This Podcast is a Ritual

America's #1 Wizard is taking the leap and embarking on a magical quest to relocate to the Netherlands and become Amsterdam's #1 Wizard. To honor this momentous occasion, we're looking back at the magic that got us here, revisiting the "What is a Quest?" episode that kicked off last year's This Podcast is a Quest mini-series. And then stay tuned for our new This Portal is a Ritual mini-series, beginning next week!For more on the magic that emerged from this episode, check out:The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332The Leap - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/leap-155721154Join the ritual: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Magic has long trafficked in fantasies of power and control. This is the tantalizing idea that there are certain secrets one can master that will raise a person above their peers and allow them to command angels, devils, and assorted deities. Of course, we have also seen this cautionary tale play out across fairy tales and other works of fiction, and it rarely ends well, so here the Wizard offers a novel approach to Power: One based in relation, rather than domination. This episode provides explicit instructions for invoking Power politely and includes a full step-by-step ritual you can use to improve your own relationship with the particularly tricky Power... Discipline!Visit the Patreon for the full Prayer to Disciplina: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-power-163294699For more on the ideas explored in this episode, check outWhat is Power? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-power-161898774What is a Person? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-person-159310290What is a Person? (practice) - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-person-160733752What's the Point? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-147660543What's the Point? (practice) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-148217750The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332Join the ritual: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Before the Wizard reveals his magical praxis for working with the various Powers-that-be, he felt it important to take a moment to address the elephant in the occultural room: Fantasies of control. These seductive messages touch on deeply rooted—often unconscious—anxieties and try to sell a fantasy of power, perfection, and control that promises to resolve all issues. But rather than seek a magic of domination and will, the Wizard suggests we might find greater rewards in a magic of relationship and chill......and what better way to relate than subscribing to the Patreon so you can hear the full episode! Or don't! The Wizard is not trying to control you!Listen to How to Let Go of Control:https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/how-to-let-go-of-162617205Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Something brought you to this moment. A long sequence of personal choices and cosmic chance collaborated to bring you to this exact moment. But why? That's a question the Wizard explores at length in this new installment of Wizardry in Theory and Practice, digging into the what's and why's of the life shaping forces we call "Power."This episode builds on the metaphysics laid out in depth in What's the Point? (theory) and What is a Person (theory), but it can absolutely be listened to on its own. And these ideas will be expanded on as an actionable magical practice in the forthcoming episode, What is Power? (practice).For more on the ideas explored in this episode, check out What's the Point? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-147660543What is a Person? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-person-159310290The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

The Wizard is on the move, somewhere between Here and I-Don't-Know-Where, so it felt like the right time to take a little walkabout within the concept of "wandering," and it's conceptual sibling, "wondering," and see where we might arrive... ...which, while wizardry is concerned with far more than mere destinations, if you wish to arrive at the actual episode, you'll need to wander over to our Patreon to hear it in full!Listen to How to Wander Like a Wizard: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/how-to-wander-161359969Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

How do we practice becoming a Person? Doing his best to evade the usual traps of self-optimization, the Wizard offers a humble contemplative practice designed to help us see ourselves—not as perpetual projects—but as vast and complex patterns which emerge across space-and-time out of an intricate web of relationships. Thus, to aid us in our quest to discern our own Person, the Wizards lays out a magical ritual known as the Seven Point Program to Become a Person.For more on the ideas explored in this episode, check outWhat is a Person? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-person-159310290What's the Point? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-147660543What's the Point? (practice) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-148217750The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332Join the ritual: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Before we get into the practical magical follow up to What is a Person? (theory), the Wizard wanted to acknowledge the paradoxical problem of trying to be a better person and how the Cult of Optimization seeks to prey on our collective anxieties with an endless barrage of advice, tips, and self improvement schemes, when perhaps we might have a slightly better time letting all that go to bask in our own imperfection instead.If you're imperfect and tired of trying to deny it, join our imperfect Patreon and listen to the episode in its entirety!Listen to How to Alchemize Anxiety: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-be-person-160041488Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

If you're reading this, you're probably a person. While this word is regarded in everyday language as something simple, straightforward, and basically synonymous with "human being," the Wizard wants you to examine your assumptions and re-consider the concept of "person" as he reveals it to be something sranger, with far greater magical significance...This episode builds on the metaphysics laid out in depth in What's the Point? (theory), although it can absolutely be listened to on its own. And these ideas will be expanded on as an actionable magical practice in the forthcoming episode, What is a Person? (practice).For more on the ideas explored in this episode, check out What's the Point? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-147660543The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332What is a Large Language Model? - https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-large-143943525Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Despite our bests attempts to "calm down" or "stop panicking," anxiety rarely responds to such strategies, so here are all the Wizard's magical secrets on what actually works, gleaned from years of lived experience as an anxious person as well as countless sessions with clients helping them move past the discomfort of chronic unease that is all too common in this Age of Anxiety.If you struggle with anxiety and are ready to try something different, join the Patreon to listen to the actual episode in its entirety.Listen to How to Alchemize Anxiety: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-alchemize-158615215Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

David Bajramovic, aka the Recovering Overthinker, is an existential explorer, taking the wisdom of pioneers like Carl Jung, Rollo May, James Hillman, Friedrich Nietzsche, and other deep thinkers and presenting it for a modern audience in ways that are not only accessible, but actionable, as we all face unprecedented levels of technological distraction and dopamine addiction which can make it hard to feel aligned with one's own true will.Joining the ritual for an illuminating conversation with the Wizard, David shares about his own journey out of anxiety, overthinking, and self sabotage and tell us about the teachers and tools he's found most effective, while steering clear of the sales-y self help and "bro-icism" philosophers that end up perpetuating, rather than resolving, the issues we face in this Age of Anxiety.Follow David on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/recovering.overthinker/Tune into more of David's magic at: https://linktr.ee/recoveringoverthinkerJoin the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

The Wizard addresses the current AI discourse from a variety of unusual angles, digging into our lost utopian dreams, extremely valid capitalist critiques, and problematic pearl-clutching moral panic as we all confront this tidal wave of technology that, whatever you think of it, is certainly upending everything! But of course, all of that is in the actual episode while this is but a mere amuse-bouche, so come on over to the Patreon to dig into the main dish!Listen to How to Feel About AI: https://www.patreon.com/posts/157546367Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Performance artist, witchdoctor, and sci-fi religion world builder M. Dudeck steps into the ritual for an imaginal exploration with the Wizard, digging into what it means to envision wilder, weirder tomorrows and the magical and artistic tools we can wield to bring them into being. M. is a multidimensional multimedia artist whose work bridges graphic art and ritualistic performance to explore "xenotheology," the queer alien religion M. channels through its art.Tune into M. Dudeck's vibrations at: http://religionvir.us/Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual