Episode #491: Mystical Continuities from the Desert to the Digital Age

In this episode, Stewart Alsop speaks with Nico Sarian, Executive Director of the Eternity Foundation and PhD candidate in Religious Studies, about the strange currents that run through Armenian history, the fractured birth of early Christianity, and the survival of Gnostic and Hermetic traditions into the Renaissance. The conversation weaves through questions of empire and nation state, mysticism and metaphysics, the occult roots of modern science, and the unsettling horizon of accelerationism, drawing unexpected lines between the ancient world, the bureaucratic order critiqued by David Graeber, and our present entanglement with surveillance and identity. For more on Nico’s work, see The Eternity Foundation at eternity.giving.

Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation

Timestamps

00:00 Stewart Alsop introduces Nico Sarian and sets the stage with Armenian history and the legacy of empire.
05:00 The rise of early Christianity is traced, showing its fractures, Gnostic currents, and the persistence of esotericism.
10:00 Hermeticism enters the frame, connecting mystical knowledge with the scientific spirit of the Renaissance.
15:00 Empire versus nation state is explored, touching on bureaucracy, power, and identity.
20:00 Mysticism and metaphysics are tied to questions of apocalypse, renewal, and hidden traditions.
25:00 Nico brings in David Graeber, critiquing modern bureaucracy and how systems shape consciousness.
30:00 Accelerationism surfaces, framed as both danger and possibility in modernity.
35:00 Surveillance and identity are examined, echoing ancient struggles for meaning.
40:00 Esotericism and religious syncretism are reconsidered as resources for navigating technological upheaval.
45:00 The conversation closes with reflections on continuity, rupture, and the strange endurance of wisdom.

Key Insights

1. One of the central insights from Nico Sarian’s conversation with Stewart Alsop is that Armenian history carries a unique vantage point on the ancient world, positioned between empire and nation, East and West. Its survival under domination reveals how smaller cultures can preserve mysticism, ritual, and identity even within overwhelming imperial structures.
2. The episode underscores how early Christianity was never monolithic but a field of competing visions. Gnostics, proto-orthodox bishops, and other sects fought over scripture, ritual, and authority, leaving traces of suppressed traditions that still haunt religious and philosophical discourse today.
3. A powerful thread emerges around Hermeticism and Renaissance science, where occult traditions did not oppose but actively shaped early scientific inquiry. The magical and the rational were not enemies; rather, they grew together in ways that modern categories tend to obscure.
4. Sarian and Alsop discuss empire versus the nation state, showing how forms of political order encode metaphysical assumptions. Empires sought transcendence through universality, while nation states leaned on identity and bureaucracy, each carrying spiritual implications for those living under them.
5. Another insight is the role of mysticism and apocalypse as recurring frameworks for understanding collapse and renewal. Whether in ancient prophetic traditions or modern accelerationism, there is a yearning for rupture that promises transformation but also carries danger.
6. David Graeber’s critique of bureaucracy becomes a lens for seeing how systems shape human consciousness. What appears as neutral administration actually molds imagination, desire, and even metaphysical assumptions about what is possible in the world.
7. Finally, the episode points to the enduring tension between surveillance, identity, and esotericism. Just as ancient sects guarded secret knowledge from empire, modern individuals navigate the exposure of digital systems, suggesting that hidden wisdom traditions may offer unexpected resources for our technological present.