What Magic Is This?

It has been quite some time since What Magic is This? has had the chance to talk about one of the most important figures of High Strangeness in the last 100 years. Robert Anton Wilson was a phenomenon unlike any other, but he had a very particular mixture of influences all of which came through in his worldviews and his work. Discussing with Doug why Bob is still a fellow worth knowing and reading, is the one person who started Doug down this very particular path of Magic. We are beyond delighted to finally welcome to the Podcast the counterculture éminence grise- Richard Metzger!

As far as we can look back into our past, humanity has both interacted with and been haunted by the spirits of the dead. The tales of apparitions and hauntings pervade not only our most popular art but also our psyche; seemingly everyone has a ghost story to tell. While modern skepticism waves away ghosts as being merely the product of fear and imagination, many these days are saying that it is not so simple. Ghosts still have much to tell us, if we allow ourselves to be willingly haunted by the ideas that they bring forth.

Most Grimoires which are housed in the many museums and collections around the world are somewhat well copied documents that seems to have been done by professionals. Yet every once in a while what shows up like a bad penny in these collections are very obviously personal Grimoires that you can tell have been worked on and with by at least one but in some cases a few practicing magicians. What these astounding documents show us within their pages can tell us a lot about not only the times in which they were used, but how magic has evolved through the ages. No one knows Magician's Workbooks quite like the greatest Cunning Man of our age- Dr. Alexander Cummins.

For over 200 years, France was inundated with small cheaply produced books, bound with blue covers, filled with some of the most amazing things. These were the Bibliothèque bleue. Lots of these books would be about food, or fairy-tales, or astrology. Yet the most notorious of the Bibliothèque bleue, were the books on Magic, charms and spells. These are called Blue Grimoires today. Helping us get our fingers inky with why these small chapbooks were so important to magic, is author and magician Aaman Lamba.

After King Solomon, the legend of Cyprian of Antioch looms quite large in the Western Magical Tradition. A spirit conjurer and occasional summoner of the devil, Cyprian later converted to Christianity and became a Bishop before being martyred. This legend had quite some traction, as many grimoires evoked the name of Cyprian within their pages and in the title of the Grimoire itself particularly in Iberia. Taking the listeners through the Book of Saint Cyprian, is the scholar of Portuguese esotericism and author José Leitão!

Have a listen and be sure to check out my What Magic is This? Bookshop, please! Hopefully all of the show notes book recommendations will be in place and updated by October 2024, but if you have any requests for books that you'd like to purchase that I have recommended through my show notes and I haven't had a chance to change yet, please be sure to email me and I will send you an affiliate link for that title. Happy Shopping, and thank you for keeping Independant Bookshops thriving!

Southeast Asia has always been a place with many magical and animistic cultures. Perhaps no other country in the modern age has such a sycretic and extraordinary Magical environment than the land of smiles- Thailand. From spirits and ghosts to tattoos and amulets to monks and ajarns, Thailand is a place which still lives and breathes magic. Helping us get an introduction to the vast Magical world of the Thai, is author and practitioner of Thai Magic, Peter Jenx!

It's time to kick around an idea that gets brought up and used quite a bit these days. Unverified personal Gnosis are the terms used to describe a belief gained through personal subjective experience, not things which are confirmed by traditions or in groups. They usually inform the belief system of those that experience them. On this episode, we will be talking with someone whose entire practice is based around Unverified Personal Gnosis. That's right! It's the long-awaited return of author and animist sorcerer Aidan Wachter!

For the last 50 years, many people around the world but particularly in the west, identify themselves as a witch and if asked what religion they ascribe to, will say Wicca. Despite what some claim, the roots of Wicca are thoroughly modern and go back no further than the 20th century. Indeed, Wicca has been dubbed the only fully formed religion that England has given the world. Many myths and misconceptions surround Wicca, so much so that even those who claim to be a Wiccan will be unaware of many of the finer details of its origins. To set the record straight is Wiccan Priestess, author and owner of the greatest occult bookshop in the world, Christina Oakley-Harrington!

Throughout the centuries, one figure has flittered through both folkloric and fortean encounters. To some, this figure has simply been called the Devil, yet others aren't so hasty to place such an epithet on him. When we look into the past, A Dark Man has made their presence known in many ways. Some within the confines of the occult and witchcraft would even go so far as to call this Dark Man the witchfather. Digging deeper into the lore of the Dark Man is our guest, the podcaster and author of the new book Song of the Dark Man- Darragh Mason!