Mondo Bizarre Magazine Essays, Raquel Pinheiro, The Listening Room HQ

The Smiths, Seneca, and the Corrosion of the Soul

15th-century illuminated manuscript,  Seneca Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

The Smiths, Seneca, and the Corrosion of the Soul is my new essay is at The Listening Room HQ The Listening Room HQ – my men’s practice – site

In Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius) Seneca warned Lucilius that busyness, ambition and external success can quietly erode the inner life.

The Smiths, Seneca, and the Corrosion of the Soul starts from a line in The Smiths’ Frankly, Mr. Shankly: “It pays my way, and it corrodes my soul”.

The post explores Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius, the modern cult of busyness, creativity, masculinity, and the hidden cost of lives lived in perpetual motion.

Through The Smiths, Seneca, Stoicism, Mal Evans, creativity, grief and modern life, this essay explores the hidden cost of endless activity asking if the things that pay our way may also corrode our souls.

What happens when productivity, success and endless projects begin to erode the very instrument through which we experience life: the soul?

Read The Smiths, Seneca, and the Corrosion of the Soul: https://www.thelisteningroomhq.com/2026/07/the-smiths-seneca-and-corrosion-of-soul.html

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Essays, Raquel Pinheiro, The Polymath

New Moon In Cancer, July 2026 – The Womb and the Sanctuary & One Year of The Listening Room HQ at The Polymath

Johfra Bosschart – Cancer, 1974/75

In New Moon In Cancer, July 2026 – The Womb and the Sanctuary & One Year of The Listening Room HQ – my men’s practice and The Polymath sister site – my new post on The Polymath the Cancer New Moon of July 2026 meets the first anniversary of The Listening Room HQ, exploring home, family, sanctuary, sovereignty, creativity, and the slow architecture of belonging. You can read it on The Polymath site:
https://www.thepolymathisme.com/2026/07/new-moon-in-cancer-july-2026-womb-and.html

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Raquel Pinheiro, The Listening Room HQ

One Year of The Listening Room HQ at The Listening Room HQ

Marc Chagall, The Birthday, 1915

One Year of The Listening Room HQ, my men’s practice, that offers sessions for men, and maps and reads for everyone.

One year after its birth, The Listening Room HQ first birthday post is a reflection on men, mental health, healing, accountability, creativity, nature and the many paths back to ourselves. It’s written from my personal experience and perspective. You can read it here: https://www.thelisteningroomhq.com/2026/07/one-year-of-listening-room-hq.html

To everyone who has read, listened, written, reflected, challenged, encouraged and walked alongside this project: thank you.

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Raquel Pinheiro, The Polymath

Field Notes – Porto, The Mountains, and Human Crossings at The Polymath Site

Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I, 1903-1907

Field Notes – Porto, The Mountains, and Human Crossings my new post on The Polymath site https://www.thepolymathisme.com/ is a lived note on Porto, exhibitions, transport hubs, mountains, symbolic conversations, creativity, and the unexpected human crossings that open new possibilities, and of how, often, the path appears afterwards. It can be read here.

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Raquel Pinheiro, The Polymath

The Listening Field: Creativity as Navigation at The Polymath

Rob Robertson – Listening Field

The Listening Field: Creativity as Navigation is the new post on The Polymath.

A luminous, subtle guide to creativity as navigation. Learn how artists, polymaths, and creators can open, listen, and translate inspiration without forcing output. Presence, resonance, and subtle alignment guide the process. You can read it here.

The Listening Field: Creativity as Navigation pairs with The Listening Field: How Men Heal When They Are Truly Heard at The Listening Room HQ.

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Raquel Pinheiro, The Polymath

On Polymath – Hildegard von Bingen as a Source of Continuous Inspiration

Hildegard von Bingen – Visions

Hildegard von Bingen has been a source of wonder for me – and for countless others – across the centuries. Her life and work span theology, music, natural science, and creative practice, and her integrated approach to knowledge still resonates deeply today. For example on Hildegard von Blingin’ s cover of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.

On my second post on The Polymath I explore how her visionary thinking continues to inspire ways of living and working as a polymath, and how her example invites us to connect the threads of our own diverse interests. Read more about Hildegard von Bingen as a Source of Continuous Inspiration here:

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, Raquel Pinheiro, The Polymath

My site The Polymath – Me as a Polymath

Johannes Vermeer – Officer and Laughing Girl – 1658

On Being a Polymath is my first post on The Polymath my site on being a Polymath and all things Polymathic.

On Being a Polymath is a post about exploring curiosity, depth, and the art of connecting ideas at the heart of being a Polymath. Polymath is a space, for my endless curiosity on a number of subjects.

On Polymath creative lives, maps, and readings that illuminate threads often unseen are explored. Each reflection is an invitation—to expand perspective, engage intuition, and cultivate resonance across disciplines.

Whether you are a musician, writer, artist, or thinker, the journey is about integrating insight, practice, and imagination. Polymath journeys through tools, readings, and reflections that support your exploration and inspire your own creative path, as well as mine.Polymath is a companion of The Listening Room HQ, that also has a dedicated area to maps & readings.