Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (photo from official website).
I really enjoyed the Hilaritas Press podcast with Oberson Zell-Ravenheart. He is the pagan author and leader who founded The Church of All Worlds, a religion based on Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Topics included "sharing water" with RAW (a reference you will get if you've read Heinlein's novel), Green Egg magazine, his correspondence with Heinlein, how paganism relates to the changing of the seasons, raising unicorns and more. He is an interesting and intelligent person. He didn't know Robert Shea well, but was good friends with Shea's widow, Patricia Monaghan. See the podcast website for useful show notes and additional information. Oberon hopes you'll consider picking up his latest book, GaeaGenesis: Conception and Birth of the Living Earth, which he considers his most important. He maintains a busy schedule of appearances; see the calendar on the official website.
6 comments:
View count super low for this one. Too bad. I'd happily have him on the pod again.
Well, I'm pleased to give the podcast some deserved publicity. And I did have the impression you could have gone on for two or three hours, and it would have continued to be interesting.
This was an absolutely fantastic discussion, thank you Mike for conducting it!
What a character, this Oberon.
On a related matter, I have been wondering. Do we know if Bob and Arlen had their relationship open at any point? I cannot recall RAW going in much details about what shape his relation with his wife took over the years. And if he wanted to keep that private, that is fine by me. But considering the time, place, and interests of the couple, not to mention the fact that they stayed together a long time, I see at least a possibility of them attempting to embody the free love ideals.
I appreciate the publicity boost, Tom.
I could have gone on quite a bit with OZ.
BTW, nice find on https://oberonzell.com/. Somehow I completely missed that for the show notes.
I remember being gutted when I read what they did to the Martian at the end of Heinlein's novel. So much so that I didn't read any more of his sci-fi. I probably read it when I was too young.
I think Cat Vincent wrote a book on religions which spring up from modern myths, but I don't think he ever finished it. I'm sure I read an article he wrote on the subject.
I've been getting back into Storm Constantine's fiction recently. I find her short stories to be especially captivating. I've been told she wrote a series of practical magical books based on her Wreaththu novels. RAW was an influence on her Inner Revolution book, albeit a minor one.
I like the idea of religions based on modern mythology. I imagine they attract people with a multi model agnostic outlook. They seem to have an aura of adult playfulness rather than childish superstition.
Thank you for the podcasts Quakenbush, and for the links here Tom.
Sent from Iain
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