Weird Studies

Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a liminal figure sans pareil, a shapeshifter who defied the binary categories through which we order the human world. His art and persona together enacted a transformation that can only be called shamanic. About Our Guest: Shannon Taggart is a photographer and author based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been recognized by Magnum, Nikon, and the Alexia Foundation. Her monograph Séance was first published by Fulgur Press (2019) and reissued in a second edition by Atelier Éditions. Shannon is currently developing an illustrated history of SORRAT (the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) and hosts an annual symposium on the weird and the paranormal in Lily Dale, New York. Image by Daniele Dalledonne, via Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Jackson_(20589951783)_(cropped).jpg]. References George Hanson, The Trickster and the Paranormal [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781401000820%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781464213717%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Rogan Taylor, The Death and Resurrection Show [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781917516211%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Pier Paolo Pasolini (dir.), Teorema [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063678/%E2%81%A0]   Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show”  Michael Jackson, Moonwalker: A Memoir [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780307716989%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780147508652%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780547722023%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Miguel Connor, The Occult Elvis [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9798888501351%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Tim Powers, Last Call [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780062233271%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 186 on The Wedge [https://www.weirdstudies.com/186%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Raymond Moody, Elvis After Life [https://www.amazon.com/Elvis-After-Life-Experiences-Surrounding/dp/B010EX3E6E%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Sub Rosa, Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2 [https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/spectra-ex-machina-a-sound-anthology-of-occult-phenomena-1920-2017-vol-2%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the High Priestess, also known as la Papesse, the female pope. One of the most enigmatic and powerful cards in the deck, the High Priestess symbolizes duality, contemplation, and manifestation. * Support Weird Studies on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠ [https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies]. * Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠⁠1⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1] and ⁠⁠2⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2], on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com] page. * Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠⁠ [https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies] * Find us on ⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠ [https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp] * Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠⁠ [https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s]. * Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠⁠Cosmophonia⁠⁠ [https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/]. REFERENCES Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Plancia Magna [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plancia_Magna%E2%81%A0%C2%A0], Roman priestess Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780877282686%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Leigh McCloskey, The Tarot Revisioned [https://www.leighmccloskey.com/TarotRev.html%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780486434155%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Moina Mathers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moina_Mathers%E2%81%A0%C2%A0], French occultist Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636594%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636655%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780738752280%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

In a rare surfacing in the contemporary world, JF and Phil discuss a film that has just been released. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap is psychological horror in the tradition of Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart. But it is more: a metaphysical film exploring the mystery of sound and the Otherworld of Faerie—an excursion into that weird country, so deftly explored by Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, where wonder and terror perform their eldritch duets. Sign up for JF's new Henri Bergson course [http://www.weirdosphere.org], starting September 18, 2025. Support Weird Studies on ⁠Patreon⁠ [https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies]. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠1⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1] and ⁠2⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2], on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠Bandcamp⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com] page. Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠ [https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies] Find us on ⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠ [https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp] Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠ [https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s]. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠Cosmophonia⁠ [https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/]. REFERENCES Bryn Chainey, Rabbit Trap [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29567402/%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 190 on “The Willows” [https://www.spectrevision.com/podcasts/weird-studies%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Alan Crosland (dir.), The Jazz Singer [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018037/%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 150 on “A Fragment of Life” [https://www.spectrevision.com/podcasts/weird-studies%C2%A0] Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780486417677%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Vladimir Jankelevitch, Music and the Ineffable [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780691090474%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781611809961%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Herman Hesse, Siddhartha [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780553208849%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] J. R. R. Tolkein, The Silmarillion [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780345325815%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Giles Deleuze, Cinema II   [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780816616770] Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780486466118%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 120 on Radical Mystery [https://www.weirdstudies.com/120%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] (story of the anti-sound starts at 52 minute mark)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

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We're breaking up our late-summer pause with an audio extra originally recorded for our Patreon supporters. This episode also includes an essay JF wrote on the philosophy of Henri Bergson. A whole course on Bergson's philosophy begins on Weirdosphere [http://www.weirdosphere.org] later this month. Weird Studies will be back with a brand-new episode on September 17th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]