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I sit down with Ken from the Right Where You Are Sitting Now podcast for a deep exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche’s influence on Western esotericism, modern occultism, and radical self-transformation, examining how Nietzsche’s rejection of Christian morality and conventional metaphysics — through ideas such as the will to power, Dionysian mysticism, and the Übermensch — shaped magicians, mystics, and modern Left Hand Path traditions, not as abstract theory but as a lived philosophy of self-overcoming.

This week:

- Nietzsche as a formative influence on modern occult thought

- The death of God and the spiritual crisis of modernity

- Will to power as metaphysical principle and magical analogue

- Amor fati as a discipline of self-mastery

- Eternal recurrence as mystical ordeal and existential test

- The Übermensch as a model of self-overcoming and transformation

- Determinism, fate, and the occult problem of free will

- Slave morality, guilt, and the psychological origins of sin

- Dionysus, ecstasy, and pagan currents in modern philosophy

- Why Nietzsche became central to modern esoteric culture

Right Where You Are Sitting Now Links:

https://sittingnow.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/@sittingnow

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/right-where-you-are-sitting-now/id1515119253

https://open.spotify.com/show/7kNDgrfgBKReEZ1r02dzVP?si=81416615c86e4416

Support the show

If you value Will to Joy (formerly Becoming Übermensch) and you want more, please ensure its continued existence by supporting the show

If you are interested in delving deeper into this work and are hungry for greater challenges, I also now have a Patreon. Become a De Profundis Member and access exclusive episodes and exercises. Thank you so much for supporting this project.

Here's a Spotify playlist of the tracks I recommend in series 1 of the Will to Joy podcast in the order I recommend them. Each invokes some variety of Dionysian feeling for me. I hope they can do something similar for you:

👉 Follow and connect:

Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube | TikTok | Facebook

"Message the show"

Joy, peace on earth, and good will to all men: Christmas is supposed to be a Christian festival. But what might it mean after the death of God?

In this special end-of-year episode of The Will to Joy, we explore Nietzsche’s surprising relationship with Christmas — from his childhood enchantment with the festive season, through intimate Christmases with the Wagners, to his darkest and loneliest winters marked by estrangement, illness, and radical self-overcoming.

Drawing on Nietzsche’s letters, notebooks, and major works (The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil), this episode asks what remains of joy, peace, and generosity once Christian metaphysics has collapsed. Why did Nietzsche continue to value festivals? What role do communal celebrations play in culture after God’s death? And why did he believe that joy needs no justification?

We examine Christmas through a Nietzschean lens: Dionysian ecstasy and deindividuation, war and repose, otium and overwork, generosity without phoney morality, and joy as the unmistakable signal of life ascending. Along the way, we confront Nietzsche’s critiques of peace, pity, altruism, and slave morality — and recover a harder, more honest, more life-affirming vision of cheerfulness as overflow rather than consolation.

The episode concludes with a Nietzschean Christmas tale that touches on the role and function of celebration in human culture.

A Christmas episode for atheists, skeptics, and anyone interested in joy without illusion, generosity without guilt, and affirmation without God.

Raise a cup of good cheer — and prepare for a New Year of self-overcoming.

Music recommendations:

It's a Big Country by Davitt Sigerson

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Other music credits: Nacht Silent - Vienna Boys Choir

Support the show

If you value Will to Joy (formerly Becoming Übermensch) and you want more, please ensure its continued existence by supporting the show

If you are interested in delving deeper into this work and are hungry for greater challenges, I also now have a Patreon. Become a De Profundis Member and access exclusive episodes and exercises. Thank you so much for supporting this project.

Here's a Spotify playlist of the tracks I recommend in series 1 of the Will to Joy podcast in the order I recommend them. Each invokes some variety of Dionysian feeling for me. I hope they can do something similar for you:

👉 Follow and connect:

Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube | TikTok | Facebook

"Message the show"

In this special wrap-up episode, I take you back through the journey of The Will to Joy’s first season—what we explored, what we uncovered, and how far this project has already evolved. From the human condition in all its frustration and striving, to the three-part exposition of will to power, this episode closes one chapter and opens the next.

I also look ahead to what’s coming:

– the future of the podcast

– the launch of my forthcoming book Nietzsche. Sex. Power. A Manifesto of Ascending Life (2026)

– and the direction this entire movement is heading

We'll reflect on the new ideas that have emerged in the process—my interpretation of will to power, the “economy of bodies” we all inhabit, and our practical, evolutionary approach to Nietzsche that you won’t find anywhere else.

I speak openly about the reality of creating this work: leaving my job, burning my bridges, and committing fully to this project—and how you can play a part in bringing the next phase to life by joining me as a De Profundis member.

To close, I offer a compact but incisive exercise drawn from Nietzsche’s idea of “giving style” to one’s character—an uncompromising method for discovering the values you actually live by, beyond your self-image or good intentions.

If you’ve followed this season, you’re here at the beginning of something. Consider this your invitation to continue the ascent.

Support the show

If you value Will to Joy (formerly Becoming Übermensch) and you want more, please ensure its continued existence by supporting the show

If you are interested in delving deeper into this work and are hungry for greater challenges, I also now have a Patreon. Become a De Profundis Member and access exclusive episodes and exercises. Thank you so much for supporting this project.

Here's a Spotify playlist of the tracks I recommend in series 1 of the Will to Joy podcast in the order I recommend them. Each invokes some variety of Dionysian feeling for me. I hope they can do something similar for you:

👉 Follow and connect:

Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube | TikTok | Facebook