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?

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."

• Charles’s amazing essay, Shire Anarchy.

• Charles on Instagram.

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

Everyone’s favourite gnostic raconteur, Miguel Conner, returns to the show this week to discuss his latest book, The Occult Elvis.

The book becomes an entryway into a wide-ranging discussion on the role of shamans, cultural transformation, fate and the destiny of America. (Mere trifles!)

00:00 Introduction to the Occult Elvis

04:03 The Spirituality of Rock Music

07:54 Elvis as a Magician and Shaman

11:52 The Blue Light Phenomenon

15:54 Elvis's Influence on American Identity

19:53 Elvis's Mystical Interests and Books

23:47 The Legacy of Elvis in Modern Culture

34:37 Exploring Fate and Free Will

37:56 The Wounded Healer: Elvis and Addiction

40:06 The Search for Self: Elvis's Identity Crisis

46:52 Elvis as a Cultural Trickster

51:10 The Archetype of the Shaman in Modern Fame

57:52 Elvis: A Reflection of Post-War America

• Get the book.

• Miguel’s author website.

• Miguel on Substack.