For Episode 11 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Jennifer Higgie. Jennifer is the author of several books, including Bedlam, a novel about the artist Richard Dadd; The Mirror and the Palette, a history of women’s self-portraits; and The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World, a beautiful and personal study of the relationship between spiritual experience and art in the lives of modern women. In this career-spanning chat, Jennifer and I discuss her early career in painting, what inspired her to write Bedlam, and how the art world changed during her time at Frieze magazine. Then we dive into Jennifer’s latest book, The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World. We discuss the spiritual and artistic lives of women like Georgiana Houghton (20:35), Hilma af Klint (34:06), Ithell Colquhoun (46:09), and Hildegard of Bingen (52:53). Along the way, we touch on topics like fairies, Spiritualism, gardening, Carl Jung, spiritual ecology, Theosophy, ascended masters, angels, and much else.

LINKS
Jennifer Higgie
The Other Side: Women, Art, and the Spirit World
The Mirror and the Palette: Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: 500 Years of Women's Self-Portraits
Bedlam

Others
Georgiana Houghton's Evenings at Home in Spiritual Seánce
Amy Hale's Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully
Julia Voss's Hilma af Klint: A Biography

For episode 10 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome the musician, composer, and producer Trey Spruance. We discuss (3:42)Trey’s early musical and occult explorations and how reading the philosopher Henry Corbin changed the course of his life. Trey then takes us through the esoteric dimensions of Secret Chiefs 3 (22:59) and how albums like Book M and Book of Horizons are filled with correspondences to Kabbalah, astrology, Hermetic magic, and Pythagorean musicology. Along the way, we touch on Trey’s work with John Zorn and Kronos Quartet, his conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the afterlives of Saint Cyprian the Mage.

LINKS
Web of Mimicry website
Book M
Book of Horizons
Book of Souls: Folio A
The Book Beri'ah, Vol. 10: Malkhut
Xaphan: Book of Angels, Vol. 9
Perichoresis
Link to the G.I. Gurdjieff Conference at Harvard Divinity School, Dec 4-5th

For episode nine, we welcome to the show Diana Pasulka, Professor of Religious Studies at UNC – Wilmington. Her books American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology and Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences are both classics in the field of Religion and Technology studies. We discuss how Pasulka’s early work on Catholic purgatory led her to the study of UFOs, the spiritual practices of experiencers, and the role of government (dis)information and popular culture in the rise of UFO religion. On the way, we touch on A.I., revelations, St. Teresa of Avila, sleep paralysis, and the perils and possibilities of new technologies.

LINKS
Diana Pasulka's Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture
American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences
"From Purgatory to the UFO Phenomenon: The Catholic Supernatural Goes Galactic"
Keith Cantu's Om-gnosis video podcast