Arnemancy

By Erik L. ArnesonSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Spirituality History Philosophy

Arnemancy episodes

September 30, 2020Psychics and Shadows with Nicole Burron
Nicole Burron is a psychic medium, energy worker, shadow guide, death doula and grief counselor. She's been communicating with spirits and feeling spirit energy since childhood, and her current work includes a number of topics which are familiar to any serious occult practitioner. In our conversation, we cover the nature of psychic mediumship and shadow work, and discuss the particulars of working and communicating with spirits. Nicole also discusses working with ancestors and guides.
One of the fascinating things about this conversation is that the language of the psychic medium — which is not the same as the language of a ceremonial magician — frequently seems to describe similar phenomenon, entities, and methods for both work and communication with those entities.
Links
Oh-So Magical Life (Nicole's website)
@nicoleburron on Instagram
Shadow Work Journal Prompts
My appearance on Nicole's podcast

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
54 min
September 16, 2020Revisiting the 2020 Forecast
Season two is finally here, and this solo episode opens with a discussion of the current state of the world in 2020. Oregon is on fire, my city is shrouded in smoke, and the rest of the world is in difficult shape, too.
It's time to revisit the 2020 forecast episodes that Andrew Watt helped me with from January of this year. Join me in looking at what we can learn from our predictions from July through December. What's already happened, and what should we be getting ready for? We need to be getting ready to be the wizards of the future!
Finally, this episode also discusses the format of season two. What is changing? What is remaining the same? What can you look forward to? Tune in and find out!
Links
Forecasting 2020 with Andrew B. Watt (part 2)

Wizards of the Future with Andrew Watt

What is Planetary Magic?

Planetary Magic in the Arnemancy Shop

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
26 min
September 02, 2020 Season Two Trailer
The Arnemancy Podcast is back for a second season! Join the host, Reverend Erik, as he explores the practice, philosophy, and history of the occult, esotericism, and the paranormal.
The Arnemancy Podcast features interviews with historians, practitioners, and scholars to bring light to difficult topics, such as magic, the art of memory, Kabbalah, Tarot, spiritualism, Hermetic philosophy, and more.
Season Two of the Arnemancy Podcast, featuring Reverend Erik, is coming to your favorite podcast service in September of 2020.
You can also find the Arnemancy project on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook – just search for Arnemancy!
Season two of the Arnemancy Podcast promises all the explosions and twice the garden gnomes! Subscribe now!
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
2 min
June 24, 2020Sexuality and Gender in Paganism with Misha Magdalene
Author, pagan, and sorcerer Misha Magdelene joins me to talk about the intersection of gender and sexuality with magic and polytheism. Misha is the author of Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender & Sexuality in Magical Practice and is also the author behind the Patheos blog, Outside the Charmed Circle. We talk about cracking open the ways we are "programmed" to look at the world and how various esoteric practices seem like a perfect place to explore new ways of looking at the world and deconstructing concepts and cultural cues that most of us are never forced to look at very carefully.
Our conversation explores gender and sexuality across a variety of esoteric traditions, including Wicca, modern polytheism, ancient religions, Kabbalah, and more. We discuss the art of writing a book, and Misha's approach to authoring their book. We also discussed how to get started learning about LGBTQ topics and issues, and how to face the fear that keeps us from confronting components of our own identity that might be deeply significant but not of our own making.
This episode wraps up Season One of the Arnemancy Podcast. Season Two will kick off in September, and in the meantime I will be releasing some bonus material for my Patreon supporters, so head over to the Arnemancy Patreon page and check it out.
Links
Misha's book: Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender & Sexuality in Magical Practice
Find it at Amazon here.

Misha's website
Their blog, Outside the Charmed Circle
@mishamagdalene on Twitter
@mishamagdalene on Instagram
Their Facebook page
Gardnerian Wicca
Anderson Feri tradition
Annie Lynsen's Major Arqueerna

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
54 min
June 17, 2020Learning the Zohar with Justin Sledge
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Justin Sledge, a professor of philosophy focusing on the intersection of philosophy and esotericism. He studied at the University of Amsterdam's Center for the Study of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents and on top of that, he has a Ph.D. in philosophy. Our discussion focuses on the Zohar and how to study it. The Zohar is a massive text – the Pritzker edition is twelve volumes – and it is a complicated and difficult thing to study.
Dr. Sledge takes us on a journey through the history of Kabbalah and the Zohar's place in it. Our conversation includes discussion of Abraham Abulafia, Sabbatai Zevi, the Mandaeans, Moses Cordovero, Daniel Matt, and even some John Dee and Johannes Trithemius. It's a long episode and it is full of stuff!
Links
Dr. Justin Sledge's website
ESOTERICA channel on YouTube
NEW! Dr. Sledge created a Zohar Study Tips video after we recorded this episode!
Get the Pritzker edition of the Zohar!
Or start with the Midrash ha-Ne'lam in volume X!

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
1 hr 16 min
June 10, 2020Hermetic Freemasonry with Greg Stewart
This particular meeting of minds has been a really long time in coming. Greg Stewart joins me for a discussion about postmodernism, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, and the role of sacredness in everyday life. Greg and I have both been Freemasons for a really long time, and we've both been active on the Internet talking about Freemasonry, esotericism, and the Western mystery tradition for ages. Amazingly, though our paths may have come close to intersecting, somehow we have never talked before. In this episode, we change that.
Our conversation explores the early connection between Renaissance Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and the roots of modern Freemasonry. We discuss religious threads in Freemasonry and how the Masonic approach can help us be accepting of other faiths, beliefs, and approaches to life. We follow every tangent we can get our hands on, too. Expect a wide array of related topics in this lively conversation!
Links
@GregoryBStewart on Twitter
Follow Greg on Facebook
@masonic_traveler on Instagram
Greg's blog, The Primitive Rite

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
1 hr 14 min
May 27, 2020 Guest Appearance: Voicemail and Platonic Soup with The Alexxcast
I'm on the Alexxcast again! Alexx and I talk about productivity, emergency champagne, staying creative during the pandemic, and then we listen to some surprising voicemail. Here's his description of the episode:
> Welcome friends to episode 338. Tonight Erik Arneson (@arnemancy) rejoins the show to listen to voicemails, answer questions, and finally unravel the mystery of breakfast cereal.
Go listen over on The Alexxcast page, or listen here!
1 hr 7 min
May 20, 2020A Tarot Reading with Aaron Epperson
Back in the good old days of My Alchemical Bromance, we had our good friend Aaron Epperson on for a reverse interview. It was a delightful experience pretty early in my days as a podcaster. Now that I am a seasoned, salty veteran of the podcasting world, Aaron has returned to lift our spirits with another extra special appearance. Please join me, Reverend Erik, as I give Aaron his first ever Tarot reading, live on this episode!
For this reading, I used the Miniature Rider-Waite Tarot Deck from U.S. Games. I linked to the exact deck I use – it looks like there are some low-quality knock-offs of the miniature deck available, but mine is pretty nice. Since I had all of my podcasting equipment on the table, I had to use the tiny cards or there wouldn't have been any room!
Please excuse the color correction on this photo. The Hermit was in a shadow and being the masterful photo toucher-upper that I am, I did what I could to make that card more visible.
Links
Enroll in my new class: Planetary Petitions, Amulets and Sigils!
Get my other classes as digital downloads!
Reverse Interview with Aaron Epperson on My Alchemical Bromance
Book a Tarot reading with me!

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
1 hr 18 min
May 13, 2020Hypnerotomachia and Play with Ted Hand
Ted Hand is public school teacher and independent scholar of Renaissance Magic. In this episode, he discusses the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and Atalanta Fugiens as influential Renaissance texts and the culture of images. Ted discusses in particular the concept of using these image-heavy texts as vehicles for esoteric or mystical play. He discusses in particular the Atalanta Fugiens as a multimedia text and the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili as almost an architectural handbook.
This conversation ends up being a deep exploration of the historical culture of the imagination. We discuss alchemy, the Rosicrucians, early Freemasonry, Robert Fludd, Giulio Camillo, image magic, forbidden knowledge, the Art of Memory, and building a relationship with meaningful texts.
One key bit in this episode is Ted's explanation of why well-known Renaissance man and architect Leon Battisti Aberti was considered as a potential author of the Hypnerotomachia before scholars seemed to settle on Francisco Colonna.
Along the way, Ted and I discuss different definitions and approaches to meditation in the history of Western esotericism, and we talk about the role of imagination and visions in meditative practice. This in particular might be one of the greatest lesson
This episode is the second in a series on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and serves to help introduce the audience to the thinking, culture, and scholarship around this remarkable book and its lasting effect on our culture. Check below for show notes and for Ted's recommended reading list.
Links
@t3dy on Twitter
Pico and Dick with Ted Hand (podcast)
Joscelyn Godwin’s English translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Robert Dallington’s aborted English translation of 1592 (at Project Gutenberg)
Scans of the 1499 first edition of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (at the Internet Archive)
Atalanta Fugiens by Michael Maier (at the Internet Archive)
Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens (1618) with Scholarly Commentary
Arnemancy's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Series

Reading List
Bilak, Donna. "Playful Humanism in Atalanta fugiens (1618)". 2017. https://italianacademy.columbia.edu/paper/playful-humanism-atalanta-fugiens-1618
Cruz, Esteban Alejandro. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-Discovering Antiquity Through The Dreams Of Poliphilus. 2006.
Griggs, Tamara. "Promoting the past: The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili as antiquarian enterprise". https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/griggs/files/wordimage.pdf
Russell, James, Charles. 'Many Other Things Worthy of Knowledge and Memory': The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its Annotators, 1499-1700. (2014). etheses.dur.ac.uk/10757/
Rogers, Dionysius. A Renaissance Seduction of Memory: Colonna's Hypnerotomachia as Counter-Edification.
Tufte, Edward. Beautiful Evidence.
Warner, Marina. Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds: Ways of Telling the Self.
https://en.chessbase.com/post/francesco-colonna-first-human-chess-reference (same website has the acrostic)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315117781_A_Dreamt_Feast_Culinary_Marvels_in_the_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili (banquet in chapter nine, late medieval and early renaissance feasting practices)
Hasler, Johann F.W. "Performative and Multimedia Aspects of Late-Renaissance Meditative Alchemy: The Case of Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1617)", (Revista de Estudios Sociales. April, 2011). https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3439874
Szonyi, György E. "Architectural Symbolism and Fantasy Landscapes in Alchemical and Occult Discourse: Revelatory Images", in Emblems & Alchemy, Alison Adams, and Stanton J. Linden, (eds.), (Glasgow Emblem Studies, 1998).
Bolzoni, Lina. "The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo: Alchemy, Rhetoric, and Deification in the Renaissance", in Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism, (Brill, Aries Book Series, Volume: 23, 2018).
1 hr 2 min
April 29, 2020Fate and Fortune with Allen Drake
Magician, fortune teller, and notorious swamp wizard Allen Drake joins me in this episode. We open with a discussion of various forms of divination and fortune telling, focusing primarily on Tarot and astrology. It doesn't take long for us to dive into the Hellenistic astrology of Dorotheus of Sidon. Allen takes us on a wild exploration of really early approaches to astrological symbols, images, and meanings before we dive into the meanings of fate and fortune and why those words scare the heck out of people.
Dorotheus of Sidon was a 1st century CE astrologer, who probably lived in Alexandria and may have been from what is today Lebanon. His works are our oldest, best source for Hellenistic astrology and provide a fascinating window into the ancient practices that evolved into today's astrology. By exploring the works of Dorotheus, Allen has developed a rich and rewarding approach to the stars that I think you will find fascinating and enlightening.
A note on audio quality: The COVID-19 shelter-in-place situation has forced me to make a lot of changes in how I record lately, so Allen's conversation happened over the phone. I'm working hard to make sure audio quality is better in future episodes.
Links
Carmen Astrologicum by Dorotheus of Sidon, translated by Benjamin N. Dykes
Lunar Cry invitation

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arnemancy
Listen on Podcrypt
1 hr 1 min

About Arnemancy

From the publisher's feed

Explore esotericism, magic, and the occult with Reverend Erik. All of your favorite occultists, astrologers, magicians, and historians of esotericism sit down for casual and informative chats about…

Share Arnemancy

Sign up to save your podcasts

Arnemancy

Arnemancy episodes

About Arnemancy

More shows like Arnemancy

The Astrology Podcast

Hermitix

The Tarot Podcast with T. Susan Chang