The Strange Case of Sebastian Morello

A response to his response.

Last week, I wrote an unfavorable review of Sebastian Morello’s book Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries. Yesterday, Morello published a lengthy response defending his book. You may wish to read it before continuing with this article.

I’m grateful to Sebastian for engaging with me. I’m especially grateful for his conciliatory note (although he did compare me to an elephant with a paintbrush).

I’m not going to write a line-by-line response to Morello’s line-by-line response, however. Readers can buy the book if they like and judge for themselves.

However, there are a couple more thoughts I would like to offer before I put this subject to bed.

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I. Janus Agonistes

If you were to compare my review to Morello’s reply, it may seem as though you’re reading about two different books. Morello would say that’s because I’ve misrepresented him. But if you do read the book itself, I think you’ll come away with the same impression. Morello appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Let me give an example. In his response, Morello says: “Neither in that three-part essay nor in my book do I conclude that hermetic magic can save the Church.” He then quotes the following passage from his book, which (he claims) will prove his orthodoxy:

So, can Hermetic magic rescue the Church? I must conclude with a qualified no. Obviously, Hermeticism cannot rescue the Church. The Church has a Savior, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can rescue the Church, and so He will, for the Church must continue until the conclusion of the world. Christ walks this earth today, however, in His members. The baptized are other christs, and they are called evermore to become such by sacramental—principally, Eucharistic—transformation. Whilst they remain under the spell of Enlightened man, that warlock who has conjured modernity, and before whom the Church’s hierarchy presently quakes, the Church’s members will continue to stagger and their mission will increasingly ebb. [Valentin] Tomberg claimed that the time had come for the Church to engage once more with the Hermetic way, to discern what could be embraced within the broad sphere of Christian spirituality and what could not be accommodated. Such an engagement may now be a pressing necessity.

Again, I declare that Christ alone can rescue His Church, but we have ousted Him in a diabolic effort to divorce Bride from Bridegroom. We have lost the primacy of the supernatural: however much the Lord may seek to rescue His Church from its current trajectory of self-destruction, He finds a Church whose members largely don’t believe they need rescuing.

But, ah! Morello doesn’t quote the whole paragraph. For those of you reading along at home, we’re on page 80. But in case you don’t have the book, I’ll share the whole thing here, emphasizing the sentences he omitted at the end:

Again, I declare that Christ alone can rescue His Church, but we have ousted Him in a diabolic effort to divorce Bride from Bridegroom. We have lost the primacy of the supernatural; however much the Lord may seek to rescue His Church from its current trajectory of self-destruction, He finds a Church whose members largely don’t believe they need rescuing. They are under a spell, and that spell must be broken. Perhaps the sacred magic of Hermes Trismegistus is what’s needed to banish the black magic of Enlightened man. And thereby, we may begin to retrieve meaning and in turn start the Church’s process of humbling itself before the King of the Universe.

I mean, he’s right: Morello does not say that magic can save the Church. But he does say that magic is a precondition for the Church’s salvation. That’s probably not as bad, but… it’s still pretty bad.

I bring this up first because it shows that Morello isn’t being totally honest. He identified this passage as the book’s thesis statement (as I did in my review). And he clearly ended the quote halfway through that second paragraph so that his readers would think that his thesis statement ended with a discussion of Christianity.

Now that he’s facing scrutiny, Morello wants to give the impression that his book is concerned mainly with defending Christianity, not promoting Hermeticism. Unfortunately, as we’ll see, this is not the case.

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II. Will Magic Save the Church?

Morello insists that there’s nothing heterodox—or even especially novel—in his book. He claims that Hermeticism is just a symbol for traditional, “Neoplatonic” Christianity—the kind that was taught by Scripture, the Fathers, and the Doctors of the Church.

Read Morello’s thesis statement again, though. The implication is that Hermeticism (whatever it is) can do something that Christ and/or Christianity cannot. Clearly, it comes from outside the Christian system. According to Morello, the Lord can’t save us unless we want Him to save us—and this “sacred magic” (whatever it is) will engender that desire. It is, therefore, something other than Christ.

Put it another way. If I say, “My dad can pick me up, but I need Jim’s phone to call him,” you would assume that Dad and Jim are different people. If they’re actually the same person, not only was my sentence misleading: it was a complete nonsense. Likewise, if Hermes is somehow just a metaphor for Christ, then Morello’s thesis is this:

1. Christ alone can save the Church.

2. However, Christians don’t want to be saved.

3. They’re blinded by the “spell” of Enlightenment.

4. We need traditional Catholic theology and spirituality to break that spell.

If this is Morello’s thesis, then it’s not a bad one. But then we must ask: What’s the point of this book? Why is he introducing all of these Hermetic terms and concepts if he has no intention of introducing their Hermetic meaning?

If that’s the case, then Morello’s book is just a language game. (No one seriously believes that Catholicism would suddenly become popular if it dressed up in Hermetic drag, do they?)

But, of course, it’s not a game at all. It could do positive harm by leading the simple-minded into believing that real Hermetic magic is compatible with Catholicism.

Of course, Morello would never want that. He is shocked—shocked!—that I would make such an insinuation.

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III. Of Jesuits and Hermeticists

Frankly, though, I don’t believe him. I don’t believe that he could be so passionate about promoting a magical system and yet agree with the Church that magic is categorically evil.

This is why I compared him to James Martin, SJ. As you all know, “Father” Martin promotes the language, symbols, and ideas associated with Radical Gender Ideology within the Catholic Church—and yet insists that he’s perfectly orthodox. What’s more, if anyone accuses Martin of being duplicitous, he and his supporters accuse us of being simple-minded, uncharitable, etc.

But why would Martin devote his entire career to promoting a movement/ideology that he doesn’t believe in? The answer, of course, is: He wouldn’t.

Yes, I know: Morello hasn’t devoted his entire career to promoting Hermeticism. But it’s definitely a major theme. He has written several articles—and now a whole book!—on the topic. It also comes up frequently on his podcast, Gnostalgia (!). But why would Morello spend so much time and energy promoting magic… and then claim to be against magic?

This is why the comparison is so useful. Martin and Morello are basically saying the same thing: “We need to use the language, symbols, and thinkers associated with a deeply sinful practice in order to say exactly the same thing we’ve been saying for 2,000 years.” For Martin, that deeply sinful practice is homosexuality. For Morello, it’s magic.

I don’t think either of them are sincere. I don’t see how anyone possibly could. This is the very definition of jesuitical.

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IV. The Smoke of Satan

Part of the reason why Morello’s account is so hard to accept is because there’s already such extensive evidence of occult practices within traditionalist Catholic circles. Alasdair McFadden, himself a traditionalist Catholic, has done sterling research on this topic.

For instance, McFadden reports that Angelico Press used to run an imprint called Sophia Perennis. Here is how Sophia Perennis described itself:

Sophia Perennis is dedicated to publishing the best contemporary writing on the world’s wisdom traditions, largely from a Traditionalist or “Perennialist” perspective, as well as reprinting recognized classics. We have tried to remain faithful to Traditionalist core principles—notably the Transcendent Unity of Religions—while exploring new applications of these principles, as well as returning to the great Revelations themselves for fresh insight.

The link to the Sophia Perennis website is now dead (McFadden’s essay was published in 2021). Nevertheless, it’s disturbing stuff. And as far as I can tell, there has been no change in Angelico’s leadership in the last four years. So, are they just keeping their Perennialism under wraps?

Likewise, my old friend Charles Coulombe has extensive connections to occult organizations. He has been affiliated with the Besant Lodge of the Theosophical Society for at least thirty years: his last confirmed appearance there was in 2020, when he performed a tarot reading with a bishop of the Ecclesia Gnostica.

We also have the strange case of Robert Nixon, OSB, a Benedictine monk and priest. Nixon has done work for several traditionalist Catholic publishers, most notably TAN Books. Chris Jackson, another traditionalist Catholic, points out that Nixon has also translated several occult writings, including a pamphlet on divination.

Lest there be any doubt, Nixon’s translations were published by Hadean Press (!), a purveyor of “Guides to the Underworld.” Hadean Press is owned and operated by practicing neopagans.

These are just three examples. And here’s the thing: they are all connected to Morello. Coulombe blurbed Morello’s new book; Angelo published his last book; Nixon is a frequent guest on his podcast.

Morello’s defenders will probably call this “guilt by association.” But, look: if it walks like a magician, and quacks like a magician, and hangs out with magicians, then it’s probably a magician. I don’t think we’re jumping to any radical conclusions here.

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VI. Pico the Proto-Modernist

I should add that there are many sound arguments in Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries. As I said in my review, Morello’s diagnosis of our modern malaise is spot-on.

My problem with the book is bound up with my deeper concerns about the whole idea of Enchantment, or at least of seeing Enchantment as an end-in-itself. Too often, Re-Enchantment is treated as a synonym for “idiosyncratic, performative woo.” In this way, much of the Enchantment crowd—including Morello—are profoundly modern.

What’s more, as Florian Ebeling wrote in The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus, Hermeticism was always a “progressive” force in the history of Western religion.

Consider the case of Morello’s hero, Pico della Mirandola. It’s true that, at one point, Pico was a Christian Hermeticist. In fact, many consider him a sort of “proto-Perennalist.” Yet he was denounced by the authorities of the Catholic Church for his involvement in magic. Thank God, he eventually repented of his involvement in the occult. In fact, he became a follower of the puritanical friar Savonarola.

Also, it’s worth noting that part of the reason Catholic authorities opposed Hermeticism is because it was bound up with the quasi-pagan humanism of the Renaissance. Not only did it undermine the Catholic consensus: it promoted a view of religion that was deeply saturated with the highly rational, scientific, and philosophical worldview associated with late antiquity.

So, when “Christian Hermeticism” first debuted on the scene, it was immediately recognized as being incompatible with Christianity. It’s no more “trad” than any late-medieval heresy—Catharism, for instance, or Waldensianism. In fact, in many ways, it’s worse, because it weakened the very foundation of Western civilization: faith in Christ.

To use another example, Hermeticism also helped to inspire the Enlightenment, and for all the same reasons. Hermes was seen as a kind of spiritual scientist. He was compared favorably to both the Catholic and Protestant authorities of the day, whom the philosophes viewed as superstitious zealots. Hermes, for them, represented a kind of magical deism, natural magic, or scientific mysticism.

This is also why, for instance, Masonic orders were named in his honor. Again, he was seen as espousing a more progressive theo-philosophical systems that could transcend all the world’s religions and unite mankind in a one, grand scientia sacra.

So, from a traditional Christian perspective, Hermeticism contributed to Disenchantment. Now Morello proposes that we turn to Hermes for help “re-Enchanting” Europe. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll go back to the Source.

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VII. Poisoning the Well

Let me say this, by way of closing. I didn’t write this review for fun. I don’t enjoy “going after” old friends like Kwasniewski or Coulombe. For whatever it’s worth, Morello himself strikes me as someone I would really enjoy on a personal level.

I do think magic is evil, though. That’s a fact to which I can speak firsthand. I believe (as the Church has always believe) that it must be resisted always, everywhere, in all of its forms. And I believe that Hermeticism—in theory, in practice, and as an historical force—poses a unique threat to the Christian Faith and to Christian civilization.

And while Morello may get many things right, this only makes his errors more potent. In his essay on traditionalist Catholicism and the occult, Alasdair McFadden quotes Pope Leo XIII’s warning:

There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition.

Most Christians will not be led astray by reading out-and-out pagans like Gerald Gardner, Aleister Crowley, or Anton LaVey. They probably wouldn’t even be seduced by reading the Corpus Hermeticum, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, or Meditations on the Tarot.

But if a respectable Catholic author like Sebastian Morello publishes a book with a respectable Catholic outfit like Os Justi Press, which is run by a respectable Catholic academic like Peter Kwasniewski, and suggests there is an affinity between Hermeticism and Christianity… Yes, that drop of poison may spoil the well.

Alas.

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N.B. I should have mentioned that Chris Jackson is digging up new evidence of Morello’s direct involvement in the occult every day now. In his latest article, for instance, he embeds a clip from Gnostalia where Morello talks about being visited by the “god” Valentin Tomberg, who guided the writing of his doctoral thesis on the occultist Joseph de Maistre from beyond the grave. Jackson and a couple of other journalists are uncovering these strange nuggets in Morello’s podcast, which prove he has a very different understanding of metaphysics and the supernatural than orthodox Christians do.