Eccentric Circles

By: Evergreen Podcasts
  • Summary

  • Some periods, some cities give rise to ideas and circles of thinkers, that are both of the time and outside it. Machine Age London has had a deep legacy on all our lives - on matters as disparate as education, sex, drugs, yoga and rock ‘n’ roll.
    Evergreen Podcasts 2024
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Episodes
  • Episode 8: Drugs... and Rock 'n' Roll
    Dec 20 2024
    The legal situation around drugs was very different in London at the turn of the 20th century from what it is now. Opium was a go-to painkiller. And cocaine and cannabis products were also very widely available. In 1896, London hosted its first hallucinogenic trip when Havelock Ellis boiled up some peyote buttons in his flat. For Bohemian London, the time was ripe for experimentation. Later on, drug taking became a less socially acceptable pastime. But that didn’t stop Aleister Crowley who relished the notoriety. He took every drug going and wrote about it. In so doing, he set the scene for the drug cultures that followed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    44 mins
  • Episode 7: Sex Magic
    Dec 14 2024
    Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare are partially responsible for the development of what is known as sex magic. Crowley was, among other things, an occultist, an important figure in the propagation of yoga in the West, a conjurer of demons, and a heroin addict. He enjoyed a licentious, all encompassing sexuality. His law, “Do What Thou Wilt,” has arguably become the dominant way of seeing relationships between consenting adults today. Spare began his career as a child prodigy, an incredibly talented artist who as a teenager was exhibited in the Royal Academy. Yet he claimed to have been sexually initiated by a South London witch, a descendant of the Salem witch trials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • Eccentric Circles: Back soon!
    Nov 11 2024
    We'll be covering the modern holy trinity of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, along with other more traditional religious devotion. We'll look into the popularity of the occult and its lasting legacy. And we'll be asking: "Where better to escape to: the future, full of progress and space travel, or to the comfort of the past?" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 min

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