Rune Soup

I've been revisiting Ursula K. Le Guin's brilliant essay "The Child and the Shadow". Le Guin was defending fantasy against the sterile modernism of her era—but what happens when that defence needs to evolve? We're no longer fighting a battle between "good" and "bad" fantasy. Instead, we're caught in something potentially more insidious: the tension between authentic imagination and the ersatz. From the disaster of Rings of Power to the destruction of Star Wars, from AI-generated Jung content flooding YouTube to the Soviet-style creative orthodoxy dominating our cultural institutions—we're witnessing the systematic neutering of the imaginal. But here's the thing: they can't actually touch the real. They break upon authentic creativity like waves upon rock. Through Le Guin's profound analysis of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Shadow" and Jung's psychology, I explore why confronting our shadow isn't just personal development—it's the key to understanding why authentic fantasy endures while corporate imitations crumble. Plus, I reveal how Bulgakov got there first in The Master and Margarita, showing us exactly what happens when the vital imaginal meets bureaucratic control. This isn't just about books or movies. It's about the difference between surface-level engagement and the depths where real creativity lives. Chapter Timestamps: 0:00 - Opening: The Shift from Good vs. Bad to Ersatz vs. Genuine 3:45 - Le Guin's Defence of Fantasy in the Modern Era 8:20 - The Rings of Power Problem: When Creators Think They're Fans 12:15 - AI Jung Slop and the Corruption of the Imaginal 16:30 - Bulgakov's Prophecy: The Master and Margarita's Cultural Critique 22:10 - Reading "The Child and the Shadow": Andersen's Dark Fairy Tale 28:45 - Jung's Psychology: Ego, Shadow, and the Collective Unconscious 35:20 - The Ethics of Fairy Tales: Why Gretel Can Push the Witch 42:15 - Tolkien's True Complexity: Frodo, Sam, and Gollum as Psychic Journey 48:30 - Why Fantasy is the Language of Moral Truth 52:40 - The Problem with "Realistic" Children's Literature 57:25 - Luke in the Cave: Star Wars as Genuine Imaginal Work 60:10 - Closing Thoughts and Shadow Project Tease

Last night I got halfway through a Substack post on a related issue to some of the subjects that came up on my appearance on the Disintegrator podcast [https://open.spotify.com/show/4AcGAXHIdRu1toaZYnK3kB]. When I went to link to it, it suddenly dawned on me I had only shared it on the Rune Soup Premium Members Mighty Network. (Join below.) So here it is! We recorded this soon after my arrival in Paraguay, so I think it was early February. It’s an excellent discussion, so I’m pulling an Alex Hormozi and sharing it with my own listeners. (Sub to Disintegrator [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/disintegrator/id1716416573], too.) Here is why AI thinks you should listen: In this high-energy episode I sit down with Marek and Roberto to talk about why barrels are meant for rolling and why reality is much bigger than the academic cubicles that try to contain it. We start with the ancient tale of the Watchers (the OG tech-bros from the Book of Enoch) and use it to kick open a door marked Technology, Magic & the Human Experiment. From there we dive straight into animism, the “community-of-beings” cosmos, and why a living universe renders most hand-wringing over “anthropocentrism” moot unless you’re prepared to vault clean out of the academy’s marble-floored worldview. What you’ll hear me unpack * Barrel-Rolling Out of Academia – how to exit the cathedral politely, become “invincible,” and treat academic credentials like LinkedIn endorsements in a living cosmos. * Markets, Magic & Capitalism – capitalism viewed as a resonant tool of a larger Ahrimanic being; why the market is archetypal, but turning it up to 120 % comes with karmic interest. * Mineral Intelligence & AI – awakening the silica, ayahuasca visions of stones teaching in a galactic lecture hall, and why “artificial” intelligence might be a mis-nomer in an ensouled universe. * Comparative ≠ Colonial – embracing perspectivism (à la Viveiros de Castro) as the clean way to decolonise knowledge without the usual Protestant guilt trip. * Astrology & World Politics – the U.S. Pluto/Uranus returns, fourth-turning turbulence, and the astrological case for an amicable national “divorce” over a civil war redux. * Practical Magic – why Ouija boards, jungle dieta, and good old-fashioned ghost stories still outperform peer-reviewed PDFs when it comes to proving the universe is alive.  Join the world's leading online magical training community, Rune Soup, here [https://runesoup.com/join].

Magical objects aren’t just forged—they’re found. In this solo episode, I explore the secret life of enchanted tools: the knife with a story, the crystal touched by a world-mountain, the wand bought in a witch town that still summons fairy queens. What gives an object its power? Sometimes it’s planetary timing and whispered invocations—but sometimes it’s stranger tales than that. This is a medium salsa reflection on self-initiation, storycraft, and the agency of objects that choose you. Note: Here’s a link to the YouTube video about self-initiation [https://youtu.be/WMSFbglaF7I?si=pUf_gNjeDlcpnLu8] I mention in this episode. Chapters 1. Who Chose Whom? Opening questions on agency, destiny, and magical initiation. 2. What Makes an Object Magical? Beyond grimoires—why backstories matter as much as consecrations. 3. Salsa Scale and Self-Initiation How this podcast fits into your current content taxonomy. 4. Denethor, Pippin, and the Agentic Object Tolkien’s Anglo-Saxon worldview and the power of mythic artifacts. 5. Crystals in the Andes Live tale-weaving on sacred mountains and magical stones. 6. The Library Angel & YouTube Algorithms Synchronicity, digital spellwork, and unexpected transmissions. 7. Strange Tales and Warped Realities How magical items—and magical people—bend the world around them. 8. Grimoires vs. Found Objects Cutting Hawthorn at dawn vs. fairy queen summoning from a witch-town wand. 9. Your Life Already Has Strange Tales Suburban magic, Red Cross births, and the imperative to gather and weave.

Hello from Cusco, where the streets are laid out like a puma and hawkers offer massages on every corner. I've been thinking about Huáscar, the last true Sapa Inca, who willingly took sacred knowledge into the underworld until the time was right for its return. What if the strange convergence we're witnessing - the grimoire revival, the sudden value of grandmother's recipes, and yes, even the rise of what I'm calling "orthodank" online - are all manifestations of the same archetypal energy? Things coming up from below, returning from the shadows at this precise moment in time. The question is: which returns will we embrace? Chapters 1. The Temple City of Cusco - Exploring the ancient capital and how authentic experience lurks just beneath tourist traps 2. The Tale of Two Brothers - The story of Waskar and Atahualpa, the civil war that weakened the Inca Empire, and how Waskar preserved sacred knowledge 3. Three Stories of Waskar's Fate - Drowning, beheading, or escape: tracing the different narratives through history and oral tradition 4. The Return of Waskar in the 90s - Alberto Violdo's observations and the rising indigenous pride in Peru 5. The Fortean Dominant - How things pushed into the underworld are returning in our time 6. Conservative Returns - The relationship between rising conservatism and the return of things worth conserving 7. Grandmother's Foods - How millennials became the generation that values heritage foods and traditional ways 8. Magic's Return - The grimoire revival and the return of ancestral magical knowledge 9. Shadow and Integration - How to navigate the darker aspects of what returns from the underworld

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 * Charles’s amazing essay, Shire Anarchy [https://substack.com/@charlesmcbryde/p-159883692]. * Charles on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/charlesmcbryde/]. 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