My guest in this show, dubbed a ‘respected literary catalyst’, or, as I myself call him, the ‘art director of occultism’, Mogg Morgan, is not only CEO of publishing house Mandrake of Oxford and a prolific author of quite a few books on Egyptian and especially Setian magick but also the founder of The Oxford Golden Dawn Occult Society.

Mogg’s interest in the occult started fairly early as actually the idea of being religious/spiritual seemed to be ever-present from childhood on. His mother loved to borrow books from the local library so he followed her example and this particular library happened to have a nice collection of Blavatsky, Crowley and the usual suspects. Mogg went on to work with Crowley’s writings and at some point joined a branch of the British OTO that was part of the Typhonian current where he experienced a lot of theory but lacked practical insights. Eventually he decided to leave and build his magical knowledge and practice in a way practitioners from forgotten times might have done in order to assemble a bricolage of magic that would be able to offer a working system which he eventually did very successfully.

Being the CEO of Mandrake of Oxford Mogg views the publishing process itself as a part of magic. We talk about his beginnings with Mandrake and look at the role of publishing houses as gatekeepers for certain types of magic often enough restricting valuable information. Mogg’s own approach as part of Mandrake and as author as well is a different one. He doesn’t only dive into subjects that might cause raised eyebrows here and there but also offers practical outlines and details instead of switching to cryptic comments or Latin as many others do.

Find this book on the website of  Mandrake of Oxford, by clicking here

Want to read Mogg’s Blog? Go here!

As a lot of Mogg’s work focuses on Egypt we talk about his most recent one, ‘Egyptian Magick: A Spirited Guide’ and what the opening poem, ‘Drawing Down the Plough’ means in terms of initiation and how it is linked to Egyptian magic. This book offers a bold attempt of going back to the most ancient magical sources in Egypt and opening up those gates for everyone.

In this context we have a highly fascinating discussion about the Egyptian current in general and its relevance for the 21st century as well as its shamanic aspects. The subject of the god Set comes up pretty soon as a central blueprint for ‘Evil’ in societies all over the world. We explore his ambiguous nature, his role as a scapegoat and his difficult tasks which basically no one else wants to deal with such as staring into the heart of the Abyss. We question how Set can play a role in healing whole societies in our days and what he demands of us in order to contribute to that process.

Finally, Mogg will tell us about upcoming future book projects on Egyptian folk magic traditions and more.

Music played in this episode

Today’s music is a kind of “flashback” to musicians that I have already played on this podcast and with two of them, I have also had personal contact because they are musicians and occultists at the same time. And I thought for a show that presents somebody with such a wide overview on the world of the Occult it would be nice to also give a wider view on occultists’ music.

1)  FOUR – Frater F

(Track starts at 7:29)

2) BABYLON GATES OPEN – Hasan Ismail

(Track starts at 49:55)

3) WITCH’WILL – Willburn Burchette

(Track starts at 1:24:03)

Intro and Outro Music
especially written and recorded for the Thoth-Hermes Podcast by Chris Roberts