All Episodes
Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP) — 219 episodes
Alicia Walker on Everyday Magical Culture in East Rome
Three Ancient Sages: On East Roman Magical Books
Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part II
Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part I
The Horoscope of Islām and The Alchemical Stone: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part II
Philosophy and Occult Sciences at Constantinople: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part I
Esoteric Orthodoxy in East Rome: Jonathan Greig on Maximus the Confessor
Introducing the Apocalypse of the Pseudo-Methodios, with Christopher Bonura
Jewish Apocalypse in the Seventh Century: Martha Himmelfarb on the Sefer Zerubbabel
Touraj Daryaee on Zoroastrianism in the Seventh Century and Beyond
Ahab Bdaiwi on the Rise of Shī‘ī Esotericism
Ahab Bdaiwi on ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, his Family, and the Origins of Shī‘ī Islam
Seventh-Century History for Students of Western Esotericism
Introducing the Qur’an Part III: Qur’ānic Texts vs. the Qur’ān
Introducing the Qur’ān, Part II: Ambiguity and Esoteric Themes
Introducing the Qur’ān, Part I: Revelation, Text, and History
Fred Donner on the History of Early Islām
Matthew Melvin-Koushki on Islam, ‘the West’, and Western Esotericism
Introducing Islām
Paul Pasquesi on the Book of the Holy Hierotheos
The Pseudo-Dionysios, the Esoteric, and (Christian) Mysticism
Naming Divine Nothingness: Introducing the Pseudo-Dionysios
One Empire, Many Names: Reading “Byzantium” with Anthony Kaldellis
Contested Esotericisms at the End of Antiquity: Simplicius, Philoponus, and Olympiodorus
The Last Platonists? Philosophic Teaching, Christianity, and Polytheism in Late-Antique Alexandria
All from Nothing: Sara Rappe on Damascius
Hagia Sophia and the Problem of ‘Esoteric Architecture’
Kevin van Bladel on the Ṣābians of Ḥarrān and the Fate of the Athenian Academy
Edward Watts on the Age of Justinian and the Closing of the Athenian Academy
Danielle Layne on Proclus’ Religious Life and Thought
Graeme Miles on Proclus the Commentator
The Esoteric Proclus, Part II: Esoteric Exegesis and the Occult Ontology of Language
The Esoteric Proclus, Part I: The Life and Thought of an Esoteric Sage
Dylan Burns on Proclus the Successor
Hierocles of Alexandria and the Pythagorean Golden Verses
The Great God Pan Lives: Introducing the Athenian Academy
Ↄ. Martiana on Martianus Capella and the Marriage of Philology and Mercury
Macrobius and the Commentary on Scipio’s Dream
Augustine of Hippo: Saint of the Exoteric
The Manichæan Catholic: Augustine of Hippo
Stephen A. Cooper on Marius Victorinus and Latinate Christian Platonism
Gretchen Reydams-Schils on Calcidius and the Timæus
Plato Latinus
Jay Bregman on Synesius of Cyrene
Noble Lies and Philosophic Silence: Hypatia, Synesius, and the New Esotericism in the Fourth Century
Hypatia of Alexandria: The Life and Death of a Philosopher and her City
‘And When Rome Falls, Falls the World’: The Fall of Rome and Western Esotericism
‘Visibly a Goddess’: Heidi Marx on Sosipatra of Pergamum
Frederico Fidler on Sallustius’ On the Gods and the World
Strategies of the Esoteric in the Hellenism of the Emperor Julian: Exclusion and Pluralism in a Late-Antique Polytheism
Jeremy Swist on Julian, Part II: The Emperor’s Religio-Philosophic Project
Jeremy Swist on the Emperor Julian, Part I: the Political Background and Political Project of the Emperor
Joel Kalvesmaki on Evagrius’ Kephalaia Gnōstika: Philosophy, Scripture, and Apophatic Mysticism
Joel Kalvesmaki on Evagrius of Pontus, the ‘Gnostic Trilogy’, and the Origenist Controversy
Theology, Politics, and Radiant Darkness: Michæl Motia on Gregory of Nyssa
Father Sergey Trostyanskiy on the Cappadocian Fathers, Part II
Father Sergey Trostyanskiy on the Cappadocian Fathers, Part I
Claire Hall on Firmicus Maternus
Kocku von Stuckrad on Monotheist Astrologies in (Late) Antiquity
Metals, Temples, and Living Statues: Shannon Grimes on Zosimus’ Egyptian Context
Bink Hallum on the Extended Zosimus
Matteo Martelli Introduces Zosimus of Panopolis
Recognising the Real in the Forgery: The Pseudo-Clementine Literature
Charles Häberl on the Mandæans
Paul Pasquesi on Christian Asceticism in the Late-Antique Syriac World
Korshi Dosoo on Early Christian Magic
Prolegomena to Christian Magic
The Testament of Solomon and the Solomonic Tradition, Part II
The Testament of Solomon and the Solomonic Tradition, Part I
Exploring the Sefer ha-Razim
Curses! Sarah Veale on Roman ‘Curse-Tablets’
Daniel James Waller on the Jewish Incantation-Bowls
Gideon Bohak on Late-Antique Jewish Magic
Thinking through Monotheism, Henotheism, Polytheism, and Dualism in Late Antiquity
Politics and Religion in Late Antiquity, Part II: The Rise of Christianity and the Invention and Eclipse of ‘Paganism’
Politics and Religion in Late Antiquity, Part I: Geopolitics, Empire, and Rabbinic Judaism
Run the Numbers: The Theology of Arithmetic
Brian Alt on Sacred Materials, Divine Names, and Subtle Physiology in Iamblichean Theurgy
Gregory Shaw on the Phenomenology of Iamblichean Theurgy
John Finamore on Iamblichean Theurgy in Theory and Practice
The Great Theurgy Debate: Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo, Iamblichus’ Response, and the Question(s) of Ritual
The Esoteric Iamblichus
The ‘Greater Kinds’, Souls, and Kosmos: Iamblichus’ Philosophy, Part II
Esoteric Hermeneutics, Divine Hierarchy, and the Ineffable: The Philosophy of Iamblichus, Part I
Introducing Iamblichus of Chalcis
A Word to Conjure With: On ‘Theurgy’ in Late Antiquity and Beyond
Astral Accretions, Fate, and the Resurrection-Body: Other Subtle Bodies of Antiquity
Soul-Flight, Noetic Bodies, and Pneumatic Vehicles: Toward a History of the Platonist Subtle Body
Methodologies for Studying the Subtle Body
Nilüfer Akçay on Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs
Porphyry and the Barbarians: Ethnicity, Religious Practice, and Esoteric Interpretation
Dorian Greenbaum on Porphyry and Astrology
Porphyry’s Gods: The Metaphysics and Physics of Divinity
‘Poet, Philosopher, Hierophant’: Introducing Porphyry of Tyre
Charles M. Stang on the Divine Double in Late Antiquity
Jason BeDuhn on Mani and Manichæism
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III on the ‘Mithrasliturgie’
Mithras and the Stars: Astral Elements in the Cult of Mithras
Mysteries of the Rock-Born God: The Roman Cult of Mithras
Jean-Marc Narbonne on Plotinus in Dialogue with the Gnostics
Dylan Burns on Sethian Gnosticism
The Esoteric Plotinus, Part II: Unsaying the Real
Plotinus on Astrology with Marilynn Lawrence
The Esoteric Plotinus, Part I: Philosophic Silence and Esoteric Reading
Plotinus the Magician? Ritual Practice and Power in Platonism
Mateusz Stróżyński on Spiritual Practices in Plotinus
We are the One: Plotinus’ Participatory Metaphysics
‘The Philosopher of our Time’: Introducing Plotinus
Matthew Neujahr on the Sibylline Oracles
Christian Bull on the Way of Hermes in Antiquity
Anna van den Kerchove on the Hermetic Way in Antiquity
M. David Litwa on Deification in the Hermetica
Silent Encounters: The Esoteric in the Ancient Hermetica
Other Hermetic Worlds: The Asclepius and Korê Kosmou
Wouter Hanegraaff on the Poimandres
Corpus Hermeticum I, the Poimandres
Professor Christian Wildberg on Emending the Corpus Hermeticum
Brian Copenhaver on the Hermetica
Thrice-Greatest Hermes
Total War: Polemical Esotericism in the Contra Celsum
The True Account: Celsus, Origen, and Ideological Esotericism in Late Antiquity
Aron Reppmann Introduces Origen of Alexandria
From Word to Silence: The Rise of the Apophatic in Late Antiquity
The Third Century and (the Long) Late Antiquity
Becoming Gods: Divinisation and Angelomorphic Transformation in Clement
Henny Fiskå Hägg on Clement’s Apophatic Writing
Lifting the Veil: Esoteric Reading in Clement’s Stromateis
Mystagogic Patchwork: Esoteric Writing in Clement’s Stromateis
The Orthodox Gnostic: Introducing Clement of Alexandria
The Astrology of Vettius Valens
Claudius Ptolemy and the Tetrabiblos
Numerical Mysteries: Nichomachus of Gerasa, Arithmology, and Second-Century Neopythagoreanism
Matteo Martelli on the Pseudo-Democritus
Introducing Alchemy with Lawrence Principe
Other Gospels and Alien Gods: Marcion of Sinope
Geoffrey Smith on Valentinus and Valentinianism
I Got Soul, And I’m Super Bad: Basilides of Alexandria
Warfaring Strangers: Prolegomena to Second-Century Christianity
Michael Williams on the Trouble with ‘Gnosticism’
Alone with the Alone: Numenius’ Metaphysics
Inter philosophos occultorum curiosior: Numenius of Apamea
Korshi Dosoo on the Papyri Græcæ Magicæ and Western Esotericism
The Chaldæan Oracles and Theurgy
The Chaldæan Oracles
I’m Not Sorry: The Apology of Apuleius
Ineffable Initiations and Golden Asses: Apuleius of Madauros and the Metamorphoses
Hypochondria and Epiphany: The Strange Case of Ælius Aristides
Daniel Harris-McCoy on the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus
Gil Renberg on Incubation
Plutarch’s Myths of Cosmic Ascent
Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris
An Erudite Esotericist: Introducing Plutarch of Chæronea
Astrology, Politics, and Platonism in the Early Empire: The Case of Thrasyllus
Graeme Miles on Apollonius of Tyana
The Enigma of Early Christianity
Dylan Burns on the ‘Underworld of Platonism’
John Dillon on Middle Platonism
The Esoteric and the State in Ancient Rome, Part 2: The State and the Stars
The Esoteric and the State in Ancient Rome, Part 1: Late Republican Esotericism
Introducing Rome
Justin Rogers on Philo in Early Christianity
The Esoteric Philo
The First Western Esotericist: Philo of Alexandria
Naomi Janowitz on Jewish Magic and ‘The Jewish Magi’ in Antiquity
Frances Flannery on Jewish Dreams in Antiquity
Palaces of Heavenly Wisdom: The Hekhalot and Merkavah Traditions
Enoch, Apocalyptic, and Abrahamic Faith
Enoch and the Book of Watchers
John J. Collins on Apocalyptic
The Long Secret History of the Jews Part II: Second-Temple Judaism
Pythagoras Revived: An Anatomy of Neopythagoreanism
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Joel Kalvesmaki on ‘Pythagorean’ Number
After Pythagoras
Stoic Physics and Esoteric Metaphysics
Esoteric Hermeneutics in Stoicism
Christopher Gill on Stoicism
Chris Brennan on Hellenistic Astrology
Fate and Foreknowledge: Toward Hellenistic Astrology
Wheels Within Wheels: Toward Western Esoteric Cosmology
The Esoteric Aristotle, Part 2
The Esoteric Aristotle, Part I
Peter Adamson on Plato
Plato’s Parmenides and Metaphysics
Mystery and Immortality: Plato’s Phædo
Mystery and Initiation in Plato
Nowhere to Go But Up: Philosophic Ascent in Plato
Maya Alapin on Mathematical Structures in Plato’s Republic
Sun, Line, Cave: Plato’s Inner Republic
Introducing Plato’s Republic
Otherworlds, Inner Worlds, and Utopias
Christopher Gill on Plato’s Atlantis
Plato’s Timæus
The Birth of the Symbol: Peter Struck on Ancient Greek Esoteric Hermeneutics
The Esoteric Plato
Introducing the Grandfather of Western Esotericism: Plato
Miguel Herrero de Jauregui on Ancient ‘Orphism’
Severed Heads and Cosmic Eggs: Orpheus and Esotericism
Elementary: Empedocles and the Secret History of the Elements
All for One, and One for All: Parmenides of Elea
Riddle Me This: Heraclitus of Ephesus
Don’t Spill the Beans: Pythagorean Silence
The Enigma of Pythagoreanism
The Enigma of Pythagoras
For the Love of Wisdom: The Birth of Philosophy
Methodologies for the Study of Mysticism
From Mystery to ‘Mysticism’
Richard Seaford on the Mysteries
The Long Secret History of Judaism, Part I
Prayer to the Gods of Night: The Near-Eastern Roots of Astrology
Esoteric Orientalism Part II: The Greeks are Always Children?
Esoteric Orientalism Part I: Ancient Barbarian Sages
We’re Together In Dreams: Dreaming and Western Esotericism
Magicians, Ghosts, Amulets, and Spells: Daniel Ogden on Græco-Roman Magic
Methodologies for the Study of Magic
Richard Seaford on the Origins of the Soul
Wouter Hanegraaff on Western Esotericism
A Secret History of Secret History, Part II
A Secret History of Secret History, Part I
So What is Western Esotericism, Anyway?