Black Hoodie Alchemy

For the final episode of 2022, I am pleased to announce that both Joe Rupe and Tippy Patson are back! If you missed Tippy's last appearance on Episode #14 of Black Hoodie Alchemy, he's a strange yet affable redneck from Defuniak Springs, Florida that is absolutely and totally a real person. 

He and his cohorts (a group of rednecks that call themselves "a 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' of sorts") are convinced that the population of gators in the Florida Everglades are indeed the Illuminati shapeshifting reptilians, and this redneck league is calling for you to come help them capture all of them! Not only that, but Tippy is here to spread the word about the spirituality of Henry Ford, who the rednecks claim was a multi-dimensional time-traveler, something similar to Dr. Who. And if this wasn't insane enough, Tippy is also convinced the Elon Musk is the actual Devil, and that Nascar can be seen celebrated throughout time and space. It's all this and more for a bonkers interview with this redneck mystic extraordinaire!

Unfortunately, just like Tippy's first appearance, I was unexpectedly unable to make it, on account of the many epic and mysterious neo-noir-ish adventures I'm constantly tangled in. But thankfully Joe was hanging out on the beach and happy to take Tippy's call!

So in a joint venture between the shows Black Hoodie Alchemy and Lighting the Void, Joe Rupe and I bring you the second appearance of the great Tippy P. 

Joe and I would also like to give a special shout-out to the homie, Justin Otto of the Dharma Junkie podcast, for his help in the editing and production of this episode and the first appearance with Tippy. Not only did he conduct that first interview, but he's also an audio engineering wizard and we greatly appreciate his work!

And for the final half hour of the show, I take some time to talk about the Kanye West - Alex Jones conversation on InfoWars, and how absolutely batshit insane it was. While admittedly nursing the fast forward button, I actually listened through the whole thing, I heard all the bad shit people were reporting about, and I'm here to report back to you!

And yes, lastly, this will be the last episode of 2022 as mentioned! But rest assured, Black Hoodie Alchemy will be back strong with the New Year. 

And don't forget to support that underground black hoodie rap and your favorite independent artists!

(Intro)Spection - The Liberators 

Old Heroes Grave - The Liberators

Change the Channel - Legitimate x Rex Seshunz

Bout That Time - Epidemic

Joe's website

Justin's website

my website

See you next year! 

Take care.

Fellow researcher and field-investigator, Chaz of the Dead joins me to talk about some of his strange expeditions across the world, investigation the unexplainable, the psychedelic, and the horrific -- oftentimes all at once. Firstly we discuss Chaz's ground-rules of paranormal investigation, with considerations of Carl Jung, chaos magick, and classical paranormal ghost hunting but without the crosses and holy water. After this, we get into some real wild stories. 

Chaz talks about poltergeists, demonology, reports of vampiric flying serpents in modern day South Africa, and even his field investigations . He's investigated UFO hotspots in Chile (to include possibilities of Nazi hideouts from their post-WWII scramble in South America), he's also investigated the strange paranormal of the haunted mansion and a strange metal sphere near Jacksonville, Florida, that attracted government attention in the 1970s, and he talks about his experiments with LSD and psilocybin while ghost-hunting and playing with ouija boards! Chaz is a very adventurous man to the say the least, and for all the wild topics he's able to talk about, he brings a level of grounded, humorous skepticism to it all that is mostly missing from the rest of the paranormal community. Chaz isn't expecting to find the answers to all his questions, but that won't stop him from trying!

So what about psychedelics and the paranormal anyway? Would it help a ouija board to work better if you were peaking on mushrooms? Would it make you more receptive to the paranormal while walking around a haunted mansion at night on LSD? Or is it just a really wild experiment with some fun stories? The food for thought you find in here might be more concrete than you would expect. 

Hear about all this and more! We hope you dig it.

See all of Chaz's work at his website, including books, articles and interviews.

This week's featured music! Y'all know: support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!

11-11 - Umang & Kickback

Nightmare - Umang & BBZ Darney

Raw Raps (feat. Robust) - Epidemic & Dreamtek

The Karma - Babylon Warchild

Author, illustrator, and experimental esotericist Eric Millar -- The Garbage Wizard himself --returns to the show to talk about his latest work, An Assemblage of Disparate Parts. Following up our last conversation about OG comic book culture, philosophy, and mysticism, Eric's latest work is a decidedly critical strike at the concepts of the "scholar", the "professional", the "accredited", and the "accepted". Eric takes some unique approaches in his critiques as well, noting the philosophy of collage work itself, and the symbolic implications therein. 

In a way that reminded me just a little bit of Fight Club's destructive philosophical wit, I tell Eric that his latest work reminds me of something like Tyler Durden on one of his easier-going days. In this vein of thought, Eric describes what he affectionately describes as "garbage wizardry" among many other descriptions. In essence, this is an idea of trash and treasure being perspective, and how that perspective in relation to any object can serve as a deep psychological catalyst for change if used properly. In Eric's point of view, a magic eight-ball is as mystical and divinatory as you make it. Anyone can be a wizard -- even with garbage and grime -- if you apply it properly.

Eric also goes into some detail about depersonalization and what he calls "The Grey Man" persona, discussing how the two knee-jerk reactions to oppression are a desire to rebel, or a desire to blend in. As well, we talk a bit about finding self awareness through your own honest artwork, and we talk about relating to and interacting with the inner child within us all -- even shedding some light on fatherhood from Eric's perspective and the things he's learned while raising a child with his own mind so mystically-oriented. 

Lastly, we even get into the double edged sword of social medial a bit. People keep talking about the "collapse of Twitter", so Eric and I pose that if honest art makes you more self-aware, honest social media seems to be psychiatrically designed to bring some of the worst out in us. Granted, it's not completely useless and it has its benefits, but it was designed with so many existential pitfalls, that it seems as if it could be creating rampant thought-forms that are becoming autonomous in their own rights. Whatever be the case, it certainly seems like social media brings the worst out of people all too often. But we don't get on a pulpit about it, this is just one of the many existential topics discussed!

My first conversation with Eric, centered around his work, The Four Color Grimoire -- all things philosophical, esoteric, and OG comic book culture.

Eric Millar's OUTLET PRESS

my website where you can find my books, Dive Manual and Hunt Manual

This week's featured music -- support that underground black hoodie rap and all your favorite indie artists!

La La Lala - Hex One

The TV Programs You - D REV

Ghetto Guitar - uMang

Welcome back, folks! This week on the show, my friend Martin Ferretti joins me to analyze psychoanalyst, Carl Jung's legendary self-therapy journals: The Red and Black Books. Both released after his death, The Red Book represents a sizable portion of the Black Books' contents. Large, leather-bound, and full of beautifully haunting paintings and calligraphy of his innermost spiritual turmoil, Jung's Red Book is truly something like a magical tome written by a modern man of science.  

The Black Books were the rough journals he kept of nearly twenty years of therapeutic investigation into his dreams, meditations, and trance states. Like a mythological hero speaking to gods and goddesses, angels, even some demons and ghosts, Jung would work himself into an active trance and communicate with his hypnotic archetypes in order to discover epic journeys, tribulations, lessons, and triumphs that actively played roles in his daily life. The story today is almost something like a hard-nosed, disciplined man of science allowing himself to go on one of the truest NeverEnding Stories of all time.  

And not only do we discuss Jung's journey of this nature, we also bring up the likes of JRR Tolkien, Dante Alighieri, Wolfgang Goethe, and Manly P Hall, showing how the investigations of our imaginal constructs through art and magick are sometimes the only way to highlight and grab hold of some of our innermost undiscovered drives, instincts, aspirations, and downfalls. Without our dreams, our art, and plans and projects, we would implode under the weight of our un-mined potential. Truly, this is the physics of the situation -- ignore it and see what happens. 

People like Jung and Tolkien didn't shoulder the weight of an existential crisis because they thought it might be fun, they did so because they found themselves at a place in their lives where it had become unavoidable. So, rather than avoid it at all costs, they strapped up and dove headfirst into the abyss so that they might tame it!  

As Jung himself once wrote, borrowing from Goethe, “This is the fund of unconscious images which fatally confuse the mental patient. But it is also the matrix of a mythopoeic imagination which has vanished from our rational age. Though such imagination is present everywhere, it is both tabooed and dreaded... It is considered the path of error, of equivocation and misunderstanding. I am reminded of Goethe’s words; ‘Now let me dare to open wide the gate/ Past which men’s steps have ever flinching trod.’ …Unpopular, ambiguous, and dangerous, it is a voyage of discovery to the other pole of the world.”  Come with me if us want to dive. 

This week's featured music -- support that black hoodie rap and your favorite independent artists! 

Intro - Hex One 

Model Citizen - Babylon Warchild (feat. Black da Plague & Fresco P) 

The Gates of Babylon - Babylon Warchild 

Fire in the Sky - Babylon Warchild 

Don't forget!  Dive Manual: Empirical Investigations of Mysticism 

Hunt Manual: 21st Century Demonology & Forteana 

Martin Ferretti's The Alchemical Mind

As a follow-up to last week, I will be reading the chapter after the excerpt I read last! Both from my book Hunt Manual: 21st Century Demonology & Forteana. Last week was mostly about serial killers and some cult leaders, and this week will mostly be about cult leaders and then some serial killers -- and of course, this will all focus on their occult obsessions, and we'll attempt to analyze these stories from a Jungian perspective. Discussing names and cults like Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite, Adolfo Constanzo, Lori Vallow, Teal Swan, the Order of the Solar Temple's strange story, and we even happen to get into the stories of Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski. Although not a cult leader or follower, his tale is woven in as a carry over from last week -- and in a curious way, his connections to the Genovese crime family wound up borderline-esoteric and cultish at times, especially when it came to his "friend" Roy DeMao of the "Gemini Lounge". 

What are some of the symbolic, psychological underpinnings of the most heinous and charismatic cult leaders? Why might they do what they do, and how do reasonable, educated people fall for these things? It's much more complicated than using a blanket-diagnosis of mental illness. Certainly mental illness is at play here more often than not, but doesn't nearly everyone these days have some sort of diagnosis? How mentally ill must you be to fall susceptible to a cult? While we might be able to point out clear-cut cases of extreme scenarios, the grand scheme is not nearly as black-and-white. One thing however is for certain: whether people are cult leaders or followers, they are all desperately searching for something, and our willing to do whatever it takes to find it. 

This week's excerpt is not posted on my website or anywhere else, so if you'd like to read it you'll have to grab a copy of my book, but feel free to read last week's excerpt right here.

This week's featured music -- support black hoodie rap and your favorite independent artists!

Fire in the Sky - Babylon Warchild

Supreme Vishnu - Arkeologists x Unknown Mizery

Mumbai Wi-Fi - Arkeologists x Unknown Mizery

The Taj Mahal - Arkeologists x Unknown Mizery

For our discussion this week, I am reading an excerpt from my book Hunt Manual: 21st Century Demonology & Forteana. While the book covers a wide variety of subjects, all under the umbrella-topic of the "unexplainable and horrifying", this excerpt will focus mainly on serial killers with some cult leaders peppered in. And mainly from the perspective of analytic psychology as espoused by CG Jung.

A skeptic would say that it is negligent and foolish to consider spirituality in a court of law, and while I don't think something as non-empirical as spirituality has a place in a courtroom, that doesn't mean that spiritual principles don't have their effect on someone that ends up in a courtroom. Perhaps it is too sensationalist to consider a serial killer to be possessed -- but the fact remains that we can find occult obsessions in the stories of serial killers more often than not. Take Jeffrey Dahmer, who attempted to built an altar of skeletons, or Ted Bundy, who consistently spoke of his "entity" that followed him. But then again, let us not forget David Berkowitz, who cartoonishly thought demons were communicating to him through dogs. What other killer stories are there of strange occultism, how much of it is a lie, how much of it is just delusion, and how much might we be able to consider as truly occult? Whether or not you want to use words like possession or demons, nefarious occult obsessions cannot be denied when it comes to studying the dark minds of history's serial killers. 

Honestly, even if someone were to irrefutably prove that a serial killer had been possessed, I don't think it would or should change anything about law and criminality as we know it. Sorry but life is creepy, and if anyone can be possessed by any sort of demon, don't expect for that to prove your innocence! As someone that believes in some level of metaphysical influence--whatever it be--I think crimes should be paid for regardless.

Names mentioned will also include Richard Ramirez, Israel Keyes, Henry Lee Lucas, John Wayne Gayce, Danny Rolling, Richard Chase, and more! 

This week's featured music -- don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and your favorite independent artists!

Fire in the Sky - Babylon Warchild

The Karma - Babylon Warchild

Realities - String Theory (Hex One x BBZ Darney)

Hidden - Epidemic x Jesse James

the excerpt I read from today

This week Miguel Conner and his cohort ol' Moondog join me from Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio! These guys are veterans of the game -- life, esoteric study and practice, even broadcast -- and I am always eager to have a conversation with them. And while this episode is being released on Halloween, and the holiday will be mentioned here and there, don't be discouraged to listen to this any time of year! The three of us have done some sort of Halloween Special for the last two years and we couldn't help but make our own trilogy with this addition!

Throughout the conversation, Miguel and Vance help me understand some of the finer points of Gnostic history and philosophy. Where does Gnostic history start, what do the Mysteries of Antiquity have to do with it, what is the significance of apocryphal Biblical gospels, and what does this all mean for us in today's era? What did the Gnostics exactly believe and why were they so focused on Yahweh, the Abrahamic god, being a tormentor? Did they just think that he was incompetent as a god, or did they think he was sincerely evil? And what does that mean for Lucifer? Historically speaking, it's easy to see why the Catholic church had a deep distaste for the spiritual skepticism of the Gnostics, but it is for this very reason that Gnostic philosophy thrives today. In a way that is historically unique and poignant, the Gnostics tackled the idea of cosmic and existential terror head-on, attempting to truly grab the bull by the horns in their own ways. To the Gnostic mindset, it would appear that every day is an existential test equivalent to the Buddha sitting under the bodhi, tempted by Mara. And who's to say that it isn't? 

After all, what's more terrifying than the prospect of a flawed higher power?

The featured music this week! As always, support that underground black hoodie rap and all your favorite indie artists out there:

Farm Complex - Babylon Warchild (feat. Chief Kamachi)

The Gates of Babylon - Babylon Warchild

Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio (youtube for live streams)

Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio (podcast on spotify, apple, etc)

My past years' Halloween Specials as a guest on Aeon Byte:

Talking about Clive Barker and Horror Philosophy

Releasing Hunt Manual for last Halloween

This year I guested on The Secret Teachings with Ryan Gable for another Halloween Special

This time around, Keats Ross of the PragMagick podcast is here to get our fingers deep in the dark recesses of our unconscious minds, doing some kinds of ghost-busting that you've probably never considered before! Yes, we'll be celebrating the Halloween season a little bit -- and for most you that are listening to this outside of October, don't be discouraged! The content is applicable to any season, but it's just so fitting right now. Yes, it's gonna be a form of hungry-ghost-busting! Keats talks to us about his multi-media work that he's entitled "Haunt Manual" discussing the aspects of our characters, our egos, our minds, and our lives that haunt us. 

We talk quite a bit about both eastern and western esotericism, discussing ritual and ceremony in drug rehabilitation and other forms of therapy, the archetypes of hungry ghosts and demons and angels, and the alchemical process of rooting around in our own minds in order to purify and renew what we've thrown away through trauma and misunderstanding.

We also talk a little bit about Keats' history growing up with his father, a man who hosted a show very similar to the ones Keats and I host! Through his father, Keats met as a child prominent names such as Robert Anton Wilson and even Timothy Leary, which helped to inspire his own pursuits to this day.

Pull the cosmic trigger: search back through the stories and art that inspired you as a child, forgive yourself for your mistakes, stop letting nostalgia and regret torment you, and dig deep into your psyches to forgive and renew the aspects that haunt you.

Happy Halloween season to ya!

Check out all of Keats' material here: 

Haunt Manual's released chapters, audio and written! 

pragmagick.com 

The featured music this week is all courtesy of Keats Ross and his artistic alter ego, Dakota Slim -- an ego that is brought up plenty throughout this conversation of ours: 

Wasted Bones - Dakota Slim 

Cactus Crown - Dakota Slim 

MORE COSMIC HALLOWEEN HORROR FOR YOU!

my Halloween Special 2022 with Ryan Gable on his show, The Secret Teachings

my Halloween Special 2020 with Miguel & Vance on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio! Talking all things Clive Barker

my Halloween Special 2021 with Miguel & Vance on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio! Talking about my book Hunt Manual

After a two-week break, this next episode picks up right where the last left off: discussing and investigating the outer limits of strangeness! Joined by my friend, Fortean investigator Bob Antone, we discuss some of the stranger and creepier stories he's encountered throughout his life in North Bend, Washington with his wife Laura. 

Laura is a native of the First Nations Dene people, and having both been raised in the area, Bob and his wife have been heavily steeped in the native shamanic and folkloric customs and traditions. Bob is the kind of guy that knows so much about these things, he has to at times be careful about the way he speaks, so as not to damage sanctity and sacredness of these lesser known native beliefs. In other words: he can't tell us everything, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have plenty to say! 

We warm up with a little bit of talk about paranormal encounters and Sasquatch --including some of Bob's personal stories-- and we bring up serial killers of the Pacific Northwest like Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, and Israel Keyes. If we're careful not to sensationalize, and we're careful not to fall for silly legal defenses, isn't there a possibility that some of these serial killers might be influenced by some sort of ominous metaphysical influences? We're not trying to draw any dangerous conclusions here, but we do discuss this a bit, even bringing up known accounts of Ted Bundy's childhood home in Tacoma being haunted!

Lastly, we hash out some of the details of what exactly a skinwalker is, and what genuine "black magick" or "dark arts" are. Not pointing to one specific deity and saying, "bad", but considering the real archetypal underpinnings of using metaphysical mindsets for nefarious things. 

We hope you enjoy a chat we tried to make exceptionally creepy for the Halloween season -- but don't be discouraged to listen to this episode any time of year either!

The music used in this week's episode is from Bob and Laura's folk-blues band, Tinkham Road! The versions played in the show are the acoustics, but I also strongly encourage you to check out the studio sessions linked here in the show notes!

Red Door Red Door Come on Thru - Tinkham Road

Tomorrow Brings Another - Tinkham Road

Intro - Hex One

Additional Notes: 

Bundy's Demon - Dr. Katherine Ramsland

This time around, the show gets pretty X-Files-ish with my colleague, AP Strange -- a writer, researcher, investigator, and collector of Forteana. Strange gives us a brief history of Charles Fort and the ideas of "Fortean" investigation and phenomena, which essentially encompasses anything unexplainable with some shades of specificity that we'll get into. 

Armed with an impressive Fortean library, AP Strange knows well about eclectic researchers and their strange obsessions throughout the years, whether it be UFOs, cryptids, or poltergeists, and this man can easily be considered a walking Fortean library himself. Additionally, he's had his own wild Fortean experiences that he tells us about, and he recommends further topics of research that you may not have ever heard of. 

Phantom clowns abducting children? Silent black helicopters and an outbreak of cattle mutilations? Poltergeists, Loch Ness, and spontaneous combustion? What about UFOs and abductions and Men in Black? We've got it all in this episode as well discuss the unexplainable, the surreal, and where to draw the line with your own mental health. Being fascinated with these things is all a part of the human experience -- we love folklore and mythology and trying to figure things out for ourselves -- but we must be careful to not slip headfirst down the rabbit hole, losing ourselves in paranoia and the foolish quest for the ultimate truth. Where do these things come from? Is it all in our heads, or something more? What about both options?

Check out AP's website!

New Old School - Cowboy Matt Hopewell (AP Strange)

my website

This week's featured music! Support that independent black hoodie rap, and all your favorite independent artists!

Intro - Hex One

I Am (feat. Reef the Lost Cauze) - Babylon Warchild

The Gates of Babylon - Babylon Warchild

Seasunz (feat. Melanin 9) - Epidemic