Occult Experiments in the Home

HIEROPHANY and WORP FM are available from wherever you usually obtain your podcasts or can be found on Apple Podcasts at https://tinyurl.com/2yvczz7a and https://tinyurl.com/4mu5cw3x. Even more details: https://oeith.co.uk/podcasts/ Support the podcasts and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from...

Exploring the shifts in our experience of the other between psychology, the paranormal, magick, and spirituality, encountering along the way: a phobia of spiders; the abject horror of the object of a phobia; the psychological origin of the abhorred other in the self; fascination and fixation in phobia; the example of H.P. Lovecraft; the binding of the other; the other as a false appearance; desire and false appearance; personal experiences of projection; an ironic example from James Joyce;...

Joined again by Paul, we probe the weirder sides of therapy and working as a therapist: defining the anomalous in the context of therapy; shifts in awareness and reality; Jeffrey Kripal’s definition of the paranormal and how it applies to therapy; the intensity of the therapeutic encounter; the pertinence of the psychoanalytic understanding of therapy; resistance to anomalous experiences (AEs) among the therapeutic profession; Freud’s ambivalence in this respect; Paul’s research and the...

Exploring the relationship to our ancestors, and how it might affect our lives and spiritual practice, encountering along the way: Carl Jung and his relationship to the dead; ghosts, the dead, and the possibility of further transformations after death; conversation with ancestors; Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead; individuation and the dead; a disturbing personal encounter with the ancestors; the similarity to and difference from a demonic encounter; a fallow period in my magick; how magick...

After a warning concerning the dark content of this episode, we explore (from personal experience) the shadow side of intense meditation practice: panic attacks on my first fire kasina retreat; the importance of reaching out for support from fellow retreatants; the usefulness of maps and models; fear, misery, and disgust; differences in approach between concentration and insight practice; the usefulness of distraction; the importance of sticking to the practice being undertaken; my second...

We confront this most terrifying item of magical equipment, to explore what makes it so volatile, considering: my first experience of Ouija; the tendency of Ouija to creep into more direct forms of manifestation; the lifelong impact of these experiences; an example of a very physical manifestation; the tendency with Ouija for things to get out of control; obsession and the possibility of harm; comparison of the Ouija with other magical systems; tarot, runes, and the I Ching versus the Ouija;...

Joined by my good friend Paul, we discuss the ethics of magick and the integration of ethics into magical practice, exploring: a somewhat unethical hexing; retaliation, its justifications and alternatives; proportionality; the lack of an ethical framework in chaos magick; the impossibility of an absence of ethics; ethical integrationism versus technical eclecticism; the postmodernist suspicion of morality; accusations of morality; codes of ethics versus ethical frameworks; the discomfort of...

Blowing the dust off some old diaries, we reflect on how kasina meditation generates magical powers, exploring: kasina practice and its rejuvenation by Daniel Ingram; the corruption of the original texts; the need for fresh terminology; different types of kasina; how a kasina is used; the importance and use of the retinal after-image; the cultivation of siddhis or “psychic powers”, and what these include; the circumstances of my first fire kasina retreat; the daily schedule; stages of the...

Borrowing from Buddhism the concept of the “near enemy”, we consider how art, history, and psychology may look like magick but can harm our magical practice, exploring: the danger of the near enemy; pity as the near enemy of compassion; art, history, and psychology as near enemies of magick and their detrimental effects; the difference of this approach from Lionel Snell’s approach in SSOTBME; philosophy as a current near enemy that was once synonymous with magick; art as the most insidious...

We approach the Middle Pillar on the Tree of Life as a possible guide to the dilemma of having a human identity, exploring: the contrast between identity and being; the advantages and drawbacks of emphasising one of these above the other; a parallel between the Pillar of Severity and identity, and the Pillar of Mercy and being; how these distinctions transcend politics; neurodiversity as a new and possibly radical category of human difference; neurodiversity as a possible recognition that...

How an ancient Tibetan meditation practice helped me through the night in a dark and haunted place, considering: the non-material existence of ghosts; the potential benefits of paranormal encounters; chöd: a meditation practice for dealing with paranormal experiences; Brighton Town Hall: its history and its ghosts; underground water and electromagnetic fields; the Old Police Cells Museum and a plan for spending the night there; paranormal investigation as a contemporary form of chöd; the...

Presenting a magical working with colleagues Jason Mendel and Paul, we encounter the Estes method of spirit communication, and its potential use in magick, exploring: the background circumstances to this episode; requests for magical interventions and the criteria for deciding whether to get involved; ethical considerations around magical interventions; the ethical mismatch between magick and everyday life; the unusual nature of the entity involved in this case; second order magick; details...

Containing references to sexual abuse, far-right ideology, and the (literal) eating of babies, we face-off to evil, examining: two depictions of Cronos (Saturn) eating a child by Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco Goya; the contrast between their perspectives with regard to the question of evil; the myth of Cronos and the birth of Zeus (Jupiter); the archetype of Cronos and its contemporary influence; Cronos as autocrat and canceller of the future; Cronos as the shadow side of conservatism; the...

We examine how Homer, Virgil, and Dante help us navigate the underworld and our relationship to the dead, exploring: the meaning of the hero's descent into the underworld and its personal significance; Odysseus's method of dealing with the dead; what Homer tells us about the underworld and how to work with it; Virgil's Aeneid and the descent of Aeneas; the difference of status among the dead in Virgil; the different impacts upon us of the dead, as explored in Dante's Divine Comedy; The...

To know, to dare, to will, and to keep silence. We explore the magical virtues (specifically, “to keep silence”), known also as “The Powers of the Sphinx”, encountering along the way: the gift of dreams; how keeping silence still protects magicians; how silence can also harm magicians; why I am not silent about my experiences; an oddly pertinent dream; musicians playing music in silence as an analogy for how magicians stand in relationship to each other; the silent recognition of a shared...

We discuss issues of power and spiritual authority as presented by the tarot card The Hierophant, encountering along the way: Mercury retrograde in the ninth house; a flurry of synchronicities; the question of spiritual authority; the least sexy card in the tarot; common interpretations of the card: dogma and patriarchy; similarities and contrasts between The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, and The Hierophant; Dion Fortune on passivity and activity on the material and the spiritual...

Revisiting my experiences of awakening and reflecting on how things seem now, we ponder along the way: the culture of silence on awakening within Buddhism; the notion that enlightened people never claim enlightenment; my first ever experience of meditation; my failure at regular practice and a farewell to Buddhism; development of an interest in magick; returning to meditation as part of magical training; meeting Alan Chapman; effects of Alan's influence; embarking on the Knowledge and...

Let's focus in on concentration, exploring: the arms of Baphomet; solve et coagula as "analysis and concentration"; how the mainstream lauds concentration; the prevalence of Attention Deficit Disorder; the union of dissolving and coalescing; Buddhist meditation; vipassana(insight) as solve, versus shamatha (concentration) as coagula; the nature and aims of shamatha practice; coagula and shamathapractice in relation to magick, sorcery, and ritual; belief-shifting and confirmation bias; the...

Let's join our minds to explore together the nature of telepathy, taking in along the way: the usefulness of magick in understanding the paranormal; definitions of telepathy and their problems; crisis apparitions; Nick Totton's definition of telepathy as "the experience of transparency between subjects"; the strengths of this definition; how telepathy tends to creep into both magick and therapy; telepathy in psychotherapy; a personal example of apparent telepathy in therapy; its significance...

If reincarnation is real, then how does it impact on our lives here and now? We consider: the question of how reincarnation manifests in everyday experience; comparison of contact with the dead versus reincarnation; reasons for the relevance of reincarnation; spiritual attainment and insight into past lives; the AUTOTAR working; audio scrying with tinfoil; my supposed incarnation as Otto Berg; why the results failed to convince; the rejection of reincarnation in contemporary western...