Today I have the real pleasure of speaking with a cherished friend and inspiration, Manda Scott. She’s a best-selling author, teacher and host of the fantastic podcast, Accidental Gods, and has written about historical fiction, shamanic practice and emerging, thrutopian futures.
A beloved author, perhaps best known for her Boudica: Dreaming series, Manda’s also a smallholder and formerly worked as a veterinary surgeon. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Edgar and the Saltire Award, and she has won the McIlvanney Prize.
If you’ve been following her work, you’ll know that she has very recently released an extraordinary new book: Any Human Power, a shimmering clarion call that dreams into being a new mythology of interpersonal power, eco-societal agency and democratic governance.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced copy, and I couldn’t put it down. And so, especially in the light of the recent UK elections, I wanted to interview her about her vision for a new, life-affirming way of interbeing that enables us to move into more regenerative, participatory and agentic systems of governance, relating and nature-connection.
If you’re not yet familiar with Manda’s work, do listen to some of the Solstice specials we’ve recorded over the years along with Della Duncan, they’re beautiful episodes that give you a more intimate look into the ways of dreaming, thinking and being that Manda offers.
SUMMARY
In this conversation, I speak with the brilliant Manda Scott about her compelling new book - Any Human Power - and the many ways in which we can harness our social, imaginal and political agency to create pathways towards a more flourishing future for all.
From the concept of initiation culture and trauma culture, to the importance of grounding and centering practices, we discuss the challenges of navigating our modern contexts how we might cultivate healthier, more connected states of being. We touch on the concept of interbecoming and the value systems that may lead to emergence, along with the importance of gratitude, compassion, and joyful curiosity.
We also discuss the concept of death as a rite of passage and the need to reimagine our relationship with mortality, and dive into the power of intention and the creation of rituals and relationships that foster resilience and agency.
KEY THEMES
- How to harness our social, imaginal and political agency to create pathways towards a more flourishing future for all
- How to identify and overcome Wetiko, the sickness of exploitation
- Initiation culture and trauma culture
- The importance of grounding and centering practices
- Inter-becoming and value systems that lead to emergence
- Gratitude, compassion, and joyful curiosity
- Connectedness and trust in the web of life
- Death as a rite of passage and reimagining our relationship with mortality
- The power of intention and the creation of rituals
WEBSITES
BOOKS & OTHER RESOURCES
- Any Human Power - Manda Scott (https://linktr.ee/anyhumanpower)
- The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession - Robert Falconer (https://amzn.to/3YLStK2)
- Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman - Malidoma Patrice Some (https://amzn.to/4deVoQ3)
- Humankind: A Hopeful History - Rutger Bregman (https://amzn.to/3yp9b7B)
- History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity - Roman Krznaric ( https://amzn.to/3SE9PVl)
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants -
- Robin Wall Kimmerer (https://amzn.to/3Ahcr5x)
- Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking Paperback - Tyson Yunkaporta (https://amzn.to/46XuERX)
- Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy - E. Glen Weyl & Audrey Tang (https://amzn.to/3WGwrGf)
- Dreamworks Project - Sarah L Kent (https://www.sarahlkent.com/dreamworks-project)
CHAPTERS
00:00 Exploring the global human psyche
03:00 Initiation culture and trauma culture
07:35 Grounding and centering practices
20:10 Navigating social media
29:43 Interbecoming and emergence
36:20 Cultivating gratitude, compassion, and joyful curiosity
50:20 Embracing death as a rite of passage
54:39 The power of intention and rituals
01:05:27 Imagining and building a future rooted in different values
