Tag Archives: Mitch Horowitz

Duncan Trussell in conversation with Lisa Romero AND Mitch Horowitz in conversation with Dean Spade! It’s the final installment of AEWCH 200

12 Oct

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Friends
Part three of the massive, mighty AEWCH 200 is upon us… and it’s a big episode! AEWCH 200 is three episodes over three weeks, featuring six conversations, each conversation has two previous guests of AEWCH in conversation with me on a theme. Here’s Part One in case you missed it, and here’s Part Two!

These are people I’ve loved talking to (most of them have been on the show more than once) in conversation with someone they might never talk to without AEWCH bringing them together. The idea is a sort of conversational alchemy. What happens when people in different disciplines speak? What sort of new substances arise?

For instance:

What happens when a paranormal expert talks with a mortician?
What happens when an expert on transhumanism and culture talks with a psychoanalytic theologian? What happens when a horror writer talks with a journalist of every day horrors?

This time it’s Part Three: Spirit & Hope Mystic comedian podcaster Duncan Trussell talks with occult teacher Lisa Romero + new age scholar Mitch Horowitz talks with mutual aid anarchist organizer Dean Spade!

SHOW NOTES GUEST WEBSITES & SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Mitch Horowitz – Mitch’s website • Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation

Lisa Romero – Lisa’s website, The Inner Work Path • A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances

Dean Spade – Dean’s website • Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (and the Next)

Duncan Trussell – Duncan’s podcast, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour • my latest appearance on Duncan’s show

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Being up to 200 episodes means AEWCH is in a tiny tiny percentage of podcasts that have lasted this long – something like 2%. I can ONLY keep doing this show if people support it on patreon.

I know post-pandemic times and economic roller coasters are affecting everyone in different ways. That said, the art and culture you love are great places to center support and love.

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes!

Thank you so much for everything, and enjoy all this big talk.
Love, CH

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How to live in 2022 using the 7 Hermetic Principles – Me + Mitch Horowitz on AEWCH 175

4 Jan

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you. SUPPORT THIS PODCAST via Patreon

Friends,

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 2022, which is also the first episode of a series of episodes on How To Live in 2022. To kick off the year, and the series I’ve invited Mitch Horowitz back on the show to talk about how to live using the 7 Hermetic Principles found in the occult book The Kybalion. Mitch is a paranormal and occult scholar, and a great writer. He’s been on the show before, most recently at the top of 2021 on AEWCH 137 when we talked about why self help matters in the middle of a global crisis.

So: what is the Kybalion? What are the 7 Heremetic Principes? And how do the Principles help us live?

Of course, this is Against Everyone With Conner Habib, so we also get deeply philosophical (so, uh, apologies for my rant on Dune, homeopathy, and water) as we talk about the principles. Listen, take them in, and comment below. And also, check out the new show notes format below!

SHOW NOTES

TWO FAVORITE MOMENTS
• From Mitch (re: the Heremetic Principle of Vibration): “If you say the word ‘please’ it can be a cordial request or sarcasm, it all depends on the tone… When we read something on digital media, we are hearing it… This is killing us, this sarcasm… We’re writing it so it keeps us at a kind of remove, but the consequences are felt, they are absolutely felt. We are killing ourselves as a human species with the continuous use of attack speech…”

• From me: “A paradox is a polarity that sees itself.”

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
Well, it’s pretty obvious: You should read the The Kybalion. It’s a great and quick, but profound read.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
It’s an older episode that’s not available on most podcast platforms but you can still listen here AEWCH 34 (or it’s still on Stitcher). It’s a solo episode called ARE BODIES OUR SELVES or HOW SEX CONFRONTS MATERIALISM.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER?
I love that Mitch brought up the profound impact the works of the Russian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff has had on his life. This site has a great review of Gurdjieff’s teachings, as well as their practical application.

MORE ON MITCH
Support Mitch’s Patreon here. I’m a patron of his patreon so I can say from experience, you get so much from pledging there – lots of writing, musings, and more. For more on Mitch, listen to our episode at the top of 2021, and his discussion with Duncan Trussell. His film with director Ronni Thomas, The Kybalion is out out January 11, and The Kybalion Study Guide by Mitch, which is the film’s companion book is available now.

Until next time, friends!
CH

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Why self help matters in 2021. I talk with self help scholar and teacher Mitch Horowitz on AEWCH 137!

12 Jan

LISTEN HERE OR ON iTunes • Spotify • Overcast • Souncloud 

This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon!  Thank you so, so much.

Want to buy the books mentioned on this ep? For Mitch’s books, and other books mentioned on or related to this episode, please go to my booklist for AEWCH 137 on bookshop.org. It will  help support independent bookstores, and the show gets a small financial kickback, too.

Friends,

As 2021 begins, we’re faced with a simple question which you might not have thought of, and it’s a simple question…what do you want? What do you want the world to look like?

While everyone else is stuck in the crazed call out of news items and resistance to what they’re afraid of, what do we actually want to aim for?

My friend Gordon White has observed that “optimism is a spell,” and I agree. 

And?

I think we need to extend that further — envisioning the world as you want draws optimism into the personal world. It gives you the impetus and even the tools and substances to build with. In that vein, it’s also important to think about how you want your year to go.

It’s an impertinent question, almost, isn’t it? With some pagan-horned douchebag on the Capitol steps and the lockdowns and the conflicts, you might think: How dare you want to improve your life this year!

But how can you be effective if you don’t center your vision and center your desires? And how will you even know what you’re against and what you’re not against if you don’t put your desires first?

To flesh out all of this, I asked my friend Mitch Horowitz, new age/occult/self help scholar & writer, back onto the show. I talked to Mitch waaay back on AEWCH 30, and I was so nervous: he was one of the first guests I had on who I didn’t already know well. We had a great time, even if the episode is mostly just me talking. This conversation goes much deeper – and it’s because both Mitch and I have become more and more involved in the ideas we’re passionate about and the experiences we’ve had since then, and it’s really great.

We end up discussing why self help matters now more than ever; what Mitch’s cosmology is; and (at length) leftist attacks on new age, spirituality, and occultism: bad faith arguments that ultimately reveal a leftist desire to lose the battle.

So proud to share this, the first AEWCH guest episode of 2021, with you to set the tone for the year.

ON THIS EPISODE

  • The need to be right as original sin.
  • “We say we want to be listened to, but actually we want to be obeyed.”
  • How can focus on improving our personal lives in such a crazy polarized time?
  • Developing new habits right the fuck now.
  • The spiritual value of cleaning.
  • Why pleasure and happiness matters in discovering your spiritual and social quest.
  • Is it okay to have personal desires in the face of spiritual necessity?
  • “Lord, make me chaste—but not yet.” – Augustine
  • Was the Buddha wrong?
  • Get away from cruel people. And don’t be one!
  • Deleting facebook (WHY HAVE YOU NOT DONE THIS).
  • That time Steve Bannon called Mitch.
  • Leftist hit jobs on occultism.
  • Asking yourself: I/We/Cosmos.
  • What’s Mitch’s cosmology, anyway?

SHOW NOTES

• For more on Mitch, support his patreon. He gets posts so much stuff for his patrons, including his 10 Day Miracle Challenge. And visit the bookshop.org list; he’s edited and introduced countless books, but I’ve included the ones that he’s authored and the ones in which his voice is most prominent. 

• I was so excited to talk with anti-work feminist Kathi Weeks on AEWCH 123. What an honor!

• Such a shame that Franz Bardon’s major works aren’t as readily available as they used to be. That said, you can learn about this important, lesser-known occultist here.

• The New Life Foundation is dedicated to the work of Vernon Howard, and there’s plenty on their site about him.

• Byron Katie’s system, The Work, has been instrumental in making me a better person.

• “There can be no doubt that the follower of anthroposophy is by definition an opponent of National Socialism, or at the very least, must remain an outsider to National Socialism.” – Heinrich Himmler

• Here’s a little article on Annie Besant and Gandhi.

• And here’ s Hitler: The Occult Messiah, by Gerald Suster. Suster’s book has some mistakes, but he at least takes the occult seriously as something other than just religious mind-control and stupidity. That said, it’s a very difficult book to get! 

• ON THE OTHER HAND, here’s Shane Burley’s detailing of the opposite of all this…what happens when a rightwing movement hijacks new age/self help tropes.

• Camphill communities are some of the most beautiful and loving organizations for people with disabilities and the elderly. If you don’t know much about them, check them out.

Until next time, friends: Do what you want!
CH

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