Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:15 p.m. CT
August 6 – 27 (4 classes)
Few are the love stories of esoteric history, unless they are allegories. It's not easy to sustain spiritual paths, romantic relationships and work, whether working apart or together. What can we learn from the magical but often tragic love stories of alchemists, magicians, philosophers, poets and psychonauts?
Join author and historian Ronnie Pontiac for a spirited tour through four amazing metaphysical marriages. These couples worked together to study alchemy, found mystery schools, resurrect bygone Egyptian rites, and push the boundaries of psychedelics. Some marriages were marked by controversy and tragedy; others were the stuff of legend. All of these esoteric figures encountered issues that still resonate today: blending spiritual understanding with day-to-day work, growing together by exploration of mutual interests, working through marital conflicts, supporting one another when faced with critics, and surviving the death of a spouse.
See detailed syllabus below.
Registrants will receive on-demand access to recording(s) that can be viewed for two weeks following the conclusion of the program. Late registrants will receive recording links to all missed sessions.
TS Members: $60 • Nonmembers: $75
Week 1: Rebecca and Thomas Vaughan
Thomas Vaughan's alchemical and Rosicrucian interests kept him busy writing books like Anthroposophia Theomagica and publishing an "anonymous" translation of the first Rosicrucian manifesto, the Fama Fraternitatis. Historical records and books and letters left by Thomas give us an intimate glimpse of a loving alchemical couple: the alchemist and his soror (Latin for sister), his lab assistant. Rebecca was much more than that. One of their most significant discoveries was so much her work he named it “Aqua Rebecca.” After her death Thomas listed her few possessions in a loving note filled with regret. But then she came to him in a series of dreams that gave him the spiritual understanding he had been seeking.
Week 2: Alma and Max Theon
Born in Poland, probably to a family of Jewish kabbalists, Max Theon inspired the creation of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor at the age of 36. It's been proposed that he was one of H. P. Blavatsky's masters. A year later he married Mary Chrystine Woodroffe Ware who became known as Alma. Together they established a mystery school and community known as the Cosmic Tradition. Theon said Alma was the moving force for this revelation of what they called original wisdom. Her death left him heartbroken. He never recovered his health, his happiness, or his importance.
Week 3: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
A legendary tragedy among poets is the unhappy but sometimes very happy love of Sylvia and Ted. Some have characterized her as weak because of her ending. Most agree that Ted was something of a brute. Their mutual interest in esoteric beliefs and practices deeply informed their work, but the conflicts that tore apart their marriage sent them to the tragic fates they seemed unable to avoid. This class features an interview with Julia Gordon-Bramer, author of The Occult Sylvia Plath: The Hidden Spiritual Life of the Visionary Poet.
Week 4: Jean Houston and Robert Masters
After serving in WW2, Robert Augustus Masters studied with Sartre and was the first to translate Heidegger's Being and Time into English. By 1962 he was getting LSD from the CIA, to be administered to willing parties so the feds could find out exactly what the stuff did. Jean Houston, daughter of a comedy writer, was one of the volunteers. It wasn't long before Jean and Robert married. Their lifelong adventure included being among the primary founders of the human potential movement, as well as authors of the books The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience and Mind Games, which inspired John Lennon's song. During the first Clinton presidency the media called Jean Houston "Hillary Clinton's Spiritual Advisor." She was, but not in the way they implied. And then there was Robert’s revival of the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet.
Ronnie Pontiac worked as Manly P. Hall’s research assistant, screener, and designated substitute lecturer for seven years. He is the author and co-author of a trilogy about metaphysical countercultures in Western Esotericism published by Inner Traditions: American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World (2023); The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A Translation for the Modern Mystic (2023), co-authored with Tamra Lucid; and The Rosicrucian Counterculture: The Origins and Influence of the Invisible Society (2025). Ronnie has produced award-winning documentaries and written for many publications. Guitarist for the experimental rock band Lucid Nation, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tamra Lucid.