Future: Social 04 - Invisible Bonds

When life feels unsettled, we reach for rituals, signs and each other. This session explores the invisible bonds that connect us. Future: Social 04 - Invisible Connections When life feels unsettled, many of us reach for signs, symbols, and reassuring rituals to feel a little steadier, whether that's pulling a card, reading a horoscope, or making a wish. Increasingly, we're doing this at tarot nights, moon circles and supper clubs, which perhaps says a lot about where socialising could be heading. If people are looking for ritual, meaning and somewhere to belong, the pubs, bars and clubs that have hosted our rituals for centuries could be exactly where they find it. We look after our health by walking more and eating our greens, and Future: Social starts from the idea that time with other people belongs on that list too. Some of what connection does for us can be measured, and some of it we can only feel, so this is a night that makes space for both. Symbols give us a way into ideas too big to hold on their own. For many people, a tarot reading is a ritual of transformation, a way to pause, take stock and mark a change, and Jung saw its images as archetypes from what he called the collective unconscious. He also gave us synchronicity, his word for the meaningful coincidences that make the world feel quietly joined up. Stories work in a similar way. Fairy tales, folklore and the tales told around a fire have carried knowledge between generations and connected teller and listener, which makes it worth asking what we lose as storytelling becomes something we consume alone. And some connections happen in the moment, when people fall into step together, whether singing, dancing or raising a glass at the same time, and strangers start to feel like company. The night falls on All Souls' Night, when folklore says the veil between worlds grows thin, and we remember the people we're still tied to, so expect a little magic. Joining Claire on the panel: Victoria Smith-Murphy, Tarot & Transformation, on tarot as a ritual of change, and why people reach for one when they want a moment to mean something. Isabel Soden, Immersive Storyteller, on how fairy tales, folklore and fireside stories have carried knowledge between generations and connected teller and listener, and what we may have lost as storytelling has become something we do alone. Clive Hyland, neuroscience commentator and author of The Quantum Way, on life as energy and connection, and the invisible ties we feel between people before we can explain them. Doors 6.30pm Event starts at 7pm Talk ends 8.30pm Drinks and mingling after the panel until around 9.30 pm. Come for the magic, stay for the science, and leave tied to someone you didn't know when you walked in. Future: Social is a monthly night about the future of socialising, hosted by Claire Warner of Good Measure at Shoreditch Arts Club.