Conversations For The End

About Conversations For The End

A Jungian and Jungian Adjacent Podcast Exploring the mind, meaning and the Mystery

Publisher

Conversations For The End

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Feb 2025

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

37 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Ep 37 - Esteban “Niño” Palacio aka @eldivinenino- Growth, Suffering & Playing with the Divine.

   In Episode 37 of Conversations for the End, I sit down with transformation coach, poet and meditation teacher Esteban (@eldivinenino) for a conversation about personal myth, suffering, spirituality, psychedelics, the shadow and learning to approach life with a greater sense of play. We begin with Carl Jung’s idea of the personal myth and explore how the stories, symbols and religious images we inherit can unconsciously shape the direction of our lives. Esteban reflects on his Catholic upbringing, his relationship with the figure of Christ, and how his personal mythology shifted through tragedy, drug use and spiritual experience. From there, we explore why myth still matters in a supposedly rational age, using Star Wars, Christ and the myth of Osiris as examples of archetypal patterns that continue to structure contemporary life. The conversation then moves into more difficult territory: grief, death and suffering. Esteban reflects on profound losses throughout his life and how these experiences opened him towards spirituality, impermanence and the possibility of creating meaning from suffering. We discuss what it might mean to “act as if God exists,” wrestle with the divine, and approach suffering as something that can transform our relationship with life. We also explore psychedelic experiences and gnosis, the limitations of purely rational accounts of reality, confronting our own capacity for evil, Jung’s shadow, the absurdity of existence, the importance of humour and the trickster, and why genuine healing should make us more alive rather than more docile. Ultimately, this is a conversation about learning to hold life more lightly without denying its darkness: remembering death, confronting suffering, creating meaning and meeting the strange experience of being alive with courage, humility and play. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Esteban Niño 01:42 Carl Jung and the personal myth 02:57 Catholicism, Christ and Esteban’s personal mythology 05:22 Christ as a symbol of the Self 09:41 Why rejecting myth can leave us unconscious 12:53 Narrative, archetypes and Star Wars 15:28 Rediscovering the sacred through personal myth 16:36 The light and dark sides of Star Wars 18:25 Osiris, blindness and repeating archetypal patterns 21:03 Suffering and wrestling with God 23:15 Grief, tragedy and spiritual transformation 27:00 Voluntary suffering, initiation and maturation 29:00 Poetry, meaning and creating your reality 31:41 Acting as if God exists 34:22 Psychedelics as a doorway into the ineffable 37:31 Psychedelics, gnosis and direct experience 39:24 Reconnecting with the soul 43:15 Confronting evil within ourselves 46:29 Individuation, idealism and human potential 47:37 Viktor Frankl, suffering and humour 51:29 Spirituality, absurdity and the playful sage 52:39 The trickster and learning to laugh 55:21 Why healing shouldn’t make you docile 57:00 Death, safety and living courageously 59:35 Closing reflections 1:00:31 Where to find Esteban 1:01:46 Outro Connect with Esteban Instagram: @eldivinenino Esteban also works with people through one-to-one coaching, group programmes and international wellness retreats centred around play, embodiment and transformation. Follow Conversations for the End Instagram: @conversationsfortheend YouTube: @conversationsfortheend Spotify: @conversationsfortheend If you enjoyed the conversation, follow and subscribe to Conversations for the End for more discussions exploring Jungian psychology, mythology, meaning, spirituality and the strange experience of being human.

2. 

   14 Sept 2026

   Ep 36 - D. Stephenson Bond - What Myth Are You Living? Personal Myth, Libido & Individuation

   What happens when the story that once gave your life meaning stops working? In Episode 36 of Conversations for the End, I sit down with Jungian analyst and author D. Stephenson Bond to explore personal myth, the movement of psychic energy, and what happens when we find ourselves psychologically outside the stories that once oriented our lives. Beginning with Carl Jung’s famous confrontation with the question, “What is the myth you live?”, we explore why the collapse of a personal or cultural myth can leave us feeling lost in the wilderness and why that disorientation may also mark the beginning of psychological transformation. Drawing from his book Living Myth: Personal Meaning as a Way of Life, Steve explains personal myth not as something consciously invented by the ego, but as something that gradually emerges through our relationship with the psyche. We discuss Jung’s theory of libido and its progression and regression, why psychic energy can suddenly disappear from careers, relationships, identities and ambitions that once felt meaningful, and what it might mean to “follow the lifelines of libido” when this happens. From there, we explore dreams, active imagination, symbolic consciousness, the relationship between directed and fantasy thinking, and why individuation frequently involves allowing an established identity to be taken apart before something new can emerge. Finally, we turn from the personal to the cultural. If myths themselves have life cycles, what happens when the dominant myth of a civilisation begins to lose its vitality? And could the myths that eventually reorganise a culture first begin quietly within individual lives? A conversation about losing orientation, trusting the psyche, following what possesses genuine psychic intensity, and learning to live within myth while knowing that it is myth. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 02:14 What myth is modern man living? 03:06 Jung, Freud and the collapse of a cultural myth 05:51 Jung’s descent and the search for personal myth 07:07 Falling out of myth and entering the wilderness 09:30 Why human beings need myth 11:42 The modern midlife crisis and seeing through the cultural myth 14:48 Depression, anxiety and the loss of orientation 15:35 Living myth and Jung’s theory of libido 18:21 What happens when libido disappears from your life? 19:23 Progression and regression as the tides of psychic energy 20:20 Why psychological disorientation can be necessary for growth 22:59 “Psyche shows the way” 23:08 Dreams, active imagination and the defeat of the ego 25:00 Following the lifelines of libido 28:00 Symbolic resonance, intensity and where psychic energy is moving 29:44 Grief, complexes and being called into the depths 31:17 Being psychologically taken apart and rebuilt 33:47 Why the ego struggles to trust the psyche 34:34 The Self and the limits of conscious control 36:09 Why personal myth is not a life hack 38:13 Personal myth as a lifelong process 39:13 Symbols, rituals and the unfolding of individuation 41:56 Psyche wants to be embodied 42:54 The limits of psychological language 45:05 Why genuine individuation takes time 46:40 Directed thinking vs fantasy thinking 48:00 Play, imagination and symbolic consciousness 51:49 Has modern culture become dominated by directed thinking? 53:52 The life cycle of myth 55:05 The death and renewal of cultural myths 56:41 What myth is trying to emerge now? 58:08 The new myth and Edinger’s unfinished temple 58:55 Where to find D. Stephenson Bond Find D. Stephenson Bond Website: dstephensonbond.com YouTube: D. Stephenson Bond YouTube: History of Ideas Books: Search D. Stephenson Bond on Amazon Instagram: @conversationsfortheend TikTok: @conversationsfortheend YouTube: @conversationsfortheend Spotify: Conversations for the End Apple Podcasts: Conversations for the End Title Music: Vines #CarlJung #JungianPsychology #PersonalMyth #Individuation #depthpsychology

3. 

   30 Jul 2026

   Ep 35 - Cathy Skipper - Personal Myth, Symbolic Consciousness & the Wisdom of the Unconscious

   What if your deepest wound isn't simply something to heal, but the very doorway into your personal myth? In Episode 35 of Conversations for the End, I'm joined by Jungian teacher, coach and founder of @aromagnosis, Cathy Skipper. Together we explore Carl Jung's idea of personal myth, why our greatest psychological wounds often conceal our deepest calling, and how symbols, ritual, dreams and synchronicity become the language through which the unconscious communicates. Cathy shares her own extraordinary journey through illness, grief, ancestral discovery and profound transformation, illustrating how seemingly disconnected events reveal themselves as parts of a larger symbolic pattern when viewed through the lens of depth psychology. Along the way we discuss symbolic consciousness, the role of ancestors, active imagination, the relationship between soul and spirit, why modern culture has become disconnected from the unconscious, and why so many people today feel called towards a deeper psychological life. If you've ever wondered how to discover your own personal myth, this conversation is an excellent place to begin. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:49 What Carl Jung meant by a personal myth 03:25 Your personal myth lies on the other side of the wound 05:24 Descending into the symbolic underworld 06:34 Why suffering can become psychologically inevitable 08:07 Cathy's mother's death, cancer and the beginning of transformation 09:18 Ritual as a language of the unconscious 10:43 Learning to communicate with the unconscious through symbols 12:51 Ancestors, inheritance and the hidden patterns of personal myth 15:48 Reclaiming the mother line and ancestral identity 17:48 Soul, nature and discovering who you really are 20:22 Trusting the wisdom of the unconscious 22:02 The rhizome, natural gifts and individuation 24:35 What is beckoning to you? 26:30 Spirit, soul and the alchemical marriage 29:00 What does it actually mean to live symbolically? 31:12 Intuition, symbolic consciousness and the feminine 35:19 Why relationships reveal the unconscious 37:10 Repetition with a difference and rewriting inherited patterns 39:52 How do you actually rewrite your personal myth? 43:22 Feeling instead of avoiding emotion 45:33 Active imagination and completing unfinished emotional patterns 48:57 Why Jungian psychology is simpler than many people think 52:54 Gnosis: the difference between knowledge and lived experience 55:34 AI, the collective unconscious and the return to depth 57:21 Why the ancestors are calling us home 57:39 Cathy's new book, membership and final reflections Follow Cathy: Instagram: @aromagnosis Website: https://aromagnosis.com (https://aromagnosis.com) Follow Conversations for the End: Instagram: @conversationsfortheend YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@conversationsfortheend (https://www.youtube.com/@conversationsfortheend) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/conversationsfortheend (https://open.spotify.com/show/conversationsfortheend) Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ (https://podcasts.apple.com/) If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing, leaving a rating, and sharing the episode with someone interested in Jungian psychology, mythology, and the symbolic life. #CarlJung #JungianPsychology #PersonalMyth #Individuation #DepthPsychology #Synchronicity #Mythology #Symbolism #ActiveImagination #TheUnconscious

Who has been a guest on Conversations For The End

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dylan Martinez Francisco
• Stefano Carpani
• Jared Ray Gilmore
• Emma Smithwick
• Adam Letica

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

26,896

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

26 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 39 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

48

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

0

Contact Conversations For The End

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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