---
title: "Concordianism, Mystery College & the Future of Esoteric Practice | Perseus Conversations"
url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/concordianism-mystery-college-the-future-of-esoteric-practice-perseus-conversations/
date: 2025-05-31
modified: 2026-07-03
lang: en
author: "Perseus Arcane Academy"
description: "Introduction What follows is the transcript of a discussion and episode on Perseus Conversatons between myself (James) and Jake of the Mystery College and Alex an expert in comparative religion..."
categories:
  - "Interviews"
tags:
  - "Energy"
  - "Evocation"
  - "Magic"
  - "Meditation"
image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Black-and-Dark-Space-Photo-YouTube-Thumbnail-1-1024x576.png
word_count: 7105
---

# Concordianism, Mystery College & the Future of Esoteric Practice | Perseus Conversations

### Introduction

What follows is the transcript of a discussion and episode on [Perseus Conversatons](https://www.youtube.com/@perseusarcaneacademy/podcasts) between myself (James) and Jake of the [Mystery College](https://mysterycollege.com/) and Alex an expert in comparative religion and various forms of magic from around the world.

You can watch the discussion in video here:

https://youtu.be/7uyzMtLHozM?si=BWqHuUVCnZDW_spT

---

Table of Contents

- Introduction- Perseus Conversations Transcript- Practical Application of Concordianism- Courses, Curriculum, and the Value of Fundamentals- Problems with the Western Magical Tradition- The Concordianism Solution- Course Tracks, Philosophy, and Structure at Mystery College- Timelines, Upcoming Courses, and Live Engagement- Spirit Work, Validation, and Respecting Traditions- Grimoire Studies and Comparative Magic- Depth and Accessibility of the Curriculum- Closing Remarks and Community Invitation- A Guide to Sphere Quabbalah

## Perseus Conversations Transcript

**James:**
That leads us perfectly into deliberation and explanation. So I think this is really interesting as a—can I call it a foundational structure or a—yeah, absolutely—of what comes next, a clarity of everything that comes after, and also a way to keep it clear and pure so that it doesn't become confused.
So could you guys go into this and explain this in fairly simple terms for the audience?

**Alex:**
Yes, so—Jake, I'll let you—okay. So, in the document that we've sent you, “in deliberation,” it is most decidedly and assuredly a deliberation on the principles and the core tenets of what we were trying to advocate for. And what we're trying to advocate for here is what I would like to call concordianism. Now, sounds like a fancy word for something—it really isn't. Concordianism is based on, or named after, the Roman goddess of harmony, which is Concordia, based off of another name for her, which is Harmonia.

Now, Harmonia/Concordia is in direct opposition to, or the exact opposite of, the goddess of chaos, Discordia, also known as Eris—and not Aries the war god, but Eris the agent of discord, the goddess of discord. So the exact opposite of that is harmony.

Now, there is a sociological philosophy called concordianism, which advocates that in order for human society to advance to their greatest potential, human society must learn to cooperate within the scope of one another's capacities. It is not advocating for a unified society; it is not advocating for a singular society; and it is not advocating for a monolithic society. What it is advocating is a cooperative society.

And so, we take this philosophical principle and we apply this similarly into an esoteric scope, whereby we take practices that have been done for hundreds of thousands of years within the collective sphere of all of human history and condense it into those aspects which can be found concordantly across various human traditions, and to strip it away of anything which is related to culture, religion, identity, or any of those things.

Which—I mean, to be perfectly honest, sociologically, culture unites a specific group of people, but it divides that specific group of people from everybody else. They are a separate thing, and those people out there are also a separate thing. This is a very human thing, this is nothing to be ashamed of. And in a highly politicized environment such as the western world today, there is a lot of talk about cultural appropriation or the taking of certain ideas and whitewashing these ideas. And as someone who is very active in, what some people would describe as the “woke” community—I mean, I don't look woke, but I probably am if people are, you know, calling me that, I don't know—but these points, these talking points have become a significant hindrance to the capacity of the human individual to see their immediate other not as separate from themselves.

It's creating a divide, and the divide occurs within the sociological sphere, it occurs in academia, it occurs in religion, and it occurs even in the practice of magic. There's gatekeeping all throughout, over a disparate number of practices that, if you really took a deeper look, you would find analogs and parallels and similarities all across the globe.

And so, concordianism is our attempt to collate, synthesize, and codify these similitudes, and to create a practice that is neutral, approachable, reliable, logic-based, analysis-oriented, and readily verifiable and repeatable, so that even if you are an atheist or an agnostic or if you believe in Cthulhu or whatever it is that you want to believe in, you are able to do these practices and benefit from the same things that you would find if you went to an ashram or if you went to a retreat or if you became a monk or if you became a hesychast, or whichever it is that drives your boat.

It's more of a multicultural attempt at magic, minus the cultural baggage. I think that's what describes it best—anything that can get in the way, that can cause divide, that can take your attention away from the actual thing itself, it has to go.

**James:**
Wow, great explanation. Okay, anything to add to that, Jake?

**Jake:**
Absolutely, yeah. There's a few key elements that we're using in helping strip away some of the elements that make it more difficult to perceive, say, historical practices as they were presented in their time. We're seeing things not through an anachronistic lens. In other words, most practices that are magical, or anything anthropological in the past, how modern humans tend to look at the past is through our distinctly modern eyes, mindset, and contextual understanding—our moralities.

So, we're not looking to the past or looking through any magical systems or anthropological ritual systems through an anachronistic lens; we're distinctly looking at it through the context of which the people lived, looking at the history of the geography of the region, looking at what materials they had, and also looking at how they were developed technologically, with medicine—all these types of things contextually give rise to an understanding of where someone was at in their mind when they created a grimoire or when they created a magical system or when they were contextualizing these things for the audience of their times.

There's a Buddhist concept called expedient means, which teaches us that all these teachings in their given times were taught for the viewers and listeners of that time period, more often than not. So looking at it from that lens, we're able to have a closer, more accurate look at historical practices, both from a comparative religion lens—which is where Alex and my academic backgrounds are, that's what we majored in—and then also from the practicum lens, where we can actually pathwork some of these practices, either in how they were shared in their integrity, or we can also look at the component elements that make up the set ritual and reverse engineer it as closely as possible whilst also not completely inconveniencing ourselves of normal amenities, right, because not everyone has, you know, a chicken or a lion, a chicken that can cut their throat, or have a lion's mane, or to use an ounce of gold for some ritual—those things are not readily accessible.

## Practical Application of Concordianism

**Jake:**
But there are—I wish I had an ounce of gold. Yeah, exactly, yeah, some of those ingredients might not be—where am I going to get that from? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I know where to get a chicken, and I know where to get a lion's mane, but I don't know how to get an ounce of gold. Yeah, drawbacks, yeah.

**James:**
Okay, yeah, so, that said, we're also—as a part of Concordianism, there's the core component of Concordianism.

**Jake:**
Yeah, so there's a core aspect of Concordism where we have an on-demand course where you can go through the Concordian practices. It's in a Socratic form where Alex leads with questions and then I'm the one who's going through the practices and sharing my feelings, experiences, hindrances in real time so that people can check in with themselves and practice along in the group.

It prevents cognitive bias, it shows people in real time that the systems and the processes that we're doing is not some silly little mind trick, because I come from a country where there are a lot of charismatic preachers, very, you know, culty religious leaders and whatnot, and I know how groupthink works. I have analyzed groupthink at length; I've also analyzed how people can be so easily misled provided that there is peer pressure and provided that they desire an end to which they are given the illusion that they can achieve.

So if we place it in an environment where you're able to determine that not everything that is being presented to you is something that works instantaneously, but rather is something that builds up or something that you can either verify or deny or somewhere in between, then it showcases that the system itself is rooted in logic. It's not rooted in blind faith, superstition, hypnosis, and there really is no better way to go about a magical system in a world where everyone is convinced that they're Gandalf the Gray or some other transcendental human being than to show how it works stripped of all preconceived notions.

**Alex:**
Absolutely, there. And people can verify and they can, as you said before, repeat it.

**James:**
Yes, yeah, yeah. Okay, well that leads us because obviously you—we've talked about an introductory curriculum of a few lessons but also you've got your live cohort courses, quite a selection that you're looking at doing as well. Do you guys want to talk about a few of those? Because I think these are going to be very, very exciting for people.

## Courses, Curriculum, and the Value of Fundamentals

**Jake:**
Absolutely, absolutely. And this will be—it is exciting theoretically, but once they're the ones doing the practice, they will find that it is quite something of a bore for starters, especially because they're used to the, if I may use the terminology, the get-rich-quick scheme of how magic is presented and marketed in their specific, in their respective milieus. But this is a foundational course which encompasses magic as a whole, and when we say magic as a whole, we mean internal and external magic, and this can be applied to any and all systems of pre-existing magic. That means you can be a Concordian and be a Buddhist and be a Catholic at the same time—although that might not sit well with your local priest.

But it's a system that fits all, a system that applies for all, and a system that is designed for all. That is very calming of me to say, I'm sorry. Anyh—who, the concept of Concordianism, as a little introduction, I would like to set the stage, if you will, as to why we believe that this is necessary.

**Alex:**
Now, in order for people to actually understand precisely why this is needed, I would like to bring to everyone's attention the fact that what we call the Western—Western, I say this as liberally as I can, and I do not mean any offense to individuals of the western mold of mind or who are located in the West. Now, I would like to say as a disclaimer that in spite of the fact that I am a southeastern individual, I am either fortunately and/or unfortunately so thoroughly westernized thanks to globalization that there really is no difference between me and the average individual that you meet at a Taco Bell in the United States, with the exception of the fact that I have never consumed anything from Taco Bell.

That being said, the Western mode of mind, when it comes to magic, if we are being perfectly honest about it, is this hodgepodge of systems culled from different religious traditions across the world. The reason why it exists in this vacuous space of semi-neutrality, but also this flailing and futile attempt at something close to universalism, is because the early magical practices that make up the cornerstone of what we call the western tradition as it is understood today—and by western tradition I mean to say the Golden Dawn, the works of Crowley, Blavatsky, White, tarot cards, all of these things, and I'm going to add to the mix here Franz Bardon because you hear his name often—these were all byproducts of a specific time period where the western world became strongly disillusioned by established religion and they were seeking some other kind of placeholder for a faith that they had, that they wanted to retain but which was going nowhere.

And it did not start, mind you, with Thelema, with all of these secret societies and organizations and whatnot. This began far, far, far earlier than that specific time period. This has roots going all the way back to the middle of the 1600s, even as far back as the Renaissance, if we're being honest, up until the height of just shy of the French Revolution. And I will explain as, in as condensed a manner as I can.

The western world has always been cosmopolitan. That is part and parcel of its collective identity; it defines itself as western, it believes itself to be cohesive as a culture, as a society, and as a people, as a milieu, but it is not cohesive in the sense of true cohesion. It is an amalgam of different practices that have been sourced and picked from all of the places that they have either assimilated or conquered, or of which they have built alliances and, you know, adopted certain aspects of certain cultures. It's a complicated history. History is complicated.

So with this amalgamation of an assortment of practices that dates back to the time when, you know, they decided, “Let's make large boats and see if the world isn't flat already,” you had innumerable practices from different parts of the world that were slowly being introduced into the western mold of mind, and they were already adapting that in their own respects back then. It may surprise a lot of individuals to know, for example, that the notorious spirit worker John Dee—which was, if my memory serves me right, was the official court astronomer and sorcerer for Queen Elizabeth I—made mention of a specific entity which would later be codified into the western demonology systems called the Goetia. This specific entity he described was a pot-bellied elephant person. That's the Hindu god Ganesh. India.

And, you know, they didn't quite exactly land in India then, but they did conduct trade extensively with, you know, other parts of the world, so they knew what Persia was, they knew what the Middle East was, they understood that—because William Shakespeare, of course, in his The Moor of Venice, Othello, the Moor of Venice, they understood that, and the concept of the crusades is very fresh in the memory of the Elizabethan psyche. So things travel, things migrate from one area to another, ideas are shared, but only to a certain extent. It's shared in a halfhearted way, in an incomplete way, and so the ones who receive this information also codify it in a half-hearted way. It's there, but not quite; it's incomplete.

## Problems with the Western Magical Tradition

**Alex:**
And this has been the problem with Western tradition at large. It's there, but it's not quite complete; it's a Frankensteined creature culled from various parts of different sociological and cultural corpses all sewn together and electrified into a living being that doesn't quite understand what it is but knows that it should exist.

And the problem with that is it creates a lot of confusion for the intrepid practitioner, because when they encounter things like, “Oh, I'm going to perform energy work,” and the system that you're choosing to do this energy work is the chakra system from Hinduism, you're not a Hindu, you don't understand how the chakras are viewed from a Hindu perspective, but you do the work anyway. And then from that you shift into suddenly this working with the planetaries, Kabbalah—that's Judaic, and unless you're a Jew, and if you're a Jew you probably wouldn't do this kind of magic, you do your own kind of magic which is Gematria, proper Judaic Kabbalah, but I digress—you go into the system, you jump from one culture to another and you expect this one thing to mesh perfectly.

And then you hit roadblocks, like, “Why isn't it working the way that these writers say it should?” Probably because the writers that wrote it wrote it down theoretically, they didn't understand the complete context of what they were writing. And I don't see this as something discriminatory or condemnatory of these individuals; I would like to remind everyone that western magic is a byproduct of its time, it was a byproduct of a culture of people who realized exactly how large the world was and how there was more than one way of viewing the world and more than one way of experiencing God or spirit or what have you, and they found some truth and some credence and some value in these beliefs, and they wanted to apply that into their own daily lives because there was something missing. And so they created a synthesis. It was a half-baked synthesis, yes, but it was an attempt at a synthesis nevertheless.

Unfortunately, anything that is only half done or half-baked doesn't quite cut it to be Michelin star material, if you will. So because of these inherent pitfalls in the practice, we now have individuals who do energy work based on the Chinese concept of qi or the Japanese concept of ki or the Indian concept of prana, but they just shift from one thing to another. They employ this thing using this specific terminology for that specific word that doesn't quite, you know, mean what it should mean, and they think that they're doing magic.

And then when they encounter and/or experience individuals from living traditions, from those aspects of society that have not been as thoroughly commodified as their own society, then they're like, “Oh, why is their system of magic more cohesive than ours? Why are they so gatekeepery about their magic?” The answer is simple: one society has had plenty of time to hyperfixate on how they do things, the other part of society has spent a lot of time trying to make different parts from different things work into one cohesive whole.

## The Concordianism Solution

**Alex:**
And so where concordianism comes into play is, if this is a problem in western magic and the unification or the cohesion of practice is a default or a given in a lot of non-western magic—because when I say eastern I'm creating a dichotomy here, African magics are not eastern and yet they are exceedingly cohesive, the magics that are performed in the Pacific Islanders, for example, those are not technically Asian, they're Polynesian, but it's also exceedingly cohesive, the magic of the Maori and the Native Americans—that's not Eastern but it's also exceedingly cohesive. If cohesion is the goal but confusion is what is here now, concordianism attempts to take all of the elements that people find confusing, difficult, and/or simply inaccessible due to any number of factors and to consolidate all of those things to create a unified system that is accessible to all, that is not barred by the trappings of culture and the limitations of language and even sociocultural milieu, and to hopefully redefine the western system of magic into what is truly a cosmopolitan system of magic, something that the west can say, “You know what, we made this. This is international, this is Mr. International, Mrs. International, or...”

**James:**
Wow. Wow. So, I mean, my goodness, that's a really good explanation. So to say, with what you have coming, with that said, with what you have coming for the live cohort classes, and this—I don't know whether this is a wrong question or not—but where would you be if someone is asking, “Okay, that's good, it's going to solve these problems, but where would the system seek to take the student?” Like, what—people might say, “Okay, what's it focusing on? Is it energy work? Is it meditation? Is it evocation?”

**Alex:**
It's all. It's all of the above. So there are certain aspects of western magic that are internal and external; the same can be said for all forms of magic regardless of their locale. So we begin with a foundation, internal work, we build the foundation from the inside out. Because to use an—how shall I say this—to use an anatomy and physiology analogy or concept, you can be the most buff, the most, you know, chiseled physique and everything, but if you are ill on the inside because of a hereditary disease or an infection or what have you, you're going to lose the physique that you're building outside, right? So we start from within. We start with internal work, we start with energy work, we start with energy manipulation, we start with understanding how energy works within the various concepts of energy as it is deliberated over by different traditions, and then put it into a concept where we view energy in as neutral a way as possible.

Because here's a little, you know, snap in the—in front of the face: to this very day a lot of western magical practitioners don't even have a term for energy that they can say, “You know what, this is a western term.” Like, how would you call energy? Most people would be like, “Oh, it's ki, it's chi, it's prana”—those are not western terms. Those are culled from other places: Chinese, Indian. What is the term for that concept within the western mind? I mean, you know, any professional sorcerer, any Albus Dumbledore can chime in and give their take, but I am willing to bet an arm, a leg, and my non-existent adopted baby brother that they can't, because there hasn't been any—not in a hundred years. So we're going to have to go back, and if we can't find terminologies going back, then we have to create new terminologies for the here and now, so that in future generations we won't have individuals from Nebraska saying that the concept of energy that they're working with is qi, and if you ask them, “Do you like to eat xiaolongbao?” they will say, “What the hell is xiaolongbao?”

**James:**
Yeah, understanding. Okay, so going forward with—we've also given a whole host of the other document that you guys kindly shared with me. There is a whole host of potential live courses on there, so do you want to—guys and Jake or yourself—go over a few of those? Because I think this already is, as a foundation, epic, but there's more, and I want people to realize that there's—this is very, very thorough, what Jake and Alex have put together in terms of these courses and that they're going to be sharing over the next months and throughout this year, because you've got everything from the base systems, you've got how it aligns to Bardon's work, you've got all of these kind of things, you've got the levels. Do you want to go into that a little bit?

---

## Course Tracks, Philosophy, and Structure at Mystery College

**Jake:**
Yeah, sure. But before I begin—and I will not speak for Jake here because the thing with Mystery College that you—that should be understood by a lot of people—is that we are not a cult, we are not, you know, a bunch of people who all believe in the same exact same thing. I would like to view the Mystery College as something more akin to the ancient Greek agora, which is essentially an open forum where people of different inclinations and proclivities and philosophical outlooks all decide to band together, discuss, talk, exchange ideas, debate, and probably throw a live chicken or two just to spite everybody else for fun. I'm talking about you, Dionysus—you are the OG.

So my primary role in the Mystery College is, I'm your resident comparative religious studies person—I'm not going to say expert because I don't want to put on airs. There are a lot of things that I still don't know. So it is my responsibility to teach those courses from a sociological and anthropological and a historical perspective in as neutral a way as possible. I would also like to say that I am not by any stretch of the imagination a Bardonian. I do not actively work with Bardon systems. I am familiar with them and I have read them, but it's not my system, it's not my practice. To that, I leave the talk of Bardon and all of that to those people who do live, you know, the Bardonian way, if you will—that's for them, I don't want to take on anything that I absolutely, you know, have no—how do I say this? It's not really something that I don't personally adhere to. That's a better way of putting it.

But since we are doing a compare and contrast when it comes to a lot of the courses in Mystery College, you will hear or you can expect to hear a lot of comparison points, not just with like, “Okay, this thing here is comparable to this specific system here,” it goes even as far back as, you know, “this specific religion evolved into this specific religion because of these specific factors and therefore their magics are done in this specific way.” And so the courses in the Mystery College will be more similar to your typical anthropology class than it will be about, you know, trying to focus energy. I mean, we will still have those things, absolutely we will still have those things—we will have practical magic presented to our audience, because what's the point of theoretical magic? There is no such—no, there's no point if it's all theory.

However, we would like to remind people as early as now that there's two sections to the Mystery College: there's the anthropological, historical, sociological understanding of magic, which—we're working on a title for this. I would personally like to call it the history of magic, but that's the title of a novel, a best-selling novel, so that might land me in hot water. And then there's also the element of the practical aspects of magic, and they can choose either of these courses or they can work with both of these systems simultaneously.

**James:**
So someone could possibly come at it just from—I'm thinking, “You know what, I don't really, you know, maybe they're thinking, I don't know enough about this stuff, I really should improve my understanding,” and they can just go down that track?

**Alex:**
Okay. And they can dip in, can they? Once they're on that track, is that like—can they then come back over to the practical side?

**Jake:**
Absolutely. The understanding of the history of magic precipitates the understanding of magic itself, in that it is similar to how, if and when you understand yourself, you understand the reasons for why you do what you do. So following that psychological anecdote, if we understand what magic was to a certain group of people or a certain cultural milieu, then it follows without saying that if and when we are engaged with the practice of magic because of prior understanding from a purely theoretical perspective, it will not be so difficult to apply what we understand into a more practical approach.

## Timelines, Upcoming Courses, and Live Engagement

**James:**
Wow, brilliant. So this is all coming, this is all coming in. What's the timeline for this, guys?

**Jake:**
Yeah, so we'll be starting some live courses, some feeler courses, in the coming week, where we'll just have like a, you know, like a Zoom link, a Google Meets link, and just a feeler so we can communicate with folks and get live feedback as to how we can modify the curriculum to meet their wants, their needs, whilst also keeping integrity of the greater mission of what we're doing. So we have a number of live courses that are also coming up for students that they can attend, from Vedic empowerments all the way to invocation practices, to a comparative religious analysis of the Franz Bardon framework, to Shaivism, as Alex was initiating the system.

And from our private conversations, from our conversations with Dr. Sham, you know, things just—many, many, if not most things match up one to one between these systems. However, because the cohesion of the Shaivism tradition, especially the ones that Alex is a part of, the one that Sham is a part of—they're distinct ones that they're part of, but they themselves are completely whole and succinct—there's so many little details and pathways and pathworkings that can be added or re-textualized that just simply are not available in western vernacular or in any western books, because they're not there, they're not available, they're in Sanskrit, for example.

But Alex is phenomenal at transliterating things from Sanskrit into English, and he actually, for many, many years, worked as a translator, translating scriptures into one of the native tongues in the Philippines, for example. So he is very talented at this, he's very talented at distilling ideas in a way that's comprehensible. So one of our objectives with this live course, where we go through the first and second book through the Bardon framework, is to distill all these pieces that are from Sanskrit into the greater Bardon framework and to really, really enhance it and fill in some gaps.

**Jake:**
We have also that—please, Alex—

**Alex:**
—to hopefully, you know, create words for these things, quite literally, that, you know, an average practitioner of magic from western and westernized parts of the world can confidently say, “You know what, this is my word for it, this is it, this is a new thing, and this is a very welcome thing that hopefully we will begin to facilitate.”

**Jake:**
Yes, absolutely. And, that being said, there's also other things that we're working on. One thing is we'll be teaching people yoga. We'll be teaching people—a small portion of the yoga we'll be teaching is typical asanas, your downward dog and stretching, some mudras, some bandhas and such, but the vast majority of the time in the classes will be dedicated to the other seven limbs of yoga: things like morality, concentration, exercise, samadhi. So we're working on our yamas, our niyamas, our dhyana, and all these things—and philosophy of yoga, essentially.

**Alex:**
Yes, philosophy of yoga, right.

**Jake:**
But there's also—could be practicum in that, where we can—will we be practicing things and will we also be practicing some—well, so if you've ever wanted to dive deeper into yoga text, this is going to be a fantastic course to join. And if you ever felt like that there was something behind yoga but your local yoga teacher with Lululemon pants and drinking Starbucks maybe didn't seem to really cut the fit or feel like it was aligned, then we're hoping to bring that to bring things back into alignment and make these things readily accessible and digestible, and bridge into further things too if you want—like if you want to then pursue Sanskrit, we'll have the resources and guidelines to plug you in so you can actually get initiated into that.

And that goes further into another live course we have in the works where we'll actually be giving an initiation in Alex's tradition of Shaivism, available online through our live courses, so that maybe you can't go to India, maybe you can't go to meet Alex in person at this time, but there is a place where you can get real empowerments, real practices from a cohesive tradition.

So we have that in the works as well. We also have a live course series where we'll be going into each—we'll be going pan-religious, pan-spiritual systems, doing pathworking with individual spirits through live class—individual spirits, muses, guides, principles of different traditions, whether that's your western European mythology, Norse mythology, Egyptian spirit, the Egyptian gods, African gods, South American, or syncretic Catholic gods as well—like when people mix local gods with the Catholic saints, for example, which has syncretically happened all throughout South America and the rest of the world. So we'll be able to work with Mesoamerican gods as well, and then also being able to work with the pan-Indian systems that Alex is initiated in.

---

## Spirit Work, Validation, and Respecting Traditions

**Jake:**
So, one thing we're working on with that specifically is making sure that we're not just, you know, working with any old hodgepodge spirits, or from this plane or that plane or anything like that. We're working with beings that have specifically validated information, and within the ritualistic context and systems there are certain attributes to look for so that we can make sure that we're actually working with that said being. Because, as Alex says frequently, spirits lie—spirits lie—so we want to make sure that we are, as we're validating our experiences, using the tools, the measurements, the guidelines that are provided within their architectural system while also respecting those systems anthropologically, sociologically, and anachronistically, meaning we're respecting the time period in which these gods began, arose, and the circumstances of how people related to them in that time.

So we're doing that as well. Let's see—pull up my list here—we had quite a few other ones. Also, there's a lot coming, yeah, there's a lot.

**Jake:**
Alex, do you want to cover, like, say, grimoire studies, for example?

## Grimoire Studies and Comparative Magic

**Alex:**
Ah, sure. So, a lot of the grimoires that are associated with the western tradition are based predominantly on—and I know a lot of people will take umbrage over this when I say this, but I do beg individuals to reconsider, especially those individuals who are far more oriented towards the western aspect of the left-hand path—they say that the grimoires are, you know, the go-to manuals of demonolatry, you know, but that would not exist, unfortunately for you guys, had it not been for Catholicism.

So, I know that this is a tough pill to swallow, but I'm going to say it here and now: the reason why demonological pathworks exist within the western sphere of consciousness is because it is part and parcel of esoteric Christianity. That's a tough pill to swallow, but there's that.

We will go to a deep dive on how early esoteric Christianity has influenced demonology, how it has evolved independently of Christianity, where the overlaps occur, and how to more authentically work with it within the specific paradigm upon which these systems and these attributions were developed. But beyond western grimoire magic, we also have in the works grimoire magic associated with my neck of the woods, which is Filipino folk magic. It's a different kind of magic—still influenced by Christianity, still strongly influenced by a lot of what people would consider a more western bend of sorcery or magic, if you will, but distinctly animistic and nativistic in nature.

And this course in particular, I will confidently say, is something that no one—not even people from my own country—have developed into a course that allows people from outside of the country to comprehend it and apply it in a way that, you know, they can master it in their own rights without necessarily having to be apprenticed to or live in the place where this specific system of magic develops.

In relation to that, there is also an assortment of—we can call it grimoire, but the terminology is used rather loosely here—we will work with sutras, we will work with the Vedas, Upanishads, and all of the lore associated with them to the best of our capacity. Now, we do not promise to be as exacting and as thorough as Cambridge or Oxford or Harvard—we would need a lot of funding for that to happen. However, we do promise to provide as much academic rigor and intellectual integrity into the work that we provide.

And because the Mystery College is technically an open college, anybody—and I mean anybody—who has a greater, more profound, more thorough understanding, experience, and/or knowledge about certain subject matters that we might have glanced upon, mentioned, or even attempted to promote, but maybe we fell short, maybe there were some aspects that we missed, please, please reach out to us. Come forward, let us work with you, and we would love to work with you, because we're trying to build a community where knowledge is accessible, knowledge is free, knowledge is for everybody, and knowledge is presented in a manner which is neutral above all else and which is easily integrable to whatever preexisting belief or lack thereof that you already have.

## Depth and Accessibility of the Curriculum

**James:**
Wow, very, very interesting. Because, I mean, I'm looking through—I've got my other computer here, I'm looking through the list that you guys gave me here. I mean, wow, just on the introductory lessons there's so much depth. Let me put myself on camera. There's so much depth in what these guys have passed over to me, and this is just the introductory things that they're going to be doing to give people a taste of how repeatable this stuff is.

So you said that the things are going to be coming in the next few weeks on Zoom, just going to be doing things like that, and then of course we've also discussed in the next few weeks, hopefully, with the community on Perseus, where people will be able to attend your classes as well.

Is there anything—we're getting on for—what are we now, over an hour now—so is there anything else that I've missed? Because all this is new to me. I'm very much in your hands, it's all new to me, and it's very, very interesting to me. Is there anything else you would like to share before we close off?

## Closing Remarks and Community Invitation

**Jake:**
Yeah, absolutely. I'll start, and then Alex will follow. We're big fans of Perseus. I've been a part of that community for a long time, and Alex is a newer member of that community. You know, I'm great friends with the teachers, everything in Perseus is highly integral, all very vetted, very, very well, incredulously. And I'm really excited to be teaching—we're really excited to be teaching live courses through Perseus and also doubling down our engagement, our connection with Perseus, with the students at Perseus, because we're like the biggest fans.

I've been with Perseus from pretty reasonably close to the start of it, right? Very, very close, one of the first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's been an amazing journey, fantastic community. And, you know, I've been a little remiss that I haven't been as engaged with the community as I could have been, but I'm really, really excited for the upcoming community platform elements and the opportunity to connect way deeper, way further with folks through the courses.

For people who are currently enrolled in some of my courses and who will be enrolled in future—in the courses that Alex and I are both part of—as well as providing more Q&A, free content, lives, and so much more, I'm really excited for how Perseus is evolving and continuing evolving, and both Alex and I are looking forward to a lifelong friendship with the Perseus Academy.

**James:**
Oh, it was great to have you guys. Thank you, thank you. Privilege is all ours.

**Alex:**
And anything else from you, Alex?

**Alex:**
Jake said it. I'm a newbie here, but, you know, I am a secret socialist at heart, so, you know, what Perseus is doing—making knowledge accessible to a lot of people, providing all of these courses from a diverse assortment of teachers and practitioners—this is what knowledge could be without the gatekeeping of academia, if only academia were not so oriented in ensuring that their dons and their deans had big fat pockets. So, you know, my heart goes out to you guys and the work that you do. Thank you very much for the privilege of allowing us to work with you, and we look forward to working with you for many years to come.

**James:**
Wow, well, thank you guys. I mean, it's a pleasure to work with Mystery College. Obviously we share the ideals, you know, we share the idea that integrity in all the things we're doing, and to try and assist and do no harm in the way we are spreading the information. So I think this is going to be wonderful for people to have this opportunity to see things that just aren't accessible in the West. Like you say, unless it's through your yoga—Starbucks drinking yoga teacher—this kind of thing that you guys are talking about, the depth, the cohesiveness of these systems, is—people don't know what they don't know about these subjects.

So, basically, in the next few weeks you're going to see the opportunity to sign up with Jake and Alex and the Mystery College to start going through these teachings. Very soon you'll see a similar opportunity with the release of the Perseus community, and I think as well there's so much to go into here, we're going to do some more videos or some more interviews in some shape or form to go into some of the backstories a little bit and to give people as much as we can, but I think this is a great first video to introduce Alex to the Perseus audience and to go a little bit deeper into Jake as well. Just to—because obviously we know you from the Evocation Masterclass and the other master classes that you have for initiation, the Kabbalah, but there's so much more. I mean, just even with your family history there, you know, that's quite a perspective to have, seeing those things as a youngster.

So, guys, I'd like to thank you very much for spending this time with Perseus. We'll close it off there. Stay on the line, we'll have a quick chat afterwards. And for everyone that's been watching this episode of Perseus Conversations, thank you very, very much. There's more on the way, and please like, subscribe, and please do leave a comment. Let us know your thoughts, let us know what you would like to hear more from Alex and Jake, any questions you have, put them down below, and we'll do our best to answer them. Okay, thank you everyone, we'll see you next time.

**Jake:**
Thanks, awesome, thank you so much, really appreciate it.

**Alex:**
Byebye.

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