Against Everyone with Conner Habib

AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 326: FELIX JOHN TAYLOR on THE LIGHT OF THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWNThe first time I heard about the Golden Dawn, I was in high school. I was gay, Syrian, reading all the time, shunning sports. My town was filled with neo-Nzis and fundamentalists, celebrated stupidity and football players.I wanted to feel something like power in a disempowering place, so I went to Brentano’s and found the most startling magic book there. On its cover was a person drawing a pentagram of crackling blue light with a wand. In it, instructions on making magical tools and spellcasting. And in its title, the word magick was written with a K. In contrast to the hell of school, the book represented an academy of magic. I found there allusions to The Golden Dawn, a group from almost a century prior, with secrets of not just power, but antiquity and the cosmos.But they also seemed rigid, too elaborate and hierarchical. Plus I didn't like their most infamous member, Aleister Crowley, so I turned away from them. As I deepened my interests in occultism into adulthood, my pursuit of esoteric christianity, particularly the work of Rudolf Steiner, I steered clear.I've become more sympathetic over time to the Golden Dawn. That doesn't mean I'm going to wade into their rituals, but that a real re-assessment has occurred. So this episodes’s guest, librarian and scholar FELIX JOHN TAYLOR ’s beautiful book, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Magic Arts and the Occult Revival was a great find for me. In it, he gives a portrait of the Golden Dawn through its key members and its art. A picture emerges of not just a magickal group, but an art and social movement, working to redefine morality for the sake of inclusiveness and creativity. After all, Crowley fell in love with a drag queen at a gay bar in 1897. Oscar Wilde and Edward Carpenter influenced the group. So did Steiner, for that matter! W.B. Yeats brought his Golden Dawn work to revitalize Irish identity.I’m so happy you’ll be joining me and Felix John Taylor in this reappraisal.Support the show on Patreon!Make a one-time donation!Buy Felix's book.

Friends, I've been doing this podcast for over eight years and one thing I've noticed since the beginning: guests always want to talk about spirituality. I know, I know, it's self-selecting. I'M the one who wants to talk about it. Sure, that's true. But also, everyone is EXCITED to discuss it when I bring it up. It's like it's on the tip of everyone's tongues and has been for a decade. Now, it's starting to be fully pronounced, like a spell shouted into the air. I’m sure you’ve seen it too: whether it’s the convergence of witchcraft and feminism, the popularization of political wellness which has ritual components, the appearance of crystals in the Los Angeles mayoral race, the conspiratorial intimations about black magick during lockdowns... People have been trying to interpret the world through a spiritual lens that religion doesn't seem up to - but the political realm has so overwhelmed people’s perceptions that instead of being TRANSFORMED by spiritual encounter, they're merely grafting it onto already-established, politicized worldviews.This includes political pundits and secularized media ridiculing spiritual perspectives as a distraction from their failure to scrutinize 60 hour work weeks, economic bamboozling, or outdated attitudes about gender.I've done my best to mediate this, because I could see it all coming (not bragging, promise, you can hear me discuss it on early episodes!). I’ve tried to occupy a sort of cultural position that was largely held in the past by de-witchers, fairy doctors, alchemical scientists and more, people who separated what's true and false when it came to spiritual paths, critiques, and pursuits. They constituted a whole classes of laborers people largely disappeared by the materialist, academic, and professional world.But we can’t wait any longer, we need experts in this field. An expert I trust and appreciate so deeply on these matters is Thomas Waters, lecturer in history at Imperial College London (and AEWCH 98 guest) So we talk together about magick’s role today, and the new magickal realm we find ourselves in.I’m so excited to share this episode with you. support the show: patreon.com/connerhabibbuy Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Spells, Illusions and Psychic Powers by Thomas Waters from an indie bookshop buy Cursed BritainA History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times by Thomas Waters from an indie bookshop

A.J.A. Woods, intellectual historian and author of The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy, guides a tour through the history and reception of the Frankfurt School. They trace how 'cultural Marxism' became a conspiratorial smear, unpack caricatures of theorists, and map conservative tactics that turn cultural complaints into political panic. Conversations range from coalition-building to creative, convivial politics.

Mitch Horowitz, author and scholar of esotericism, appears as a concise guide to spiritual ethics. He discusses wrestling with unwanted inner voices, balancing desire with integrity, and refining New Thought alongside Gurdjieff-inspired practices. Expect lively takes on discernment, suffering as offering, clarifying wishes, and how teachings become personally owned.

On this episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib, I talk with esoteric author and scholar MARK BOOTH (AKA Jonathan Black), whose excellent new book, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE: HOW ANCIENT WISDOM MADE THE WORLD, traces the occult influences found in modern science, especially the science of physics.Mark’s book is not just an outline of confluences. In other words, it’s not one of many books already available which seem to validate spiritual wisdom with modern science. Instead, it is something more singular and more needed for our time. It shows how esoteric ideas and thinkers, seers and magicians, intersected with scientists as they developed the theories that live in our own scientific worldviews. Mark is also the author of one of the best introductions to real esoteric perspectives, The Secret History of the World , as well as The Sacred History: How Angels, Mystics and Higher Intelligence Made Our World and the ebook, The Secret History of Dante: Unearthing the Real-Life Mysteries of the Inferno.Mark has been a dream guest for me since I started this show over eight years ago. Although we spoke a few times in the intervening years, I'm so excited that we finally got to talk in this capacity, for the podcast.But we weren't alone! In a perfect example of spiritual entanglement, when Mark brought up the physicist Wolfgang Pauli - famed for the so-called Pauli effect or shorting out technology wherever he went - our recoding crashed completely, and we had to restart the call. Luckily, it's still all intact for you!

Shuli Branson, author and translator rooted in abolitionist and queer anarchist thought, and Joshua Rivers, poet and curator of Black queer imagination, discuss remaking the world. They ask how to care for what you love, how letting go transforms politics, and how poetry, erotic ecology, porosity, and altered perception open new possibilities. The conversation moves from theory to dance.

A spiritual reframing of economics that asks why money feels mysterious and who it serves. Discussions range from unpaid data extraction and compelled labor to how interest creates impersonal obligations. The episode explores money’s changing forms, porosity versus scarcity, the commons and gift-based exchange, and practical questions for building an economy rooted in love and shared gifts.

A deep dive into politics as a living, breathing social force beyond elections and parties. Discussions weave ideas from Debord, Lacan, Steiner, and Krishnamurti to rethink power, alienation, and healing. Themes include utopia as an ever-present layer, rebuilding collective potency through rhythm and autonomous acts, and using poetry and time perception to spark genuine political transformation.

A deep look at culture as a spiritual sphere that shapes the world. Stories from Joyce, Kafka, and a Buddhist parable illustrate creative perseverance and destiny. Discussion of art as transmission, purification as a way to make inner life public, and how personal development fuels cultural renewal. A warning about inevitability narratives that steal collective freedom.

A call to wake up to how every life shapes culture, politics, and economy. A guide to pausing automatic patterns and acting with intention. An introduction to social threefolding as a framework for renewing cultural, political, and economic life. An invitation to explore spiritual principles for building a more balanced, creative, and interconnected society.