Right Where You Are Sitting Now

This weeks guest, Mitch Horowitz, is the author of the excellent new book 'Occult America: How Mysticism Shaped our Nation'. Mitch has held a lifelong interest in the Occult and Supernatural, and after pursuing the subject for as long, naturally, became the editor of one of the largest publishers of Occult and Supernatural works Tarcher/Penguin. In this weeks episodes we discuss: Freemasons, Mesmirism, Theosophy, Astrology and the dark side of American occultism. Daddytank and his army of flying (musical) monkeys return this week in the shape of: Memories of Tree's - Snakes and Headaches Diamond District - I Mean Business Vlooper - Muzungu Enjoy! Mitch Horowitz Bio: Mitch Horowitz is a writer and publisher of many years' experience with a lifelong interest in man’s search for meaning. The editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin in New York, he is the author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (Bantam, September 2009). A frequent writer and speaker on metaphysical themes, he has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, The History Channel, The Montel Williams Show, All Things Considered, Air America Radio, and Coast to Coast AM. He has written for U.S. News and World Report, Parabola, Science of Mind, the Religion News Service, and the popular weblog BoingBoing. At Tarcher/Penguin, Horowitz has published some of today’s leading titles in world religion, esoterica, and the metaphysical. He has also published notable works in philosophy, social thought and politics. His recent titles include Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch; 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck; The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders by Jacob Needleman; The Secret Teachings of All Ages: Reader’s Edition by Manly P. Hall; and Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

We finally did it, we reached episode 30! To celebrate the 'big 3 0' we decided to invite back co-hosts Raymond Wiley and Austin Gandy to get the proceedings in full swing, and booked a guest that we've been hankering after for a while now. To top this off, we also recorded the show live (something we plan to do from now on), and our audience gave us some great questions! The guest in question, Isaac Bonewits, has had a fantastically rich career in occultism. From becoming the ArchDruid of  the RDNA, to helping reconstruct the 'Caliphate' branch of the OTO, Isaac gives us a fantastically engaging, frank and often funny, interview. Discussed this week: Why Neo-paganism appears to be changing, How to get thrown out of the Church of Satan by Aton Lavay, being awarded the only recognised academic degree in 'Magic', the effect of 'crud' on estoterism, and uncle Aleister. Of course, no show would be complete without a musical interlude from the amazing Daddytank and his chorus of noise! This weeks entertainers: Each Paw Gremlin Small - IIIsey e.r.o.d.e - R03 Early Paintings - Fundamentalist We'll keep you posted on the site for when we're doing the next live show. You can also follow site developments on Twitter, just follow @sittingnow enjoy! Isaac Bonewits Bio: Bonewits, P. E. I. (Isaac) (1949–?) One of the brightest and most colorful figures of the Neopagan movement, Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits is best known for his leadership in modern Druidism. He is a priest, magician, scholar, author, bard and activist, and has dedicated himself to reviving Druidism as a “Third Wave” religion aimed at protecting “Mother Nature and all Her children.“ Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in Royal Oak, Michigan — the perfect place, he likes to joke, for a future Archdruid. The fourth of five children (three girls, two boys), he spent most of his childhood in Ferndale, a suburb of Detroit. When he was nearly 12, the family moved to [Southern California, first on the actual beach of Capistrano Beach, later to] San Clemente, California. From his mother, a devout Roman Catholic, Bonewits developed an appreciation for the importance of religion; from his father, a convert to Catholicism from Presbyterianism, he acquired skepticism. He bounced back and forth between parochial and public schools, largely due to the lack of programs for very bright students — his I.Q. was tested at 200. His first exposure to magic came at age 13, when he met a young Creole woman from New Orleans who practiced Voodoo. She showed him some of her magic and so accurately divined the future [and so successfully performed spells] that he was greatly impressed. During his teen years, he read extensively about magic and parapsychology. He also read science fiction, which often has strong magical and psychic themes. In ninth grade, Bonewits entered a Catholic high-school seminary. He soon realized, however, that he did not want to be a priest in the Catholic faith. He returned to public school and graduated a year early. After spending a year in junior college to get foreign language credits, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. At about the same time, he began practicing magic, devising his own rituals by studying the structure of rituals in books, and by observing them in various churches. His roommate at Berkeley, Robert Larson, was a Druid, an alumnus of Carleton College, where the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) had been founded in 1963. Larson interested Bonewits in Druidism and initiated him into the RDNA. The two established a grove in Berkeley. Bonewits was ordained as a Druid priest in October 1969. The Berkeley grove was shaped as a Neopagan religion, unlike other RDNA groves, which considered the order a philosophy. The Neopagan groves became part of a branch called the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA). During college, Bonewits spent about eight months as a member of the Church of Satan, an adventure that began as a lark. The college campus featured a Spot where evangelists of various persuasions would lecture to anyone who would listen. As a joke, Bonewits showed up one day to perform a satirical lecture as a Devil’s evangelist. He was so successful that he was approached by a woman who said she represented Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. Bonewits attended the church’s meetings and improved upon some of their rituals but dropped out after personality conflicts with LaVey. The membership, he found, consisted largely of middleclass conservatives who were more “rightwing and racist” than Satanist. Bonewits had intended to major in psychology but through Berkeley’s individual group-study program fashioned his own course of study. In 1970 he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in magic [and thaumaturgy], the first person ever to do so at a Westem educational institution. He also was the last to do so in the United States[?]. College administrators were so embarrassed over the publicity about the degree that magic, witchcraft and sorcery were banned from the individual group-study program. The fame of his degree led to a book contract. In 1971 Real Magic was published, offering Bonewits’ views on magic, ritual and psychic abilities. A revised and updated edition was published in 1979 and reissued in 1989. In 1973 Bonewits met a woman named Rusty [Elliot], a folksinger in the Berkeley cafes. They moved to Minneapolis, where they were married, and where Bonewits took over the editorship of Gnostica, a Neopagan journal published by Carl Weschcke of Llewellyn Publications. He gaveGnostica a scholarly touch and turned it into the leading journal in the field. But the job lasted only 1 1/2 years, for the editorial changes resulted in the loss of many non-Pagan readers, who found the magazine too high brow. Bonewits remained in Minneapolis for about another year. While there he established a Druid grove called the Schismatic Druids of North America, a splinter group of the RDNA. He also joined with several Jewish pagan friends and created the Hasidic Druids of North America, the only grove of which existed briefly in St. Louis, where its membership overlapped with that of the Church of All Worlds. In 1974–75, Bonewits [partially] wrote, edited and self-published The Druid Chronicles (Evolved), a compendium of the history, theology, rituals and customs of all the Reformed Druid movements, including the ones he invented himself. [During this same time] he also founded the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), a civil liberties and public relations organization for members of minority belief systems, such as the Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Neopagans, Witches, occultists, astrologers and others. [See The Aquarian Manifesto.] Bonewits sought to convince such persons that they had more in common with each other than they realized. By banding together, they could effectively fight, through the press and the courts, the discrimination and harassment of the Judeo-Christian conservatives. Bonewits served as president of the AADL and devoted most of his income — from unemployment insurance — to running it. The organization scored several small victories in court, such as restoring an astrologer to her apartment, after she had been evicted because a neighbor told her landlord that her astrology classes were “black magic seances.” In 1976 Bonewits and Rusty divorced, and he decided to return to Berkeley. The AADL disintegrated shortly after his departure. In Berkeley, Bonewits rejoined the NRDNA grove and was elected Archdruid. He established The Druid Chronicler (which later became Pentalpha Journal) as a national Druid publication in 1978. He attempted to make the Berkeley grove as Neopagan as the groves in Minneapolis and St. Louis, which caused a great deal of friction among the longtime members. After a few clashes, Bonewits left the organization. Pentalpha Journal folded. [Also in 1978 , he researched and wrote Authentic Thaumaturgy, essentially a rewrite of Real Magic for players of fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. It was published in booklet format, shown left, in 1978 and 1979 by The Chaosium, publishers of the Runequest and Call of Cthulu games. “A.T.” became highly influential in the RPG community, even though no more than 1,000 copies were ever printed. Many years later, in 1998, he published a dramatically expanded and updated edition, shown right, for Steve Jackson Games, which released it as a large trade paperback. Excerpts from this new edition can be foundhere.] In 1979 he married for a second time, to a woman named Selene [Kumin]. That relationship ended in 1982 [after a brief stay in Santa Cruz, California, where he worked as a typesetter]. In 1983 he was initiated into the New Reformed Order of the Golden Dawn [the San Francisco Bay Area’s best known, and stereotypically “eclectic,” Wiccan tradition]. The same year, he married again, to Sally Eaton, the actress who created the role of the hippie Witch in the Broadway musical, Hair. [During the early 1980s, Bonewits and Eaton were heavily involved in the California revival of the Ordo Templi Orientis, or “O.T.O.,” best known for its most important historical figure, Aliester Crowley.] They moved to New York City in 1983 where Bonewits met Shenain Bell, a fellow Neopagan, and discussed the idea of starting a Druidic organization. The fellowship, Ár nDraíocht Féin (“Our Own Druidism” in Irish Gaelic), was born as a fresh Neopagan religious organization with no ties to the ancient Druids or to the RDNA, which by this time was apparently [but not exactly] defunct. Bonewits became Archdruid, and Bell became ViceArchdruid. In 1986 Bonewits and Eaton separated, and he moved to Kansas City for several months, where he worked as a computer consultant. He then returned to Berkeley but could not find work in Silicon Valley, which was in a slump [they had a glut of unemployed technical writers at the time]. He moved back to the East Coast, to Nyack, New York, near Manhattan, in November 1987, with his intended fourth wife, Deborah Lipp, a Wiccan high priestess [and married her in 1988]. He continued work as a computer consultant and worked on the building of Ár nDraíocht Féin. He also began work on a book on the creation, preparation and performance of effective religious rituals [finally published as Rites of Worship: A Neopagan Approachin 2004 and as Neopagan Rites in 2007]. [From 1988 through 1995, Bonewits and Lipp were partners (along with several others across the continent) in making ADF the largest and most successful Neopagan Druid organization in North America, with legal standing and tax exempt status in the USA. For most of this time, they were also partners in running a Gardnerian Wiccan “Pagan Way” group and then a coven in New York and New Jersey.] [1990 saw the birth of Bonewits’ first known child, Arthur Lipp-Bonewits, at their home in Dumont, New Jersey. Arthur quickly became known among East Coast Neopagans as an intelligent, self-aware, and hyperactive child. 1990 also saw, however, a serious blow to Bonewits’ health, when he began showing symptoms of a newdisease called Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome, caused by chemically contaminated L-Tryptophan tablets manufactured in Japan and consumed by tens of thousands of Americans in 1989. This multisystemic disease caused Bonewits an increasing inability to perform his secular or Archdruidic duties, leading to his loss of employment in 1992 and his resignation as Archdruid of ADF, and assumption of the Archdruid Emeritus title, on January 1, 1996.  In 1997 and 1998, Bonewits began to show signs of recovering from the disease’s worst effects, except for relapses in the winter months, but by this time the disease had also caused severe damage to his marriage with Deborah, and in 1998 they separated.] The “10–year gap.” Bonewits has discovered, he says, a “10–year gap” between many of his views and their acceptance among Neopagans. In 1973 he was the first Neopagan to state publicly that the alleged antiquity of Neopagan Witchcraft (Wicca) was “hogwash.” The Craft, he said, did not go back beyond Gerald B. Gardner and Doreen Valiente [Now he is willing to push it all the back to the 1920’s. See Witchcraft: A Concise Guide]. Bonewits was held in contempt by many for that, yet by 1983, Neopagans generally acknowledged that Neopagan Witchcraft was a new religion, not the continuation of an old one. The Aquarian Anti-Defamation League was also ahead of its time. In 1974–75, Neopagans were not ready to admit that they needed public relations and legal help. By a decade later, a number of such organizations were in existence. Around 1985 Bonewits began regularly discussing the need to provide social services for domestic and personal problems and drug dependencies. Neopagans, he points out, represent a cross section of the population, and such problems cut across religious lines. Bonewits estimates that as many as 80 percent of Neopagans come from “non[‘dys-’]functional family” backgrounds. Neopagans, he observes, are brighter and more artistic than average, but also, therefore, “more neurotic.” [He now thinks much of it may be related to “Aspergers Syndrome”] The community has been quick to address these social issues with programs [such as various “Pagan 12-Step Programs”]. Bonewits also began lobbying for financial support for full-time Neopagan clergy (the priesthood is essentially a volunteer job), but the idea fell on uninterested ears. In 1988 Bonewits was pursuing a goal of buying land and establishing an academically accredited Pagan seminary. [As of 2006, there are dozens of Pagan-owned land sanctuaries, and a few Pagan seminaries earning accreditation from the national accreditation agencies. Alas, ADF is not among them, though a couple of ADF groves own their own land. A few Neopagan clergy have managed to obtain employment via the Covenent of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) as UU ministers.] [On July 23, 2004, Isaac was handfasted to ceremonial magician, Wiccan priestess, and early member of CUUPS, Ms. Phaedra Heyman. On December 7th of 2007, Isaac and Deborah were legally divorced and Isaac and Phaedra were wed on December 31, 2007. They now reside in Rockland County, New York, and have recently written a book together: Real Energy: Systems, Spirits, and Substances to Heal, Change, and Grow (New Page, March 2007).

Praise 'Bob', We return in a week shaped week (for a change), and who better to fill your sound cavity for this weeks show than this weeks guest? BEHOLD! High Weirdness by email, in which we, together with the most holy Rev. Ivan Stang, discuss cults, pagans and other weirdness. BE TURNED ON! by possibly the first ever mating call of the Subgenius captured on a earthly recording device. PRAISE 'BOB'! as we discuss, X-Day, The Starwood Festival,  no-good-no-Bob-niks, 9/11 truthers, Isaac Bonewits, SATAN, and of course J.R. Bob Dobbs. The right honourable Daddytank returns from the soundmines, tools in hand, to deliver another astounding MySpace Heroes. This weeks solid-gold prospects: Zano Bathroom - Live and Direct Cubist Upshot - Resonants III  Curios - The Tiling Song See you 'next week'...and don't forget to enjoy! PRABOB Ivan Stang Bio: Rev. Ivan Stang, born  August 21, 1953 in Washington, D.C., raised in Fort Worth,Texas, and attended the St. Mark's School of Texas. He is best known as the author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius. He is credited with founding the Church along with his pal Philo Drummond in 1979, though Stang himself denies this and claims the organization was founded in 1953 by J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. Since the publication of the first SubGenius pamphlet in 1980, Stang has embarked on a worldwide crusade (spanning at least three continents) to promote the Church. In May 2006 he finished writing, editing and designing a new SubGenius book for Thunder's Mouth Press, 'The SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon'. He has appeared on several national radio and television shows, including the The Jon Stewart Show on MTV. Stang is an instructor on the faculty of the Maybe Logic Academy. Both he and J.R. "Bob" Dobbs appear as characters in John Shirley's science fiction novel Kamus of Kadizar: The Black Hole of Carcosa.

After the most month-shaped week in history, we return to game with a great new episode of SittingNowish delights. This weeks guest, the fantastic Rodney Orpheus, gives us a great interview about the infamous Aleister Crowley. Discussed: Magick, The Abbey of the Thelema, The Ordo Templi Orientis, The A∴A∴, why Crowley is still so revered, Doing thou will, and our plot for a strange Victorian porn film. Hyde to Kim's Jekyll, Daddytank, returns with a nostalgic, but great MySpace Heroes. This weeks Musikal weapons: Twiggy and the K-Mesons : Preset Love Yellow Then Blue : The Black Rose Raleigh St Clair : Alphabet Books recomended by Rodney: Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley & The Eye in the Triangle: Interpretation of Aleister Crowley Rodney's own fantastic book: Abrahadabra: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thelemic Magick Don't forget to give us a review on iTunes when you have a spare 2 minutes, we'd really appreciate it. Enjoy! Rodney Orpheus' (impressive) Biography: Rodney Orpheus was born in Northern Ireland, and in the past years has lived in Hamburg, Germany and Los Angeles, California. He currently lives in The Cotswolds in England. For the past twenty years Rodney has been well-known as a musician, record producer, and author. He lectures frequently at colleges and music business events, where his ability to present highly technical matters in an entertaining, understandable style has made him very much in demand. Rodney has acted as a consultant with many of the top companies in the music instrument industry in the past years, most notably with Steinberg and DTS, as well as writing a regular monthly column for Computer Music magazine and running the ground-breaking musicians community at mi7.com After the release of his seminal band, The Cassandra Complex's first records Orpheus spent several years touring Europe, originally basing himself in Aachen, Germany, where he joined Ordo Templi Orientis. Orpheus had been studying the works of Aleister Crowleyand other occult authors since his teenage years, and previously had been founder and editor of the UK occult newspaper Pagan News along with Phil Hine. While in Aachen he began work on the book Abrahadabra, published originally by Looking Glass Press in Sweden, later republished by Weiser Books. The book has been described as "a significant contribution to the field of thelemic, or Crowleyan if you will, magick." and "one of the very few competent and readable introductory texts to Thelemic magick." He still also occasionally gets time to play with The Cassandra Complex on stage and in the studio. He is currently completing work on his second book.

Just when you thought we were 'pod-fading' (whatever the hell that means), we return with a BANG!  Back in the early 1990's a strange thing occurred: fringe-culture exploded. Not only did we see shows like The X-Files take centre stage; but also the apparent rise of a new fringe-community online. But, like all really cool things, it seemed to evaporate at the begining of the new Millennium. In this weeks bumper episode, we talk to three 'fringe-savants', all of whom were major contributors to this scene (and continue to innovate to this day):Douglas Rushkoff,Richard MetzgerandR.U.Sirius, to find out what happened to the Counterculture. Discussed: Pre-millennium tension, Countercultural-personalities, Made culture, defining counterculture and loads more. Joining me in the ever expanding co-host chair is Kim 'Daddytank' Monaghan, who draws some rather profound inspiration from, of all places, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of course, no episode of SittingNow would be complete without some fine musical selections from the Interwebs, this week taking the form of: Gypsum- Bonaissance Daemien Frost- Slut Style Cabbage- Industrial Tourism Adventure Fiddler Daevid Bragger- My Four Reasons We'll be back next week with the Rev. Ivan Stang (praise "Bob")! enjoy! Douglas Rushkoff has a fantastic new book imminent, check it outhere R.U.Sirius also has a great new book outhere, and check out his amazingH+ magazine Richard Metzger is about to launch a great new site, until then check out his new web-show'Dangerous Minds'  

BACK IN THE SADDLE! We finally return to the world of audio podcasting after a few weeks of video capture and training (coming June 2009). This week we dream of android-sheep, with cultural critic and social theorist Erik Davis. In this (the first of many we hope) interview, we decided to focus on Erik's study of visionary-author Phillip K. Dick, as well as a brief look at Davis' own 'Techgnosis' studies. In this episode, we discuss Phillip K. Dick's bizarre life, the 'pink laser' experience, the Valis-trilogy, Dick's exegesis, Technosis and much more. While our first-officer, Claire Lumiere, remains aurally-absent again this week; our sub-mariner, Daddytank, and his navy of musical vessels, defend our shores of the alternative once again with his excellent 'Myspace Heroes'. This week's high-yield torpedoes come in the shape of: Migration - They Said That Committed Suicide action world ! - am i paranoia Dotted Fielda - rainDance Xela - Beatae Immortalitatis Join us next week, and we mean next week this time, with an amazing interview with returning guests Douglas Rushkoff and Richard Metzger! Erik Davis Biog: Erik Davis is a San Franciso-based writer, culture critic, and independent scholar. His book TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information was released by Harmony Books in the fall of 1998. It has been translated into five languages, and has achieved, in certain circles, the vaguely enviable status of a "cult classic." Davis is a contributing writer for Wired magazines, and wrote "The Posthuman Condition" column for the sadly departed online magazine Feed. His essays have appeared in over half a dozen books, including Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle), The Disinformation Book of Lies (Disinfo), Prefiguring Cyberculture (MIT Press) and Paul "DJ Spooky" Miller's Sound Unbound (MIT). He has contributed articles and essays to a wide variety of publications, including Bookforum, The Wire, ArtByte, the LA Weekly, Gnosis, and the Village Voice. His articles have been translated for publication in countries ranging from Japan to Brazil to Hungary. Davis has taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies, the New York Open Center, and Esalen, and was one of the organizers of Planetwork, a conference on information technology and global ecology held in San Francisco in 2000. He has been interviewed by CNN, has popped up on radio shows internationally, and appeared prominently in Craig Baldwin's underground film, the SciFi media critique Specters of the Spectrum. His in-depth studies of the science fiction author Philip K. Dick have been acknowledged by the New Yorker. Davis has also lectured internationally on topics relating to media arts, contemporary electronic music, and spirituality in the postmodern world. Davis is a fifth-generation Californian, and is currently working with the photographer Michael Rauner on California Visions, a photo-essay travelogue through the Golden State's landscape of alternative spirituality. He is also at work on a short book about Led Zeppelin, and various fragments of bardo fiction.  

This week we chat with author Jim Elvidge about our assumptions of reality. Jim is the author of the excellent 'The Universe Solved'. In this weeks episode, we discuss alternate realities, living in a programmed reality, Quantum and String theories, existence, and over-clocking time and space. Claire remains absent for now, however, DaddyTank fires a barrage of musical excellence from his secret bunker. This week's heavy artillery is: DJ Lobsterdust - It's Fun To Smoke Dust www.myspace.com/djlobsterdust Xicana Machete - A Sordid Flavour www.myspace.com/xicanamachete Under Embellished - Pill Farm www.myspace.com/filmtape Ars Dada - Butcher www.myspace.com/arsdada We return next Friday with 'Behind Closed Doors - Broadcast #002' and Saturday with Episode 26 of SittingNow! Enjoy Jim Elvidge bio from his excellent http://theuniversesolved.com Jim Elvidge holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. He has applied his training in the high-tech world as a leader in technology and enterprise management, including many years in executive roles for various companies and entrepreneurial ventures. He also holds 4 patents in digital signal processing and has written articles for publications as diverse as Monitoring Times and the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Beyond the high-tech realm, however, Elvidge has years of experience as a musician, writer, and truth seeker. He merged his technology skills with his love of music, developed one of the first PC-based digital music samplers, and co-founded RadioAMP, the first private-label online streaming-radio company. For many years, Elvidge has kept pace with the latest research, theories, and discoveries in the varied fields of subatomic physics, cosmology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and the paranormal. This unique knowledge base has provided the foundation for his first full-length book, “The Universe-Solved!”

This week we hook-up with author Andrieh Vitimus abut all things Chaos Magick. In this weeks episode, we delve deep into the practice of Chaos Magick, How going for a dump can be of use, Haitian Voodoo, the joys and head-f*cks of Astral work and much more.  Andrieh has just authored and released a great new book 'Hands-On Chaos Magick', published by the great Llewellyn Books. Again, we are Claire-less this week, but never fear, DaddyTank is here with another great MySpace Heroes: Bab - My Sea Life  www.myspace.com/babexperimental made out of wool - ghjjjjjjjjjj www.myspace.com/madeoutofwool Yatsumiki Diturimoto - Uptake Cynical  www.myspace.com/yatsumikiditurimoto Andrieh Vitimus Biog: Andrieh Vitimus has been a practicing magician for over 15 years in multiple systems. He holds the highest initiatory rank in Haitian Vodou, that of Houngan asogwe.  He is an initiate of the Roots Without End Society, initiatory son of Mambo Racine Sans Bout.  He has taught metaphysical classes at Alchemy Arts in Chicago for the last 6 years. He has had several store appearances through out the Midwest and has taught at conventions including Aeonfest, Ancient Ways, Convocation, and Sirius Rising.    Andrieh Vitimus's magical career, however, began with a undergraduate degree in psychology with a strong emphasis on cognitive science.  He is a Usui and Karuna Reiki Master Teacher, and is a licensed hypnotherapist.  In addition to the formal training as a Reiki master and Qigong practitioner, Andrieh Vitimus comes from a line of magically inclined individuals whose lineage include Asowge level Haitian Voodoo priests, Jesuit priests, psychics, and natural healers.  He is a member of the prestigious Illuminates of Thanateros, which is one of the most difficult magical organizations to enter. Enjoy!

HAIL ERIS!!! This week we present you with a BUMPER two hour Robert Anton Wilson tribute spectacular! Joining me, amongst a plethora of guests, is the host of the Disinformation Companies Podcast Joe McFall (Mort also joins us for one section). In this weeks episode, we jump into the enlightening concepts of Discordianism, Magick, Conspiracy Theories, Subgenius, General Semantics, The CounterCulture old and new amongst other Wilsonian subjects. Also check out the chance to win a copy of the amazing Maybe Logic DVD, courtesy of the amazing Deep Leaf Productions. We are joined in our discussion by returning guests Rev. Ivan Stang from the Church of the Subgenius, Thelemic author and all-round Magickal chap Lon Milo Duquette, co-founder of the Disinformation Company Richard Metzger and Experimental Magician Taylor Ellwood. Of course, no episode of SittingNow would be complete without the infinite musical wisdom of DaddyTank, who this week presents us with: Yeknom Susej - Monkey Pickle Yellow Then Blue - C Mass Beta Central - Massacre Component Youngdental - Full and Empty Country Clips used in the show are used courtesy of Deep Leaf Productions, and Sounds True Audio. Check out both of these recordings, I would recommend them to anyone!

This week we mark the end of our holiday break by discussing some of our 'favorite bits' of 2008. Topics covered in this show include Anonymous, The end of Neo-Paganism as we know it?, Patriots and the Georgia Guidestones and of course Obama (or in this case OBAWWWWMA). Joining me for this episodes banter is Sir Raymond Wiley and Lord Austin Gandy from ye olde Out There Radio and the all new Disinformation The Podcast. Of course Lady Claire Lumiere delivers us the latest Weekly Weird News and the Nobleman that is Daddytank serves up another great MySpace Heroes in the shape of: District Of Evolution - New Paper Crusader Magnetic Stripper - set 5a Zabutom - Leningrad Vodka Rush A Boy And His Recorder - Ice Cream Chuck The episode of Out There Radio that Raymond plugs with no shame throughout the show can be found at www.outthereradio.net Join us weekly again from now, as we examine counterculture, the Occult, underground and all the usual good stuff...so you don't have to. Enjoy