Parallax

Our review for the new movie

John Vervaeke and Thomas Jockin join Andrew Sweeny at Parallax for a conversation on beauty, Plato, Aristotle, the sacred, and the meaning crisis. What if the meaning crisis is also a crisis of beauty — and what if beauty is not merely something we like, but something that asks us to change our lives? John Vervaeke: https://johnvervaeke.com/ Thomas Jockin: https://thomasjockin.com/ Thomas’s Parallax course, Beauty Changes Your Life: Plato, Aristotle, and the Beautiful, begins Monday, July 6, 2026, with live sessions on July 6, 13, 20, and 27.Course link: https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/beauty-changes-your-life-thomas-jockin Subscribe to Parallax for more conversations on philosophy, spirituality, culture, and transformation.

In this conversation, Andrew Sweeny sits down with author, scholar, and Cult of Personality host Greg Kaminsky to discuss his recent books The Silent Call of the Heart, Peregrine: Crossing Spiritual Boundaries to Find a New Home, and Entangled in Sunlight.The discussion explores Greg's journey from occult scholar and podcaster to committed spiritual practitioner, examining the limits of knowledge, the role of direct experience, and the challenges of spiritual transformation. Drawing on the teachings of Traktung Rinpoche, the conversation moves through topics such as knowledge and wisdom, the Garden of Eden, duality, the spiritual path, Vajrayana Buddhism, the relationship between emptiness and appearance, and the idea of an inner "silent call" that guides a person's life.The second half of the conversation focuses on Peregrine and the question of crossing spiritual boundaries. Can Westerners authentically practice Eastern traditions? Are spiritual paths tied to culture, geography, and ethnicity, or do they point toward something universal? Greg reflects on his own movement from Western esotericism and ceremonial magic into Buddhist Tantra, while discussing tradition, the guru-disciple relationship, and the search for a spiritual home.Topics include:• The transition from scholarship to spiritual practice• Knowledge, wisdom, and unknowing• Traktung Rinpoche and Vajrayana Buddhism• The Garden of Eden and the emergence of duality• One Ground, Two Paths, Two Results• Cataphatic and apophatic spirituality• Ego, surrender, and spiritual ambition• The meaning of The Silent Call of the Heart• The story of Little Luminous Blazing• East-West spirituality and cultural identity• Peregrine and crossing spiritual boundaries• Western esotericism, ceremonial magic, and Buddhist Tantra• Tradition, modernity, and finding a spiritual homeGreg Kaminsky is the author of numerous books on spirituality, religion, and esotericism, and the host of the Cult of Personality podcast.#GregKaminsky #Spirituality #Vajrayana #Buddhism #Mysticism #Esotericism #TraktungRinpoche #Philosophy #Religion #Parallax #CultOfPersonality #Occult #Meditation #EasternPhilosophy #WesternEsotericism

What is prophecy—and why does it matter today?In this conversation, Andrew Sweeny and Dr. Marc Gafni explore the relationship between wound and wonder, love and time, eros and ethics, and the radical idea that a prophet is someone who transforms pain into vision.This dialogue introduces Marc's upcoming Parallax course:**The Words of the Prophets: The Transfiguration of Our Unique Wound**📅 July 12, 19 & 26, 2026🔥 Includes live Digital Campfire sessions each weekLearn more and register:https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/marc-gafni-the-words-of-the-prophets#MarcGafni #Parallax #Prophecy #UniqueSelf #Mysticism #Philosophy #Spirituality

Thomas Jockin’s four-part course, Beauty Changes Your Life: Plato, Aristotle, and the Beautiful, begins Monday, July 6, 2026, with live sessions on July 6, 13, 20, and 27. The course explores beauty as memory, virtue, desire, form, and philosophical inquiry through readings of Plato and Aristotle. More information here: Beauty Changes Your Life — Thomas Jockin:https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/beauty-changes-your-life-thomas-jockin?utm_source=chatgpt.com

In this first conversation in a new series on enlightenment, mysticism, and civilization, Andrew Sweeny and Alexander Bard explore the relationship between enlightenment, ancient spirituality, and digital culture.The discussion moves through Peter Kingsley, Jung, Gurdjieff, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Göbekli Tepe, mountain civilizations versus river civilizations, shamanism, altered states, René Girard, mimetic contagion, social media, and the collapse of symbolic depth in modernity.Themes explored include:• Enlightenment as wholeness rather than salvation• The mystical origins of Western philosophy• Semi-nomadic and mountain cultures as sources of ecstatic spirituality• Göbekli Tepe and ritual consciousness before agriculture• Shamanism as transformation of perspective• Jung’s *Red Book* as initiatory descent• Girard, scapegoating, and digital mass psychology• Gurdjieff and the idea that modern humanity lives asleep• The return of mysticism during periods of civilizational collapseMore Sweeny vs Bard:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuseeco8fLSmX1HUEmKV0WFecRg2Z1G6S&si=6e1Ry-WfechSySo6More Substack articles by Andrew Sweeny:https://substack.com/@andrewsweenyParallax is supported by readers and members who participate in the Parallax Academy, a space for deeper exploration of philosophy, media, myth, and culture.Free Subscribers• Receive selected public essays and podcast excerpts• Stay informed about Parallax events and conversationsMembers — €12/month• Full access to Parallax articles and essays• Participation in Parallax groups and community sessions• Access to member discussions and the growing Parallax archiveParallax Academy Members — €500/year• Everything included in Member access• Full access to all Parallax Course Library + Bonus Live Courses• Invitations to academy salons, dialogues, and special gatheringsSubscribe to join the Parallax community and Parallax Academy:[https://www.parallax-media.com/the-parallax-academy]

DescriptionA deep dive into a strange and luminous literary encounter: Henry Miller on Arthur Rimbaud.In this conversation, we explore Miller’s short but intense meditation on Rimbaud—the teenage visionary who burned through language, identity, and the limits of experience itself. A confrontation with genius, madness, exile, and the cost of mystical vision.Links🔗 Owen Cox — Dark Renaissancehttps://darkrenaissance.com🔗 Parallaxhttps://parallax-media.comAbout Owen CoxOwen Cox is a writer and cultural critic associated with Dark Renaissance, a platform exploring philosophy, art, and the deeper undercurrents of Western and post-Western thought. His work moves between literature, metaphysics, and cultural analysis, often focusing on neglected or transgressive figures.About Andrew SweenyAndrew Sweeny is a poet, musician, and editor at Parallax, a media platform dedicated to philosophy, art, and cultural transformation. His work explores the intersection of poetry, sound, and myth, engaging with themes of eros, symbolism, and the inner life of artistic creation.

A Parallax conversation on The Meaning of America, celebrating Max Borders’ upcoming course and exploring America as ideal, shadow, empire, and future. With Andrew Sweeny, Max Borders, and Owen Cox, this discussion moves through revolution, liberty, collectivism, Europe, myth, and the strange paradox of America as both promise and danger.Join Max Borders’ course, The Meaning of America, on April 12.https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/the-meaning-of-america-with-max-borders

Andrew and Tom pay their respect.

A Parallax conversation on The Meaning of America, celebrating Max Borders’ upcoming course and exploring America as ideal, shadow, empire, and future. With Andrew Sweeny, Max Borders, and Owen Cox, this discussion moves through revolution, liberty, collectivism, Europe, myth, and the strange paradox of America as both promise and danger.Join Max Borders’ course, The Meaning of America, on April 12.https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/the-meaning-of-america-with-max-borders

Learn more about the course and register here:https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/integral-tarotAndrew Sweeny speaks with Tarot teacher Marianne Costa about the upcoming Integral Tarot course at Parallax.This is the third Tarot course Marianne Costa has offered with Parallax. In this conversation, she introduces the structure and ideas behind the new course, which explores the Tarot de Marseille as a complete symbolic system, integrating the Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, and Court cards into a coherent practice of reading and interpretation.Previous Parallax courses with Marianne Costa:Tarot, The Real Deal – A Journey Through the Major Arcanahttps://www.parallax-media.com/past-courses/tarot-the-real-dealCracking the Code of the Minor Arcana – Part 1https://www.parallax-media.com/past-courses/cracking-the-code-of-the-minor-arcana-part-1

Raven Connolly and Owen Cox join the Parallax View to talk about the issues of Europe and it´s underlying themes

Iain McGilchrist, Marc Gafni & Zak Stein | The Return of Value and the Sacred | Part 2Zak Stein moderates an intense and wide-ranging conversation between Dr. Iain McGilchrist and Dr. Marc Gafni. The dialogue spans the sacred nature of story, the loss of value and eros, the nature of evil, and the deep structures shaping culture today. In Part 2, the conversation turns explicitly toward the question of value itself — whether the sacred is intrinsic to reality or merely projected, and what is at stake in that distinction.Iain McGilchrist is a British psychiatrist, literary scholar, and one of the most important philosophical voices of our time. He is best known for *The Master and His Emissary* and *The Matter With Things*, where he argues that the left and right hemispheres of the brain attend to the world in fundamentally different ways, with massive consequences for civilization. His work bridges neuroscience, philosophy, art, and depth psychology, offering a vision of human consciousness grounded in attention, embodiment, and reverence.Dr. Marc Gafni is a visionary philosopher, spiritual teacher, and social theorist. A former Orthodox rabbi with a doctorate from Oxford University, he is the co-founder of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion and a leading voice in the articulation of “cosmo-erotic humanism.” His books include *Your Unique Self*, *A Return to Eros*, and *Radical Kabbalah*. Gafni’s work fuses Jewish mysticism, integral theory, and Western philosophy to explore the nature of self, eros, and value at the evolutionary edge of human identity and spirituality.Zak Stein is a Harvard-trained education and transformation philosopher known for his work on developmental ethics, meta-crisis, and the future of human learning.#IainMcGilchrist #MarcGafni #ZakStein #Eros #Story #MeaningCrisis #IntegralPhilosophy #TheMasterAndHisEmissary #CosmoEroticHumanism

Death and Rebirth of EuropeA recorded conversation between members of Parallax and Dark Renaissance Productions discussing the idea of Europe’s decline and the possibility of transformation.The conversation also relates to a longer-term collaborative project planned for Paris in 2026.Timestamps00:00 – Introduction and context02:10 – Where the idea “death and rebirth of Europe” comes from06:45 – Europe as culture, history, and myth14:30 – Sense of decline and loss of orientation23:20 – Tradition, modernity, and rupture33:40 – Is Europe already dead?43:10 – What “rebirth” could mean54:00 – Future conversations and Paris project1:01:30 – Closing remarks

January 14th 2026 Tom and Andrew discuss Camille Paglia´ Sexual Personae

DescriptionDr. Gafni is interviewed by Andrew Sweeny. The central question: How to go beyond a mere tragic view of life? Invitationhttps://www.parallax-media.com/courses/pretragic-tragic-and-posttragicThe course includes three weekly recorded lectures with Q&A and three weekly Digital Campfire sessions, where practices and inquiries are introduced and the material is reflected on in community.Start date: Sunday, January 25Time: 8:00pm CET · 2:00pm EST · 11:00am PSTPrice: €300 / €100 tiers

DescriptionIn this talk, Dr. Marc Gafni introduces a central framework of his teaching: pre-tragic, tragic, and post-tragic as recurring stations of human experience. These are not developmental stages or psychological categories, but existential positions we move through repeatedly in love, desire, power, intimacy, creativity, meaning, and our relationship to God.Pre-tragic clarity gives way to rupture. Desire becomes complicated. Power distorts. Intimacy fractures. The question is not how to avoid this passage, but how to understand it—and how a different kind of clarity can emerge on the other side. Post-tragic clarity is not a return to innocence, but a second clarity that includes uncertainty, depth, and lived complexity.This video serves as an orientation to a three-week course that explores these stations in depth, with particular attention to wounding and how unintegrated wound shapes desire, power, and intimacy.InvitationThe course includes three weekly recorded lectures with Q&A and three weekly Digital Campfire sessions, where practices and inquiries are introduced and the material is reflected on in community.Start date: Sunday, January 25Time: 8:00pm CET · 2:00pm EST · 11:00am PSTPrice: €300 / €150 tiersFurther details and registration can be found via the link below.https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/pretragic-tragic-and-posttragic

Struggling to make your stories truly land? Years of writing taught us that sentences have a job, stories have an inner logic, and vision organizes a life—not just a project. This course condenses that transformation into three live modules with hands-on practice.📅 Start Date:Saturday, Jan 17, 2026⏰ Time: 8:00 PM CET | 2:00 PM EST | 11:00 AM PST💻 Format: 3 Zoom Classes + 3 Practice Sessions💶 Price: €260 / 200€ / 100€ tiersModules:1️⃣ Writing: Learn what fiction sentences are really for2️⃣ Story: Make your story blossom and resonate3️⃣ Vision: Transform inspiration into actionable writingWho This Course Is For:Writers who’ve been writing seriously for yearsThose who feel stuck or sense something missingWriters ready to make their work come alive🔗 Sign Up / More Info: https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/writing-literary-fiction-with-og-rose

December 15th 2025 Andrew Sweeny takes a look into the future

Join author Marianne Costa for a deep dive into the Minor Arcana of the Tarot de Marseille.🔥 COURSE: Cracking the Code of the Minor ArcanaLink: https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/cracking-the-code-of-the-minor-arcana-part-1Connect:Marianne Costa: https://mariannecosta.com/Parallax Courses and Events: https://www.parallax-media.com/courses-and-eventsMarianne Costa shares her unique, practical interpretation, treating the tarot as a tool for self-observation and survival in the real world. We explore the four suits (Swords, Cups, Wands, Coins) as representing the basic economics of life, from politics and agriculture to emotions and trade, grounding spiritual wisdom in the concrete everyday. Learn how to stop "esoteric wanking" and start asking the "burning questions" necessary for inner pilgrimage and growth.