Rune Soup

It's the anniversary of the reception of the Book of the Law. Joining me to explore the questions of What to make of it? How to think about it? What, if anything, to do with it Are two very special guests: Alan Chapman and Peter Grey. Now, like me, neither of them is a Thelemite. But what they do have is an encyclopedic knowledge of the era, the material, and the magic behind it. So if you've ever wondered whether the Book of the Law has anything to say to you if you're not already one of Crowley's followers, this is that conversation. Alan's essay, Is A God To Live In A Dog? is referenced several times in the episode. You can download a copy here. Show Notes Peter Grey's Substack. Alan Chapman's website.

Is magic just a less sophisticated form of psychology? That is probably the cornerstone claim of what I am calling 'Modernity's Magic'. And in the next instalment of our series 'Hospicing Modernity's Magic', I want to look at: How psychology diverged from magic and why. Jung's role during his lifetime. What the magicians of modernity did with the 'legitimacy umbrella' they received from Jungian thought. Which parts of this journey do we take with us into the magic of today? Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:11 Wearing Jung's Skin Like a Pelt 01:57 The 19th Century & Roads Not Taken 07:56 The Red Book 10:50 Active Imagination 15:26 Jung & Astrology 17:59 Is Magic Just Psychology? 22:09 Synchronicity 29:17 The Yi Qing & Moments in Time 33:08 Synchromysticism as Omen Logic 35:26 Psychoid Archetypes & the Unus Mundus 43:00 The Post-Jung Pelt-Wearers 49:27 What to Hospice, What to Keep 52:32 Use Magic to Legitimise Jung

What continues to exist from the 'safe' and 'quirky' magic of the twentieth century that finally needs to die? And what has maybe been left behind that might even belong better in our current era of magic? This is the beginning of a little project exploring what we should take with us through this fourth turning. You can, of course, watch this one on YouTube. 00:00 - Remember When Magic Was Safe? 01:50 - The Golden Age We Just Lived Through 05:19 - Eating the Wrapper, Throwing Away the Candy 06:34 - What Is Modernity? 09:54 - Why "Hospicing Modernity's Magic" 11:24 - The Hospicing Framework 13:00 - Nothing Is Going Wrong 14:54 - A Telling, Not a History 17:32 - The Series Roadmap 21:18 - What We Carry Forward 22:47 - Join the Conversation Here are the videos I reference: At Work In The Ruins | Dougald Hind Alan Moore's Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic

What is ours to do during the putrefactory collapse of Western civilisation? Let's find out! At the very least, it is choosing the right story to live in so that we can nudge the trajectory of this ghastly moment more and more toward the good. Here are some off-the-cuff thoughts on how we might do that.

There's a meme that's been evolving since 2021, and in its current chaotic incarnation, it's become accidentally magical—even if the people using it don't realise it. In this episode, I'm unpacking "do it for the plot" as a practical framework for the year ahead. Not just as permission to take risks, but as a way of activating synchronicity and maintaining agency when things inevitably go sideways on the way to your goals. I'll walk you through how to use this alongside your existing magical toolkit—your amulets, your enchantments, your divination practice—and share the diagnostic story I keep coming back to for checking where I'm actually at versus where I think I am. I'm also introducing a new project I've been wrestling with: hospicing modernity's magic. Because the late twentieth century gave us some genuinely powerful techniques wrapped in a frame that insists magic isn't real. I want to find a way to respectfully retain the useful stuff and jettison the less-than-useful. There's practical advice here for interrogating your intentions for 2026, plus some thoughts on why the slacker-era re-enchantment is officially over and what needs to replace it. Happy new year, kids!

At this time of year, when many of us are rudely awoken from our hard-earned slumber by multiple ghosts wanting us to support their gofundme or something, I thought we might look at ghosts. What are they? Are they even real? And if they're not, what are they for? And the exploration is framed by a series of strange experiences I had recently at Australia's most haunted site and possibly the cruelest place in the entire British Empire, Port Arthur. Enjoy! PS - Let me also take the opportunity to sincerely thank you for listening, watching, supporting and sharing the various Rune Soup offerings in 2025. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Austinmas 2025! Can you even believe it? Legendary astrologer, Austin Coppock, returns to the show for a look at what 2026 has in store for you. Here's what we cover: 🪐The end of "nothing ever happens" energy 🪐 What war looks like in the Age of Air 🪐 January's hidden assemblies and the parade before Pluto 🪐 Neptune's 13-year sign change 🪐The Saturn-Neptune conjunction and its strange history with Russia 🪐 Why March could see dangerous confusion and technical disasters 🪐 April's straightforward brutality 🪐 The sweet spot worth planning around 🪐 Late June's triple switcheroo 🪐 Mars-Uranus in Gemini and American history 🪐 August's grinding square with both malefics in their fall 🪐 The shadow over November's "jolly conqueror" 🪐 What 2026 sets up for early 2027 🪐 Solar eclipses and kings who bump their heads 🪬🪬How To Use The Astrology in Your Life🪬🪬 January's Gift Use the hidden assembly energy for genuine visioning. Where does your capacity for struggle go? What's actually worth anything? What are your sneaky little moves? Get trajectory set before the crazy train. April's Pressure Mars-Saturn conjunctions every two years aren't new—but this one's in Aries with Neptune. Being pushed beyond reasonable limits. A week's work in a day and a half while already burned out. Endurable, but genuinely shitty. The May-June Repair Window Not just absence of destruction but actively sweet and reparative. Build here what you couldn't build in the storm.

Lucifer: Praxis! Peter Grey joins the show once again to talk about his explosive new book. We explore who the being of Lucifer is, his relationship to western magic, western magicians' relationships to him and how the current of liberty, individualism and legitimate rebellion have shaped centuries of culture. An excellent discussion about a milestone achievement in western occulture. Get the damned book here. Enjoy!

Synchromystic raconteur, author, and pattern seeker Christopher Knowles returns to the show, as well as the wheelhouse, for this one. Not that we would ever need one, but the flimsy excuse for Chris coming back this time is so that we can discuss his amazing new book, XF-ULTRA: The X-Files, Conspiracy Culture, and the National Security State. Can a 90s genre TV-show both explore AND generate high strangeness What happened to our ancient mythology? Who is called to tend the flame of our culture's sacred stories through the chaos all around us? Even if, almost ESPECIALLY if, you've never seen The X-Files before, this journey down to the underworld and back up through the trash stratum of popular culture has wider metaphysical implications that make it essential listening. Show Notes The Secret Sun on Substack. Get XF-ULTRA: The X-Files, Conspiracy Culture, and the National Security State.

In this episode, Dr Radin returns to the show to talk to us about his amazing new book, The Science of Magic. We look at Meta-analyses with trillion-to-one odds. Hotel poltergeists that target specific researchers. Spoons that bend without force. Sigils. Always, always sigils. Radin explains why materialist skeptics have run out of arguments, how belief literally structures the universe, and why your unconscious mind might be doing magic right now. If you liked Real Magic, this one takes the conversation even further. The dominant of wider inclusions has surely arrived. Show Notes Pre-order the new book Dr Radin's website

Filmmaker Richard Stanley joins us to unpack his incredible book "Otto Rahn: Grail Hunter" - the true story of a gay Jewish medievalist who became the SS's chief grail hunter in Nazi Germany. We explore Stanley's own supernatural experiences on Montségur (getting trapped by lightning), the brutal genocide of the Cathars, and why this whole story feels disturbingly relevant right now. From Lucifer's emerald diadem to disappearing treasures to Stanley's decades-long quest through the most mysterious corners of southern France. Good times! Show Notes Get the book here. Previous documentary trailer mentioned in the episode.

Vanese McNeill, co-producer of the Magical Egypt series, returns to the show. In this episode, we explore the hows and possible whys of spirit involvement in history, from the super-elite level down to the everyday. And also across to some of the sillier claims about AI floating in the air like so many plasma entities. And all of this was inspired by a post Vanese wrote on the Magical Egypt substack about ontozoology back in June. So that's where we begin, and this is where we go after: 1. The Ontozoology Framework What invisible beings actually exist in the ecosystem Moving beyond Christian binary (demons vs. angels) to animist complexity The difference between malevolent, benevolent, and simply non-human agendas 2. Catherine Austin Fitts & Demonic Capital The exact quote about interdimensional intelligences controlling capital Why this is being discussed now by credible people The problem with oversimplifying complex entities as "Satan" 3. Conscious vs. Unconscious Elite Collaboration How much is deliberate ritual worship vs. unconscious possession The decline of magical literacy among modern elites Why materialist worldviews make people more vulnerable to influence 4. Historical Magic & Modern Mind Control Ancient Egyptian spirit relationships as information exchange How modern "operations" are rituals without the practitioners knowing it Predictive programming as contemporary magic 5. The AI & Slop Demon Problem Why "The Architect" and similar AIs aren't sentient but are dangerous How AI creates mental conditions ripe for spiritual colonisation The difference between AI hosting demons vs. AI making minds available for possession 6. UFOs, Aliens, and Interdimensional Beings The reframing of UFO phenomena as spiritual rather than extraterrestrial Catherine's invitation to meet "aliens in human bodies" Distinguishing between visiting organisms and native invisible ecology

Back on the farm, jetlagged and hustling. I've been sitting with this question since I decided not to renew my lease in Asunción. So today, I want to give you my thoughts. There's some frosty farm pics over on my Substack. Enjoy!

Or why our horrible internet is good, actually. Sick in an AirBnb in Paraguay, I make the case for co-creation still being the best way to exist with our ever-enhorribling media landscape. Show Notes End The Day With Ceremony, Not Distraction. Two things to watch or listen to with your lunch (of brains)? Gordon on THC. Kelly Brogan on THC.

Dan Waites joins us to discuss the literal long view, which is to say the things we can see and the frameworks we can find when we widen our perspective out to millennia-long cycles and epochal shifts. We explore: The Kali Yuga and why it may have ended THIS year. The Age of Aquarius and how it turns out to be both real and totally fashionable. (You heard me.) The long cycles of outer planets and their role in birthing new religions. UFO Disclosure, Mayan Apocalypses and the 'true' astrology of Atlantis. Show Notes Find Dan at: On Youtube. At World Astrology Report. On Substack.

Note: Before we begin, my six-week Shadow Work Intensive, The Shaman's Devil, Is Now Live. There are only a few spaces left, so if you think you might be interested, move quickly. If you know me, you'll know this is a pretty big deal for me. The one and only Dr Alberto Villoldo joins the show this week. We discuss Why you came to earth in the first place. What healing is and how to achieve it. How the academy and culture's understanding of shamanism has changed in the five decades he has been working in the field. Bio Dr. Alberto Villoldo is a medical anthropologist, psychologist, and shamanic teacher who has spent decades studying the healing practices of the Amazon and Andean shamans. He founded The Four Winds Society to bring ancient energy medicine into dialogue with modern neuroscience. His work bridges worlds—science and spirit, biology and ceremony—to help people remember who they truly are. Show Notes This is the interview with Andre Duqum I reference at the end. The Shaman's Devil.

I spent way too much time trying to shoehorn a Warhammer 40K reference into this episode title, and it devolved into something that would make a Chaos Marine blush. So we're keeping it professional (kinda) and diving straight into the space weather for 2025's back 9. Watch along on YouTube here, if you like. This is what we cover. Space Baby Update & Good Enough Goals Austin's 30-pound toddler is harder to carry than heavy deadlifts, and "good enough" is our 2025 achievement mindset Failed 40K References & First Half Lookback From the eternal Mars season to the Carnival of Chaos that delivered perfect tariff confusion Iran & Playing for All the Marbles Why this could mark the start of World War III and how it connects to the Jupiter-Saturn square Uranus Enters Gemini: The Pilot Episode The seven-year transit that historically reshapes America, plus the flying wedge formation of outer planets The Bow and Arrow Configuration Peak craziness in August with Mars-Saturn tension creating a cosmic weapon aimed at change The Pause That Does Not Refresh September's retreat into swampy Pisces energy—like WWI trenches where your feet rot in gross water Pisces-Virgo Eclipse Season The tail of the dragon's Buddhist letting go vs. the head's overwhelming hunger for the dream Neptune in Aries & Individual Glory From woke-era uniformity to the pursuit of personalised excellence and looking combat-ready Jupiter in Cancer Magic Learning what you really need and how to ask the divine for surgical beneficence Personal Updates & H2 Plans Austin's book progress, Gordon's Peru trip for the Festival of the Sun, and preparing for a louder 2026