Thoth-hermes Podcast

My guest of this week is LA based scholar, tarot specialist, practicing astrologer and the author of ‘The American Renaissance Tarot’, Thea Wirsching. Calling herself ‘Pluto babe’ on her website, Thea will shed some light on the origin of this nickname and on her upbringing as an atheist who turned a Born Again Christian at age 14 spending hours in prayer, and meditation. She will tell us how this time in her life ultimately led her to Wiccan studies and a trip to Egypt and then to Munich, Germany, where an intense communication happened between her and a statue of an Egyptian goddess culminating in the decision to study astrology an hermeticism within an academic program. In our conversation Thea will take her time to explain the way she practices astrology and what looking at a chart from an evolutionary point of view requires from clients in terms of carmic/cosmic lifetime homework assignment. She will also go into detail on the more common ideas and preconceptions of people regarding astrology, elaborate

Please welcome my guest of this week, scholar and visual artist Sasha Chaitow who takes us on a journey to France during the 2nd half of the 19th century where quite a few mesmerizing persona of the occult revival era can be found, Gérard Encausse (“Papus”), Stanislas de Guaita and also the main protagonist of our episode, almost forgotten Joséphin Péladan. Sasha studied art, communication and English literature in Athens and after completing her Master in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter she did her PhD on Joséphin Péladan. Actually it was her interest in French symbolism that got her the idea to do some research on Péladan who was a prolific author with more than 100 books and influenced artists and writers of his time alike. Luckily for us all, Sasha’s book on Péladan based on her PhD will be published by Theion Publishing late June or July this year and Péladan as a colourful and controversial figure as well as his work will be the main topic of our conversation. We will be talking about Pé

It has been part of the Mission Statement for the Thoth Hermes Podcast since its beginnings that the serious discussion of paranormal phenomena like precogntion, telepathy and clairvoyance shall be part of our subjects. But we have never treated the paranormal as such in a full episode, and now the occasion has come. Our guest today is Norwegian historian of ideas and author Terje G. Simonsen, well-versed also in all things esoteric and occult and also bearer of some quite extraordinary experiences in the field he will also tell us about. His book "A Short Story of (nearly) everything paranormal has become a real bestseller, and offers a wide overview of phenomena, tries to find explanations but without demystiying. In his very open and friendly way Terje explains us his view on the matter, but also has a lot to say about people like Carlos Castaneda, Michael Harner and Rudolf Steiner! The book on the paranormal, endorsed by consciousness experts as the


This is the very special Anniversary episode for the 5th Anniversary of the first launch of an episode on our show. Back on April 20th 2017 it was Alan Richardson who was my guest.Without evening mentioning that in the interview, you will see that Lionel Snell, also known under his pen name Ramsey Dukes, is a very special person, brilliant, with a lot of humour, always ahead of this time. The way how he explains the four levels in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, comparing that to the computer world, is unique and only one example of the great things you will find in this interview.At my side is Carl Abrahamsson; for this is the second so-called "TRIO-episode", where I invite a former guest to be my co-host for once, and Carl made the wonderful suggestion to invite Lionel. And Carl was a perfect co-host in all ways. 
All of this makes this a worthy Anniversary celebration.
Thank you to all listeners, guests and musicians who have contributed to wonderful five years!

This Sunday, my guest is Jon E. Graham who has translated numerous books from French into English one of which will be the main subject of this week’s episode, ‘The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Secret Society’ being available in English for the first time. Jon has been interested in the occult since his teenage years but began to focus more on the subject while living in France having close connections to a group of French surrealists in Paris. He’ll be telling us how surrealism and occultism have been related especially since WWII and what his approach was on his path. As of today, Jon has embraced runes and the Norse cosmology as a working system for himself. Jon’s amazing translation of ‘The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Secret Society’ has been recently published with Inner Traditions and is based on the French original by René Le Forestier (1868-1951). Back in his time, Le Forestier was hi

Today it is a huge pleasure to have someone back on air who already featured an earlier episode in 2019. Chris Guidice is a well-known scholar - but by no means an ‘armchair magician’ - having earned an MA in Western Esoteric Tradition at the University of Exeter and a PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Chris has Italian and English ancestry and grew up in Italy until age 18 when he decided to study classics at the University of Oxford developing a special interest in Greek literature. After finishing his studies, however instead of pursuing a purely academic carreer, he embarked on a 10-year-journey working for MTV in Italy as a video editor and a scriptwriter. As a practitioner he spent 20 years with the OTO and the A.:A.: During a visit in London in 2009/2010 Chris stumbled across a small ad for an MA in Western Esoteric Tradition at the University of Exeter where soon no one else than renowned historian and professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke became his teacher. Chris’ succeeded and followed up w

Luke Lafitte, J.D., Ph.D., is a trial attorney, American history teacher, a Christian mystic, and co-founder of Dead White Zombies, an award-winning theater group in Dallas, Texas. Partner in a leading law firm in Dallas, he is the author of the three-volume series Chronicles of a Curious Mind. From the book cover:  Humans invented and constructed machines to aid them as far back as the Stone Age. As the machines became more complex, they became extensions of the body and mind, and we naturally began projecting consciousness onto them. As Luke Lafitte shows in detail, although machines complicate the already complicated issue of identity, because they are “ours” and “of us,” they are part of our spiritual development. In this sweeping exploration of the history of the machine as a tool, as a transpersonal object to assist human activity, and as a transitional artifact between spirits and the humans who interact with them, Lafitte examines the role that machines play in the struggle between “spiritual man” and

In this episode, I have the pleasure to welcome a guest who really doesn’t need any introduction anymore, activist, author and practitioner of the occult arts, John Michael Greer who has been on the show several times in the past. Our focus will be on John Michael’s most recent book titled, ‘The Twilight of Pluto: Astrology and the Rise and Fall of Planetary Influences’ as well as on a re-edition of his ‘Sacred Geometry Oracle’ and on another book on sacred geometry ‘The Way of the Golden Section: A Manual of Occult Training’ which will open a series we will discuss in detail during our conversation. JMG as he’s used to be called in esoteric circles started to study astrology around 10 years ago and found out that it is a discipline that requires more dedication than others to reach a level of basic competence if done the ‘right way’. We’re going to talk about different systems of astrology and how students are able to recognise the one they are probably most compatible with. Of course, due to the prominence

My guest of this episode is William F. Mann, who has been a freemason for 30 years and written several books, part of them non-fiction, part of them fiction but nearly all of them revolving around Masonic history and concepts. William was born in the 1950s and from an early age on he was interested in solving puzzles and following clues to discover hidden meanings of his surroundings. His father’s family had a rich Masonic tradition as far as it could be traced back and from his mother’s side William had the chance to be introduced to North American indigenous traditions. Today, William is the Supreme Grandmaster of the Sovereign Great Priory of Canada and lives in Ontario. In this episode of the show we will discuss topics that might be completely off the radar of many of our listeners as we in Europe have sometimes little knowledge about the ideas and concepts in occulture that are very specific to certain parts of North America. Hopefully this episode will be even more fascinating and also lead to some fur

Please welcome my guest this week, a linguist with a PhD in literature, practitioner of the esoteric arts and author of no less than five books on occult topics, Patrick Dunn. Patrick has been interested in reality’s hidden layers from a pretty young age on and received inspiration from the local Carnegie library of his small hometown which somehow ended up having a section on the occult. Patrick went on to study witchcraft, QBLH, chaos magic, the PGM and Hellenic paganism in general and despite of a lot more experience since that first talismanic magic he still considers himself a sceptic which is probably one of the more useful traits when it comes down being an occultist. Of course, we’ll focus on Patrick’s books, starting with his first one ‘Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic In The Information Age’ which was published quite some time ago but still holds very valid views marking the point when Patrick started to develop his own ideas drifting away from the so-called ‘classical paths’ also building the fou

Please welcome my guest of today’s episode, energy work specialist, solitary practitioner of Eastern and Western traditions, martial artist and author Peter Mark Adams. Just a few weeks ago Peter published a book with Inner Traditions and the title is ‘The Power of the Healing Field: Energy Medicine, Psi Abilities, and Ancestral Healing’. In this interview, Peter will tell our audience a bit about his personal path, starting out in in his earliest childhood in being hypersensitive to presences, continuing with a trip to Egypt aged 8-9 visiting the Great Pyramid which experience culminated in the feeling of finally coming home.In his early teens Peter started to read material on magic, visiting libraries with first editions of Blavatsky’s works, taking in everything he could. However, it wasn’t until much later that the framework for all this knowledge was finally provided by his interest in and practice of martial arts through which he gained a profound proficiency in energy work. Peter continued to broaden h

This week’s guest is probably no stranger to you all and he is certainly not to me! Please welcome my friend whose former co-host I had the pleasure to be, Harvard graduate with a Master in Medieval Studies, host and producer of the long-running podcast ‘Occult of Personality’, freemason, Buddhist Tantra practitioner and author Greg Kaminsky. Only five months ago Greg published an amazing book called ‘Celestial Intelligences - Angelology, Cabala, and Gnosis: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Quest for the Perennial Philosophy’. In this episode Greg and I will be talking not only about the creative process of this book but also exploring the question what it meant and how he as a person and as an author was changed by it. We’ll dive deep into the meaning of the written word in the occult sense, the way of contemplation, how knowledge and experience become conveyable and also discuss the choices people in modern society make – partly influenced by technology – and how these choices impact their perception and vic

I’m happy to welcome Prof. Carole Cusack who has been working and teaching in the field of religious studies at the University of Sydney for more than 40 years. Carole is not only well-known and highly respected in the world of academia but also among practicing occultists despite of not being a practitioner herself. She has been involved in teaching undergraduate courses since 1984 and her work covers many different topics of religion, esotericism and spirituality. Growing up in a strict Catholic family Carole decided for herself that she didn’t believe in those concepts and went on to graduate from university with a PhD as a mediaevalist in 1996. Soon after that she started to teach contemporary religion and as she knew quite a few practitioners in different new religious movements she discovered her interest in writing and working in this specific area. Having a passion collecting articles, books and a lot of other material, the ability to connect the dots quickly and the attitude of a forensic criminal in

The interview with my guest of this week’s episode was actually recorded right away on New Year’s Day and I’m very happy to welcome author, leader of a Gnostic Parish and a Martinist Lodge, 32nd Degree Mason and 9° Magus in the S.I.R.A., Rev. Mathieu G. Ravignat. Mathieu has published three large and very deeply researched and well-written books on the Élus Coëns, the French Gnostic Church and Egyptian Masonry and of course these will be our main topics of interest. Growing up in a devout but open-minded Canadian Catholic family Mathieu was called to spirituality at a young age and even considered priesthood as a path in his early teens. However, during his university years he discovered several authors like William Blake who exerted a huge influence on his spiritual views and pointed him into different directions making him re-questioning his orthodox Catholic framework and opening up the gates to Western Esotericism to him. Mathieu went on to contact local esoteric groups and soon became active in Masonic c