Welcome to the final Black Hoodie Alchemy episode of 2024 -- and we're all back in action! I'm joined by both my cohorts, Seedperson1 and Chris Fiato, and this time around we're getting deep into the analysis of the winter season itself.
Starting with the crucial role that cold temperatures play in studying chemistry, we move into the psychology of prolonged cold and darkness in the winter, considering what it does to the mind and body in a variety of different ways and bringing that with us into a symbolic analysis full of Jungian sentiment.
Considering the diurnal nature of the human being, we bring up the Kabbalist Trees of Life and Death and take some time to focus on where the winter season ultimately leads us: the Mother of the Mysteries. Kali and Isis being some of my favorite non-Abrahamic examples, we also take the time to talk about Lilith and others (and if you're interested in this angle, my book Dive Manual: Empirical Investigations of Mysticism gets into it heavily. Link below!)
But before all that cold winter talk, we take a good half hour or so to catch up with Seedperson about his fascinating updates with the practice of The Monroe Institute's Gateway Tapes. Some very interesting Out-of-Body food-for-thought! And as if that wasn't wild enough, we take some time to dive into the Hermetic nature of reality from a different angle by briefly talking about a Youtube video that blew my mind. Listen in for more info, but essentially, a cutting-edge gamer hooked the game SKYRIM up to VR and an AI model that runs through every single NPC in the game -- then he found an NPC and told it all about how it was in a simulation... Some really trippy shit that I couldn't help but bring up!
Overall, winter may sometimes be a harsh, dark, and dismal time of year -- but that's all the more reason to band together with your favorite people and your favorite simple pleasures. Bring some light into the dreary winter season and have a heartfelt holiday this year. We here in the Black Hoodie Alchemy fam wish you a pleasant holiday and New Year -- live it up!
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This week's music is a combo of some of the very best conscious hip-hop from the titans of Toronto: Legitimate, Rex Seshunz, Unknown Misery and the company of their rap crew Babylon Warchild. We also have the thrashing and brutal auditory assault of the band SALT from Colombus, Ohio!