In today’s episode of the show I have the huge pleasure to welcome not only one but two guests and we’ll start with Seattle-based author Jobe Bittman who just published his amazingly illustrated high quality work ‘Book of Antithesis’, a grimoire of game and ritual magic, with Finnish independent publisher Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

Jobe has a wide experience working as a table top game designer for more than a decade and I’m sure when we mention table top games Dungeons & Dragons will pop up in the heads of many of you out there. As you can easily imagine, Jobe does also have a background in chaos and sigil magic, mostly influenced by the writings of Austin Osmane Spare. As he has always been fascinated with the occult he attempts to establish a connection between the ritual aspect of table top games and practical magic and his approach is for sure a unique one in this field so far.

In our conversation we’ll explore the quality of ritual work as a sort of ‘make believe game’ and dive into the idea of how magic can be seen as an entire game system, even more, a mental simulation for playing along the universe’s rules and creating genuine change in so-called reality.

Jobe will introduce his book in more detail as a primer for people interested in magic and with a bit of experience in table top gaming. He’ll offer some recommendations regarding the practical approach to it such as banishing rituals and we’ll outline quite a few similarities between gamers and occultists.

My second guest in this episode will be Tasmania-based Morgan Leigh Serong and we’ll open up an amazing discussion on virtual realities and magic. Morgan actually stumbled upon a group of people performing a Wiccan ritual in virtual reality when she was doing research for her PhD in sociology in Australia.

Being a pagan herself she was immediately fascinated and intrigued by the idea of how a nature focused belief system could actually work in a virtual reality context. Soon she created an avatar of herself in the online community Second Life where she entered a group dedicated to Ancient Egypt role playing.

Deeply rooted in hermeticism, Morgan explains how choosing an avatar for virtual reality is not so different from choosing a form when entering the so-called meatspace of our ‘normal world’. We’ll talk about the preconceptions that people have in relation to virtual worlds in general and how actually such a space can also be viewed as a new form of society.

We touch upon the advantages and risks of navigating one’s avatar within the cyberspace and point out the consequences of these with regard to actual ritual workings. The presence of divinity in the virtual world will be of huge relevance and Morgan will tell a lot about her personal experiences with performing rituals and initiations online along with her views on parallel aspects between the astral plane and cyberspace.

Music played in this episode

And this is the third (and last) installment with music from KRISTER LINDER? Three more tracks from his latest album “Across the Never”, which he offered me to play on this podcast. 

One more time, his online bio:

Elusive Swedish-Congolese Artist / Producer Returns from The U.S. With an Album of Dirty Gold.
His music sets the tone in award winning feature films. Global fashion giants such as H&M, Fendi, Agent Provocateur and Chanel battle it out with his sound. But the man himself is not easily found. Now 13 years after the solo debut “Songs From the Silent Years,” sound alchemist Krister Linder resurfaces with a new album; self-produced in New York, mixed in Los Angeles and mastered in Stockholm.
With gold records and radio hits from various projects dating back as far as the late eighties, plus a substantial body of work in the 90’s Stockholm underground electronic era (under an array of pseudonyms like Tupilaq, Yeti, Solaroid etc), Linder has been a prominent but equally mysterious figure on the Swedish music scene. After winning the awards for Best Music For Film (for two consecutive years in a row) at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Linder in 2009 decides to sell his stuff and cross the Atlantic to subject himself to a whole new existence – in a land and city where he has neither a past, track record or advantage.

Want to know more or buy his downloads? Go to www.kristerlinder.com

1) YOU WERE ALWAYS

(Track starts at 6:56) 

2) GONE

(Track starts at 59:15) 

3) NEVER SAID ALIEN

(Track starts at 1:42:00)

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