Decoding Symbols, Yin Yang, Serpents, Satan, Olympics, Post Modernism - Jonathan Pageau | BSP 29

Jonathan Pageau is a renowned liturgical artist, writer, and public speaker. Through his popular YouTube channel The Symbolic World, he has become a sought-out interpreter of the deep patterns in stories. With his 2022 publication of God's'Dog: Monster, a graphic novel invented with his brother Matthieu Pageau and artist Cord Nielson, Jonathan proved himself a powerful storyteller in his own right. The project’s successful crowdfunding encouraged him to continue his efforts to reclaim the storytelling landscape by starting a publishing company called Symbolic World Press (SWP).

SWP’s maiden publication is The Tale of Snow White and the Widow Queen, the first of an eight-book series of fairy tales in which Pageau explores a new way of telling fairy tales: one which is both aware of our cultural moment and simultaneously committed to honoring the deeply celebratory of the roots these stories have planted in our common imagination.

Jonathan’s YouTube channel, The Symbolic World, now has nearly 200k subscribers, and the community that has developed around his listenership is an active, supportive, and talented collection of artists and thinkers from around the globe. He recently launched a new Symbolic World Website, where people can sign up to access exclusive content unavailable on the regular channel, and to engage in the Symbolic World Community for timely discussions around symbolism, literature, religion, art, and culture. The site has also begun hosting paid courses, where people can sign up for an interactive deep dive into specific works, such as Beowulf, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, and the rebirth of Christian Metaphysics.

0:00 - 1:19 - Intro
1:19 - 3:25 - Yin Yang
3:25 - 6:20 - Importance of Symbols
6:20 - 14:33 - Serpent & Staff - Caduceus
14:33 - 28:00 - Satan
28:00 - 33:00 - Inverting Symbols & Olympic Ceremony
33:00 - 42:30 - Break down of identity and Tyranny
42:30 - 47:30 - Where does Post-modernism go next?
47:30 - 50:00 - Cycle of Empires
50:00 - 52:00 - Jordan Peterson
52:00 - 57:05 - Übermensch - Friedrich Nietzsche
57:05 - 1:04:10 - Shedding Collective Identities
1:04:10 - 1:09:37 - Strategies of Revolutionary Activists
1:09:37 - 1:31:53 - A Case for Free Will
1:31:53 - 1:31:53 - Returning to Traditions, Rejecting Modernity
1:31:53 - 1:52:42 - Reviving Fairytales