Oddcast episode

May 6, 2026

Krista Muratore on the Countercultural Antichrist

The antichrist shows his true colours (a range of purples) in Megiddo: The Omen Code 2

[Another SHWEP field-recording. Corrigendum: at one point, Jacob Böhme’s Mysterium magnum is misnamed as Mysterium magicum]

In this episode we speak with Krista Muratore about Antichrist: who is he, what does he want, and what rôle does he play in countercultural movements? We begin with the methodological problem of what we are talking about when we talk about a ‘counterculture’, and then move on to the figure of Antichrist himself. Antichrist shows up first in the Book of Revelation/Apocalypse of St. John, the endlessly-esoteric climax of the New Testament, but then, from those humble beginnings, goes on to mutate in countless ways. He becomes a weapon in the hands of Christians seeking to demonise perceived opponents. He becomes a symbol of the immanence of the eschaton. He plays a rôle in the esoteric anthropologies of a different type of immanentist thinker, namely esotericists like Böhme and Blake. He motivates the thought of overweening oligarchs like Peter Thiel. We explore some of the strange dynamics and contradictions folding into this character of apocalyptic revelation and how they play out in various media.

Interview Bio:

Krista Muratore is a doctoral candidate in English Literary Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago; she is currently working on her dissertation “The Long History of Countercuture and a Lingering Apocalyptic”, covering the history of multimedia, countercultural apocalypse from the Ranters to 20th-century film and video. She also releases music as Reversed Bear Trap; her newest album, “Apocalyptic Drill”, came out in March 2025 on pan y rosas discos as a free download.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

For Böhme’s Mysterium Pansophicum, see Jacob Böhme. Aurora (Morgen Röte im auffgang 1612) : and Ein gründlicher Bericht, or, A Fundamental Report (Mysterium Pansophicum, 1620). Number 16 in Aries Book Series, Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism. Brill, Leiden, 2013.

Jacob Böhme. Mysterium Magnum, oder Erklärung über das Erste Buch Mosis, &c. 1678.

John Milton, Paradise Lost: first published as: John Milton. Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books. Peter Parker, London, 1667.

The Old German poem Muspilli: see Wikipedia for orientation.

Films:

Baker, Graham. The Omen III: The Final Conflict. Mace Neufeld Productions, 1981.

Trenchard-Smith, Brian. Megiddo: The Omega Code 2. Trinity Broadcasting Network, 2001.

Books:

William Blake. The Complete Illuminated Books. Thames & Hudson, London, 2004.

Norman O. Brown. Love’s Body. Random House, New York, NY, 1966.

J. J. Collins. Introduction: Towards the morphology of a genre. Semeia, 14:1–20, 1979.

Northrop Frye. Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1969.

Paul D. Hanson. The Dawn of Apocalyptic: The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic Eschatology. Fortress, Philadelphia, rev. edition, 1979.

Hill, Christopher. Antichrist in Seventeenth-Century England. Rev. ed., Verso, London, 1990.

Michael Lieb. Children of Ezekiel: Aliens, UFOs, the Crisis of Race, and the Advent of End Time. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1998.

Hal Lindsay and Carole C. Carlson. The Late, Great Planet Earth. Zondervan, 1970.

Bernard McGinn. Apocalyptic Spirituality: Treatises and Letters of Lactantius, Adso of Montier-en Der, Joachim of Fiore, the Spiritual Franciscans, Savonarola. Paulist, Mahway, NJ, 1979.

Bernard McGinn. Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil. Harper, San Francisco, 1st ed. edition, 1994.

John Parker. The Aesthetics of Antichrist: From Christian Drama to Christopher Marlowe. Cornell University Press, 2018.

Theodore Roszak. The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition. Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1969.

Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov. A short tale of the antichrist. In Three Conversations. Constable, London, 1915.

Guardian article on Peter Thiel: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist

Themes

Anna Trapnel, Antichrist, Apocalyptic, Disenchantment, Eleanor Davies, Esoteric Christianity, Interview, Jacob Böhme, Margery Kempe, Mormonism, Origen of Alexandria, Protestantism, Pseudo-Methodios, Ranters, William Blake