Advertise on podcast: Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

We explore the origins of an enduring idea in Islām: the idea of the mahdī, the righteous leader who will return to bring justice and purify the religion near the end of time. The origins, it turns out, are esoteric, and so are many aspects of the various mahdīs who have arisen throughout history.

We explore some of the weird territory where extreme politics meet extreme theology in the pre-Umayyad and Umayyad periods. Includes case-studies of a representative selection of early shiite "extremists".

We discuss the Iraqi context of the early shī‘ī movements, explore some of the political, esoteric, and politicesoteric concerns of the early partisans of the ahl al-bayt, and then give a basic run-down of some of the most important shiite movements and their imams.

We discuss politico-religious developments among the Believers in the eighth century, setting the stage for a series of episodes exploring developments in esoteric Islām in the Umayyad period. We also discuss our evidence for how the Believers' movement became ‘Islām’ in the first place, also seemingly an Umayyad phenomenon.

In this interview, Part II of our discussion of quotidian magical practices in the East-Roman world with Alicia Walker, we explore a wealth of materia magica, which is a fancy way of saying "magical things". Come for the alchemical enamel-ware, stay for the multipurpose magic ring.

In the previous episode we looked at learned, elaborate, elite magical practices and the books that enabled them in East Rome. In this episode we discuss the magical practices and objects with which normal, non-specialist Romans navigated their mediæval world. Alicia Walker is our guide in the territory where the esoteric becomes everyday.

Looking through the lens provided by three central figures of the western esoteric tradition -- Hermes Trismegistus, Apollonios of Tyana, and King Solomon -- we discuss three important East Roman magical books whose influence echoes from the end of late antiquity until the present day.

We delve further into the laboratories, workshops, and even state coffers of East Rome with Gerasimos Merianos. East Roman alchemy becomes mathematised. The parameters of alchemical secrecy change. We encounter our first alchemical con-men. And Michæl Psellos showcases his ability to see which way the wind is blowing, this time in the realm of high-stakes alchemical politics.

In Part I of a two-parter we explore the contours of East Roman alchemy from the seventh century onward. Gerasimos Merianos is our guide to the many and varied authors writing in the alchemical genre aside from (but including) the great Stephanos. The roots of the western alchemical tradition lie in the east.

In Part II we explore two of Stephanos' works: the astrological piece entitled Apotelesmatikē pragmateia, with its katarchic ‘Horoscope of Islam’, and his influential, vexing, and beautiful alchemical work, On the Great and Holy Art of Gold-Making.

We speak with Maria Papathanassiou about Stephanos of Alexandria: the last known Platonist/Aristotelean philosopher trained at Alexandria, a politically-connected courtier at Herakleios' Constantinople, a Christian, an astrologer, an alchemist, and more.

We head back to Constantionple with Jonathan Greig at the controls, to discuss the quintessentially Orthodox mystic, Maximus the Confessor. Late-Platonist apophasis meets hard-core ascesis, and Maximus follows the theology where it wants to go, sometimes to his own cost.

Christopher Bonura introduces us to the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodios, a seventh-century Syriac prophetic universal history. Come for the Arab conquests reflected in Christian revelation, stay for the apocalyptic Roman emperor.

In this interview we explore a crucial document of seventh-century Judaism: the Sefer Zerubbabel, an apocalyptic ‘future history’ allegedly written in the past. The Temple will descend, the evil Armilus (son of Satan and a statue) will wreak havok, and two messiahs will arise to redeem Israel.

With the Arab conquest of Sasanian Persia, a new religion enters the west. Once the great religious Other to the Græco-Roman world, the Zoroastrians are now part of the story of western esotericism. We explore their extraordinary religion with Touraj Daryaee.