Occult Confessions

Why does anyone believe that Bill Gates is an anti-Christ attempting to "mark" the population with a CoVID vaccine? In the special episode, Rob invites microbiologist Dr. Matt Hatkoff back to talk about the surge, the pandemic, vaccines, and conspiracies.

Our modern vampire is most directly descended from Bram Stoker's Dracula, but where did Stoker get his vampire from? The answer is not as easy as Vlad the Impaler. In fact, Vlad doesn't have very much to do with Dracula at all. Our modern vampires are the product of a variety of sources including fiction, legend, a literal vampire epidemic in the 18th Century, and Lord Byron's personal physician.

The Malleus Maleficarum, King James's Demonology, and Ludovico Sinistrari's Demoniality were all central texts for establishing how demons might have sex with humans and to what ends. Who were the Nephilim involved in these unions and how can a supernatural demon fornicate with a natural human? In this episode, we explore the philosophy of the succubus and incubus.

Chinese alchemy is focused on the discovery of an elixir of life. Masters sought to become corpse-free, physically spiritualized, or to ascend bodily into heaven. In this episode, we trace the history of the pursuit of this elixir from the ancient Chinese magicians through the dawn of inner alchemy.

In our first ever interview-based episode, Olivia has gone around the Western world to interview four artists about how their craft is shaped by occultism. Featured in this episode: performance artist Amy Kingsmill. tattoo and visual artist Henry Hablack, actor and collage artist Nikki Hiller Henderson, and poet Flora Leask.

Episode Image: "Guardian" by Henry Hablack

Four college students have agreed to participate in a sound experiment designed to push their minds beyond the limits of human experience. Almost immediately, strange messages, inexplicable noises, and uncanny sensations begin to haunt them as the experiment threatens to take over their lives. Are they the victim of an elaborate prank, being tormented by demons, or navigating their way into a higher realm of consciousness? The truth hides deep beneath the surface of the dark pool.

John Dee was born in London in 1527 and died in 1608 or 1609 at his home in Mortlake, Surrey. He was a mathematician, astronomer, consultant to explorers, alchemist, translator of angelic language, and amassed one of the most impressive libraries in Europe gathering around three thousand books and another thousand manuscripts. His reputation as an occultist has lasted through the centuries and is perhaps his largest claim to fame today, but it belies his effort late in life to try and distance himself from the label of conjurer. Dee married three times. His first two wives were childless. His third wife, Jane Fromond, was twenty-five years younger than Dee but they seem to have had a happy marriage and had eight children together. Only three of his children survived him which is not such a surprise seeing that he lived eighty years during a time of religious upheaval, rioting, and plague. Dee's long life is especially impressive given his regular appearance at the various courts of Europe and the accusations leveled against him of necromancy and espionage. Today we are going to do a bit of skrying, seek the philosopher's stone, and elicit John Dee's occult confession.

The alchemists that inspired the myth of Dr. Faustus all shared his reputation for great learning and were accused of trafficking with the devil. In this episode, we trace a kind of family tree from the medieval friar Albertus to the Renaissance abbot Trithemius and his famous students Agrippa and Paracelsus.

Who was Hermes Trismegistus, regarded by the Greeks and Egyptians as the inventor of language, writing, religion, music, astronomy, and wrestling? Who was Hermes Trismegistus author of the eighteen tractates that came to be called the Corpus Hermeticum as well as the Asclepius and the Kore Kosemue? Who was Hermes Trismegistus, who Cicero called the fifth and final of the five incarnations of the Greek god Hermes and tutored the great Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris; who donned the Helm of Hades, a magical cap of invisibility, to slay the giant Hippolytus during the battle between the titans and the gods and who taught the Egyptians their burial rites. We go in search of the legend, the myth, the sage Hermes “thrice great.”

Live ONLINE event (no cover charge)! Join the alchemical actors (who moonlight as the live performance ensemble the Phenomenal Animals) for our original adaptation of Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror featuring radio play antics and live commentary from some of our performers. Follow the link for more information.

https://fringepvd.org/the-dunwich-horror-click-to-play.html