Rune Soup

Rune Soup is a podcast channel that platforms the most important discussions at the cutting edge of magic, animism and spirit work. Gordon is chaos magician, shamanic practitioner, podcaster, author and permaculture designer with a background in data and analytics gained at some of the world's largest media companies. He is the author of four books on magic, animism and star lore: Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits, The Chaos Protocols, Pieces of Eight and Ani.Mystic: Encounters With A Living Cosmos. When not travelling, Gordon hosts his weekly show, Rune Soup, from a small permaculture farm in southern Tasmania.

Huáscar Rising 04/14/2025

Tolkien's Shire Anarchy and the Mandate of Heaven 04/08/2025

Tolkien's Shire Anarchy and the Mandate of Heaven This week, I'm welcoming fellow substacker and Tolkien nerd, Charles McBride, whose essay 'Shire Anarchy' caught my eye in the cultural curiosity that is the substack notes app. We're diving into the political imagination behind Middle-Earth – a world where having a king is perfectly fine, as long as he's quite far away or, better yet, long dead. From childhood obsessions with Tolkien to the strange bedfellows his work creates in modern fandom, Charles and I explore what it means when the villain of the story isn't a particular people, but the very desire for total control. How did this Franco-supporting Catholic writer end up crafting one of the most compelling visions of localism and self-governance in modern literature? And what might the hobbits teach us about freedom in an age of empire? "I think Shire anarchy is best described in a sentence I wrote in the piece, where I said that all the affairs of hobbits are organized under the assumption that having a king was basically a good idea, so long as he was quite far away, or better yet, long dead. And I think that that kind of cuts to the heart of what this concept of Shire anarchy is. You have a society that holds a reverence for the past. And they believe that their system of political and social organization is derived from something authoritative in their deep, distant past." Show Notes . . Timestamps 02:00 - Charles' essay "Shire Anarchy" and initial connection 04:00 - Childhood experiences with Tolkien and homeschooling background 08:30 - Gordon's similar Tolkien childhood experiences 11:00 - Discussion of Substack platform and media evolution 14:00 - Tolkien's political views and introduction to "quiet radicalism" 15:30 - Explanation of Tolkien as an "anarcho-monarchist" 18:30 - Monarchy, pragmatism, and Tolkien's support for Franco 22:30 - The Ring as metaphor for power, greed, and capital 25:00 - Lord of the Rings' resilience against political appropriation 27:30 - Peter Jackson's film adaptation achievement 29:00 - Charles' viral thread about polarized Tolkien fandom 32:00 - CS Lewis vs. Tolkien on moral clarity and writing 35:30 - Lewis as a potential universalist and perennial philosophy 38:30 - Religious conversion, cultural identity, and belonging 42:30 - Modern politics, monarchy, and fascism as shadow kingship 45:00 - Definition and explanation of "Shire anarchy" concept 50:30 - Charles' personal political journey toward anarchism 54:00 - Political polarization and contemporary discourse 57:00 - Defining philosophical anarchism and attitudes toward hierarchy 59:30 - Religion as natural human function and political movements 63:00 - Discussion of The Hobbit movies and fan edits 69:00 - Concluding thoughts and where to find Charles online /episode/index/show/runesoup/id/36050240

Bathed In A Blue Suede Light | Miguel Conner 03/30/2025

Gandalf And The Ice Wall: You Shall Not Pass? 03/27/2025

Gandalf And The Ice Wall: You Shall Not Pass? In this episode, I explore the shifting landscape of conspiracy culture and what I've been noticing about an emerging "conspiracy canon." Recording from my new apartment in Paraguay, I dive into observations from my recent event with Greg Carlwood in Florida, examining how conspiracy thinking has evolved from political analysis to metaphysical questioning. Using Charles Fort's framework of "dominants," I discuss how we're witnessing a paradigm shift toward a more meaning-centered worldview as a response to scientific materialism. Whether you consider yourself a conspiracy person or not, this episode offers insights into epistemology, metaphysics, and our relationship to meaning in the cosmos. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and setting the scene from Paraguay 02:15 - Recent event with Greg Carlwood in Florida 04:30 - The concept of a "Conspiracy Canon" 07:10 - Observing alignment among respected thinkers 09:05 - When brilliant people question fundamental assumptions 12:30 - Robert Anton Wilson on conspiracy culture shifting from left to right 15:45 - The "Alex Jones era" and libertarian influence 18:20 - The 80s-90s "Lone Gunman Era" conspiracy canon 21:40 - Today's conspiracy canon: no virus, flat Earth, aliens as demons, Tartaria 24:15 - The internet's "hold my beer" effect on conspiracy thinking 27:50 - Shift from "how things are" to "who we are in the cosmos" 31:10 - Natural drift toward meaning-seeking 34:30 - Pushback against scientific materialism 37:50 - Charles Fort and reality paradigm shifts 40:15 - Fort's "dominants" and "damned data" 43:40 - Accumulated "damned facts" challenging mainstream narratives 46:20 - The "religious dominant" as initial framework 49:30 - The "scientific dominant" and its exclusionist tendency 52:45 - Fort recognizing scientism's limitations ahead of his time 56:10 - The emergent "dominant of wider inclusions" 59:25 - Visit to Cassadega and Greg's psychic reading experience 01:02:40 - Kelly Brogan and Mark Gober's alternative cosmology 01:05:15 - Being "80% flat earther" on meaningful universe principles 01:09:30 - Flat Earth as Biblical literalism seeking meaning 01:12:45 - Critique of Tartaria theories 01:15:20 - Meme culture and uncritical sharing of conspiracy content 01:18:40 - "Realm theory" as a container for anomalous data 01:21:25 - Being "Gandalf among the hobbits" during paradigm shifts 01:24:50 - Fortean flow model for approaching change 01:27:30 - Closing thoughts on being a container for transformation /episode/index/show/runesoup/id/35894005

Amor Fatty 02/27/2025

Amor Fatty Hi from the Amazon jungle. Honestly, if I’d known that AI would do such a good job of describing this podcast, I would have left it in charge and stayed longer. Although I will say, I asked it to write it in the style of the speaker, and it made me sound way more polite than I usually am to you scrubs. Enjoy! (PS - you will find the same show in your podcatcher, as normal.) In the heart of the Amazon, under a tin roof pummeled by tropical rain, I offer you a cosmic upgrade to Nietzsche's Amor Fati. While the German philosopher tells us to love our fate unconditionally, I'm proposing something more alchemical: co-creation with disappointment. It's not about passively accepting what happens, nor gaslighting yourself into loving the unlovable. Rather, it's asking "what choices do I have in the direction of beauty given the limitations before me in this moment?" Drawing from my own messy Paraguayan adventures during a Mars direct station in Cancer (sit down Scorpio risings, this one was truly mine to bear), I explore how this principle transforms practical enchantment beyond simple success/fail metrics into continuous creation. Whether you're dealing with planetary transits or broken water towers in indigenous villages, this approach connects the Dine concept of the Beauty Way with our magical capacity to participate in the unfolding of reality. Roll your suitcase through cosmic mud with me on this one. 00:02 - Introduction and recording conditions in the Amazon 00:48 - Explaining the concept of "Amor Fati" and Nietzsche's philosophy 02:23 - Comparing Nietzsche's idea with Stoicism's similar concept 04:37 - Why Gordon believes he's "more right" than both Nietzsche and the Stoics 06:49 - Co-creation with disappointment as an upgrade to "love your fate" 09:14 - Mars direct station and Cass Tyndall's insight on struggle 11:40 - How metaphysical laws relate to physical and psychological laws 14:06 - The moment-by-moment decision of co-creation and manifestation 16:05 - Lessons from Shipibo culture and challenging gaslight responses 18:21 - Finding beauty within disappointment and discomfort 20:47 - Moving beyond success/fail metrics in practical enchantment 21:58 - Continuous co-creation as a definition of magic /episode/index/show/runesoup/id/35467345