In a video last weekend, I talked about the rub that exists between philosophy, which seeks truth through reason, and mysticism, which seeks irrational ecstatic communion with the divine. As it turns out, I have more that I want to say on the matter. Specifically, I want to talk about the survival of the soul […]
Read more "Philosophy and Mysticism: Malkuth, Yesod, and the Underworld"I’m a philosopher, a mystic, and a magician–but those things don’t fit together as neatly as you might expect. In this video, I talk through a fundamental incompatibility between philosophy’s demands for rigorous reasoning and mysticism’s need to suspend reason in favor of direct ecstatic experience of the divine. And just to top it all […]
Read more "Video: Philosophy, Mysticism, and Magic"Three years ago, I was writing the manuscript that became my first book, QABALAH FOR WICCANS. But a lot can change in three years! While I’m still tremendously proud of this book, there are a number of ways that my perspectives and interests have shifted since I wrote it. In this video, I talk through […]
Read more "Video: Revisiting Qabalah for Wiccans"We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. For those who are just joining us, I’m in the midst of a year-long intensive with the Tarot de Marseille, trying to set aside all my previous assumptions about Tarot and get to know this deck entirely on its own terms. This is a project that I’ve […]
Read more "A Year of Tarot de Marseille: Why Do This?"New on YouTube. When people talk about “magic,” they mean a lot of different things. In this video, I talk through what I see as a fundamental cleavage in magical practices: Between models of magic that rely on intercessory spirits and those that rely on sympathetic or symbolic connections.
Read more "Video: Spirit-Based and Sympathetic Magic"Yesterday, the Supreme Court released its decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the nearly 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade and dispelling federal protections for abortion under a Constitutional right to privacy. We knew this was coming, but having been forewarned doesn’t make it better. The Dobbs decision is a […]
Read more "Three Steps to Effective Political Magic"This week, I had the privilege of joining Tess Whitehurst and Natasha Levinger on the Magic Monday podcast, to talk about Hermetic Qabalah, the Tree of Life, and how to make an often impenetrable subject accessible and relevant for magical practitioners outside of the Golden Dawn paradigm. (And, of course, to promote my book, which […]
Read more "My Appearance on the Magic Monday Podcast"In all the conversations people have about Wicca, it seems they’re often not working from a shared definition of what Wicca actually is–and that can be a source of confusion and problems. In this video, I talk through what I consider to be the six basic defining features of Wicca: -It’s a form of witchcraft […]
Read more "Video: What is Wicca?"I like to believe I’m a smart person. I think critically. I have a master’s degree in philosophy and I’m working on my Ph.D, and contrary to popular belief, academic philosophy is not, in fact, a free-for-all of sloppy thinking and vague bullshit. My discipline is overwhelmingly, exhaustingly oriented toward rigorously defined concepts and motivated […]
Read more "Ten Doubts About Magic"It’s longstanding wisdom in Western occultism that there are multiple planes of existence above the material. Thanks in large part to the influence of Mme Blavatsky and the Theosophical society, the number of planes that gets discussed most often is seven: One physical plane, and then “upper” and “lower” planes corresponding to the astral, mental, […]
Read more "The Astral is Enough"
Jack Chanek 