Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)
by Earl Fontainelle
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Estimated from 3 chart positions in 3 markets.
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7K to 25K🎙 ~2x weekly·217 episodes·Last published 1mo ago - Monthly Reach
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14K to 50K🇷🇴60%🇳🇱20%🇬🇷20% - Active Followers
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5.6K to 20K
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From 11 epsHost
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Recent episodes
Three Ancient Sages: On East Roman Magical Books
May 13, 2026
55m 42s
Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part II
Apr 1, 2026
38m 56s
Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part I
Mar 25, 2026
45m 47s
The Horoscope of Islām and The Alchemical Stone: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part II
Mar 4, 2026
32m 47s
Philosophy and Occult Sciences at Constantinople: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part I
Feb 25, 2026
41m 51s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/13/26 |  Three Ancient Sages: On East Roman Magical Books✨ | East Roman magical booksWestern esoteric tradition+3 | — | — | — | magical booksHermes Trismegistus+5 | — | 55m 42s | |
| 4/1/26 | Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part II✨ | East Roman alchemyLate Antiquity+4 | Gerasimos Merianos | East Rome | — | East Roman alchemyLate Antiquity+5 | — | 38m 56s | |
| 3/25/26 | Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part I✨ | East Roman alchemyLate Antiquity+3 | Gerasimos Merianos | East Roman alchemy | — | alchemyEast Roman+3 | — | 45m 47s | |
| 3/4/26 | The Horoscope of Islām and The Alchemical Stone: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part II✨ | astrologyalchemy+3 | Maria Papathanassiou | Apotelesmatikē pragmateiaOn the Great and Holy Art of Gold-Making | Islam | astrologyalchemy+4 | — | 32m 47s | |
| 2/25/26 | Philosophy and Occult Sciences at Constantinople: Maria Papathanassiou on Stephanos of Alexandria, Part I✨ | PhilosophyOccult Sciences+5 | Maria Papathanassiou | — | ConstantinopleAlexandria | Stephanos of AlexandriaMaria Papathanassiou+6 | — | 41m 51s | |
| 12/7/25 | Esoteric Orthodoxy in East Rome: Jonathan Greig on Maximus the Confessor✨ | Orthodox mysticismMaximus the Confessor+3 | Jonathan Greig | — | Constantinople | Maximus the ConfessorOrthodox mystic+4 | — | 1h 12m 44s | |
| 10/26/25 | Introducing the Apocalypse of the Pseudo-Methodios, with Christopher Bonura✨ | apocalyptic literatureChristianity+3 | Christopher Bonura | Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodios | — | Apocalypse of Pseudo-MethodiosChristian revelation+3 | — | 1h 11m 41s | |
| 9/27/25 | Jewish Apocalypse in the Seventh Century: Martha Himmelfarb on the Sefer Zerubbabel✨ | apocalyptic literatureJudaism+4 | Martha Himmelfarb | Sefer Zerubbabel | — | Sefer ZerubbabelMartha Himmelfarb+5 | — | 47m 47s | |
| 9/13/25 | Touraj Daryaee on Zoroastrianism in the Seventh Century and Beyond✨ | ZoroastrianismArab conquest+3 | Touraj Daryaee | Sasanian PersiaZoroastrians | Græco-Roman | ZoroastrianismArab conquest+3 | — | 43m 20s | |
| 7/25/25 | Ahab Bdaiwi on the Rise of Shī‘ī Esotericism✨ | Shī‘ī Esotericismpolitical events+2 | Ahab Bdaiwi | Earl FontainelleThe Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast | — | Shī‘īesotericism+3 | — | 29m 09s | |
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| 7/18/25 | Ahab Bdaiwi on ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, his Family, and the Origins of Shī‘ī Islam✨ | Shī‘ī Islamhistorical sources+3 | Ahab Bdaiwi | Party of ‘AlīIslām | RomanSassanian+1 | Shī‘ī IslamAhab Bdaiwi+4 | — | 38m 32s | |
| 5/13/25 | Seventh-Century History for Students of Western Esotericism | We return to the history of late antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean and central Asia. Momentous events occur, empires rise and fall, and Jews, Christians, and Muslims all suddenly develop new apocalyptic notions. Come for the dry historical exposition, stay for the esoteric divine kingship. | — | ||||||
| 5/2/25 | Introducing the Qur’an Part III: Qur’ānic Texts vs. the Qur’ān | We discuss some of the history of how the Qur'ān came to be ‘the Book’: it started in the oral milieu of the high-octane early Believers' movement, and ended up in written form as something called the ‘Uthmanic recension. Many esoteric things happen along the way. | — | ||||||
| 4/18/25 | Introducing the Qur’ān, Part II: Ambiguity and Esoteric Themes | We begin to explore the esoteric side of the Qur'ān, examining several case-studies in terms of ambiguity and esoteric themes. It turns out that every letter of the Qur'ān is an esoteric text. | — | ||||||
| 3/14/25 | Introducing the Qur’ān, Part I: Revelation, Text, and History | We cover some basic territory in introducing the Qur'ān, the holiest text of Islām. We introduce the text, discuss the traditional story of the Qur'ān's revelation, the modern text-critical enterprise of Qur'anic studies, and try to pin down the elusive character of this book-that-is-not-a-book. | — | ||||||
| 2/7/25 | Fred Donner on the History of Early Islām | We discuss what little we know and how much we don't know about the nature of the early ‘Believers' movement’, the nature and origins of the Qur'ān, the curious case of the so-called Constitution of Medinah, and what went on during the earliest decades of the Arab conquests. Fred Donner is our guide into unknown territory. | — | ||||||
| 1/21/25 | Matthew Melvin-Koushki on Islam, ‘the West’, and Western Esotericism | We welcome Matthew Melvin-Koushki back to the show to discuss how we might improve our historical picture of western esotericism by including the vast majority of the surviving historical dossier of western esotericism. There's only one problem: in order to do this, we need to embrace the Islamicate world as a major part of the west. | — | ||||||
| 1/3/25 | Introducing Islām | With Episode 200 the SHWEP has reached a milestone of sorts. We are in the seventh century, and the world-order suddenly changes irrevocably as a new political force arises from Arabia: the Believers. We discuss three main respects in which the history of Islam is the history of western esotericism. | — | ||||||
| 12/25/24 | Paul Pasquesi on the Book of the Holy Hierotheos | We discuss one of the lesser-known, but most esoterically-important, classics of Syriac spiritual literature, the Book of the Holy Hierotheos. Hierotheos was said to have been the teacher of Dionysius the Areopagite, but he wrote in Syriac, and taught a suspiciously-Evagrian practice of ascent to god. | — | ||||||
| 12/22/24 | The Pseudo-Dionysios, the Esoteric, and (Christian) Mysticism | We turn to the questions: What is ‘mystical’ in the Corpus Dionysiacum? What is esoteric? The answers we come up with involve pretty much every aspect of the western esoteric traditions, and, after all the initiatory liturgy, esoteric scriptural hermeneutics, and theandric activity are cleared away, there remains the ascent to ‘the ray of the divine shadow’. | — | ||||||
| 12/18/24 | Naming Divine Nothingness: Introducing the Pseudo-Dionysios | Into the divine darkness of a hyper-non-existent god walks the Pseudo-Dionysios. In this episode we join many esoteric currents from the antique and late-antique past into a new synthesis which will forever shape western esotericism going forward. | — | ||||||
| 10/22/24 | One Empire, Many Names: Reading “Byzantium” with Anthony Kaldellis | We are delighted to speak with Anthony Kaldellis about ‘Byzantium’, fabled empire full of Greek-speaking Romans which never fell until the fifteenth century, and which plays an outsize role in the history of western esotericism. Come for the historiographical debates about the term ‘Byzantine’, stay for the ‘Byzantine’ court astrology. | — | ||||||
| 10/16/24 | Contested Esotericisms at the End of Antiquity: Simplicius, Philoponus, and Olympiodorus | We discuss three of the most important thinkers from the final generations of philosophical teaching at Alexandria. One is an upstart Christian. Two are esoteric Platonists of the Golden Chain. One may or may not have been an alchemist. | — | ||||||
| 9/18/24 | The Last Platonists? Philosophic Teaching, Christianity, and Polytheism in Late-Antique Alexandria | We discuss how Platonist philosophical teaching played out at Alexandria before Justinian's edict of 529 and in its aftermath. Featuring cameo appearances from the fall of the western Roman empire and Horapollo's Hieroglyphika. | — | ||||||
| 9/11/24 | All from Nothing: Sara Rappe on Damascius | We discuss the great Damascius, final scholarch of the Athenian Academy, with Sara Rappe. Things become very apophatic. | — | ||||||
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Chart Positions
3 placements across 3 markets.
Chart Positions
3 placements across 3 markets.