Ab Immemorabili

196 - The Beginner's Mind - Zen Wisdom for Constant Learning

What if everything you know is actually preventing you from learning?
Holly takes the leed in this exploration of shoshin, the Zen concept of beginner's mind that Shunryu Suzuki brought from Japan to America in 1959. When Suzuki Roshi arrived in San Francisco, he discovered something unexpected: his American students, who knew nothing of Zen traditions, often demonstrated more genuine openness than Japanese monks who had trained for decades.
Drake and Holly explore the profound implications of Suzuki's famous observation that "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." Drawing on cognitive research into the "curse of knowledge," the neuroscience of learning, Socratic philosophy, and contemplative traditions from Zen to Sufism to Christianity, this episode examines how expertise becomes limitation and what practices might help us recover the beginner's valuable not-knowing.
Key Topics:• Shunryu Suzuki's journey and the unexpected gift of ignorant students• The curse of knowledge: why experts often can't teach or innovate• Functional fixedness and the limits of categorical thinking• Ichi-go ichi-e: every moment as first and last• Socratic ignorance and learned unknowing• The somatic dimension of beginner's mind• Distinguishing genuine openness from spiritual bypassing• Practical approaches to recovering freshness of perception
Featured Concepts:Shoshin: Japanese term for "beginner's mind," the attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptionsIchi-go ichi-e: "One time, one meeting," the Japanese concept that every encounter is unique and unrepeatableEpoché: Husserl's term for the suspension of assumptions to examine experience directlyDocta ignorantia: "Learned ignorance," recognising the limits of knowledge as a path to wisdom
Essential Quote:"People who are stuck, genuinely stuck in patterns they can't change, almost always share one quality. They think they understand their situation. Their expert knowledge of their own problems becomes the prison."
Practical Takeaway:This week, choose one area where you consider yourself knowledgeable or experienced. Approach it as if you're encountering it for the first time. What questions would you ask if you knew nothing? Notice the difficulty of this exercise and the resistance your expertise creates.
Key References:• Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind• Nicholas of Cusa, De Docta Ignorantia• Plato, The Apology• Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology
About Ab Immemorabili:Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.
#zenbuddhism #beginnermind #shoshin #suzukiroshi #zenphilosophy #wisdom #ancientwisdom #philosophy #learning #consciousness #transformation #socrates #phenomenology #contemplation #mindfulness #teaceremony #japanesephilosophy #ichigochie #spiritualgrowth #personaldevelopment #meditation #selfawareness #knowledgecurse #neuroplasticity #emptiness #daoism #sufism #mysticchristianity #seekers #maaoot #philosophypodcast #wisdomtraditions #mentalclarity #genuineinquiry

195 - Memento Mori - How Death Awareness Transforms Life

What did the Stoics, the Buddhists, and the ancient Mexicans all know about death that we've forgotten?
Drake and Holly explore humanity's oldest spiritual practice: the conscious contemplation of mortality. Far from being morbid, memento mori was understood across cultures as a technology for becoming more alive. This episode traces death awareness practices from Marcus Aurelius writing by candlelight to Buddhist monks meditating in charnel grounds, from the vibrant celebrations of Día de los Muertos to the vanitas paintings of medieval Europe. Along the way, they examine why modern psychology is confirming what ancient wisdom knew all along: that our relationship with death fundamentally shapes our relationship with life.
Key Topics:
Marcus Aurelius and Stoic death practice
Seneca's teachings on the preciousness of time
Buddhist charnel ground meditation and the nine cemetery contemplations
Tibetan Book of the Dead and preparation for dying
Día de los Muertos and Aztec attitudes toward death
The ars moriendi tradition and medieval memento mori art
Terror Management Theory and Ernest Becker's insights
Modern death denial and its psychological costs
Physical practices that invoke mortality awareness
How to begin working with death awareness safely
Featured Concepts: Memento Mori: Latin phrase meaning "remember that you will die," used as a spiritual practice for cultivating presence and proper priorities Maranasati: Buddhist mindfulness of death practice, including formal contemplation of corpses at various stages of decay Premeditatio Malorum: Stoic technique of visualising potential misfortunes, including death, to reduce their power and increase gratitude Ars Moriendi: Medieval "art of dying" manuals that prepared people for death as a spiritual passage Terror Management Theory: Psychological framework explaining how awareness of mortality shapes human behaviour and culture
Essential Quote: "Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly."
Practical Takeaway: Try a simple evening reflection this week. Before sleep, review your day and ask: if this had been my last day, would I be satisfied with how I spent it? Not to create anxiety, but to let mortality clarify what actually matters. The question does the work.
Key References:
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol)
Philippe Ariès, Western Attitudes Toward Death
Sheldon Solomon et al., The Worm at the Core
Related Listening: For a complete deep dive into Marcus Aurelius, check out our sister podcast The Primary Texts, currently exploring the Meditations book by book.
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.
#mementomori #stoicism #marcusaurelius #seneca #epictetus #buddhism #deathawareness #diadelosmuertos #philosophy #ancientwisdom #transformation #mortality #consciousness #tibetanbuddhism #meditation #maranasati #maaoot #wisdom #impermanence #mindfulness #contemplation #spirituality #psychology #terrormanagement #ernestbecker #vanitas #arsmoriendi #deathpositive #contemplativepractice #westernphilosophy #easternphilosophy #personalphilosophy #philosophypodcast #wisdomtraditions #aztec #charnel #theprimarytexts

194 - The Hermetic Tradition - Egypt's Gift to Western Esotericism

In this episode of Ab Immemorabili, Drake and Holly explore the Hermetic tradition and its extraordinary influence on Western civilisation.
They begin with Cosimo de Medici's deathbed decision in 1463 to prioritise mysterious Egyptian texts over the complete works of Plato, then trace Hermeticism from its origins in ancient Alexandria through its revolutionary teachings about consciousness and cosmos. The conversation examines the Corpus Hermeticum's vision of humans as microcosms, the seven Hermetic principles, and how Islamic scholars preserved these texts when Europe had forgotten them. Drake and Holly discuss the Renaissance magi who risked everything for Hermetic ideas, including Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake, and reveal why Isaac Newton spent more time on alchemy than physics.
This episode also features listener questions on combining podcast listening with formal study, and on distinguishing transformative crisis from destructive suffering.
Ab Immemorabili — "from time beyond memory" — is a podcast exploring ancient wisdom for modern minds, brought to you by The Most Ancient Anamnetic Order of Trikala (MAAOoT).
Questions or comments? podcast@maaoot.org
For systematic training across wisdom traditions integrating mind, body, and spirit: maaoot.org
Hashtags:
#Hermeticism #HermesTrismegistus #AsAboveSoBelow #CorpusHermeticum #AncientWisdom #WesternEsotericism #Alchemy #Philosophy #RenaissanceMagic #EgyptianWisdom

193: The Birth of Philosophy - When Humanity Rejected the Gods

What did humanity lose when it traded gods for logic?
Drake and Holly explore one of the most revolutionary moments in human history: the birth of philosophy itself. Around 585 BCE in Miletus, Thales looked at a solar eclipse and saw not divine intervention but a predictable pattern. For the first time, someone asked not "which god did this?" but "what natural principle explains this?" This shift from mythos to logos transformed human consciousness forever, but something profound was lost in the exchange.
Key Topics:
The pre-philosophical world of Homer and Hesiod
Thales and the Milesian Revolution
Anaximander's concept of the apeiron (the boundless)
The Axial Age: parallel awakenings across civilisations
What mythology provided that philosophy cannot
The disenchantment of the cosmos
Integrating mythos and logos for modern seekers
Featured Concepts: Mythos: The mode of consciousness where gods aren't metaphors but lived realities woven into experience Logos: Rational discourse seeking natural explanations through observation and argument Apeiron: Anaximander's "boundless" - the first abstract principle proposed to explain reality Axial Age: Karl Jaspers' term for the period (800-200 BCE) when philosophy emerged independently across multiple civilisations
Essential Quote: "When Thales said water is the source of all things, he wasn't doing primitive chemistry. He was performing an act of extraordinary courage. He was saying we can understand the cosmos through reason alone, without appealing to divine revelation."
Practical Takeaway: This week, notice when you shift between mythic and logical consciousness. When do you experience the world as alive with meaning versus as mechanism to be analysed? Both capacities exist within you. The question isn't which is true, but when each serves.
Key References:
Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
Hesiod, Theogony
Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History
G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven & M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers
Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.
 
#philosophy #ancientgreece #greekphilosophy #presocratic #thales #mythology #logos #mythos #axialage #consciousness #wisdom #ancientwisdom #homer #hesiod #miletus #transformation #spirituality #seekers #contemplation #rationality #cosmology #meaningmaking #disenchantment #sacredworld #personalphilosophy #mindfulness #awakening #historyphilosophy #westernphilosophy #maaoot

192: Sacred Geometry - Why Certain Shapes Appear in Every Tradition

Why do identical geometric patterns appear in cultures that never had contact with each other?
Drake and Holly explore the mysterious universality of sacred geometry, from Egyptian pyramids to Tibetan mandalas, revealing how certain shapes and ratios appear across all human civilizations. They examine scientific evidence that these patterns exist at every level of reality - from quantum particles to galactic structures - and discuss why human consciousness seems naturally attuned to recognise and create these forms.
Key Topics:
The golden ratio in nature and architecture
Jung's discovery of spontaneous mandala creation
Islamic geometric art as contemplation tool
Platonic solids from ancient philosophy to modern physics
Cymatics: how sound creates geometric patterns
Fractal geometry in nature and consciousness
The flower of life as universal blueprint
Featured Concepts:
Anamnesis: The remembering of knowledge the soul already possesses
Cymatics: The study of visible sound creating geometric patterns in matter
Vesica Piscis: The almond shape formed by overlapping circles, representing intersection of worlds
Tensegrity: Fuller's principle of structural integrity through balanced tension
 
Essential Quote: "These patterns aren't just out there in the world. They're in here, in consciousness itself. The mandala emerges spontaneously from the psyche because the psyche itself is patterned on geometric principles."
Practical Takeaway: Begin noticing geometric patterns in nature - spirals in shells, hexagons in honeycomb, branching in trees. These observations can awaken recognition of the same patterns within your own consciousness.
Key References:
Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature
Eugene Wigner, "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences"
Buckminster Fuller, Synergetics
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

BONUS - The Primary Texts

What if you could sit with Plato's Republic, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, or the Bhagavad Gita line by line, with a brilliant guide walking you through every argument?
In this special bonus episode, Drake and Holly introduce their sister podcast, The Primary Texts. Hosted by Adam, this companion show does something rare in the philosophy podcast world: it reads the actual texts. Not summaries. Not greatest hits. Eighty percent or more of each chapter, explored in depth over episodes that run two hours when the content demands it.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Popol Vuh, The Primary Texts works through philosophy's foundational works with the care and attention they deserve. This episode features the official trailer, giving you a taste of what Adam brings to these ancient sources.
If Ab Immemorabili is the conversation about wisdom, The Primary Texts is the deep study of its source material.
Essential Quote: "Complete engagement with philosophy's foundations."
Practical Takeaway: Subscribe to The Primary Texts wherever you listen to podcasts and begin with whichever text calls to you most.
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.
#theprimarytexts #abimmemorabili #philosophypodcast #ancientwisdom #marcusaurelius #plato #stoicism #meditations #therepublic #bhagavadgita #odyssey #gilgamesh #taoism #zhuangzi #confucius #analects #aristotle #upanishads #dhammapada #hermeticism #popolvuh #primarysources #classicalphilosophy #wisdomtraditions #philosophy #consciousness #transformation #deepreading #ancientphilosophy #maaoot

191: The Dao That Can Be Spoken - Language and the Ineffable

If the true Dao cannot be spoken, why did Lao-tzu write 5,000 words about it?
Drake and Holly dive deep into philosophy's greatest paradox - how mystics across all traditions use language to point beyond language itself. From Lao-tzu's opening declaration through Wittgenstein's limits, from Zen koans to Sufi poetry, they explore the sophisticated strategies developed to express the inexpressible.
Key Topics:
The Daodejing's opening paradox and Chinese linguistic ambiguity
Apophatic theology across Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions
Nagarjuna's tetralemma and Buddhist logic
Mantras, sacred repetition, and consciousness transformation
The unpronounceable name of God
Mystical poetry as consciousness technology
Silence as the deepest form of communication
Featured Concepts:
Apophatic Language: The via negativa - speaking through negation to point beyond concepts
Anamnesis: The unforgetting of eternal wisdom already present within
Shabda: The cosmic vibration underlying all language in Hindu philosophy
 
Essential Quote: "The ineffable isn't distant or complex. It's the simplest thing, hidden in plain sight—too intimate for words, too immediate for concepts, too present for representation."
Practical Takeaway: The ineffable isn't a philosophical problem to solve but a lived reality. All mystical language is preparing you to step beyond words into direct experience - like learning to swim, eventually you must enter the water.
Key References:
Lao-tzu, Daodejing
Pseudo-Dionysius, Mystical Theology
Nagarjuna, Mulamadhyamakakarika
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

190: Gilgamesh's Failure - The Teaching Hidden in Defeat

Why does humanity's oldest story end with the hero losing everything—and what wisdom lies hidden in that defeat?
Drake and Holly explore the Epic of Gilgamesh, the 4,000-year-old tale where the mighty hero fails at every major quest. Unable to prevent his friend's death or achieve immortality, Gilgamesh's cascade of failures reveals profound teachings about mortality, meaning, and what truly lasts. The story that began literature itself suggests that failure might be our greatest teacher and that accepting limits could be the key to transcendence.
Key Topics:
Why the gods created Enkidu as Gilgamesh's equal
The transformation of grief into existential terror
Failing the simplest test—staying awake for seven days
The snake that steals immortality and what it represents
How walls outlast heroes and stories outlast walls
Silicon Valley's Gilgamesh complex
Why failure might be wisdom's prerequisite
Featured Concepts:
Two-thirds divine: Gilgamesh's ratio - mostly god but crucially mortal
The plant of youth: Lost to a snake, granting cyclical renewal instead of escape
Uruk's walls: Human achievement that outlasts human life
 
Essential Quote: "Gilgamesh failed to become immortal but succeeded in becoming eternal. He failed as a character but succeeded as a story. He failed in his quest but succeeded in showing us why the quest itself matters more than its achievement."
Practical Takeaway: Some truths can only be learned through failure. Accepting mortality doesn't diminish life—it gives it meaning. What lasts isn't the individual but what flows through us: connections, creations, stories that help others understand their own journey.
Key References:
The Epic of Gilgamesh, various translations
Mesopotamian mythology and cosmology
The flood narrative and its cultural influence
Ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

189: The Vedic Fire Altar - Consciousness as Sacred Architecture

What if consciousness could be rebuilt brick by brick through sacred geometry?
Drake and Holly explore the Agnicayana ritual - humanity's oldest continuously performed ceremony where ancient India discovered that constructing precise geometric structures in the physical world reconstructs awareness itself. Through 1,009 carefully placed bricks, specific mantras, and mathematical relationships that predate Pythagoras, practitioners have been architecting consciousness for over 3,000 years.
Key Topics:
Building consciousness through precise geometric patterns
Five layers representing levels of reality and awareness
Mathematical formulae encoding spacetime relationships
Fire as the transformative principle of consciousness
Why the altar must be destroyed and rebuilt larger each year
Sacred sound technology and mantra programming
How this influenced yoga, chakras, and Tantra
Featured Concepts:
Agnicayana: The fire altar ritual that restructures consciousness through sacred architecture
Purusha: The cosmic being whose body becomes all creation
Chit-Agni: The fire of pure awareness that transforms experience into understanding
 
Essential Quote: "The Vedic seers understood that consciousness has architecture, and that architecture can be rebuilt. Every brick matters, every breath counts, every mantra shapes the final structure of awareness."
Practical Takeaway: Consciousness isn't fixed but has structure that can be intentionally rebuilt through precise practice. Whether through physical construction, visualisation, or other technologies, we can architect our awareness - but genuine transformation requires patience, precision, and the willingness to destroy and rebuild.
Key References:
The Shulba Sutras (geometric altar texts)
The Purusha Sukta (Rig Veda hymn)
Vedic mathematical principles
Modern neuroscience on meditation and neuroplasticity
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

188: Eleusinian Mysteries - What Happened in Ancient Greece's Secret Rites

How did ancient Greeks keep the ultimate secret for 2,000 years—and why did breaking it mean death?
Drake and Holly explore the Eleusinian Mysteries, antiquity's most profound spiritual tradition that transformed everyone from slaves to emperors. For two millennia, initiates emerged claiming they no longer feared death, yet not one revealed what actually happened in the sacred hall. Through myth, possible psychedelics, and masterful ritual design, the mysteries offered direct experience of death and rebirth that changed lives permanently.
Key Topics:
The absolute secrecy that lasted two thousand years
The kykeon: ritual drink and the ergot hypothesis
Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and the intellectual elite as initiates
Death and rebirth through the Persephone myth
Sacred drama, divine light, and consciousness technology
Why Christianity ended the mysteries
Modern psychedelic research validating ancient claims
Featured Concepts:
Kykeon: The mysterious ritual drink that may have contained psychoactive compounds
Telesterion: The great hall where three thousand underwent transformation together
Hierophant: The high priest who revealed the sacred mysteries
 
Essential Quote: "The initiate psychologically, perhaps neurologically, experienced their own death and return. They didn't just understand intellectually that life and death are part of a cycle - they experienced themselves as that cycle."
Practical Takeaway: True transformation requires more than understanding - it needs experience, community, and a container. The mysteries remind us that some truths can't be spoken, only undergone, and that proper set and setting can facilitate profound, lasting change.
Key References:
The Eleusinian Mysteries historical accounts
Albert Hofmann's research on ergot and the kykeon
Modern psychedelic studies on ego dissolution
Plato's Phaedo and mystery religion references
About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.
Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org
The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.