (ii): a Snake Dream (with Marzia Santori)

    Continuing with the theme of archetypes, Marzia suggested that we talk about the symbol of the snake, working through association and the real example of a snake dream of one of her clients (to which of course that client had consented). We talk about why Jungian Psychoanalysts pay such close attention to dreams, whether they contain messages from the unconscious mind, and how archetypal dreams can be a bridge to instinct. If you are categorically impatient with other people’s dreams then perhaps this one isn’t for you, if you’re intrigued then maybe it is. Marzia Santori is a practicing Jungian psychoanalyst in London and Rome, as well as teaching at the CG Jung institute in Zurich. An economist in her previous life, she worked in the finance industry before turning to the Unconscious. This is Part (ii) of a 3 part mini series. Archetypes Part (i) discusses the concept generally. Part (iii) is Marzia’s interpretation of the Odyssey myth as Penelope’s dream, thereby giving an entirely unexpected flavor to the Penelope archetype. (With apologies for the suboptimal sound quality this time) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    42 min
  6. #13 - Archetypes (i): what are they? (with Marzia Santori)

    MAR 6

    #13 - Archetypes (i): what are they? (with Marzia Santori)

    When are we in contact with an archetype—and when are we merely stereotyping, denying ourselves the insight of a full human archetypal pattern? What if we’re stuck in one aspect of an archetype, with “success” thinkable only along one narrow trajectory, but many ways to fail? Is there such a thing as a flexible hero? In this episode, we look at these questions through concepts as different as those of God, Chair, Mediterranean Mother and Hero (as told in the Odyssey). Marzia Santori is a practicing Jungian psychoanalyst in London and Rome, as well as teaching at the CG Jung institute in Zurich. An economist in her previous life, she worked in the finance industry before turning to the Unconscious. This is Part (i) of a 3 part mini series. Archetypes Part (ii) discusses the snake archetype through dream analysis. Part (iii) is Marzia’s interpretation of the Odyssey through the archetype of Penelope. (With apologies for the suboptimal sound quality this time) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    53 min
  7. #12 - Karneval reflections (with Gernot Lehr) | German episode!

    FEB 24

    #12 - Karneval reflections (with Gernot Lehr) | German episode!

    Not being native to the Rheinland, Rhenish Karneval is a phenomenon that begs explanation. So I asked a local legal mind to summarise the rules for me. That turns out to be rather difficult: a loosely pro-social subversion of the usual social order is the whole point. Instead of rules, the region is seized by a passionate pre-Lent commitment to the themes of Love, Cologne, and Kölsch. I even did this one in German to try and catch the cultural nuance— but in the end, the thing has to be seen to be believed. Immerse to comprehend. Gernot Lehr is a prominent German media lawyer. While he’s in the business of upholding boundaries and counselling caution, he’s also a big advocate of adopting a more relaxed posture for a few days a year, to participate in the collective “psychological regeneration” that is Karneval. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    27 min
  8. #11 - Radically baroque music (with Elina Albach)

    JAN 30

    #11 - Radically baroque music (with Elina Albach)

    What does it mean to innovate within a defined form? In what sense is it important to be true to the vision of the composer—when can we straddle the shoulders of artistic giants and go somewhere new, when does that end up some kind of insensitive appropriation? And what is our cultural responsibility to restore a musical lineage severed by genocide? Musicians must keep asking themselves these questions, says Elina Ahlbach. Her view is that if Bach had known the e-guitar, he would have used it. Elina is better-placed than most to assert such a thing: she is the founder and artistic director of the chamber music group Continuum, an internationally recognised harpsichordist and Glenn Gould Bach Fellow. There is something both very soulful and unflinchingly clear about Elina’s music, and in her leadership style as she conducts her ensemble from her instrument. I’ve been meaning to get into some of these questions with her for a while, but being family is not always conducive to that kind of conversation. The pod has been an effective, if somewhat baroque excuse for that. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com

    50 min
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About

The Clearing is a project to capture my current process of sense making with others - a pod for my friends (except that was a mouthful). The intention is to focus strictly on topics that interest me and people I love listening to. Aiming to avoid pieties, performance, or excessive edification. Themes may emerge. Recording and sharing is an experiment, in the hope that something may resonate usefully with someone - if so, I’m curious to hear about it. carrie802897.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Conversations in Arcadia
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Carrie
  • Show Website
    The Clearing