magic – Page 21 – New World Witchery – The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft

Episode 124 – Tatterdemalion and the Magic of Northern California

Summary:

We invite the lovely, myth-making Sylvia Lindsteadt onto our show to discuss her folktale-novel Tatterdemalion. We discuss the role the landscape has played in shaping her work, how the mythic word intrudes into the everyday in Northern California, and share a couple of tales that come from that region as well.

Please check out our 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.

Producers for this show: Heather, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, Raven Dark Moon, WisdomQueen, Regina, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Little Wren, Khristopher, Tanner, Jody, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Catherine, Montine, Cynara at The Auburn Skye, Sarah at ConjuredCardea,The Trinket Witch, Victoria, Sherry, & AthenaBeth. (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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Of course, we highly recommend you check out Sylvia’s book, Tatterdemalion, which was the inspiration for this episode. You can also find her book Our Lady of the Dark Country by visiting her website for more information about her other writing projects. We also highly recommend checking out the artwork of Rima Staines, who was a major influence on Sylvia’s work (and one of Cory’s favorite artists).

The two California folktales were “The Six Peoplings of the World” and “Falcon’s Search for Yayil,” from S. A. Barrett’s collection, Myths of the Southern Sierra Miwok.

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Don’t forget to follow us at Twitter! And check out our Facebook page! For those who are interested, we also now have a page on Pinterest you might like, called “The Olde Broom.” Have something you want to say? Leave us a voice mail on our official NWW hotline: (442) 999-4824 (that’s 442-99-WITCH, if it helps).

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune. Incidental music is “Wonders,” by S.J. Tucker (used with permission) and selections from Viviana Guzman’s “Meditations for Flute,” licensed from Magnatune.

Episode 123 – Everyday Magical Objects Revisited

Summary:

We dig back into the listener suggestions for everyday magical objects and look at another round of commonplace (or uncommonplace) items and how they can fit into a magical practice. Everything from the dapper gentlewitch’s accessories to photosensitive paper makes it into this one, so we hope you enjoy!

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You might want to take a quick listen back to our first Everyday Magical Objects episode if you aren’t familiar with what we’re doing in this one. You may also want to listen to our episodes featuring Robert Schreiwer and Robert Phoenix, since Cory mentions the event with them (which was a blast!).

Some of the books and folklore sources used for this episode include:

The Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells, by Judika Illes
Ozark Magic & Folklore, by Vance Randolph
A Dictionary of Superstitions, by Iona Opie and Moira Tatem
“Louisiana Superstitions,” by Hilda Roberts (in the Journal of American Folklore, 1927)

Thank you to listeners Heather, Autumnn, Mahalia, Mila, Chris, & Jennifer for this episode’s Everyday Magical Object suggestions. Please feel free to send in your own suggestions for future objects!

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Episode 122 – Divining the New Year

Summary:

We launch our eighth year of podcasting with an episode that looks forward to the coming months through divination. Lots and lots of divination! Laine and Cory try out several different divinatory methods (some they’ve used before, and some they haven’t), then break down what they see in the cards, beans, bones, or stones for the year ahead. Plus we do our Magical Object, which seems like child’s play but also has plenty of magical uses, too!.

Producers for this show: Heather, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, Raven Dark Moon, WisdomQueen, Regina, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Little Wren, Khristopher, Tanner, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Catherine, Montine, Cynara at The Auburn Skye, Sarah at ConjuredCardea,The Trinket Witch, Victoria, Sherry, & AthenaBeth. (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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Both of us use Cory’s method of cartomancy for one of our readings. You can find out more about that in his book, 54 Devils, or by reading these posts from our past:

Laine also uses the following methods/tools:

The Javamancy Board by Chas Bogan of Carnivalia/The Mystic Dream
The Rabbit Tarot, by Nakisha Elsje Vanderhoeven

Cory also uses the following methods/tools:

Rune Stones given to him as a gift, read using some of the information in Diana Paxton’s Taking Up the Runes
The Haindl Tarot pack, by Hermann Haindl (Rachel Pollack’s books are the top recommended interpretation guides)
His personal “bones” collection for bone readings. He uses elements of the technique in cat yronwode’s Throwing the Bones, as well as drawing on his experience. Some photos are below:

Cory’s rune from his divination, “Hagalaz”

Thank you to listener Maria, who suggested the Everyday Magical Object of marbles for this episode. Please feel free to send in your own suggestions for future objects!

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Incidental Music is “Laid Ten Dollars Down,” by the Black Twig Pickers, and is used under a Creative Commons License from the Free Music Archive.

Episode 119 – Of Cauldrons and Sigils with Laura Tempest Zakroff

Summary:

We discuss all sorts of topics as we bring on author, dancer, artist, and all around righteous witch Laura Tempest Zakroff. We hear her takes on the many forms of cauldrons (you have more in your house than you know), sigils, and contemporary methods for traditional witchcraft. We also look at a strange and rather retro object in our Everyday Magic segment.

Producers for this show: Heather, Jenna, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, Corvus, Khristopher, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Little Wren, J.C., Mandy, Josette, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Cynara at The Auburn Skye, Victoria, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Montine, Regina, Hazel, Michael, Patrick, & Sherry (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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Download: Episode 119 – Of Cauldrons and Sigils with Laura Tempest Zakroff

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You can find out all about Tempest’s art, magic, and writing at her websites:

Laura Tempest Zakroff (her main page)
Owlkeyme Arts (her arts page)
Mago Djinn (her sigil crafts page)

You can also check out her latest books which were largely the basis for this show: The Witch’s Cauldron and Sigil Witchery, both from Llewellyn Publishing.

Big thanks to listener Renee for suggesting the insect ash tray we discuss in the Everyday Magic section (see the pic above that she sent in). When discussing it, Cory mentions the books The Little Book of Magical Creatures (edited by Elizabeth Pepper and Barbara Stacy) and The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill (by Robin Artisson).

If you are one of our Patreon supporters, THANK YOU! We know that the Patreon kerfuffle this month was annoying and stressful, so hopefully now everything is behind us on that. You can hear more about it in this episode, too.

Want to send us a holiday greeting for the Yuletide episodes in December? You can do that via email or at our voicemail: (442) 999-4824 (that’s 442-99-WITCH).

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Incidental Music is “Mother’s Hands,” by Sergei Chereminisov, and is used under a Creative Commons License from the Free Music Archive.

Episode 117 – Everyday Magical Objects

Summary:

This is the episode in which we tackle some of the many wonderful submissions to our “everyday magical object” contest. We’ve got ideas for cat whiskers, subway coins, and skeleton keys, among others, and we’ll be introducing plans for our new segment.

Producers for this show: Heather, Jenna, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, Corvus, Khristopher, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Little Wren, J.C., Josette, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Cynara at The Auburn Skye, Victoria, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Montine, Regina, Hazel, Michael, Patrick, & Sherry (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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Download: Episode 117 – Everyday Magical Objects

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You might be interested to look back at some of our previous posts/shows on everyday magic, such as:

Cory mentions Peter Muise’s excellent blog, New England Folklore, as a source of local Yankeedom lore.

Some of the books used or referenced in this episode include:

Voodoo & Hoodoo, by Jim Haskins
Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic, by catherine yronwode
The Tradition of Household Spirits, by Claude Lecouteaux
The Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints, & Sages, by Judika Illes
The Long Lost Friend, by John George Hohman (trans. By Daniel Harms)

Cory also mentions the concept of hobo nickels, which are worth looking at if you’ve never seen them, and laments not knowing as much about animal magic as the much-missed Gillian of Iron Powaqa.

Want to send us a holiday greeting for the Yuletide episodes in December? You can do that via email or at our voicemail: (442) 999-4824 (that’s 442-99-WITCH).

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Special Episode – Tales from the Witching Hour 2017 Eclipse Edition

Summary:

We return to one of our old ideas and bring you a “Tales from the Witching Hour” that explores the different ways Laine and Cory worked with the magic of the recent 2017 solar eclipse. We talk about what we did, what worked, what didn’t, and what we wish we’d done differently.

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You may want to listen to our most recent show, Episode 114 – Of Suns, Stars, & Magic, which covers some of the broader magical practices associated with eclipses.

Promos & Music

Intro music is “Grifos Muertos” by Jeffery Luck Lucas, from his album What We Whisper, used under license from Magnatune.com

Closing Music is “Mr. Moon,” by Martha Rose, used through Creative Commons license on Free Music Archive.

Episode 114 – Of Suns, Stars, and Magic

Summary:

With the solar eclipse coming up, we look at eclipse folklore and magic, then expand into the heavens to discuss other solar and stellar lore and enchantments.

Producers for this show: Corvus, Khristopher, J.C., Josette, Renee Odders, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Sarah, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Little Wren, Jessica, Victoria, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Montine, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, Mandy, Regina, and Hazel (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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We mention that we’re not talking much about lunar magic, since we’ve covered that in both Episode 75 – Moon Magic and Episode 97 – A Lunar Wheel of the Year. You may also hear some of the lore associated with the sun and stars in Episode 5 – Signs and Omens and Episode 7 – Weather Magic and Lore. You might also be interested in our article on Comets as well.

We mention several books that might be of interest to our listeners who like to look up into the sky, whether day or night:

Stellar Magic, by Payam Nabarz
Planets for Pagans, by Renna Shesso
The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, by Tristan Gooley

And Cory highly recommends Bri Saussy’s Star Magic course, which he’s taken before and loved!

We’ve got a contest going on, but only for another few weeks! Check out the rules and get your entries to us by September 1^st! You can win one of two prize packs.

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Announcement! – Everyday Magical Objects Contest Giveaway

Greetings to all you magically-minded folk out there!

In our most recent episode, we sort of came up with an idea for a contest on the fly, and asked you to send us ideas of unusual or particular items you’ve got lying around that you’d like to find a way to work into a spell somehow. Many of you are already sending us your ideas, which is wonderful, but we thought it would be a good idea to announce the contest a little more formally and let you know just what it is you’re entering for a chance to win. And so, here are the official rules!

Everyday Magical Objects Contest Giveaway

**Ways to Enter**

Send us your magical object idea via email (you can try via social media, but we can’t guarantee we’ll get it that way). Please send just one object at a time, and give us enough of a description of the object that we know exactly what it is. If you can, give us some context, like what kind of magical practice you follow (so that when we come up with a response, it might actually be useful to you). This is definitely not a “stump the chumps” situation—that would be too easy with us!—so send us things that you genuinely want to know about. You can send us as many as you like, but each person can only be entered once for sending in an idea.
If you’re a sponsor of ours on Patreon at any level, $1+, you’ve already got one free entry! If you become a sponsor before the contest deadline, you’ll also get the free entry.
Share one of our episodes (a favorite or one you think others should hear) via social media and tag us for an additional entry! (We’re on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure you’re using the tags appropriate to those mediums or we won’t know you’ve shared anything).

That gives you the chance to get up to three entries per person! (Please note, prize winners must be located someplace where it is legal to ship the contents of the prize packs from the United States)

**What You Can Win**

We’re going to give away two different prize packs, each chosen randomly from our selection of entrants (NOTE: If you win one prize pack, you cannot win the other one, sorry!).

Crafty Cards Prize Pack

This prize pack will contain:

A signed copy of Cory’s card-reading book, 54 Devils
A deck of Wylie Beckert’s Wicked Kingdom playing cards (see the images above and check out her website, as these cards are gorgeous and perfect for cartomancy!)
A deck of the Fantod Pack, cards inspired by and drawn from the work of grim children’s author Edward Gorey, interpreted by Madame Groeda Weyrd
A free email-based card-reading from Cory! Ask your questions, receive answers from the great beyond! (or at least from Cory at his computer)

Wicked Stories Prize Pack

This prize pack contains things from or inspired by weird or magical stories:

A copy of the excellent and terrifying graphic novel Wytches, by Scott Snyder and Jock
A deck of Wylie Beckert’s Wicked Kingdom playing cards, which tell their own strange story
Several CDs from the Florida Folklife Collection, packed full of blues, bluegrass, and plentyof murder ballads
A “Dracula, Lord of Cunning” spellwork candle from Coventry Creations, based on both the character from Bram Stoker’s book and the Vampire Tarot by Robert M. Place

Both prize packs may also get a few extra goodies in them, too! If these prizes sound appealing to you, we’d love for you to enter to win!

The deadline for getting your entries to us will be Midnight, EST, Friday September 1^st, 2017.

What will we be doing with your entries? Well, they’ll be part of an upcoming show (or more than one), of course! So make sure if you want us to keep you anonymous or use a pseudonym, you tell us in your email.

We can’t wait to see what you send us! Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far!

Be well,

-Cory & Laine

Episode 113 – If You Don’t Have Homemade Wool of Bat, Storebought is Fine

For this episode, we’re looking at our personal practices and figuring out how we decide what ingredients to use, when, and why. We talk about sourcing magical ingredients, using spell kits, and how we “shop” for magic in the everyday world.

Producers for this show: Corvus, Diana Garino, Renee Odders, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, The Witches View Podcast, Sarah, Molly, Corvus, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Little Wren, Jessica, Victoria, Daniel, Plum Deluxe Teas, Johnathan at the ModernSouthernPolytheist, Montine, Achija of Spellbound Bookbinding, and Hazel (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!

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Download: Episode 113 – If You Don’t Have Homemade Wool of Bat, Storebought is Fine

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We’ve covered magical ingredients in a couple of different episdoes, including Episode 11 – Magical Tools, Episode 60 – Aesthetics and Mechanics, Episode 88 – Everyday Magic, and one of our recent Patreon-only episodes on magical gifts.

You may also want to look at our series of articles on Supermarket Magic (part I and part II), which covers finding magical ingredients in mundane places.

Cory mentions the folk tradition of using “bear” and “skunk grease,” which you can find out more about in Vance Randolph’s Ozark Magic & Folklore and the Foxfire series.

We talk about the excellent (and now gone, although back episodes are still available) Lamplighter Blues show, which featured a regular “mundane ingredient” segment. Similarly, the Witches Brewhaha show frequently did a mundane magic section (although we cannot speak for its back episode status).

We’ll be launching a contest, which we literally come up with as we do the episode. A full announcement will come in the next week or so, but it will involve you sending us ideas for potential objects to use in magical ways. Sounds fun, right?!?

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.

Episode 111 – Magical Travel

Summary:

We cover magical travel from a few different angles in this episode, including protection while traveling, bringing magical supplies with you when you’re on the road, and folklore about traveling.

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If you like the theme of this episode, you might want to check out our page with all of our Travel-related episodes, too.

We both mention Cunningham’s Earth, Air, Fire, & Water and Earth Power.

Some of the lore mentioned can be found at S.E. Schlosser’s AmericanFolklore.net site, the AtlasObscura site, and in the books under the Weird US imprint. Make sure to check your local bookstores as well for regional folklore materials (look under Dewey Decimals 390 and 398).

Cory also brings up some folklore about travel superstitions you can find in Vance Randolph’s Ozark Magic & Folklore, Patrick Gainer’s Witches, Ghosts, & Signs, and the Foxfire series.

Laine mentions the groups MUFON and BFRO, both in connection with finding sites for strange occurances like UFOs and Bigfoot.

We mention our excursion on June 3rd to see the ancient magical artifacts exhibit at the Penn Museum and we’d love for you to join us! You can find out about it in our Special Update post on it, or check out the Facebook Event page. We’ll also have a cemetery tour/ghost walk that afternoon!

If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Promos & Music

Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune.