Thoth-hermes Podcast

Welcome to Episode Two of Season Ten with the Thoth-Hermes podcast. Today, Rudolf dialogues with Marco Visconti, author of “The Aleister Crowley Manual: Thelemic Magic for Modern Times” (2023), published through Watkins Press. An Italian freemason living in London, Marco openly enumerates roadblocks and supports he has encountered in his personal magical development. Up into his mid-thirties, Marco pursued several initiatory paths alongside an international musical career. Retiring from musical performance, Marco committed to depth involvement with the Ordo Templi Orientis. He also worked on staff at London’s renowned Treadwell’s Bookshop. Following the OTO’s scandals and schisms of the late 2010s, Marco describes leaving the Order on conscience. He publicly articulated a depth essay on his experience of the OTO’s dysfunction. During the COVID pandemic, a door opened for the founding of Marco’s present initiatory school. Rudolf and Marco examine the tensions of ethics and accountability within hierarchical in

Welcome to Season 10 of the Thoth-Hermes Podcast, dedicated to scholarly exploration of the Western Mystery Tradition. In this opening episode, Rudolf re-engages with Italian-American author David Pantano. David provides a dizzying timeline of occult development in the landscape that has become modern Italy. In the spirit of the Golden Bough (Fraser), David’s book “The Magic Door” (2019) provides the canopy for honoring a history beginning with the European Wild West of Hesperia, embracing the varying definitions and forms of The Sacred through a culture’s dynamic development. This Italic mythological history has repeatedly and deeply connected into international occulture. The conversation ranges from the importance of authentic linguistic diversity in both exoteric and esoteric reading to the appearance of Roman-era tripartite alchemical initiatory cosmology. Ovid, Virgil and the later Dante all receive citation, in addition Compano, and Ficino. The conversation explores Giordano Bruno’s complex contributio

This week’s interview is with the definitively pre-eminent hermetic scholar, Wouter J. Hanegraaff. Wouter outlines his pioneering path to Department Chair of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam. The interview explores the 1990s milestones towards academic recognition of esoteric history and practice. While not personally a practitioner, sub rosa or otherwise, Hanegraaff warmly engages on the questions surrounding practitioner-as-scholar status. This interview is replete with the naming of Rejected Knowledge. A Calvinist minister’s son, Wouter both respectfully and assertively notes areas of understudied “history” within Hermeticism and the Early Church. Wouter notes the unnamed role of Egyptian, Persian and North African Hermetic thinkers, and calls out the difficulty of philhellenism. He describes the “narrow bottleneck of transmission” within early conversion of hermetic texts into Christo-centered language and analogy, followed by a “millenia” of basic silence

In this week’s episode of the show the one and only John Michael Greer returns for his now 4th time on the Thoth Hermes Podcast. You are probably familiar with his blog www.ecosophia.net and I’m sure you’ll be enjoying our conversation on John’s latest work, the initiation system ‘The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose’ or FHR which at the time of airing is available online for free, so please make sure to check out the show notes for further information. it is not possible to explain JMG’s system without going back to the roots of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn established in 1887 although its founding history is more an appropriate material for a novel or a Netflix series. We will go into the lore behind the (in)famous Cipher Manuscripts and shed some light on the fragmentation that followed some ‘organisational issues’ and on the respective roles of Arthur E. Waite and Juliet Ashley resulting in JMG’s new system of initiatic practice. JMG will go on to share his very personal story how he came to the c

“The Rose starts to Unfold… following the Still Voice within…” This week, Rudolf meets up with initiate Robert Gordon. An Australian by birth and upbringing, Robert holds an M.A. in Museum Studies from University College London. Robert is a contemporary forty-something, with a career, family and devotion to a centuries-old esoteric tradition. This summer, Lewis Masonic publishing released his book 21st Century Rosicrucianism. Throughout the interview, the role of truly experiential initiation is honored, emphasized and examined. Robert joined a Masonic order at 21, inspired by studies in Anthropology interacting with a lingering childhood inclination towards the mysteries. From freemasonry, he journeyed into the variations of Rosey Cross tradition. The conversation names the participatory paradox of both the slowness and persistent purpose found in an authentic Seeker’s process: “rest in it, sit in it, be in it, act in it”. Also, the fertility of any given individual’s conceptual discoveries: that, unwittingl

This week we have a refreshing interview with Marlene Seven Bremner, an American artist and writer presently residing in New Mexico. While a student of polarity therapy, Seven initiated into Jungian alchemical teaching, which in turn flowed into her personal study and distillation of the Hermetica. This discovery process included visual art, textual exploration, and ultimately the writing of a full manuscript. Seven has recently released her first title with Inner Traditions, Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy: The Emerald Tablet, the Corpus Hermeticum, and the Journey Through the Seven Spheres. The interview is a conversation aligned to her text, appealing to both the new and seasoned students of the Hermetica. Seven’s unassuming, lunar quiet blends with solar scholarly intensity as she traverses the conversation. Subjects explored in dialogue with Rudolf range from the alchemy of oil painting; the call to expression through Logos; channeling poetry, and the creative alchemy of the ascent through the S

Mark Stavish is back on the Thoth Hermes Podcast! And when you have someone like him to talk to, you choose subjects that need clarification, a structured mind and above all, a great knowledge of the field we all like: occultism, hermetism and the Western Traditions. Dualism and especially Non-Dualism have been terms that have found a lot of attention especially during the last 15 years or so. But how does Non-Dualism work in a hermetic and magical context, where duality seems to be the foundation of the material life. What is the difference between duality and dualism. What is the difference between a Gnostic dualism and the Hermetic approach? And why is Traditionalism or Perennialism, as it is often called (is it the same, actually?) also being sometimes under attack. In his very frank and outspoken way Mark will try to give answers to those questions, not without posing others. A highly interesting and educational talk!

For many Giuliano Kremmerz is still quite unknown. Well, today's guest David Pantano has set out to change this, and today we want to do a step together in that direction. And the topic is worth it! Kremmerz tried to create a Hermetic School that is much less arcane that some of his contemporary occultists wanted it to be. Naples and Egypt, including Egyptian Freemasonry play a role in all that. Also, to me Kremmerz' approach sounds also partly Rosicrucian, which in the context is surprising. But there are reaons for that, we hear. And of course, he did not come out of the blue, there is a long tradition of Western Esotericism, also influenced by antiquity and its history. David has published a book on that story as well and in this talk we are going to link history to Kremmerz' time. But we will also ask: what came after? A lot to cover, and I think it became a highly interesting talk with a person who is extremely knowledgable: David Pantano!

Welcome to this interesting talk on our new episode. It is rather rare that we talk politics here, or rather ideology, or... ? Well, with my guest Rhyd Wildermuth Occultism, or rather Esotericism, as he prefers to name it, and ideology are inseparable. Why? Well, he will explain you. Who is Rhyd? A publisher, a writer ... well, let him tell us by himself: I’m a druid. A gay punk gardener gym bro. An occasional nomad. A theorist and a poet. A publisher and editor. Sometimes an anarchist, sometimes a Marxist. I’m devoted to Brythonic and Gallic gods and some local land spirits and ancestors. I’m all of those things, and also other things. I’m mostly on the side of good. Enjoy the talk!

When I discovered (well, I was actually made aware of it through a friend) Steve Dee's latest book "Chaos Monk", I was immediately taken in by the title. That combination seemed so intriguing: How would Chaos magic and monasticism be part of the same narrative? But when you listen to Steve you will soon find out that his own life experience shows us very well those links. His book is a deeply personal one, and so is this talk. How does monasticism work in the 21st century? Where do Magic and monasticism - or rather the lessons we can take from it - create a possibility to regain our balance in a world that seems completely out of balance? Going on the quest that Steve proposes to us could be one of those possible paths to walk. Enjoy the episode!

Welcome back to the Thoth Hermes Podcast and the beginning of a new season, Season 9 it is already. It is a huge pleasure – I’m sure not only to me – to start a new season with scientific ecologist, teacher at Schumacher College and author of ‘Gaia Alchemy: The Reuniting of Science, Psyche and Soul’, Stephan Harding. In this episode of our show, we will first introduce Lovelock’s Gaia theory and reflect upon Earth’s four major components – rocks, water, beings and atmosphere – and how their interactions can be studied through means of cybernetics and system science. We will shed some light upon the self-regulating system that emerges due to the interactions and how the inherent ability of our planet can and does regulate its surface conditions, partly through classical Gaian feedbacks such as climate change. we will also talk about ‘Deep Ecology’ as a science of recognising and dealing with the relationships between different parts of nature, Ecosophia as ecological wisdom and how Gaia Alchemy ties in with th