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Christian mysticism is widely spread through this relatively common but fairly new tradition derived almost exclusively from what might have been parody pamphlets that told the story of Christian Rosenkreuz. Johann Valentine Andrea claims to have written one such pamphlet to make fun of the growing interest in mystical and magical traditions shortly after the beginning of protestant era in Germany.
Attempts at understanding the divine are plentiful and diverse, but there's a reasonable sort of logic to the idea that scientific pursuits can reveal the nature of the universe and its creator.
Rosicrucianism has branched into scores of organizations, and is even found in some branches of Freemasonry. AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) and the Rosicrucian Fellowship are both fairly popular, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn brought us such great works as the Waite-Smith-Rider Tarot deck of 1909.
All this and more...
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Kabbalah isn't just another branch of Judaism--it's more mystical and personal. The idea is hat you really connect with the creator of the universe--but if you fail at that, there's always another shot with the benefits of reincarnation.
Mystical concerns include finding hidden meaning (often in places where it ought not to be) through astrology or gematria (numerology). The Zohar adds depth to the Torah, though not everybody is interested in this newer interpretation of scripture. The Spanish Rabbi who gave us the Zohar is still under investigation for fraud....
The sefirot, and their tree of life illustration, are helpful for understanding how everything fits together in this cosmic theology.
We also explore more mundane practices and misconceptions.
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Over millennia, countless dietary traditions have formed around the world; many are tied strictly to religious traditions, and have thereby been empowered to stand the test of time (with some scientific speculation).
We examine the details that outline kosher food, and how it's much stricter than halal diets (which are hardly monolithic). We also look at the Christian narrative that discards the Kashrut laws. Some keep it simple and categorically refuse to eat meat of any kind.
Taking proper care of your kitchen is important for a lot of reasons, you shouldn't have to fear religious discipline to keep it clean, though religious tradition certainly informs the standards of cleanliness for many.
There's an ancient tradition that separates fish from other meat, too.
In addition to all the rules about what to eat, there are also some strict rules about when to eat, and feasts are an important part of every serious religion. Whether we fast or celebrate the harvest, we do it together, and strengthen the community.
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Mina Angotti has a Master's degree in theology, focusing her studies on Mary, the Mother of Christ. Mina is a longtime friend of the show, and a devout Catholic. She's here to tell us about the details of the Nativity deduced from history, combined with a fundamentalist understanding of the Biblical source material.
Learn about the shepherds and the magicians, the census and the cave, the faith and the fumbles.
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Vatileaks (or Vatican Document Leaks) caused a lot of trouble in Rome in 2012, leading directly (allegedly) to the Pope abdicating his office for the first time in centuries.
Paolo Gabriele (papal butler) snuck documents to GianLuigi Nuzzi (Italian journalist) to expose the corruption of Archbishop Carlo Mario Vigano.
The Holy See was burying sex scandals, bribery, home invasions, and overpriced home improvements and helicopter rides, and so much more. Did you know that canonizing a saint costs about half a million euros?
Vatican Spokesman, Federico Lombardi, coined the term "Vati-Leaks." Since all this drama, a few changes have helped improve things, but much has yet to be done....
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Daoism (formerly called Taosim) is the more prominent indigenous religion of China.
Daoism incorporates philosophical writings from ancient scholars, and mystic divination based on a variety of fascinating methods. The Dao-de-jing (or Tao Te Ching) is one of the most famous classics, along with the Yi Jing (I Ching).
In this episode we explore the mysterious figure of Laozi (Lao Tsu), and the complexities of the Wuxing.
The systems of hexagrams, trigrams, and binary code are significant today to everyone living their best digital life, and the systems of heavenly stems and earthly branches affect the lives of all those who learn to understand them.
Understanding the Dao and Qi are sure ways to improve your life.
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Shoko Asahara (born Chizuo Matsumoto) led a modest cultus that grew rapidly beyond the borders of its native Japan.
A blind acupuncturist, Asahara was convicted of selling pharmaceuticals illegally before he decided to sell people faith instead. Asahara studied many religious traditions before concocting one of his own that would appeal to the people around him, AUM Shinrikyo, and he got people to believe it so strongly that they would kill for him.
Among other things, Asahara taught that the end of the world was within reach, and only those who followed him would survive the devastation of the coming nuclear apocalypse. When the Third World War didn't start on schedule, Asahara encouraged his followers to do what they could to start the process. Sarin gas attacks and public violence became the modus operandi, and dozens of people were killed.
AUM Shinrikyo has since changed their name to Aleph, but they remain under vigilant government surveillance. Hikari no Wa has split away from Aleph, and they, too, are suspicious.
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Literature is full of doomsday cults, but the real world is much more chilling.
This week we explore the Great Green Arkleseizure, the Cthulhu mythos, and the many gods described in the works of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Douglas Adams' approach to popular culture brought us a fantastic new version of pious deism.
H. P. Lovecraft brought us a horrifying collection of chaotic gods that might not be as incompatible with your theology as you might hope.
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman offer us the model that all the gods are just as real as we collectively think they are, and a vast collection of books explaining how that can be.
Our real-world history brings us a great collection of apocalyptic groups, too. the famed English Sir Isaac Newton had worked out dates for Jesus' eventual return, as did Americans William Miller and Harold Camping.
All this and more....
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Hoodoo is a terribly syncretic religion, developed as a sibling to Voodoo (and there are other siblings in this family, too).
Magickcrafts have been traded for as long as people have been trading spices and weapons, and Hoodoo Conjurers have collected a fantastic variety of tools from their neighbors. There's a lot to learn when you're genuinely interested in improving your craft.
Herbalism, including mojo bags (fetishes) and other talismans, are important to this tradition, and practitioners are often called "root workers."
Ancestor worship is a little more obvious in this tradition than in many others, but it's also terribly familiar to what you might already see in many forms of popular Christianity.
We also look at similarities with Santeria and Candomblé.
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Keith Raniere is the object of worship in the NXIVM cult, a god in the plainest sense of the word. The founder of a few MLMs, this guy knew how to make a fortune from people who turned out to be easy to manipulate.
From collecting voluntary celebrities and multi-millionaires to veritable human trafficking, NXIVM started out looking like a simple self-help group with a complicated oath and patent, but things got dark when you got too deep.
Faith-healing, hypnosis, and unsafe medical research should have been early clues, but hundreds of people are still committed to Raniere today.
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New Age religion is a lot more than a scheme to sell books and crystals, it's a belief that a new age of enlightenment is dawning--or did so centuries ago--or is centuries away. It might be something to fear, or something to celebrate.
Astrology is all trash, and we're happy to point out the best reasons why. But, it can also be wholesome entertainment.
The people who make your star charts don't care about what's actually happening in the sky, the signs haven't been adjusted to reflect the reality of our sky for thousands of years, and the even the best minds vary wildly on the meanings of things.
Most astrologers won't even admit that the constellation Ophiuchus is now a more relevant part of the sun's path than Scorpio.
Despite the Christian mainstream opinion that occultism and witchcraft are incompatible with their faith (a claim that is unreasonable, to say the least) a massive chunk of American Christians are into New Age ideas that come from these occult teachings. Even atheists buy into the New Age, approximately one in five in the United States of America.
In spite of ridiculous claims made by Paul le Cour and others, this movement has brought some interesting diversity to the global religious landscape, and influenced the world's secular culture in odd ways, too.
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Latin America has managed to preserve some of its pre-Columbian religious heritage, so we're going to explore the traditions of the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca nations.
We explore cocaine, purification rituals, human sacrifice, gods from throughout history, and Catholic syncretism.
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It's time to take another look at religion in popular culture, in particular, cults in film, and why we love telling these stories.
The Wicker Man (Either Christopher Lee's 1973 classic, or Nicolas Cage's 2006 remake) is a fantastic story about a man trying to save a girl who doesn't want to be saved from the cult of her little island town.
The Ritual (2017) takes some liberties with Norse paganism, but so do more popular franchises, telling us a great reason to be careful in the woods, and avoid unfamiliar shortcuts.
The Ninth Gate (1999) is a bold story of a book dealer who gets in deep with dangerous people, and brushes too close to hell.
Midsommar (2019) tells us how people are attracted to cults, and shows us how tricky it can be to see danger when distracted by grief.
The Village (2004) is a brilliant tale of authoritarian control, with a typical early M Night Shyamalan twist.
Rosemary's Baby (1868) and Apostle (2018) are horrors of what many Christians fear of their neighbors, and it makes good storytelling.
The Mist (2007) shows us how a cult can rapidly emerge when fear is the most powerful currency in the wake of disaster.
Marvel's Runaways (2017-19) was a fun exploration of how a powerful person comes to be the foundation of a cult.
All these stories help us to understand ourselves a little better, and explore the fear of losing control.
All this and more....
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Dr. Sean Hannan did his post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty of MacEwan University in Edmonton Alberta. His studies revolve around St. Augustine of Hippo, and the medieval mystics like Meister Eckhart von Hochheim.
Augustine of Hippo was a profoundly significant character in the development of early Christian theology. It is said that (since Augustine was African), Catholicism is African. Augustine's ideas of salvation, and the nature of time are of particular interest.
Augustine occupied himself with some of the deepest and most important theological questions, all informed from a well travelled series of religious investigations and conversions. What is the cause of evil? Can a traitorous priest perform a valid sacrament? Does God exist within time and space? Is the veneration of martyrs and saints valid practice within Christianity?
Sean also teaches us about the women of mediaval mysticism, and the (maybe derivative) work of Meister Eckhart in that field.
Since Dr. Hannan teaches classes on Humanism, we had to connect all this to his use of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, too.
All this and more....
You can WATCH this interview on YouTube.
Find the rest of the interview on Patreon.
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You can find Dr. Sean Hannan on Twitter (aka X), Humanities Commons, and Academia.
Sean is also an editor for Religious Studies and Theology, which has been running for 40+ years.
Sean's published works include:
On Time, Change, History, and Conversion (Bloomsbury)
Mysticism and Materialism in the Wake of German Idealism (Routledge)
The Camp of God: Reimagining Pilgrimage as Migrancy in Augustine’s City of God (Political Theology)---
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After ragging on people who surely don't deserve the veneration they receive from faithful Christians around the world, for their questionable morality, or even dubious historicity, it's time for us to look at a heptad of saints who are genuinely good role models--at least on the surface....
For these saints (as opposed to Teresa of Calcutta), poverty was an obstacle to be overcome, rather than a virtue to perpetuate. We preach power through education, and so did these seven reasonably good saints.
Angela Merici was a Venecian with no recorded miracles, but people insisted that she was a saint because of the work she did to support the public education of young people.
Elizabeth Seton was a big fan of public education, and used her great fortune to support young people in their pursuit to better their lives. Seton was the first American Saint.
Vincent de Paul has a wild story of slavery and alchemy, and he went on to do everything he could to raise people out of poverty, and support young people to get vocational training.
Father Damien (Jozef de Veuster) was a servant of the people in a Hawaiian leper colony, where he gave his life in service of his fellow men.
Katharine Drexel, the second American Saint, spent her fortune setting up schools for BIPOC students all over the United States of America.
Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess with some wild and dubious miracles, but she spent her short life in her own hospital where she cared for the poor and the sick.
John Bosco wrote an awful lot, but he also worked with young men to help get them reliable and profitable work.
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The Church of Rome doesn't represent all of Christianity, but it is a major portion of the global population, so it's time for us to look at their foundation, and what makes them distinct from other groups.
We explore the history of the Catholic Church, including the history of apostolic codenames, and the trouble with apostolic succession. The long history of Anti-Popes and "Lucky" Popes is fascinating.
We navigate the spreading chasm between early Christian-Judaism and the non-Christian Rabbinical tradition, coinciding with the development of new heresies with the influx of non-Jewish converts.
Councils with and without Imperial support helped to form the post-Messianic theology, and brought us, step-by-step to the Church of Rome we know today.
We also explore the tradition of imperialism, and the structure of the organization today.
All this and more....
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Gods of the underworld are not the same as gods of death, nor are the guides the same--not even the Grim Reaper.
Hades is the minder of the subterrestrial realm, just as Zeus and Poseidon are the minders of the Mountain (... and the sky) and the Sea (tough to argue for pluralizing those realms). Pluto is the same figure, adopted by the Romans AFTER he got his new stage-name.
Osiris is the keeper of the dead in Kemetic (Egyptian) lore, and one of the judges at the table.
Hel is the Norse keeper of the dead, though she was a giant, and not a typical god.
The Grim Reaper is a psychopomp: a guide for the recently deceased. The Valkyrie, and the Shinigami are old variants on this idea.
Yama was the first to meet death, and after finding heaven, has made it his mission to guide others.
Anubis, anciently a simple jackal, has morphed into the commanding protector of the dead in Egypt.
Xolotl is the Aztec guardian of the freshly entombed, symbolizing the dog to guide people into the afterlife.
Mercury is the Roman response to the Greek Hermes, and he is said to guide the dead to the docks where they should find Karon, the ferryman. The Etruscan version of Karon is perhaps a little less friendly. Vanth is a more benevolent guide to the Etruscans, though you might not guess it from her appearance.
Personifications of death--the true gods of death, if there can be any--are simply named "death" in the various tongues of the ancient world: Thanatos, Mors, Mot, etc. They may be among the most anciently feared gods in human history.
All this and more....
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Religious clothing is as varied as any other kind of fashion, but there are a few common themes that we will highlight:
Chastity is encouraged in modesty, and it's weird that covering your hair is more important that loose-fitting tops; weirder still when covering your hair with more hair has religious pressure on the cultural misstep.
Fancy hats are everywhere, in a wide variety of styles remind us to think of our gods, and tell others that we're focused on what's important to our grandparents.
Temples and priesthoods are also associated with specific clothing, including Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Catholic, and Latter-day Saint (Brighamite Mormon) traditions.
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If sin were ugly, the world would be a paradise. Sin has a lot of faces in religious traditions around the world, some more consequential than others.
Hamartiology is the study of sin, and it looks like some folk only want to define the line so they know how close they can stand. Sin is simply the misstep or error that divides people. Some people are more interested in listing sins than in uniting people. Ther principle that defines sin even exists in atheist philosophy, when appropriately defined.
Buddhist thinkers differ on the value of discussing sin, some deny the principle altogether, others recognize that harm begets harm.
In Shinto doctrine, sin (or tsumi) is the idea that bad things have lingering effects, this even includes personal ugliness in cultural manifestation. Harae is the process of cleaning up those things that get in our way.
Thinking about karma too much is bad, but doing bad things gives you more bad karma, so that's even worse.
The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is a terrible misnomer, built on the cultural obsession with round numbers. There are in fact 14 individual commandments in the decalogue, that's why different traditions give different lists. The Torah actually lists 613 commandments, but they don't have the weight of the decalogue, not being written by the finger of God.
The Seven Deadly Sins are great, but poorly understood by many, we'll give you the short version.
As the Doctor says, "Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."
The sacrifice of Christ as taught by most Christians was a lot more than a rough weekend of not being alive, it included intense suffering beyond the comprehension of most, all to empower his demand that we orgive one another, just as we need forgiveness.
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What is a church? How does a religious society really differentiate itself from any other kind of society? What does it take to become a priest of the Holy Watermelon?
Some people join self-help groups without realizing they've been trapped in a cult. We'll be up front about it: this is a church.
How can we be a church while also being secular and academic? Easy, the rules that define religion are extremely soft. Emile Durkheim and Clifford Geertz weigh in with their definitions, which are variably useless; James Martineaux is just wrong about what counts as religion when we look beyond the walls of the Abrahamic tradition; Friedrich Schleiermacher makes some sense of the matter, but it's hard to agree with him, too, even to the point that we have to agree with Sigmund Freud in pointing out the obvious flaws in his reasoning....
Church, worship, piety, and reverence each get a little bit of attention in this pursuit of useful definitions, too.
Ultimately, the San Lanatus Fellowship stands for humanity, education, and critical curiosity, welcoming people of all spiritual inclinations under the banner of undefined agnosticism.
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