Rejected Religion Podcast

* This is an audio-only version of my interview with Rufus Harrington, trustee of The Doreen Valiente Foundation. I am so excited to share this special conversation with Rufus Harrington about the legendary Doreen Valiente!As a thank you for your incredible support, this interview is being released as a free bonus episode for both my dedicated Patreon members as well as my YouTube community. Happy Yule!In this insightful conversation, I sat down with Rufus Harrington, a psychologist and long-standing practitioner of the craft, who currently serves as a trustee for the Doreen Valiente Foundation.This interview traces the life and spiritual impact of the woman widely known as the "Mother of Modern Witchcraft." We begin by exploring Rufus’s own journey into Wicca and how his professional background in psychology provides a unique lens through which he views the evolution of the pagan community.The Heart of the Conversation: Who was Doreen Valiente? We dive into a biography of this pivotal figure, moving beyond her titles to understand her as a poet, a researcher, and a spiritual revolutionary.The Gardnerian Connection: Rufus distinguishes Valiente’s contributions from those of her contemporary, Gerald Gardner, highlighting how her poetic voice and ethical framework shaped the Craft as we know it today.The Foundation’s Mission: Rufus discusses the vital work of preserving sacred artifacts, rare writings, and the personal legacy of a woman who sought to bring the magic of the old world into the modern era.Spirituality in Practice: From the "Charge of the Goddess" to her scholarly research, we discuss the enduring resonance of Valiente's work and why it remains "alive" for practitioners in the 21st century.Whether you are a long-time practitioner or simply curious about the history of modern spirituality, this interview offers a deep dive into the stewardship of a legacy. Rufus shares personal reflections on his role as a trustee and offers guidance on where seekers can find authentic resources to further their own studies.PROGRAM NOTESHome | Doreen ValienteBooks by Doreen Valiente (Author of Natural Magic)Natural Magic: Valiente, Doreen: 8601404398032: Amazon.com: BooksTHE ATLANTIS BOOKSHOP | The living history of magicHome - Museum of Witchcraft and MagicLifting the Veil: A Witches' Guide to Trance-Prophesy, Drawing Down the Moon and Ecstatic Ritual: Farrar, Janet, Bone, Gavin: 9780719831621: Amazon.com: BooksWhat Witches Do: A Modern Coven Revealed: Farrar, Stewart: 9780719831539: Amazon.com: BooksAradia or the Gospel of the Witches: The Founding Book of Modern Witchcraft, Containing History, Traditions, Dianic Goddesses and Folklore of Wicca: Leland, Charles Godfrey: 9781985818026: Amazon.com: BooksHigh Magic's Aid - Kindle edition by Gardner, Gerald . Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.Books by Vivianne Crowley (Author of Wicca)Books by Patricia Crowther (Author of Lid Off the Cauldron)John Belham-Payne Founder of the Centre For Pagan Studies – Centre For Pagan StudiesJohn Belham-Payne – Gardnerian WiccaMusic & End Production: Stephanie Shea

This is the Free Content version of my interview with author Graham St. John. To access the full interview, please consider joining Patreon as a paid member, or you can purchase the episode for a one-time fee. www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. This month’s guest is author Graham St. John, who joined me to discuss his new book, Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna.Terence McKenna remains one of the most enigmatic voices of the psychedelic counterculture—equal parts philosopher, performer, and visionary. In this episode, we explore McKenna’s mythopoetic “stoned ape” theory, his radical take on shamanism, the ‘teacher’ Mushroom that leads one to the ‘indwelling of the Goddess’, the mysteries of DMT and the “machine elves,” and his controversial Timewave Zero vision of history and hyperspace that embraced the I Ching and the Mayan calendar ‘2012 phenomenon.’Beyond psychedelics, McKenna was also fascinated with alchemy and Gnosticism, and while figures like Crowley, John Dee, and Gurdjieff were not embraced by McKenna, Graham nevertheless calls him a “psychedelic occultist”—a thinker whose visions of transformation resonate with centuries of esoteric tradition, even if McKenna probably would have resisted the label. Along the way, we unpack the tension between his cult of personality and his desire for academic legitimacy, and consider the legacy he left for today’s psychedelic and occult communities.Unfortunately, I experienced some technical difficulties with my podcasting equipment, and the sound quality is not up to the normal standard. Luckily, my brother Daniel, who does the editing for the podcasts, was able to work his engineering magic and was able to salvage the file and clean up the audio the best he could. I hope this isn’t too distracting and that you’ll enjoy this discussion!PROGRAM NOTES:Find Graham St. John:Graham St John, anthropologist, cultural historian and author. Researcher of EDM cultures, Burning Man, psychedelics, biographer of Terence McKenna. Founder of Dancecult journal. EdgecentralPublications | EdgecentralStrange AttractorTheme Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea

*Note: this is the Free Content version of my interview with Bastiaan van Rijn. To hear the entire interview, please consider joining my Patreon and becoming a member; alternately, this episode can be purchased for a one-time fee. More information at www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion.My guest this month is Dr. Bastiaan van Rijn.Bastiaan is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his PhD, he has investigated how practitioners of different movements in the nineteenth century tried to scientifically prove life after death exists. The outcome of this project is the book Afterlife Research (forthcoming), as well as several open-access articles. Beside this, he is also interested in playful approaches to religion and divination in the contemporary West. His newest project centers on spiritual tourism.This interview takes us into the fascinating world of Mesmerism—also known as animal magnetism—and its enduring influence on the boundaries between science, mysticism, and spiritual inquiry. Bastiaan gives a brief bio of Franz Anton Mesmer, who in the late 18th century proposed that an invisible fluid flowed through all living beings, capable of healing and revealing hidden truths. Though controversial and dismissed by many, Mesmer’s ideas sparked a lineage of thought that continues to shape contemporary conversations about consciousness, healing, and the legitimacy of scientific inquiry.We discuss how Mesmerism blended science and mysticism, influenced public perception, and laid the groundwork for practices ranging from hypnotism and New Thought to modern-day energetic healing. Bastiaan’s own research picks up this thread, tracing how the experimental impulse to make the invisible visible evolved into afterlife studies, somnambulism, and psychical research.From there, we dive into Bastiaan’s dissertation, which examines the emergence of a “scientific culture” in afterlife research—one grappling with empirical inaccessibility, unreliable intermediaries, and skeptical resistance. Through case studies of three spiritual animal magnetizers, Bastiaan uncovers how different strategies were used to stabilize claims and navigate the tension between belief and method.Ultimately, this conversation invites us to rethink what counts as scientific, Bastiaan invites us to consider not just what these researchers claimed to find, but how they tried to find it, as well as how experimental practices in esoteric and spiritual domains contribute to broader dialogues about religion, and the unseen dimensions of human experience.What emerges is a rich, transhistorical culture of inquiry—one that challenges our assumptions about science, religion, and the boundaries of legitimate knowledge.PROGRAM NOTESFind Bastiaan:Bastiaan Benjamin Van Rijn - University of FribourgBastiaan van Rijn | LinkedInInstagramResearchGate – all research[PhD Diss.] The Experimental Culture of Afterlife Research: Attempts by Spiritual Animal Magnetizers to Prove Life after Death | Request PDF(PDF) Chapter 9 Building a Typology for Intentional Transformative Experiences: Louis- Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Magnetic Somnambulism and HashishBastiaan van Rijn (0000-0003-4247-9198) - ORCIDOther Resources:1784: The Marquis de Puységur and the psychological turn in the west - PubMedThe seeress of Prevorst; being revelations concerning the inner-life of man, and the inter-diffusion of a world of spirits in the one we inhabit : Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian, 1786-1862 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveInvestigations of psychic/spiritual phenomena in the nineteenth century: somnambulism and spiritualism, 1811-1860A Republic of Mind and Spirit – Wonderful history of Metaphysics in the USA🕯️ MESMER 🕯️ (1994) Watch FULL MOVIE subtitled in English (ALAN RICKMAN, AMANDA OOMS) Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea

*Note: this is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Markus Davidsen. To access the full interview, please consider becoming a Patreon member, or you can purchase this episode for a one time fee. www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion.  My guest this month is Dr. Markus Davidsen.Markus Altena Davidsen is university lecturer in the sociology of religion at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His work on fiction-based religion includes his PhD dissertation “The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu” (2014, cum laude), several articles on Tolkien spirituality and Star Wars-based Jediism, and the edited book Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fiction (Routledge, 2018). His other research interests include method, theory and research history of the study of religion and religion education. Currently, he is developing a new curriculum and didactical approach for the school subject worldview and religion in Dutch secondary education. In this episode, Markus discusses the concept of fiction-based religion- a term he coined to describe spiritual movements rooted in fictional narratives like Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. He distinguishes fiction-based religions (FBRs) from traditional religions by highlighting their lack of historical truth claims and their embrace of narrative as a source of spiritual authority.Markus traces the roots of FBRs to earlier movements like Rosicrucianism, noting how mythic storytelling has long served as a vehicle for spiritual exploration. He shares insights from his research into Jediism and Tolkien-inspired spirituality, examining how these communities construct rituals, ethics, and cosmologies from fictional texts.The conversation also explores the motivations behind FBR engagement, from identity formation to aesthetic and existential meaning.Drawing on Tanya Luhrmann’s concept of interpretive drift, Markus reflects on how belief can evolve through practice, suggesting that ritual and engagement may precede conviction.Regarding Huizinga’s theory of Homo Ludens, Markus highlights the three kinds of human practices – work, play, and ritual, where play and ritual seem on the surface to be similar, but the difference is: with play, one knows they are playing ( “fiction-contract” as taken from Theatre Studies) whereas ritual might look like play, but it is based on assumptions that the entities actually exist (“actuality contract”). This lens helps frame fandom as a potential site of faith, where “belief” can emerge through ritualistic, creative engagement.Finally, the conversation turns to his current project, Nieuwe werelden openen (“Opening New Worlds”), a pedagogical initiative that uses narrative and perspective-based inquiry to help students explore existential and societal questions. He reflects on how his FBR research informs this work, bridging imaginative engagement with educational practice.PROGRAM NOTESMarkus Davidsen - Leiden UniversityMarkus Altena Davidsen publiceert boek voor docenten levensbeschouwing - Universiteit Leiden2014 The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction‐based Religion (full text)Narrative and Belief | The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fictio [Book]Markus Altena Davidsen - Universiteit Leiden [Articles]Handbook of Hyper-real Religions | Brill Photo Markus Davidsen by Arash NikkahMusic and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea

Esoteric Crossroads: Scholars Meet Practitioners is a new collaborative video series, launched in 2025, co-produced by Rejected Religion and RENSEP. Hosted by Stephanie Shea, each session brings together scholars and practitioners for thoughtful dialogue on esoteric traditions.This audio replay is an edited version of the live session that took place in September 2025. If you are interested to learn more and join the upcoming discussions, please visit www.rensep.org or my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. The Free Content video replay can also be viewed on my YouTube channel. In this episode, scholar Sarah Nimfürh and practitioner Raisel Tejeda explore the layered world of Regla de Osha—often known (and contested) as Santería—and its intersections with Judaism, Afro-Cuban spirituality, and lived ritual. Topics we explore: How Jewish exile histories in Cuba intersect with Afro-Cuban poly-religious traditions The term “Santería”: its contested use, political weight, and the preferred name “Regla de Osha” Oral transmission, secrecy, and gendered limitations in research Raisel’s training path across multiple traditions and what embodied practice looks like Orishas as energies, guides, and cosmological forces Ritual tools, altered states, and the material language of devotion How practitioners adapt sacred practice to local ecologies and diasporic settings This conversation bridges scholarship and lived experience, offering insight into a tradition that is both deeply rooted and dynamically evolving. Theme Music & Video Production: Stephanie Shea