Rune Soup

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They Broke Upon This Fortress Like Waves Upon Rock Jun 13, 2025

Show notes

I've been revisiting Ursula K. Le Guin's brilliant essay "The Child and the Shadow". Le Guin was defending fantasy against the sterile modernism of her era—but what happens when that defence needs to evolve? We're no longer fighting a battle between "good" and "bad" fantasy. Instead, we're caught in something potentially more insidious: the tension between authentic imagination and the ersatz.

From the disaster of Rings of Power to the destruction of Star Wars, from AI-generated Jung content flooding YouTube to the Soviet-style creative orthodoxy dominating our cultural institutions—we're witnessing the systematic neutering of the imaginal. But here's the thing: they can't actually touch the real. They break upon authentic creativity like waves upon rock.

Through Le Guin's profound analysis of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Shadow" and Jung's psychology, I explore why confronting our shadow isn't just personal development—it's the key to understanding why authentic fantasy endures while corporate imitations crumble. Plus, I reveal how Bulgakov got there first in The Master and Margarita, showing us exactly what happens when the vital imaginal meets bureaucratic control.

This isn't just about books or movies. It's about the difference between surface-level engagement and the depths where real creativity lives.

Chapter Timestamps:

0:00 - Opening: The Shift from Good vs. Bad to Ersatz vs. Genuine 3:45 - Le Guin's Defence of Fantasy in the Modern Era 8:20 - The Rings of Power Problem: When Creators Think They're Fans 12:15 - AI Jung Slop and the Corruption of the Imaginal 16:30 - Bulgakov's Prophecy: The Master and Margarita's Cultural Critique 22:10 - Reading "The Child and the Shadow": Andersen's Dark Fairy Tale 28:45 - Jung's Psychology: Ego, Shadow, and the Collective Unconscious 35:20 - The Ethics of Fairy Tales: Why Gretel Can Push the Witch 42:15 - Tolkien's True Complexity: Frodo, Sam, and Gollum as Psychic Journey 48:30 - Why Fantasy is the Language of Moral Truth 52:40 - The Problem with "Realistic" Children's Literature 57:25 - Luke in the Cave: Star Wars as Genuine Imaginal Work 60:10 - Closing Thoughts and Shadow Project Tease

LinkedIn For Ghosts May 16, 2025

Show notes

Last night I got halfway through a Substack post on a related issue to some of the subjects that came up on my appearance on the Disintegrator podcast. When I went to link to it, it suddenly dawned on me I had only shared it on the Rune Soup Premium Members Mighty Network. (Join below.)

So here it is! We recorded this soon after my arrival in Paraguay, so I think it was early February. It's an excellent discussion, so I'm pulling an Alex Hormozi and sharing it with my own listeners. (Sub to Disintegrator, too.)

Here is why AI thinks you should listen:

In this high-energy episode I sit down with Marek and Roberto to talk about why barrels are meant for rolling and why reality is much bigger than the academic cubicles that try to contain it. We start with the ancient tale of the Watchers (the OG tech-bros from the Book of Enoch) and use it to kick open a door marked Technology, Magic & the Human Experiment. From there we dive straight into animism, the "community-of-beings" cosmos, and why a living universe renders most hand-wringing over "anthropocentrism" moot unless you're prepared to vault clean out of the academy's marble-floored worldview.

What you'll hear me unpack

Barrel-Rolling Out of Academia – how to exit the cathedral politely, become "invincible," and treat academic credentials like LinkedIn endorsements in a living cosmos.
Markets, Magic & Capitalism – capitalism viewed as a resonant tool of a larger Ahrimanic being; why the market is archetypal, but turning it up to 120 % comes with karmic interest.
Mineral Intelligence & AI – awakening the silica, ayahuasca visions of stones teaching in a galactic lecture hall, and why "artificial" intelligence might be a mis-nomer in an ensouled universe.
Comparative ≠ Colonial – embracing perspectivism (à la Viveiros de Castro) as the clean way to decolonise knowledge without the usual Protestant guilt trip.
Astrology & World Politics – the U.S. Pluto/Uranus returns, fourth-turning turbulence, and the astrological case for an amicable national "divorce" over a civil war redux.
Practical Magic – why Ouija boards, jungle dieta, and good old-fashioned ghost stories still outperform peer-reviewed PDFs when it comes to proving the universe is alive.

Join the world's leading online magical training community, Rune Soup, here.

I See That Strange Tales Are Woven About You May 07, 2025

Show notes

Magical objects aren't just forged—they're found. In this solo episode, I explore the secret life of enchanted tools: the knife with a story, the crystal touched by a world-mountain, the wand bought in a witch town that still summons fairy queens.

What gives an object its power? Sometimes it's planetary timing and whispered invocations—but sometimes it's stranger tales than that. This is a medium salsa reflection on self-initiation, storycraft, and the agency of objects that choose you.

Note: Here's a link to the YouTube video about self-initiation I mention in this episode.

Chapters

Who Chose Whom?

Opening questions on agency, destiny, and magical initiation.
What Makes an Object Magical?

Beyond grimoires—why backstories matter as much as consecrations.
Salsa Scale and Self-Initiation

How this podcast fits into your current content taxonomy.
Denethor, Pippin, and the Agentic Object

Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon worldview and the power of mythic artifacts.
Crystals in the Andes

Live tale-weaving on sacred mountains and magical stones.
The Library Angel & YouTube Algorithms

Synchronicity, digital spellwork, and unexpected transmissions.
Strange Tales and Warped Realities

How magical items—and magical people—bend the world around them.
Grimoires vs. Found Objects

Cutting Hawthorn at dawn vs. fairy queen summoning from a witch-town wand.
Your Life Already Has Strange Tales

Suburban magic, Red Cross births, and the imperative to gather and weave.

Huáscar Rising Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

Hello from Cusco, where the streets are laid out like a puma and hawkers offer massages on every corner. I've been thinking about Huáscar, the last true Sapa Inca, who willingly took sacred knowledge into the underworld until the time was right for its return.

What if the strange convergence we're witnessing - the grimoire revival, the sudden value of grandmother's recipes, and yes, even the rise of what I'm calling "orthodank" online - are all manifestations of the same archetypal energy? Things coming up from below, returning from the shadows at this precise moment in time. The question is: which returns will we embrace?

Chapters

The Temple City of Cusco - Exploring the ancient capital and how authentic experience lurks just beneath tourist traps
The Tale of Two Brothers - The story of Waskar and Atahualpa, the civil war that weakened the Inca Empire, and how Waskar preserved sacred knowledge
Three Stories of Waskar's Fate - Drowning, beheading, or escape: tracing the different narratives through history and oral tradition
The Return of Waskar in the 90s - Alberto Violdo's observations and the rising indigenous pride in Peru
The Fortean Dominant - How things pushed into the underworld are returning in our time
Conservative Returns - The relationship between rising conservatism and the return of things worth conserving
Grandmother's Foods - How millennials became the generation that values heritage foods and traditional ways
Magic's Return - The grimoire revival and the return of ancestral magical knowledge
Shadow and Integration - How to navigate the darker aspects of what returns from the underworld

Tolkien's Shire Anarchy and the Mandate of Heaven Apr 08, 2025

Show notes

This week, I'm welcoming fellow substacker and Tolkien nerd, Charles McBride, whose essay 'Shire Anarchy' caught my eye in the cultural curiosity that is the substack notes app.

We're diving into the political imagination behind Middle-Earth – a world where having a king is perfectly fine, as long as he's quite far away or, better yet, long dead.

From childhood obsessions with Tolkien to the strange bedfellows his work creates in modern fandom, Charles and I explore what it means when the villain of the story isn't a particular people, but the very desire for total control. How did this Franco-supporting Catholic writer end up crafting one of the most compelling visions of localism and self-governance in modern literature? And what might the hobbits teach us about freedom in an age of empire?

"I think Shire anarchy is best described in a sentence I wrote in the piece, where I said that all the affairs of hobbits are organized under the assumption that having a king was basically a good idea, so long as he was quite far away, or better yet, long dead. And I think that that kind of cuts to the heart of what this concept of Shire anarchy is. You have a society that holds a reverence for the past. And they believe that their system of political and social organization is derived from something authoritative in their deep, distant past."

Show Notes

Timestamps

02:00 - Charles' essay "Shire Anarchy" and initial connection

04:00 - Childhood experiences with Tolkien and homeschooling background

08:30 - Gordon's similar Tolkien childhood experiences

11:00 - Discussion of Substack platform and media evolution

14:00 - Tolkien's political views and introduction to "quiet radicalism"

15:30 - Explanation of Tolkien as an "anarcho-monarchist"

18:30 - Monarchy, pragmatism, and Tolkien's support for Franco

22:30 - The Ring as metaphor for power, greed, and capital

25:00 - Lord of the Rings' resilience against political appropriation

27:30 - Peter Jackson's film adaptation achievement

29:00 - Charles' viral thread about polarized Tolkien fandom

32:00 - CS Lewis vs. Tolkien on moral clarity and writing

35:30 - Lewis as a potential universalist and perennial philosophy

38:30 - Religious conversion, cultural identity, and belonging

42:30 - Modern politics, monarchy, and fascism as shadow kingship

45:00 - Definition and explanation of "Shire anarchy" concept

50:30 - Charles' personal political journey toward anarchism

54:00 - Political polarization and contemporary discourse

57:00 - Defining philosophical anarchism and attitudes toward hierarchy

59:30 - Religion as natural human function and political movements

63:00 - Discussion of The Hobbit movies and fan edits

69:00 - Concluding thoughts and where to find Charles online

Bathed In A Blue Suede Light | Miguel Conner Mar 30, 2025

Show notes

Everyone's favourite gnostic raconteur, Miguel Conner, returns to the show this week to discuss his latest book, The Occult Elvis.

The book becomes an entryway into a wide-ranging discussion on the role of shamans, cultural transformation, fate and the destiny of America. (Mere trifles!)

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the Occult Elvis

04:03 The Spirituality of Rock Music

07:54 Elvis as a Magician and Shaman

11:52 The Blue Light Phenomenon

15:54 Elvis's Influence on American Identity

19:53 Elvis's Mystical Interests and Books

23:47 The Legacy of Elvis in Modern Culture

34:37 Exploring Fate and Free Will

37:56 The Wounded Healer: Elvis and Addiction

40:06 The Search for Self: Elvis's Identity Crisis

46:52 Elvis as a Cultural Trickster

51:10 The Archetype of the Shaman in Modern Fame

57:52 Elvis: A Reflection of Post-War America

Show Notes

Gandalf And The Ice Wall: You Shall Not Pass? Mar 27, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, I explore the shifting landscape of conspiracy culture and what I've been noticing about an emerging "conspiracy canon."

Recording from my new apartment in Paraguay, I dive into observations from my recent event with Greg Carlwood in Florida, examining how conspiracy thinking has evolved from political analysis to metaphysical questioning.

Using Charles Fort's framework of "dominants," I discuss how we're witnessing a paradigm shift toward a more meaning-centered worldview as a response to scientific materialism.

Whether you consider yourself a conspiracy person or not, this episode offers insights into epistemology, metaphysics, and our relationship to meaning in the cosmos.

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and setting the scene from Paraguay 02:15 - Recent event with Greg Carlwood in Florida 04:30 - The concept of a "Conspiracy Canon" 07:10 - Observing alignment among respected thinkers 09:05 - When brilliant people question fundamental assumptions 12:30 - Robert Anton Wilson on conspiracy culture shifting from left to right 15:45 - The "Alex Jones era" and libertarian influence 18:20 - The 80s-90s "Lone Gunman Era" conspiracy canon 21:40 - Today's conspiracy canon: no virus, flat Earth, aliens as demons, Tartaria 24:15 - The internet's "hold my beer" effect on conspiracy thinking 27:50 - Shift from "how things are" to "who we are in the cosmos" 31:10 - Natural drift toward meaning-seeking 34:30 - Pushback against scientific materialism 37:50 - Charles Fort and reality paradigm shifts 40:15 - Fort's "dominants" and "damned data" 43:40 - Accumulated "damned facts" challenging mainstream narratives 46:20 - The "religious dominant" as initial framework 49:30 - The "scientific dominant" and its exclusionist tendency 52:45 - Fort recognizing scientism's limitations ahead of his time 56:10 - The emergent "dominant of wider inclusions" 59:25 - Visit to Cassadega and Greg's psychic reading experience 01:02:40 - Kelly Brogan and Mark Gober's alternative cosmology 01:05:15 - Being "80% flat earther" on meaningful universe principles 01:09:30 - Flat Earth as Biblical literalism seeking meaning 01:12:45 - Critique of Tartaria theories 01:15:20 - Meme culture and uncritical sharing of conspiracy content 01:18:40 - "Realm theory" as a container for anomalous data 01:21:25 - Being "Gandalf among the hobbits" during paradigm shifts 01:24:50 - Fortean flow model for approaching change 01:27:30 - Closing thoughts on being a container for transformation

Amor Fatty Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

Hi from the Amazon jungle. Honestly, if I'd known that AI would do such a good job of describing this podcast, I would have left it in charge and stayed longer.

Although I will say, I asked it to write it in the style of the speaker, and it made me sound way more polite than I usually am to you scrubs.

Enjoy! (PS - you will find the same show in your podcatcher, as normal.)

In the heart of the Amazon, under a tin roof pummeled by tropical rain, I offer you a cosmic upgrade to Nietzsche's Amor Fati. While the German philosopher tells us to love our fate unconditionally, I'm proposing something more alchemical: co-creation with disappointment. It's not about passively accepting what happens, nor gaslighting yourself into loving the unlovable. Rather, it's asking "what choices do I have in the direction of beauty given the limitations before me in this moment?" Drawing from my own messy Paraguayan adventures during a Mars direct station in Cancer (sit down Scorpio risings, this one was truly mine to bear), I explore how this principle transforms practical enchantment beyond simple success/fail metrics into continuous creation. Whether you're dealing with planetary transits or broken water towers in indigenous villages, this approach connects the Dine concept of the Beauty Way with our magical capacity to participate in the unfolding of reality. Roll your suitcase through cosmic mud with me on this one.

00:02 - Introduction and recording conditions in the Amazon
00:48 - Explaining the concept of "Amor Fati" and Nietzsche's philosophy
02:23 - Comparing Nietzsche's idea with Stoicism's similar concept
04:37 - Why Gordon believes he's "more right" than both Nietzsche and the Stoics
06:49 - Co-creation with disappointment as an upgrade to "love your fate"
09:14 - Mars direct station and Cass Tyndall's insight on struggle
11:40 - How metaphysical laws relate to physical and psychological laws
14:06 - The moment-by-moment decision of co-creation and manifestation
16:05 - Lessons from Shipibo culture and challenging gaslight responses
18:21 - Finding beauty within disappointment and discomfort
20:47 - Moving beyond success/fail metrics in practical enchantment
21:58 - Continuous co-creation as a definition of magic

Magic: You're Not Ready Till You're Ready Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

A solo show from Asunción, Paraguay.

I wanted to share some thoughts that I have been sitting with while remastering all the premium member courses, beginning with Grimoires. These thoughts turned into a full-length solo show.

Hope you like it! AI certainly seems to have had an absolute blast listening to it:

In this thought-provoking episode, Gordon White explores the concept of magical readiness and authenticity in practice. Recording from Paraguay, he delves into what it truly means to be "ready" for magic, challenging common assumptions about magical practice and discussing the difference between genuine magical work and what he terms as "cope" - using magical aesthetics as a form of psychological compensation.

White examines the evolution of Western magical practices, critiques Victorian-era approaches, and discusses the importance of finding one's authentic magical expression. He also touches on current spiritual awakening, the role of shadow work in magical practice, and the emerging significance of biblical archetypes in contemporary magic.

Show Notes

I will be in the Tampa area for some free events on the weekend of March 8th and 9th.

Magic: You're Not Ready Till You're Ready Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

A solo show from Asunción, Paraguay.

I wanted to share some thoughts that I have been sitting with while remastering all the premium member courses, beginning with Grimoires. These thoughts turned into a full-length solo show.

Hope you like it! AI certainly seems to have had an absolute blast listening to it:

Show Notes

I will be in the Tampa area for some free events on the weekend of March 8th and 9th.

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