Early Winter 2020

Great Salt Lake experienced her final glimmering sunset today, succumbing to a long struggle with chronic diversions exacerbated by climate change. She was born 13,000 years ago to Lake Bonneville, who occupied the basin previously, and the Holocene Ep …

In 1992 when my years working in the adventure travel world came to a close, my Aunt Greta hired me to help CATALYST with ad sales and collections. A few months into my new job, mid-production, our art director left. How would we get to press? I rememb …

The door to the former bank vault is slightly ajar. In the adjoining, low-ceilinged room, Sohrab Mafi stands below a pair of light-box pictures of bright blue skies partly clouded, struggling to explain irfan, a nuanced mystical concept. We’re in the b …

In the two previous articles in this series we discussed how environmental justice is geographically driven and how redlining established some of these disparities. In this article we will conclude with a look at three different communities across the …

There has been no better teacher during my time as a human on planet Earth than the garden. To be fully immersed, connected and involved with the secret world of creation has been nothing short of mystical magic. Indeed, it’s a magic that can be descri …

I was heading out for some quick exercise, scanning the library audio books for something good when I saw it: Stress Less Accomplish More, Meditation for Extraordinary Performance (2019: William Morrow) by Emily Fletcher. The title was 100% uninspiring …

In 1992 when my years working in the adventure travel world came to a close, my Aunt Greta hired me to help CATALYST with ad sales and collections. A few months into my new job, mid-production, our art director left. How would we get to press? I rememb …

Sophie wearing the same pants as Greta on the front cover of the December 2020 issue. The last time I took a giant leap like this, I was 23 years old and had just started working for CATALYST. This was seven years ago. Something big had just come to an …

Talking about our differences is urgent, exciting, and even dangerous. But our commonalities appear to be so numerous as to be beside the point, part of the status quo, or so obvious that talking about them might be predictable, boring, or even worse, …

I came to realize that one factor in particular—the search for something beyond normal experience—characterizes life in the Great Basin. Many people don’t just find themselves living here: They are here for a reason, even if that reason is sometimes my …

In mid-October we launched our campaign inviting you, the reader, to help us financially to bring this final issue to print. We also invited readers to leave memories and reflections, along with words of farewell for our departing staff, as John and Gr …

1          Average temps today: high 43º, low 28º. Sunrise: 7:32am. Sunset: 5:00pm. 2          Planting outdoors in December in Utah? Yes! The seeds of many pollinator-friendly flowers actually perform best if strewn about now (that’s all—no digging); …

In the space amidst the spirit, the body and the soul, there is a veil space. The veil space, the fourth state of consciousness or pure consciousness, is the definition of turiya in Eastern traditions. Turiya appears as the top dot in the “OM” symbol. …

Osho Zen Tarot:  Creativity, Intensity, The Miser Medicine Cards: Buffalo, Lizard, Spider Mayan Oracle: Language of Light, Etznab Ancient Egyptian Tarot: Queen of Swords, The Hermit, Princess of Cups Aleister Crowley Deck: Princess of Swords Prince of …

I’ve been writing columns for 40 years with the Salt Lake Tribune, The Event, the Logan Herald Journal, NEO, Utah Magazine, Network, a bunch of weeklies, long forgotten internet-only publications and, of course,  CATALYST Magazine for the past 30-some …

I think I can write,” I said. I had been working at CATALYST for some time as the office manager. “Ok,” Greta replied, and gave me an assignment on the spot. Granted, it was a small assignment. But I made the most of it. I was in my 30s and had neither …

I n January of 1982 I decided—out of curiosity—to try a yoga class. In a pink-carpeted room in the back of the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, I experienced my first post-asana high. My first 90 minutes of gentle poses, including a generous guided relaxatio …