I talk with writer, author, and esoteric health practitioner ARE THORESEN.

The language of inevitability is upon us, and it is a cruel language, one that allows no discussion of freedom or our ability to direct things. The future - a terrible future - is filled with AI, the effects of climate crisis, fascisms, and wars. And our present - a terrible present - is only going to get worse.

In other words, we're given a unified picture of where we're going and what's happening and how to feel about all of it.

Of course, the language of inevitability can only show us relatively little. A narrow look at presumed (or manipulated) outcomes.

The future is as wide open as ever.
Difference and mutability is closer to the truth: whatever happens will happen differently, to different places, and to each and every one of us.

Why? Because material laws and spiritual laws flourish differently in each person's life. We all have our own levels and areas of understanding, aptitude, capacity, and education. We all express differing variations on one theme, but that theme is the cosmos.

This is the starting point for my conversation with occultist, veterinarian, and author, ARE THORSEN. Are has been on the show many times, most recently on AEWCH 243, when we talked about illness, health, and the end of materialism. Also on AEWCH 205 on Ragnarok, and AEWCH 116 on demonology & nothingness. His most recent books, The Four Doors and Fading and Merging are available via Amazon. Other recent books (which you can order via independent bookstore through the links here) include Meeting Michael: Further Communications from Spirit Worlds and Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation: Vidar and Baldur, the Three Elemental Realms and the Inner and Outer Etheric Worlds.

On this episode, we discuss the technique of connecting with the spiritual world, and more specifically why meditation isn't enough... we need to walk into the spiritual world. And how?

My guest this episode is writer, scholar, teacher, and astrologer, RONNIE PONTIAC. I've been impressed and informed by Ronnie's esoteric work for awhile now, and finally, we got to have our first conversation. And it's a profound one...

We talk about the need for a spiritual path in our moment, and how the alternative is... well, quite grim. We talk about how spirituality can lead us into a path of hatred and personal gain. We talk about my suspicion about astrology, how I think it works, how I think it does’t work, why so much of it is wrong (and why Ronnie is so often right!). And there's so much more on this episode (Including my extended intro on the esoteric aim of being a Friend To Humanity.)

Ronnie was a key figure at the Philosophical Research Society founded in 1934 by Manly Palmer Hall. The PRS is still around, and promotes, teaches, and offers research opportunities into the esoteric & philosophical of all societies; with the values of freedom, community, objective study, and inclusiveness at its core. He's the author most recently of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World. His forthcoming book, which can preorder now, is The Rosicrucian Counterculture: The Origins and Influence of the Invisible Society.

I talk with spiritual teacher and author Lisa Romero about the challenges that are facing us today and an unlikely key to progressing through them: the esoteric mysteries of Ireland.