Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice

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Feb 16, 2026

A health scare sparks reflections on mortality and renewed spiritual priorities. They debate the implications of the recently released Epstein files for the magical community and critique transactional awakening cultures. Visions, mystical encounters, and the nature of paranormal phenomena are explored alongside ethics, compromise, and methods for confronting weird experiences directly.

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ANECDOTE

Vision Of The Beauteous Self

Duncan describes a mystical vision where he saw an idealised, divine version of himself and felt carried by a guiding force.
The experience reframed ‘falling away’ as joyous movement toward a purposeful destination.

INSIGHT

Being Sustained By Divine Love

Alan explains mystical being as unconditional 'being' sustained by the thought of God, which is itself love.
He emphasises love as an intrinsic, self-attracting force rather than merely sustained attention.

INSIGHT

Body As Illusion, Consciousness Primary

Alan reports realizing his body and sense-experience were not 'in' his consciousness but appeared as an illusion.
This revealed consciousness as prior and distinct from sensory phenomena.

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A health scare provokes some reflections on mortality before the conversation turns to developments in personal practice. Then we warm to our main theme: the relevance of the recently released Epstein files to the spiritual and magical community. Finally, we turn our attention to the paranormal, exploring an alternative understanding of its nature.

Jeffery A. Martin and the Finder’s Course: https://tinyurl.com/msm258v7 (finderscourse.com). Accessed February 2026.

Two emails from Jeffery Martin to Jeffrey Epstein: https://tinyurl.com/5xsz54jv, https://tinyurl.com/47zt385m (justice.gov). Accessed February 2026.

Oxford University (2014). Ancient Carthaginians really did sacrifice their children, https://tinyurl.com/4rdmky3h (ox.ac.uk). Accessed February 2026.

Robin Ngo (2025). At Carthage, Child Sacrifice? Tell-tale remains from Carthage Tophet point to child sacrifice, https://tinyurl.com/49pm5sf4 (biblicalarchaeology.org). Accessed February 2026.

Judaism as a tradition that specifically outlawed child sacrifice. See: Leviticus 18: 21 and 20: 2-5; Deuteronomy 12: 31 and 18: 10; and Micah 6: 7-8: “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Pidyon Ha'Ben is a Jewish ceremony in which a firstborn son, at thirty-one days old, is "redeemed" from a kohen (a hereditary priest). The parents give the kohen five silver coins, symbolically "buying back" the child.

For Dick’s dream, see: Philip K. Dick, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, edited by P. Jackson & J. Lethem (London: Gollancz, 2012), p. 262.

Johannes Trimethius (c. 1500). Steganographia, https://tinyurl.com/yc3vabav (trithemius.com). Accessed February 2026.

For Aquinas on angels as their own species, see: Summa Theologiae (First Part, Question 50, Article 4), https://tinyurl.com/3tedwzkp (newadvent.org). Accessed February 2026.

For Steiner on the individual human as a species, see: Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man (Memphis, TN: General, 1910), p. 26.

For Steiner as a reincarnation of Aquinas, see: T.H. Meyer, Rudolf Steiner’s Core Mission: The Birth and Development of Spiritual-Scientific Karma Research (Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge, 2010).

Music: (Intro) "For Her Demon Lover" by OEITH; "Ippos Kardia" by Shedding Feathers; "Artiantatica" by Shedding Feathers; (Outro) "Hold Me While I Dissipate" by OEITH.

Curl up with Duncan's novel, The Going Down, published by Sul Books, or peek beneath the veil through Occult Experiments in the Home: The Podcast Transcripts, published by Heptarchia. Available from the usual places.

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