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 video is an edited version of the live session that took place in June 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. 

Isis Mrugalla Kalmbacher is a scholar of religion. She studied in Heidelberg, Seville, Basel, and Lucerne, focusing on migration studies, international relations, and cultural anthropology. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Tübingen, where she explores Chaos Magic as her main research topic. In her dissertation, she proposes a new approach to the Study of Religions that centres on group and organisational practices. To support this, she has developed two key theoretical tools: reality techniques and infrastructures.. 

Nils or Frater Fuchs lächelt viel 12.3 (“Frater Fuchs smiles a lot 12.3”), called “Fuchs” is an Adept and Priest of Chaos in the German section of the Illuminates of Thanateros - I.O.T. In the IOT, his main responsibilities are organising seminars for interested people twice a year, answering applications that people send to the section to become a novice, and supervising the novice trainings. At the moment, he is writing a book, which, among other things, deals with the question of what Chaos Magic actually is. 

A few questions that were explored: -What is Chaos Magick, and what is the history of CM? -How are sigils created and used in magickal practice? -The uses of CM - what are magicians actually using it for?-How is the CM community organized (or not organized)? 

The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Stephanie Shea, or the affiliated platforms. All content is presented for educational and discussion purposes in a spirit of respectful exchange. 

Music and Video Production: Stephanie Shea 

This video series is presented by Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices - www.rensep.org and Rejected Religion.