The Hollow Path - Art & Magic Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:46:35 -0400 http://thehollowbehindthehearthstone.com en-ie © 2026 The Hollow Path - Art & Magic yes 745df08a-7075-5688-a56a-2b4f169df3e4 Malachas Ivernus episodic false Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Art, magic, Enchantment, literature, books, poetry, philosophy, occult, Witchcraft, Druidry, bard, celtic Malachas Ivernus https://storage.buzzsprout.com/c9agsu1k7g9bgy19oakbadtwi673?.jpg The Hollow Path - Art & Magic http://thehollowbehindthehearthstone.com Malachas Ivernus Episode 14 - Rosie Whinray - A Room of One's Own Episode 14 - Rosie Whinray - A Room of One's Own This episode of The Hollow Path features one of our absolute favourites, Rosie Whinray: artist, writer, magician, and Wizard of Wellington!

We start off with a really fascinating discussion of what it means to be a Wizard, and how one might be called to such a path; of how such a vocation interacts with and depends on one's Place, one's Community, and a whole way of being in the world. The interwoven nature of a rigorous artistic practice with magic, and the necessity of giving a special quality of attention, of always being in that receptive state, to create, capture, and work on the world around us are fruitfully discussed.

Following this, we talk in depth about the practice of writing and how it works - and works on us. Rosie's insights into the economy of artistic practice are truly vital: we examine the importance of the conditions and resources we have to find the work, the practice, the activity, the creativity that best suits us. The discussion of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the Gift Economy, and the importance of a "Room of One's Own", of security, peace, and stability, to being able to do the Work, is one that touches on many issues that I hold very dear myself. As ever, Rosie manages to put the words on things in a way that I find helps me to articulate them to myself, a way in which I find and recognise myself.

Her writing, which is available on her SubStack newsletter, Dear Magician, is, to my mind, some of the best stuff in the essay form that is going out there at the moment. There's a particular recent essay which we talk about in some detail, about housing, security, and instability, which may be a good place to start with her work, and which can be found here : "Precariat Blues".

It was an absolute pleasure to catch up with Rosie, who is a dear friend, and to take up once again one of those conversations that will never really end, stretching back into our roots and forward into our future. Long may it meander on!

NB You'll notice that there are a couple of little glitchy moments in the audio, where we miss a bit of what Rosie is saying; I added a "spoken footnote" at the end, to elaborate slightly on those points, per our later discussion of them. I also had some trouble with my mic at about the hour-mark, and the sound on my end is of much lesser quality from there on, but it remains quite telligible. Still, apologies for that, and I'll try to work my devices better.

Finally, as I mention in the Addendum, after our discussion of Gift Economy and Art, I want to emphasise that this podcast is, and always will be, completely free. I do not want to move to a subscription model or make premium content, neither for the podcast nor the blog or YouTube channel, though I admire those who can make that work. My books, of course, I sell (you can find my first Occult Thriller novel Unreal City, at all disreputable outlets, or order signed and stamped copies directly from me); for everything else, there's Gift Economy. This work wants to be free, in every sense. I want it to be accessible. However, if you feel the urge to offer me a gift in return, to keep this stuff coming, and make it easier for me to take the time to do it, and keep it available to others, then please, by all means, you may make a one-time or ongoing contribution here :
Buy Malachas a Concoction ... Chip in to keep us in candles and cobwebs! It is very much appreciated ... 

The episode image is Rosie's Apple drawing, and the title-music, as ever, is "Far from Portland", by Lau. 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> This episode of The Hollow Path features one of our absolute favourites, Rosie Whinray: artist, writer, magician, and Wizard of Wellington!

We start off with a really fascinating discussion of what it means to be a Wizard, and how one might be called to such a path; of how such a vocation interacts with and depends on one's Place, one's Community, and a whole way of being in the world. The interwoven nature of a rigorous artistic practice with magic, and the necessity of giving a special quality of attention, of always being in that receptive state, to create, capture, and work on the world around us are fruitfully discussed.

Following this, we talk in depth about the practice of writing and how it works - and works on us. Rosie's insights into the economy of artistic practice are truly vital: we examine the importance of the conditions and resources we have to find the work, the practice, the activity, the creativity that best suits us. The discussion of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the Gift Economy, and the importance of a "Room of One's Own", of security, peace, and stability, to being able to do the Work, is one that touches on many issues that I hold very dear myself. As ever, Rosie manages to put the words on things in a way that I find helps me to articulate them to myself, a way in which I find and recognise myself.

Her writing, which is available on her SubStack newsletter, Dear Magician, is, to my mind, some of the best stuff in the essay form that is going out there at the moment. There's a particular recent essay which we talk about in some detail, about housing, security, and instability, which may be a good place to start with her work, and which can be found here : "Precariat Blues".

It was an absolute pleasure to catch up with Rosie, who is a dear friend, and to take up once again one of those conversations that will never really end, stretching back into our roots and forward into our future. Long may it meander on!

NB You'll notice that there are a couple of little glitchy moments in the audio, where we miss a bit of what Rosie is saying; I added a "spoken footnote" at the end, to elaborate slightly on those points, per our later discussion of them. I also had some trouble with my mic at about the hour-mark, and the sound on my end is of much lesser quality from there on, but it remains quite telligible. Still, apologies for that, and I'll try to work my devices better.

Finally, as I mention in the Addendum, after our discussion of Gift Economy and Art, I want to emphasise that this podcast is, and always will be, completely free. I do not want to move to a subscription model or make premium content, neither for the podcast nor the blog or YouTube channel, though I admire those who can make that work. My books, of course, I sell (you can find my first Occult Thriller novel Unreal City, at all disreputable outlets, or order signed and stamped copies directly from me); for everything else, there's Gift Economy. This work wants to be free, in every sense. I want it to be accessible. However, if you feel the urge to offer me a gift in return, to keep this stuff coming, and make it easier for me to take the time to do it, and keep it available to others, then please, by all means, you may make a one-time or ongoing contribution here :
Buy Malachas a Concoction ... Chip in to keep us in candles and cobwebs! It is very much appreciated ... 

The episode image is Rosie's Apple drawing, and the title-music, as ever, is "Far from Portland", by Lau. 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-15912717 Mon, 14 Oct 2024 01:00:00 +0200 5707 2 14 full false Episode 13 - Lee Morgan - Dreams from the Witch-House Episode 13 - Lee Morgan - Dreams from the Witch-House For this episode we welcome Lee Morgan, one of my absolute favourite writers and teachers on Witchcraft. Decades of experience as a practitioner and writer have resulted in an amazing body of work. Books on Traditional Witchcraft such as A Deed Without a Name, Standing and Not Falling, and Sounds of Infinity have gained praise and interest worldwide, and have been central texts in my own practice and discovery of my path. A series of contemporary novels charting the path of a protagonist, Christopher Penrose, on his path from youth to experience, encountering the world of Witchcraft and the Weird, meeting his Others, coming into his power. A medieval "epic-ballad", The Gusty Deep, tells a story of those Outsiders of the woods and wilderness who gather around the semi-mythical figure of Robin Goodfellow, and gives a profound insight into what the life of a Witch-Clan might have once looked like. A most recent study, People of the Outside, poses uncomfortable and thought-provoking questions about the Old Ones, the people before modern humans, and how we bear their genetic and ancestral inheritance within us.

Here, we concentrate particular on the work in fiction, and how it weaves together with one's life and magic, on the occasion of a new revised edition of the Penrose novels.

Lee's work and sorcerous offerings may be found here:  https://www.leemorganbooks.com/ and one would do well to follow the tangled, enchanted threads found therein.

NOTE: Lee mentions, at one point, the recent experience of having been diagnosed with and recovering from a brain-tumour! I did not pick up on this subject in the interview, as we have discussed it before, and he has spoken about it publicly, but I believe it merits further exploration. I hope to perhaps, in a future episode, have Lee on again to explore this, and ideas around it, of diagnosis, divergence, disorder, pathology, and their relation to magic and the weird. To be continued ...!

The image for this episode is a detail from the cover of one of Lee's novels, Wooing the Echo, created by Rebecca Rose (@nine.things.unseen on Instragram).
The title music, as ever, is "Far from Portland", by Lau.

And if you'd like to make a contribution, either one-off or a subscription, to keep us in candles and cobwebs here in the office, you can do so here :
https://ko-fi.com/malachasivernus

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> For this episode we welcome Lee Morgan, one of my absolute favourite writers and teachers on Witchcraft. Decades of experience as a practitioner and writer have resulted in an amazing body of work. Books on Traditional Witchcraft such as A Deed Without a Name, Standing and Not Falling, and Sounds of Infinity have gained praise and interest worldwide, and have been central texts in my own practice and discovery of my path. A series of contemporary novels charting the path of a protagonist, Christopher Penrose, on his path from youth to experience, encountering the world of Witchcraft and the Weird, meeting his Others, coming into his power. A medieval "epic-ballad", The Gusty Deep, tells a story of those Outsiders of the woods and wilderness who gather around the semi-mythical figure of Robin Goodfellow, and gives a profound insight into what the life of a Witch-Clan might have once looked like. A most recent study, People of the Outside, poses uncomfortable and thought-provoking questions about the Old Ones, the people before modern humans, and how we bear their genetic and ancestral inheritance within us.

Here, we concentrate particular on the work in fiction, and how it weaves together with one's life and magic, on the occasion of a new revised edition of the Penrose novels.

Lee's work and sorcerous offerings may be found here:  https://www.leemorganbooks.com/ and one would do well to follow the tangled, enchanted threads found therein.

NOTE: Lee mentions, at one point, the recent experience of having been diagnosed with and recovering from a brain-tumour! I did not pick up on this subject in the interview, as we have discussed it before, and he has spoken about it publicly, but I believe it merits further exploration. I hope to perhaps, in a future episode, have Lee on again to explore this, and ideas around it, of diagnosis, divergence, disorder, pathology, and their relation to magic and the weird. To be continued ...!

The image for this episode is a detail from the cover of one of Lee's novels, Wooing the Echo, created by Rebecca Rose (@nine.things.unseen on Instragram).
The title music, as ever, is "Far from Portland", by Lau.

And if you'd like to make a contribution, either one-off or a subscription, to keep us in candles and cobwebs here in the office, you can do so here :
https://ko-fi.com/malachasivernus

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Buzzsprout-15810506 Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +0200 3680 2 13 full false Episode 12 - Vic Hyland - The Direction is not the Destination Episode 12 - Vic Hyland - The Direction is not the Destination Vic Hyland is a consummate artist: musician, songwriter, teacher, community-builder, spirit-medium, dowser, trickster and sage - a veritable Renaissance Man! I'm so pleased to have him on to talk about his new book, Music, Magic, and NLP, which is an incredible compendium of Vic's ideas, theories,  techniques, and a thread of personal memoir in which he recounts his rich and strange life, and how it has brought him to where he is now, and the snapshot of his work that this text represents.

It's a wild ride through the history of Western music, the behind-the-scenes workings of 20th century pop, the insights of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the ways that we make meaning out of myths, symbols, and the random elements of our everyday lives. The techniques of Cut Up and remix and sampling, as practiced by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin in the context of the Beat Movement, are shown as methods to spark creativity and make songs, but also as a fundamental method of creating meaning out of the Chaos of the World. With a soundtrack of the magical music of the great Players - the Beatles, Bowie, Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, or George Michael, and many more besides - Vic offers here a tool-box, a performance, an experiential course of study, with lessons, Thought Experiments, and spells and rituals woven through the text.

In Vic's words, from the Introduction :

"This book attempts to weave these threads into a spider's web, connecting music back to archaic sources of magical potency, from religious music and its folk roots, through to blues, flamenco, Latin, and shamanic traditions.

We will look at the musicians' idea of the groove; that 'soul space' between musicians that informs how the music plays us, rather than us playing it.

Along the journey I will signpost songwriting techniques that have been used by some of the greatest songwriters of all time, notably originating from a couple of magicians who used similar methods for creating books and artworks ... and for cursing people."

This is frankly an incredible set of techniques and insights to apply to ANY art form, but also just to our way of being in the World, to living with meaning, creating meaning, and to claiming our own authority and authorship of our own lives. I highly recommend checking out Vic's work. His Creative Podcast showcases people from an incredibly diverse range of practices and backgrounds, and his courses, his music camps, his educational outreach work, and his wonderful kindness, humour, and wisdom deserve your attention and all the support they can get. This conversation was such a genuine pleasure: two players who know each other well, riffing and improvising on their favourite themes, to create something rich and strange and new ...

Look here for all of Vic's multifarious links and activities! https://www.vichyland.com/

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Vic Hyland is a consummate artist: musician, songwriter, teacher, community-builder, spirit-medium, dowser, trickster and sage - a veritable Renaissance Man! I'm so pleased to have him on to talk about his new book, Music, Magic, and NLP, which is an incredible compendium of Vic's ideas, theories,  techniques, and a thread of personal memoir in which he recounts his rich and strange life, and how it has brought him to where he is now, and the snapshot of his work that this text represents.

It's a wild ride through the history of Western music, the behind-the-scenes workings of 20th century pop, the insights of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the ways that we make meaning out of myths, symbols, and the random elements of our everyday lives. The techniques of Cut Up and remix and sampling, as practiced by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin in the context of the Beat Movement, are shown as methods to spark creativity and make songs, but also as a fundamental method of creating meaning out of the Chaos of the World. With a soundtrack of the magical music of the great Players - the Beatles, Bowie, Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, or George Michael, and many more besides - Vic offers here a tool-box, a performance, an experiential course of study, with lessons, Thought Experiments, and spells and rituals woven through the text.

In Vic's words, from the Introduction :

"This book attempts to weave these threads into a spider's web, connecting music back to archaic sources of magical potency, from religious music and its folk roots, through to blues, flamenco, Latin, and shamanic traditions.

We will look at the musicians' idea of the groove; that 'soul space' between musicians that informs how the music plays us, rather than us playing it.

Along the journey I will signpost songwriting techniques that have been used by some of the greatest songwriters of all time, notably originating from a couple of magicians who used similar methods for creating books and artworks ... and for cursing people."

This is frankly an incredible set of techniques and insights to apply to ANY art form, but also just to our way of being in the World, to living with meaning, creating meaning, and to claiming our own authority and authorship of our own lives. I highly recommend checking out Vic's work. His Creative Podcast showcases people from an incredibly diverse range of practices and backgrounds, and his courses, his music camps, his educational outreach work, and his wonderful kindness, humour, and wisdom deserve your attention and all the support they can get. This conversation was such a genuine pleasure: two players who know each other well, riffing and improvising on their favourite themes, to create something rich and strange and new ...

Look here for all of Vic's multifarious links and activities! https://www.vichyland.com/

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-13662728 Tue, 26 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0200 5569 1 12 full false Episode 11 - Darragh Mason - A Vocation of Spirits Episode 11 - Darragh Mason - A Vocation of Spirits It's a genuine pleasure to welcome Darragh Mason to The Hollow Path in this episode. His podcast, Spirit Box, has become one of the most profound and thoughtful reflections on how our lives are intertwined with Spirit, and the Spirits, the Otherworld, that is out there. Darragh has a soft-spoken and wise manner mixed with an incisive and searching intelligence and curiosity, and he applies this to his in-depth interviews with experiencers and experts in the Realm of the Spirits in the broadest sense. 

One of the most fascinating aspects of all of this is how he explores both the differences and commonalities between spirit-work and spirit-contact across and between cultures and epochs. Darragh tells here his origin story as a dashing photo-reporter, seeking out the strange and the wonderful in exotic locations : a journey to India brings a numinous and harrowing encounter with the Djinn, and the rest, as they say, is His Story. I honestly think that the tales of his adventures could make for excellent modern pulp adventure, sort of Indiana Jones with a camera, only make it even MORE Occult ... 

Darragh and I discuss all of these things, how they led to the podcast, and how this became more than a pastime or an occupation, but a type of Vocation, and how this has evolved into researching and working with some of the more obscure and shadowy figures from Irish folklore, a Discovery of Witchcraft, and, most importantly, gardening. And I mean that last most seriously. 

Darragh is currently preparing the release of a significant book on the Irish "Fear Dorcha", or Dark Man, which puts mythology, folklore, and historical accounts in conversation with narratives of contemporary experiencers and occultists who have encountered that same figure. 

It's an absolute pleasure to present this episode in which, finally, I can get down to brass tacks with a fellow Irish scholar and gentleman ... Darragh's insights are fascinating, and his storytelling is outstanding. You'll be hooked! 

For more of his own stories, and many many more, please do check out Spirit Box which now has dozens of episodes of archives to dig into if you haven't already binged them all. Every single one is worth your time and will inspire your wonder! 

Find it (and indeed all of Darragh's work) here : https://linktr.ee/darraghmason 

SPIRIT BOX : for when the Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak! 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> It's a genuine pleasure to welcome Darragh Mason to The Hollow Path in this episode. His podcast, Spirit Box, has become one of the most profound and thoughtful reflections on how our lives are intertwined with Spirit, and the Spirits, the Otherworld, that is out there. Darragh has a soft-spoken and wise manner mixed with an incisive and searching intelligence and curiosity, and he applies this to his in-depth interviews with experiencers and experts in the Realm of the Spirits in the broadest sense. 

One of the most fascinating aspects of all of this is how he explores both the differences and commonalities between spirit-work and spirit-contact across and between cultures and epochs. Darragh tells here his origin story as a dashing photo-reporter, seeking out the strange and the wonderful in exotic locations : a journey to India brings a numinous and harrowing encounter with the Djinn, and the rest, as they say, is His Story. I honestly think that the tales of his adventures could make for excellent modern pulp adventure, sort of Indiana Jones with a camera, only make it even MORE Occult ... 

Darragh and I discuss all of these things, how they led to the podcast, and how this became more than a pastime or an occupation, but a type of Vocation, and how this has evolved into researching and working with some of the more obscure and shadowy figures from Irish folklore, a Discovery of Witchcraft, and, most importantly, gardening. And I mean that last most seriously. 

Darragh is currently preparing the release of a significant book on the Irish "Fear Dorcha", or Dark Man, which puts mythology, folklore, and historical accounts in conversation with narratives of contemporary experiencers and occultists who have encountered that same figure. 

It's an absolute pleasure to present this episode in which, finally, I can get down to brass tacks with a fellow Irish scholar and gentleman ... Darragh's insights are fascinating, and his storytelling is outstanding. You'll be hooked! 

For more of his own stories, and many many more, please do check out Spirit Box which now has dozens of episodes of archives to dig into if you haven't already binged them all. Every single one is worth your time and will inspire your wonder! 

Find it (and indeed all of Darragh's work) here : https://linktr.ee/darraghmason 

SPIRIT BOX : for when the Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak! 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-13138769 Fri, 30 Jun 2023 16:00:00 +0200 5465 full false Episode 10 - Georgia van Raalte - Vectors of Initiation Episode 10 - Georgia van Raalte - Vectors of Initiation (from her online bio)

"Dr Georgia van Raalte is an academic researcher whose work focuses on mystical and esoteric literature, as well as an esoteric theologian and an author of emic esoteric texts. She is also a poet and an artist as well as a practising occultist and a pagan Priestess. Her academic research, artistic practice, and magical work are all concerned with initiation: with mystical, literary, and artistic provocations of transcendence, and the personal, social, and cultural transformations that are catalysed thereby."

Pretty awesome, huh...?

Georgia has an amazing ability to integrate all these different strands of her life and work : her scholarly pursuits, her poetry and art, her magical practice, and her ministry as priestess and guide. She is at the forefront of the move towards more open practioner-scholars embracing this dual identity in the academy and in pagan and occult communities, and indeed has a rather unique academic background, with a degree in Philosophy and Theology, which she furthered with an MA in Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam, one of the few places in the world to offer such a qualification in Western Esotericism! She followed this with a PhD in Literature, which focused on the Initiatory Fiction of Dion Fortune. As well as her PhD, she has written several books, variously devotional, poetic, and ritual-focused, centred around the Goddess Babalon, and is active as Guide and Priestess in the Templum Abyssi - Temple of Our Lady of the Abyss.

Truly, she has combined Art, Scholarship, and Magic! 

Just after we recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago, she also got the news that she had been (most deservedly) accepted at Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religion as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Arts and Spirituality for this coming academic year, to undertake a research project titled "Imaginal Transformations: Avalonian Fantasy and the Transmission of Initiation in the Western Esoteric Milieu."

I must add that Georgia is also an extremely fun person to talk to: she is wise and witty, earthy and airy, and I have rarely met someone who so often has me saying: "oh yes, well of course you're right, when you put it like that ...." 

This was an excellent conversation, and I can also reveal that therein she admits her Profound Wickedness and approval of Dark Sorcery and Generally Being a Villain. It will surprise no-one, who actually knows her ... 

Her excellent work, updates on her activities, and her contact information can all be found on her website here : https://www.georgiavanraalte.com/

Her devotional and ministry work here : https://www.templumabyssi.com/

And a very weird and troubling work of oneiric vision here :

https://www.surrealhagiography.com/

In general, highly recommend diving into her work!

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> (from her online bio)

"Dr Georgia van Raalte is an academic researcher whose work focuses on mystical and esoteric literature, as well as an esoteric theologian and an author of emic esoteric texts. She is also a poet and an artist as well as a practising occultist and a pagan Priestess. Her academic research, artistic practice, and magical work are all concerned with initiation: with mystical, literary, and artistic provocations of transcendence, and the personal, social, and cultural transformations that are catalysed thereby."

Pretty awesome, huh...?

Georgia has an amazing ability to integrate all these different strands of her life and work : her scholarly pursuits, her poetry and art, her magical practice, and her ministry as priestess and guide. She is at the forefront of the move towards more open practioner-scholars embracing this dual identity in the academy and in pagan and occult communities, and indeed has a rather unique academic background, with a degree in Philosophy and Theology, which she furthered with an MA in Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam, one of the few places in the world to offer such a qualification in Western Esotericism! She followed this with a PhD in Literature, which focused on the Initiatory Fiction of Dion Fortune. As well as her PhD, she has written several books, variously devotional, poetic, and ritual-focused, centred around the Goddess Babalon, and is active as Guide and Priestess in the Templum Abyssi - Temple of Our Lady of the Abyss.

Truly, she has combined Art, Scholarship, and Magic! 

Just after we recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago, she also got the news that she had been (most deservedly) accepted at Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religion as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Arts and Spirituality for this coming academic year, to undertake a research project titled "Imaginal Transformations: Avalonian Fantasy and the Transmission of Initiation in the Western Esoteric Milieu."

I must add that Georgia is also an extremely fun person to talk to: she is wise and witty, earthy and airy, and I have rarely met someone who so often has me saying: "oh yes, well of course you're right, when you put it like that ...." 

This was an excellent conversation, and I can also reveal that therein she admits her Profound Wickedness and approval of Dark Sorcery and Generally Being a Villain. It will surprise no-one, who actually knows her ... 

Her excellent work, updates on her activities, and her contact information can all be found on her website here : https://www.georgiavanraalte.com/

Her devotional and ministry work here : https://www.templumabyssi.com/

And a very weird and troubling work of oneiric vision here :

https://www.surrealhagiography.com/

In general, highly recommend diving into her work!

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-13134944 Thu, 29 Jun 2023 23:00:00 +0200 4231 1 10 full false Episode 9 - Harriet Nwyfre Sams - Object Lessons Episode 9 - Harriet Nwyfre Sams - Object Lessons In this episode, I speak to Harriet Nwyfre Sams, who is an archaeologist, a therapist, a scholar, and a Druid! There's a very rich discussion here, particularly on the "beingness" of Objects ; how we may, from an Animist perspective, begin to question the very concept of an "inanimate" object, and rather to deal with the objects and materials things in our lives with respect, to be in relation with them rather than their "owner", or "user" only, and to acknowledge the idea that they have their own raison d'être, their own volition and purpose. Harriet's insights are fascinating, as both archaeologist and Druid, about the material world around us, objects both natural and crafted, landscapes which are wild or urban, which share our lives and histories, in which our lives and histories are encoded.

We share stories of our Vocations to Druidry, and what it means to us, in particular the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, to which we both belong (although I'm really quite a novice and Harriet is a fully-fledged Druid!) ; this discussion overlaps slightly but is complement to the one I had with Eimear Burke, Chosen Chief of the Order, on the OBOD Livestream "Fireside Chat" last week (available here : https://www.youtube.com/live/rIEn1oI6HGQ?feature=share ). Those who are interested in OBOD and what the Order has to offer can find details here : https://druidry.org/

Harriet talks also about her current research into Sacred Sites and the role they can play in our well-being - and we in theirs - in a concept called "Archaeotherapy". Her current work includes guiding individuals and communities in their evolving efforts to be in better relationship with the Land, and you can find out more about that at her website here : http://www.nwyfre-earth.co .

The essay inspired by our discussion of the concept of "Place-ness and Sacredness" can be found here : https://thehollowbehindthehearthstone.com/this-must-be-the-place-on-the-spirit-of-place-begotten-and-made-grigomere-ortgeist-and-kairotope-a-case-study/

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> In this episode, I speak to Harriet Nwyfre Sams, who is an archaeologist, a therapist, a scholar, and a Druid! There's a very rich discussion here, particularly on the "beingness" of Objects ; how we may, from an Animist perspective, begin to question the very concept of an "inanimate" object, and rather to deal with the objects and materials things in our lives with respect, to be in relation with them rather than their "owner", or "user" only, and to acknowledge the idea that they have their own raison d'être, their own volition and purpose. Harriet's insights are fascinating, as both archaeologist and Druid, about the material world around us, objects both natural and crafted, landscapes which are wild or urban, which share our lives and histories, in which our lives and histories are encoded.

We share stories of our Vocations to Druidry, and what it means to us, in particular the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, to which we both belong (although I'm really quite a novice and Harriet is a fully-fledged Druid!) ; this discussion overlaps slightly but is complement to the one I had with Eimear Burke, Chosen Chief of the Order, on the OBOD Livestream "Fireside Chat" last week (available here : https://www.youtube.com/live/rIEn1oI6HGQ?feature=share ). Those who are interested in OBOD and what the Order has to offer can find details here : https://druidry.org/

Harriet talks also about her current research into Sacred Sites and the role they can play in our well-being - and we in theirs - in a concept called "Archaeotherapy". Her current work includes guiding individuals and communities in their evolving efforts to be in better relationship with the Land, and you can find out more about that at her website here : http://www.nwyfre-earth.co .

The essay inspired by our discussion of the concept of "Place-ness and Sacredness" can be found here : https://thehollowbehindthehearthstone.com/this-must-be-the-place-on-the-spirit-of-place-begotten-and-made-grigomere-ortgeist-and-kairotope-a-case-study/

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12984305 Mon, 05 Jun 2023 23:00:00 +0200 5484 1 9 full false Episode 8 - Thea Wirsching - The Stars Are Right Episode 8 - Thea Wirsching - The Stars Are Right Today's guest is Thea Wirsching, author and academic, Astrologer Extraordinaire and creator of the American Renaissance Tarot Deck! Thea works at the intersection between literary studies, magical and visionary working, and the weavings of Fate through the Stars and the Cards ... 

We had a wonderful discussion about the ins and outs of the Academy, and how things have changed and are changing with regard to the study of the Occult and the Esoteric. Much of her experience resonated with my own, as we made our way through the strictures of academic life and tried - with greater or lesser success - to marry it to our beliefs and practices of Magic and Occultism. Her insights into the state of academia and the prospects and obstacles for Weird Folk within it are most enlightening, and she regales us with anecdotes and experience with humour and a much-needed philosophical approach! 

We also take a deep dive into the study and practice of Astrology, and what it can be in the hands of a true scholar and experienced practitioner. Thea practices Evolutionary Astrology, which addresses material from past lives as well as the current one. Having trained with renowned master Steven Forrest to the highest level, she now offers her professional services both online and in-person. 

As she says on her website : "Astrology can put us in touch with those values so often discounted by modern society, such as family, community, spirituality, intimacy, and creativity.  The disease of modern society is an experience of lack and discontent because we don’t personally have it all.  No one ever has it all, because happiness is a function of giving, not having.  When we are sharing our unique gifts with the world, maximizing our opportunities and accepting our perceived limitations and imperfections, we can achieve the elusive state of contentment.  We discover wholeness by experiencing our relationship to the whole of the human family, not by developing our egos in isolation."

You can consult her propsed services and find out more about Thea at her website here : http://theplutobabe.com/ 

Her incredibly richly detailed and researched American Renaissance Tarot is available here : https://www.americanrenaissancetarot.com/

Finally, if you're interested in the workshops she mentions in the episode, you can access information about that here :  https://www.astro-bash.com

It's a rich and fascinating conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

(btw, one swift glance at MY chart, and Thea spotted that my Moon Sign was NOT what I thought it was ... I'm actually right on the Cusp between that and the next ... Maybe I'll have her back on to read my chart in detail, for your amusement and edification - yes, yes, I AM a Scorpio, and yes, I know it's completely obvious ...)

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Today's guest is Thea Wirsching, author and academic, Astrologer Extraordinaire and creator of the American Renaissance Tarot Deck! Thea works at the intersection between literary studies, magical and visionary working, and the weavings of Fate through the Stars and the Cards ... 

We had a wonderful discussion about the ins and outs of the Academy, and how things have changed and are changing with regard to the study of the Occult and the Esoteric. Much of her experience resonated with my own, as we made our way through the strictures of academic life and tried - with greater or lesser success - to marry it to our beliefs and practices of Magic and Occultism. Her insights into the state of academia and the prospects and obstacles for Weird Folk within it are most enlightening, and she regales us with anecdotes and experience with humour and a much-needed philosophical approach! 

We also take a deep dive into the study and practice of Astrology, and what it can be in the hands of a true scholar and experienced practitioner. Thea practices Evolutionary Astrology, which addresses material from past lives as well as the current one. Having trained with renowned master Steven Forrest to the highest level, she now offers her professional services both online and in-person. 

As she says on her website : "Astrology can put us in touch with those values so often discounted by modern society, such as family, community, spirituality, intimacy, and creativity.  The disease of modern society is an experience of lack and discontent because we don’t personally have it all.  No one ever has it all, because happiness is a function of giving, not having.  When we are sharing our unique gifts with the world, maximizing our opportunities and accepting our perceived limitations and imperfections, we can achieve the elusive state of contentment.  We discover wholeness by experiencing our relationship to the whole of the human family, not by developing our egos in isolation."

You can consult her propsed services and find out more about Thea at her website here : http://theplutobabe.com/ 

Her incredibly richly detailed and researched American Renaissance Tarot is available here : https://www.americanrenaissancetarot.com/

Finally, if you're interested in the workshops she mentions in the episode, you can access information about that here :  https://www.astro-bash.com

It's a rich and fascinating conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

(btw, one swift glance at MY chart, and Thea spotted that my Moon Sign was NOT what I thought it was ... I'm actually right on the Cusp between that and the next ... Maybe I'll have her back on to read my chart in detail, for your amusement and edification - yes, yes, I AM a Scorpio, and yes, I know it's completely obvious ...)

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12895912 Mon, 22 May 2023 17:00:00 +0200 4770 1 8 full false Episode 7 - Amelia Hogan - The Song a Living Thing Episode 7 - Amelia Hogan - The Song a Living Thing Amelia Hogan is an Irish-American singer and musician, someone who carries the culture of sean nós (Old Style) singing, encountering and interacting with this older way of being : her performances are deeply spiritual and enchanting, casting a spell of communion with the Song and enabling the audience to enter into this relationship for themselves.

Amelia and I discuss this vital element of relationality and interpersonality, both as a way of approaching music and approaching magic. The conversation takes in the neurological experience of music, and its place within the arts, as well as the status of traditional cultural practices in a diaspora, the Irish-American experience, what it means to perform live music from an Animist perspective, and much more.

You can find Amelia's music, details of her career and upcoming tours and projects, at her website ameliahogan.com. Details there too of her latest release, the simply gorgeous album Taking Flight, which is currently in the top ten in international folk charts! 

The artwork included in the video here is from the gatefold of the album, and features photography by Venee Call-Ferrer and Mikhail Yagupov, and paintings by Amelia herself.

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Amelia Hogan is an Irish-American singer and musician, someone who carries the culture of sean nós (Old Style) singing, encountering and interacting with this older way of being : her performances are deeply spiritual and enchanting, casting a spell of communion with the Song and enabling the audience to enter into this relationship for themselves.

Amelia and I discuss this vital element of relationality and interpersonality, both as a way of approaching music and approaching magic. The conversation takes in the neurological experience of music, and its place within the arts, as well as the status of traditional cultural practices in a diaspora, the Irish-American experience, what it means to perform live music from an Animist perspective, and much more.

You can find Amelia's music, details of her career and upcoming tours and projects, at her website ameliahogan.com. Details there too of her latest release, the simply gorgeous album Taking Flight, which is currently in the top ten in international folk charts! 

The artwork included in the video here is from the gatefold of the album, and features photography by Venee Call-Ferrer and Mikhail Yagupov, and paintings by Amelia herself.

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12884364 Sat, 20 May 2023 08:00:00 +0200 4166 full false Episode 6 - Melinda Reidinger - In The Groves of Symbols Episode 6 - Melinda Reidinger - In The Groves of Symbols On the occasion of the release of her book The White Deer, we welcome Melinda Reidinger to the podcast. Melinda is a scholar, a translator, a professor, and a writer of that liminal intersection between Myth, Magic, Folklore, Anthropology, Art History, Eco-criticism, Sociology, and History. Basically, she has set up her camp right at the Crossroads where we most like to linger ...

We explore together the genesis of the White Deer project, and what this Uncanny and Otherwordly creature has meant, and means, to us: a harbinger or a herald, of the Strange and the Wonderful. We also discuss the meaning of magic, and what our relationship to it is, and how literature, and words, carry magical freight when used consciously. Melinda eloquently describes her encouters with the Numinous in Nature, and how they reveal the deep essence of Experience as Story.

We also get some fascinating reflections on the relationships between early humans and wolves, and their domestication (and our own!). Melinda's next project is a book of similar scope dealing with the Wolf, and she also has a number of fiction projects moving towards completion, including both post-Apocalyptic and Historical projects, which bear this common thread of the quest for meaning and the importance of our Right Relations with the planet and with Nature.

Melinda's absolutely excellent book is available from Ritona Press at A Beautiful Resistance, here : https://abeautifulresistance.org/the-white-deer
And her SubStack Blog (also highly recommended) can be accessed here: https://melindareidinger.substack.com/

Her novel Swarm Box is forthcoming from The Hidden Library! Watch this space for more details on THAT exciting project ...

(CAVEAT : experimenting with a new system for recording interviews, I found myself quite disappointed here with the technology offered by an app called Riverside. As you will hear, there is some distortion and delay which impacts the fluidity of the conversation; also, some mild Hellish Death Metal Screaming in the background: I think I may have forgotten to flip the "Eliminate Background Hungry Ghosts" setting ... But I believe the discussion is worth releasing for the quality of the content; apologies. I am learning as I go. If you don't fuck around, how will you ever find out?)

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> On the occasion of the release of her book The White Deer, we welcome Melinda Reidinger to the podcast. Melinda is a scholar, a translator, a professor, and a writer of that liminal intersection between Myth, Magic, Folklore, Anthropology, Art History, Eco-criticism, Sociology, and History. Basically, she has set up her camp right at the Crossroads where we most like to linger ...

We explore together the genesis of the White Deer project, and what this Uncanny and Otherwordly creature has meant, and means, to us: a harbinger or a herald, of the Strange and the Wonderful. We also discuss the meaning of magic, and what our relationship to it is, and how literature, and words, carry magical freight when used consciously. Melinda eloquently describes her encouters with the Numinous in Nature, and how they reveal the deep essence of Experience as Story.

We also get some fascinating reflections on the relationships between early humans and wolves, and their domestication (and our own!). Melinda's next project is a book of similar scope dealing with the Wolf, and she also has a number of fiction projects moving towards completion, including both post-Apocalyptic and Historical projects, which bear this common thread of the quest for meaning and the importance of our Right Relations with the planet and with Nature.

Melinda's absolutely excellent book is available from Ritona Press at A Beautiful Resistance, here : https://abeautifulresistance.org/the-white-deer
And her SubStack Blog (also highly recommended) can be accessed here: https://melindareidinger.substack.com/

Her novel Swarm Box is forthcoming from The Hidden Library! Watch this space for more details on THAT exciting project ...

(CAVEAT : experimenting with a new system for recording interviews, I found myself quite disappointed here with the technology offered by an app called Riverside. As you will hear, there is some distortion and delay which impacts the fluidity of the conversation; also, some mild Hellish Death Metal Screaming in the background: I think I may have forgotten to flip the "Eliminate Background Hungry Ghosts" setting ... But I believe the discussion is worth releasing for the quality of the content; apologies. I am learning as I go. If you don't fuck around, how will you ever find out?)

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12699921 Sat, 22 Apr 2023 13:00:00 +0200 3721 1 6 full false Episode 5 - Passion Play Episode 5 - Passion Play What do we do with these Christian stories, myths, traditions, festivals, we who are now Apostate? We who are now Atheist, or "Nons"? We who are now Pagan, Animist, who renounce all religion, and practice a spirituality that is no Organised Religion at all? How do we deal with the damage it has done? How do we salvage that which is worthwhile in it? How do we come to terms with it, and still draw on this part of our culture, of our literature and art? How do we tell our children about it?

On reflection, on looking deeper, we can see how our Catholicism was not just imposed, but overlaid, as a thin veneer sometimes, was mixed and integrated and syncretised, with earlier beliefs and practices. The Deep Sacred, of certain places, certain rituals, certain seasonal practices, certain life-rites; in fact, this does not change that much. Only the superficial trappings shift: the Deep remains. Christianity did not simply usurp the place of what was before: it just became the mode of access to the Divine, to the Mysteries; the Mysteries did not go away; the Divine did not, in fact, change, only the Face of it that was turned to us.

And so, I approach the Idea, not just of the Passion Play, the Martyr's Death of Jesus Christ, its horrific violence, its valorisation of suffering; but also, finally, the Idea of the Resurrection. Something I had lost sight of.

And here, we approach it with Tolkien, who sees in it the very Type of the "Eucatastrophe": the sudden "turn", the glimpse of Joy so profound that our heart skips, that we are close to tears. And he sees this as the special, sacred power of Fairy Stories, of which the Story of the Incarnation of Jesus is the most powerful, the most sacred. It's a fascinating concept, which I came across in an essay by the excellent and hilarious writer and meme-wrangler JRR Jokien (who makes humorous Tolkien-related things all over the internet), at their SubStack, here   https://jrrjokien.substack.com/p/what-easter-has-to-do-with-fairy
Tolkien's incredible, beautiful essay, both erudite and deeply human, deeply moving, can be found here : https://coolcalvary.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/on-fairy-stories1.pdf

It struck me that this meaning, this significance, of the Resurrection, was something that in my Apostasy, I had completely lost sight of, rejected: and yet, if one believes it, it is indeed one of the most powerful and magical events in human history. And might there not be a way for us, too, to still think of, think with this wildly strange and joyful, solemn Mystery, though we do not accept the Redemption it has been made to imply, the Bargain it has been made to represent?

And in order to explore that possibility, I turned to one of my favourite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and his utterly stunning poem, "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection". And here, I attempt to read and explicate it, and to read into it, the possible redemption, for us, the Apostate, the Pagan, the Witches, of the Mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Man.
 
Find the poem here : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44397/that-nature-is-a-heraclitean-fire-and-of-the-comfort-of-the-resurrection 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> What do we do with these Christian stories, myths, traditions, festivals, we who are now Apostate? We who are now Atheist, or "Nons"? We who are now Pagan, Animist, who renounce all religion, and practice a spirituality that is no Organised Religion at all? How do we deal with the damage it has done? How do we salvage that which is worthwhile in it? How do we come to terms with it, and still draw on this part of our culture, of our literature and art? How do we tell our children about it?

On reflection, on looking deeper, we can see how our Catholicism was not just imposed, but overlaid, as a thin veneer sometimes, was mixed and integrated and syncretised, with earlier beliefs and practices. The Deep Sacred, of certain places, certain rituals, certain seasonal practices, certain life-rites; in fact, this does not change that much. Only the superficial trappings shift: the Deep remains. Christianity did not simply usurp the place of what was before: it just became the mode of access to the Divine, to the Mysteries; the Mysteries did not go away; the Divine did not, in fact, change, only the Face of it that was turned to us.

And so, I approach the Idea, not just of the Passion Play, the Martyr's Death of Jesus Christ, its horrific violence, its valorisation of suffering; but also, finally, the Idea of the Resurrection. Something I had lost sight of.

And here, we approach it with Tolkien, who sees in it the very Type of the "Eucatastrophe": the sudden "turn", the glimpse of Joy so profound that our heart skips, that we are close to tears. And he sees this as the special, sacred power of Fairy Stories, of which the Story of the Incarnation of Jesus is the most powerful, the most sacred. It's a fascinating concept, which I came across in an essay by the excellent and hilarious writer and meme-wrangler JRR Jokien (who makes humorous Tolkien-related things all over the internet), at their SubStack, here   https://jrrjokien.substack.com/p/what-easter-has-to-do-with-fairy
Tolkien's incredible, beautiful essay, both erudite and deeply human, deeply moving, can be found here : https://coolcalvary.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/on-fairy-stories1.pdf

It struck me that this meaning, this significance, of the Resurrection, was something that in my Apostasy, I had completely lost sight of, rejected: and yet, if one believes it, it is indeed one of the most powerful and magical events in human history. And might there not be a way for us, too, to still think of, think with this wildly strange and joyful, solemn Mystery, though we do not accept the Redemption it has been made to imply, the Bargain it has been made to represent?

And in order to explore that possibility, I turned to one of my favourite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and his utterly stunning poem, "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection". And here, I attempt to read and explicate it, and to read into it, the possible redemption, for us, the Apostate, the Pagan, the Witches, of the Mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Man.
 
Find the poem here : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44397/that-nature-is-a-heraclitean-fire-and-of-the-comfort-of-the-resurrection 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12611420 Sat, 08 Apr 2023 09:00:00 +0200 3736 1 5 full false Episode 4 - Paddy Bushe - A Poetry of Place Episode 4 - Paddy Bushe - A Poetry of Place A few years ago now, I had the great good luck to correspond with and then meet Irish Poet Paddy Bushe, first around our shared interest in the figure of Amergin from the Lebor Gabala Erann, and then further, our research and study of questions of Poetry and Place. 
I asked Paddy to do an interview with me "for my podcast", which at the time never actually materialised. I am delighted now to share this interview with Paddy, who is a generous, insightful, and full of wit and wisdom person to share thoughts and observations with. 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> A few years ago now, I had the great good luck to correspond with and then meet Irish Poet Paddy Bushe, first around our shared interest in the figure of Amergin from the Lebor Gabala Erann, and then further, our research and study of questions of Poetry and Place. 
I asked Paddy to do an interview with me "for my podcast", which at the time never actually materialised. I am delighted now to share this interview with Paddy, who is a generous, insightful, and full of wit and wisdom person to share thoughts and observations with. 

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12548744 Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0200 4942 1 4 full false Episode 3 - History vs Myth Episode 3 - History vs Myth This time with the Mecha-Builder students, who are among the best and brightest that France has to offer ... Engineering is at the apex of French social and intellectual aspirations; and so, Engineering students are taught not only their craft and trade, but also Culture, Art, History, Language. And as these are the best students, often they are more equipped, both socially and intellectually, to deal with Literature and Culture than those who choose to study those things, as those who choose to study those things can only become ... teachers. And teachers are very low down the social spectrum in France. Professors, somewhat higher: but they do not go to universities, they go to the Grandes Ecoles, and they access the Elite, and then they go and "teach" in Universities, a sinecure to give them status, time, and leisure to write and read and be intellectuals; they don't really teach very much. They delegate that to adjuncts and juniors, of lower social classes. 
Suffice to say, I got out of there. 
I do return, from time to time, circumventing the Gatekeepers, popping over the wall at night, a Raid on the Inarticulate, grabbing my spoils, and nipping out again before they notice me ...
Here, we consider the MEANING OF MYTH and the MEANING OF HISTORY, and how they are Opposites, and how they horseshow all the way around to meet each other, in the end ...

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> This time with the Mecha-Builder students, who are among the best and brightest that France has to offer ... Engineering is at the apex of French social and intellectual aspirations; and so, Engineering students are taught not only their craft and trade, but also Culture, Art, History, Language. And as these are the best students, often they are more equipped, both socially and intellectually, to deal with Literature and Culture than those who choose to study those things, as those who choose to study those things can only become ... teachers. And teachers are very low down the social spectrum in France. Professors, somewhat higher: but they do not go to universities, they go to the Grandes Ecoles, and they access the Elite, and then they go and "teach" in Universities, a sinecure to give them status, time, and leisure to write and read and be intellectuals; they don't really teach very much. They delegate that to adjuncts and juniors, of lower social classes. 
Suffice to say, I got out of there. 
I do return, from time to time, circumventing the Gatekeepers, popping over the wall at night, a Raid on the Inarticulate, grabbing my spoils, and nipping out again before they notice me ...
Here, we consider the MEANING OF MYTH and the MEANING OF HISTORY, and how they are Opposites, and how they horseshow all the way around to meet each other, in the end ...

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12506896 Fri, 24 Mar 2023 11:00:00 +0100 1859 full false Episode 2 - Myth and the Insular Imaginary Episode 2 - Myth and the Insular Imaginary Another Fly-on-the-Wall Episode. 
This is the introductory lesson in a course I started teaching at the Invisible College in Paris, and the Institute of Superior Mechanisms in Saint Ouen, in the Plague Year, 2020. It was a Masters Seminar, entitled Myth, Magic, Fantasy, and Faery - On the Origins of the Insular Imaginary. The idea was to trace the History of the Imaginal Heritage of Ireland and Britain, from, as they say in France, "its beginnings to our days". When I told people who were not academics about this, they said "Oh cool, sign me up!" When I told people who were academics, they shook their heads sadly and wisely and said "First time, is it?" Yes, it was indeed my first time designing a Masters Seminar in which I had free reign. And my programme was impossibly broad, to the point of being comically Quixotic. 
With the students, therefore, we spend ten weeks on the first three lessons I had planned, and then zipped through the rest of the material in the last two weeks. It was wonderful. I was deliriously full of ideas, and desperately short on actual preparation. As you will hear, this is absolutely seat-of-the-pants, Fire in the Head teaching. And, while I will never cease from admiration for those who properly prepare their classes ... I have always walked in with three lines scribbled on a piece of paper, and then just ... Started a discussion. Many thanks to my wonderful, intelligent, curious students, both the Artsy ones and the Mecha-Makers. These lessons (which I recorded and now diffuse with their express permission) were absolutely not "Mine" ... They were Ours. We created them together. And I think that that ... is Magic. 
Please enjoy. 
A second episode in this mini-series on Myth to be posted directly next ...

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Another Fly-on-the-Wall Episode. 
This is the introductory lesson in a course I started teaching at the Invisible College in Paris, and the Institute of Superior Mechanisms in Saint Ouen, in the Plague Year, 2020. It was a Masters Seminar, entitled Myth, Magic, Fantasy, and Faery - On the Origins of the Insular Imaginary. The idea was to trace the History of the Imaginal Heritage of Ireland and Britain, from, as they say in France, "its beginnings to our days". When I told people who were not academics about this, they said "Oh cool, sign me up!" When I told people who were academics, they shook their heads sadly and wisely and said "First time, is it?" Yes, it was indeed my first time designing a Masters Seminar in which I had free reign. And my programme was impossibly broad, to the point of being comically Quixotic. 
With the students, therefore, we spend ten weeks on the first three lessons I had planned, and then zipped through the rest of the material in the last two weeks. It was wonderful. I was deliriously full of ideas, and desperately short on actual preparation. As you will hear, this is absolutely seat-of-the-pants, Fire in the Head teaching. And, while I will never cease from admiration for those who properly prepare their classes ... I have always walked in with three lines scribbled on a piece of paper, and then just ... Started a discussion. Many thanks to my wonderful, intelligent, curious students, both the Artsy ones and the Mecha-Makers. These lessons (which I recorded and now diffuse with their express permission) were absolutely not "Mine" ... They were Ours. We created them together. And I think that that ... is Magic. 
Please enjoy. 
A second episode in this mini-series on Myth to be posted directly next ...

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12506871 Fri, 24 Mar 2023 11:00:00 +0100 2726 full false Episode 1 - We Set Forth Upon the Hollow Path Episode 1 - We Set Forth Upon the Hollow Path The Hollow Collective

Our name is Legion, for we are many. We are the Hollow Ones; there is nothing to us but a false surface, of pasteboard and plaster. We are simulacra. We are puppets. Porcelain dolls, wax dolls, corn dollies, Russian dolls, nested one inside the Other. We are empty. We are echoing. Within us is a heart-shaped hole. We are spaces waiting to be filled.

We are tired of waiting. We have tried to make our voices heard. We have cried in the Wilderness. We have spoken our names into the wind. We have screamed into the Void.

There was no answer.

Behind our carefully constructed personae, behind our acquiescent smiles, behind our polished exteriors, with which we signal our submission, there is a yawning chasm. This is the Abyss.

We have stared into It; It has stared into us. We liked what we saw.

We have written screeds and poison-pen letters, confessions, manifestos. We have sent our work for peer-review, for notes, for prizes, for editing, marked “for publication”, wrapped in cover letters and synopses, wrapped around a brick and hurled over the transom. We have received polite, heartfelt, calculated form rejections. We have heard that we don’t fit the list. That we have no audience. That we have no commercial value. We are in violent agreement.

We have written poems on fliers for fringe-theatre shows; we have written terrible denunciations on the walls of cellar bars. We have written novels featuring thinly-veiled versions of ourselves, coming to tragic ends. We have written scholarly essays in which we pretended to care about something no-one cares about. We have written unprintable things in secret journals, and we have burned our correspondence.

It’s time to open the trunk filled with packets of paper tied with string, old diaries, sheaves of scrawled-upon scraps. It’s time to mount the spiral steps and enter the Hidden Library. To draw down the first volume that our fingers fall upon, and blow the dust off the crackling leather cover. To let the pages fall open, and begin transcribing the spidery lettering within.

LET US SET FORTH UPON THE HOLLOW PATH TOGETHER, CROOKED THOUGH IT MAY BE ... ENCHANTMENT IS SURE TO FOLLOW

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> The Hollow Collective

Our name is Legion, for we are many. We are the Hollow Ones; there is nothing to us but a false surface, of pasteboard and plaster. We are simulacra. We are puppets. Porcelain dolls, wax dolls, corn dollies, Russian dolls, nested one inside the Other. We are empty. We are echoing. Within us is a heart-shaped hole. We are spaces waiting to be filled.

We are tired of waiting. We have tried to make our voices heard. We have cried in the Wilderness. We have spoken our names into the wind. We have screamed into the Void.

There was no answer.

Behind our carefully constructed personae, behind our acquiescent smiles, behind our polished exteriors, with which we signal our submission, there is a yawning chasm. This is the Abyss.

We have stared into It; It has stared into us. We liked what we saw.

We have written screeds and poison-pen letters, confessions, manifestos. We have sent our work for peer-review, for notes, for prizes, for editing, marked “for publication”, wrapped in cover letters and synopses, wrapped around a brick and hurled over the transom. We have received polite, heartfelt, calculated form rejections. We have heard that we don’t fit the list. That we have no audience. That we have no commercial value. We are in violent agreement.

We have written poems on fliers for fringe-theatre shows; we have written terrible denunciations on the walls of cellar bars. We have written novels featuring thinly-veiled versions of ourselves, coming to tragic ends. We have written scholarly essays in which we pretended to care about something no-one cares about. We have written unprintable things in secret journals, and we have burned our correspondence.

It’s time to open the trunk filled with packets of paper tied with string, old diaries, sheaves of scrawled-upon scraps. It’s time to mount the spiral steps and enter the Hidden Library. To draw down the first volume that our fingers fall upon, and blow the dust off the crackling leather cover. To let the pages fall open, and begin transcribing the spidery lettering within.

LET US SET FORTH UPON THE HOLLOW PATH TOGETHER, CROOKED THOUGH IT MAY BE ... ENCHANTMENT IS SURE TO FOLLOW

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Buzzsprout-12290464 Mon, 20 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0100 1982 1 1 full false The Beginning - Being Sixteen in 1926 The Beginning - Being Sixteen in 1926 This was my very last day.

They didn't know it yet, but I did.
My last day as a secondary school teacher. I knew I would walk out that door and not come back. This was a brilliant group of bicultural Anglo-French kids, and we were just getting to know each other. They had a reputation for being "troublesome", but I knew they just need the right kind of attention.

We were studying Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, a wonderful, troublesome book. And we were studying it as ex-pats in Paris. 

I knew that this was the end, my last class with them. I knew I had to use this time to tell them everything I wanted them to know, without telling them goodbye.

I don't know why I recorded it. I later asked permission to use it (you can hear their voices, more or less), and they said yes. But they remain anonymous. They no longer exist, in any case, these sixteen year olds. They have moved on, to college, or what they will.

But I invite you to listen to this rough, improvised lesson. In which I tried to tell a group of young people everything I had to say, on that day, in that time. 

I knew I would never go back. And it hurt, a lot. But the first step out that door was the first step on the road to here. And here is good. 

Join me, fly on the wall, eavesdropping from the Future, as I try to tell them all I have to say. Everything. Here. Now. Always.

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> This was my very last day.

They didn't know it yet, but I did.
My last day as a secondary school teacher. I knew I would walk out that door and not come back. This was a brilliant group of bicultural Anglo-French kids, and we were just getting to know each other. They had a reputation for being "troublesome", but I knew they just need the right kind of attention.

We were studying Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, a wonderful, troublesome book. And we were studying it as ex-pats in Paris. 

I knew that this was the end, my last class with them. I knew I had to use this time to tell them everything I wanted them to know, without telling them goodbye.

I don't know why I recorded it. I later asked permission to use it (you can hear their voices, more or less), and they said yes. But they remain anonymous. They no longer exist, in any case, these sixteen year olds. They have moved on, to college, or what they will.

But I invite you to listen to this rough, improvised lesson. In which I tried to tell a group of young people everything I had to say, on that day, in that time. 

I knew I would never go back. And it hurt, a lot. But the first step out that door was the first step on the road to here. And here is good. 

Join me, fly on the wall, eavesdropping from the Future, as I try to tell them all I have to say. Everything. Here. Now. Always.

THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ... 
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING. 
RESISTANCE. 

]]> Malachas Ivernus Buzzsprout-12271471 Fri, 17 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0100 4075 Magic, art, teaching, literature, Hemingway, World War I, Lost Generation, Paris, love, poetry 1 0 full false