In this episode of the Finding Harmony Podcast, Harmony and Russell welcome two vibrant and wildly creative guests, Spiros Antonopoulos and Barry Silver. Known for their bold artistic ventures, they join forces to share a remarkable story of blending ancient spiritual traditions with modern conceptual art. Their project, Gently Down: Bathed, Beaten, and Blessed, turns everyday objects like t-shirts into sacred talismans infused with spiritual intention.
Discover how Spiros and Barry draw inspiration from the Kumbh Mela, ancient rituals, and astrological insights to create pieces that bridge the gap between the mundane and the miraculous. With humor, deep love, and genuine passion, they reflect on their collaborative journey and the challenges of intertwining art, spirituality, and friendship.
What You’ll Learn:
Connect with the Guests:
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Find your Spiritual Archetype!
Connect with Us (We love to hear from you!)
Painter + Ashtanga Yoga Teacher
Russell Altice Case began painting professionally in 1991. However, as a person who wandered from place to place for over a decade, he didn't establish a permanent studio space until settling in San Francisco. In 2016 he has relocated his studio space to Calgary, Canada, where he resides and continues to create stunning works of art.
Russell has been practicing and teaching Ashtanga yoga for more than 25 years. An Authorized level II teacher through Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, a humble and refined teacher, Case is known for his joking spirit, and his perpetual eye toward social justice work. When Pattabhi Jois invited him to his pranayama class in 2007 he considered this distinction to be the highest grade.
First and foremost his work is convincing cynical skeptics to the efficacy of mindfulness practice, and his art work is distinctly post-structuralist as it weaves a range of intertextual connections and cultural motifs through its field of view.
That is to say..
Who are we looking at all these things?
Where does the seer reside?
Who is the one doing the looking at all of these things?
Finding Harmony Host / Coach / Spiritual Wellness Teacher
Harmony Slater is a Spiritual Wellness Coach whose mission is to support spiritually-curious entrepreneurs with “science-backed woo” to create a deeply fulfilling life and a business they love.
She's a National Board Certified Health Coach, Certified in both Quantum Coaching and in the Mastery Coaching Methods. She's also Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, one of less than 20 women in the world to hold this honour, after training in India for 15 years.
She began travelling to East Asia in 2002 to study Buddhism, after completing two degrees in Philosophy and Eastern Religious Studies. In 2004, I began a life-long love affair with India, spending the next 15 years living there for extended periods of time immerse in Yoga practice, Vipassana meditation, Ayurveda, and Philosophy.
For the past 20+ years Harmony's been focused on sharing these deeper teachings + practices of multidimensional wellness to support women around the world in eliminating midlife burnout + restoring joy, to create a life and wellness business that nourishes both their soul and bank account. She's taught workshops and retreats in over 30 different countries.
She’s the host of the Finding Harmony Podcast, an active Board Member for the non-profit organization Yoga Gives Back, and has been featured in two anthologies on yoga, pregnancy, and motherhood in: ‘Yoga Sadhana for Mothers’ and ‘Strength and Grace: A collection of Essays by Women of Ashtanga Yoga.’
Barry Silver is a yogi, wanderer, and conceptual artist whose creativity flows across diverse mediums. His work is deeply inspired by immersive experiences in Japanese, Indian, Mexican, and South American indigenous cultures, as well as transformative psycho-spiritual journeys. With years devoted to studying, practicing, and teaching yoga, Barry weaves Eastern mythology and philosophy into his art, creating pieces that resonate with depth, meaning, irony, and wonder. Explore more of his work here:
Weird Mystic
Spiros Antonopoulos works as a designer, astrologer, visionary yoga instructor, space holder, consecrator, occultist, and tea maker.
By definition, I am a weird mystic.
Meaning that I am always investigating the luminous, often hidden in plain sight, and yearning to be uncovered. The centrality of my workings is exploratory creations and practices that I call "weird mysticism"—with 'weird' referring to non-ordinary and open-ended phenomena, and 'mysticism' pointing towards contemplation, self-surrender, and spiritual apprehensions beyond the intellect. My purpose is the cultivation, sharing, and shedding of light, luminescence, and pliant, wild buoyancy.
Consecration is the act of opening to grace, allowing the sacred to transform the ordinary and imbue it with the sublime.
Through consecration, we step outside ourselves—our default mode network, the habitual patterns that shape our sense of self. We purify our intentions, cleansing ourselves in the holy river, which is a mirror of the stream of our everyday lives. We invite grace to inspire us, give hope and guidance, revealing beauty and sacredness as the world truly is. And we ask for blessings to weave this light and inspiration into something you can bring into your own life.
My masala chai has been celebrated by Bon Appétit, the Beastie Boys, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
With decades of experience practicing and teaching the essential rhythms of Ashtanga yoga, I use it as scaffolding for cosmic stability. A decades-long study of Darshan yoga sha… Read More