Storytime: Reading the Solomonic Hygromanteia, Part II
We read through Solomon's magical recipe book in BL MS Harleianus 5596. This is spirit-summoning as metier.
Podcast Episodes Themed "Astral Religion"
Episode 217: Three Ancient Sages: On East Roman Magical Books
Looking through the lens provided by three central figures of the western esoteric tradition -- Hermes Trismegistus, Apollonios of Tyana, and King Solomon -- we discuss three important East Roman magical books whose influence echoes from the end of late antiquity until the present day.
Episode 191: Kevin van Bladel on the Ṣābians of Ḥarrān and the Fate of the Athenian Academy
We discuss the fascinating town of Ḥarrān (in present-day Türkiye), a place known from late antiquity until at least the eleventh century for its continued tradition of astral, polytheist worship. Kevin van Bladel tells us much to enthral us about this place, but also crushes the dream of a continued tradition of Athenian Late Platonism at Ḥarrān.
Storytime: Reading Hierocles on the Golden Verses, Part II
We continue our read-through of Hierocles' Commentary, focusing in detail on the treasure-trove that is Chapter XXVI. The telestic was never so initiatory (or is it civic?)!
Storytime: Reading Synesius On Dreams
The On Dreams of Synesius of Cyrene is one of the finest pieces of esoteric writing to survive from antiquity. It preserves fragments of the Chaldæan Oracles, conveys fully fleshed-out theories of veridical imagination, dream-divination, and magic based on kosmic correspondence, and gives us other valuable details of antique occult lore. It is also self-consciously an esoteric piece of writing, and seems to be suggesting that it is a polytheist message-in-a-bottle to be read by future generations, once the dark times of Christian persecution have passed. So we read it.
Episode 160: Kocku von Stuckrad on Monotheist Astrologies in (Late) Antiquity
‘With the rise of monotheism in the late Roman world, astrology became a forbidden science and began its long decline.’ Starting from this widespread, and completely false historical myth, we discuss the realities of monotheist astrologies across antiquity and beyond with Professor Kocku von Stuckrad.
Episode 141: Brian Alt on Sacred Materials, Divine Names, and Subtle Physiology in Iamblichean Theurgy
We explore the nitty-gritty of the ritual acts lying behind the theoretical discussions in the De mysteriis. Brian Alt is our guide on a journey through Iamblichean theurgy, its many parallels in Hermetica and ‘magical’ papyri from Egypt, and its echoes in earlier and later Platonism.
Storytime: Reading Eunapius of Sardis’ Lives of Philosophers and Sophists
We explore the wonderful world of late-antique (theurgic) Platonism through the eyes of Eunapius, second-rate Sophist and first-rate fabulist. Come for the divinations, prophecies, divine interventions, and grand narratives of kosmic decline, stay for the kung-fu.
Episode 131: Soul-Flight, Noetic Bodies, and Pneumatic Vehicles: Toward a History of the Platonist Subtle Body
We discuss the soul-flight practices found in our testimonies to the ancient Greek iatromanteis, Middle-Platonist and other early testimony to the theory of a soul-vehicle, and the subtle-body theories of Plotinus and Porphyry.
Episode 126: Porphyry’s Gods: The Metaphysics and Physics of Divinity
We discuss the universe of Porphyry, which is crawling with gods, powers, and daimones, and some of the ways a human being might expect to navigate such a place. The episode features a long discursus on the theory of metempsychosis and a brief discursus on divine possession.
Episode 122: Radcliffe G. Edmonds III on the ‘Mithrasliturgie’
We discuss PGM IV 475-824, the famous ‘Mithrasliturgie’, with Radcliffe G. Edmonds III. Come for the immortalisation, divinisation, and visionary cosmic ascent, stay for the magical crocodile-surfing.
Episode 121: Mithras and the Stars: Astral Elements in the Cult of Mithras
We discuss all the amazing astral imagery associated with Mithraic temples, the extraordinary testimonies to ascent of the Mithraic soul given by Celsus and Porphyry, and ask what it all means. Salvation, astral ascent, initiatory mysteries, and weird planetary orderings abound.
Episode 116: Plotinus on Astrology with Marilynn Lawrence
We speak with Marilynn Lawrence, authority on Platonism, Hellenistic astrology, and the intersection of the two, about Plotinus' theoretical writings on the science of the stars.
Episode 114: Plotinus the Magician? Ritual Practice and Power in Platonism
We discuss Plotinus on ‘magic’, in theory, and, yes, in practice. Come for magic as applied physics, stay for the apotropaic chickens.
Storytime: Reading the Corpus Hermeticum, Part III
We complete our reading of the Hermetic corpus, looking at tractates XI-XVIII (minus C.H. XV, which doesn't exist, and C.H. XIII, which we are discussing separately). Yet more inspiration, epiphany, and bafflement awaits the reader of these texts. Come for the hypercosmic god of eternity, stay for the musical cicada.
Storytime: Reading the Corpus Hermeticum, Part II
We continue reading, with C.H. VI-X posing all manner of baffling interpretive questions, as well as some of the most inspiring and gorgeous religious ideas from antiquity. Come for god as the hyperessential good, stay for the noetic garments of fire.
Storytime: Reading the Corpus Hermeticum, Part I
In this special episode we delve into the Corpus Hermeticum, seeking commonalities, differences, and the elusive threads which might help us figure out what is special about the theoretical Hermetic tradition in antiquity.
Storytime: Reading Cicero’s Dream of Scipio
We explore the Dream of Scipio, Cicero's cryptic work in which one Scipio appears to another Scipio in a dream and instructs him in astral religion, numerical/astrological cosmology, the fate of just souls in the astral afterlife, and much more. Not bad for a lawyer.
Poseidonius of Rhodes, Weird Stoicism, and ‘Cosmic Religion’
We discuss Poseidonius of Rhodes, perhaps the most influential Stoic teacher on certain later-esoteric currents of thought. Was the esoteric Poseidonius historically-real, or is he a mirage conjured up by scholarship? We look at the evidence.
