Is Occultism a Subset of Magic?

Welcome to the 300th episode of Rune Soup! They grow up so fast, eh?

To celebrate the occasion, I had two options: The first was to hold a big party and then slip on a magic ring mid-speech, vanishing before your very eyes. The second was to invite onto the show perhaps the most-requested guest, John Michael Greer.

And really this timed very well because John has a new book out called The Occult Philosophy Workbook: A One Year Course In The Secret Wisdom. Plus we're looking at a whole new year a few days away. Plus we're doing a very special six month premium member course at the beginning of next year called The Foundations which -as the name suggests- is a comprehensive course on all the foundational magical practices from setting up altars to casting circles to scrying and all of that. I'll be taking you through exactly how I do All The Things.

So with all this going on, John and I have a conversation at the Venn overlap of all these territories: What are the essential skills of a (broadly speaking 'Western') magician and have they changed over time?

• Get The Occult Philosophy Workbook here.
• AND ALSO... the good people at Aeon Books have offered Rune Soup listeners a discount of 20% off any book purchased from their website until December 31, 2022. Use the code OP20 at checkout.
• John's blog and website, Ecosophia.