From Chaos Magick to Eastern Orthodoxy: The Spiritual Life of Michael Witcoff
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- Michael Witcoff (alias @brotheraugustine ) is an author and oblate of the Eastern Orthodox faith. He shares about his path from atheist Jew to pick-up artist and dabbler in chaos magick, to a life of devotion to the Christian faith. He's got a lot of work out there so do check him out via
/ @brotheraugustine
/ brotheraugusti2
Michael's books: bit.ly/3QDGNVS
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Find all interviews on spotify: spoti.fi/3px5WnK
/ benjaminboyce
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And on Twitter @BenjaminABoyce
What happened to the latest video? Has it been taken down recently?
UA-cam declared it misinformation and locked my account for a week.
@@BenjaminABoyce Is your podcast available on other platfroms such as spotify?
Yes! Find links in the description of every video and on my about page :)
@@BenjaminABoyce Thanks a lot!
Unfortunately, this also happened to one of the JP's conversations with Helen Joyce. It was removed and labeled as hateful.
Was baptized this year! 🕯🕯☦🕯🕯
Glory to God! ☦️❤
🙏🏻☦️
God grant you many years!
Many years 🎉
Benjamin is a great host. Excellent at what he does, and I’m grateful for the wide range of guests he invites onto his channel. We all have things to learn from each other. Well done
Agreed
Im to be baptised in November after nearly a year as a catechumen! This was a really great interview, thank you Benjamin
Next you should have Jay Dyer on! Writings of the Elite and Eastern Orthodox theology and church history would be a great convo topic!!!
Definitely have Jay Dyer on. He also has great takes on the same things James Lindsay has been diving in to.
Dyer is a must have interview at this point. NEED THIS!
Excellent guest! You might be interested in talking to the priest he mentioned, Fr Josiah Trenham. He's very articulate and quite spicy. Even if its not a recorded interview, I think you'd like bouncing ideas off him
God bless from an American ortho convert and calmversation fan ☦
☦️I’m praying for you Mr. Boyce that god may edify your work abs your life! You’ve done much to give a microphone to the dissenters of our day. God bless☦️
Really liked Michael’s discussion of couples, children and God’s providence 👍
I still cant get over how Ben's 47. He doesnt look anywhere that old
I thought he was closer to my age. Then I was like wait, inappropriate for me to (amicably) troll this middle age dude's channel usually, switching to sincerity mode.
Because he’s a manchild
@@jcdenton2907 bro you have an egirl pfp
It's called _Just For Men_
Always interesting talks, even when I don't agree 100% w/ the guests positions, always food for thought. Thanks for sharing.
So excited to listen. Love the Boyce of Reason and love Brother Augustine!!!
Benjamin you're the man. An excellent host and orator. You have the most nuanced discussions in my media diet and I appreciate the hell out of it. I highly admire you and am rather peeved at your recent banning. You're in my thoughts and prayers. Keep up the good work. 🙏
Very grateful for these kind words, Travis!
Growing up Roman Catholic we never really prayed to saints, we studied them as examples of strong Christians from all walks of life. You can always find a saint out there who had a very similar life to yourself. Roman Catholicism is a broad tent as they say. Admittedly a lot of your more folky Catholicism seems to flirt with paganism. You definitely develop a strong reverence for Mary being Catholic. I can understand how a lot of it seems pretty weird to Protestants. I imagine it’s similar with Eastern Orthodox. The core of my Christianity is based on my personal relationship with Christ and regularly reading the gospels. The way I see it, no denomination is going to get it completely right. Definitely want to learn more about Eastern Orthodox and their saints/church doctors. Enjoying the conversation 👍
ua-cam.com/video/-4IletJ7-Tw/v-deo.html
@@charliechapman_ I posted link hidden to a Simpsons clip where Marge goes to Protestant heaven, Homer goes to Catholic heaven, and hijinks ensue. Also someone posted a black heart, and I linked to Blackheart by Hunters, the last Brooklyn band that nvr made it.
John 19:26-27: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Orthodox continue the apostolic faith and regard Jesus’s mother as their mother…and the commandment of God is to honor your mother
Luke 1:46-55
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Even as a Protestant you have to admit she is pretty special to have been chosen to bear the Messiah, and not just a human Messiah but the eternal Word of God becoming human in and through her
You actually did it! Thank you soooo much. I'm sorry if I pestered you too much. But I just knew it would make for a great conversation :)
I've listened 2x - Brother Augustine has inspired me to research Orthodoxy, which always seemed mystical and woowoo to me. I was SO wrong about that. Halfway though the Becoming Orthodox audiobood and have downloaded Fr. Trenham's Rocka and Sand to listen to next. Will be contacting a parish to get more info.
Glory to God 🙏🏻☦️
My favorite thing to listen to while I was inquiring (and still today) was Orthodoxy Live, on AFR... it's just an open Q&A with a really kind and thoughtful priest, and listening might not answer any specific question you had, but will will give you insight into *how* the Orthodox tradition approaches real-life problems, and help you understand and begin acquiring that mindset.
One of my favorite professors at Hillsdale College was Fr. Andrew Cuneo, who was back then a clean shaven Stanford and Oxford educated literature professor rather than his current bearded Orthodox form. Although I had to correct him in arrogant undergraduate fashion on some things regarding French symbolist poets, he was a good egg and one of the nicest people I have ever met. I ended up marrying a Russian from an orthodox Christian family and got to visit some churches in Russia including the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg, a church built at the site where the last of the Romanovs were brutally killed by the Bolsheviks. I’m an atheist myself, but I think if I were to become religious I would lean in the direction of Eastern Orthodoxy. They seem to have something going on in which is somehow more humble and at the same time pious and traditional than other sects. You can find a video on YT of Fr. Andrew if you search “Andrew Cuneo Remembering Paradise”. It is worth a watch.
I know Father Andrew. He’s an excellent priest.
The "Puppies are cute"/BLM analogy was pretty good. Thanks BA
🙏🏻☦️
I'm 32, I'm starting to get the impression that I'll get sucked into a Postmodern pseudo religious vortex in a few yrs lol.
Digging the spiritual exploration the last number of months, Mr. Benjamin. To many have forseken spirituality and faith for daddy interwebz😿
It's all about pluralism kitty, you dig?
@@helenablavatsky9136I've only ever known cats to dig for one reason…
@@helenablavatsky9136 ..Oh, yes... The Kitty digs 😸
@@miroirs-jumeauxpoopin?
Onlinenism is a work in progress, but soon you'll see the light at the end of the optic cable. Everything must be connected - E-ve-ry-thing.
Have been enjoying your show since your Evergreen series and followed you over to Spotify!
Very edifying and informative. 👍
Great conversation, Benjamin! Also, the digital gestapo removed your other recent video. :(
Yep. And they've locked my account for a week.
They try ta make Ben go ta re-education camp, he say no, no, no.
"Kamp" re-education 🤪 and courses 🖥️for dissidents, about what is politically correct🦋😁 and 🙈🙉stupid🐷🛂🛃💭
Great show.
Witcoff is 100% right on the complete lack of evangelism in Orthodoxy. Im much more in line with it than Protestantism but the Prots evangelize much more effectively by far. For goodness sake we even have a Greek Orthodox in the comments saying you can be "culturally Orthodox" and not be into the "religious side" and thus it's not our business whether they are religious or not. Pure nonsense. How can you expect the Good News to spread with people like that?
There's truth to this. Religion is played out in ways more subtle than going to church or discussing theology. The reason Western people often envy the strong ethic of community and hospitality they see among Greeks, Poles, etc is that we're culturally Reformed Protestant while they are culturally Catholic and Orthodox. It creates a different culture, whether or not the people are overtly or deliberately observant.
Remember what criteria Christ said he would use to judge the sheep from the goats. It wasn't church attendance.
Of course it is true that all else being equal, practicing our faith in terms of prayer and worship makes us more sheeplike and not doing so makes us more goatlike. Any non-observant culturally Orthodox person could do better by starting to practice the faith they take for granted or don't even think about. But even so, they might already be doing better than I am.
Chaos Magic seems quite post-modern in it's practical and ad-hoc nature, but it's all about concrete work.
Your magic must result in a work of art. There's no other point.
May Pope Pete bless 50% of y'all with a fractal vision of your optimal future.
interesting guy, seems to have been all over the spiritual/religious world!
Uncle Benjamin! I am a Catholic who flirts with islamic thought - Arabi and what not ... if God is unlimited in the most absolute sense - then he can of course, transend his unlimitation into a limited form.. into a man. I hope you have touched base with the bridge between sufi thought and Catholicism in Meister Ekhart. Love ya uncle Ben! (To the degree a paeasocial relationship can allow and is appropriate)
Check out Jay Dyer's discussions on Catholicism and on Islam (start with as old as you can find on catholicism and then slowly move forward
It would be couple of weeks dive (depends on availability of your time) but it's gonna be worth it, really really really worth it
The idea that the Father-Source speaks the Word (Logos) by Breath (Spirit) and life happens
“Let there be light…” and there was light
And that these 3 are 1 divinity
Like many people are 1 humanity
Created in the image of God who is Trinity in oneness
So that “ God is love” (1 John 4)
eternally , even before creating the creation
A monad with no creation to love can’t love or be love
Trinity in oneness is Love
Michael Witcoff, I cant believe you're not Catholic yet brother. Still waiting for you on the Barque of Peter.
Benjamin looks like a man in his 30s, not 47!
Boyce! Please reach out to Scott Han!!! Have ALL your questions about Jesus and Catholic faith answered!!! This is NOT an interview suggestion. It’s a personal discovery suggestion. There’s not a better person for you to talk to than Dr Scott Han! 😘👍
☦️
Well, alright
We're jammin'
I wanna jam it with you
We're jammin', jammin'
And I hope you like jammin' too
Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow
I and I will see you through
'Cause every day we pay the price we're the living sacrifice
Jammin' 'til the jam is through
We're jammin'
To think that jammin' was a thing of the past
We're jammin'
And I hope this jam is gonna last
No bullet can stop us now, we neither beg nor we won't bow
Neither can be bought nor sold
We all defend the right, Jah, Jah children must unite
Well, life is worth much more than gold
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin')
And we're jammin' in the name of the Lord
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin') watda
Look out, we're jammin' right straight from yard
Singing, Holy Mount Zion
Holy Mount Zion
Jah sitteth in mount Zion
And rules all creation
Yeah, we're, we're jammin' (bop-chu-wa)
Bop-chu-wa-wa-wa, we're jammin' (bop-chu-wa)
See, I wanna jam it with you
We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin')
And jam down hope you're jammin' too
Jah knows I might have tried, the truth I cannot hide
To keep you satisfied
True love I know exist, it's the love I can't resist
So, jam by my side
- Bob Marley
47! You look 30.
🖤
ua-cam.com/video/cV-mt2G8dTs/v-deo.html
12:39 - Catholics do use Theosis, as well
~1h26 - The trend of Americans switching or picking & choosing their jurisdiction over church politics, simply because we can, is a big problem. It's a Protestant mindset, and foreign to Orthodoxy. If you lived in an Orthodox country like Greece or Romania, you wouldn't have the liberty to bail out and go to another jurisdiction when your Patriarch does something you don't like, because there isn't any other jurisdiction and Patriarch to go to. The Church is the Church, take it or leave it. This is how it's supposed to be, and hopefully someday will be in the West.
It's a far better spiritual discipline to stay obedient to the hierarchy when they do something you don't like, or even something objectively evil. God placed them in that position of authority, and they will be judged more harshly than anyone else if they misuse it. It isn't your responsibility, or your problem. In the past, lay people were under the authority of bishops who were actual heretics -- Arians, Nestorians, iconoclasts and so forth. Do you think that prevented them from being faithful Christians or from being saved? My repentance and how I treat my neighbor have nothing to do with what the EP, whom I have never met, is doing thousands of miles away. Even if a bishop tells me something wrong, and I follow it out of obedience, that is righteousness to me and greater condemnation to him. This is how Orthodoxy actually works, and once you understand and accept it, everything becomes a lot easier.
Wonder why he did deepen his understand of Judaism instead? There's a lot there.
Bc he’s not in rebellion with God
Around 46:00 you're speaking of intelligence as a double edged sword. And I agree, its an additional responsibility. Fulfilling what Christ said, "To whom much is given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48) Intelligence, academia and all that has it's place and it's helpful, but it's extremely overrated. We shouldn't be worship intelligence like we do these days.
No sex for old ppl. I'm sry dude, I can't stop trolling all the way through this one.
😂
Trust me, no Greek Orthodox person goes celibate unless they are coo coo.
You're far from banned.
Follow me on Spotify for this week’s episodes
Sort of sounds like Benjamin might be baha'i curious… 🕶️
Perfect.
😂
😂
Benjamin are you sure your stance on the whole religion question won't just be protestant unitarian?. Like there's a bunch of them like oneness pentecoastals and christadelphians.
Although those still generally still say Jesus is specially created or adopted by God. True and true just a prophet would be Islam tho you could circle back to something closer to Christianity, Protestant Deism with the view of Jesus as a Sage rather than a prophet.
I don't know if Benjamin understands the implications of what he's claiming to adhere to. You can't believe in "Islam" without deterministically endorsing the killing of non-believers and Jihad. Benjamin may as well become Gnostic on his spiritual journey. That's the path he's on. A never-ending journey of self-actualization. Unsatisfiable. Ben needs to engage in proper cross-paradign analysis instead of claiming to adhere to things he clearly doesn't and/or wouldn't participate in.
@@JordanX767 I'll just have to say, that Benjamin's response shows that true and true, he's a protestant that is his tradition at the end of the day.
@@JordanX767 Don't think I'd echo this exactly, but I was going to offer a vaguely similar critique in good faith, which I couldn't easily articulate. I would dial this back, I wouldn't skewer ppl for exploration. I find all metaphysical commitments fairly dubious tbh, but that's a somewhat separate issue. Plus not all Islam is violent Jihad, but yeah there's some connection, same for Christians and God Hates Fags type of stuff I guess. Cross-paradigm analysis, activates my nerd brain.
Aghh, the apparatchiks just took down your Canadian pandemic response video
I’m also banned from posting for a week
This sucks :( I'm guessing an appeal won't do any good
@ravencole8727 Nope. I’m banned for a week.
@@BenjaminABoyce Oh no! Sorry to hear that BB.
@@BenjaminABoyce are you duplicating at Rumble?
As is typical, conservative people of Abrahamic religions completely and conveniently misconstrue ontology/concept of God in ALL religions not Abrahamic. It almost seems deliberate and it's DEFINITELY deeply prejudiced and bigoted.
look up Joshua Schooping for the truth on EO theology
Schooping claims that at no point in his years-long seminary training was he introduced to the very basics of what Orthodoxy teaches on a number of topics, and it wasn’t until he’d been a priest for years and written several Orthodox books that he suddenly became aware of things that most people learn as catechumens. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that story seems reasonable.
I am Greek Orthodox. Now interview a Greek theologian. This guy is lacking in understanding on so many levels. He is kind of like a puritan. LOL. In regards to the BLM march, our archbishop was there right after George Floyd. We saw it as a stand against injustice. No one at the time knew that the founder of BLM was a Marxist or buying houses. Greeks don't want racism. Look at our history. We were the ones discriminated against (by Ottomans). So this is close to our hearts. Also, women are very valued in the Church. Who gave birth to Christ? People fast and go to church every day for two weeks for Mary.
BLM is overtly Marxist
I applaud your comments. But, please know, this, "No one at the time knew that the founder of BLM was a Marxist.." isn't true. You as most people, were probably sticking to CNN and all the other mainstream sources. I even lost a friend for telling him the truth of the misinformation he was being fed, right at the time the GF news was hot. This friend attacked me personally and destroyed a quarter century friendship over belief in fakenews. It is each person's RESPONSIBILITY and OBLIGATION to look for facts and truth and not rely on sources that have lied to them OPENLY for years and years. Problem is people don't ask the right questions in their own heads so any eediot on TV becomes believable to them.
"No one at the time knew" LOL
Speak for yourself.
Glad his eminence found time to march for Floyd in-between Pride parades
Speak for yourself. As a greek I've been nothing but embarrassed by that clown in NY. He's disgrace to the church wnd to Greece. As a greek he returned to Turkey to join their military. This was in the 80s just after all the strife with Cyrpus. All because he wanted his full Turkish citizenship.
As a Christian he forced his churches to not partake in pascha gatherings just weeks before we went out and march with a mask on for that obvious psyop.
Let's not even get into all his heretical statements about many religions lead to the same place or the virtues of pro choice. Or that demon temple at ground zero.
Interesting points, until he started promoting a theocracy. Ya, God forbid!
45:45 Rly appreciate this question. But I do not believe, you can have too high an IQ rofl.
I support the gays.
Yech! Homophobia is hard to hear…
From transition to orthodoxy, what idiocy
Tate isn't secular or a human trafficker, way to discredit yourself
Women lack virtue. Dam bro ur sleepin on the couch.
😂
We just had the Virgin Mary holiday. It's like Easter which means big! People fast. Before the 15th, the church has service once or twice a day. Who gave birth to Christ? Who is the mother of God? The church has respect for women. And our walls are lined with female saint icons. How does this guy not understand that?
@@wingedfire8339bc the word on the street is that Christians hate women and are only about controlling them. I got the same message for 20 years and was shocked to learn how wrong I was about it and that I accepted it as true
@@wingedfire8339 Wow that's quite the false dichotomy you've presented there. That we have female saints and the Theotokos does not mean you or most women in today's society are virtuous. What next? I'm a Saint because I have an icon in my house?
@@nikola9348 You can be a saint. Find out the requirements and go do it. OK.
good interview. but i would definitely be violently opposed to this dude's utopia.
violent opposition would not be allowed in my utopia 🙂
I assumed so, but when you say we would need to overthrow the constitution and foundations of this country for it to become Christianized in an Orthodox sense, I think that’s untrue and in creative. Remember Jesus said “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Orthodoxy is not wedded to monarchy or empire. It was in order to “seek first the Kingdom of God…” that so many desert saints fled the realm of “Christia empire”into the desert where they became spiritual warriors and lights to the world. And yes, there were others who became sanctified in the cities, including some emperors. But only by seeking the Lord’s reign, not man’s, and “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars (or Czar’s) and unto God what is God’s.” Orthodoxy has adapted to various historical / sociological conditions and contexts. Its mission though is not to establish any sort of political system on earth…including kingdom or empire. We shouldn’t confuse the history with the mission. Orthodoxy transformed the brutal Roman Empire into a more just and virtuous empire (not totally righteous and sinless, but less brutal and oppressive). It could have similarly positive transformative effect on the American Democratic Republic if this country were to become Christianized in an Orthodox way, to be infused with an Orthodox Christian ethos and spiritual life. The central teaching of Orthodox Christianity is, after all, divine-human communion in agape love. Why do you think the Holy Spirit couldnt transform the American democratic republic into a more just and virtuous version of itself as it did to the Roman Empire? There’s nothing inherently better or more holy or righteous or agapic about an imperial system. Orthodoxy is about rightly believing in and worshipping and obeying the true God and “God is love” (1 John 4). Right? It’s not about trusting in “princes and the sons of men in whom there is no salvation”? It is about seeking the Kongdom of God that is not of this world, that it may “come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
@@eyesee9715it’s ironically a very medieval & modern western approach to Christianizing the world. The Byzantine Empire wasn’t about conquering and imposing Christianity on people “for their own good” the way that Charlemagne or the Spanish colonizers were. Israel was not instructed to act that way toward its neighbors.
People must want to be in the Church. If they don’t want to be, we ought to look first at ourselves, not at them for the reason why.
Why are you whispering in my ear?
because i am a manchild, obvs
Yes, I love Paul Vanderklay. His Barbie video was masterful, and witty …Peter Pan for women