What is astrology? Is it different from astronomy? How was astrology viewed in the ancient world and Christian Middle Ages? What about astrology is forbidden to Christians and is there anything about it that is good, true, and beautiful?

Deacon Seraphim (Richard) Rohlin returns to the show to discuss all of this and more.

Find Deacon Rohlin on Twitter.com @richardrohlin

The Symbolic World: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/

Resources:

Catholic Answers: Steer Clear of Modern Astrology: https://www.catholic.com/qa/steer-clear-of-modern-astrology

Jimmy Akin: Thomas Aquinas and the Occult: https://jimmyakin.com/2020/06/thomas-aquinas-on-the-occult.html

Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea (Oxford Early Christian Studies): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198263619?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521716616?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

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Independent Tolkien scholar, Ian Gunn, joins the show to discuss an article he wrote titled, “Tolkien’s Invasion of Dragons”, which was published in Mythlore in 2025.

Have the dragons disappeared from the world or are they still lurking about? What do we even do with one if we stumble across one in our garden?

Ian and I discuss Tolkien’s belief that tales of heroic myths and legends can revivify society and restore the “memory of the high and the perilous.”

We don’t want to be invaded by dragons, but sometimes that is exactly what we need.

“Tolkien’s Invasion of Dragons” (Mythlore 2025): https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3375&context=mythlore

Joie de Vivre Journal: https://www.jdvjournal.com/

Ian Gunn can be found on Substact: Thoughts on Tolkien

Ian Gunn can be found on Twitter.com @tolkienthoughts

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What are the mysterious beings known as fairies? Can they be defined? How have fairy encounters in Europe changed over the centuries?

Dr. Francis Young returns to the show to discuss his new book, Fairies: A History, by Polity Books (2026). Dr. Young traces fairies and fairy encounters from pagan Europe all the way to the 21st Century. He argues that it is not useful to think of fairies as beings that can be proved and documented scientifically, but experienced through a type of perception. Have we moderns lost this type of perception?

What does Tolkien’s conception of Faerie have to do with all of this?

How did the Reformation and the Enlightenment impact fairy belief?

We discuss all of this and more in this episode of IMBIF.

Fairies: A History: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=fairies-a-history--9781509566778

Dr. Young can be found on Twitter.com @DrFrancisYoung

His substack is Francis Young

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Follow me on Twitter @AaronIrber

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A bold, new story for the 21st Century.

Charles Shoultz has had the dream to write a modern story that would rival the great tales of old. He has finally begun to release his story in pieces, like an old magazine serial. Let me tell you, he does not disappoint.

Writer and poet, C. A. Shoultz joins me on the show to discuss his first book, Technocracy. We talked about his background in poetry as well as the background to his story.

This has the potential to be something big, so check it out!

Follow Shoultz on substack: C.A. Shoultz

The website to find the story is here: https://www.cashoultz.com/

Find C. A. Shoultz on Twitter.com @HarrierMagnus

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In this episode, I am joined by the award winning fantasy author, Tim Powers, and my friend, iSamwise, to discuss Tim’s newest book, The Mills of the Gods (Baen 2025).

We talked about pagan gods, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Scriabin, and all of the weird things going on in post-WWI Paris.

Enjoy!

The Mills of the Gods can be found here: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781668073018/9781668073018.htm

iSamwise has a YouTube channel that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@iSamwise

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In this special episode, I am a guest on Thomas Mirus’ Catholic Culture podcast. We discussed Tolkien’s darkest story, The Children of Hurin.

Thomas gave me permission to publish the episode on my own show as well. The original episode was published here: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/tolkiens-darkest-tale-w-aaron-irber/

Thomas Mirus can be found on Twitter.com @CatholicPods and on Substack Thomas Mirus

Here are the original notes from the Catholic Culture podcast:

The darkest, and perhaps most underrated, story J.R.R. Tolkien ever wrote was the tale of Túrin Turambar, a great man of the First Age of Middle-Earth, whose life was ruined by the curse of Morgoth (Tolkien’s Satan-figure) and by his own pride. The tale, which resembles a Greek tragedy, was given its longest and most satisfying version in the posthumously published book The Children of Hurin.

Aaron Irber, host of a podcast “about stories, myths, and Catholicism”, joins Thomas to discuss this underappreciated work by Tolkien.

-Aaron’s podcast, I Might Believe in Faeries

Theme music: “Franciscan Eyes”, written and performed by Thomas Mirus. Download the Catholic Culture Podcast soundtrack.

Today, I am joined by my friend Gregorio Montejo to discuss a subject that has caused a minor controversy in the world of re-enchantment and Traditionalist Catholicism. I am talking about a book titled Mysticism, Magic & Monasteries: Recovering the Sacred Mystery at the Root of Reality (Os Justi Press, 2024) by Dr. Sebastian Morello. In this book, Dr. Morello argues for the integration (possibly re-integration) of neoplatonic and hermetic thought into the Church. What does this mean? What does this look like? We discuss all this, critiques of the book, and much more.

Gregorio Montejo can be found on Twitter.com @KtistecP

Gregorio’s substack, Past Master, can be found here.

Books by Sebastian Morello:

Mysticism, Magic & Monasteries can be found here.

The World as God’s Icon can be found here.

Morello’s Critics and Responses:

Hermetic Tradition or Catholic Tradition? A Critique of Sebastian Morello by Matthew Minerd, Thomas Mirus, Matthew Scarince

Dialogos on Magic with Drs Morello and Minerd from The Meaning of Catholic

In this episode, Susannah Black Roberts returns to the show to discuss the best books we read in 2025. We talked a lot about C. S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Patrick O’Brian, Tim Powers, and others. We discussed how some authors are able to depict “holiness” in their books and what that can do to the reader.

Check it out!

Susannah is the editor of both Plough and Mere Orthodoxy and she can be found on Twitter.com @suzania

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“Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, the actual head of the family, was a typical Dorimarite in appearance; rotund, rubicund, red-haired, with hazel eyes in which the jokes, before he uttered them, twinkled like a trout in a burn.”

I am joined by Carla Arnell, Professor of English at Lake Forest College, to discuss the almost unknown fantasy novel, Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. We discuss the plot of the book, the characters and the Catholic sacramental themes that permeate the novel.

Neither of us are kidding when we say this is one of our top favorite fantasy novels of all time.

Professor Arnell wrote a paper on Lud titled, Lud-in-the-Mist as Memento Mori: Existential Anxiety and the Consolations of an Aesthetic Theology in Hope Mirrlees’s Fantasy Novel.

Professor Arnell’s faculty page: https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/arnell

Divine Representations: The Rise of the Mystical Novel in Twentieth-Century England https://sunypress.edu/Books/D/Divine-Representations

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A lot of ink has been spilled over the Catholic and religious underpinnings of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Pretty much everyone knows this by now, but very few have probed the depths of how the liturgy and the Catholic Mass influenced the very foundation of Middle Earth. In this episode, Professor Ben Reinhard joins the show to explore Tolkien’s deep liturgical roots in his book, The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination.

We also discuss how to initiate a hobbit into true religion! You just need Elves and the oldest song-slinging being in Middle Earth (Tom).

The High Hallow: https://stpaulcenter.com/store/the-high-hallow-tolkiens-liturgical-imagination

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