The Mycelium Forum: “The Wholly Alien Other” With Richard Gavin & Naas Alcameth
This is The Mycelium Forum: open-ended conversations with occultists, authors, and artists working at the edges of what conventional thought is willing to address.
Tonight, I have two guests whose work has converged, in more ways than one, on the same territory. Richard Gavin is an acclaimed Canadian author and esoteric scholar. Naas Alcameth is a veteran black metal musician and occultist from Colorado, known for his work with Akhlys, Aoratos, and Nightbringer.
Both have appeared on this podcast individually. Tonight, for the first time, they appear together. They have also collaborated directly: Richard wrote the lyrics for “Through the Abyssal Door” on Akhlys’s 2024 album House of the Black Geminus.
The main topic of this panel discussion is theologian Rudolf Otto’s concept of the numinous:
simultaneously terrifying and magnetic, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. And at its furthest extreme stands das ganz Andere: the Wholly Other. Not merely unknown. Other in kind.
Episode length: 1 h 36 min.