Rune Soup

This week's episode is the audio version of a live stream discussion with Samuel Urban of the Illegitimate Scholar podcast. We talk about The educational industrial complex. So-called 'alternative' history. Find the good in the total failure of academia over the past few years. Invisible colleges. What comes next and what to do. A really fun chat -and one that only had a few technical issues for once, some of which weren't even on my side! Thanks, Elon! (We got Starlink while I was in Paraguay.) Show Notes The Illegitimate Scholar podcast. Illegitimate Scholar on YouTube.

Legendary co-originator of permaculture, David Holmgren, returns to the show this week on the ery special occasion of the launch of the feature-length documentary, Reading Landscape. In the show notes below, you will find the link and the password to watch the full documentary for free. Please share it widely with anyone who may be interested, with the blessing of the producers. David and I discuss The development of the film What is meant by 'landscape' What is meant by 'reading' What has changed in permaculture over the decades Learning from Indigenous teachers in Australia and New Zealand And a whole lot more. It was a personal pleasure to be involved in the financing of this film as an individual and during my tenure at Permaculture Tasmania. Show Notes Watch the full documentary here. Use the Password: Melliodora Holmgren Design.

Astrologer and YouTuber Cam White joins the show this week to bring some helpful reframings to the space weather we'll all be enduring over the next few years. We discuss How astrology works The role of a fortune teller in troubled times What sort of conflicts and wars are likely to appear when Whether the so-called Barbault Basket configuration ushers in a new golden age or not. Super fun and spicy times. Enjoy the White Pill! Show Notes Cam's website. Cam's YouTube channel. Context on the Barbault Basket from S.J. Anderson.

Author, activist and educator, Dougald Hine, joins the host for a discussion about the resurgence of Christianity. They explore the possible reasons for this resurgence, its different forms and mutations, and the connection between magic and Christianity. They also delve into the works of Ivan Illich, discussing his critique of modern society and institutions, his perspective on the relationship between modernity and Christianity, and the decline of literacy, numeracy, and healthcare in Western countries.

Rhyd Wildermuth returns to the show on the occasion of his latest book launch, Here Be Monsters. So we have a freewheeling chat about the mutation and fall of leftism, the what and where of activism accordingly, whether things are getting 'worse' or 'better', updated definitions of capitalism and fascism, Russell Brand, all kinds of incendiary stuff. Oh, and gay werewolves. Show Notes Get Here Be Monsters. Rhyd on Substack. Rhyd on X.

This podcast discusses the censorship laws worldwide and their implications. It also delves into the Russell Brand situation and the importance of not jumping to conclusions. The urgent political landscape is explored, along with the EU's Digital Services Act and the rollout of the UNDP's I Verify tool. The chapter also touches on total surveillance, self-censorship, and resistance against digital currencies and IDs.

Greg Carlwood, host of The Higherside Chats and expert in alternative healing, discusses the top 10 best alternative healing books. Topics include conspiracy theories and alternative health, the hidden costs of stress and dehydration, challenging the idea of the heart as a pump, controversies in AIDS treatment, books on alternative healing, energy healing experiments, challenging the Western approach to aid and medicine, and reflections on having a second child and a move to Florida.

It's been one of the highlights of my year to start getting messages and images of the Fortune's Fools Lenormand oracle out in the world. And, as you might expect, it's got me thinking about fortune-telling. One of my personal creative goals for the project was the queer (lol) the Little White Book concept, and so the companion book IS my fortune-telling book, in the sense that it is a book-length exploration of the techniques and metaphysics of telling fortunes. I've been reading fortunes for two decades, teaching tarot for almost one decade and have interviewed some of the best modern minds on the subject. And so I have some takes. Several of them spicy. This week, the audio version is an off-the-cuff exploration of those takes, recorded immediately after my deck artist, Colin Alexander, and I completed a full unboxing of the deck. An unboxing obviously makes for a terrible audio-version of a podcast so this week they're completely separate. The audio version is Thoughts on Fortune Telling. The video version is Coling and my gay little unboxing and reminiscing about the deck creation journey. And there are still some decks available if you want to buy them here. (It still says pre-order, but they totally exist, I swear.) Note: James and I are travelling for the next few days. For the 36 who purchased the top-tier package, we'll be in touch next week with the dates for the training and initiation.

One of my favourite guests returns to the show this week for a scintillating and freewheeling dive into the perennial question of whether there are aliens in the Bible. Author, researcher, psychonaut and hypnotist Danny Nemu. The impetus for this discussion is a book and a thesis that's been translated out of Italian and into English relatively recently: Mauro Biglino's Gods of The Bible. Speaking of translation, for years, Mauro was a translator of Biblical texts for the Vatican's official publisher. Over the course of that work, he began to have questions about this term, 'Elohim', and all the other strange stuff that's in there. So he decided to translate the Old Testament literally and what emerges is alien beings and flying saucers and all that classic Ancient Aliens fare. A few people started asking me about the Biglino hypothesis, and then Mauro himself was on Graham Hancock's podcast. And then, Graham's son Luke quoted from one of Danny's books in the same podcast. Danny was the person whose take on the hypothesis I most wanted to hear because of his work on the presence of entheogens and drugs in the Bible. So that was enough of a sign for me to repeatedly peer-pressure him into buying and reading the book so we could talk about it. Anyway, he graciously obliged. So here is a Star.Ships meets 'are there drugs in the Bible' take on aliens, the power of language, the use of metaphor, literalism as spells and a whole lot more. Super excited for this one. Enjoy! SHOW NOTES Danny Nemu's website. Mauro Biglino's YouTube channel, which gives a really good overview of his thesis. My AI-generated presentation on the life and work of Zechariah Sitchin. My AI-generated presentation on Owen Barfield's thesis on the origin of language.

This podcast explores the concept of community as a battleground, metaphors in framing ideas and communities, and the significance of Pluto in Aquarius in relation to hidden power dynamics and negative interest rates in Europe. It also delves into the ecosystemic function of a Lord of the Underworld, the emergence of a multipolar world shaped by demographics, and the challenges of creating a new kind of community in an apocalypse.