Occult Confessions

Margery Kempe cried so much and so loudly that she became one of the most annoying women in her hometown of Lynn as well as neighboring Lincoln and Norwich not to mention Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de compostella where she made pilgrimages. She was regarded as a madwoman, a heretic, a faker, and a lollard. She was also called a deeply pious and religious woman. She was examined by priests, bish...

Rob's strange experiment in subconscious exploration and creation comes to an exciting conclusion in this final installment of our Dark Pool project.

The story continues. The actors blend subconscious exploration, devised theater, and occult theory in this experimental storytelling experience.

After four years, we have taken down the website for our experiment in audio storytelling created during the pandemic lockdown and so we're posting it up here on our main channel for your Halloween enjoyment (or whichever season you happen to be listening).

Where did the medieval via negative come from? In large part, it was inspired by Plato and those who followed him an innovated on his way of thinking. In the second of two parts on the Cloud of Unknowing we consider Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius.

Blind love is the only way to experience God according to the anonymous medieval mystic who authored the Cloud of Unknowing. In the first of two parts, we discuss the neoplatonic path outlined by an unknown priest to mystical understanding of the highest things.

Kabbalah has its roots in early rabbinic Judaism and became a distinct school of thought in the medieval period with the work of Isaac the Blind, Moses de Leon, and then Isaac Luria in the Renaissances. In this episode, we attempt to delineate basic principles and practices as well as the history of Kabbalah.

Magnolia Strange returns to complete her account of the life and significance of Hildegard. Included is some of Hildegard's music performed by Magnolia.

Hildegard von Bingen was a medieval polymath—writer, philosopher, musician, physician, artist, mystic, and in the twenty-first century she’s been named a doctor of the church. We sit down with Hildegard expert Magnolia Strange and her partner Dr. Judas Lynch in the first of two parts on this remarkable woman to begin our series on medieval mystics. https://judasandmagnolia.com/

Chidabaram Ramalingam was one of the most famous Tamil poets of his day. He taught a new form of religion that recognized all gods as one, established hospitals and temples, and disappeared from inside a locked room never to be seen or heard from again.

After promising to publish a full account of the rites and practices of the Freemasons, William Morgan disappeared. A group of Masons were accused of kidnapping him and the case grew more sensational when a corpse washed up forty miles south of where he'd last been seen a year later. The Morgan Affair caused such a scandal that it launched a whole political movement.

Dr. Rob is flying solo for this exploration of the spiritual, ethical, and educational ramifications of the rise of consumer artificial intelligence; namely large language models like ChatGPT. Rob talks about his experience as a teacher and researcher and explores the logical limits of a machine that promises to think for us.

Tobias Churton, author of The Book of Enoch Revealed, talks about how the texts ascribed to Enoch, most famously the story of the Watchers, came to the West. What is the significance of Enoch's ancient tale of angels and earth women?

John Mandeville, who may or may not be a real person, claimed to travel the lands of Prester John where he saw chameleons the size of goats and hairy men who could swim really fast. Mandeville also made the argument that Christianity wasn't essential to earning God's favor, advocating for something like a natural religion.

In the twelfth century, Pope Alexander III received a letter from Prester John, a legendary Africa priest king rumored to be as powerful as the Great Khan. The letter made fantastic claims about the Prester's lands and power and may have been a hoax but then Alexander's own physician brought him news that he'd met the Prester's representative in the Holy Land. Could the Prester be the Pope's solut...

Alice Kyteler was the first woman to be tried for witchcraft in Ireland and her servant, Petronilla of Meath, was the first to be burned for heresy. Kyteler's stepchildren with her three deceased husbands accused Kyteler of being a black widow my supernatural means and sought to use Pope John XXII's recent decree that sorcery was a heresy to rid themselves of their stepmother once and for all.

Renowned Renaissance Festival performers Judas and Magnolia return to discuss the sacred and spiritual components of performance. In a conversation that ranges from Plato to Georges Bataille, the theater becomes something more than just a place to see a show.

Rob and Luke sit down with Tahverlee, founder of the Moon Temple Mystery School, to discuss the archetype of the witch, healing generational trauma, and her experience with the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Miguel Conner discusses his new book on Elvis's interest and involvement with occultism. From charismatic Christianity to theosophy, Conner traces Elvis's journey and the strange symbolism of Elvis's Vegas period.

James Jesse Strang presents a parallel prophet’s career to that of Joseph Smith. In some ways, a copycat of the Mormon prophet who literally attempted to succeed him despite their having had only a brief relationship, Strang also innovated on Mormon doctrine. Like Smith, he discovered a collection of ancient plates hidden in the earth and established a community of believers on the frontier that h...

After the death of Joseph Smith, the Mormons relocated to the basin beside the Great Salt Lake, led by Brigham Young. The journey of the pioneering Mormons and Young's leadership were an amazing display of spirit and grit but the shadow of polygamy dogged them in their quest to become a state. Slavery further complicated things for the Mormons and their strange doctrine of blood atonement which re...

Fleeing persecution from the government of Missouri, Joseph Smith and the Mormons found themselves in Nauvoo, Illinois. There, Smith established a militia, ran for governor, discovered his doctrine of plural marriage, and purchased a mummy. Nauvoo was Smith's last Zion at the scene for the events that would lead to his assassination at the hands of an angry mob. This episode contains a brief refer...

The Book of Mormon is full of intrigue and adventure. It also repeats the phrase "and it came to pass" over 1400 times. It tells the story of a lost tribe of Israel crossing the ocean to America to establish a new civilization and how that civilization was ultimately destroyed. We take seriously Joseph Smith's claim that his book was a historical document and consider points for and against the Bo...

Joseph Smith's discovery of a set of buried golden plates was the beginning of the Mormons or Church of Latter Day Saints. This was also moment deeply ensconced in folk belief and magic. Treasure-digging, seer stones, and magical parchments were all part of the Smith family tradition and they each played a part in the story of Moroni's Golden Plates.

Hollywood makeup artist, Pati Dubroff, became a preservationist after moving into the original dome of the Theosophists' Krotona Institute. In this interview, Pati shares her experiences (positive and negative) with paranormal entities, local government, and landlords in her noble quest to save Krotona. To donate to the Los Angeles Fire Department please use this link: https://supportlafd.org/dona...