Talk Gnosis

Dr. Betty Kovacs tells the story of the hidden tradition, the history of gnosis, as it winds it way through the human experience over the last 40,000 years in her magisterial book “Merchants of Light.” Dr. Kovacs joins us to talk about her book as well as her work and her life long search for the mystical. From primordial shamans to the ancient Gnostics to medieval Rosicrucians, her history of gnosis is the history of consciousness its self and she sees this history of one of hope and progress.

Get Dr. Kovac’s book and check out her work at: https://kamlak.com/

[https://ia801407.us.archive.org/30/items/consciousness-gnosis-merchants-of-light-w-dr.-betty-kovacs/consciousness%2C%20Gnosis%2C%20%26%20Merchants%20of%20Light%20w%20Dr.%20Betty%20Kovacs.mp3]

Mystic, philosopher, and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a fascinating thinker and activist whose influence only grows as the years go by. A convert from Judaism to Christianity her ideas about God’s absence and the separation of humans have startling correspondences with Gnosticism and Kabbalah while staying unique. Her life story intersects with some of the biggest events and movements of the first half of the 20th century and her mysterious death is still debated.

To talk about Simone we have the returning champions, Nina Power and Emmalea Russo (both are poets/philosophers/professors and more!) to take us through her thought.

Buy Emmaleas’ new book! Do it, it’s awesome: https://emmalearusso.com/confetti and while you’re at her homepage check out her writing and upcoming courses.

Take Nina’s course on Simone Weil: https://gcascollege.ie/simone-weil and hit up ninapower.substack.com

[https://ia601408.us.archive.org/17/items/the-gnosis-of-simone-weil/The%20Gnosis%20of%20Simone%20Weil.mp3]

Author Robert Guffey has long been an explorer of everything darkly weird and a chronicler of high strangeness—and his extensive knowledge of conspiracy theories serves him well for his new book “Operation Mindfuck,” which chronicles where the intermeshed conspiracy theories that make up QAnon come from and maybe more importantly what QAnon is for and why it exists. Hey, this is a Gnosticism podcast so don’t worry, we examine how Gnostic ideas flow through our culture and through conspiracy cultures for both good and ill.

Get the book at https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/operation-mindfuck/

Check out Robert’s homepage at http://cryptoscatology.com/

[https://ia601508.us.archive.org/7/items/qanon-conspiracy-gnostic/QanonConspiracyGnostic.mp3]

Host Jason Mehmel has been reading a lot of Aleister Crowley and Thelemic materials and

just

doesn’t

quite

get

the

appeal.

So, we’re doing something different this show, it’s not an interview, it’s not a pre-written segment. Instead we paired Jason up your fav esoteric Catholic Thelemite Talk Gnosis Champion Nic Laccetti to chat and dialogue on the topic!

[https://ia902502.us.archive.org/24/items/gnostic-dialogues-with-a-thelemite/Gnostic%20Dialogues%20with%20a%20Thelemite.mp3]

Monastic practice is powerful and transformative but we can’t all quit our life for the cloisters. That’s why Steve Dee is back on the show to tell us about his new book “Chaos Monk: Bringing Magical Creativity to the New Monastic Path” which deals with bringing the spirituality of the monastery into our day-to-day spiritual lives. And if you think this is going to be staid, Steve is influenced by both the renownedly wild Chaos Magick tradition, Gnosticism, and other powerful and “alternative” currents.

Get the book (you should really really get the book)

[https://ia902508.us.archive.org/10/items/chaosmonk/chaosmonk.mp3]

You ask the questions about Gnosticism and we do our best to answer them. Bishop Tim Mansfield joins Deacon Jon and Jason to give our Gnosis and speculation and thoughts on questions submitted by you, the audience. Profound questions are asked and we go long but I feel like there’s something in this ep that everyone will love and something everyone will hate and each of those things will be different for every listener. This one goes deep and we talk a lot about trauma and abuse at the end of the ep so here’s a few resources for any one going through similar situations or knows someone close to them who is:

Take your ACE Test

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-complex-ptsd-2797491

https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/low-cost-or-free-mental-health-services

[https://ia902501.us.archive.org/4/items/gnostic-questions/Gnostic%20Questions.mp3]

Rather than being a quirky religion from almost 2000 years ago, Gnosticism weaves its self through Western culture and history, sometimes hiding, sometimes prevalent. In her book “The Gnostic Paradigm,” Natanela Elias uncovers gnostic undercurrents in the literature of late medieval England—and she’s our guest and guide as we examine the mystical knowledge hiding in some of the most renown English literature of the Middle Ages.

Buy the book at https://www.amazon.com/Gnostic-Paradigm-Knowing-English-Literature/dp/1137474769

[https://ia902509.us.archive.org/32/items/gnosticism-hiding-in-medieval-poetry/Gnosticism%20Hiding%20in%20Medieval%20Poetry.mp3]

Musician Zola Jesus comes back on the show to discuss everything from the creative process to Zen Buddhism to how to live in Gnostic times. We go through her brilliant new album “Arkhon”, a masterpiece which some can tell from name alone is a must-listen for any interested in Gnosticism, and is a work that connects and fractally reflects the highly personal to nature to the societal to even hints of the cosmic.

Buy Arkhon at ZolaJesus.com

Listen to Arkhon on YouTube or wherever you stream your music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMLtJQqlc_8

Check out more content and great stuff at Patreon.com/ZolaJesus

[https://ia802508.us.archive.org/10/items/zola-jesus-gnostic-2/Zola%20Jesus%20Gnostic%202.mp3]

For more than 2000 years, Judas Iscariot has been THE villain and betrayer. BUT in a

lost-until-recently text the ancient Gnostics had an actual Gospel of Judas where Judas is…

a hero?

a religious leader?

an ambiguous figure?

an evil demon?

the new god of this world?!

So you can guess interpreting this text isn’t easy so that’s why we’re joined by Dr. David Brakke who has a new book “The Gospel of Judas: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary” and serves as our guide to this fascinating Gospel.

Buy Dr. Brakke’s books and we highly rec taking one of his courses on the Great Courses, they’re all awesome: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/david-brakke

[https://ia601508.us.archive.org/8/items/the-gospel-of-judas-w-dr.-david-brakke/The%20Gospel%20of%20Judas%20w%20Dr.%20David%20Brakke.mp3]

From believing Jesus is a cosmic space dragon to the need to build a communal heaven on earth, there were a variety of different Christian beliefs and doctrines from a variety of lost Christianities in the 2nd Century. To find out more about these groups and their fascinating, and to modern people maybe trippy, teachings we welcome back to the show Dr. M. David Litwa to talk about his book “Found Christianities”. 

[audiosrc=https://ia902501.us.archive.org/27/items/found-christianities-w-dr.-m.-david-litwa/Found%20Christianities%20w%20Dr.%20M.David%20Litwa.mp3]