Rune Soup

It's the anniversary of the reception of the Book of the Law. Joining me to explore the questions of
What to make of it?

How to think about it?

What, if anything, to do with it

Are two very special guests: Alan Chapman and Peter Grey. Now, like me, neither of them is a Thelemite. But what they do have is an encyclopedic knowledge of the era, the material, and the magic behind it. So if you've ever wondered whether the Book of the Law has anything to say to you if you're not already one of Crowley's followers, this is that conversation.
Alan's essay, Is A God To Live In A Dog? is referenced several times in the episode. You can download a copy here.
Show Notes
Peter Grey's Substack.

Alan Chapman's website.

Is magic just a less sophisticated form of psychology? That is probably the cornerstone claim of what I am calling 'Modernity's Magic'.
And in the next instalment of our series 'Hospicing Modernity's Magic', I want to look at:
How psychology diverged from magic and why.
Jung's role during his lifetime.
What the magicians of modernity did with the 'legitimacy umbrella' they received from Jungian thought.
Which parts of this journey do we take with us into the magic of today?
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:11 Wearing Jung's Skin Like a Pelt
01:57 The 19th Century & Roads Not Taken
07:56 The Red Book 10:50 Active Imagination
15:26 Jung & Astrology
17:59 Is Magic Just Psychology?
22:09 Synchronicity
29:17 The Yi Qing & Moments in Time
33:08 Synchromysticism as Omen Logic
35:26 Psychoid Archetypes & the Unus Mundus
43:00 The Post-Jung Pelt-Wearers
49:27 What to Hospice, What to Keep
52:32 Use Magic to Legitimise Jung

What continues to exist from the 'safe' and 'quirky' magic of the twentieth century that finally needs to die? And what has maybe been left behind that might even belong better in our current era of magic?
This is the beginning of a little project exploring what we should take with us through this fourth turning. You can, of course, watch this one on YouTube.
00:00 - Remember When Magic Was Safe?
01:50 - The Golden Age We Just Lived Through
05:19 - Eating the Wrapper, Throwing Away the Candy
06:34 - What Is Modernity?
09:54 - Why "Hospicing Modernity's Magic"
11:24 - The Hospicing Framework
13:00 - Nothing Is Going Wrong
14:54 - A Telling, Not a History
17:32 - The Series Roadmap
21:18 - What We Carry Forward
22:47 - Join the Conversation
Here are the videos I reference:
At Work In The Ruins | Dougald Hind 
Alan Moore's Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic

What is ours to do during the putrefactory collapse of Western civilisation? Let's find out!
At the very least, it is choosing the right story to live in so that we can nudge the trajectory of this ghastly moment more and more toward the good.
Here are some off-the-cuff thoughts on how we might do that.

There's a meme that's been evolving since 2021, and in its current chaotic incarnation, it's become accidentally magical—even if the people using it don't realise it.
In this episode, I'm unpacking "do it for the plot" as a practical framework for the year ahead. Not just as permission to take risks, but as a way of activating synchronicity and maintaining agency when things inevitably go sideways on the way to your goals.
I'll walk you through how to use this alongside your existing magical toolkit—your amulets, your enchantments, your divination practice—and share the diagnostic story I keep coming back to for checking where I'm actually at versus where I think I am.
I'm also introducing a new project I've been wrestling with: hospicing modernity's magic. Because the late twentieth century gave us some genuinely powerful techniques wrapped in a frame that insists magic isn't real. I want to find a way to respectfully retain the useful stuff and jettison the less-than-useful.
There's practical advice here for interrogating your intentions for 2026, plus some thoughts on why the slacker-era re-enchantment is officially over and what needs to replace it.
Happy new year, kids!