Aging And Sage-ing with Angeles Arrien, Ph.D.

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Our culture is bent on avoiding aging. There's a problem with that: Every one of us is aging every day. Of course, there are enormous gifts in growing older and wiser. Angeles Arrien worked to help bring that awareness to our culture at large, to those of us who've passed the fifty-year milestone, and also to those who are headed in that direction. "Right now we have in this culture a kind of consensus that we can only look forward to death, decline, disease, and despair. The other possibility is a time of dreaming, a time of deserving, a time of devoting, and a time of deciding." Arrien identifies the opportunities we have in the second half of our lives to move beyond obligation and say yes to our natural rhythms and deepest desires. She points to the enormous possibilities for cultural change as the generation of the sixties comes into their wisdom years. Her words open a gateway to personal possibility as well and an affirmation that we truly can look ahead to the best years of our lives. (hosted by Michael Toms)

Bio

Angeles Arrien, Ph.D. (1940-2014) was an anthropologist, educator, and a consultant to medical, academic, and corporate communities worldwide. She taught at the University of California, California Institute of Integral Studies, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and the Alaya Institute. She was the founder of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research.

Her books include:

• The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols (Arcus Publishers 1987)
• The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary (HarperSanFrancisco 1993)
• Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them (Tarcher 1998)
• The Nine Muses: A Mythological Path to Creativity (Tarcher/Putnam 2000)
• The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom (Sounds True 2005)
• Living in Gratitude: Mastering the Art of Giving Thanks Every Day, A Month-by-Month Guide (Sounds True 2011)

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• How the pace of our elder years differs from that of our younger years
• Why the character of our relationships is so different in the second half of life
• How tuning in to nature can ease the aging process
• Why we move beyond expertise in the second half of life-and what comes next
• Why some of our most treasured cultural icons found their true callings after the age of sixty

Host: Michael Toms         Interview Date: 10/13/2005         Program Number: 3116

Music Included

From Album: Honoring
Artist: various
2005 Real Music RM1279

Track - Mother's Wingspan, artist Ben Leinbach
Track - Chidananda, artist Ben Deva Primal
Track - Lotus Call, artist Ben Buedi Siebert
Track - Sunrise at the Ganges, artist Ben Karunesh