Llewellyn Worldwide and New Age Religious Movements in the Twin Cities (episode 202)
Walk into almost any bookstore in October and you’ll see displays stacked with books on witchcraft, ghostly encounters and the paranormal. Look a little closer, and you’ll notice a familiar name on many of their spines: Llewellyn Worldwide. But did you know the world’s largest New Age publisher calls Minnesota home? In this episode, host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez and her guests Sandra Weschcke and Dr. Murphy Pizza explore how a Minnesota visionary turned a fascination with New Age spirituality into a global publishing powerhouse, and how that journey sparked the growth of New Age Religious Movements in the Twin Cities.
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Transcripts
English Transcript PDF (392KB)
Guests
Murphy Pizza
Murphy Pizza is a cultural anthropologist specializing in comparative religion with a background in studio arts. She received a doctorate in cultural anthropology/comparative religion from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Murphy Pizza, who goes by Doc Murphy, now resides in the Twin Cities where she conducted her research on the Pagan Community. Her teaching and academic background includes art and art history, religions and the occult, anthropology, feminism, power and social change, cultural competency/humility, and racial justice studies. As a long time lover of the occult, Doc Murphy is fascinated with the religions and magical practices of the world and is a magical practitioner, shamanic healer, tarot reader, reiki master and ecstatic alchemist.
Sandra Weschcke
Sandra Weschcke is the current President of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. one of the oldest and largest publishers of Wicca, Magick, Astrology, and New Age Spirituality books in the world. She is the wife of the late Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, former President and CEO of Llewellyn. He was a life-long student of Western Magick, Tantric Philosophy and former Wiccan High Priest. Carl Weschcke played a critical role in the rise of Wicca and Neo-Paganism during the 1960s and 1970s. He purchased Llewellyn publications from the estate of Llewellyn George who started the publishing company in England in 1901, Carl brought the company to St. Paul in 1961. Carl is remembered for his love of Llewellyn, his leadership and determination over the years to make Llewellyn an enduring and successful company.
Primary Sources
Cultural Archive of Modern Paganism. https://www.paganarchive.org/
Radio Paganistan: Folktales of the Urban Witches. Steven Posch. 2005. https://www.allmusic.com/album/radio-paganistan-folktales-of-the-urban-witches-mw0001434562
Secondary Sources
Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon, Revised and Expanded Edition. Penguin, 2006.
Clayton, Chris. “Chris Clayton, “Peek Inside the Emerging Witch District in South Minneapolis,.” Mpls St. Paul Magazine. August 3, 2017. https://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/peek-inside-the-witch-district-in-south-minneapolis/
Clifton, Chas S. Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Altamira Press, 2006.
Doyle White, Ethan. The New Witches of the West: Tradition, Liberation, and Power. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: a History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press, 1999.
“The New Age Movement,” https://www.cs.cornell.edu/info/people/kreitz/Christian/Cults/9.newage.pdf
Pizza, Murphy. Paganistan: Contemporary Pagan Community in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Ashgate, 2014.
Rossinow, Doug. "Tradition, Schism, and Continuity in Minnesota’s Communities of Faith." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/tradition-schism-and-continuity-minnesota-s-communities-faith
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: a Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Harper San Francisco, 2011.
Urban, Hugh. New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. University of California Press, 2015.
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