Oddcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

In this episode we dive into the qualitative time propounded by western astrology. Following the trail of the planetary week, we are led to explore ancient gods, planetary orderings in antiquity, astrolatry, the planetary hours, and more.

We discuss the short life and extraordinary poetry of the American author Sylvia Plath. Dorka Tamás is our guide into the places where Plath's poetry, emerging from the `high disenchantment' of the American cold war era, strays into the magical fields where poets of all ages receive their inspiration. Featuring a cameo appearance from W. B. Yeats.

William Gallois was looking through hundreds of photographs of the city of Qayrawān, in modern-day Tunisia, from the period of French colonial occupation. He started to notice strange paintings in the backgrounds of these pictures ...

In this episode we discuss the figure of the Antichrist as he appears in a number of countercultural movements, notably the Christianities of Böhme and Blake. Krista Muratore is our guide to this troublous figure (who cannot figure out which side he's on) and his long career as a harbinger of the end of troubles. Come for the ancient apocalyptic literature, stay for the B-movies and AI-tycoons.

We are joined by Yousef Casewit to discuss one of the lesser-known spiritual masters of the Andalusian tradition, Ibn Barrajān. We explore his life, times, and writings, his extraordinary spiritual practice of ‘crossing over’ into the unseen, and his disquietingly-accurate prediction of the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem.

Jason Josephson-Storm returns to the SHWEP to discuss one of the most influential thinkers on modern western esoteric movements – Sir James George Frazer, author of The Golden Bough – and where, precisely, J.G.F. might fit within western esotericism itself.

Having laid out fairy-magic as a genre, and discussing some of its characteristics, we are delighted to speak with Daniel Harms about the people and social circumstances behind the texts and practices of fairy-magic.

Did you know that there is a whole practical and occult-philosophic corpus dealing with the summoning and controlling of faeries? Samuel Gillis Hogan tells us about his research in the archives of early-modern British faerie-magic.

Say no more.

Manichæism had a very distinctive eschatological theory. Join us as Håkon Fiane Teigen leads us down the Three Paths trod by the Manichæan dead: one leading up to the heavens, one down to the hells, and a third back into incarnation again and again.