There's an impressive podcast called The SHWEP (The Secret History Of Western Esotericism Podcast), Exploring the Forgotten and Rejected Story of Western Thought, that's a scholarly, chronological look at all things esoteric, occult, and hermetic in the European and American mind. It's a slow crawl: It's up to Episode 186 and has reached Proclus (400s A.D.). Topics include "Platonism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, the Kabbalah, alchemy, occultism, magic, and related currents of thought," as the website says. The host, Earl Fontainelle, is a gracious and learned conversation partner, with a terrifying amount of knowledge and a lovely podcasting voice.
I've wanted to be on the podcast for a long time and, indeed, first talked to Earl about the possibility four years ago. We decided to wait until I'd finished the PhD, but we didn't want to wait until the year 2768 for my episode, which is when it would occur in the chronological scheme if the current pace continues. Thankfully, for those of us who haven't mastered immortality through the transmutation of sexual energies, there's The Oddcast, which pops in non-chronological topics of interest now and again.
So today Earl and I talked for, oh, maybe an hour and a half. (We tried last week, but apparently Mercury in retrograde killed my internet connection. Today went smoothly, in spite of my having the flu!). We covered many of the main points of my dissertation, including competing definitions of Modernism, the 'occult,' and 'esotericism.' We looked at the point where modernism, magic, and theatre overlap, especially as they mutually influenced and changed one another. Of course, we spent a great deal of time talking about Yeats and Williams, but we also got some Crowley and Alex Sullivan/Mathews in there, too. We wondered where the lines are, if any, between theatre and ritual, between magic and miracle, between an esoteric ceremony and a church service, between pagan invocation and Christian mysticism. We talked about the delicate balance of teaching "truth" while keeping secrets.
It was a wide-ranging, surprisingly well-organized conversation, and I'm looking forward to when it's released. I'll be sure to post it here. Meanwhile, Stay Esoteric!