Damien Echols’s wrongful conviction, sentencing, and eventual release as part of the West Memphis Three case is the subject of the HBO documentary Paradise Lost and West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. While in prison, Damien was ordained into the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition. His books include the New York Times bestseller Life After Death, High Magick, and Angels and Archangels, as well as Ritual: An Essential Grimoire and Yours for Eternity (both with Lorri Davis). Today, he teaches magick and works as a visual artist.
Damien Echols is an author and artist who teaches classes on magick around the country. The story of his wrongful murder conviction was documented in the films Paradise Lost and West of Memphis. With Sounds True, Damien has published the book High Magick and the complementary audio program A Course in High Magick. In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Damien about his forthcoming book, Angels and Archangels,which offers us a practical set of tools for working with these timeless forces for divine wisdom and healing power.
Damien Echols was wrongfully convicted of murder in the infamous “West Memphis Three” case and spent more than 18 years on death row before his exoneration and release. Now he teaches Western ceremonial magick—the same practice he credits with saving his life in prison. With Sounds True, Damien has published the book High Magick and a practice-oriented audio companion, A Course in High Magick. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Damien about magick and how it is meant to “constantly ingest more of divinity.” Damien describes two of the central practices of magick—the Middle Pillar and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram—and details why they are so foundational to the modality. Damien explains how he first discovered magick while in solitary confinement and details the concept of “will” in relationship to the Buddhist concept of dharma. Finally, Damien and Tami talk about what it means to manifest a “light body” and the overall goal of spiritual liberation through magick. (83 minutes)
Tami’s Takeaway:
Damien Echols is a “current-bearer”—someone who is able to pass to others an experience of boundless light. When I met with Damien in November of 2018 at a launch event for his new book, High Magick, I could tell that something had recently happened to him that had dramatically increased the intensity of this current. In this conversation, he describes how the practices of magick, which he calls “a Western path of enlightenment,” brought him to an experience of ego dissolution, which he describes as “experiencing myself as a small handful of sand that someone threw into a tornado.” The takeaway: an invitation to let go of any feeling of separateness, enter the abyss, and discover the interconnected light that awaits us.
Every person on this earth is born with an entire universe of potential in them. Most people never cultivate the seeds of that potential, so the seeds go to waste and the people go through life wondering what went wrong, or blaming the world for everything that did go wrong.
Magick waters those seeds to make that potential stir, grow, and flower. It accelerates our spiritual and mental development in ways we never could have predicted. Our ability to shape our destiny and the world around us using magick is limited only by our own belief, dedication, and creativity.
The goal of my new book, High Magick, is to provide you with the opportunity to experience the magick that resides within you—within each and every one of us, without exception. These rituals and practices are merely guidelines—a place to begin.
To get you started, here’s a short video where I share a basic magick practice for more healing love.
Once you begin experiencing magick, you will never see life the same way again. You’ll grow increasingly aware of the currents of energy active all around you, and the interactions between energy and the material realm. And you’ll discover that, contrary to what you may have been told, there are no limits.
I’m not here to tell you what to believe, and I’m not here to convert anyone. That’s not my job. My job (if you could call it that) is simply to show you what has worked for me through thick and thin. In that way, I guess you could say it’s my job to help. And my hope is that you’ll find these practices as useful in your life as I have found them to be in mine.
Responding to an undeniable inner impulse for deeper understanding and purpose, Moshe Gersht left behind a successful career as a musician to study the Torah in Jerusalem. Today, he writes and teaches about the connections between Judaism, mystical wisdom, the mind, and our collective human struggles. In this compelling conversation with Sounds True founder Tami Simon, Moshe discusses his new book, The Three Conditions: How Intention, Joy, and Certainty Will Supercharge Your Life.
Give a listen to this inspiring podcast exploring: trusting that things will get better; holding space for peace and joy amidst chaotic situations; the underlying current of the oneness of infinity; being with our pain instead of fighting it; the search for success versus the search for meaning; finding language for our inner experience through the Torah and Jewish mysticism; the opportunity to connect with God in every moment; the analogy of the seed bursting with potential; the movement of life, of which we are all a part; stepping into “the infinite patience”; the qualities of a supercharged life; choosing the level on which you will experience life; the psychological and spiritual shifts we initiate through the three conditions of intention, joy, and certainty; why “what you focus on, you feel”; building momentum on the path to healing; the fallacy of “finished”; realigning with our essential purpose and our inherent goodness; the anatomy of transition and having faith in yourself; being a spiritual antenna; the two directions challenges can take us; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
To be a New Saint is to move into a direct relationship with suffering—our own and that of the world—and make a commitment to disrupt that suffering in any way we can, for as long as it takes. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Lama Rod Owens about his trailblazing new book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors.
Give a listen to this inspiring conversation on how each one of us can become effective agents of social and spiritual liberation. Tami and Lama Rod discuss awakened care and bodhicitta; partnering with ancestral forces and the unseen world; brokenheartedness and our collective emotional labor; disrupting reactivity; the radical act of choosing joy; experiencing our true home; two traits of a prophet: embodying clarity and telling the truth; the New Saint as an ordinary human being; the practice of receiving love; spiritual warriorship and what it means to “fight within love”; prayers of protection; the commitment to get free from suffering; consenting to the work of being a New Saint; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
“If we as a world ever got even a hint of the incredible love with which God loves us, we would be living in such a different world than we do now.” These are the wise words of Mpho Andrea Tutu van Furth, Tami Simon’s guest in this deeply moving podcast. Give a listen to this inspiring conversation with the daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and coauthor of the online course Unstoppable Joy.
Tami and Mpho explore deep faith and finding one’s path to God; the human tendency to act in ways that are counter to love; shifting from unworthiness to unconditional love; having a faith journey and “forging your own way up the mountain”; carrying forth the legacy of Desmond Tutu for a more just and inclusive world; the transformative teaching, “When in doubt, choose love”; real courage; accessing the source of unstoppable joy; disagreeing without being disagreeable; the practice of “disappearing into prayer”; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
