The Pope Licked What?
Summary: This month’s notebook features meteor showers, eclipses, Appalachian folklore, a black cat who loves to cook, a Kentucky goatman, creative uses for knives, and more!
Listen:
Stream:
Download (Right click to save): The Folk Magician’s Notebook – August 2026
We highly recommend that you find an almanac or lunar-oriented datebook to help you with planning out your own magical year. Some we can recommend:
- The Witches Almanac
- Llewellyn’s Astrological Pocket Planner
- Writual Planner
- Or your local Farmer’s Almanac!
You can find a transcript of this episode at our Transcripts page.
Sections
- Lunar Forecast – Our monthly rundown of lunar astrological information
- In the Cards – Divination through cartomancy, tarot, and folk methods. This month: The Four of Hearts, the Seven of Pentacles, and Turning the Loaf!
- A Witch’s Words – Proverbs, folklore, and book reviews. This month: an Appalachian witch story and a review of Witches, Ghosts, and Signs by Patrick W. Gainer.
- Materia Magica – Magical artifacts and crafts. This month: magical knives.
- Creature Corner – Folkloric creatures, beings, and entities. This month: The Pope Lick Monster of Kentucky!
- Listener Feedback – We read and respond to your questions and comments! If you have one you’d like to submit, mail us at compassandkey@gmail.com or newworldwitcherypodcast@gmail.com
Check out Cory’s book, New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic! (also available from Amazon). Also check out our collaborative book, Conjuring the Commonplace: A Guide to Everyday Enchantment and Junk Drawer Magic (1000Volt Press) (also available from Amazon). If you are interested in playing card divination, you can check out our Cartomancy post or pick up Cory’s book, 54 Devils.
Image via Cory Thomas Hutcheson (CC 2.0)
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Promos and Music:
Title and closing music are “Runaround (AM Radio),” by Aaron Solomon, and is licensed from Audio Socket. (License #1273). Additional incidental music Kevin Macleod and Daniel Birch, from Free Music Archive and used under a CC 2.0 license.
“Backed Vibes (clean)”, “Blue Feather”, “Crossing the Divide”, “Danse Macabre”, “Danse Morialta”, “Dissappointment”, “Divertissement – Pizzicato (from the ballet Sylvia)”, “Dream Catcher”, “Faster Does It”, “Gymnopedie No. 1”, “Gymnopedie No. 2”, “Gymnopedie No. 3”, “Meditation Impromptu 01”, “Meditation Impromptu 02”, “Meditation Impromptu 03”, “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys”, “Pippin the Hunchback”, “Rites”, “Ritual”, “Tranquility”, “Windswept”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Sound effects from Freesound.org and in the Public Domain. Additional “rooster” sound effect from Darina Evstafeva from Pixabay.
Please consider supporting us by purchasing our promotional items in the New World Witchery Threadless shop or by joining our Patreon supporters.
If you like us AND you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you will love our new show: Myth Taken: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast, now available through all the podcatchers! You can also check out Cory’s folklore show, Chasing Foxfire, where he explores the intersection of folklore and topics like history, medicine, science, nature, literature, pop culture, and more!
New World Witchery - The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft 