Podcast
On the Soul's Terms
Hosted by Chris Skidmore · EN
The wisdom of stories. Approaching what the ancients knew. On the Soul's Terms: The Podcast
25episodes
Episodes
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#129 | The Sun | Apollo through the Zodiac
6d ago01:04:42Tap to summarizeDoing an episode on the sun, our central fiery point that takes up 99.86% of the mass of our solar system and gives the system itself a name, turned out to be quite the task. Enormous, if you will. I've always found that the Sun in astrology felt a little... flat. Two dimensional. It was though we were looking at the image with that singular eye that the sun conjures to our minds. The image of the all-seeing-eye of the Cyclopes that, in reality, has no depth perception. So, this episode is an effort to add a second eye (I?) to the sun. To see it as a series of 'both... and' propositions. The still centre of it all AND the cacophony of sound and light that springs forth from it. The first breath of creative fire AND every subsequent humble endeavour. And as Apollo, the archer seeing from afar AND the one enamoured with life on earth, particularly the floral world whom he chases but can never obtain. It's an episode effectively in two parts. Part One is to get a sense of the sun in Astrology. We sit in the temple (con-templ-ate), we stare at the glyph, we check in with the consensus of the astrological world. Then we feel the sun on our skin, allowing it to penetrate and worm our cells. We even get a sense of the scientific mythos, this ball of self-generating life, so hot at the core, cooler (relatively) at the surface, but then mysteriously blazing again as the 'corona': the sun's own royal crown. Part Two we get mythic and follow Apollo's many stories, allowing him to morph into the many shapes that our Zodiac itself allows. One moment plucking a lyre and giving us lyricism, the next pulling back the bow and reigning down arrows on his enemies. The journey takes many twists and turns, but returns us to a central image. Veiling and revelation. Being seen and unseen. Just like his birth place, Delos ("Visible"), at the centre of the Cyklades ("circle"): a humble floating rock from which all golden things are born. The image is Apollo of the Belvedere at the Vatican Museum. I am indebted to Carl Kerenyi and his book The Gods of the Greeks. Also to Apollodrus' Library.And to the extensive work of Brian Clark on astrosynthesis.com.au.(It's a fun co-incidence that this episode is released on 'Lion's Gate' 8.8.2026)Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#128 | Melanie Reinhart | The Moon
4w ago01:13:31Tap to summarizeThe Moon pulls the tides of the ocean, but the question that won’t let us go is simpler and stranger: what is it pulling in us? Melanie Reinhart joins me for a wide, grounded, moonlit ramble through lunar consciousness, astrology, and the body. We start with the moon as a constant companion for earthlings, a reliable rhythm of waxing and waning that can steady us when life feels politically, personally, and collectively turbulent.From there, we drop into somatic territory. We talk craniosacral therapy and the experience of “tides” in the system, from surface noise to the deeper mid tide and the long tide where time feels different. That becomes a living metaphor for the lunar path: not a heroic push to achieve, but a deepening that restores life force. We also bring in the Orphic Hymn to the Moon as an invocation practice and explore why reverence matters, not as an antique idea but as a way to relate to powers we still live inside.We get practical about moon phases too: the dark of the moon as a window for retreat, the full moon as an emotional amplifier, and how lunar timing can support better choices in work, conflict, learning, and creativity. We move into dreams as night-world digestion, why forcing interpretations can block the nourishment, and how light pollution mirrors a cultural forgetting of darkness, sleep, and imagination. If you care about the lunar cycle, dreamwork, depth psychology, the Jungian unconscious, or the roots of astrology in the night sky, this conversation is for you.*the above blurb was auto-generated by Buzzsprout's AI.Cover Artwork is The Fairy of the moon by Hermann Kaulbach (b&w) circa 1891 with a background extension from Canva.The Orphic Hymns including the one in this episode dedicated to the moon, and the invocation with Musaeus. It's the Thomas Taylor translation from 1792. Melanie's personal favourite.Find out more about Melanie and her work here. She has many great books including, famously, Chiron and the Healing Journey.Melanie reads from:Dane Rudhyar, The Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality, from the section “The Pattern of the Lunation Cycle.”Rudolf Steiner, “In Pure Rays of Light” The verse appears in Esoteric Instructions (GA 264), with related commentary in an esoteric lesson of 5 December 1907 (GA 266/I).We discuss:Iain McGilchrist's book: The Master and his Emissary and associate right brain activity with the moon and left brain with Mercury.Jung, obviously, comes up a lot. I paraphrase this quotation from him.We also talk about the Tides in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. If you'd like to know more about that the work of Franklyn Sills (may he rest in peace) is a good starting point.Clearing up the confusion of the 'far side' vs the 'dark side' of the moon we go to NASA...But always appreciative to Pink Floyd for creating such confusion but also such a cracking album.Melanie also mentions the Dark Sky Movement. Such important work. Have a look at darksky.org.We also acknowledge that "mentor" is not etymologically related to Mene or taurus. What we're engaging in during that section is a nice bit of folk etymology.Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#127 | The Moon
Jul 400:55:28Tap to summarizeThe Planets Series begins with our closest and most intimate neighbour: the moon. The moon represents the dreaming mind, our instinctive life and our guidance system to the emotional waves of our turbulent lives. Each of these elements of the moon is explored in this episode with the help of three mythic figures:Selene as a personification of the moon riding her white cow through the sky, visiting her lover Endymion (one who finds himself within) in his cave as he dreams the eternal dream.Artemis as the wild, instinctual life that stays true to her nature and close to her essence. and Hekate, the triple goddess, who has her home in the underworld. It's Hekate who arrives in our most desperate times of need to accompany us in the realm of grief and loss. The second half of the podcast begins with the image of Grimm's Hansel staring longingly back at his home as he's taken into the woods by his step-mother to be abandoned. He drops white stones on the ground that are then lit up by the moonlight to guide him back home. From there we visit Mnemosyne's cellular memory, the thread-weavers and the way Ithaka pulls at Odysseus.The Gorgons, including Medusa, will help us relate to the moments we feel unrelatable. There are many links between Medusa, the ocean and the moon. Including the Orphics calling the moon's face the Gorgoneion.And finally Rilke with some soul-soothing words in his poem 'You Come and Go'.Cover Art: Endymion : Effet de lune, ou Le Sommeil d’Endymion (The Sleep of Endymion), Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1791.I leant heavily on Gods of the Greeks, Carl Kerenyi, 1951Very thankful to Brian Clark, Melanie Reinhart, Travis Elliot and Milena Kadziela for their help in the creation of this podcast.For my German audience... The poem at the end from Rilke:Du kommst und gehstDu kommst und gehst. Die Türen fallen viel sanfter zu, fast ohne Wehn. Du bist der Leiseste von allen, die durch die leisen Häuser gehn.Man kann sich so an dich gewöhnen, daß man nicht aus dem Buche schaut, wenn seine Bilder sich verschönen, von deinem Schatten überblaut; weil dich die Dinge immer tönen nur einmal leis und einmal laut.Oft wenn ich dich in Sinnen sehe, verteilt sich deine Allgestalt; du gehst wie lauter lichte Rehe, und ich bin dunkel und bin Wald.Du bist ein Rad, an dem ich stehe: von deinen vielen dunklen Achsen wird immer wieder eine schwer und dreht sich näher zu mir her, und meine willigen Werke wachsen von Wiederkehr zu Wiederkehr. Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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Podcast Announcement | The Planets | Internal Solar Systems
Jun 2500:06:31Tap to summarizeI disappeared for a few months, went a bit underground, and even partially relocated my life to Greece so I could be a little closer to the gods I keep talking about. Now I’m ready to return with something simple, specific, and surprisingly alive: a new astrology podcast series on the planets, approached as characters of the psyche rather than abstract symbols on a page.If the houses are the places where the saga of a life unfolds, the planets are the ones living it. I’ve been thinking of them less like an internal family system and more like an internal solar system, each planet representing a different part of the self with its own aims, needs, and ways of moving. We’ll take an imaginal voyage through the horoscope, stopping at one planet or luminary at a time, experimenting with what it feels like to become the Moon with its craters and shadow, the Sun with its heat and power, and Mercury with its fast, message-carrying urgency.Myth will be one of our main guides. Because the planets share names with Greco-Roman figures, their stories give us a rich way to watch archetypes behave: who allies with whom, what gets opposed, and how a planet’s gifts can become traps when they run the inner world unchecked. The order of the series follows the Sun’s movement through the zodiac, exploring the ruler of the sign we’re in, beginning next week with the Moon as ruler of Cancer, then the Sun for Leo, then Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, plus a bonus planet and a special guest.As usual, I’ll be joined by guests to explore each planetary archetype. We start with my dear friend, colleague, and mentor Melanie Reinhart for the lunar conversation. If you’d like to go deeper, paid Patreon members can join a monthly reflective Zoom call to ask questions about personal placements and continue the threads we leave open. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find this mythic astrology journey.* My words here underwent a clean up from Buzzsprout's AI.Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#126 | Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty or Dornröschen | Dormant Gifts
Apr 400:49:22Tap to summarizeThe series on the houses wouldn't have felt complete without one last fairytale. In this, the 40th and last episode of the series, we explore the German tale of Dornröschen, which loosely translates to 'the little rose inside the thorns'. It begins with a talking frog who crawls out of the water to deliver a prophecy to the bathing queen. And it takes us into those places in ourselves that feel dormant. We feel that these parts have such great potential in our lives, but they remain fast asleep. Until...Well, that's the thing. The story takes us into the element of timing, of transits, of progressions, of gestation and of waiting until that which slumbers is ready to arouse. I'm joined in a very synchronous way by Milena Kadziela, a fellow astrologer and psychotherapist. She sends a transmission from London, in the middle of the night, on the Libra Full Moon. The moon was at 12°, which is the 13th degree.Milena, a listener to the show, felt that the one element that was missing in the series was that of the intercepted house. It happens that she uses this very story, Briar Rose, to speak to those hard to access parts of the chart. And so, she joined us for a late cameo in the episode to drop her night wisdom on us all. If you'd like to find out more about Milena's work you can find her here. You can read the story itself here.The image for the podcast is again from Artist and Patron, Lucy Dodd. Her work is also featured on episode 124 with Melanie Reinhart. With an overlaid princess from a 1981 edition of La Belle Au Bois Dormant & Autres Contes Merveilleux (Sleeping Beauty & Other Wonderful Tales), published by Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri and Hachette.Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#125 | The Twelve Houses. A Retrospective | Hosted by Brian Clark (Guest Chris Skidmore)
Mar 2701:17:53Tap to summarizeMy guest for this episode is... well... me!Astrologer Brian Clark interviews me, Chris Skidmore, in this episode as we look back on the journey that was the 12 Houses of Astrology. In no particular order, we move back through the images that captured our attention from the fairy tales, and revisit our 13 guests that helped us along the way. Thank you to all of you who have come along with me in the sacred role of 'audience'... it's your listening that makes this possible. Special shout out here to all of my wonderful guests. Find our more about their work by clicking their links:Brian Clark: www.astrosynthesis.com.auCameron Allen: www.cadreamplanet.comCollette Davis: www.collettedavis.comMelanie Reinhart: melaniereinhart.comVive Oldham: www.viveandco.comLibby Rose Waite: libbyrosewaite.comKira Sutherland: www.astrologyofhealth.comRyan Nielsen: www.yourveryownlife.comTravis Elliott: travisjelliott.comAmanda Simon: amandasimon.co.ukThomas Moore: www.thomasmooresoul.comMichael Meade: www.mosaicvoices.orgJason Holley: jasonholley.netJoin the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#124 | Melanie Reinhart | The Mysteries of the 12th House
Mar 1901:10:49Tap to summarizeMelanie Reinhart joins me once more to speak into and from the 12th house of the wheel of houses. The episode itself is a wonderful example of how that which we talk about can sometimes be 'conjured up' by our speech. This is something that Gregory Bateson called a 'metalogue' - a word introduced to me by Melanie many moons ago. Our metalogue was a disruption from the gods of technology who seemed to think that some of what we shared was best kept in silence. And so we were kicked off the call at a particularly poignant moment in this one. None-the-less, the essence of the house was thoroughly explored. And we share with you whatever the deities allow us to reveal. This completes our 'series within a series' on the water houses - those elusive and hard to grasp places of reality. I'm forever grateful to Melanie for her generosity of spirit in sharing her depth of wisdom with us on the podcast. The image for the podcast cover is from Patron of the show, Lucy Dodd. It's a piece she calls "Sun Moon and Mermaid" made with, in her words, 'Iron oxide and Copper ink, blue spirulina, cochineal and some other stuff.' She completed it just as our Iron John episodes were released. REFERENCESAuthors & ThinkersGregory Bateson → Concept of metalogue → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_BatesonCarl Jung → Concept of the numinous → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuminousDane Rudhyar → The Astrological Houses: The Spectrum of Individual Experience (also published as New Mansions for New Men)David Abram → Cultural perception / reality frameworks → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_AbramC. A. Meier → Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy (republished as Healing Dream and Ritual)Brian Clark → Rewilding the psyche (concept referenced)Mythological Sources & FiguresHyginus → Fabulae (mythographical fragments)Dionysus → Greek god of ecstasy, twice-born myth → https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.htmlAsclepius → Greek god of healing and incubation temples → https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Asklepios.htmlAriadne → Associated with Dionysus, labyrinth, and Corona BorealisRiver Lethe & Mnemosyne → Rivers of forgetfulness and memory in the underworldChiron & Chariklo → Centaur healer and his consort (associated with weaving/spinning)Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#123 | The Twelfth House | Containing Multitudes
Mar 1301:01:11Tap to summarizeThe 12th and final house of astrology is often given a bad wrap. It's considered the house of hidden enemies and of our own undoing. It rules over places we'd rather not be such as prisons, hospitals and asylums.And yet, deep in this oceanic place in our charts we may meet the gods themselves. Figures from the collective unconscious who shape shift and morph, reveal and conceal themselves into and out of our minds. It's a place that has associations with Neptune, Jupiter and Pisces; the deepest places of the ocean where our surface world probes can't reach. A place where Saturn, brooding and moody as he is, is in his Joy. Yes, that's right, Saturn has a joyful place. In order to enter this house we need to leave our conscious tools at the door. We need to journey away from the known world on a wonderful sea journey with fantastic companions. Hercules' 12th labour, Ariadne abandoned on Naxos and Hephaestus, the wounded goldsmith whose workshop is in a cave under the sea, will help us get a better feel for this place. Help us take a good look around and see what it is that we might be missing about this much maligned house, and what secret treasures it might be already, right now, shaping and re-shaping in the forge. Podcast Cover: "Mercury Confiding the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs of Nysa" by François Boucher.Sources & References Mentioned in This EpisodeCarl Jung – Modern Man in Search of a SoulJames Hillman – The Myth of AnalysisArnold Mindell – Process-Oriented PsychologyMircea Eliade – The Forge and the CrucibleWalt Whitman – Song of Myself, from Leaves of GrassRoberto Calasso – The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony The Delphic Maxims (including “Know Thyself”) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphic_maximsMythological Figures & Stories ExploredHeracles and Cerberus • The Labours of Heracles Theseus and the Minotaur Ariadne and Dionysus on Naxos Hephaestus and the forge beneath the sea The Golden Net of Ares and Aphrodite Cronus and the Golden AgeAdditional Astrological ThemesThe Twelfth House • Neptune and the Oceanic Realm Saturn’s Joy in the Twelfth House The Water Houses: 4th, 8th and 12th The Ascendant as Threshold (the “door-slab” of the chart)Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#122 | Iron John & the 11th/12th House Cusp | with Ryan Nielsen | Part Two
Feb 2601:50:12Tap to summarizePart Two of our wanderings with Iron John/Hans. The episode begins with the moss bed made for the boy in the forest. Ryan shares soulful reflections on moss itself; known as a 'boundary layer' that draws moisture not from the ground up but from the air down. Moss forms little cups to gather water from the electricity in the air, which must be one of the most Aquarian/11th House symbols I've ever heard. We re-enter the story where we left off in part one; the boy is learning to listen in to his inner most knowing. In speaking for the scent of the wild flowers he shows us that his time asleep on the moss transformed his sense of reality. He is becoming ready to work with the gold/wound split in his consciousness.In the second half of the story we encounter much Chironic imagery. A three-legged 'hobblety jig' horse speaks to our current moment as Chiron moves through the last phase of Aries and Saturn/Neptune through the first. What does this story tell us about Aries energy, wounded kings, lost wildness and the world's deep thirst?It's a longer episode than most, but once you listen in you'll see why. To get the most nourishment from this story we needed to move more with Kairos time than Kronos. The result, however, is a very nourishing alchemical brew. So grateful to Ryan's wife, Holly Parson Nielsen, for the artwork for the episode. It conjures the movement of the story so well from the well to the moss to the gold. Thank you Holly. If you'd like to know more about Ryan's work, or perhaps book a session with him to explore his approach to astrology, mythology and the dreaming body, go to yourveryownmyth.com.Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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#121 | Iron John & the 11th/12th House Cusp | with Ryan Nielsen | Part One
Feb 2001:17:05Tap to summarizeRyan Nielsen joins the podcast again (see episode 104 for our circuitous meanderings on Allerleirauh) to explore the Grimm tale of Iron John (or Iron Hans) whilst reflecting about the cusp between the known and unknown worlds (the 11th and 12th house cusp). Iron John is a story that was made famous by the poet Robert Bly in the 1990s. It became the central story that he worked with in his book by the same name. Robert uses the story to illustrate the many trials and tribulations in the process of becoming a man in the modern world. Ryan and I pick the story up not from the hands of Bly but from the creative commons of the story itself. We let the images lead us. The story comes alive in a new way in this conversation as we riff and bounce and feel and atune to it with the backdrop of the 11th and 12th house to guide us. If you'd like to connect with Ryan he has just launched his new website: yourveryownmyth.com.Join us on Patreon to discuss the episode! You can join in for free or pledge some appreciation. Join the Newsletter!Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.
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