Ultraculture With Jason Louv

Jason Louv and Temple Gold read reactions to r/exevangelical, starting with grandparents who never saved for retirement because they expected the Rapture, then a mother who drove her daughter to a church parking lot at midnight to read her diary back to her, and parents who turned away their own daughter but took in a disgraced ex-pastor for months. They talk about spiritual bypassing, religious trauma, true will, whether evangelicalism functions as a cult, and why "Christian witch" might be a contradiction in terms. They close on a lighter story about a cat named Beaker. Start Jason's free 15-minute Why Magick course. Five lessons, free account required, no card: https://magick.me/p/why-magick?utm_source=ultraculture&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode-242-witches-ex-evangelical&utm_content=show-notes Now enrolling: Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, taught live by Jason from a new translation of the 1533 Latin. Founding enrollment is $797 and closes October 6: https://magick.me/p/agrippa?utm_source=ultraculture&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode-242-witches-ex-evangelical&utm_content=show-notes Topics: Reddit stories from r/exevangelical | Grandparents who didn't save because the Rapture was coming | A midnight diary confrontation in a church parking lot | Parents who sheltered a disgraced pastor over their own daughter | Spiritual bypassing and religious trauma | True will versus religious obedience | Is evangelicalism a cult | Christian witchcraft as a contradiction | A lighter closing story about Beaker the cat Transcript: https://audio.magick.me/ep_242.vtt

Jason Louv and Temple Gold read and react to tarot stories from Reddit and around the internet, starting with Temple drawing the Fool four times in a row. They cover a relationship pulled apart by ChatGPT tarot readings, a thrift-store deck with a bad reputation, and an oracle reading about a household goblin, then talk through confirmation bias, religious fear, and tarot as pathworking rather than fortune-telling. Start Jason's free 15-minute Why Magick course. Five lessons, free account required, no card: https://magick.me/p/why-magick?utm_source=ultraculture&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode-241-tarot-stories-reddit&utm_content=show-notes Now enrolling: Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, taught live by Jason from a new translation of the 1533 Latin. Founding enrollment is $797 and closes October 6: https://magick.me/p/agrippa?utm_source=ultraculture&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode-241-tarot-stories-reddit&utm_content=show-notes Topics: Reddit tarot stories | Drawing the Fool four times in a row | ChatGPT tarot readings and a relationship falling apart | Confirmation bias and religious fear | Tarot pathworking | An oracle deck and a household goblin | Tarot court cards and elementals Transcript: https://audio.magick.me/ep_241.vtt

Angel Millar, author and researcher of esoteric traditions, explores the supernatural woman who appears in men's dreams across Norse and Celtic myth. Short, vivid discussions cover initiation and tradition, poetic oracular speech, hypnotism and mesmerism as ceremonial magic, problematic teachers, and the legacy of chaos magick. The conversation blends mythic stories and lived initiation experiences.

Mitch Horowitz, author and historian of esoterica, returns with a brisk mini-bio: chronicler of practical occultism and parapsychology. He lays out his theory of human decline and limits of spiritual optimism. They probe astrology, ghosts, and why anomalous research meets institutional resistance. Expect talk of practical practices, Theosophy’s reach, and how cultural bias shapes what we accept as real.

Jason and his wife Temple react to and dismantle a viral video by ex-occultist-turned-Christian Jacque Marino, who appeared on Allie Beth Stuckey's show claiming shadow work is dangerous spiritual self-harm. Temple, a shadow-work practitioner, walks through the core misconceptions point by point—not to attack Marino, but because these critiques echo the 1980s Satanic Panic and reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of what shadow integration actually is. Shadow work, they explain, isn't about "becoming your shadow" or indulging destructive impulses; it's about consciously integrating the aspects of self that the ego rejects due to societal conditioning and shame. Discomfort and pain are signals—pointers to dysfunction, injury, or unprocessed trauma—and the practice is to remain curious rather than flee into substances or distraction. They trace shadow work's lineage through Jung's Red Book, William James, and modern somatic therapy, emphasizing the role of professional guidance and the scientific validation of approaches like CBT. The conversation pivots to analyzing the born-again experience itself as a psychological reframing—a subroutine that accomplishes real shifts in identification and self-narrative—and draws parallels to other "safe haven" movements, from Teal Swan to fundamentalist Christianity. They discuss monotheism's assumption that non-Christians embody evil, the fastest-growing religions in America, and the question of personal responsibility in how adults frame their childhood and past. Ultimately, this is about the return of radical fundamentalism—Christian and otherwise—and the cost of binary thinking in a complex world. Topics: What shadow work actually is and what it isn't | Integration vs. indulgence | Pain and discomfort as diagnostic signals | Jung's Red Book and the psychological lineage of shadow work | Somatic therapy and the role of professional guidance | The born-again experience as psychological reframing | Safe-haven movements and cultic dynamics | Monotheism and the demonization of the Other | The Satanic Panic returns | Personal responsibility and narrative reframing in adulthood | Fundamentalism across traditions. Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPiPg1Ufm-s

Joseph Flatley, private investigator and author who researched Timothy Leary's occult legacy, joins to unpack Leary's Eight‑Circuit model and its 24 stages. They trace Leary’s tarot and Kabbalah mappings, the Starseed Transmissions and Enochian workings in Folsom, and his SMI2LE vision that prefigured Silicon Valley transhumanism. The conversation assesses boomer occultism and whether the internet fulfilled Leary’s aims.

Alan Chapman, author and practitioner of contemporary occultism, discusses Crowley scholarship, a copyright fight over his edition of Magick Without Tears, and the true story behind the Book of the Law. He explores Crowley’s trance reception, underworld motifs in the text, the nature of lineage and the Great Work, and whether this life resembles a bardo. Short, sharp, and provocative.

In this episode, Jason explores one of the most important texts in world spirituality: The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. St. John was a 16th-century Carmelite monk who helped St. Teresa of Ávila reform the Carmelite order—and was kidnapped and imprisoned by rival monks for nine months, during which he composed this classic text on spiritual transformation. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why the "dark night" is not depression, but a necessary stage of spiritual development - The three signs that distinguish true spiritual purgation from mere lukewarmness - How God "weans" the soul like a mother teaching a child to walk - Why divine light appears as darkness to the unprepared soul ("a ray of darkness") - The ten steps of the ladder of love leading to union with God - How suffering is more secure than pleasure on the spiritual path Key quote: "He who shines with the greatest light shall cast the darkest shadow." If you've ever felt spiritually dry, disconnected, or like God has withdrawn His presence—this episode reveals why that experience is not only normal, but essential. --- 🔥 JOIN THE WINTER SOLSTICE WORKING — December 20-21 This episode connects directly to what Temple and I are doing this weekend: a live two-day intensive timed to the exact astronomical moment of the Winter Solstice—the longest night of the year, when darkness peaks and light begins its return. This is not a course you watch alone. It's a live working we do together: - Death meditations & shadow integration - Kabbalistic pathworking - Guided Bardo journeys - A ritual timed to the precise moment of the solstice Join us for the most potent time of the year for powerful, deep inner work. → solstice.magick.me

BLACK FRIDAY ENDS TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT: friday.magick.me This episode goes out on the final day of the Black Friday sale for a reason. What you're about to hear is Eliphas Levi's chapter on The Magician from Transcendental Magic (1856)—the first chapter of the first modern book on ceremonial magic ever written. Levi is going to lay out exactly what it takes to become an adept—"a person who is achieved by will and by work." He's going to talk about the four powers of the Sphinx: To know, to dare, to will, to keep silence. He's going to talk about why most people never make it. And he's going to say something that hit me hard when I first read it: "Those qualified for initiation no longer finding initiators, and the leaders of conscience becoming in the laps of time as uninstructed as the vulgar, the blind have grown weary of following the blind." That's the problem I've spent ten years trying to solve. That's why Magick.Me exists. That's why I built The Adept Initiative. Listen to Levi. Really listen. And then decide: Are you ready? KEY PASSAGES: • "To know, to dare, to will, to keep silence—such are the four words of the magus" • "Those qualified for initiation no longer finding initiators, the blind have grown weary of following the blind" • "Once started, we must reach the end or perish. To doubt is to lose one's reason, to pause is to fail, to recoil is to plunge into an abyss" BLACK FRIDAY ENDS TUESDAY MIDNIGHT: → The Adept's Path — $397 Adept Initiative I & II + Solstice Working (Dec 20-21) This is where Levi would tell you to start. → Complete Mastery — $997 (Limited spots available) Everything + 12-month library access + Solstice If you want to go deep—if you want the complete toolkit—this is it. → ULTIMATE — $1,797 (Limited spots available) Complete Mastery + year of direct mentorship with Jason This is for people who heard what Levi said and thought: "I'm ready. I want an initiator." 👉 friday.magick.me Links & Resources: 🔥 BLACK FRIDAY SALE: https://friday.magick.me 🌈 Magick.Me - Online School for Magick, Meditation, and Mysticism: https://www.magick.me 🧘‍♂️ Free Guided Meditation and Mailing List: https://start.magick.me 🌌 See you in class! ✨

BLACK FRIDAY SALE: https://friday.magick.me — Our best three offers OF ALL TIME. Sale ends December 2nd or when we run out (slots limited)! In this episode, Jason dives deep into epistemology—how we actually determine what's true and what's not in an age of overwhelming information, AI-generated content, and competing narratives. He explores practical frameworks for critical thinking, discusses the difference between knowledge and belief, and offers tools for navigating uncertainty without falling into either gullibility or paranoid skepticism. Topics covered: epistemological frameworks, critical thinking tools, media literacy, discernment practices, the role of intuition vs. analysis, and how magickal practice can sharpen your ability to perceive truth.