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Welcome to Episode Two of Season Ten with the Thoth-Hermes podcast. Today, Rudolf dialogues with Marco Visconti, author of “The Aleister Crowley Manual: Thelemic Magic for Modern Times” (2023), published through Watkins Press.
An Italian freemason living in London, Marco openly enumerates roadblocks and supports he has encountered in his personal magical development. Up into his mid-thirties, Marco pursued several initiatory paths alongside an international musical career. Retiring from musical performance, Marco committed to depth involvement with the Ordo Templi Orientis. He also worked on staff at London’s renowned Treadwell’s Bookshop. Following the OTO’s scandals and schisms of the late 2010s, Marco describes leaving the Order on conscience. He publicly articulated a depth essay on his experience of the OTO’s dysfunction. (CLICK ANYWHERE IN THIS PARAGRAPH TO SEE MARCO’S BLOG ENTRY ABOUT THIS)
During the COVID pandemic, a door opened for the founding of Marco’s present initiatory school. Rudolf and Marco examine the tensions of ethics and accountability within hierarchical initiatory organizations. Together, they highlight the responsibility of truly vetting lodge candidates. Marco directly names his experience of encountering unbalanced and destabilizing seekers in magical schools. He also references contemporary challenges around anonymity or confidentiality of membership.
The theme of finding the balanced middle way permeates this conversation. While examining selectivity within groups, Marco and Rudolf delve into the question of elitism. Both speakers acknowledge magical potential as an inherent human birthright, across all class, culture, race, gender, and other mundane identities. Simultaneously, they briefly share the posit that pursuing formal initiation is not appropriate for everyone in a given lifetime.
While describing Marco’s new book, they note the paradox of Crowley’s levelling articulation of Magic for All, yet his relatively scholarly writing style. While more accessible than any writing prior to his publications, the Oxbridge style and use of mainline theological terms carry potential obstacles. The discussion then turns to frank assessment of copyright debates in historical magical writings; Rudolf names parallels across many creative and performing arts content. Marco then shares briefly on his manuscript in process.
Music played in this episode
It was my guest in this episode, who used to be a full-time musician at some point in his life, who chose the music . So enjoy Marco’s choice!
1) DRIFT by 3Teeth
3TEETH is a group from LA, which started in 2013 and today are one of the most famous industrial metal acts. The singer and mastermind, Alexis Mincolla, is a very close friend of Marco’s. They bonded over their interest for esotericism, and in fact a lot of the themes and imagery of 3TEETH is steeped in occultism.
(Track starts at 8:23)
2) THE NIGHT OF PAN by XP8
XP8 was Marco’s main musical project between 2001 and 2014, when he put it on hiatus. They still release the occasional single/EP, but stopped touring a decade ago when he realised that music scene (electrogoth, industrial/ebm) was on a dying spiral compared to the spotlights of the previous decade.
They always produced music for “goth raves”, but “The Night Of Pan” is different, mellower than their normal output. Marco wanted to try and convey in music the idea of approaching the Abyss, which is also why you find the famous Oppenheimer sample in it.
(Track starts at 59:41)
3) SAPPHIRE by Alcest
Marco always loved Alcest’s unique blend of black metal and shoegaze – they effectively found the “blackgaze” genre. A super popular band, hailing from France.
“Sapphire” is a remix by synthwave act Perturbator, and one interesting tidbit is that the singer of Alcest often sings in a strange language he claims to have received from “the fae”.
Really missed you while you were on a break. You have one of the most interesting and informative podcasts in this arena.
Thank you so much, Tracy
Hi Rudolf and listeners, after pondering whether to comment, I eventually felt the need to; I’m one to firmly steer away from ‘drama’, especially not involving me but thought I’d take a few minutes to post this, especially given the introduction to the guest.
From afar, I’d heard of these ‘dramas’ and avoided as usual, but saw enough to see that this guest was not a clear-cut victim of circumstance, and has clearly engaged in some ‘unsavoury’ behaviour, not just in the incident noted but others too.
…Not a shock that someone so focused on Crowley might ‘catch’ some ‘unsavoriness’ of their own… something to which we are all vulnerable.
So, even though I was not directly involved, nor spent much time ‘looking’ I *still* felt had incidentally seen enough (hard to dispute, with context ‘evidence’) to decide on this guest’s character and capability – at least in these instances – and enough to determine that he’s not *simply* a ‘good guy’ that we should all automatically ‘be behind’.
Therefore, I urge anyone with an inclination to check for themselves before making a decision (on anyone’s character) as I won’t try convince anyone or present anything here, I think things are discoverable easily enough for ones’ self – or perhaps urge to *at least* remain agnostic and certainly don’t just take mine or Rudolfs’ word on faith.
Rudolf, I believe you’ve also good reason to ‘defend’ this guest, I respect that. I remain open to changing my mind if something new comes my way.
I have no skin in this particular game, except that I think it’s important to sometimes speak up and offer a small ‘counter balance’, to at least nod towards those affected by the guest’s actions.
I also sympathise with people who want to focus on the good side of a person or their work over the creators’ personal “shortcomings”, to which we’re all vulnerable (many examples of those in the recent #metoo years).
It was this distinction that led me to leave this comment; that the episode wasn’t presented as a review of a book and other works, but also a call to ‘be behind’ the author.
I still listened to this interview, the book does sound like it has some good offerings, and I remain a listener.
Many thanks, LVX