Episode 81 – Magical Occupations Revisited
Summary:
We launch our super-exciting and fun Patreon campaign! Come support us and help us grow (and get cool stuff at the same time)! We also revisit one of the topics we enjoyed most in our early days, Magical Occupations, and add some ‘new’ jobs to the list, as well as some new folklore to explore.
Play:
Download: Episode 81 – Magical Occupations Revisited
-Sources-
We have to give a very special thanks to YOU! Our listeners! You sent in the emails and comments which we used to think about magical occupations a second time around, and added so much brilliant insight to the discussion. Thank you!
Other sources include:
- Judika Illes and her Encyclopedia of Witchcraft formed the basis for the first episode and influenced this one as well.
- Cory brings up the Storyteller pots of the American Southwest
- We discuss the famous Child Ballads
- Cory mentions Joshua Gunn’s Modern Occult Rhetoric
For a look at the folklore in J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world, check out The Sorcerer’s Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter.
Some resources based on the various “new” jobs discussed:
- Bartenders: I recommend Wicked Plants and The Drunken Botanist (both by Amy Stewart) for a perspective on the magic of bartending (and other botanical extracts).
- Outlaws: You can check out these articles on Santa Muete & Jesus Malverde for more information on those figures.
- Musicians & DJs: Learn more about Tommy Johnson, the figure behind the legend of the crossroads pact with the Devil in blues music.
- Holy People: African American preacher tales can be found in Harold Courlander’s Afro-American Folktales. We also mention Randall Kenan’s Let the Dead Bury the Dead and Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People.”
- Cooks/Chefs: We mention a trio of films about magic and eating – Simply Irresistible, Chocolat, & Like Water for Chocolate
- Nurses: Barbara Brennan’s Hands of Light is a book which uses energy healing in a nursing context
- Hairdressers: Carolyn Morrow Long’s bio of Marie Laveau, A Voudou Priestess, addresses some of the hairdressing lore.
Cory also enthusiastically recommends the film Gypsy 83.
Please, please, please, check out our new Patreon page! You can help support the show for as little as a dollar a month, and get some awesome rewards at the same time. Even if you can’t give, spread the word and let others know, and maybe we can make New World Witchery even better than it is now.
If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!
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Promos & Music
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune.
Incidental music in this episode is selected from the emerging genre of Witchhouse. The band you hear samples from is Salem, from their free album “I Buried My Heart Inna Wounded Knee.”
Podcast recommendation: Dusted! A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast (which both Cory & Laine have been listening to far too often)
New World Witchery - The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft 
This episode converged so many of my current interests! I can’t believe you guys listen to Dusted (I immediately thought of that show when I first saw the mention of Patreon on the website). I’m definitely a fan of that podcast as well, (I’m damngoodcoffee on the storywonk forums, so if you’re on their as well, NWW hosts and/or listeners, hi!).
I’ve also recently just watched my first Simpsons episodes, starting with selected Treehouse of Horror eps, so I actually got the Homer doughnut reference. 🙂
I really like the criteria you both suggested for magical professions (liminal space + specific expertise), though listening to the descriptions, I’m actually taking all this as a way to find the magic in one’s own profession. Almost every industry, for example, has jargon or coded language, and definitely has some specialized knowledge, and I think we can find our own liminal spaces pretty much anywhere My profession, for instance, is on the scholarly end (librarian), but you could view a library as a liminal space between ignorance and understanding, or isolation and connection, or as a ‘third place’ (not school or home) for people to gather. I also see it as kind of a portal, myself, though the difference between portal and liminal space seems a little fuzzy to me.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the episode, and am very excited about the Patreon news.