Eudaimonia: Living In Alignment With Your Soul's Purpose

Greetings my fellow daimonic seekers. My apologies for the roughly 5-month hiatus in getting a new episode out to you. This is the FINAL episode for the foreseeable future as I am about to embark on a new and exciting project at the behest of my daimon, She Myself - a.k.a. La Ninfa Colibri -...The Goddess Foundation. Keep an eye out for the preliminary website launch...tentatively scheduled for early September 2021!

Fore more details, check out the show notes available on my podcast website:

https://ckleftis.wixsite.com/eudaimonia/blog

Daimonic resources referenced in this episode:

https://www.thecreativeintrovert.com/astrology/

https://www.thecreativeintrovert.com/daimon/

https://norwac.net/downloads/reynolds-samuel-unleashing-your-daemon-video/

https://www.mosaicvoices.org/genius-project

https://www.mosaicvoices.org/books

https://www.drmeganrose.com/mybook

https://www.drmeganrose.com/courses

Much love and eudaimonia to all of you!

Welcome back y'all! Happy New Year, 2021. My sincere apologies for the extremely long gap between episodes...I recorded this episode about the demonic face of the daimon, exploring the collective shadow the day of the terrorist attacks on the capitol in DC, on January 6th. It's taken me a month to edit and upload the podcast due to being crazy busy. I must warn you; the following episode gets intense and political at times, especially during the first 10 minutes. If you'd like to skip over that section and launch right into the meat of the episode, fast forward to timestamp 11:11. Aside from me reflecting on the intense psychological struggle Americans have faced in the wake of this insurrectionist attack on the capitol, I ponder my own dream encounters with the shadow expression of my Self, my daimon (La Ninfa Colibri), and offer a few recommendations for embarking on shadow work for all of my lovely listeners from around the world. A word of warning: please don't embark on shadow work without a strong support network. I would recommend doing so with the help and guidance of a licensed therapist or Jungian analyst. Take care and until next time.

Drawing inspiration from the work of mythologist, Joseph Campbell, and depth psychologist, Carl Jung, this episode explores the concept of a guiding "personal myth." The essential premise is that each and every person on this planet (and possibly elsewhere) is living a mythic story that is drawn from the collective unconscious and yet remains unique to them in how it manifests in their lives. This episode provides background info. on the topic as well as recommendations for how to discover and work with your own guiding myth through the lens of my own personal mythic experiences. For the show notes with links to various sources referenced throughout the episode, check out the following link: https://ckleftis.wixsite.com/eudaimonia/post/episode-3-living-your-myth-show-notes. Enjoy!

Greetings and welcome back, lovely listeners!

I have been ill for the past couple of weeks, fortunately not with COVID-19, but it has put me further behind than usual on podcast prep. The November episode on the demonic face/expression of the daimon is unlikely to launch until towards the end of this month. In the meantime, enjoy this teaser including a snippet of a daimonic "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode and references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More to come!

The second episode of the Eudaimonia podcast covers the first half of Jungian depth psychologist, James Hillman's, The Soul's Code, in much greater depth than I was able to do in the pilot episode from September 2020. It also includes a lengthy discussion of the daimon appearing in and as fictional characters (e.g.: Emily of L.M. Montgomery's YA trilogy which begins with Emily of New Moon) and a smattering of my own daimonic experiences. More Hillman to come next month as we explore the daimon turning demonic!

What does Eudaimonia mean? The term translates to "eu" (good) and "daimon": spirit, fate, destiny...As you can see, this term is notoriously difficult to translate into modern English. However, the general idea behind eudaimonia is that of profound happiness and well-being experienced by those who are living lives in alignment with their soul's purpose. The tricky thing is that what the ego wants may conflict with the soul's deeper purpose and if you feel like you are living at odds with yourself or struggling with chronic anxiety or depression, this may be the root cause of these psychological maladies. (Please do not regard my writings on finding/reclaiming your daimon as a replacement for psychological and/or psychiatric guidance. I myself regularly see both a therapist and a psychiatrist and am working with my daimon as a supplementary measure to deepen these practices). I do, however, wholeheartedly believe that many of the problems modern society faces can be traced back to a woefully disenchanted worldview and the resultant alienation from the deepest depths of our core selves. Even mainstream psychology is woefully alienated from the original meaning of the term: logos (language) of psyche (the soul). Studying transpersonal and/or depth psychology - look at the work of Carl Jung and/or James Hillman as a start - can be a fantastic place to begin your exploration of a psychology that lives up to its name. 

I am hopeful that this podcast will also provide resources and advice for how to find and reclaim your own soul through the lens of the ancient figure of the guardian daimon. The daimon can be seen as both the guardian of your soul and the soul itself. (Re)connect with them (I deliberately choose non-binary terms here as I don't believe the daimon is gendered even if they choose appear to you in male, female, or androgynous form), and you will be well on your way to living the life your soul intended for you from your birth. This pilot episode explores the concept of the daimon through the lens of Hillman's depth psychological literature on the topic and my own personal daimonic experiences which were triggered by the sudden/unexpected death of my beloved mother in October 2012. I am dedicating this podcast to her on what would have been her 61st birthday (she was born on September 13, 1959). I love you, Mom! Happy Birthday in the Otherworld. :)