The Influences & Influence of Robert Anton Wilson with Richard Metzger

It has been quite some time since What Magic is This? has had the chance to talk about one of the most important figures of High Strangeness in the last 100 years. Robert Anton Wilson was a phenomenon unlike any other, but he had a very particular mixture of influences all of which came through […]

Magician’s Workbooks with Alexander Cummins

Most Grimoires which are housed in the many museums and collections around the world are somewhat well copied documents that seems to have been done by professionals. Yet every once in a while what shows up like a bad penny in these collections are very obviously personal Grimoires that you can tell have been worked […]

Blue Grimoires with Aaman Lamba

For over 200 years, France was inundated with small cheaply produced books, bound with blue covers, filled with some of the most amazing things. These were the Bibliothèque bleue. Lots of these books would be about food, or fairy-tales, or astrology. Yet the most notorious of the Bibliothèque bleue, were the books on Magic, charms […]

The Book of Saint Cyprian with José Leitão

After King Solomon, the legend of Cyprian of Antioch looms quite large in the Western Magical Tradition. A spirit conjurer and occasional summoner of the devil, Cyprian later converted to Christianity and became a Bishop before being martyred. This legend had quite some traction, as many grimoires evoked the name of Cyprian within their pages […]

A Rather Bookish Announcement!

Have a listen and be sure to check out my What Magic is This? Bookshop, please! Hopefully all of the show note book recommendations will be in place and updated by October 2024, but if you have any requests for books that you’d like to purchase that I have recommended through my show notes and […]