Welcome to the 300th episode of Rune Soup! They grow up so fast, eh?

To celebrate the occasion, I had two options: The first was to hold a big party and then slip on a magic ring mid-speech, vanishing before your very eyes. The second was to invite onto the show perhaps the most-requested guest, John Michael Greer.

And really this timed very well because John has a new book out called The Occult Philosophy Workbook: A One Year Course In The Secret Wisdom. Plus we're looking at a whole new year a few days away. Plus we're doing a very special six month premium member course at the beginning of next year called The Foundations which -as the name suggests- is a comprehensive course on all the foundational magical practices from setting up altars to casting circles to scrying and all of that. I'll be taking you through exactly how I do All The Things.

So with all this going on, John and I have a conversation at the Venn overlap of all these territories: What are the essential skills of a (broadly speaking 'Western') magician and have they changed over time?

• Get The Occult Philosophy Workbook here.
• AND ALSO... the good people at Aeon Books have offered Rune Soup listeners a discount of 20% off any book purchased from their website until December 31, 2022. Use the code OP20 at checkout.
• John's blog and website, Ecosophia.

A Christmas tradition to rival eggnog and embarrassing yourself at the office party, this week we once again have the astrological forecast for the first half of 2023 with the incomparable Austin Coppock.

Enjoy!

Greg Carlwood from The Higherside Chats joins the show for a countdown of the 10 best conspiracy books of all time. UFOs, technocracy, CIA coups, predatory capitalism, ancient aliens, Big Pharma, elite networks… here's the list!

Some you might expect. Others you most definitely will not. And half the fun is hearing the justification for why one book made it into the list and another didn't.

I had a blast with this one. Enjoy!

The one and only Julio Cesar Ody returns to the show for our annual Halloween special!

Julio joins us from his native Brazil for a fascinating romp through his country's magical landscape: Spiritism, Umbanda, Quimbanda, Candomblé. The impact of Diaspora African frameworks, Amazonian plant spirits, ayahuasca. The impact of Catholicism and the role of the saints. The disastrous impact of modern, evangelical Christianity. It's all here!

Spooky season's greetings to you all. Thank you so much for listening.

• Julio's book, Magister Officiorum.
• Julio's website, Figueria Mágica.
• Figueria Mágica on YouTube.
• The thesis/article Julio mentions: Umbanda, Uma Religião Sincréta e Brasileira.

The good Doctor Knowles makes a welcome return to the show this week.

We talk about the presence of nineteenth century occultism in the pulps, how those pulps influenced the superheroes of the twentieth century, Watcher cults, imperial worldviews and the synchromysticism of the apocalypse.

A freewheeling romp for all!

• The Secret Sun.
• The Secret Sun on Patreon.

This week we have the first triple-header of the energy healing dialogues. Brian Wilkins returns to the show with first-time guest, Jess Waters.

Jess and Brian are principally responsible for creating and maintaining a weekly intention group based on the principles outlined in Lynne McTaggart's Power of Eight.

So we discuss their respective paths through various healing modalities, how they came to intention-based work, what it's good for, how it might work and what its efficacy implies for the cosmos at large.

Really scintillating chat. Excellent stuff with some excellent people.

Enjoy!

• Jess and Brian's substack, Banhe.
• Brian's website.

This week, returning guest Brandt Stickley joins us for another instalment of our energy healing dialogues series.

We discuss how Chinese medicine sees the human energy body/ies, the antiquity of the system, how it works, what it works best with and the attitude or ways of thinking that characterise TCM. In particular, we look at what even am meridians, how TCM understands human organs, polarity and all that good stuff.

Enjoy!

• Brandt's website.
• Brandt's Patreon.

One of my favourite books of the year is Jerry Kantor's Sane Asylums. He joins us this week for an equally-scintillating episode.

We explore how homeopathy works, the 19th century heyday of homeopathic psychiatry -including the successful treatment of Abraham Lincoln's widow's 'incurable madness' with three months of homeopathy. And we find out just how it was homeopathy was erased from history and why. (Spoiler: Money.)

Really great stuff. 

• Get Sane Asylums.
• Jerry's website, Vital Force Health Care.
• Jerry's publishing website, Right Whale Press.

The legendary Eileen McKusick joins us this week for the next Rune Soup Energy Healing Dialogue.

We discuss the origins of biofield tuning, how it and other forms of sound healing work, what it's best for and what other modalities it best supports. A fantastic discussion with a true healing pioneer.

Enjoy!

• Biofield Tuning Store.
• Biofield Tuning Website.

Jenx returns to the show with his latest and best book, The Thai Occult 2.

We catch up with what’s been going on with Jenx’s ongoing cultural survey and research on and with various Ajarns, we talk about global candle magic, Thai astrology, talisman, doll magic and why you might want to live in a graveyard for a month.

He also explains that this latest book is a 'living' book. Get the PDF once and you will automatically receive all ongoing updates, additional material and interviews.

Great stuff.

Show Notes

• Get The Thai Occult 2.