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My guest in this episode is hermeticist Rufus Opus, whose work is widely known in occult communities, especially his Red Work Course and his book ‘Seven Spheres’, a manual on planetary magic that teaches how to open up gates and provides the working magician with initiatory experiences.
Rufus Opus grew up in a mid-western fundamentalist Christian environment where bible studies were naturally part of his childhood. At around age 7-8 he started to realise that Christianity with its passive attitude did not grant him experiences with the divine and that there had to be something different out there. It was when Rufus moved out of his parents’ house at age 18 that he dived deep into occultism with ‘The Big Blue Brick’, ‘Prometheus Rising’ and ‘Twelve Lessons in High Magick’ and turned it into a part of his day-to-day life building up strength and discipline.
In this latest episode of our show we will discuss if and why the bible belt seems to give birth to magicians in a rather interesting way, and how Rufus who calls himself an ‘amateur explorer’ became the well-known and highly-respected expert he is.
Indeed, the influences Rufus Opus received on his path were pretty diverse and we talk quite a lot about how they seemed to point him to the system of German Benedictine abbot and polymath Johannes Trithemius based on a 16th century grimoire. Of course, we explore the Trithemius system’s particularities and Rufus explains how they led him to his career as a blogger and ultimately to his Red Work Course being created.
In our conversation we will explore the reasons why Rufus chose an alchemical way of teaching in the very first place, how ‘Seven Spheres’ was born out of it and why ultimately the Red Work Course was put into the hands of his most trusted and qualified former students.
We close the episode with Rufus’ most recent projects, to be found on two different websites, one where he teaches occult knowledge to budding magicians and one where he aims to provide a framework and place for teachers of occult knowledge and tradition in order for them to get through to their audiences. As Rufus is currently working on a new book, he’ll also give some glimpses into the idea behind it – spoiler: it’s all about love!
LINKS to Rufus Opus’ webpages: www.rufusopus.com – www.appliedhermeticsllc.com – www.academiahermetica.com
