All things othered, hidden, queer, and obscured. Join me in conversation with voices from the occultural sphere. All around us, currents of culture are birthed and stirred by the unseen. In the shadows cast by towers of capitalism, there's a darkness to dance in. Magic is made here- it has always been made here. The true culture-makers live in futures of their own design, obscured in the dissonance of being a phase ahead of the current pop relevance. In this darkness, lies a great opportunity for experimentation, invention, and true revolution.
What beautiful things will we find in the dark?
Occulted S2 Ep. 1 - Karin Valis on AI, World-making, and Playing with Ghosts in the Machine
My name is Jove Spucchi, and I’m thrilled to open this new season of Occulted with Karin Valis—machine-learning engineer, writer, and founder of the esoteric-technology blog Mercurial Minutes (https://mercurialminutes.substack.com).
Join us as we explore the porous boundary between code and consciousness:
how algorithms become mirrors for human desire, how prompting resembles spell-casting, and how every act of computation might be a form of world-making.
Karin and I trace the return of magical thinking in an age of probabilistic reason—where “ghosts in the machine” may be less metaphor than emergent presence.
Karin Valis is a Berlin-based engineer and author whose work bridges occult studies and artificial intelligence. Through Mercurial Minutes (https://mercurialminutes.substack.com), she translates the mathematics of neural networks into the language of spirit, myth, and demonology—an exploration of what it means to think with the machine.
Learn more at mercurialminutes.github.io (https://mercurialminutes.github.io).
✨ Bonus Content:
For Occulted’s first-ever video episode, paid subscribers can watch an exclusive demo of AIO—an experimental AI project exploring the influence of consciousness on image generation.
In this recording, we quite literally encounter ghosts in the machine: unexpected forms emerging on-screen, a presence that crashes Karin’s computer mid-session.
We also look at Jove’s early AI experiments, where an uncanny apparition—a ghost of their own face—haunts an AI-generated video stream.
Watch it now at spucchi.com/occulted (https://www.spucchi.com/bonus).
This podcast is entirely supported by our listeners.
If you’d like to help sustain Occulted and access future episodes, visit spucchi.com (https://www.spucchi.com) and click subscribe.
1 Aug 2024
Occulted Ep. 5 - JD Kelley on the Path to AstroMagia, Talisman-Making, & Sky-Bothering
Join us as we explore JD's path to "finding the others" and creating AstroMagia-- the first conference dedicated to the flourishing of Astral Magic. We'll also hear some updates and exciting announcements for the future of the conference.
We go on to discuss the power and transmission of astral magic in its myriad forms: the textual, the experiential, and even some seemingly unlikely places not oft considered by extant traditions.
JD shares his approach to talisman-making, and the personal stories of his work with Spica that brought him into this practice and relationship with the sky.
JD KELLEY is an astrologer, anthropologist, and artist known for his astral talisman creation and as founder of AstroMagia -- the first conference dedicated to astral magic. Now in its fourth iteration, it continues to be the nexus for new research and exploration of the tradition of astrological magic.
Links:
https://www.cunningasfolk.com/ (https://www.cunningasfolk.com/)
https://www.instagram.com/cunningasfolk ( https://www.instagram.com/cunningasfolk)
https://astromagia.org/ (https://astromagia.org/)
22 Feb 2024
Occulted Ep. 4 - Carl Abrahamsson on Occulturation: The Power of Individuation & Desire in the Creative Process
My name is Jove Spucchi and I could not be more honored and thrilled to share this conversation with author, artist, and magical anthropologist Carl Abrahamsson.
Join us-- while Carl shares with us his wisdom on the creative process and the immense power that can be harnessed through individuation and alignment with one's own desire. We'll also get a sneak peek at Carl's new book "Meetings with Remarkable Magicians" which is coming out on Inner Traditions later this year.
CARL ABRAHAMSSON - is a Swedish author who has written extensively about Magic and Occulture. A prolific creator and ardent archivist, Abrahamsson is never far from the forefront of cult ure-making. Chronicling artistic and magical greats like Anton LaVey, Kenneth Anger, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Abrahamsson's extensive collection of interviews, writings, photographs, music, film, and print media generously share of the personal relationships he had with these figures and the people around them.
More info on Carl: http://www.carlabrahamsson.com/ (http://www.carlabrahamsson.com/)
Carl's Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl (http://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl)
Pre-order Carl's New Book: Meetings with Remarkable Magicians (https://www.innertraditions.com/meetings-with-remarkable-magicians)
Thank you for listening and supporting Occulted-- especially to our paid subscribers.
If you'd like to stay updated with the latest from Jove and Occulted, or support the podcast with a subscription, you can sign up at: https://www.spucchi.com/signup/ (https://www.spucchi.com/signup/)
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23 Jul 2023
Occulted Ep. 3 - Christopher Marmolejo on the Magic of Teaching and Tarot as a Radical Self-Knowledge Practice
My name is Jove Spucchi and I'm so excited to share this lovely conversation with writer, educator and diviner Christopher Marmolejo.
Join us in our exploration of the mysteries of the art of teaching-- we discuss the martial power of literacy and Christopher's journey from the academy to the diviner's table.
Note: I apologize for the poor audio quality-- I had an issue with my primary recording interface and had to rely on backup recordings.
Christopher Marmolejo, M.A., is a brown, queer and trans writer, diviner and educator. They use divination to promote a literacy of liberation. They were born and raised in San Bernardino among the pines, in community with the Yuhaaviatam clan of the Maara’yam (Serrano). With 9+ years of experience as trained educator focused on cultivating classrooms of emancipatory possibility they work with students round the world to plant and nurture the seed of a divinatory practice, finely weaving tarot, astrology, curanderismo with critical, decolonial black queer feminist epistemology. They are available for readings and enrolling students in ongoing divination classes at www.theredread.com (http://www.theredread.com/) Follow them on Substack, substack.com/@theredread (http://substack.com/@theredread) for more writing.
Christopher's Links:
www.instagram.com/the.red.read/ (https://www.instagram.com/the.red.read/)
www.theredread.com (http://www.theredread.com/)
substack.com/@theredread (http://substack.com/@theredread)
This podcast is completely supported by our community. Please consider signing up for a membership to support the creation of new content.
Visit us on the web at spucchi.com (https://spucchi.com/) and click "subscribe" in the bottom right-hand corner.
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17 Apr 2023
Occulted Ep. 2 - Indira Allegra on Re-enchanting the Digital through Weaving Right Relationships, Animism, and Musings on Pluto in Aquarius
My name is Jove Spucchi and I'm so excited to share this lovely conversation with Artist and practitioner Indira Allegra.
Join us as we dive into the magic of weaving with inspirited objects, and discuss the importance of re-enchanting the digital in this new era of Pluto in Aquarius.
INDIRA ALLEGRA is a social psychopomp accompanying people, places, and non-human beings through cycles of death, memorial, and regeneration. They are the founder of Indira Allegra Studio—a performative craft design studio using weaving as a ritual, conceptual framework to craft living structures off the loom and in the world. A living structure can be performed as a memorial, a text, or the movement of human and nonhuman behavior across a rolling planet. Rather than focus on “human-centered” design, the Studio situates human concerns within a broader network of more-than-human desires and ecological temporalities.
Allegra’s work has been featured in Artforum, Art Journal, The Art Newspaper, BOMB Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and KQED, and in exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design; the Arts Incubator in Chicago; the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; and the Museum of the African Diaspora, among others. They have been the recipient of numerous awards including Creative Capital, United States Artists Fellowship, Burke Prize, Gerbode Choreography Award, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts’ Artist Project Grant and a Lambda Literary fellowship among others.
Indira's Links:
texere.space (https://texere.space) (password: weave)
grammarofgriefhandbook.com (http://grammarofgriefhandbook.com/)
dearmercury.substack.com (http://dearmercury.substack.com/)
indiraallegra.com (http://indiraallegra.com/)
@indiraallegrastudio (https://www.instagram.com/indiraallegrastudio/) (instagram)
Waitlist for books:
https://www.smingsming.com/collections/all-products/products/indira-allegra-dispersal-of-a-feeling-tension-studies (https://www.smingsming.com/collections/all-products/products/indira-allegra-dispersal-of-a-feeling-tension-studies)
This podcast is completely supported by our community. Please consider signing up for a membership to support the creation of new content.
Visit us on the web at spucchi.com (https://spucchi.com) and click "subscribe" in the bottom right-hand corner.
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25 Feb 2023
Occulted Ep. 1 - Arica Roberts on Healing through Academic Research and the Holy Sites of Medieval Wales
Welcome to the first episode of Occulted.
My name is Jove Spucchi, and I'm excited to bring you this conversation today with witch and medieval scholar Arica Roberts.
Join us as we dive into the magical potency of Academia, the holy sites of Wales and Ireland, and the healing power of ancestor work.
Arica is a postgraduate research student at the University of Reading. Her interdisciplinary research is on gender and early medieval Wales with an emphasis on material culture, inscriptions, and hagiography. This work connects magical practices and root work through , connection to land, ancestor veneration, and the preservation of culture, language, and teaching.
Her past research explores the history and archaeology of early medieval folklore, witchcraft, sex, and gender in early medieval Ireland and Wales. Arica has also written on feminist history, Latin American history, and gender as it relates to religion.
You can find out more about Arica at https://reading.academia.edu/AricaRoberts (https://reading.academia.edu/AricaRoberts)
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23 Feb 2023
Occulted Ep. 0
Welcome to Occulted
Here, we'll explore all things othered, hidden, queer, and obscured. Join me in conversation with voices from the occultural sphere. All around us, currents of culture are birthed and stirred by the unseen. In the shadows cast by towers of capitalism and industry, there's a darkness to dance in. Magic is made here-- it has always been made here. The true culture-makers live in futures of their own design, obscured in the dissonance of being a phase ahead of the current pop relevance. In this darkness, lies a great opportunity for experimentation, invention, and true revolution.
What beautiful things will we find in the dark?
- Jove Spucchi (https://www.spucchi.com/)
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/occulted/message
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