Dear reader, I have been keeping a secret. Last autumn, I began recording a podcast about art, esoterica, folklore, and magic to meet the modern moment. I interviewed some of your favorite authors about the metaphysical themes in their work, wrote and recorded so many scripts, and relaunched the long-dormant tarot reading arm of my public work.
What can I say? I’m a Scorpio stellium: I like to work in private darkness, emboldened by the thrill of not telling anyone what I’m doing until I’m ready for the curtain to rise.
Now, the first podcast episode is live. It’s a field guide to surviving - and romanticizing - your Saturn return, a storytime about how my return kicked my ass in service of my highest good, and a cheat code for using tarot and your own natal chart to navigate this astrological shake-up. 1996-1999 babies, Saturn enters Aires on February 13th: it’s almost your turn!
This may feel like a departure from my work as an author, but I don’t see it that way, and don’t worry — they’re gonna have to drag me out of publishing by my ankles to get me to stop writing. While fiction has been my primary creative outlet for exploring the metaphysical for a while, all things spiritual have been my fascination since childhood.
I have a Master’s degree in theological studies from Princeton Theological Seminary, where I worked as the unofficial campus tarot reader and studied ritual magic out of my dorm room while simultaneously training to be an Episcopal priest. To this day, you can find me under a weighted blanket on a Friday night reading a dense astrological textbook or catalogue of comparative mythology for fun.
Rhys McGown, I feel your spirit.
I hope you’ll come along for the ride, especially since I’ve got interviews with stunning authors lined up. Hannah Whitten came on the pod to talk writing religious trauma narratives, learning to love horror, and rebuilding a sense of self after leaving conservative Christianity. Other bookish community faves will be making guest appearances soon!
To get episodes in your inbox, consider subscribing at the free tier! Longform essays and Metaphysical Girl After Dark episodes, where we get darker, deeper, and more intimate with the subject matter, are included at the paid tier, but today is a general national strike in the United States in protest against ICE.
While your paid subscriptions make this one-women show run by a working artist possible, I urge my American listeners to hold off running your card until the strike is over! Just kick your feet up and enjoy the episode, and if you’d like to hop onto the paid tier another time, I would be very grateful indeed.
In a time in which many religious leaders have bent the knee to fascism, and in which occult and folklore studies spaces are swatting away neo-trads with brooms, let me be perfectly clear: white nationalism, homophobia and transphobia, and xenophobia are not welcome here. This project and the person behind it are staunchly pro worker’s rights, pro accessible education for all, pro reproductive justice and sexual sovereignty, and pro ecological repair. My theology is firmly rooted in expansiveness, collective liberation, and anti-colonialism. I believe that God is bigger than what’s written in any book, that bodies and sexuality and queerness are good, and that magic is a tool for not only personal growth and agency, but community care and protection.
It’s a bitch of time for a lot of people right now, especially our most vulnerable neighbors, but I refuse to cede the realm of spirituality to arch-conservative forces. I’m too aware of the ways religion for and by the people, and diy magic, and faithful acts of charity have changed the world for the better over and over again.
And if you’re able, join me in donating to funds listed on Stand With Minnesota’s database to provide rent relief, mutual and legal aid, food, supplies, and diapers to families affected by increasingly violent ICE activity in Minnesota. It’s a bitterly cold winter and it isn’t safe for many Americans to go to work or school right now. Any small way you can help goes further than you think. Brutality only wins when we let it.
That’s all I have for you this week dear reader, and I mean that in the most emptying-the-chalice-of-my-heart-into-your-open-hands way. Thank you for stepping into the metaphysical world with me, and for seeing me more fully in the process.
Be safe and well until we two meet again 💋
