Roots of Magic episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

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• Sofie Schiødt on Studying Magical Spaces in Ancient Egypt 27.05.2026 38分

  We speak with Egyptologist Sofie Schiødt about her work-in-progress at Würzburg, exploring the evidence for ancient Egyptian magic in situ. How did the ancient Egyptians relate to the spaces in which they performed rituals? How did the spaces relate to them? She plans to find out. 
• Daniel Schwemer on the Bit Meseri Ritual 08.04.2026 1時間 4分

  We speak with Daniel Schwemer about an intensive ritual practice for driving out demonic forces and/or hostile magic. Bit Meseri, the ‘House of Enclosure’, took the ashipu (and forty-nine protective apkaluspirits) four days, at the end of which period the patient was good to go. We talk ritual, theology, and divine handbags.
• Martin Stadler on Magic and Religion at the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Edfu 04.02.2026 1時間 6分

  We speak with Martin Stadler on his work deciphering and interpreting the extraordinary temple-complex at Edfu in Egypt. We discuss myth, ritual, the priestly temple-hierarchy, and magical ritual embodied in physical architecture.
• Beatrice Baragli on the Bīt Rimki Ritual Cycle 17.12.2025 48分

  We dive back into the world of Akkadian purification magic with Beatrice Baragli, who is working on an edition of the ritual sequence known as Bīt Rimki (`The Bathhouse'). Politics used to be very magical.
• Gideon Bohak on the Pishra de-Rabbi Ḥanina Ben Dosa 01.11.2025 1時間 1分

  We discuss a fascinating text of all-purpose protective and apotropaic magic with a history spanning millennia with the inimitable Gideon Bohak. Attributed to a first-century rabbi, the Pishra may have its roots in late-antique Babylonia, but it was still being copied into the twentieth century, and, who knows? perhaps today.
• Frank Simons on the Mesopotamian Šurpu Ritual 13.08.2025 46分

  We explore the ancient Mesopotamian ritual-series known as Šurpu with Frank Simons. This interview is a window onto very, very ancient magical practice, but has a surprising amount to tell us about magic today.
• Dan Levene on Late-Antique Jewish Magic Bowls, Skulls, and More 28.06.2025 54分

  We speak with Dan Levene, expert on the ancient Judæo-Aramaic incantation-bowls, on the bowls, the skulls, the Talmud, and what all of this tells us about late-ancient Judaism in the Sasanian empire and beyond.
• Jonathan Beltz on Sumerian Death-Demons (and How to Deal with them) 26.03.2025 1時間

  In our fourth Roots of Magic interview, we speak with Jonathan Beltz, specialist on the scarier side of ancient Sumerian cultural life, the side occupied by demonic entities bringing disease and death. But one entity stands out from the crowd: Namtar, the divine psychopomp whose arrival means ineluctable mortality. Or does it? We explore the world of magical ways to send death packing in ancient Sumeria.
• Family Matters: Charlotte Rose on Ancient Egyptian Medical Magic for Women and Children 29.01.2025 1時間 1分

  We discuss the dangerous, liminal space of childbirth and childhood in ancient Egypt. How might the gods, magic, and medicine interact to help make this a less perilous realm? Charlotte Rose has some ideas.
• Svenja Nagel on Ancient Egyptian Erotic Magic 13.11.2024 1時間 26分

  In our second Roots of Magic interview, we speak with Svenja Nagel on erotic magic in ancient Egypt. Ritual practices and potions, magical continuity and change, and cross-cultural pollination feature prominently in a conversation which tells us what Egyptian erotic magic was, and what dangerous-yet-sexy things you could do with it.
• Daniel Schwemer on the MagEIA Project at the University of Würzburg 21.02.2024 38分

  In the first interview of a new series, we discuss the academic project we have all been waiting for, MagEIA: Magic between Entanglement, Interaction, and Analogy, with one of its principal investigators, Daniel Schwemer. MagEIA will host cross-disciplinary conversations across specialisms in the study of ancient (bronze-age to late antiquity) magic. Amazing work, with amazing things to come.