Arnemancy

I am joined by Dan Attrell, the massive mind behind the Modern Hermeticist YouTube channel, which includes the vast and ever-growing Encyclopedia Hermetica. He is currently working on his PhD in Renaissance history at the University of Waterloo. He has gone out of his way to share tons of his knowledge and learning with his impressive audience, and is also known for translating some amazing materials from Latin.

In this episode, we discuss Marsilio Ficino, and in particular Dan's translation of Ficino's De Christiana Religione, On the Christian Religion. We discuss many topics and themes in Ficino's life, including the highest goal of mankind, the immortality of the soul, the nature of reason, the supercelestial world, and the question of whether or not there even was a Platonic academy in Florence. We also attempt to make some sense of the tangled historical events unfolding around Ficino's life.

The Intermission and Beyond

We ran into a really bad recording problem in this episode. About 25 minutes in or so, Dan's Canadian internet connection gave out on us! We had to pick up the conversation the next day. I filled in the gap with a reading from De Christiana Religione that Dan was kind enough to provide.

The background music during Dan's reading is "But We Shall All Be Changed" by Matt Anthony. Thank you, Matt!

In part two, Dan and I begin by talking about Aristotle and Plato and their reception in Medeival and Renaissance Europe, but then we get a few tangents, and then we spend time with our favorite mad monk, Savonarola!

Notes and Things to Look Up

Links

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Dr. James Russell joins me for the third episode in my series on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Dr. Russell is a book historian in Phoenix, Arizona. He completed his doctorate at the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University in the UK. James is interested in how material texts shape spiritual experiences. Focusing on early modern esoteric and contemplative literature, he studies the traces readers have left behind in books and manuscripts in order to reconstruct the reading experiences of the past.

In his dissertation, Dr. Russell wrote, "Instead of merely being viewed as an art object, the HP was a text in which readers engaged extensively with both word and image."1 We discuss the HP as a used text as evidenced by its marginalia, like a "humanist activity book" filled with pen-and-paper intellectual games, whether or not the author intended it to be.

James also leads us through an exploration of several of the commentators of early editions of the HP, including two alchemists, a botanist, and Pope Alexander VII. This conversation opens up so many new avenues that make this remarkable book worth exploring and enjoying.

When James first approached me, he mentioned The Book that Nobody Read by Owen Gingerich. Gingerich attempts to trace the influence of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus using marginalia. I was also a fan of Gingerich's book, so I knew right away we would have plenty to talk about. Please enjoy this episode and don't be afraid to write in your books!

Links

Citations and Resources

Here is a list of sources that Dr. Russell used in preparing his notes for the interview.

Primary Sources

On Marginalia:

Other Secondary Sources

On Aldus Manutius and the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Russell, James Charles (2014) `Many Other Things Worthy of Knowledge and Memory': The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its Annotators, 1499-1700, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10757/ ↩

This is the second part of the 2021 Forecast episodes! Once again, I am joined by my two very amazing friends, cartomancer T. Susan Chang and astrologer Andrew B. Watt! In this episode, we cover July through December of 2021. You can find part one here.

2020 was a rotting radioactive carcass, belching toxic fumes out of a larger burning radioactive carcass, and when Andrew and I did our forecast last year, we were far too optimistic, even when the cards and charts showed us some scary stuff. This time, hopefully we are all more realistic.

Note that there are two special treats for you accompanying this episode:

T. Susan Chang

T. Susan Chang bought her first tarot deck at a Barnes & Noble in New York, where she moonlighted as a reader while working in academic publishing. After leaving the city, she took her practice underground for many years, re-surfacing in 2015 and taking up the systematic study of esoteric correspondences in tarot.

Her interest in tarot is wide-ranging and passionate, and has included:

She attempts to learn Hebrew approximately once every 15 months and has been known to spontaneously arrange her pancakes into a Tree of Life formation.

When not engaged in tarot-adjacent activity, she teaches writing at Smith College, and writes occasionally about food and cookbooks. She lives in western New England with her husband, two children, and a variable number of chickens.

Andrew B. Watt

Andrew Watt is an astrologer, poet and artist living in western Massachusetts. He works in textiles, wood and words to produce objects for practical magic and mysterious practicality, and seeks the honest wisdom found in the life of an artisan.

Other Links

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy

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The new year is upon us! Once again, I have invited friends to help me try to forecast the future. Here is the exciting part: I am joined by my two very amazing friends, T. Susan Chang and Andrew B. Watt! Together, we create a forecast for 2021 using astrology from Andrew and Tarot cards from Susie.

2020 was a rolling pile of crap, set aflame in a giant dumpster painted like a TARDIS, and when Andrew and I did our forecast last year, we were far too optimistic, even when the cards and charts showed us some scary stuff. This time, hopefully we are all more realistic.

Part 1 of the Forecast covers the first half of 2021, from January to June.

Note that there are two special take-aways from this episode:

Andrew B. Watt

Andrew Watt is an astrologer, poet and artist living in western Massachusetts. He works in textiles, wood and words to produce objects for practical magic and mysterious practicality, and seeks the honest wisdom found in the life of an artisan.

T. Susan Chang

T. Susan Chang bought her first tarot deck at a Barnes & Noble in New York, where she moonlighted as a reader while working in academic publishing. After leaving the city, she took her practice underground for many years, re-surfacing in 2015 and taking up the systematic study of esoteric correspondences in tarot.

Her interest in tarot is wide-ranging and passionate, and has included:

She attempts to learn Hebrew approximately once every 15 months and has been known to spontaneously arrange her pancakes into a Tree of Life formation.

When not engaged in tarot-adjacent activity, she teaches writing at Smith College, and writes occasionally about food and cookbooks. She lives in western New England with her husband, two children, and a variable number of chickens.

Other Links

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy

Listen on Podcrypt

This episode of the podcast visits the Abaton of Asklepios to incubate a dream from the god for the purposes of healing. This is not a typical episode, and is intended to be used as an episode to help you get to sleep while also performing dream magic and oneiromancy.

The first segment of this episode will give you instructions on preparing your ritual space and explaining the ritual. Relevant parts of those instructions are included below just in case you want to get a jump start on things before listening to the episode.

The second segment is the ritual itself. I look forward to hearing feedback about this episode. Please send me reports of your results with this new and unusual experiment!

Preparing Your Abaton

To prepare for your dream incubation, you will want the following items available.

Incubation Ritual Steps

These steps are explained in the podcast and are typed out here to make things easier for you.

My Gratitude

This is a very different sort of episode and it stretched my skills and got me to work in new ways. I couldn't have done it without the help of these fine folks:

Sources

Links

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There is a good chance that you are already familiar with my guest on this episode. Sam Block, AKA @polyphanes, is the prolific genius behind the Digital Ambler, his blog covering a wide swath of esoteric and occult topics. Earlier this year, he took on the ambitious project of completing his own translation of the third book of the Corpus Hermeticum, the collection of classical philosophical texts that forms the core of Hermeticism.

We begin this episode with a discussion about the nature of the Corpus Hermeticum and the Hermetica in general, and then we get into Sam's project. We talk about his inspiration, the challenges of the translation, and what he learned through the experience. We discuss stories of creation in the Hermetica, how we use Hermetic concepts in our practices, and how to learn this stuff.

This conversation ranges from the relaxed to the serious, from the frivolous to the deeply thoughtful. I am releasing it the week of Thanksgiving in the United States in the hopes that our conversation will add something special to everybody's lazy holiday.

Links

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Rafa Martinelli is a musician, podcaster, sound healer, and meditation guide. His intuition and curiosity led him to transcendental experiences which awakened in him the quest to remember who we are and how to become more of who we are. In this episode, he joins me from Uruguay to discuss his spiritual journey and how we can address the great secret of our true nature.

Rafa's story is fascinating, and involves adventures and travels with a Taoist doctor of Chinese medicine. We discuss psychedelics, spiritual dimensions, meditation, surrender, and how our ego tends to get in the way.

Links

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy

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This is the audio-only version of the 2020 HALLOWEEN SHOWDOWN live episode that I recorded with Alexx Bollen of the Alexxcast. We had a number of special guests, including Stephanie Quick, Wesley Martusewicz, and Charlie Claire Burgess of the Word Witch.

The original was broadcast live on Halloween 2020 on YouTube. You can watch the original video at this link.

Links

Scott Gosnell recently finished translating his seventh Giordano Bruno book, Song of Circe & On the Composition of Images. Through this long process, he has become more familiar with Bruno's work than probably 99.9% of the people on the planet. We have talked many times on this podcast and the Arnemancy blog about how brilliant Bruno is, and Scott's insight into this Renaissance genius has influenced his understanding of the modern world.

In this episode, we discuss not only Scott's work on Bruno, but the state of the world today, how we can make sure our information about the modern world is good, and how we can start preparing for an uncertain future. He discusses the importance of looking for diverse perspectives in order to understand the information bubbles we all live in, and how other ways of looking at things can help us find new ways to think.

Here in the United States, the national election is right on top of us, and there are plenty of whispers about the uncertainty of this country's future. Scott's advice for evaluating politics through a broader lens and intelligently planning for the future meshes well with my season one conversation with Andrew Watt in Wizards of the Future and can help you take a closer look at your own preparations.

Scott Gosnell is an entrepeneur, scholar, and startup consultant who helps with risk management and personal coaching.

Links

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy

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Returning regular guest Alexx Bollen joined me in Creston Park in Southeast Portland for a socially distant interview. Our primary topic was dealing with depression during the COVID-19 lockdown, but we got into a number of different topics, including synchronicities, chaos magic, microdosing, and Randonautica.

Note that there is some wind noise and plenty of background park noise in this episode. We recorded outdoors and it had been a while, so unfortunately we just have to live with it!

We discuss the general state of Portland during the lockdown. What's it like on the ground? Where are the people? How are the parks? What happened when the federal government invaded our city? When we get into the politics, we really just wanted to make a few things clear:

Alexx and I both acknowledge that none of you are here to hear us talk about politics, and for that we apologize. But politics gets into our occult communities, and if we are not paying attention, then suddenly we get Neo-Nazis and alt-right assholes running corners of our occult world.

Though Alexx and I both had mixed results with Randonautica, we brainstorm some interesting techniques for expanding upon the theme. One that I think is a worthwhile effort is to combine the random destination of Randonautica with the defixio technique from Patrick Dunn's Magic Power Language Symbol. If you are in Portland, Oregon, join me in trying this out at ///senses.deflection.lived.

Links

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy

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