Rune Hjarnø on the Project of (Nordic) Animism, Part II
June 21, 2023
More Nordic animism, plus a dive into pop culture, where the Mighty Thor (Kirby version) rubs shoulders with ancient gods.
The SHWEP Blog
The SHWEP blog is for all manner of things which crop up in the life of the scholar of western esotericism but don’t fit into our chronological framework: the Living Esoteric Cultures Series of interviews, reflections on the academic field of the study of western esotericism, accounts of past or upcoming events, other notifications, and perhaps even the odd blog post.
Rune Hjarnø on the Project of (Nordic) Animism, Part I
June 14, 2023
We speak with Dr Rune Hjarnø, a man interested in reigniting the spirit of animism within European cultures. Note that that's ‘reigniting’, not importing from ‘indigenous’ cultures. Come for the yule-goats, stay for the Q-shaman.
Howard Gayton on an Esoteric Pilgrimage to the COP-26 Summit
November 24, 2021
Rob Miller on the Esoteric and the New Tau Cross Album
October 28, 2020
We speak with Rob ‘The Baron’ Miller about the western esoteric influences on his music with Amebix and Tau Cross, and discuss the third Tau Cross album, Masters of Deception. It gets Gnostic.
Crystal Addey on Platonism, Theurgy, and Ecology
July 4, 2020
Crystal Addey is a scholar, philosopher, and woman of parts. Her work on ancient theurgy has broken new ground in recent years, and we see her continue to forge ahead in this interview, in which she asks whether the thought of the ancient Platonists can provide us with valuable insights in the face of environmental crisis. The answer is 'yes', of course, but the contours of that 'yes' will perhaps surprise many people who think they understand the history of western philosophy.
Laurence Caruana on Visionary Art and the Fall of Sophia
April 22, 2020
Laurence Caruana is a painter, author, and speaker. His work draws deeply on the western esoteric traditions, particularly of late antiquity, and even more particularly on the central Sethian myth as found in the Apocryphon of John and other ‘Gnostic’ texts. We discuss modern artistic practice, the Fall of Sophia, and a host of other topics of interest to the modern visionary painter.
Randall Hall on the Theurgic Saxophone
October 12, 2019
We talk to saxophonist Randall Hall, whose work fuses the very, very modern and the authentically ancient in a quest for a ‘ritual-symbolic’, theurgic musical practice.
Blood and Rockets: The Making of an Occult Music Video
May 28, 2019
The first in our Living Esoteric Culture series, looking at the ways in which the esoteric exists in culture, makes culture, sometimes enters into the popular or mainstream, and what happens along the way.
