Jessica Hundley Interview: David Lynch, Dennis Hopper & The Library of Esoterica’s Secret Teachings!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today we're joined by a true Renaissance woman. She's an author, journalist and filmmaker who's worked alongside David Lynch and

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Innesopper. She's the creator of Toshin's Library of Esoterica series and she's here today to share her journey into the mystical realms
We explore all the time on this show from republishing manually peahaws secret teachings of all ages to unlocking the portals of artistic
Inspiration. This is a rare insider's look into the heart of esoteric art film and culture join us today here on a cult symbolism and pop culture

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Now while you're listening to this interview, I'm going to put some links in the show notes for you to peruse and check out. The links are going to be for the library of esoterica instagram as well as the library of esoterica website that you can sign up for the email newsletter that she'll discuss towards the end of the interview and we're going to talk about all kinds of wild stuff, you know, because she wrote books with David Lynch

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She did work with Dennis Haber. So she's going to talk to us about them and their artistry and we're going to talk about how she got into this realm of the occult in the esoteric in her life's journey. This was a super fun interview and I was actually surprised and you're going to hear I'm going to share some stories on there about how odd and sort of synchronistically we linked up through these books that I never in a million years ago I was going to be able to interview her so stay tuned for that.

(01:24):
But check out those links follow the library of esoterica follow Jessica Hundley's Instagram is also going to be in the show notes and if you buy the library of esoterica books through her affiliate link through the library of esoterica instagram I'll put the link in the show notes if you buy it through that she sends the profits from the affiliate link to care.org to help women and children in war zones and such so good cause of course and the books are absolutely amazing.

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Like I say in the show I don't know how they offer these for forty bucks at least they it's insane. These are some of the most beautiful books I have in my library so it's a real treat to have her join us today so here we go. Jessica Hundley.
Today we've got one of the most interesting guests I've ever had on the show she's described as a writing creative director and curator of magic she's the woman behind the beautiful library of esoterica.

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Celebrating art and history of the occult she's done it all when it comes to art and creativity from filmmaking to writing to editing to journalism having worked for fader days and confused magazines she's interviewed and collaborated with absolute legends like David Lou.
And she's here today to give us a look into the magical world welcome to the show Jessica Hundley.

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Hi there. Well now we're quite a guest you know I you know I really interesting connection here like I'm really into the ideas of the synchronicities that have happened in my life and maybe two or three years ago my sister in law asked me what I was going to do.

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Sister in law asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said I want these these library of esoterica, Tosh and books right I wanted to at the time there's only three and you know I had I actually had no idea like I didn't look into who Jessica Hundley was at the time I just was really into occult stuff and she got me the three books and I got the books and you know and they look very similar to your new one spirit worlds which you know beautiful hard back tons of absolutely amazing artwork in it.

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And I have a weird thing about books where I I like to write in the margins and and dog here the pages and put notes in them and all that stuff because for me I used to keep things like very very mint because I thought I was like well I don't know why I just thought well if I ever need to sell it someday like you know whatever but like over time I was like no it actually makes it more valuable to me to have all my notes in it and for some reason there's only a handful of books like I bought a couple of old Kenneth Grant books and these these books.

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And these these these library esoterica books that I'm like I'm not writing in these books those are staying those are staying mint so yeah anyway I I found it very curious that we were able to link up like this so I wanted to compliment you for these books which are truly some of the most beautiful works of art that I own so thank you so much for doing these books.
I'm really thankful you're welcome and I should say what I always say when someone compliments me about the books which is it's I am the honor to be the sort of shepherd of these books and it was I did conceptualize the idea but it is very much a team effort with my incredible publisher Toshen and then also who I had worked with on other projects before I brought this book.

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I brought this concept to them and also the incredible designer Nick Taylor at Thunderwind Studio and then also just the evolving community of contributors the artists and the people we interview and the archives we work with it's it's really they're kind of more vessels of a whole community of people past and present who kind of contributed their ideas and practices and philosophies to the volume so

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I am the high priestess of these books but certainly not they're not mine they are a collective effort.
Right on and you know there's a there's a lot of things I want to talk to you about could you would you maybe what I'd like to know is where all of this starts for you and you can go all the way back to childhood you know I really like to hear people's life stories and

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I like to understand how people get into these interesting sort of sub culture counter culture esoteric things because this isn't the normal sort of path for everybody so if you don't mind like kind of sharing with me what got you going down this road here.
Yeah you know I was only child for quite a while my brother was born when I was nine and I grew up in western Massachusetts and it's in the Berkshares and a very sort of haunted landscape of New England and grew up in the woods then a lot of time in nature and sort of was always very interested in the

(06:40):
imagined worlds in fantasy and fairy tale and you know I read all sorts of amazing you know the all the metal and then gal books sci-fi and fantasy books for kids and you know Lord of the rings and
Narnia series and really kind of entered the world of ideas through books I think probably first and then pretty quickly after through music you know I was always very into music I got way into heavy metal as a teenager early teen into black

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sabbath and let's up and which are these bands that have these kind of mythologies around them and I then became sort of a brooding teenage goss and was really into Susie Sue and Bauhaus and that whole world and I think it was really through those kind of cultural

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touchstones I became interested in first really divination on tarot there was this amazing kind of witchy hippie store in Northampton that had tarot decks and I got a tarot deck when I was probably about 11 or 12 and I do think that you know particularly kids and particularly

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that cusp liminal age between adulthood and childhood you really kind of a very powerfully connected to your intuition and also to sort of your inherent clairvoyant so I became very into tarot

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and then you know my career really started I had a zine in my late teens and I was lucky enough to be sort of like part of the first phase of the zine revolution that kind of took over when you know people were able to

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you know use copy machines and printers were suddenly available and so I had a zine a culture zine and started interviewing musicians and filmmakers then started doing that for a living I started my career as a culture journalist and interviewing people about music and art and film and really kind of was able to build a career

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doing journalism and one of the things I always really found sort of continually intriguing and inspiring about that was sort of digging deep into the past and connecting with books, films, albums that had maybe been lost and underground or counter cultural

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hadn't really gotten there do and kind of revisiting them bringing them to a new audience really so I work with a lot of reissue labels writing liner notes and lost records that then were reissued I have worked with a lot of filmmakers to sort of highlight movies that might have been lost with Dennis Hopper

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I helped to re-release a movie that he made that was shelved by universal he would after easy writer and in working with him he had gotten the rights back and I was able to kind of help get the movie re-released and restored
I'm not the last movie and yeah just kind of being able to give people you know we live in this incredible time of you know culture at our fingertips but there is not a lot of curation

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there's not a lot of ways to find your way through that sea and to the things that resonate with you so I like to think that that's kind of where now my career is at a point where I feel like it's kind of my responsibility to be sort of a curator and to people to kind of point people in the direction of artists and musicians

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and filmmakers and writers who maybe are you know never got their full do weren't were maybe independent or maybe the only made one album and you know weren't supported by whatever infrastructure whether it was a studio or a music label or a publisher

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things that are out of print and lost and so that really kind of led me to thinking about how a lot of these occult ideas and philosophies and practices and history have been hidden and made sort of deliberately obtuse

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or impenetrable or secret and how really they need to be reintroduced in a way that feels less scary to people that feels beautiful that feels totemic and and and also explores the history of these practices

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and the thread of these practices through our culture till now so each of our books kind of begins with a history section ends with a contemporary pop culture or contemporary section so kind of that being the thread through I felt was really important and you know I really kind of feel like all of the work I've done as a journalist

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it's kind of really been working towards being able to present these ideas in a way that feels journalistic and I always say I've in interviews and you know I'm writing about these ideas the same way I would you know say write a Rolling Stone article about a loss record from 1967 where I'm trying to get you excited I'm trying to reintroduced the value

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and the you know integrity of these ideas but present it in a way that feels non-dogmatic that feels you know objective but also of course has my enthusiasm for these topics infused in there

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so that's kind of a long long arc of me and how I got to and I still do a lot of film and music writing I'm actually working on some other projects with Toshin that are particularly our film books
so which is how I got in my first my first book with Toshin was actually with Dennis Hopper and that was about 15 years ago now and I did many book music and film books with them and then sort of had a relationship and so presented this idea to do this series this is sort of encyclopedia of Asa Territor traditions

(14:43):
what was like what does Hopper like I mean he seemed like an I don't I don't know if eccentric is the right word he didn't he seemed like he was a interesting guy right he seemed like an interesting guy like he wasn't sort of the standard Hollywood celebrity kind of guy from one little bit
I know of the man yeah what do you think yeah no he was incredible he you know he started his career in rebel without a cause

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became friends with James Dean and James Dean suggested if he wanted to direct to give to start taking photos and he was acting in a lot of things early on in his early 20s but also taking photos and also very involved with the art art scene here in Los Angeles

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and the book I worked with him on was his photographs from 1961 to 1967 where he was documenting really his world and it's just an incredible like fly on the wall of you know all these amazing artists all these amazing musicians people that were his friends people that he was curious about one of the things you know when I you know I had been a fan of his work

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and when I was asked to do the book I really kind of vowed that I would sort of you know stand at the feet of the master I'm really kind of listen and ask my own questions and learn from him and you know it was supposed to be a very quick three month job and it ended up being a three year became more and more involved in the process

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and it ended up being three years that we worked on the book and he passed about six months after the book came out so I was very fortunate to spend quite a bit of time interviewing him and going through his archives and one of the things that he still had and I think is a very important lesson that I learned from him is he had this deep curiosity about culture

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art about what was happening in the world culturally always throughout his life including when I was working with him in his 70s he was still an incredible collector of art had this incredible collection was still buying art from new artists was still traveling and going to all the galleries and museums and and still going to see the latest films and asking me what music I was listening to like the music

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and he was really curious about the world and I feel like as an artist as a creative it's so important to be looking outside of yourself and not also to be compartmentalizing a certain time period as like you know when the best stuff was happening he was kind of really awake to everything that was happening in the here and now as well as you know everything that it kind of fed into his own life and career

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and I just I think that that that was a really important thing to learn from him because he kind of grew up at a time where I think a lot of maybe of his peers or maybe even you know people of other generations kind of romanticize as like the coolest part music and the coolest films and and he he was like yeah we did all that but also there's so much amazing stuff happening now like and let's find it you know

(18:24):
so yeah he was he was wonderful I'm you know he's still out there you know I mean I don't know if I would be doing these books that it wasn't for that experience of working with him and with Toshin for such a long period yeah.
Yeah he you know they were speaking of like synchronicities I had a weird sync with him because not him but I was back in like 2017 I was researching Marjorie Cameron because I did a three part episode series on her because she's super fast and he's like he's one of the overlooked figures.

(19:02):
Yeah he's a little bit we always have a camera in there oh yeah I noticed I noticed I think there's a I think there's a image or two of her in spirit.
We are like what do we have from Cameron and of course we also have an image from night tide which is the film that I'm interested.
Yeah that's that's what I was going to say is I back when I read oh well I'm going back too far but I read a book it's kind of the seminal book about Marjorie Cameron I believe warm wood star and I I read about how she was in night tide by Curtis Harrington and I was done

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in the first starring film role I believe and I at the time was trying to find a copy of it I couldn't really find one I think maybe he was on eBay for a lot of money I was like alright whatever I guess I'm not going to watch it whatever it's fine.
And I'm a month or two later I find myself going to Las Vegas and I mean my buddy drove up to Rachel Nevada which is where the I don't know if you were where like the uofology stuff like Area 51 you know.

(20:06):
That's where the Area 51 stuff is and it's where like the legends like Bill Cooper we're doing lectures about UFOs and Bob Lazar and all that stuff yeah.
And we went to the little alien and when we were in there there's like a little hidden room and you open the door to this hidden room and there's a wall of VHS tapes and stare right at me right in the center is a copy of night tide I said this is so bizarre like it's just it was just a strange find.

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And that's Dennis and Cameron working together to the right people.
Yeah and my life's been so weird in that sense you know you're talking about how when you're a child you kind of have this I don't know ability to be in this liminal state of sorts and I I was I was grounded a lot as a kid so I spent a lot of time by myself and I I would sit in the yard and

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I would find just I wouldn't even sit in the yard I would just walk and I would find four leaf clovers just constantly all over the place and I used to save them I had I mean I must have 30 40 of these things just saved in a book and I lost the book but just weird stuff like that that I what I'm saying is I there is something to art and going to this other realm you know

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can't grant would say like you know artists can tap into like I don't know the mob zone or dark side of the tree of life all these kind of like strange ideas and I'm not and I'm and I want to talk to you about the occult real quick and and so
and I want to tell you who I am a little bit so we can have this conversation I I am not an occultist I do not practice I am extremely fascinated my whole life I've been completely fascinated with subcultures countercultures conspiracy theories UFOs I mean you name it like it's always been my interest I like to say what Mark Frost said he said I'm just a tourist here and I am orthodox Christian in orthodoxy there's a lot of there's enough mystical leaning

(22:07):
in orthodoxy that I find I find it to be very fulfilling in a way but I'm also a I'm also a bad boy I'm not a good Christian I'm a lukewarm Christian and I find a lot of these occult concepts and new age I read just countless new age books and and employed several practices that really were beneficial to my life I've had psychedelic experiences you know I've done I've been in the the new beaches of Maui doing drum circles

(22:36):
like I find all this hippie granola stuff that my religion would very much frown upon I find some of them to be very rewarding and I and I try to sort of keep it into perspective and my audience is comprised of there's there's it's a it's a even distribution I've got sort of your conservative Christians that that really condemn all this stuff then I've got sort of like occultist that really do occult stuff and then I've got people like me who are kind of in the middle and we're just fascinated we don't

(23:05):
we try not to pass judgment on one side of the other because what do we know who knows what's right but you know I'd like to hear your your take on all this on spirituality because you've obviously got a lot of interest in these same subjects I'm clearly right what your perspective on all this stuff and do you find that like for you does it does it just give you inspiration to create art or does it go further beyond that like what's your kind of you know what you're viable on all this

(23:34):
I would say both it's to me all creativity is sort of tabbing into you know whatever spirit or source means to you it's all sort of channel from somewhere and it's about sort of figuring out how to clear that channel and I think
and to sort of live in a way that feels aligned with who you are and the best version of who you are I was raised Catholic and very strictly Catholic I went to Sunday school and you know went to communion I had you know and abandoned that pretty quickly after leading the house

(24:22):
but I do find there to be valuable lessons and I you know I don't necessarily think that any religion you know I think it's it's to me the religion sort of western religion or standardized traditional religious structures they're all really rooted in

(24:49):
indigenous ritual that regarding by indigenous I mean every part of the world has an indigenous culture so in Christianity you're really talking about northern European and you know Celtic and druidic traditions that were then sort of woven into early Christianity

(25:13):
and that's historical and documented and you know a lot of our Catholic holidays are very much related and Christian holidays are very much related to druidic and Viking and Celtic holidays and the wheel of the year
and it's all really about a relationship that we have to the planet to you know earth and the seasons and marking the idea of death and rebirth and I am very much of the mind that all of these practices whether you want to get into you know astrology

(25:59):
hardcore or divination or you want to you know do a sound bath they all are just ways in and I think there's a new kind of idea of a new kind of seeking that's happening especially with the young people of sort of being able to integrate practices that help are helpful to you

(26:25):
and it doesn't mean that you have to abandon the religion that you were raised in the beliefs that you have it's just sort of being able to tap into different practices that help you to tap into self and also to feel as connected as you can to your community
and to be able to move to the world in a way where you are you know voicing who you truly are you know

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I'm with all that I think that like like understanding the practice of meditation in an occult sense you could argue that meditation is like yoga where you're yoking or unionizing to some other deity but for me
I do meditation so that I'm not a raging asshole to people and I find myself I'll know when I get to the point where I need to calm down and shut my brain down and do that sort of thing

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so yeah I don't know and that's why I said I'm probably a lukewarm orthodox in orthodoxy they're very
prayer is meditation you know the prayer the prayer beads of the Buddha is the rosary of the Catholics it's you know there's the prayer is meditation it's all what what helps you to tap into that space of

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otherness and a source of spirit you know yeah yeah and these are just these you wouldn't have the occult the hidden hidden without Christianity because Christianity is what it made a lot of this stuff sort of hide in the shadows so it's kind of like they they almost need each other you know

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we're well I feel like you know that you know a lot I say this a lot in the events and workshops and stuff that I do but I do think that one of the reasons these
ideas have been sort of hidden or made evil or scary is because they are very empowering particularly understanding yourself and understanding your relationship to the world in a way that isn't necessarily

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intertwined with the deity with a one god that's a very dangerous idea and people being individually empowered to be who they are and not necessarily needing to worship at the feet of a god head that's a very dangerous idea and I think that the last 2000 years

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particularly of Catholicism particularly of the patriarchy has made these ideas feel you know deliberately hidden these ideas away because you know astrology is about our relationship to the planets and the stars and very interconnected with astronomy it's thousands of years old it's probably

(29:44):
Persian and Chinese and its original form and then you have you know all sorts of goddess cultures and material cultures that preceded Christianity which you know led to the witch hunts and you know
so you have you know it's very empowering for women you know but then you will have incredible Christian mystics who are you have hildegard bonding on who was an abyss in the in a Christian mystic who you know really kind of I feel like any religion you're in you can find the mystics and the saints or the prophets who who were sort of

(30:32):
out of the boundaries of that rigid structure throughout history of whatever religion you may have been born into and I think that's also really important understanding the history and going deeper with the dogmas and where those dogmas may be are rooted I think is really important

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(31:26):
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to shift gears just a little bit because I'm I'm already looking at the time I'm like dammit I got to get through some questions you know I just want to talk to you about like I'm a I'm a total star fucker self self admitted when I when I look through your you've got a blog with your interviews I can't even the website escapes me what it's interviews with

(33:56):
I come interviews with icons not worth press dot com when I look through your interviews and your photos and you're hanging with you know some heroes of mine and Dennis Hopper and David Lynch and Glenn Danzig I don't know if he's a hero of mine necessarily but I I'm
absolutely in love with his music weird out yank of it I'm like I'm dying over here I'm like this is crazy and in 2015 you worked with David Lynch on a book called Beyond the Beyond

(34:25):
Beyond and when he died you shared a story I believe on your Instagram is where I saw it where you open the that book and this quote opened up to it it's the quote is one of the qualities of the ocean of pure consciousness within is creativity so within every human being there's unbounded infinite eternal creativity and and the reason I bring that up is because David Lynch has a very profound impact on my

(34:54):
life I didn't see it coming and and again I hate it I'm not I'll be quick I don't want to talk about me I want to talk about you but the the I wanted to talk to you about Lynch because war for years I started I started blogging about all this stuff in 2011 and for years everyone kept saying hey you got
to watch Twin Peaks and I I couldn't get into it I didn't like it I was like I don't know why do you want me to watch this it's boring I don't get it and then a couple years ago I got really sick and I was stuck on the

(35:22):
couch for months and I was like all right let's try this Twin Peaks thing and I watched it and had ups and downs for me and I parts of it I liked parts of it I thought was boring and I just was like I don't know I don't
know if I want to like talk about this because that it's so much but then my but then it got in my mind it got in my brain and I couldn't let it go and I just became I mean this is only two years ago I became obsessed with it I

(35:47):
were way late to the party but the thing that and I'm convinced that it's a connection of Mark Frost's occult studies mixed with David Lynch's ability to
present art on the screen in a way that talks to the subconscious whether it's from him tapping into this unified field of
consciousness and and this goes into a whole massive because I did a 55 55 episode deep dive into Twin Peaks all the books Kenneth Grant all kinds of stuff because it's it really for all these years I was like this is why

(36:22):
people told me to watch it right now I got like Twin Peaks tattoos and I got obsessed with it but anyway and then also like another strange thing is the day we had to put our our last Chihuahua we had to put her down
and it was very traumatic in our house and the morning we went to the yard to have to do it I was sitting there waiting for them to like kind of bring her out and I open my phone and it it was the same day David Lynch passed and I was like oh my God

(36:49):
it's the worst week of my life I was already in turmoil from everything else happening in the world anyway so you met David Lynch I'm assuming multiple times like what was he like was he a magician of some kind how do you think he's
able to do this thing how how does he capture so many people with this Twin Peaks and his other films as well like how what is so special and unique about him what do you think that is you know I I was

(37:17):
lucky enough to interview David several times over the years and the first time I interviewed him was for Mahal and drive actually and I I got to
spend time with him I got to spend time with the entire cast kind of interviewing all of them I can't I think it was for some big magazine but and you know he has had this incredible

(37:52):
very I mean this comes from a lifetime of being a meditator center direct focused kind of very open to intuition and he actually told me in that interview and and it was you know all of the actors also told me you know he

(38:21):
really cast that tone by intuition and he people would come in and they sit and he'd look at them and he'd be like okay yes or no no audition and it's kind of I mean it was Naomi what's it sort of break out roll she became a huge you know star she'd been
another thing but but you you his sort of intuitiveness and obviously there's there's people he worked with again and again like Kyle McLaughlin and but he really

(38:55):
worked from a place of pure intuition was very open to divine timing and if he saw sort of like he was on he had his eyes open to signs and he
weaves those sort of subconscious signs into all of his work I always tell people obviously catching the big fish his book on creativity is an amazing book and also I highly recommend listening to the audible because he reads it

(39:27):
and he also though had a sense of humor and he's also sort of when you as a journalist interviewing people it's and I'm working right now with Werner Herzog who is actually I mean they knew each other well and David produced a film of Werner's
on but Werner is the same in that he is presenting a little bit of a meta version of who he is when he's talking about you know and David had the same David was playing David Lynch you know so he had a great sense of humor and you can kind of hear in the audible version of catching the big fish him laughing a little at himself you can hear in his voice that he's laughing at what he's written

(40:16):
not in a way of like the sparaging but like there is this sort of the trickster the whimsical mess him understanding that he has become known to be this sort of obtuse almost you know
this is sort of almost like Buddha laughing Buddha character you know and that that really it was it was so wonderful because for the books that I did with him which was about music and

(40:53):
and meditation and creativity and music in his films it I got to spend a lot of time with him and his compound that he had that had a screening room in a library and a music studio and a wood shop he was multi you know multi media art as he painted he welded he did all sorts of things and I kind of got a little bit deeper

(41:21):
because I was spending time with him not talking about film but talking about music and these things that were obviously he was creating but but were more he didn't have the sort of you know talking to a journalist about
Mahal and drive and kind of putting on this character of the David Lynch the director and he really at that point had gotten very deep he been doing meditation forever but he was had his foundation that teaches meditation for free and schools and to PTSD

(42:00):
you know veterans to and also to creative so even though it is T. M. he had founded his foundation so that he could offer T. M. basically for free to creative because he felt like meditation particularly for him T. M. was this way in and he wanted to sort of offer it without the dogma without

(42:28):
but my boy I was in the military with he's like the Mexican version of me he he actually got a scholarship and just completed the Lynch T. M. course maybe six months ago and he's been he's been doing I keep following him I'm like are you still doing it twice a day and he's like yeah I was like really I was like I find that so difficult because I'm interested but I also think like I don't know if I could do it I don't know if I could carve out twice a day like that you know what I mean

(42:56):
I've done all sorts of different meditations and I'd actually learn T. M. when it was still free in the early 90s at Harvard with a teacher that was teaching I was living in Boston I did it was going to college not at Harvard but at Emerson and had heard about this teacher who was teaching T. M. a friend of mine at the phone he was offering the classes for free

(43:20):
and I went and they gave me a mantra and they they you know and I really liked it but I just now I lost you know I kind of lost the habit and the night I've done all sorts of I'm also the same way of as you know I was saying about religion where I feel like finding the meditation practice that works best with you and also mixing it up and not feeling like you have to do meditation

(43:48):
can be anything walking meditation a guided meditation a sound bath you know but I do I really do when I am doing T. M. regularly I definitely notice a clarity and a centeredness
and I when I did the book which was many many many years later I traded my you know editorial fee to basically the book was was done in limited edition as a fundraiser for his foundation so I traded to learn with with at his foundation here in Los Angeles to learn T. M. and I didn't tell them that I had already learned it

(44:36):
and I asked them I said how many mantras are there and they said it's like an aviuretic thing it's it's based on when you were born and your interest and if you're a botter Pitta it's like there's about 30 mantras and they gave me the same mantra
yeah yeah which I thought was so amazing you know and it's really the mantra is just a sound it's a sound meditation really T. M. so it's a it doesn't mean anything it's a made up tone that is specifically supposed to be helpful for you specifically that's why there's like 30 of them to just tap in

(45:20):
and and the mantra is just about you know repeating it so you can kind of stop thinking and drop in you know and it's yeah
well let's let's talk again I got to keep going
and I'm actually I'm thrilled by your answers here the books that you've been working on the library of esoterica you also are working on I believe in September releasing a Manley P. Hall Secret Teachings of All Ages reprint with Toshan

(45:56):
it's a second edition we actually released the first edition which is a replica of the original edition last year two years ago and it is sold out so we are doing a second edition and then hopefully I wrote a companion book as well that comes in it's like a giant massive package

(46:22):
hopefully we are going to do a more affordable companion book the companion book I did is kind of like a cliff notes version and it has a really wonderful essay by mitoroids who is an amazing
occult writer and scholar and and I wrote an essay about the inception of the book how the book was born through Manley's travels around the world in the 1920s and I work quite closely with the philosophical research society here in L.A.

(46:58):
which is Manley founded in 1930s as a campus for philosophical thought and learning it has the largest collection of philosophy and occult books in the US it's an incredible space
and so when I started working on the library of esoterica the first book I went was to the philosophical research society and they have an original edition of Secret Teachings

(47:26):
the book is out in a million different forms it sold millions of copies around the world but the original edition is this massive tone with these incredible illustrations
done by an artist called J.Nap who also painted like the crazy oil painted backgrounds for like Cecil B.D. Mill in the 20s he was a set painter

(47:50):
it's a very Hollywood GNO story and so Manley had him paint these incredible paintings and he basically did like early kickstarter version he had subscribers he had about 500 subscribers who paid $100 each in advance to help pay for the printing of the book

(48:16):
and so there's only about 400 copies in existence they are utterly beautiful and I brought Benedict caution the owner of Toshin to the library and said there's only 400 of this version of this book
who better than you to make a new edition and so we got to work with the library who they had all of the original paintings in their vault of the illustrations so we photographed the original

(48:56):
paintings the book comes with the Toshin edition comes with these beautiful prints and then the companion book also comes with this companion book which has my essay and Mitch's essay these kind of clip notes versions of every chapter but then a lot of amazing art that was created the book that never made it in

(49:18):
so it's it mainly has been a really sort of guiding spirit for me for for library of esoterica each of our each of our books ends with our kind of mission statement called for the seekers it's the same in every book the last page of every book
and it sort of talks about you know that these books are introductions they're sort of the key to these worlds and to encouraging people to kind of go and find what resonates with them

(49:54):
we and and manly was very much that he was not guru he was not it wasn't ever about him it was about presenting these ideas discussing them finding the philosophies that felt the most resonant
and the books and with a quote of his which is you know to be in the world without being curious and aware of the world is like being in the world's greatest library and never opening the book

(50:28):
yeah that was a fascinating quote I had never heard that before I saw that in the back of the book here
and something else in the book the okay there's two things that kind of connect here because I was reading through your interview with Glenn Danzig and I don't know how far back I'm going with that interview but the there was a discussion in there about how you made a comment about how at concerts a lot of people are like kind of watching through their phone

(50:59):
like it's a younger generation thing you know I was I was born in 79 so I was I was raised without a smartphone so I also feel the same way I don't go to many concerts but I feel the same way I think it's so weird like watch the show like why you recording it but I saw something that when I was reading through Spiror worlds there's a quote or a yeah quote by tree car about how

(51:25):
there's you know this this hip-ni-gogic state of sort of creativity sort of creative space and how society is increasing all of our brain activity which is making it harder to transition from these sort of busy beta wave states to this slow
or theta state this hip-ni-gogic state which is very much a realm of I would say the artist is that is that something that that resonates with you do you think that all of society is kind of over anxious and and maybe that's a because I do think that there is something to being a creative because I consider myself a creative of sorts I'm creating content and things and writing books

(52:10):
and watching Twin Peaks as dumb as this sounds like watching Twin Peaks as really and then reading about several of the sort of actors and all the sort of attitudes that went into Twin Peaks it really made me start trying to lean into tapping into more of my artistic sort of channels
what do you think about that with modern society is that is that something you see happening or people like less creative now than they were in the past

(52:38):
I would say they're as creative but despite despite it all I think that we are absolutely you know all of us just bombarded by information I think it's an incredible thing in some ways I mean many many many of the artists contemporary artists in our books

(53:07):
we have found through Instagram through their Instagram beads and not through there you know a lot of them don't have galleries you know and they're able to make a living with their work through their Instagram
I think the connection that that that Instagram and that social media offers for artists is very empowering I think allowing it's also revived the careers

(53:35):
and of you know someone like a Leonora Carrington or a Helma off-clinked or you know it's it's been this beautiful medium for the message to spread about art from the past
and for me as someone who is trying to cure a world and share it it's been in a powerful tool but I also think that it is you know that we are overloaded

(54:03):
with media and information and you know it is as simple as turning off your phone and putting your feet in the grass and connecting with nature and connecting with each other in real life as much as possible
and with food and with our senses and with our bodies I think that and and having you know experiences like a live concert and experiencing it directly without the phone in the air

(54:42):
and I think that that it's really important for us to be able to find ways to find a balance between the things and to come back into our bodies really
I feel like it's almost like a I feel like it's almost like a I did a whole deep dive into dark enlightenment and the philosophies of accelerationism

(55:05):
there's some elements of the accelerationism that I see and I'm like there kind of might be right where the idea of sort of like this hyper capitalism thing has has sort of warped our experience of what we're what we're intended to be here to do
and I do I do anyway so the one I wanted to if someone's watch if anyone's watching the video version of this podcast on page 353 there's a nice art from Mark Rogers who you were mentioning about Instagram

(55:35):
and I've got one of his reprints on my wall behind me on the you can see it all shot but you got a ton of great art in here and I I I saved a whole bunch of images on my computer because I'm going to try to get some prints to put on my studio walk is my wife and I always talk about how like there's a certain sort of vibe I'm looking for an artwork and I don't know how to find that vibe like just searching around the internet

(56:01):
you've curated quite a list here and I said holy crap this is exactly what I'm looking for so yeah these books are amazing and the the we're at a time so but I do want to I do want to get into what projects you're working on right now what's what's coming up next for Jessica Hundley
well we are currently working on the seven volume of the series so spirit world is the six and the seventh will be mystical beast so which I'm very excited about and we are also we just the first two just you know of the pocket additions of the book which I'm very excited because they're sort of not five

(56:45):
hundred pages there two hundred pages there edited down pocket additions still hardcover of tarot and astrology which were the first two books those are coming out or maybe are on the shelves now
and it's great because you know the books are only forty dollars which we very specifically wanted the books to be beautiful and but not crazy expensive

(57:10):
and these are even better sort of these like appetizers the twenty twenty dollar books that I really want everyone to be able to have access to these books and to the art and to the ideas inside them so so we're working on the pocket additions for the second two of the series which is which craft and plan magic

(57:35):
so those are becoming out and then I we're doing a ton of live events and retreats and the community around library of us terraca really kind of trying to take it into real life experiences and gatherings and workshops and all sorts of fun with the with this library of us terraca

(58:00):
so interesting what where can we find more about the the yeah we actually just we just have we just put up our website so we now have officially have a library of us terraca website the library of us terraca dot com and then we also just started a newsletter which we will be it's free you can sign up via Instagram or website and

(58:28):
it'll have all the stuff that we're doing but it also have you know we have so many incredible artists like mark contemporary artists and practitioners like tree car who are doing stuff all over the world trees based in London I think mark is in Seattle so we try to do an event listings that's like mark has a show up if you're in Seattle trees doing a workshop in the UK

(58:57):
so kind of to make sure that we're supporting all the amazing people who have contributed their work because they're all doing incredible things all over the world so that's sort of the reason for the newsletter is really to kind of spread the word for all our artists and let them know they can send us dates and times and yeah

(59:19):
that's great I'm definitely signing up for that newsletter now that is something else that I found interesting because I published my own books through I self published every book I've written through Amazon yeah I don't know how on the hell you guys are able to print this beautiful massive I mean this this it's a hardcover book with full color images I don't know how this thing comes out to 40 bucks that's a steal

(59:40):
yeah it's it's Tashin being very very nice and that it that tell them thank you the Tashin does not make they only make the most beautiful books yeah I want I want to get their shining book yeah yeah it's like we're incredible
so tell us where they can find you and your books where you like them to go for that kind of thing yeah if you go to our Instagram there's actually a link tree on the Instagram and if you buy the books through there you're buying it through my affiliate link which which we donate all the money to

(01:00:22):
that or which is works with children and women around the world who are in war zones or hungry or poverty it's like you know 100 year old nonprofit charity so we give we give any of the affiliate money from if so if you buy them through the library of esoterica through either

(01:00:44):
our website or Instagram link tree then we'll give anything that we get from those sales to also I'm going to put a I'm going to put a link in the show and I love that I love that that's one of the things that you know when when I'm trying to
because this is sort of a show business thing I do and there's this business side of it like I've got to make my time worth the money that I'm spending on stuff and that's one takeaway I had from that inspired me from David Lynch is like sometimes it's not about that sometimes it is about just giving back and just sharing this thing that you love and that's and that's one of the things I'm trying to lean more into and quit being so like so like obsessed with like well I got a I got a

(01:01:28):
I got to make sure I'm inking out the right profit on this time and look at you know it really takes the joy out of it and it does like it's apps the joy out of it and I think that's beautiful that you you have that um that affiliate link for care dot org so I'm I'm going to put a link in the show notes for the library of esoterica website and the library of esoterica Instagram which is where and then I can even just get the link tree from that library of Instagram

(01:01:56):
yeah yeah then I can give you the links for the for our for our email sign up to love it love it thank you so much for your time it's been a real joy talking to you I've had I've got a hundred more questions but I'm going to respect your time and let you go so thank you for joining us appreciate you
thank you

(01:02:20):
there you go you want to get the books which I highly recommend I'm going to put a in fact I am working on by the time I get the show out I might have it done I'm working on a set of links for all of the books that I recommend to people and this is going to be on there the library of esoterica books they're amazing our work inside of it interesting

(01:02:42):
so you can get the books and you can just follow the library of esoterica on Instagram and hit their link tree pick up the books and the Tosh and libraries amazing too by the way if you're interested in like they got a book on the shining and that mainly be haul reprint crazy stuff I mean beautiful books so you can check out the Tosh and website for more on that stuff too

(01:03:04):
so yeah thanks again for just for joining us this was a super fun interview I love it anytime I can get get into the granola inner works of the the the artist mind which is always real fascinating for me so lots of links lots of things check out thanks again for listening till next time stay positive

(01:03:28):
I'm your host is wise I'm actually not going to take you down grifter I like today sort of if you like the show I put on and enjoy the journey of research we go on to try and make sense of this world full of unsavory characters all trying to make you believe in their versions of reality which are often funded by corporate slave masters foreign governments or political and religious agendas then I'm calling on you to help me get our word out there I need you to leave a five star review for my podcast right now

(01:03:56):
Now, as long as you're not driving, I need you to literally pull your little phone out
of your pocket or your purse while I'm talking to you, and click on that five star rating
or review button.
If you've got the time, I'd love to read a little blur about what you like or dislike
about the show, but beggars can't be choosers, so I'll be thrilled if you can just leave
a five star rating right now.
On whatever app this convenient apple is kind of the most popular app, so that would be

(01:04:19):
ideal, but again, whatever app you're using is great.
Just keep this easy for you.
I ask this because I oftentimes see one star reviews from people who either disagree
with me or don't give the show a reasonable effort.
And trust me, it's not easy having an opinion that goes against the grains of the normies
or even a lot of the truthers because I find myself in a very peculiar position where I

(01:04:42):
don't fit in entirely in either world.
Like I always say, I'm a one man army behind the scenes doing everything.
So normies are too close-minded, truth or sometimes too biased, so I'm stuck eating up all
these one star reviews and it hurts the show.
And the only way to combat that is for you to leave a five star rating or review right
now.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your support and listenership.

(01:05:03):
I would not be doing this show without you.
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