My Alchemical Romance

Chelsy Usher & Marie Lloyd

Welcome to My Alchemical Romance a True Crime Podcast with an esoteric warp. We are two ex-bee priestesses and shamanic detective agency digging up literary hoaxes, spiritual frauds and crimes. We also like to laugh at everything, including ourselves, with little patience for faff, spiritual commerce and grift. *The Rose Gives the Bees Honey Illustration by Johann Thedore de Bry

  1. Episode 1

    Episode 1 | Part 1: The Architect

    Part one of the information dense coverage about Simon Buxton's start as well as the beginnings of The Sacred Trust and the Path of Pollen. We talk a bit about what The Shamanic Way of the Bee is about. Plus: Early Staff Members & Bios, British Broadsheets Interview with Lewis, The Nektary & Nektars, The Melissae, The Sisterhoods, Early Interviews, The Liber Mantikos, The Serpent Flight of the Honey Bee, Vanishing of the Bees Documentary, Impersonal Use of S*xual energy, and More. Find Images for show notes here: https://myalchemicalromancepod.myportfolio.com/episode-1-the-architect

  2. Episode 2

    Episode 1 | Part 2: The Architect

    In part 2 of The Architect, we continue laying out the Simon Buxton's public evolution through his interviews and articles. After a freshly recorded intro and chat, letting you know whats on the way- we graft in the convo we were having in Part 1. We're setting up the beginning of the Sacred Trust, Simon's journey, the teachers, and what the Path of Pollen is about, the glands, the alchemy and the magic. We're still in the details of how exactly this cult began and how the story shifted over time- the slippery slope of layers of lies, touching on euroccentric shamanic practices in America, "keeping bees", and much more. We discuss the pollen method in more depth- all leading up to the day when things took a turn toward absolute madness. Check the Link for image of the time when you could be penpals with "Devorah Schlockel" and "Fionulla Tremenheere" the imaginary Melisae. Vanishing of the bees! Creating the inner laboratory, Nektars, Maternal Magnetic! Shamanic way of the Bee! Sex Magic! Masons! Occultism! Enjoy my really bad edits and dubs! Also a Note: In Part one we rant about "Oral Documents" and want to acknowledge that this concept does exist a little bit, out in the world, and has some merit on it's own- we stand by Buxton's "oral documents" as being total chaff. And not very well thought out in hindsite.

  3. Episode 3

    Episode 2 | Pt 1: Visible Darkness

    We're back! Part 1 & Part 2 of Visible Darkness were going to drop together, but instead they'll be a couple days in between while we add some outside video resources to part 2- so not to worry, the rest of is coming shortly. In Visible Darkness we finish up the recap of Buxton's growing public "biography" and begin venturing into some "behind the scenes" events and secrets that students and the general public were not privy to. We also highlight the reviews and rising whispers online about plagiarism and fraud and what some of the faculty found out, years before this all came to light. Then, Marie dives into detail about what some students were being told behind closed doors and how it was held back from a broader audience- which creates more questions than answers. Visible Darkness marks the opening of door that has been long closed and from here on- for quite a few episodes and for most of you, this will be previously unheard info. Below are all the links for this and some for part 2, with more included in the next drop. Shaman’s Drum Review by Timothy White 2004 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DAHY7dUuWeaZm4X_qjAm6yuo2jkJ5ciu/view New Age Fraud & Plastic Shamans (also searchable, use “Simon Buxton” etc) http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=530.0 Scriptus Gydja Review https://scriptus.gydja.com/the-shamanic-way-of-the-bee-simon-buxton/ Sky River Brewing Mead Website  https://web.archive.org/web/20000614060909/http://skyriverbrewing.com:80/history.asp Bad Witch Blog with Ross Heaven https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/06/i-ask-ross-heaven-what-is-authentic.html%20 BeeGarth Comment  https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/4152532055090335650/7684877476002807000 Buxton Vs. Heaven Court Cases: https://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-challenge-decision-results/o16407.pdf https://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-challenge-decision-results/o03709.pdf Pollen Path & Ritual Deer Hunt https://sacredtrustinfo.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-pollen-path-indigenous-appropriation.html 2015 Secret Plagiarism (Steiner, etc) https://sacredtrustinfo.blogspot.com/2023/08/plagiarism-of-modern-or-living-authors.html Marie Lloyd’s Substack https://substack.com/@marielloyd8

  4. Episode 4

    Episode 2 | Part 2: Visible Darkness

    Hi there, Here is part 2 of Visible Darkness! Please enjoy while we puke and scream from anxiety!  Part 2 follows on directly from the end of Part 1 with Marie finishing giving you the official Path of Pollen lore as delivered to her in 2023 by Ariella Daly and her notes from several interviews with both Simon Buxton and Naomi Lewis, over many years at The Sacred Trust. We discuss who the faculty actually was for better understanding and we also circle back to tell the story of the day Chelsy first spoke about the “first round” of plagiarism in The Shamanic Way of the Bee on social media (links to all the story highlights below), the aftershocks, and the first statement we received from Simon. We end with the introduction of a woman who offers to facilitate the Zoom call interview with Chelsy and Simon.  It’s too early to form opinions about whether we should be saying all this- so hold on- because after the next special episode (which will leave us horizontal with angst and The Fear) we cover the zoom call and the subsequent, explosive discovery that has made everything else this far seem like peanuts. You’ll probably change how you feel about it all twice an episode.  We laugh and joke quite a bit as we're getting through all of this- because we have to. The truth is it was all and still is  painful and sometimes infuriating- but man, have we learned a lot. We’ve left all posturing, concerns about whether we can sell you something later, and breath-y , spiritual good-girl, sing-songy ways of speaking at the door.  Please continue to write in with comments and history. If you’d like to be interviewed later in the series- let us know! My Instagram Story Highlights 2023 Start: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18006746200889506/ Part 2: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18062153104423903/ (more highlights there) 2015 Secret Plagiarism (Steiner, etc) https://sacredtrustinfo.blogspot.com/2023/08/plagiarism-of-modern-or-living-authors.html You can see a screenshot of the statement briefly put on the website in 2023 here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQFs-R9tG3TEqt9-8iBBhJZbjOqrVR0IBhYcfHfYYwTE5ZsWyw6N5kIqcGrZ09_Tv0AZF7V_ehLVlw_OXBBs457tlgvVpZVkPt3Y_gHN95w25iWLB8jQnqIj0gpMNyh9ECDbIo1FkXYEP2QAIG_7NVDpe1cuUP0eC5kWEy7-as4pmeVH9J-zxjwt-8CuUa/s1600/PHOTO-2026-05-12-17-43-57.jpg Scriptus Gydja Review https://scriptus.gydja.com/the-shamanic-way-of-the-bee-simon-buxton/ Pollen Path & Ritual Deer Hunt https://sacredtrustinfo.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-pollen-path-indigenous-appropriation.html Marie Lloyd’s Substack https://substack.com/@marielloyd8

  5. Episode 5 Bonus

    TEA TIME! Part 1: The Doodle Poll Apocalypse

    Welcome to our first Tea Time! Where we serve you TEA! This tea time also happens to have key information about ridiculous things happening around The Sacred Trust that most people had no idea was happening. This first half is two hours of mini-explosions prepping for what feels to us like a bit of a bombshell, coming in Part 2. Marie explains in the beginning what the Tea Time is all about and then we give some background on the would-be and current teachers of the pretend tradition the Path of Pollen, like Nico Wolf and Ariella Daly. Plus- who already knew about the plagiarism inside Simon Buxton's "The Shamanic Way of the Bee" and who knew much more?

  6. Episode 6 Bonus

    TEA TIME! Part 2: "Because of the Pathological Lying"

    After a phenomenal amount of technical difficulties and setbacks that we are totally blaming on hexes from the enemy, we're back with part two! In the last episode we dove into the Teaching Cell's brief existence, the agony of the group chat, and the continued threat of a DOODLE POLL. We carry on in part two- bringing you up to a few days before Chelsy goes live with the first round of plagiarism, where she's having an incredibly revealing, confusing, generally upsetting, and, in hindsight, shocking conversation with Ariella Daly. Marie brings some wild messages and mind-bending quotes, along with the ever impressive research we've come to expect. Watch Chelsy face-palm, eye-roll involuntarily, and look horribly pained (on youtube) every time Marie starts reading! Things start to get a little delirious right at the end so bare with us through some giggling and some ranting, sometimes at the same time! This is the final part to this particular Tea Time series. Next episode we are back to our original timeline and begin dissecting the infamous ZOOM CALL. This one is the icing on the cake when it comes to showcasing just how duplicitous the most pious and "spiritual" love-and-lighters can be. As Marie says, it shines an unflattering but truthful look at what many of these shamanic or spiritual organisations are like in the inner circles, and the kind of faux-academic, algorithm-surfing, pay-to-be-a-priestess influencers that come out of them. Read my heartfelt and/or wizened enlightenment story! Have I made you feel something for a moment? That's why you should take my course/get my free guide/claim the few remaining spots on my workshop by commenting "**SNAKE/BEE EMOJI** and I'll have my automated AI chatbot tell you to check your DM's! Just like they did in Delphi! In all seriousness, this nightmare of these interpersonal relationships is of public interest. +++This Tea Time episode picks up right where we left of, discussing Simon Buxton of the Sacred Trust in the UK ( Author of The Shamanic Way of the Bee), American teachers and proponents of the "Path of Pollen", Ariella Daly (known as Beekeepinginskirts on IG) and Nico Wolf, Formerly Nico Golden Wolf, formerly Nicole Burke).+++

  7. Episode 7

    Episode 3 | Part 1: Shall We Zoom?

    FINALLY We are back. AND we are back with the continuation of our regular episodes. Chapter 1 of our 3rd Episode (which is technically the 7th episode of them all, so figure that out!) called "Shall We Zoom?" is, you guessed it, about The Infamous (to a very niche crowd) Zoom interview done with Simon Buxton, prior to the Shmitz absolutely hitting the proverbial Fan. We asked Simon if he would allow us to record an interview about the many pressing questions that students of the Path of Pollen had about Buxton's plagiarism, the origins, who his teacher Bridge truly was (if he was real at all), and if our teachers had met the Elders of "these ways". I can't wait for the next chapter where we introduce the concept of Telephonic Magical Links. We start out with a little yapping, followed by some very easy questions about, you know, whether the Path of Pollen is a "real" tradition. Easy peasy, no? NO! Enjoy actual clips of Simon's answers, as well. We wouldn't want to bias you by only reading them aloud. Keywords: Simon Buxton The Sacred Trust The Shamanic Way of the Bee Plagiarism Fraud ! Naomi Lewis Ariella Daly Honeybee Bee Shamanism

  8. Episode 10

    Episode 3 | Part 2: Shall We Zoom?

    One month (almost to the day) we bring you part 2 (of 3) of our recap of the 2023 Zoom Interview with Simon Buxton, author of The Shamanic Way of the Bee. A book that laid the foundation for a gynocentric body of work called The Path of Pollen, which you could study at The Sacred Trust in the UK with several female teachers including Naomi Lewis. This chapter has more clips from the Zoom, don't worry, we're just one episode away from Nuclear Disaster post-Zoom. We're going to do an entire episode on Marilyn Tunneshend and her toltec influence on The Nektary (your inner laboratory), so quite a bit of this episode was cut out of the end (believe it or not) and we'll get familiar with her work next episode and in an editional one that goes beyond fire sipping. We start to delve into Castaneda and reveal what has become an endless rabbit hole of answers. We also quote from a email we were sent from someone who was allegedly there when simon got the idea to invent Bee Shamanism.

  9. Season 1 Trailer

    My Alchemical Romance Trailer

    Two former "bee-priestesses" investigate literary hoaxes and false spiritual lineages, starting with the Path of Pollen as termed in Simon Buxton's book, The Shamanic Way of the Bee. This one is personal. It is thorough, full of insight with side dishes of snark, laughs and a healthy dose of cuss words. We take the work seriously, but not ourselves... My Alchemical Romance: A podcast where two spiritually over seasoned women explore and investigate the lure of fraudulent magical books, self-styled gurus, hidden traditions and what it means, in reality, to follow a sacred path or what you believe to be a calling. Especially when you're paying money for it... There are many religious, occult, shamanic traditions out there - often overlapping in their doctrines, beliefs, lore and practices. Offerings of magic in a chaos laced world are seductive, and never more so when the bond of community runs parallel. We hold a fascination in the wellspring of belief and faith in the unseen. And more so the weave of how mystical knowing becomes the fabric of how a life is lived. But what’s often overlooked, yet as compelling, is when that weave is ripped apart.

  10. Mar 11

    Prima Materia | Episode Zero

    Welcome! Who are we? What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Are we insane? Do we have enough biscuits to carry on? Join us on our introductory episode where we give you the run down and the reason, where we beg and plead for your patience and forgiveness for our editing skills, and promise a whole buch of times that it'll be interesting, we swear! Two brand spanking new "angry, mean girl" podcasters (that's us) are about to give you every excruciating detail of the Lore and Undoing of the UK's Mystery School; The Sacred Trust. We've dug deep into the Rise and Fall of it's founder, British shaman Simon Buxton, author of the fake autobiography The Shamanic Way of the Bee. We've become investigative journalists, just for this! Join us! We're terrified and full of the aforementioned bisquits!

  11. Bonus

    April Update: Adrenaline & Evidence

    EDIT: re-uploaded after a little clean up! We are recording Episode 3: {We’re Gonna Need A} Bigger Boat (yet again!) on Tuesday. Marie and I will be back by the end of next week with a An Even Bigger &  Better Bigger Boat.  In 2023 I monologued on Instagram, while shaking like a an leaf and trying to remember to breathe,  to bring you the news of what I thought was a lot of plagiarism (the good ol’ Beginner Playg). And I’m about to regale you with a slightly more sophisticated terror-filled update, by me but from us both! Have a listen. (Visit here for those original stories and look for the other highlights for records of the months of chaos) https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18006746200889506/ Strap in! Here be Dragons! Batten the Hatches! The only way out, is through!  Abandon all hope, ye who…actually no, I think you’ll eventually get some hope back from this, we did! What I’m saying is that it’s going to be an intense couple of episodes. Episode 3, will be a pretty meticulous ride up to the top of the Roller Coaster. Then we’ll scream, wave our hands in the air,  and barf as we rocket perilously to the ground for Episodes 4-5, wondering WHYYYY.?!? Straight into the upside down loop-de-loop for Episodes 6-7 (probably).  If you like twists and turns mixed with exhaustive factoids (and tea), HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting to the other side of this amusement park ride. Things will look so different from start to finish, and I have a feeling there will be some new discoveries while we are recording- I’m even making a field trip to hear a tip-off.  PS: I mention that it was “just me and marie” and a handful of women behind the scenes that were encouraging. In terms of being in the 24/7 recon and research mode, that is mostly true. We did have a couple of people reach out with some key data- but they are 007s and mustn’t be named (007 is a funny occult AND spy reference which is relatively obscure so I want you to know that I’m clever). Also we had The Group Chat.  A mysterious collective with 2 other women who were in it with on the day-to-day. We still have a dedicated GC and I wouldn’t have stayed sane without the 11/10 jokes (and research) that is in it everyday.  Enjoy a visit to the web archive and explore internet history (and so, so many books)! https://web.archive.org/ ~~Extra Credit Reading~~~ Rewatching the Instagram stories I mention- and 142 weeks ago, a very nervous me addressed my tiny following, chest pounding, and revealed "Things That Shall Not Be Said". I said in one of the 100+ frames:  “Once again, I don’t want to hurt anybody…It’s crazy to me that my shedding light on someone else’s mistake could paint me as a bad person- but I’ve seen that happen [with this] and I’m prepared”.   Two years later- SUPRISE SURPISE, I absolutely was not, in fact, prepared. Upon meticulous review; now having the understanding of our work, the experience, the chaos, the soft-launch verbose brutality of Instagram-famous Spiritual Women ™; many of us have come to recognize the textbook signs of Cult behavior and mistreatment. We’ll add some material about Preemptive Narrative Control and (the long-lasting) effects of the insidious DARVO tactics many have been coming to terms or reconciling with.

See All Season 1 (11)

Trailer

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Welcome to My Alchemical Romance a True Crime Podcast with an esoteric warp. We are two ex-bee priestesses and shamanic detective agency digging up literary hoaxes, spiritual frauds and crimes. We also like to laugh at everything, including ourselves, with little patience for faff, spiritual commerce and grift. *The Rose Gives the Bees Honey Illustration by Johann Thedore de Bry

Information

  • Creator
    Chelsy Usher & Marie Lloyd
  • Episodes
    11
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Chelsy Usher & Marie Lloyd
  • Show Website
    My Alchemical Romance

You Might Also Like