Casual Temple

TRANSCRIPT

(Transcript is auto-generated; errors are unintentional.)

00:00:04 Merrily

Welcome to Episode 40 of Casual Temple, and I'm your host, Merrily Duffy. Here at Casual Temple, we are discovering our connection to the unseen world of spirit, and how that empowers us to know our true selves. Want to support the show? It's simple, subscribe and leave a star review on your favorite podcast platform.

00:00:20 Merrily

Or you can go to the casual temple donation page on Red Circle, LinkedIn. The show notes below. We love to hear from you, so drop us a note on casualtemple.com. Your feedback means the world to us. You can also join our mailing list for the chance to win a free or a reading with me. Merrily we select a winner every month and your name stays in until.

00:00:36 Merrily

Win this episode I got the delightful opportunity to chat with the foolish fish himself, Denis Poisson.

00:00:43 Merrily

Denis is a YouTube creator with an incredible channel dedicated to all things magic and esoteric. In our conversation today, Denis will share how he got into this field, his journey of discovery that started when he was just a kid, exploring different religious texts, and how he was drawn to the esoteric side of spirituality.

00:00:59 Merrily

We'll discuss his personal experiences and the inspiration behind his Foolish Fish YouTube channel. We get into his daily practices, including the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram and daily planetary rituals, and he has built an incredibly supportive online community for those interested in the occult, esoteric, and magic. And I'm so excited to have him here to share his insights with all of you.

00:01:19 Merrily

Day here on the Casual Temple. We'll see you on the other side.

00:01:25 Merrily

The casual temple.

00:01:27 Merrily

Today, I'm so excited to have Denis Poison, also known as foolish fish, to some of you who is joining us on the casual temple, Denis has built an amazing YouTube channel where he delves all things esoteric from book reviews on the occult to fascinating insights on the mystical and magical traditions, and he is also the author of Hidden.

00:01:47 Merrily

Pass with, which offers a grounded and pragmatic approach to exploring the mystical and magical traditions of the East and West. That's not all. Denis has also created a divination deck.

00:02:00 Merrily

Foosh fishes folk and fairy tales, cards of fate and fortune, which blends divination with timeless wisdom of traditional fairy tales. Denis, welcome to the casual temple.

00:02:11 Denis

Hello, Merrily. Thank you so much. What? What a lovely introduction.

00:02:16 Merrily

You. Yes, you have so many cool things that you do. I was like I.

00:02:20 Merrily

Gotta fit it all in here, right? Right.

00:02:24 Denis

Do you know I was counting a couple of years ago and I had got up to 27 jobs.

00:02:32 Denis

Yeah, that, that I'd had in my life. Yeah. So, yeah, I like to do a lot of different things. I like variety, that's for sure.

00:02:34

Wow.

00:02:38 Merrily

Yes.

00:02:41 Merrily

Yeah, ohh my gosh. Do you mind sharing if you've done your human design, what your design is or have you not done it yet or?

00:02:49 Speaker 3

My human design I no, no, I'm. I'm done it. No, no, no.

00:02:53 Merrily

You haven't done yet. Oh.

00:02:55 Merrily

I'm gonna say you're a manifesting generator cause I feel like I am one and.

00:02:59 Denis

That sounds good.

00:02:59

So.

00:03:01 Merrily

Done a lot of different things, but so I'll just just chat about how I kind of like found you, which was really, and I say this like the halcyon days of 2020, sort of as having my own personal sort.

00:03:15 Denis

Right, right, right, right.

00:03:21 Merrily

My husband and I have called 2020 like the Magical Mystery tour cuz literally all sorts of kooky things were happening on the mystical bent and I don't think we were alone in that.

00:03:28

Yeah.

00:03:33 Merrily

But you know, I started reading some magical texts and that that set me off on a path and of course reading those books and you're like, which books should I get? And then, you know, what's your channel comes up with your like? Wonderful reviews. And I like in hidden paths that you mentioned, like the reason one of the reasons that you started doing.

00:03:51 Merrily

Your channel was because of these books and they're so beautiful. But are they?

00:03:56 Merrily

Are they worth?

00:03:57 Merrily

The read are they worth the investment? Are.

00:03:58 Denis

That's right. That's right.

00:04:00 Merrily

So yeah, it's such a really great boon and really cool thing that you do for the community. And so thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:04:07 Denis

Ohh that's that's.

00:04:08 Speaker 3

That.

00:04:09 Denis

It's very touching. Thank you, Melina.

00:04:11

I.

00:04:11 Denis

Appreciate that.

00:04:11 Merrily

Yeah. And I didn't even go into like, you know, being on your discord. And I, you know, joined your discord in November 2020, and you've made such a wonderful community. And so I think anybody who's looking trying to figure out what this, you know, magic or what books to get, whatever. Like, I think it's a great community to consider.

00:04:30 Denis

I appreciate that merrily. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think that that communities actually, probably the thing that I'm.

00:04:38 Denis

Actually, they're happiest, I mean, happy about the whole thing. Of course I am. Are you kidding? But but the the the Discord community is really. I'm so happy about that. Because everyone's just so cool. Yeah.

00:04:50 Merrily

Yeah, everybody's cool you you set really good ground rules for the conversation.

00:04:57 Denis

Ohh yeah those rules.

00:04:58 Denis

Are very stripped up. They. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yes. Yeah.

00:04:59 Merrily

I love them, love. I love those rules.

00:05:04 Merrily

I've I've probably broken some of them in the past, but everybody, everybody's here. But yeah, it's it's wonderful. So thank you.

00:05:08 Denis

Yeah. And everyone survived. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:16

Ohh.

00:05:19 Merrily

Well, gosh, we usually you know here we kind of start with wherever you feel led to say is your story that you kind of want to share.

00:05:28

So.

00:05:28 Denis

My story, my story. Like how did I get here?

00:05:32 Denis

Like.

00:05:32 Merrily

How did you get here? So simple a question.

00:05:36 Denis

I guess in at some point in late 1978, my my parents. No, no, maybe not that far.

00:05:44 Merrily

Maybe not that far.

00:05:49 Denis

But but actually maybe not so very far from there, because it's it's really my experiences of becoming aware of the fact that I was an awareness at around the.

00:06:03 Denis

Age of 2.

00:06:05 Denis

And being completely freaked out that I had no way of finding out where I had been prior to asking these questions like prior to being here like, OK, so but two years ago.

00:06:19 Denis

Presumably I wasn't here, right? So I've got my second birthday. Fine. Yeah, but.

00:06:25 Denis

What was before then? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So. So I guess that's really what started it all off. And it's been a a life of research ever since, just trying to work it out, being very disappointed that my parents didn't have the immediate answer that I was looking for.

00:06:46 Denis

And then and then going, oh, yeah, but actually nobody else has either. So fine, I'll do my own research. Fine.

00:06:51 Merrily

Yeah.

00:06:57 Denis

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess I I it's. I've spoken about this in a in a in a few interviews. So sorry, sorry if I if I'm repeating myself a little bit, but it's actually illegal in France to talk about.

00:07:16 Denis

Religion in school.

00:07:19 Denis

UM comes from the French Revolution, the separation of church and state, and so on. And so one of the agreements was that schools would not talk about religion. That's why actually, kids get Wednesdays off in France, they get Wednesdays off to go to catechism to learn their religion from outside of school.

00:07:39 Denis

I didn't go to catechism. I went to.

00:07:42 Denis

Various other arts and crafts lessons and stuff, but but yes, we were. They were allowed some and my teachers did talk about the ancient religions because they were presenting this in the.

00:08:02 Denis

The framework of anthropology, right? So this we're talking about the the history of the world rather.

00:08:08 Denis

And belief systems, right, which which is no taboo. You don't talk about that at school.

00:08:14 Denis

So.

00:08:15 Denis

But hearing about the the Egyptian religions hearing about the the Greek religions and so on.

00:08:23 Speaker 3

Yeah, that that at that.

00:08:25 Denis

Point there was like a a bit of a.

00:08:28 Denis

This is fun. I like this like it was the first time that I went home and actually thought.

00:08:35 Denis

Looking forward to doing this homework kind of thing, right? Right, and.

00:08:42 Denis

Generally I was surrounded by atheists. My parents broadly call themselves Christian. My my father, I guess, thinks of himself as Christian because he lives in this Christian civilization, which is, you know, fair enough.

00:09:00 Denis

My mother was brought up in the Church of England, but there were, you know, we went to church once a year or twice a year or whatever it was, you know, the usual fare.

00:09:09 Denis

And UM, so I.

00:09:11 Denis

Being surrounded mostly by atheists and being in a in a community where talk talking about religion was not something you did didn't really question it until I was 19. At which point, yeah, I picked up a Bible in order to say that I knew what I was talking about when I said that I was an atheist, right?

00:09:32 Denis

I was like, OK, I need to to be able to to back up my claims and so. And so I did, I read the I read the Bible when I was at university.

00:09:46 Denis

Having very little else to do and and I.

00:09:52 Denis

Found it to be absolutely worlds apart from what I had assumed it was going to be and worlds apart also from what the organizations that claimed to represent, what it contained were suggesting that it contained right here it was just.

00:10:14 Denis

What I was reading was not what the church is that I then subsequently visited were were teaching. I was. I couldn't find a church that actually spoke about what I'd been reading in the actual book. So I thought, you know what? Maybe.

00:10:32 Denis

Maybe it's the answers aren't in the churches. Maybe they're.

00:10:36 Denis

The the, the, the.

00:10:39 Denis

Very strong indication that organized religions are the problem that that that actually Jesus got into to, to trouble for, right. Maybe maybe that was actually a clue and. And so I decided that, yeah, maybe the esoteric forms of the religions.

00:10:50

Mm-hmm.

00:10:59 Denis

Ohh what time?

00:11:00 Denis

And what I could be interested in right? And if I was so wrong about Christianity, maybe I was wrong about Islam as well. So I read the Koran and maybe I was wrong about all the other religions. Right? So I went through a A a phase of learning everything that I could about Buddhism and everything that I could about Judaism and so on, so forth and.

00:11:21 Denis

Finding that, excuse me, and finding that all of these religions had esoteric forms.

00:11:29 Denis

Which ultimately had very similar messages and that got me interested. That got me really, really interested, and that's when I read Aldous Huxley's the perennial philosophy and just fell in love with that whole idea of of of.

00:11:47

Of.

00:11:47 Denis

Common themes.

00:11:50 Denis

Which is natural of course, because because we're we're humans, right? We're humans experiencing reality. Of course, we're experiencing reality with different baggages, different backgrounds, different reality tunnels as well, which Anton Wilson puts in.

00:12:08 Denis

But but ultimately, we're experiencing reality, so it makes sense that similar conclusions might be reached at different times in different places around the world. And yeah, so, so that's why I got interested in the esoteric. There we go.

00:12:26 Merrily

Oh my gosh, so many cool things there. So when you mentioned ohh I'll mention this too, I'm pretty sure you and I are like super close in age because I was born in March of 1979. So I think I'm like a whole 2.

00:12:40 Merrily

Months older than you?

00:12:44 Denis

April 29th, April 29th. Over. Yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah, 79 OK.

00:12:50 Merrily

But so when you're talking about being like a young kid, I talked about this on another podcast where I was interviewed, where I was like, yeah, I had these, like, very like, strange adult kind of thoughts when I was like, a little little kid. Like, what am I?

00:13:02 Merrily

Looking at like.

00:13:03 Merrily

What is this? And I would have this like running tape of like, you know, analyzing everything. So when you talked about that as a 2 year old.

00:13:10 Merrily

Was like. That's amazing. That's so funny. And my parents? Well, at the time were sort of, I call it sort of Catholic because my dad was Irish Catholic and my mom's Filipino Catholic.

00:13:23 Merrily

And so I think I asked like what, what is all this like what? And then my dad like, handed me the huge.

00:13:27 Merrily

Bible and he was.

00:13:28 Merrily

Like this is he made everything or like like handed me like I was like, you know, and I'm like 3 or something. I was like, what do I do with this?

00:13:37 Merrily

So yeah, parents are so funny.

00:13:42 Merrily

Oh gosh, yeah.

00:13:43 Merrily

And then all. Yeah, I love your kind of walking us through sort of the step path through like, you know, maybe religion isn't the thing, you know, maybe the more hidden things are.

00:13:48 Speaker 3

Hmm.

00:13:53 Merrily

And as far as like the Bible like, because we were Catholic, I picked up the Bible at like, the fresh young age of 10 and read through.

00:14:00 Merrily

That and when my dad did decide to go back to church at one point when I was a young teenager, then it was like.

00:14:01 Denis

Right.

00:14:10 Merrily

You guys are all wrong. I read. I read this is not what it says. You know what I mean? Sounds just like what is this?

00:14:19 Merrily

Ohh gosh.

00:14:20 Denis

Ohh, that's so funny. Yeah, right. Right. Wait, wait. Yeah, it must have been something in the air around that time, right? Yeah.

00:14:26 Merrily

Like what is this?

00:14:29 Merrily

But yeah, so all those things are so funny that you mentioned that I do have a question about sort of.

00:14:36

Of.

00:14:37 Merrily

Because I attended a talk last week at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and this gentleman, it was so good. Oh, there would be, like, the perfect place for you.

00:14:42

Hmm.

00:14:45 Denis

I'm so jealous. Ohh.

00:14:46 Merrily

Oh my God.

00:14:47 Merrily

South of me, like thousands of dollars of books, goes of me.

00:14:50 Denis

Yeah.

00:14:51 Merrily

There.

00:14:52 Merrily

But this gentleman, Rick Harris, was his name. He gave a talk on alchemy.

00:14:56

Hmm.

00:14:57 Merrily

And he was saying, you know, somebody asked him the question of.

00:15:01 Merrily

You know, why is the occult hidden? Like why is it hidden? And so now I'm going.

00:15:06 Merrily

To ask you.

00:15:07 Denis

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:07 Merrily

Did you talked about that? Yes. Yeah.

00:15:08 Denis

I've got a good I've got a.

00:15:09 Denis

Good answer to.

00:15:10 Denis

That I think.

00:15:11 Merrily

I think you do.

00:15:14 Denis

Now I'm trying to think where did I? Where did I read this answer? Like very recently very very recently.

00:15:21 Denis

Beautiful answer that was basically saying.

00:15:24 Speaker 3

Come on. Where did I read this?

00:15:26 Denis

All right, I'm going to say the answer somebody out there is going to tell us where I read this recently. The the idea that the occult is.

00:15:29 Merrily

Alright, please do.

00:15:36 Denis

Purposely hidden is is not the main aspect of the occult. The occult is what is not made popular.

00:15:48 Denis

By our our civilization, by our our our society. Right. So, so there are certain ideas that for some reason become extremely popular. I say for some reason, but it's usually political reasons, right? And and and those ideas.

00:15:54

Yeah.

00:16:07 Denis

Kind of. They become the accepted norm.

00:16:15 Denis

And there are other ideas which some, some of which definitely not all of which.

00:16:22 Denis

But.

00:16:22 Denis

Some of which.

00:16:24 Speaker 3

Are have greater.

00:16:27 Denis

Merit than the ones that are.

00:16:30 Denis

That are widespread and that are very popular and they they they just don't get the air time that the that the more popular ideas get. You know I I I realized that for example.

00:16:47 Denis

Aristotles ideas got a lot more airtime than Plato, and when I realized that I was like, that's a shame. And then I realized that Freud's ideas got much more airtime than Carl Jung's. And and.

00:17:05

Hmm.

00:17:06 Speaker 3

And again I was.

00:17:07 Denis

Like, that's a shame too. And and.

00:17:11 Denis

And every time I seem to find two people saying similar things, but one of them is saying these things in a way that's on the whole kind of destructive. And the other one is saying these things in a way that is, On the contrary, constructive.

00:17:32 Speaker 3

It's kind of.

00:17:32 Denis

The destructive one that gets all the airtime is right, but the more destructive ones, they're not overtly destructive, and they're very convenient for.

00:17:47 Denis

For a, I'm going to say a materialist perspective, right? And and and so.

00:17:51

Mm-hmm.

00:17:56 Denis

Yeah. So occult isn't so much about.

00:18:00 Denis

Hiding things so that people won't get access to this important information.

00:18:05 Merrily

Right.

00:18:07 Denis

But rather.

00:18:09 Denis

Yeah, just just simply actually giving access to information that isn't in the light. It's in the darkness. It's it's just it's it's, uh, it's it's not even that it's suppressed, it's that it's it's other ideas have got more more like shown on them and so they're.

00:18:19

Yeah.

00:18:30 Denis

That that they're not given the attention that they could really.

00:18:37 Denis

Use I suppose like yeah.

00:18:38 Merrily

Excuse me.

00:18:39 Merrily

Yeah. Oh, that's a great answer, yeah.

00:18:42

Right, right.

00:18:43 Merrily

Because I think for because it seems like and.

00:18:48 Merrily

I've been doing a.

00:18:48 Merrily

Lot of think about all this kind of stuff, but like the the cult isn't necessarily hidden, but something like I'll just draw like the stuff or yes or yeah like is a very.

00:18:49 Speaker 3

Hmm.

00:18:58 Merrily

Like you're not going to understand that book and maybe 10 reads, you know, you know.

00:19:02 Denis

That's true as well. That's another aspect, isn't it? Absolutely. You're quite right.

00:19:06 Merrily

Yeah. And a lot of these things, I think you mentioned it before you, you got to sit with it and it's not going to be ready.

00:19:13

Yeah.

00:19:14 Merrily

Really.

00:19:15 Merrily

Grassed or even under maybe never even understood. It's something that is either like felt or experienced you know.

00:19:24 Denis

So for that kind of thing, I I like to use the word esoteric and I know that esoteric esotericism and of cultism are very often conflated. You know, it's the same thing. It's I, I I like to to use the word esoteric to mean the the inner, the inner truth, the inner meaning.

00:19:34 Merrily

Yeah.

00:19:42

Hmm.

00:19:44 Denis

That is, that is presented in a particular way, right? And that presents.

00:19:48 Merrily

Right.

00:19:49 Denis

Is the esoteric aspect of that teaching, and you know, sometimes it's a useful esoteric teaching, right. But the esoteric inner truth that that that's what I'm interested in. Yeah, that's the. That's the good stuff. Yeah. The stuff that. Yeah, exactly. That you that you experience, you have to, you have to intuit it because.

00:20:01

Yes it is good.

00:20:09 Denis

It's not something that is.

00:20:12 Denis

In common experience, right, not everyone has these experiences. It's not something that everyone can say. Ohh it's a chair, like, you know what a chair is? I know what a chair is, right? So we can talk.

00:20:23 Denis

About it with.

00:20:24 Denis

These words that have been described to them, so with these these inner, more subtle ideas.

00:20:31 Denis

We we have to. Yeah, we have to to.

00:20:34 Denis

To experience them, we have to get.

00:20:37 Denis

To them internally, right. Right. Yes. Yes. The esoteric aspect. Yeah, that's cool.

00:20:39 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

00:20:42 Merrily

Yeah. Well, everybody, you know, try, you know, give the occult a chance.

00:20:46 Merrily

That's what I.

00:20:50 Merrily

Oh, it's pretty fun. You make some great, wonderful people. It's my experience.

00:20:56 Denis

That is true. That is true.

00:20:58 Merrily

Would you say you had any sort of with all of these things you were looking into as a young person? Did you have any support or guidance from any people?

00:21:08 Merrily

Or along the way at.

00:21:10 Denis

All yes, authors.

00:21:15 Denis

Right. Yeah. I was like, yeah, my my teachers dead.

00:21:24 Denis

But thankfully, thankfully, I'll just actually left a load of writings and I was able to follow his threads into then finding out about.

00:21:24 Merrily

Yep.

00:21:32

Hmm.

00:21:36 Denis

I where where did I go from? Aldous Huxley? I guess I must have gone straight into Robert Anton Wilson and and Robert Anton Wilson left clues about LON, Milo Duquette. And you know, so. So all of these people? Yeah. Are, are are the people who?

00:21:49

Hmm.

00:21:57 Denis

Guided me without knowing that they were necessarily guiding me. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's one of the reasons why I'm so keen on books is.

00:22:08 Denis

Because you get to have a teacher without any of the downside of having a a teacher, right?

00:22:17 Merrily

Right.

00:22:18 Denis

Right. Yeah. I'm not good at having teachers, but but if my teacher is in a book and I can go to the teacher whenever it's right for me.

00:22:28 Merrily

Yes.

00:22:28 Denis

To go to.

00:22:29 Denis

The then you know I mean how perfect.

00:22:32 Denis

What is that? How perfect is that? Yeah, yeah.

00:22:33

Yeah.

00:22:34 Merrily

Yeah, I love.

00:22:35 Merrily

That. Yeah. Again, when you say like I don't particularly like I'm sort of I'm the same way where I think for me I get distracted by like if the teacher is Moody, you know what I mean or is like favoring a student over another or favoring me over other people, you know? And then I get all wrapped up in that, whereas, like with a book.

00:22:47 Speaker 3

Yes.

00:22:52 Denis

Yeah.

00:22:54 Merrily

You're like, I just want the just give me the mean. I just want to know what you.

00:22:58 Merrily

Think about this.

00:22:58 Denis

That's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

00:23:02 Merrily

Yeah.

00:23:03 Denis

It's tough. You know, people reach out to me and say, hey, will you be review my course. And so far there's just one course designer, right, that I just recommend wholeheartedly. And I think one of the main reasons is precisely because he records his stuff and makes the stuff available.

00:23:08

Hmm.

00:23:24 Denis

That's it. He's very good at answering questions, so and so forth. But he's not like, OK, you need to do this. You need to do that now. It's just like, OK, here's some stuff.

00:23:31 Merrily

Right.

00:23:34 Denis

When you're ready to listen to it, it's available.

00:23:36 Denis

To you kind of thing and and if you've got any questions then reach out and yeah, Jack Whale later. I mean, yeah, all all of it. Oh, I love his stuff so.

00:23:45 Speaker 3

Much so much.

00:23:47 Denis

But for me his his courses are very much like very entertaining.

00:23:54 Denis

Way of reading a book because you accessed them in a very similar way, right? That they're they're short videos. You, you, you listen to the video and then you get to think about it and.

00:23:55 Merrily

Hmm.

00:24:06 Denis

Possibly put some of it into practice if.

00:24:08 Denis

You if you.

00:24:10 Denis

Care to? And if you haven't, by the next lesson, it's not the end of the world. You know it's not.

00:24:15

Mm-hmm.

00:24:15 Denis

Like you're going.

00:24:15 Denis

To fall behind or anything? Yeah, love this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:24:19 Merrily

Yeah, Jack grill.

00:24:23 Merrily

Yeah, definitely. The yeah. And another thing I appreciate about like what you you talk about on your channel and what you sort of one of the ground rules in your discord is like, you know, not do it this way, you know, kind of, you know and I know.

00:24:30

Hmm.

00:24:39 Merrily

And it's 100% because I just like, I don't want people telling me how I need to experience something, right?

00:24:44 Merrily

Because my reality tunnel isn't yours.

00:24:48 Denis

Right, right. Yeah, it's it's an, it's. It's such an important thing to to be OK with.

00:24:59 Merrily

MM.

00:24:59 Denis

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:25:01 Denis

Yeah, yeah, I I I honestly think that.

00:25:05 Denis

Every individual has their own spiritual path. You know, as the the name of my book. Right hidden Paths is is you. You have to take the hidden paths you have.

00:25:13

Yeah.

00:25:16 Denis

To to look at see what a path looks like. By all means you know, check out the ready made parts. That's wonderful, but the ready made paths are not your path. You, you, you you can. You can learn from the ready made part. That's fine. But you have to find your path.

00:25:35 Denis

You have to.

00:25:36 Denis

To to work out what works for you. What doesn't work for you and.

00:25:37

2.

00:25:42 Denis

Yeah. Yeah. It's part of the fun. Yeah. Yeah.

00:25:44 Merrily

Yes, it is part of the fun and one of the things I think that lends to is this sort of and this is a kind of could be a heavy subject. But I've been talking with a few people about this, but sort of the you know, because I'm Filipino and also Irish, like my dad is.

00:26:02 Merrily

Irish.

00:26:03 Merrily

And.

00:26:04 Merrily

Actually been talking with Dara Mason on his discord about this. Yeah, about sort of reclaiming and understanding what those spiritual practices of you know, before colonialism, right.

00:26:07 Denis

Oh well, yes.

00:26:18 Merrily

And a lot of that has to do with sort of maybe even contemplative mysticism of like experiencing it yourself and they're reporting back to the group and like, hey, everybody does this sound like it, you know, does this fit within our particular traditions that maybe got lost, you know?

00:26:18 Denis

Right.

00:26:38 Denis

That's really interesting, I I am.

00:26:43 Denis

Sorry, I'm seeing your Internet connection is unstable, so you're probably going to need to to to to edit that out. Can I change my Internet connection to my phone hotspot?

00:26:46 Merrily

Hello.

00:26:49 Merrily

Raise.

00:26:54 Merrily

Sure, you'll probably.

00:26:56 Denis

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, I should.

00:26:57 Speaker 3

It's OK.

00:27:05 Denis

Like that.

00:27:07 Denis

And alright, I might drop off for a second and be right there.

00:27:09 Merrily

No problem.

00:27:21 Denis

OK, hopefully there will be more stable, sorry.

00:27:23 Denis

About that, OK.

00:27:23 Merrily

I don't want.

00:27:24 Merrily

That's the world we live in with the connections.

00:27:26 Denis

You just asked me a really interesting question and.

00:27:29 Merrily

I it was around sort of. Oh gosh. So so prior to colonization for culture.

00:27:35 Denis

Yeah.

00:27:39 Merrily

Yeah.

00:27:39

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:27:40 Merrily

Yes.

00:27:42

Yeah.

00:27:43 Denis

Yeah, I really, I really love what you just said because I I think that we live in a time where so many.

00:27:52 Denis

Cultures are meeting each other, right? I come from a family of French father and a British mother, and you know the French and the English famously hate each other, right? Yeah, but but my experience of coming from 2:00.

00:28:07

And.

00:28:12 Denis

Not radically. Different cultures. I mean, they had a lot of influence over each other, but they are very, very different. You know, I hadn't realised quite how different until I left France, where I was brought up to go and live in England for a while, expecting it to be, you know, no, nothing to do with each other, completely, completely different.

00:28:32 Denis

And I had to learn how to think English right now. Yeah. Have to have to be English and so on. Right. Kind of an interesting experience, but I think that my experience.

00:28:44 Denis

Of coming from two different cultures is less and less the exception. I think that more and more people are growing up in multicultural environments, multicultural societies, and there needs to be spirituality that's accessible to people.

00:29:04 Denis

Like us like to people.

00:29:05

Yeah.

00:29:07 Denis

Who aren't exclusively from this particular town in China, you know who have this exact spiritual path that has been handed down from, you know, generation to generation it. It needs to be OK for us to understand spirituality in a.

00:29:27 Denis

More general way and and and to be and.

00:29:32 Denis

To be able.

00:29:33 Denis

To explore I I think I think.

00:29:36 Denis

Come well, I I I guess for me that's the reason why Perennialism works so well, right? And I know Perennialism has been abused so badly, you know, with people saying that. Ohh, if all religions are the same, then that means that all religions are Christianity. You know that that. Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:54 Merrily

Ohh gosh.

00:29:57 Denis

Yeah, I mean, way to misunderstand that. Wait, right. But, but. But. But if you understand it properly, then it's a really a really very, very beautiful philosophy, right.

00:30:12 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:30:13 Denis

Anyway, one that certainly resonates for me, yeah.

00:30:14 Merrily

Yeah.

00:30:17 Merrily

Yeah, I definitely want to cause, gosh, I'll just Huxley. Yeah. I didn't realize all this. Huxley wrote a book on perennialism and it keeps coming up, so I probably need to read that book. And when talking with Phillip. Oh, of course you have it.

00:30:19 Denis

There we go.

00:30:31 Denis

Right. It's it's on my, on my, on my special. It's my, it's my, my, my first first edition or I love it so much. Yeah. It's very, very, very happy to get that.

00:30:34 Merrily

Right. I know right behind you.

00:30:40 Merrily

Oh. Oh my God.

00:30:44 Denis

Yeah, it's my.

00:30:45 Merrily

Yes.

00:30:46 Denis

It's my hidden paths. You see that? That's how important it is to.

00:30:49 Denis

Me.

00:30:52

Ah.

00:30:53 Merrily

Love. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. So it's definitely a tradition that I'm becoming more of like, I think yeah, it speaks to me quite a bit.

00:31:00 Merrily

So I like. Yeah, I.

00:31:02 Merrily

Like that, you bring it up.

00:31:02 Merrily

Quite.

00:31:03 Merrily

A bit, but something I know like to bring in your your fairy tale to the nation deck. Yeah, because I do think that has a lot to.

00:31:10

Oh yeah.

00:31:12 Merrily

Do with sort of.

00:31:14 Merrily

These teachings. So why? Why did you choose fairy tales? I know you talked about this on your video to some extent. But why fairy tales?

00:31:14 Denis

Yes it does. Yeah.

00:31:23 Denis

Why fairy tales? I think of fairy tales. Well, I think the fairy tales are are.

00:31:35 Denis

What's the word I'm looking for?

00:31:39 Denis

They're underestimated. Yeah. Fairy tales are underestimated. We think of fairy tales as stories for children and anything. That's four children is to be left behind. Once you read yours, that reach a certain age and never to be thought about ever again. But I think of fairy tales and folk tales in general.

00:32:00 Denis

As the bedrock of the.

00:32:06 Denis

The psyche of.

00:32:07 Denis

So many people and you know, I know many of them are European.

00:32:15 Denis

A lot of the the, the, the fairy tales that Disney appropriated and and and did awful things with they they. Yes, we think of them as essentially European, but they are known around the world, you know.

00:32:23 Merrily

Yeah, right.

00:32:34 Denis

People around the world know about little Red Riding Hood.

00:32:38 Denis

Yeah.

00:32:39 Denis

People around the world know about Snow White and and and and and so many others. White and. And since these tales.

00:32:51 Denis

Exist within so many of us, reasonable to assume that there's something special about them, OK?

00:32:55 Denis

It's.

00:33:03 Denis

My understanding is that there's something very special about them, because I think that these fairy tales in fact do map out our mind, right? And I guess people like Mary Louise von France, people like.

00:33:19 Denis

Clarissa Estes, the author of women who run with the wolves, Carl Jung and and of course.

00:33:26 Merrily

Hmm.

00:33:34 Denis

Joseph Campbell, they they've all studied these these folk tales in depth and pointed out to how they describe the human mind. Right. So yes, there's been this, this narrative that they describe.

00:33:53 Denis

Maybe how women are weak and men are there to save them. That's not the point of these stories, right? Yes. Yes. It's very frustrating that this is the main narrative that has been taken from them and understood from them. But but that's not the point these these stories.

00:34:13 Denis

Described describe the human mind and they describe human experiences.

00:34:21 Denis

And uh, one of my favorite stories is the the tinderbox.

00:34:30 Denis

And and I mean it obviously captured my imagination as a kid. But you know, when I think about it now and the way the soldier goes down into the tree, down into the depths.

00:34:45 Denis

Uh, where he finds these monsters, who are very, very dangerous. These these dogs of various sizes, with eyes of various sizes and but but because he knows the right words to say to these dogs, he can actually make use of them and.

00:35:04 Denis

They do his bidding and things like this. I mean, this is a perfect illustration of the unconscious mind, right? And of of the of the shadow and so on.

00:35:11

Yeah.

00:35:14 Denis

That, that, that can get you into trouble. And the dogs do in fact get him into trouble, right. They he he he doesn't realize that a a purse full of flowers being attached to the Princess whom the dog goes and and and picks up you know etcetera etcetera but.

00:35:34 Denis

And in the end, he's about to get hanged and and. And the dogs come and help him out and actually save him at the last moment. And and. And anyway, I I it's just one example, but I I just.

00:35:45

Yeah.

00:35:52 Denis

Find that they are great examples because they exist within us all. We all have access to this wealth of culture which has encoded within it a description of us.

00:36:11 Denis

Right. And I love that. So when I was looking for a a source for creating this, this little deck of deck of cards, right? I thought to myself well.

00:36:26 Denis

To make any kind of divinatory deck or divinatory system you need.

00:36:33 Denis

Uhm, randomization right? Which is why cards work so well. You need a wide enough vocabulary for.

00:36:42 Denis

Whatever it is that you're speaking to, to be able to actually speak.

00:36:46 Denis

To you and and the source needs to be relatively sacred. Traditionally, Bibliomancy has been done using the works of Homer. So the Iliad is very popular for doing bibliomancy, like turning pages and finding a finding a sentence that.

00:37:06 Denis

Is suits exactly your situation. Of course, the Bible is often used. The Quran is often used and so on, and I thought you know what? I I because.

00:37:18 Denis

Of fairy tales and folk tales are so underestimated.

00:37:22 Denis

I don't think it's been done before. So yeah, I'll give it a go. I gave it a go and it worked beautifully. Yeah, it's it. It can be a little bit stern, but I don't think Stern is, like, playful. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't care too, too.

00:37:41 Denis

Much about.

00:37:43 Denis

About being being polite after a while.

00:37:50

It's kind.

00:37:51 Denis

Of funny, but yes, yeah, it works very, very well. It's on it's answers, my questions and it's from what I hear from other people who've bought the deck and who've tried things out.

00:38:03 Denis

It's it's been quite spot on.

00:38:05 Merrily

Yeah. Yeah, I was telling you because I also have.

00:38:07 Merrily

It.

00:38:09

Yeah.

00:38:09 Merrily

And it, yeah. And I pulled it out and did. And you even have sort of like layouts like spread layout.

00:38:15 Merrily

And describe you, you know, if you don't know how to do one. Yeah. And like, basically the first question, it was like some some things to chew chew on. Right. Because the way I ask is like, you know, what do I, what are the things?

00:38:16 Denis

Right, right, right, right.

00:38:30 Merrily

I need to.

00:38:30 Merrily

Know right now.

00:38:32 Merrily

You.

00:38:32 Merrily

Know that I'm missing maybe or whatever and then.

00:38:35 Merrily

Kind of leave it a little open and.

00:38:37 Merrily

Yeah, I gave it.

00:38:38 Denis

Yeah, it's the best way to read. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When I when I read the tower. I I never ask a particular question. I say, hey, tell me what I need to know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:38:47 Merrily

Yes, how many lines, you know, cause invariably. And I know LON Milo talks about this too.

00:38:53 Merrily

Like I have done reading for myself where I kind of like, you know, ask it a question of like what's going to happen. And of course, my emotions about how I wanted to happen influence.

00:38:59

Yeah.

00:39:03

Yes. Yeah.

00:39:04 Merrily

So I'm not very.

00:39:08 Merrily

When I'm reading for myself, for other people, I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm totally obsessive.

00:39:11 Denis

Yeah, no problem for other people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:39:15 Denis

Don't you say that to me?

00:39:16 Denis

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

00:39:17 Merrily

Exactly.

00:39:19 Merrily

So yeah, I do appreciate because I think 1 of I I'll have to send you the the spread once I get to my.

00:39:24 Denis

Hmm. Ohh, I'd love to see that. Yes.

00:39:24 Merrily

Phone but what I.

00:39:27 Merrily

Yeah. One of them, I was like really cause it was, it was a little harsh.

00:39:32 Merrily

So I was like, OK, well, we won't think about that one.

00:39:37 Merrily

Yeah. So it was pretty great.

00:39:37 Denis

Fantastic. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize on its behalf, but I'm sure he doesn't care too much.

00:39:41 Merrily

Ohh yeah.

00:39:43 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

00:39:44 Merrily

Like that's fine, but similarly in a vein of fairy tales, right, like you talked about the tinderbox. There's a lot of, like, there's gonna be some scary stuff in there and things you maybe don't want to look at for sure in those stories. So makes sense.

00:39:53 Speaker 3

Yeah, right.

00:39:57 Denis

That's right. That's right, yeah.

00:40:01 Merrily

Would you say the that the tinderbox is the one you feel like you have a personal connection with or is there any other?

00:40:09 Denis

Yeah. Do you know, I was thinking about the Tinder books today, and I was thinking.

00:40:13

Or.

00:40:15 Denis

In a way, how similar it is to Aladdin, like we don't really necessarily.

00:40:19

Oh yeah.

00:40:22 Denis

Make the connection between the two, but of course Aladdin goes deep underground and gets a a dangerous object. A dangerous companion spirit, right? Which gets him into all kinds of trouble. But also, you know is is the whole key to him.

00:40:42 Denis

Solving his life to him. Actually. Yeah, being OK.

00:40:44 Merrily

It.

00:40:46 Denis

The end, yeah, yeah.

00:40:49 Merrily

That's chicken 1, so one of the ones really quickly on the sort of on that front. So like they're at least the Cinderella story I read when I was a kid. Pre Disney, of course, is the one where or she, you know, she had taken like, no it was her.

00:40:54

Hmm.

00:41:08 Merrily

She asked for a present from her father.

00:41:11 Merrily

And it was like the first branch that brushes his hat or something when he comes home or something like that. And that's all she wanted was just a branch. And she she plants it. And I can't remember if she plants it on her mother's grave or she just plants it in the backyard. But she basically, it's basically something that she it grew into a beautiful tree.

00:41:19

That's right. That's right.

00:41:30 Merrily

And it was kind of like she's doing sort of ancestor, kind of devotional things with this free and asking it for.

00:41:36 Speaker 3

Hmm.

00:41:39 Merrily

Benefits and favors and to help her in her difficult situations. And so you know, but that gets a little lost in the yeah.

00:41:47 Denis

No, absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Cinderella is such a good choice. I I think that the, the, the, the whole idea of the fairy godmother. Yeah, is so powerful. I mean, you have the same thing in Pinocchio and you know, with the the the Blue Fairy and so on. And so, you know, I was telling you a little bit earlier that on Wednesdays.

00:42:00

Hey.

00:42:08 Denis

In France you had.

00:42:10 Denis

He had catechism and I didn't go to catechism. I I kind of brushed it the whole thing off without some crafts. But actually what I was doing was ballet. And it's yeah. So it's something that I've mentioned once or twice on my channel and I've I've just got a subscription to the Royal Opera House. And I've been watching Cinderella.

00:42:30 Denis

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Amazing. And and it's it's it's so it's so archetypal, so, so archetypal. The, the, the.

00:42:33 Merrily

Wonderful.

00:42:42 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:42:48 Denis

Just every single aspect of it, yeah, it's it's just just yet another example of of how, how powerful, how.

00:42:57 Denis

How much it?

00:42:58 Denis

Captures the imagination of children. How deep children's minds go into these stories, how they kind of.

00:43:01 Merrily

No.

00:43:07 Denis

You know, live in these worlds as the taught story is being told, and then that kind of becomes a part of you as you grow up and it's become a part of so many other people as they have grown up as well. It's just, yeah, it's just wonderful. Yeah. Yeah.

00:43:25 Merrily

Yes. Well, thank you for walking us through that and definitely it's kind of we talked about sort of, I guess, the occult sort of the the hidden things of a cult. There's the hidden things of fairy tales too. So it's no wonder that you.

00:43:32 Speaker 3

Mm-hmm.

00:43:36 Speaker 3

That's right.

00:43:39 Merrily

Two of these attackers hand in hand.

00:43:44

Quite right.

00:43:45 Denis

Yeah, absolutely.

00:43:45 Denis

Really.

00:43:47 Merrily

So kind of my next question, I know you've probably gotten asked this a million times and and you do have explained it I know, but like you created a, what inspired you create the foolish fish channel? Obviously your book reviews, but you also started doing the esoteric Saturdays which you know which a lot of people it's kind of their first introduction to a lot of.

00:44:08 Speaker 3

Right, right, right, right.

00:44:08 Merrily

Ohh yeah, what was your inspiration for that?

00:44:13 Denis

Well, when I realized that I was getting goodness over 36 views per.

00:44:23 Denis

Per video you know.

00:44:25 Merrily

It's like, wow. Yeah, I.

00:44:28 Denis

Know I'm reaching the whole world here.

00:44:32 Merrily

Love it? Yes.

00:44:33 Denis

Yeah, yeah, I thought to myself, you know what, I maybe I've got something helpful.

00:44:39 Denis

To say maybe.

00:44:40 Denis

I've got something useful to say beyond.

00:44:41

Yeah.

00:44:44 Denis

You know, look at.

00:44:45

This.

00:44:46 Denis

Pretty book, which is helpful you know, is the whole point was to be able to give people an idea of what they were buying before they bought online. Right? But but yes, I thought to myself, if if a a whole 36 people are watching, then I definitely have to.

00:45:06 Denis

Have to do something, something useful, something that's that's going to be worthwhile.

00:45:14 Denis

And and so I I I started off by saying the most talk talking about the most.

00:45:23 Denis

Life changing thing that had happened to me, which was a something weird happening around a taxi ride. There we go. Those those of you who've seen that video, you'll know.

00:45:35 Merrily

Yeah, it's a good one, yeah.

00:45:36 Denis

What I'm talking.

00:45:37 Denis

About it's a good one. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I was thinking, if if it's the only thing.

00:45:43 Denis

That I put out to the world.

00:45:45 Denis

And my channel ends after this. Then you know at least I'll have told a good story and and and hopefully it'll help other people. Maybe it'll help people to put their own experiences into perspective or whatever it might be you.

00:46:01 Denis

Know.

00:46:02

Hmm.

00:46:03 Denis

Anyway, I got.

00:46:04 Denis

Over 100 views on that, one. Few more than that by now. But but yes, it was. It was very. It was very well received. People were very excited to to hear about this very odd story and.

00:46:08 Merrily

Yes.

00:46:10 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:46:23 Denis

And so that kind of.

00:46:26 Denis

And yeah, encourage me to do more. And and yeah, from week to week, it's like, OK, well, I've kind of told all my stories now. I guess I'd better start.

00:46:38 Denis

Studying and and and learning.

00:46:43 Denis

New stuff to tell people, so that was.

00:46:46 Denis

That was interesting that that that was a actually a very interesting couple of years where I.

00:46:52 Denis

Was.

00:46:53 Denis

Learning about.

00:46:55 Denis

Essentially, lodge magic and just speaking every week about what I'd learned that week, essentially and and and.

00:47:07 Denis

And because it.

00:47:08 Denis

Was such a tiny channel at the time, it didn't really matter that it was all very rough and ready, you know.

00:47:13 Denis

I'd do set.

00:47:14 Denis

Up my camera, I'd do a little drawing.

00:47:16 Denis

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is this, this.

00:47:17 Merrily

Love it.

00:47:19 Denis

Doesn't really work for me. I think it would work better if it was like that. You know, whatever you know. And then and then, yeah. And then all of a sudden I had 10,000.

00:47:32 Denis

That is, it's like all OK, I guess I've got a responsibility.

00:47:41 Denis

And that that became 100,000 subscribers and yeah. And yeah, it's just been very.

00:47:49 Denis

It was. It's been overwhelming in in a sense, but also just obviously amazing, you know, absolutely amazing.

00:47:57 Denis

And just met so many wonderful, wonderful people.

00:48:04 Denis

Of all all kinds.

00:48:06 Speaker 3

Yes.

00:48:06 Denis

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:09 Denis

And and then couple of years ago, I started doing 1 to one video conversations so that if people wanted to talk about these weird experiences that they were having with somebody who wouldn't.

00:48:21 Denis

Be thinking that they're crazy. You know, they, they they would. They they call me and we have a a one hour chat and I read their tarot. And you know when I tell them hey, the thing that you're talking about. Yeah, that's.

00:48:35 Denis

You know, there's this particular weird, esoteric part of this weird esoteric tradition that can actually give you some some insight into this thing that you've done and.

00:48:40 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:48:47 Denis

And that's been enormously rewarding for me. Just, just just ohh, so, so, so good, so good and UM, and just talking to these wonderful, wonderful people. So yeah, that that's that's really been.

00:49:05 Denis

My major focus, in fact, for the past couple of years has been those those one to one chats, you know still doing my best.

00:49:09

Mm-hmm.

00:49:13 Denis

To put out.

00:49:14 Denis

To put out content as often as possible and and to to keep things interesting, right?

00:49:17

Yeah.

00:49:20 Merrily

Yeah, I definitely think that's such a great service to offer for people, especially nowadays where everybody is trying searching for something and it's a little direction, right? And you know, you're such a perfect person.

00:49:32 Merrily

Because you're not like you said, you're not going to be judgmental of, like or the cookie things that maybe be happening to somebody. But give them a little guidance so they can go off and, you know, experiment or go wherever they need to go. I think that's lovely.

00:49:37 Speaker 3

Hmm.

00:49:38 Denis

Right.

00:49:48 Denis

Hmm.

00:49:48 Merrily

Love that.

00:49:50 Merrily

I'm trying to remember I want to be like, yeah, I was on the ground floor of the foolish fish channel. I was trying to remember how many people were.

00:49:56 Denis

You. I'm. I'm sure you were. I'm sure you were. You were certainly one of my first admins on the.

00:50:03 Merrily

Yes.

00:50:04 Merrily

Yes.

00:50:05 Denis

Ohh my goodness, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Ohh my.

00:50:09 Merrily

Oh man, it's a reciprocal thing, because like, I've met. So again, met so many lovely, wonderful people. You're lovely. Oh, it's so good. I think it was like 2. I think you had, like, 2000 subscribers when I, like, happened upon your channel. And so to see all that.

00:50:24 Merrily

Growth was like what?

00:50:25 Denis

Very early, very early. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Ohh gosh.

00:50:30

Oh God.

00:50:32 Merrily

So OK, so let's see. Try think of all the questions we haven't gotten to yet. So how would you say your uh, I want to talk about your daily practice if you have one, which I know you kind of do. Uh, but what does that look like if you can walk us through?

00:50:45 Denis

OK.

00:50:54 Denis

So I do the the foolish fish version of the lesser banishing ritual, or the pentagram, or the lesser invoking ritual of the pentagram, depending on what I'm feeling on that particular day. Right. I know some people like to do the.

00:51:13 Denis

Invoking in the morning, vanishing in the evening. That's great. Many people like to do the Golden Dawn version of the LBRP LIRP. That's great as well, my.

00:51:27 Denis

My recommendation I I regularly get people calling me saying, listen, I've been doing the LBRP for the past 3-4 weeks and everything is falling apart.

00:51:40

Like, well, yeah.

00:51:41

Yeah.

00:51:42 Denis

Yeah, that's going to happen and.

00:51:44 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:51:47 Denis

Yeah. Can I talk about this for a second? This, I think this is.

00:51:52 Denis

May be useful. Many people think of the LBRP as being uhm, banishing spirits, banishing anything bad, negative energies and so on. And that is the purpose of the LBRP. My perspective is that all of that stuff is a side effect.

00:52:13 Denis

Of the LBRP and.

00:52:15 Denis

I think of the LBRP as being a synchronizing dance between your lower self and your higher self. So you're doing in the lower sphere. What your higher self is naturally doing.

00:52:30 Denis

All the time. And so that puts you In Sync with your higher self and you're essentially giving.

00:52:38 Speaker 3

Permission to your.

00:52:39 Denis

Higher self to take the reins and to put you where you're supposed to be. Of course, that's a very good idea because your higher self has got a more bird's eye view of your life, your existence, your everything, because it exists outside of time, outside of space.

00:52:59 Denis

So that's great, but it's never been incarnated, so it doesn't know what it's like to have to pay a bill. It doesn't know what it's like to have to, you know, have to to meet friends by a particular time, because otherwise they'll be, they'll be annoyed with you. And that could have repercussions and.

00:53:06

Exactly.

00:53:17 Denis

You know, and so on so forth.

00:53:19 Denis

You've got responsibilities in the material realm and you your lower self knows about those responsibilities.

00:53:27 Denis

And if you let stuff slip, then you're going to be in a less convenient situation to do what your higher self requires of you, so I say.

00:53:40 Denis

Break up the LBRP with the occasional LIRP. The invoking ritual of the pentagram, right, so that you're having a two way conversion.

00:53:47

Yeah.

00:53:50 Denis

Relation. It can be a collaboration between your lower self and the higher self and not a you know a master slave kind of situation. Maybe that's that's being a little bit over dramatic, but you know you have to, you have to have a say because you are the eyes on the ground.

00:54:12 Denis

And so it has to be a two way conversation. So to those people who are finding their lives falling apart, I say just do an occasional LIRP and and it can help. So that's that to come back to my daily my, my, my daily.

00:54:15 Merrily

Yeah.

00:54:24

Ah.

00:54:32 Denis

Practice. I will do an LIRP or an LB.

00:54:36 Denis

P depending on the day, depending on what I'm feeling, if I'm feeling overwhelmed and there are too many things happening and loads of people asking me to do things and I just don't have time for it all and it's just too much, then I do an LBRP. And if On the contrary, I'm feeling really, really.

00:54:56 Denis

Like, OK, it's a blank slate. I've got that blank slate now and.

00:55:02 Denis

What's next? Well, I've got nothing left to give cause this all gone. Then I'll do an LIRP. And so that's the first part of my daily practice, right?

00:55:06 Merrily

Right.

00:55:12 Denis

Once they've done that, which of course establishes you in the universe, establishes you at the center of your own universe, some other thing that people don't talk about enough, I think, is that the magic magic has the self as the center of the universe, you know.

00:55:23 Merrily

Yes.

00:55:28 Denis

It's not a, it's not a heliocentric or a a geocentric system. It's a self centric system, right? Everything depends on where you are, what you're doing, what you're thinking when right, so that's that's that's a the LBRP is an establishing ritual which puts you at the center of the.

00:55:49 Denis

Universe.

00:55:50 Denis

Once I've done that, then I do the pentagram ritual of the day that the the pentagram, the heptagram ritual of the date mate. So then I do the heptagram ritual of the day.

00:56:05 Denis

Mondays the Moon Tuesdays, Mars, Wednesdays, Mercury and so on. Right? And and so done. The whole video on how I do the hectogram ritual. But the purpose is to experience the energies. Thoughts.

00:56:11

OK.

00:56:25 Denis

And reach out to the divinities of the planet of that day and and fully embody all of that.

00:56:33 Denis

And.

00:56:35 Denis

The first few times that I did this, there were some of them that were kind of scary, you know, I didn't know very much about them, you know, Mars and Saturn are.

00:56:45 Denis

Very well known to some people, not to me. Right. I I I they didn't come to me very naturally. And so reaching out every single week.

00:56:55 Denis

I was able to discover aspects of them that I had never imagined, right? Yeah, it's not all negative. I know. They're called the malefic X in in astrology and so on. But it's not. It's not that they are.

00:57:03 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:57:06 Merrily

Right.

00:57:13 Denis

Bad any more than the others are good, you know? It's just that they, they, they, they have aspect aspects that are.

00:57:16 Merrily

Right.

00:57:25 Denis

Maybe more intimidating than than others, and yet the others have aspects that are just as negative, but they also have positive aspects, so it gives you an opportunity to explore the whole range of that one planet. And so you've got these seven planets which are.

00:57:43 Denis

Opposed.

00:57:44 Denis

To in fact encompass the whole right, so, so. So you've got the the the unity.

00:57:47 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:57:51 Denis

Excuse me, you've got the unity, which is first of all divided into 4 by the the four elements, and you learn about each of those elements really well. And then you divide them into seven, right. You learn about each of those planets really well and. And so I do that every day and.

00:58:11 Denis

And and I ask those planets to.

00:58:15 Denis

And bless me with whatever from them I may need to bless my family with whatever they may need from them and to bless this whole list of members right from my Patreon and from the memberships from from YouTube. And so I read out the.

00:58:27 Merrily

Right.

00:58:30 Merrily

Yeah.

00:58:35 Denis

The list of.

00:58:37 Denis

Of Members who have asked for that particular deity to bless them. OK, so I'll I'll just. I'll read out the list. Please bless all these people as well, and and then I I I visualize those blessings going out to the four corners of of the globe right to wherever those people.

00:58:57 Denis

Maybe. And then I finish with the capitalistic cross.

00:59:03 Denis

And if you've ever done an LBRP, you'll know that you start with a capitalistic cross, supposed to end as well with capital.

00:59:09 Denis

Across which is where you're drawing light down from above. You, and you're essentially doing doing the the cross but with slightly different words. Although they're not really different words and and I do that because my way.

00:59:29 Denis

Into all of this was ultimately originally through Christianity and and I think.

00:59:35 Merrily

Right.

00:59:37 Denis

Of all of this, as aspects of the overall monad right, so not necessarily the not necessarily the the, the, the, the, the I'm going to use the word, not necessarily the God that is thought of.

00:59:58 Denis

By many people who follow the Semitic religions, right? But but but actually by a.

01:00:09 Denis

An overall whole, I guess the new what the Neoplatonic S would have called the monad, right? Yeah, the, the the origin. Right. So I think of all of this as aspects of that monad. In fact, I think of my Baker as an aspect of the monad. I think of every single.

01:00:27 Merrily

Yeah.

01:00:30 Denis

Individual thing the this microphone, this light. You know, it's all aspects of the monad, including the deities that I speak to on a daily basis. They're all aspects.

01:00:40 Denis

Of the moon and whether they be light or dark by the way. Right. Yeah.

01:00:42 Merrily

Yeah.

01:00:47 Denis

Yeah. So there we go. That's what I do every day.

01:00:51 Merrily

Oh gosh, yeah, that's all that. That's a pretty good everyday practice, my goodness.

01:00:57 Denis

Right. It's it's relatively.

01:00:59 Denis

Short actually, right and I should do.

01:01:00 Merrily

You got it down, yeah.

01:01:01 Denis

The whole thing.

01:01:02 Denis

Right.

01:01:03 Merrily

Yeah.

01:01:04 Denis

But that I try to do every day right as well as that I'll do other things right. So I'll might reach out to various other entities and so on during the day or or whatever. But that's something that I try to do every single day, yeah.

01:01:11 Merrily

Yeah, yeah.

01:01:20 Merrily

Oh gosh, I love your description of sort of the.

01:01:23 Merrily

LRP and the LIRP sort of what?

01:01:26 Merrily

You know you.

01:01:28 Merrily

Perceive as like what is actually happening is very.

01:01:30 Merrily

Cool.

01:01:30 Speaker 3

Hmm.

01:01:31 Merrily

Just because, naturally, when I do the LIRP I've been including and everybody's like, the hot topic is the HGA. So I have like my HG name and so I invoke in all the corners and everything. And like yeah, it has like a specific feel, at least when I do it.

01:01:46 Merrily

The LIRP.

01:01:48 Merrily

Way so many ways you can kind.

01:01:50 Merrily

Of do that for sure, yeah.

01:01:51 Denis

Hmm. Ohh yes there are. Yes there are. I. I actually do encourage people to examine the LBRP and to decide, you know, if it actually works for them. Yeah. And people were outraged when I decided that the East should be fire and the South should be should be air. But I discovered.

01:02:07 Merrily

That's right.

01:02:11 Denis

Recently through David Rankin.

01:02:12 Denis

That actually was Elifaz Levi, who switched those because that's how they originally were with air in the in the South and and and fire in the east.

01:02:16

Yeah.

01:02:25 Merrily

Wow.

01:02:26 Denis

And and Eliphas Levi. Excuse me. Use the French pronunciation there. Switched the two. And because the people who were setting up the Golden Dawn were kind of into levy they, that's what they used. So yeah, it it wasn't such a crazy thing.

01:02:47 Denis

Me to take off. Like that's right, that's.

01:02:47 Merrily

Exactly. It felt natural for you.

01:02:52 Merrily

And I wanted to also because I do a planetary because you were doing it like early on in the year. I was like, what? And so I started to. And so I've been.

01:02:57

Right.

01:03:00 Merrily

Continuing to do it for years now.

01:03:02 Merrily

Yeah. And so you're definitely inspired, inspired my devotional practice and I love it so much because of all the things you said, like understanding something like Mars, which I've been, oh, man, thinking about so often because my rising sign is Aries. So.

01:03:18 Merrily

You know, but I'm a Pisces son, so.

01:03:20 Merrily

There's a lot.

01:03:21 Merrily

Of like oh wow.

01:03:22 Merrily

Yeah. Like uh.

01:03:25 Merrily

UM.

01:03:26 Merrily

So yeah, really understanding what what that energy is, the positives and the negatives and even something like Jupiter, which is the ruling planet of my sun sign. Pisces. Yeah. Everybody understands the the beautiful wealth and all those wonderful things that Jupiter. But some of it is like that can be overrun, right, like.

01:03:39 Denis

That's right.

01:03:46

Too much. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.

01:03:46 Merrily

Out of control, you know.

01:03:48 Merrily

Like.

01:03:49 Denis

Just made me think of mid summer. You know the the, the movie mid summer where everything is just too much sun and then you know you're used to.

01:03:54

Yes.

01:03:58 Denis

To horror movies being dark and stuff, no.

01:04:01 Merrily

This is saggy.

01:04:02 Denis

This is all.

01:04:03 Denis

Very, very well lit. And that's the problem.

01:04:07 Speaker 3

Yeah. Oh, gosh.

01:04:07 Denis

Too much. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. There is a there is a negative side to to everything and there's a positive side to everything. That's OK yeah.

01:04:15 Merrily

Yeah.

01:04:19 Merrily

And even some of my sort of.

01:04:21 Merrily

Contemplations and meditations on Jupiter like I found there's a a big chair like to balance that there's a big charitable aspect of it too of like you've been given so much wealth and so many blessings you know you gotta spread it out like you can't hold on.

01:04:34 Denis

Yes, yes, yes, that's right. That's right.

01:04:34 Merrily

To it, you know.

01:04:37 Denis

Yeah, it's about a flow, isn't?

01:04:38 Merrily

It yes. So I love that. Yeah. So thank you for like inspiring that practice that I.

01:04:39

Yeah.

01:04:45 Merrily

Love so much.

01:04:45 Denis

Oh, Mike, it's my honor.

01:04:48 Merrily

Oh, yeah. Wonderful. OK, see. So we're kind of wrapping up a little bit.

01:04:54 Speaker 3

Hmm.

01:04:55 Merrily

So do you have? I mean, you're always posting things on your channel for sure, but are there any specific projects or events that you want to kind of talk about?

01:05:04 Merrily

Or let us know.

01:05:05 Speaker 3

There's a there's a.

01:05:07 Speaker 3

Bit of an.

01:05:07 Denis

Exclusive. Ah, yeah, you are literally the first person that I'm talking to about this. Yeah, I'm not even sure I'm allowed to talk about it yet, but but I'm going to. I'm going to I I don't know when you're thinking of releasing this, but.

01:05:10 Merrily

I want that.

01:05:19 Merrily

Uh oh.

01:05:25 Denis

Anyway, I I I think it's OK. I think we're getting close to the time when this is going to be public.

01:05:26 Merrily

Yes.

01:05:32 Denis

In January, I'm going to be giving a course in collaboration with some awesome people.

01:05:33 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

01:05:42 Speaker 3

I don't think I could say much more than that.

01:05:43 Merrily

Oh my God, there. Tell me after the call.

01:05:47 Denis

Yeah, not not a awesome person, but.

01:05:51 Denis

Some awesome people, yeah. If if everyone is if everyone is on board that I I hope is on board, it might be five others. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, very, very excited.

01:05:53 Merrily

That's so slow.

01:06:02 Merrily

Ohh that's so cool.

01:06:08 Denis

For that, yeah, I I'm going to be doing most most of it. I'm going to be doing 5 of the lessons and then the other five will be doing one lesson each. Or I think one of them possibly 2 lessons, but yeah. Yeah, just.

01:06:16 Speaker 3

Oh.

01:06:22 Denis

So that's something to look out for. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:06:22 Merrily

Oh my gosh.

01:06:24 Merrily

Yeah, that's so exciting. Ohh my gosh.

01:06:26 Denis

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So. So I'm going to.

01:06:31 Denis

Be working on.

01:06:31 Denis

That over the.

01:06:32 Denis

Yeah. And then, yeah, I don't think, I don't think the other projects, but there are projects. I don't think the other projects are are far enough advanced to to actually start talking about them quite yet, but.

01:06:41 Merrily

Oh, I'm sure.

01:06:48 Denis

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that, that that's that's one.

01:06:50 Merrily

That's so such a natural natural progression for you. So that's really cool.

01:06:56

You know.

01:06:57 Denis

I'm I'm very, very excited. Very, very excited, yeah.

01:07:01 Merrily

Well, awesome. Well, if you know, we also share like, where can people find you and learn more?

01:07:06 Denis

Though for sure.

01:07:07 Merrily

About all full.

01:07:08 Merrily

Things.

01:07:09 Denis

Right. Right, right. Yeah. So YouTube is obviously my, my main place. I try to be active on Facebook. I I have to, you know, I have to pick because you can just spend your whole life right your whole life on on social media. But really the discord.

01:07:24 Merrily

Too many, yeah.

01:07:29 Denis

Is probably where my heart actually is, right? I mean, I I'm on Facebook a lot because I have to keep up to date with what's going on for the news, right? The, the, the, the news segments that I do every Thursday for.

01:07:42 Denis

For for members and then get those get released on Fridays for the general public. But but.

01:07:51 Denis

The exclusives usually get dropped on the on the discord. You know that that's really where, where, where, where, where the people who are very close to my heart tend to be.

01:07:56 Merrily

Yeah.

01:08:07 Denis

Yeah. And of.

01:08:08 Denis

Course, yeah, there's there's the the bookings, right, the, the, the one to one bookings which which which have been doing very well and yeah people have appreciated those. And so have I by the way. Yeah, yeah.

01:08:24

Yeah.

01:08:24 Merrily

Well, yeah, definitely. Everybody check out Denis's. All the cool things he does, he's always up to something cool. Obviously, he's got projects in line, so stay tuned for those.

01:08:36 Merrily

So finally you.

01:08:37 Merrily

You know, always our guests leave us with some wonderful words of wisdom after they've dropped lots of words of wisdom. But what are some words that you'd like to leave with us today?

01:08:51 Denis

I've been thinking about this you.

01:08:52 Denis

Know, but I'm foolish. I don't have wisdom. That's maybe that that is indeed it.

01:08:58

It's the whole.

01:09:00

Well, that's it.

01:09:05 Denis

Yeah, I mean, remembering that we are all beginners and can only ever be beginners. You know, the people with 40 years experience behind them, it's just 40 years. It's nothing.

01:09:20 Denis

It's it's nothing. It's literally nothing. So. So, you know, obviously there shouldn't be a a deterrent for people getting started going, Oh my goodness you.

01:09:29 Denis

Know.

01:09:30 Denis

I've done six months and it's so hard already, you know, 40 years, isn't it? Isn't it's it's fairly big.

01:09:36 Denis

You know, but, but but it's OK that that the journeys, the point the the you know just learning something new and I think the thing that served me the best has been to be open to anything being possible until I've worked it out.

01:09:56 Denis

To be impossible, right? So when I hear something that sounds ridiculous to me, I.

01:10:03 Denis

You don't dismiss it. I I do a spot of research first. You know, I do a spot of personal experimentation and and and that that's probably the attitude that's got me into the most exciting.

01:10:23 Denis

Situations I I I guess wait just just just being OK with with ridiculous propositions.

01:10:32 Denis

Being possible unless it's quite obvious that they're impossible for reasons that I've worked out right. Not right, just because I've decided that it sounds silly or whatever, right?

01:10:39

Yeah.

01:10:45 Denis

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:10:46 Denis

There's the flip side of this, of course, is that, you know, we are interested in some pretty fringe.

01:10:53 Denis

Stuff and that puts us in contact with some pretty fringe ideas. And you really do have to keep your wits about you because there's so.

01:11:04 Denis

So much predation out there, right? People who will just take advantage of gullibility and and and so so yeah, it's a it's a tightrope, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

01:11:19 Merrily

It is a tightrope.

01:11:22 Merrily

Well, yes. So thank you. Thank you so much, Denis. I appreciate your time and.

01:11:27 Denis

Merrily, it's absolutely my pleasure. Thank you so, so much for having me. I've had a lot of.

01:11:32 Denis

Fun chatting with you today.

01:11:33 Merrily

Oh, Chad.

01:11:38 Merrily

Denis is so talented and kind. Just one of the best people to represent the occult and esoteric community. Do take a look at the show notes for the links to Denis’ Foolish Fish YouTube channel and definitely consider a one-on-one consultation with him. If you're looking for direction in your magical or spiritual lives, come explore the ethereal with us. Let's show the world you support the content on Casual Temple.

01:11:57 Merrily

Podcasts, by liking following and subscribing on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform? Do you drop us a note at casualtemple.com? We'd be delighted to hear from you. Thank you for tuning in and being an essential part of the Casual Temple community.

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EPISODE 40 - Denis Poisson aka Foolish Fish

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