A Rather Bookish Announcement!

After King Solomon, the legend of Cyprian of Antioch looms quite large in the Western Magical Tradition. A spirit conjurer and occasional summoner of the devil, Cyprian later converted to Christianity and became a Bishop before being martyred. This legend had quite some traction, as many grimoires evoked the name of Cyprian within their pages and in the title of the Grimoire itself particularly in Iberia. Taking the listeners through the Book of Saint Cyprian, is the scholar of Portuguese esotericism and author José Leitão!

Have a listen and be sure to check out my What Magic is This? Bookshop, please! Hopefully all of the show notes book recommendations will be in place and updated by October 2024, but if you have any requests for books that you'd like to purchase that I have recommended through my show notes and I haven't had a chance to change yet, please be sure to email me and I will send you an affiliate link for that title. Happy Shopping, and thank you for keeping Independant Bookshops thriving!

Southeast Asia has always been a place with many magical and animistic cultures. Perhaps no other country in the modern age has such a sycretic and extraordinary Magical environment than the land of smiles- Thailand. From spirits and ghosts to tattoos and amulets to monks and ajarns, Thailand is a place which still lives and breathes magic. Helping us get an introduction to the vast Magical world of the Thai, is author and practitioner of Thai Magic, Peter Jenx!

It's time to kick around an idea that gets brought up and used quite a bit these days. Unverified personal Gnosis are the terms used to describe a belief gained through personal subjective experience, not things which are confirmed by traditions or in groups. They usually inform the belief system of those that experience them. On this episode, we will be talking with someone whose entire practice is based around Unverified Personal Gnosis. That's right! It's the long-awaited return of author and animist sorcerer Aidan Wachter!

For the last 50 years, many people around the world but particularly in the west, identify themselves as a witch and if asked what religion they ascribe to, will say Wicca. Despite what some claim, the roots of Wicca are thoroughly modern and go back no further than the 20th century. Indeed, Wicca has been dubbed the only fully formed religion that England has given the world. Many myths and misconceptions surround Wicca, so much so that even those who claim to be a Wiccan will be unaware of many of the finer details of its origins. To set the record straight is Wiccan Priestess, author and owner of the greatest occult bookshop in the world, Christina Oakley-Harrington!

Throughout the centuries, one figure has flittered through both folkloric and fortean encounters. To some, this figure has simply been called the Devil, yet others aren't so hasty to place such an epithet on him. When we look into the past, A Dark Man has made their presence known in many ways. Some within the confines of the occult and witchcraft would even go so far as to call this Dark Man the witchfather. Digging deeper into the lore of the Dark Man is our guest, the podcaster and author of the new book Song of the Dark Man- Darragh Mason!

Without a doubt, the second most recognizable and used Tarot deck in existence is the Thoth Tarot. While many are familiar with the originator of this deck, the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley, less is known about perhaps the most important person in this decks popularity- Lady Frieda Harris. In this episode, we are focussing solely on this infamous deck, the two figures who brought it to life, and the history of it. No one knows this deck better than my guest- Lon Milo Duquette!

Grab a Snapple™ and make sure your tips are frosted, we're going back to the distant, far off time of the decade right before Y2K ended everything. The decade kicked off with a shaky start, as distrust in the government boiled over leading to all sorts of interests in what we all perceived was being hidden from us. In this episode, we are joined by Artist and illustrator Brian Giordano as we take a closer look at all the weirdness and fringe topics which fascinated the consensus culture of America. It's a totally, majorly good time.

We truly live in a golden age for Magic, the Occult and all the high strangeness that comes with it. There are many of the greatest thinkers to ever tackle these strange and weird concepts alive right now; at this very moment. Every paradigm needs its heroes and villains, but more importantly- those who broaden and illuminate the ideas which are its very lifeblood. For Magic, one person has been the greatest promulgator of thinking magically for the last 50 years- And that is Ramsey Dukes.

Most likely each and every one of us has walked into a building or a structure which had the capacity to touch something inside of you in some ineffable way. For Millenia, cultures around the world have constructed buildings which have this ability to cut through aesthetics of their appearance and bestow upon those who look upon or enter inside, a sort of spiritual reverence. How does this happen and what sort of elements make up these structures? Helping us break ground on this curious topic is the author and scholar of esotericism, Peter Mark Adams!