“We’re billions of years beyond your petty obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes.” -The Doctor The BBC has, for the first time, cast a woman in the lead role of Doctor Who, and the Internet (predictably) has lost its mind. First, for those of you unfamiliar with Doctor Who, a brief introduction. Doctor Who is a science fiction series which first aired in 1963. It concerns the adventures of an alien — a Time Lord named The Doctor (never,... Read more
As a wide-eyed youth, my life was changed forever while sitting in a theater watching a new film called Star Wars. Much of my younger years were dedicated to watching the films and reading the comics and paperbacks and collecting the action figures. Fortunately, DisLucaKenner has now recognized that there is a specific market niche consisting of original Star Wars fans who (like me) just aren’t getting any younger. Thus they’ve created a new line of action figures called Star... Read more
Dear American Friends: I have been authorized by the Canadian Ministry Of Long-Term Planning to reveal to you, on the occasion of our 150th birthday as a nation, that the long-term (but secret) invasion and occupation of your country by ours is now complete. Like any good covert operation, this likely will come as a complete surprise to you. Allow me to explain. Things have been pretty peaceful between us since the War of 1812 was resolved — and by... Read more
Sense8 is a series on Netflix about an apparently random selection of very different people from around the world who find themselves sharing a psychic bond. On the face of it, that’s all you need to know if you aren’t going to watch it (that, and Netflix has recently cancelled it). If you’re a fan, you already know why we need Sense8 back. If not, please: give me a minute of your time to explain why you need Sense8 back... Read more
Congratulations! As a living being, you’ve won the right to eventually die. Various belief systems posit different destinations for the human soul after physical death, but few people realize that the Afterlife is pretty inclusive. That’s probably good news for you and me, but it means that a lot of annoying people you’d rather not deal with are going to be there too. Here’s a handy guide as to who you might run into. In fact, you may already know... Read more
Back in the 1960s, when many issues of racism, sexism, intolerance, and excessive militarism were coming to the forefront of American consciousness, there appeared a TV show called Star Trek. Created by an atheist, it nonetheless reflected a lot of what one could call “spiritual values” like compassion, inclusiveness, and the valuing of differences between individuals and cultures. Because it was science fiction, it was able to address a lot of issues other mainstream American TV shows couldn’t, like the... Read more
Many of you who come here to the Spirituality Channel on Patheos are likely familiar with the concept of “getting a reading,” whether from a Tarot reader, clairvoyant, astrologer, or whatever. A Facebook Friend of mine (not an “actual” friend in any usual pre-social media sense) recently asked (upon reading my astrological analysis of the recent explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England) why it is that (if astrology is “for real”) no one ever seems to predict... Read more
(Major spoilers for the 1990-1991 run of Twin Peaks — spoiler-free for the 2017 series) Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark forest, for the straightforward path had been lost… -Dante, Inferno Twin Peaks started out (in some ways) as a typical murder mystery — but there was very little typical about it. The series was created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, and if you aren’t familiar with David Lynch’s work as a... Read more
Slip down darkness to the mouth Damn the water, burn the wine I’m going home for the very last time. -Soundgarden, “Let Me Drown” Chris Cornell, lead singer and songwriter for Soundgarden and Audioslave, is dead by his own hand at the age of 52. By now you’ve likely had a chance to read about his struggles with depression, and have had your own reaction to this (it’s hard not to have a visceral reaction to suicide, even when it’s... Read more
(Basic spoilers for HBO’s The Leftovers, but nothing that should keep you from watching it or reading on) One day, something strange and terrible happened that changed the entire world. At the core of our personal operating systems, you won’t find a CPU; you’ll find a storyteller. As much as we like to think of ourselves as a rational species that makes wise decisions, it seems that we spend a lot of time listening to our inner mythologies, or following... Read more
It's Your Future: Astrology with Matthew Currie
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