Author Biography

Russ Jones (Rhys) sometimes describes himself as a "third-degree metaphysician" which is to say he is a doctor of philosophy:

My academic career is marked by advanced degrees in philosophy and history.  While at the College of Wooster, I specialized in epistemology and aesthetics, writing a thesis on Friedrich Nietzsche's aesthetics which was heavily predicated on ancient Greek mythology and religion.  Later, following my career in professional theater, I attended Case Western Reserve University where I completed a dissertation in the cultural history of ideas around popular twentieth-century understandings of technological progress.  I then taught (as my second career) U.S. and Michigan history at Eastern Michigan University for over seventeen years.

Religiously/spiritually I was raised "unchurched" in an agnostic household, if I'm charitable, or downright atheistic if I'm not.  I found systems of magic in the 1970s and 1980s but did not then go deep.  Studies in philosophy at college brought me towards a greater and more sophisticated understanding of Spirit, as throughout time the one almost universal certainty is the transcendence of consciousness, if not the profound depth of reasoning about "what lay beyond."  Around the time of the births of my children, I "dabbled" in Christianity, but found it intellectually and morally (how ironic!) unsatisfying.  Through the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, I found Wicca and practiced that for a few years.  I studied Buddhism afterwards also for a few years (I was an attendee at Jewel Heart), and then new age psychology, also for a few years.  

With my marriage to Mara Evenstar, who at that time was studying transpersonal psychology and perennial philosophy, I moved more into the psycho-social aspects of spirit, which is to say ritual.  We came to (or it came to us) a vision of spiritual service where we could share, or co-create, with a wider public a spiritual journey of self-development.  This idea first manifested itself as "New Myth Works" an organization that produced events and rituals.  Our most widely attended and popular was a series of "New Earth Days" starting in 2012 (remember when all time was to end?).  This vision evolved into Evenstar's Chalice (EC) in 2017, which is a "metaphysical" store (unpack that phrase!).  

We started EC as mostly a holistic spiritual products and services place catering to multi-path, contemporary spirituality, encouraging and helping people find and walk their own path.  As EC developed, we followed many of the directions towards which our customers pointed, principally, for me, towards a re-engagement with magic studies.  My academic background and philosophical bent led me more and more into the rigorous study of "rejected knowledge."  

I would describe myself today as an independent scholar and book collector of magical & spiritual studies, a "third-degree" metaphysician, if you would allow.

With a boulder in Boulder, CO.

R 01/16/2025