One of the most astonishing sights of our day is that of the fixers and answer-mongers who deal with the multiple crises facing the world by trying to generate solutions. It's like watching inmates repainting the bars of their cell without ever questioning why they are there.

In my own attempt… Read full post »

I spent time this morning watching online videos of Californian politicians speechifying about the deepening budget crisis.

At one news conference Schwarzeneggar, ever the macho posturer, hammered away about "fiscal responsibility"--he meant not taxing the wealthy, an obvious source of revenue--and… Read full post »

After reading the latest dismal news about crashing economies and ecosystems, I went to bed and was visited by a remarkable dream.

Most of us don't take dreams very seriously, raised as we were in a culture that dismisses them  as more or less random brainwave activity. Having studied dreams for… Read full post »

As President Bush makes a last attempt to gut environmenal protections, a strange silence continues about the psychological motivations behind ecocidal behavior.

Counseling violent men taught me that actions say more than excuses. A husband who beats his wife or kids "because they deserve it" or "be… Read full post »

A while back some Bay Area acquaintances invited me to a meditation circle to send "positive energy" to President Bush. A single question got me uninvited: "Why not send some energy to his opponents?"

I have noticed an eerie incapacity among certain spiritually inclined people for telling the differe… Read full post »

As a graduate instructor of mythology and psychology, I'm interested when old stories and legends come back to life because they often contain some long-neglected wisdom. 

Native Californians told stories about Coyote, their version of the archetypal Trickster. In many mytholog… Read full post »