STARGAZER: a podcast about astrology, alchemy, and magic

In this episode, the esoteric scholar Ronnie Pontiac returns to talk about his latest book: The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic.

• How an OG episode of Star Trek inspired Ronnie’s first religious experience. 
• Why the Orphic Hymns have been called “the most powerful form of magic.”
• Personal stories of real magical results from the Orphic hymns. 
• How Aeolian Heart was born from an Orphic ritual
• How the magic of the Orphic Hymns gave birth to the Renaissance
• The Orphic Hymns and Marsilio Ficino.
• Orpheus with a thousand faces: a savior, hero, coward and narcissist
• Orpheus' underworld journey and its symbolism.
• Orpheus' legacy and impact on written history. 
• How Orpheus has always been countercultural 
• How Orpheus inspired Christianity 
• What Orphic initiates believed about death and the after-life.
• Why the phrase: “I am the child of earth and starry-heaven” is the password to eternity.

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32I met Tony Dushane a couple years ago when he enrolled in my class on creative alchemy. It was inspired by the idea that artists are alchemists: explorers of the invisible realms and spiritual healers. And like alchemy, the power of art transforms and transmutes. As I got to know Tony, I learned how his life-story is a beautiful demonstration of art as alchemy. 

Tony was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, an apocalyptic Christian sect that most people describe as a cult. For the first 20+ years of his life, Tony was a true believer: pained by the urgency of the last days, knocking on doors, and living in an ideological echo chamber. 

But by the time I met Tony, he was an avid student of magic, astrology and alchemy. And he’d experienced a rare level of success as a writer, publishing a novel based on his life called Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. 

His book captured the attention of the actor/director Eric Stoltz, who turned it into a movie. 

Through the art of writing, Tony’s life story was submitted to the alchemical process: heartbreak and tragedy uplifted into comedic and romantic nostalgia. And the film was the final transmutation.

I wanted to interview Tony because I was so curious about what it was like growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, why he left that world behind and how he became an artist.

In our interview, we discuss…

* How his friend’s suicide triggered his ideological awakening

* How the public library was a sanctuary that “literally saved his life” 

* Creative writing as a “conversation with the ancients”

* Needing therapy after leaving the church

* What it was like making a movie with Eric Stoltz 

* His astrology chart, how the planets reveal his artistic gifts

* His current relationship with the Bible and the teachings of Christ

* AI and corporate greed as the enemy of art

* Why writers should never be afraid to write “shitty first drafts”

* And why he teaches a free writing class at the Los Feliz Public library 

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The visionary artist and esoteric scholar, Marlene Seven Bremner has returned to discuss her second book: The Hermetic Marriage of Art and Alchemy: Imagination, Creativity, and the Great Work.

In my opinion, this book is even more amazing than her first. It’s a devotional text for artists, an inspiration to heal and evolve through your own creative process. But any student of art history or esoteric philosophy will be greatly enriched by the journey that Seven takes you on.

The Hermetic Marriage is an exploration of imagination through magic and art, uncovering how the ancient alchemical symbols of planets and metals reveal the nature of the creative process. 

Reading The Hermetic Marriage is a pleasure, led by the light of eternal beauty and a taste for poetic genius. Seven’s rich imagination avoids any academic dryness or inaccessibility because her history is alive, tapping into the immortal spirit of the artists that have left an indelible mark upon the world. And her research is densely woven, going deep enough into the heart of the subject matter to satisfy any scholar.

Quintessence of a Day’s Dream, oil on panel, 2021

Illuminated by her breathtaking paintings, Seven travels through time in search of the eternal spark that artists have always sought to capture in their words, images, and songs. She demonstrates how artists are alchemists: great explorers of the invisible realms and scientists of spirit.

Alchemy fell into disrepute at the dawn of the Enlightenment in the late 17th century. This began a very dark age, starved for mystery and devoid of spirit and soul. Alchemy was reduced to chemistry. And nature itself was reduced to a world of dead matter. Beneath the shadow of the Enlightenment, artists began taking corrective actions, guided by the light of imagination to restore the knowledge of spirit and soul.

Beginning with Romanticism and concluding with Surrealism, Seven explores the greater alchemical process that was at work in the evolution of these artistic movements. And these centuries old discoveries of imagination continue to inspire the greater alchemical process that’s healing the spiritual maladies in the 21st Century.

In this interview, Seven and I discuss:

• What is imagination?
• Why is it so important to work with the planets?
• How the alchemical process reunites spirit and soul
• The difference between astrology and therapy
• How the evolution of Romanticism, Symbolism, Dada and Surrealism represent the four stages of a cultural alchemical process.
• How the Romantics rediscovered the wilderness of imagination
• How accepting melancholy as part of the artistic temperament helped Seven to overcome her feelings of alienation
• Understanding alchemy as a series of processes, not a linear progression
• How the modern condition of ennui goes back to the industrial era
• How the Great Work leads to self realization and gnosis

Buy The Hermetic Marriage of Art and Alchemy: Imagination, Creativity, and the Great Work.

Follow Marlene Seven Bremner

Website: https://marlenesevenbremner.com/ 

Follow Seven on Instagram
Follow Seven on Facebook

Sign up for Marlene ‘Seven’ Bre

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• How the freewill taught in the Law of Attraction is solipsistic
• How pure fatalism erodes agency and choice
• Why so many astrologers wrongly predicted the 2016 election
• How the 24,000+ asteroids have become a part of Lori’s practice
• How personal will relates to Divine Will
• How awakened imagination is connected to Divine Will
• Lori’s fascinating history as a psychic
• And her training as a high level remote viewer in Project Stargate

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Original article appeared on aeolianheart.com

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Ronnie Pontiac is an accomplished artist, musician, filmmaker and esoteric scholar. I would describe him as a 21st-Century renaissance man, not just because of his diverse talents and interests but because of his significant role in the re-birth of the mysteries and esoteric wisdom in popular culture. 

And after many decades of research, he’s just recently published his magnum opus American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric & Mystical Traditions of the New World.

American metaphysical religion is explored as a diverse ecology of ideas and traditions that have blended into something unique. Some of it is recognizable in the mythos of the American Dream. You see glimpses in the philosophy of American exceptionalism. And in the nearly maniacal optimism of the American spirit.

But there’s more to American Metaphysical Religion and this book expands in every direction, becoming a kaleidoscopic genealogy of mysteries and magic.

This book traces 500 years of lineages working their way into the roots of American spirituality. The unique syncretism of Indigenous, European, African and Asian influences has been the subject of many studies on art and music. But this dilates upon the reality that art and music are the flowers that blossom from a deeper network of spiritual roots.

In the melting pot of America, a unique metaphysical religion has developed beneath all the dominant narratives and dogmas that have tried to suppress it. 

In this interview with Ronnie, he describes how “American metaphysical religion” is an academic term that is trying to point at something ineffable, mysterious and omnipresent that underlies official science and religion.

Ronnie is a quiet and thoughtful person to speak with. And our conversation unfolded for over 2 hours, where we discussed…

• His upbringing as an atheist and how this shaped his initiation into spiritual awareness.
• How Jesus became a shamanic deity in the New World.
• How the American attitude of cool has its origins in Yoruban tradition. Being cool is a Yoruban spirit of royalty that found tremendous life in the New World.
• Ghosts and mediumship, including how long scientists have been interested in contacting the afterlife by means of technology. And how Thomas Edison’s unrealized invention of the Spirit Phone has found new life in an invention called the Soulphone ™.
• How new religious movements are born through memes.
• The miraculous revival of the cult of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess whose feline spirit represents a fierce aspect of the divine feminine to bring balance to this chaotic age. 
• The cult of psychedelic salvation, the pros and cons of all the healing rhetoric that has made psychedelic drugs into an industry.

 If you’d like to learn more, buy a copy of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric & Mystical Traditions of the New World today!

Follow Ronnie Pontiac on Instagram 

Follow Ronnie’s weekly astrology forecasts on Medium

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Originally published on aeolianheart.com on April 20, 2023

Support the show

Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/aeolianheart

Article originally appeared on aeolianheart.com

Support the show

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Audio of an article that originally appeared on aeolianheart.com on February 19, 2023

Support the show

Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/aeolianheart

Audio of an article that originally appeared on aeolianheart.com on January 20, 2023

Support the show

Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/aeolianheart