For Episode 13 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Shannon Taggart, an American photographer, writer, researcher, and curator known for exploring how photography can navigate boundaries between the seen and unseen. Her book, Séance (Fulger Press, 2019), offers hundreds of photographs documenting contemporary Spiritualism across the U.S. and Britain. We discuss (3:26) what sparked Shannon’s interests in Spiritualism, the intersecting histories of photography and Spiritualism, ectoplasm, what inspires people to become mediums, and the techniques she developed for photographing the invisible.

Shannon Taggart
Website
Seánce
Lily Dale Symposium, 2025

CSWR Events
May 1, 6-8pm EDT: Peripheries Launch Event, Volume 7
May 15-17: Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference

For our 12th episode, we welcome the philosopher, artist, and musician Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix. Haela is best known as the songwriter and singer behind the black metal band, Liturgy, which has released 1 EP and 6 full-length albums. We discuss Haela’s early relationships to Christianity and metal music, the growth of her philosophical interests, and her recent conversion to Orthodox Christianity. In the second part of our chat (42:33), we explore her philosophical system of Transcendental Qabalah and how it informs records such as H.A.Q.Q., Origin of the Alimonies, and 93696.

LINKS
Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix
Substack
YouTube Channel
"Transcendental Black Metal essay"

Liturgy records
H.A.Q.Q.
Origin of the Alimonies
93696

References
Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey Into Christian Hermeticism
Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus
Sergius Bulgakov, The Sophiology of Death

For Episode 11 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Jennifer Higgie. Jennifer is the author of several books, including Bedlam, a novel about the artist Richard Dadd; The Mirror and the Palette, a history of women’s self-portraits; and The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World, a beautiful and personal study of the relationship between spiritual experience and art in the lives of modern women. In this career-spanning chat, Jennifer and I discuss her early career in painting, what inspired her to write Bedlam, and how the art world changed during her time at Frieze magazine. Then we dive into Jennifer’s latest book, The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World. We discuss the spiritual and artistic lives of women like Georgiana Houghton (20:35), Hilma af Klint (34:06), Ithell Colquhoun (46:09), and Hildegard of Bingen (52:53). Along the way, we touch on topics like fairies, Spiritualism, gardening, Carl Jung, spiritual ecology, Theosophy, ascended masters, angels, and much else.

LINKS
Jennifer Higgie
The Other Side: Women, Art, and the Spirit World
The Mirror and the Palette: Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: 500 Years of Women's Self-Portraits
Bedlam

Others
Georgiana Houghton's Evenings at Home in Spiritual Seánce
Amy Hale's Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully
Julia Voss's Hilma af Klint: A Biography