I’m still pinching myself.

It was a couple years ago that my friend Ted turned me on to Rune Soup, Gordon White’s podcast about magic, culture, and the paranormal. I don’t remember which episode it was that Ted thought would be my jam. What I do remember is binge-listening for days, while I cooked dinner, while I did the laundry, whenever I had to drive places. “Holy shit,” says I. “There are some really smart people doing this magic thing.”

6 months later, I had gone to Readers Studio (the great tarot convention in New York) for the first time, I’d signed the contract for my first book on tarot, and I’d started the Fortune’s Wheelhouse podcast with Mel Meleen. Coincidence?

In retrospect, I suspect in some way Rune Soup provided the permission structure that allowed me to do the work I love and still feel “legit”. In that conversation were people who thought long and deeply about the nature of reality and weren’t afraid of sharing their opinions. And they were way too eloquent, way too thoughtful to be written off. But what I didn’t suspect was that someday, way sooner than I thought, I’d get the chance to talk to Gordon myself.

Talking voice to voice with Gordon was a lot like listening to the podcast - the questions were probing, the answers just beyond the reach of language, and I reckon I’ll be thinking about it for days. I’ll also need to write another book, I guess, so I can pick up where we left off some day.

Whether or not that happens is subject to the same questions of fate and agency that we tackle in the episode. Regardless, this has been a high point of my journey in divination and magic, and I’m grateful beyond measure.