My guest this month is Bob Cluness, whom I am thrilled to welcome back to the platform. Bob recently published a new article in the journal Correspondences, “The Working-Class Magus: Class, Politics, and Occult Power in John Constantine: Hellblazer” and he was so kind to talk with me about it. In this episode, we explore the cultural ecosystem that gave birth to John Constantine—from punk, Thatcher-era Britain, and the Stoke Newington Sorcerers to chaos magic, and how those anti-establishment ideas were later appropriated and transformed within modern occulture, plus much more!

Bob Cluness is a PhD candidate and researcher in the cultural studies program at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. His current PhD project deals with the relationship between esotericism and accelerationism expressed within UK subcultures in the late 20th century, the core research being a comparative and historical discursive analysis of the UK chaos magic(k) scene and the CCRU. This PhD project, including Bob’s research vectors, published articles, conference papers and teaching programs, incorporates the myriad intersections between esotericism and contemporary subcultures, such as cyberpunk, cyberspace and technology, the counterculture and the New Age, conspiracy culture, modern art, comics, zine culture, and music.

What made John Constantine the ultimate occult antihero, and whom would he confront today? Bob traces Hellblazer through the overlapping worlds of punk, British counterculture, chaos magic, and the emerging occulture of the late twentieth century. From the Stoke Newington Sorcerers and Thatcher-era politics to the commercialization of rebellion, and the contemporary struggle over occult ideas, this conversation explores how Constantine’s world was created, and why its tensions remain strikingly relevant.

An overview of the topics we cover in this episode:

• The cultural and political conditions that produced John Constantine
• Hellblazer, punk, class, and anti-establishment politics
• The Stoke Newington Sorcerers and Britain’s occult underground
• Chaos magic and the development of modern occulture
• Constantine as magician, trickster, outsider, and working-class “cunning man”
• The relationship between comics, popular culture, and occult innovation
• What happens when counterculture becomes commercially successful
• The mainstreaming, and political appropriation, of occult ideas
• Who, or what, John Constantine might be fighting today?
  
  
  
  PROGRAM NOTES
  
  Volume 13, no. 1 (2025)
  
  The Working-Class Magus:
  
  Post-punk, Industrial Culture Zines, and the Information Dark Age - University of Birmingham
  
  Search Results | History Workshop Journal | Oxford Academic
  
  (PDF) Punk, Politics and British (fan)zines, 1976-84: 'While the world was dying, did you wonder why?'
  
  Bob's Hot Tip: The Absolute Martian Manhunter: Absolute Martian Manhunter (2025-) — Read Comics Online
  
  Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea
  End Production: Stephanie Shea

Link to Patreon: https://patreon.com/RejectedReligion?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Link to YouTube Channel: Rejected Religion - YouTube

This is Part One/ Free Content of Episode 46. The full version of this interview is available for YouTube members and Patreon members; alternately, it can be purchased for a one-time fee at my Patreon page (see Shop link). 

This is the Free Content version of my interview with Drs. Sarah & Bastiaan van Rijn. To listen to the full interview, you can either purchase it for a one-time fee, or become a Patreon member.

Bastiaan van Rijn is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His current project focuses on the connections between spiritual tourism and alternative history. Before that, he wrote on the various ways in which Western individuals have tried to scientifically prove life after death since the late eighteenth century. His book, Afterlife Research, appears later this year.

* This is an audio-only version of my interview with Rufus Harrington, trustee of The Doreen Valiente Foundation. 

I am so excited to share this special conversation with Rufus Harrington about the legendary Doreen Valiente!

As a thank you for your incredible support, this interview is being released as a free bonus episode for both my dedicated Patreon members as well as my YouTube community. Happy Yule!

In this insightful conversation, I sat down with Rufus Harrington, a psychologist and long-standing practitioner of the craft, who currently serves as a trustee for the Doreen Valiente Foundation.

This interview traces the life and spiritual impact of the woman widely known as the "Mother of Modern Witchcraft." We begin by exploring Rufus’s own journey into Wicca and how his professional background in psychology provides a unique lens through which he views the evolution of the pagan community.

The Heart of the Conversation: Who was Doreen Valiente? We dive into a biography of this pivotal figure, moving beyond her titles to understand her as a poet, a researcher, and a spiritual revolutionary.

The Gardnerian Connection: Rufus distinguishes Valiente’s contributions from those of her contemporary, Gerald Gardner, highlighting how her poetic voice and ethical framework shaped the Craft as we know it today.

The Foundation’s Mission: Rufus discusses the vital work of preserving sacred artifacts, rare writings, and the personal legacy of a woman who sought to bring the magic of the old world into the modern era.

Spirituality in Practice: From the "Charge of the Goddess" to her scholarly research, we discuss the enduring resonance of Valiente's work and why it remains "alive" for practitioners in the 21st century.

Whether you are a long-time practitioner or simply curious about the history of modern spirituality, this interview offers a deep dive into the stewardship of a legacy. Rufus shares personal reflections on his role as a trustee and offers guidance on where seekers can find authentic resources to further their own studies.

PROGRAM NOTES
Home | Doreen Valiente
Books by Doreen Valiente (Author of Natural Magic)
Natural Magic: Valiente, Doreen: 8601404398032: Amazon.com: Books
THE ATLANTIS BOOKSHOP | The living history of magic
Home - Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
Lifting the Veil: A Witches' Guide to Trance-Prophesy, Drawing Down the Moon and Ecstatic Ritual: Farrar, Janet, Bone, Gavin: 9780719831621: Amazon.com: Books
What Witches Do: A Modern Coven Revealed: Farrar, Stewart: 9780719831539: Amazon.com: Books
Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches: The Founding Book of Modern Witchcraft, Containing History, Traditions, Dianic Goddesses and Folklore of Wicca: Leland, Charles Godfrey: 9781985818026: Amazon.com: Books
High Magic's Aid - Kindle edition by Gardner, Gerald . Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Books by Vivianne Crowley (Author of Wicca)
Books by Patricia Crowther (Author of Lid Off the Cauldron)
John Belham-Payne Founder of the Centre For Pagan Studies – Centre For Pagan Studies
John Belham-Payne – Gardnerian Wicca

Music & End Production: Stephanie Shea

This is the Free Content version of my interview with author Graham St. John. To access the full interview, please consider joining Patreon as a paid member, or you can purchase the episode for a one-time fee. www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. 

This month’s guest is author Graham St. John, who joined me to discuss his new book, Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna.

Terence McKenna remains one of the most enigmatic voices of the psychedelic counterculture—equal parts philosopher, performer, and visionary. In this episode, we explore McKenna’s mythopoetic “stoned ape” theory, his radical take on shamanism, the ‘teacher’ Mushroom that leads one to the ‘indwelling of the Goddess’, the mysteries of DMT and the “machine elves,” and his controversial Timewave Zero vision of history and hyperspace that embraced the I Ching and the Mayan calendar ‘2012 phenomenon.’

Beyond psychedelics, McKenna was also fascinated with alchemy and Gnosticism, and while figures like Crowley, John Dee, and Gurdjieff were not embraced by McKenna, Graham nevertheless calls him a “psychedelic occultist”—a thinker whose visions of transformation resonate with centuries of esoteric tradition, even if McKenna probably would have resisted the label. Along the way, we unpack the tension between his cult of personality and his desire for academic legitimacy, and consider the legacy he left for today’s psychedelic and occult communities.

Unfortunately, I experienced some technical difficulties with my podcasting equipment, and the sound quality is not up to the normal standard. Luckily, my brother Daniel, who does the editing for the podcasts, was able to work his engineering magic and was able to salvage the file and clean up the audio the best he could. I hope this isn’t too distracting and that you’ll enjoy this discussion!

PROGRAM NOTES:

Find Graham St. John:

Graham St John, anthropologist, cultural historian and author. Researcher of EDM cultures, Burning Man, psychedelics, biographer of Terence McKenna. Founder of Dancecult journal. Edgecentral

Publications | Edgecentral
Strange Attractor

Theme Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea

End Production: Stephanie Shea

*Note: this is the Free Content version of my interview with Bastiaan van Rijn. To hear the entire interview, please consider joining my Patreon and becoming a member; alternately, this episode can be purchased for a one-time fee. More information at www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion.

My guest this month is Dr. Bastiaan van Rijn.

Bastiaan is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his PhD, he has investigated how practitioners of different movements in the nineteenth century tried to scientifically prove life after death exists. The outcome of this project is the book Afterlife Research (forthcoming), as well as several open-access articles. Beside this, he is also interested in playful approaches to religion and divination in the contemporary West. His newest project centers on spiritual tourism.

This interview takes us into the fascinating world of Mesmerism—also known as animal magnetism—and its enduring influence on the boundaries between science, mysticism, and spiritual inquiry. Bastiaan gives a brief bio of Franz Anton Mesmer, who in the late 18th century proposed that an invisible fluid flowed through all living beings, capable of healing and revealing hidden truths. Though controversial and dismissed by many, Mesmer’s ideas sparked a lineage of thought that continues to shape contemporary conversations about consciousness, healing, and the legitimacy of scientific inquiry.

We discuss how Mesmerism blended science and mysticism, influenced public perception, and laid the groundwork for practices ranging from hypnotism and New Thought to modern-day energetic healing. Bastiaan’s own research picks up this thread, tracing how the experimental impulse to make the invisible visible evolved into afterlife studies, somnambulism, and psychical research.

From there, we dive into Bastiaan’s dissertation, which examines the emergence of a “scientific culture” in afterlife research—one grappling with empirical inaccessibility, unreliable intermediaries, and skeptical resistance. Through case studies of three spiritual animal magnetizers, Bastiaan uncovers how different strategies were used to stabilize claims and navigate the tension between belief and method.

Ultimately, this conversation invites us to rethink what counts as scientific, Bastiaan invites us to consider not just what these researchers claimed to find, but how they tried to find it, as well as how experimental practices in esoteric and spiritual domains contribute to broader dialogues about religion, and the unseen dimensions of human experience.

What emerges is a rich, transhistorical culture of inquiry—one that challenges our assumptions about science, religion, and the boundaries of legitimate knowledge.

PROGRAM NOTES

Find Bastiaan:
Bastiaan Benjamin Van Rijn - University of Fribourg
Bastiaan van Rijn | LinkedIn
Instagram

ResearchGate – all research
[PhD Diss.] The Experimental Culture of Afterlife Research: Attempts by Spiritual Animal Magnetizers to Prove Life after Death | Request PDF
(PDF) Chapter 9 Building a Typology for Intentional Transformative Experiences: Louis- Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Magnetic Somnambulism and Hashish
Bastiaan van Rijn (0000-0003-4247-9198) - ORCID

Other Resources:
1784: The Marquis de Puységur and the psychological turn in the west - PubMed

The seeress of Prevorst; being revelations concerning the inner-life of man, and the inter-diffusion of a world of spirits in the one we inhabit : Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian, 1786-1862 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Investigations of psychic/spiritual phenomena in the nineteenth century: somnambulism and spiritualism, 1811-1860

A Republic of Mind and Spirit – Wonderful history of Metaphysics in the USA

🕯️ MESMER 🕯️ (1994) Watch FULL MOVIE subtitled in English (ALAN RICKMAN, AMANDA OOMS)

 

Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea

End Production: Stephanie Shea

*Note: this is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Markus Davidsen. To access the full interview, please consider becoming a Patreon member, or you can purchase this episode for a one time fee. www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. 
 

My guest this month is Dr. Markus Davidsen.

Markus Altena Davidsen is university lecturer in the sociology of religion at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His work on fiction-based religion includes his PhD dissertation “The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu” (2014, cum laude), several articles on Tolkien spirituality and Star Wars-based Jediism, and the edited book Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fiction (Routledge, 2018). His other research interests include method, theory and research history of the study of religion and religion education. Currently, he is developing a new curriculum and didactical approach for the school subject worldview and religion in Dutch secondary education.

In this episode, Markus discusses the concept of fiction-based religion- a term he coined to describe spiritual movements rooted in fictional narratives like Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. He distinguishes fiction-based religions (FBRs) from traditional religions by highlighting their lack of historical truth claims and their embrace of narrative as a source of spiritual authority.

Markus traces the roots of FBRs to earlier movements like Rosicrucianism, noting how mythic storytelling has long served as a vehicle for spiritual exploration. He shares insights from his research into Jediism and Tolkien-inspired spirituality, examining how these communities construct rituals, ethics, and cosmologies from fictional texts.

The conversation also explores the motivations behind FBR engagement, from identity formation to aesthetic and existential meaning.

Drawing on Tanya Luhrmann’s concept of interpretive drift, Markus reflects on how belief can evolve through practice, suggesting that ritual and engagement may precede conviction.

Regarding Huizinga’s theory of Homo Ludens, Markus highlights the three kinds of human practices – work, play, and ritual, where play and ritual seem on the surface to be similar, but the difference is: with play, one knows they are playing ( “fiction-contract” as taken from Theatre Studies) whereas ritual might look like play, but it is based on assumptions that the entities actually exist (“actuality contract”). This lens helps frame fandom as a potential site of faith, where “belief” can emerge through ritualistic, creative engagement.

Finally, the conversation turns to his current project, Nieuwe werelden openen (“Opening New Worlds”), a pedagogical initiative that uses narrative and perspective-based inquiry to help students explore existential and societal questions. He reflects on how his FBR research informs this work, bridging imaginative engagement with educational practice.

PROGRAM NOTES

Markus Davidsen - Leiden University

Markus Altena Davidsen publiceert boek voor docenten levensbeschouwing - Universiteit Leiden

2014 The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction‐based Religion (full text)

Narrative and Belief | The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fictio [Book]

Markus Altena Davidsen - Universiteit Leiden [Articles]

Handbook of Hyper-real Religions | Brill

Photo Markus Davidsen by Arash Nikkah

Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea

End Production: Stephanie Shea

Esoteric Crossroads: Scholars Meet Practitioners is a new collaborative video series, launched in 2025, co-produced by Rejected Religion and RENSEP. Hosted by Stephanie Shea, each session brings together scholars and practitioners for thoughtful dialogue on esoteric traditions.

This audio replay is an edited version of the live session that took place in September 2025. If you are interested to learn more and join the upcoming discussions, please visit www.rensep.org or my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. The Free Content video replay can also be viewed on my YouTube channel. 


In this episode, scholar Sarah Nimfürh and practitioner Raisel Tejeda explore the layered world of Regla de Osha—often known (and contested) as Santería—and its intersections with Judaism, Afro-Cuban spirituality, and lived ritual. 

Topics we explore: How Jewish exile histories in Cuba intersect with Afro-Cuban poly-religious traditions 
The term “Santería”: its contested use, political weight, and the preferred name “Regla de Osha” 
Oral transmission, secrecy, and gendered limitations in research 
Raisel’s training path across multiple traditions and what embodied practice looks like 
Orishas as energies, guides, and cosmological forces 
Ritual tools, altered states, and the material language of devotion 
How practitioners adapt sacred practice to local ecologies and diasporic settings 
This conversation bridges scholarship and lived experience, offering insight into a tradition that is both deeply rooted and dynamically evolving. 

Theme Music & Video Production: Stephanie Shea

Note: This is the Free Content version of the interview with Tjalling Janssen. The full interview can be accessed as a Tier 2 Patreon member, or purchased for a one-time fee. More information at www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion.

Tjalling is a PhD researcher at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), based at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include intermediary beings, magic, alchemy and Paracelsianism, and the reception of these subjects in (early to late) modernity. He investigates these topics from an environmental perspective as well as through social categories like class. His doctoral project entails an environmental reception history of the concept of elemental beings from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century, through its manifestations in magic, alchemy, literature, mining and agriculture.

In this episode, we explore the shifting terrain of magical contact—where spirits, nature, and power intersect. Drawing from his article “Encounters, Evocations and Elemental Beings”, we’ll trace the philosophical and esoteric implications of two very different modes of engaging with the unseen: Paracelsus’s reverent encounters with elemental beings, and Dr. Rudd’s ritual evocations. Along the way, we’ll unpack the role of monsters, the ethics of spiritual mediation, and the deeper question of whether esotericism must rest on a singular, perennial foundation—or whether it can evolve, diversify, and apply to new contexts like ecology, psychedelics, tulpas, and even extraterrestrial contact. This is a conversation about relational knowing, cultural consciousness, and the future of interdisciplinary esoteric research.

I have one correction to mention beforehand; Tjalling made a mistake in his wording when he mentioned the text De Meteoris (which comes up in the discussion), in his haste to explain the temporal trajectory. In all texts before De Meteoris elemental beings have souls. They are soulless from De Meteoris onwards, but that text lacks the possibility for elemental beings to acquire souls through marriage. The Liber de nymphis introduces that, and thus fulfills the implications of reciprocity and immanence (the “seeking out” or initiation of contact) that are absent from De Meteoris.

PROGRAM NOTES

Correspondences Journal

Volume 12, no. 1 (2024)

Encounters, Evocations and Elemental Beings

Primary Source:

A Book On Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and On The Other Spirits (Paracelsus, Henry E. Sigerist) | PDF

Secondary Sources:

The Monsters of Paracelsus | Beasts, Humans, and Transhumans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

[Abstract] Cultural History Of The Four Elements

Contact Information:

Tjalling D. Janssen - University of Amsterdam

Instagram

Theme Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea

End Production: Stephanie Shea

Note: This episode was originally uploaded to my Patreon Tier 3 in August 2025. It's now available as 'open access' for all followers!

Speculative Frequencies: A Mixed Bag of Mysticism, Music & Mystery 
This ‘mixed bag’ episode dives into four rich and provocative topics:

*Occulture & Re-enchantment: A look at the Revenant Journal’s editorial on “The Occult,” exploring how mystical practices challenge dominant paradigms and foster cultural resistance through feminist, queer, and neurodiverse lenses. 

*Lux Interna’s Sonic Rituals: Reflections on a multimedia salon by the band Lux Interna, whose music and scholarship invoke desert mysticism, spiritual reckoning, and mythic storytelling. Includes themes of embodiment, wildness, and devotional resistance. 

*Feminist Witchcraft & Counter-Theology: A deep dive into Lolly Willowes and Satanic Feminism, examining how occult symbolism reclaims feminine autonomy and spiritual sovereignty. Plus, how rock music channels occult motifs for identity and transformation. 

*Forgotten Languages & Anomalous Cognition: A speculative exploration of the enigmatic website Forgotten Languages, its ties to CCRU theory-fiction, and psychological research on UAP witnesses. Themes include encrypted knowledge, post-human communication, and linguistic alienation. 

This episode has examined the intersections of sonic ritual, feminist resistance, and anomalous cognition through diverse cultural and theoretical lenses. From speculative philosophy to experiential narratives, these perspectives challenge dominant epistemologies and invite reconsideration of the boundaries between the real and the imagined. Future dialogues may benefit from interdisciplinary synthesis and critical engagement with the margins of knowledge. If you enjoyed this mixed bag, and would like to have more episodes like this, please let me know! I can certainly provide more content like this in the future. 

PROGRAM NOTES

Revenant
Introduction : Revenant

Lux Interna
news — Lux Interna
lux.interna | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree
"From My Body Alone Do I Know This": Sacrament & Scripture as Technologies of the Self in the Work of Jacob Böhme

Lolly Willowes | Project Gutenberg

Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture | Oxford Academic

Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll: Bebergal, Peter: 9780399174964: Amazon.com: Books

Forgotten Languages Full: Books 2022-2025

The Deepest Internet Mystery You've Never Heard Of (and Why It’s Now in the Congressional Record) - YouTube

Ccru- cybernetic culture research unit
Ccru - CCRU Wiki

Psychological aspects in unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) witnesses | International Journal of Astrobiology | Cambridge Core
 

 Interviews with Bob Cluness and David Metcalfe can be found in the Rejected Religion Patreon Library. www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion 

All Music by Daniel P. Shea 
Production by Stephanie Shea