Occult Confessions

For parents like me who chose to share 2010’s revival of My Little Pony with my children, the animated series’ emphasis on social-emotional learning is the primary draw; however, these lessons are framed in distinctly occult terms. The series is subtitled “friendship is magic” and while this may suggest that friendship is awesome, in the context of the show it often means that it is literally a matter of spells, potions, and esoteric books. The show’s association with real-world occultism in the form of pony-inspired tulpas shows the degree to which it has successfully tapped into a New Age spirituality that also appeals to adult fans. The protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, descends according to the theosophical paradigm from the palace of Princess Celestia to Ponyville in order to learn, grow, and ultimately metamorphose into the show’s version of the divine feminine—a princess with both secular and spiritual power. At the end of the third season, she achieves an incomplete apotheosis and the audience learns the degree to which her friendships are, like Aleister Crowley’s goetian demons, actually external manifestations of her own consciousness in need of harmonizing. In Crowleyite fashion, the show celebrates the ponies’ individuality, but, after Twlight Sparkle’s initiation, it troubles personal identity by requiring the ponies to surrender a significant aspect of their ego-based power. In this paper, I analyze the show’s psycho-spiritual occultism in order to explore what it means to embody the divine feminine in postmodern popular culture.

Alyce Spencer, an expert on witchcraft in popular media and creator of the Witch Way YouTube channel, dives into the fascinating evolution of witch representations in Western culture. She discusses iconic works like 'Hocus Pocus' and 'The Craft,' highlighting themes of female empowerment against historical fears. The conversation explores how contemporary shows like 'Buffy' and 'Motherland: Fort Salem' redefine witches as empowered figures. Alyce also critiques societal portrayals, pushing for more inclusive narratives that reflect the complexities of witchcraft.

Americans are largely responsible for discovering how to make exercising a cult. The link between exercise and the spiritual life of the exerciser wasn't invented after Y2K nor were intense fitness, demanding fitness routines. But bringing these things together into a practice designed to cultivate commitment to the corporatized and franchised exercise routine as the best possible path to overall well being is a twenty-first century innovation, and one that is probably at this point a thing of the past. At least for now. Today on Occult Confessions: this history of fitness cults.

Norwegian black metal in the 1990s served as the soundtrack for murder, suicide, and the burning of churches dating to the medieval period across the country with the musicians themselves at the center of these crimes. Andrew Mimms takes over the microphone to tell the story of the militant Satanist Black Circle who gathered a record store called Hell to create music but also mayhem.

Synanon is really two different organizations separated by time with the same origin and some of the same personnel sort of like 1960’s Jefferson Airplane and 1980’s Starship. One has very little do with the other close-up but from a far enough distance they look kind of similar. The psychologist Steven Simon calls these two groups Synanon I and Synanon II. Synanon I called itself a charitable organization and focused its energies on drug rehabilitation in the inner city. Synanon II called itself a religion and established communes in urban and rural locations where residents followed whatever rules were passed down as part of the Synanon leadership's social experiment. Synanon I saved lives even though it was often protested by NIMBY neighbors who didn't want to run into recovering drug addicts at the grocery store. Synanon II accumulated vast resources and sought to intentionally freak out the general public, leading to the group's decline.

The podcast dives into the sensational panic surrounding Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s, linking it to tragic mental health struggles and societal fears of fantasy blurring with reality. It humorously explores character creation through the antics of a quirky cleric named Biff, while also addressing the serious implications of misinformation during the satanic panic era. Listeners will appreciate the evolution of D&D from a misunderstood game to a cherished cultural phenomenon, revealing the creative joy it brings to players.

Multilevel marketing groups or MLMs engage in legal pyramid-style schemes that escape laws against such schemes because of the involvement of products including everything from make-up and detergent to diet pills, shampoos, and nutritional supplements. Nikki Hiller Henderson takes the microphone to lead the second of our actor-hosted episodes in our cults that aren't cults series.

(Part 2 is now available on the Strange Ride channel). In this Strange Ride/Occult Confessions crossover episode Savannah kicks off OC’s newest season “cults that aren’t cults” by looking at the Secret Space Program conspiracy theory. The human race is under attack, and the earth needs all of our help if we’re going to survive to the end of this war. You’ve already started your journey by listening to this podcast, but stick with us. It’ll be difficult to understand. They don’t want you to understand, but you have to try. An evil Alien race known as the reptilians are keeping us trapped here on earth. To be used as food to fuel their galactic conquest. They’ve even taken up abducting us to turn us into Super Soldiers to fight in their never ending war for control over the universe. Some of us may have been those kidnapped soldiers. Once they have no more use for us they wipe our memories and throw us back to Earth. We are nothing to them. They are faster, stronger, smarter, BUT, not all hope is lost. Us humans of earth… We’re special. We have souls that have the power to defeat the reptilians once and for all, but only if we’re able to unlock that power.

Rob and Luke talk with author and witch Gabriela Herstik about her new project, "Goddess Energy: Awakening the Divine Feminine through Myth and Magick." Gabriela talks about the intersections of Judaism and neo-paganism in her own practice, the many faces and incarnations of the goddess, and sex magic. For more about Gabriela's work visit linktr.ee/gabyherstik.

This graduation season, Rob was asked to be a commencement speaker for Chesapeake College's ceremony. In this special episode, Rob shares his speech with the confessors and talks intimately about what the opportunity means to him and what he hopes for the future of the species. .