We begin our annual #AllHallowsRead episode series with “The Night Wire,” by H.F. Arnold. Our theme this year will be stories from the American horror/sci-fi magazine, Weird Tales, which published from the 1920s to the 1950s. This story features a very creepy fog and a very creeped-out telegraph operator.
You can read the full text of “The Night Wire,” by H.F. Arnold. The story is listed as in the public domain.
Promos & Music
Intro music is “Grifos Muertos” by Jeffery Luck Lucas, from his album What We Whisper, used under license from Magnatune.com
Incidental music by DR (“Sedativa II”), Lucidique (“L’Horrible Passion”), and Canton (“Ambient Gourd”), which are used through Creative Commons license on SoundCloud.
We bring you (or actually, YOU bring you) the second edition of our Audio Spellbook. This one is focused on the idea of “Everyday Magic,” which you can do using simple, common ingredients or tools. We have a nice set of spells for you covering everything from protecting you while you drive to helping to pay off overdue bills and finding things that are lost. Plus we finish with a funny little story of Appalachian witchcraft gone awry. Enjoy!
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: Corvus, Diana Garino, Renee Odders, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Ivory, The Witches View Podcast, Sarah, Molly, Corvus, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, Shannon, Little Wren, and Jessica (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!
Cory shares a spell from Draja Mickaharic’s The Spiritual Worker’s Spellbook and a short witch story from The Silver Bullet, by Hubert Davis.
We’ll be attempting a live broadcast in late June, so stay tuned for details on that!
Also, we should be launching our newest podcast effort, Chasing Foxfire, in the next few months as well.
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 “Pig Ankle Rag,” by The Joy Drops, and is used under a Creative Commons License (available at Soundcloud.com).
Additional music:
Quiet Storm Surge – Stelle Stormfloij
Lucas Gonze – Hollow Poplar
& Mrs. Smith – Before You Go Using Your Voodoo
Kosta T – Red and Black
Silas Leachman – Fortune Telling Man
Sergei Cheriminsky – Mother’s Hands
Musicians from Marlboro – Dvorak’s Sextet in A Major
Teddy & Marge – Crossing My Fingers
The Joy Drops – Dill Pickle Rag
Doctor Turtle – It Looks Like the Future…
The above songs can found at the Free Music Archive and Soundcloud and are used under a Creative Commons License.
Thanks to Kellianna for the use of “Parting Glass” and “Oh Shenandoah,” from her album Traditions.
EDIT: We’ve had a very informative and respectful email from a listener that pointed out a few errors in my retelling of the Haitian tale about Obatala, Yemoja, and Shango. I would like to note that Yemoja is not historically associated with Haitian spiritual practices, and that the selections from Teish’s book are not reflective of African Traditional Religious practice as done by initiates from those traditions (like Lukumi or Candomble). The tale of Obatala’s Yams is from Courlander’s book, which has come under critical fire at times for inaccuracies. I am leaving the story as-is and in the context of the episode because I think it does fit the overall theme and has some grounding in folk narrative from Haiti, but please do not take it as solid evidence of Haitian traditions and practices. The listener also noted that Haitian Lwa and Lukumi Orishas are not “goddesses,” which is a good point to reiterate. They are not. Nor are White Buffalo Woman or La Virgen de Guadalupe. They are “goddess figures” in an anthropological sense, but I am using a very blunt instrument in categorizing these three tales together. I hope that I have not misled anyone into thinking that the Western concept of a “goddess” is universal or fits cultural material from non-Western sources without some severe oversimplification. Again, this episode is designed as a way of looking at the “lighter” side of the Feminine Divine, and is made in a spirit of appreciation. If I’ve reduced anyone’s spiritual beliefs in any way through this material, I apologize, as that was certainly not my intention. -Cory
We spend sometime with mothers bright and beautiful, the Queens of Heaven, in lore and practice. Hear some folktales from the New World, as well as some spells, music, and other fun stuff all devoted to the Bright Mother.
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: Corvus, Diana Garino, Renee Odders, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Ivory, The Witches View Podcast, Sarah, Molly, Corvus, Catherine, AthenaBeth, Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop, and Jessica (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!
The idea to do this episode is related to our previous show, Episode 63 – The Dark Mother (although obviously we’re sort of looking at the divine feminine from the other side this time).
Folklore for this episode comes from several sources:
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 “Pig Ankle Rag,” by The Joy Drops, and is used under a Creative Commons License (available at Soundcloud.com).
Incidental Music (from FreeMusicArchive, used under a Creative Commons License):
Paul Messing, “Lakota Prayer (Edited)”
Laurent Danis, “Lakota Prayer”
L’Horrible Passion, “Lucidique”
Mild Maynard, “Migrant Mother”
Canton, “Ambient Gourd”
Advent Chamber Orchestra, “Serenade for Strings (Dvorak)”
Sergei Chereminisov, “Mother’s Hands”
Additional music used by permission: “Treachery is Afoot” (Ember Days Soundtrack) and “La Sirene,” by S.J. Tucker.
Tonight we have a special guest with us to discuss shapeshifting once more. Plus we’ll hear an Appalachian folktale and a few shapeshifting spells, too!
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: Diana Garino, Renee Odders, Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, Raven Dark Moon, Ivory, The Witches View Podcast, Sarah, Molly, AthenaBeth, & Jen Rue of Rue & Hyssop (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!
Our friend Achija Branvin Sionnach of Spellbound Bookbinding is our special guest this evening, and he’s also offering a special service to all of our listeners: If you have a paperback book you want leatherbound, he will do it for you for the costs of materials and shipping! Just mention you heard him on our show.
Cory also mentions the short film Foxes, which involves shapeshifting. Our guest tells the story of “Cat & Mouse,” an Appalachian Jack tale. And we also mention the story of Nebuchadnezzar from the biblical book of Daniel.
If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune.
Music: “Werewolves 2.0,” by Moi, le voisin, from Soundcloud (used under the Creative Commons license). Incidental music is “Ambient 1,” by Olssons, also from Soundcloud.
Podcast recommendation: Check out the latest episode of Infinite Beliefs, which features our friend (and sometime shapeshifting witch) Sarah Anne Lawless!
This time, we look at the lore of shapeshifting witches, including loup-garous, Wampus cats, and skinwalkers. We also briefly discuss the idea of hag-riding.
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: Renee Odders & Athena (if we missed you this episode, we’ll make sure you’re in the next one!). Big thanks to everyone supporting us!
We discuss Navajo Skinwalkers a good bit, and you can read about them more in an upcoming article on our site
A pair of podcasts have discussed werewolf legends in great detail recently: LORE and Sawbones have both done a fine job with covering the historical (and skeptical) side of the subject
If you’ve got a paperback copy of a book which you’d like to get bound in leather, our friend Achija Branvin Sionnach of Spellbound Bookbinding is offering our listeners a very deep discount. If you tell him we sent you, he’ll do the leather-binding for you at cost of materials plus shipping.
If you have feedback you’d like to share, email us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune.
Music: “Were-Owl,” by S.J. Tucker, from her album Mischief. Incidental music by Brian Johnston, doing a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” found at Soundcloud and used under a Creative Commons License.
Podcast recommendation: Laine recommends the podcast Darkness Radio, and Cory suggests the medical/comedy/folklore show Sawbones.
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.
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.
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.
Nurses: Barbara Brennan’s Hands of Lightis 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!
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.”
Come pull up a chair by the fireside with Daddy Splitfoot and listen to some devilish folklore submitted by listeners (and expanded upon by your sinister host). This time we visit the American West, particularly the Mormon cultural region, for our lore and legends.
The source for most of this episode is YOU! Our wonderful listeners, who supplied us with this lore back in the Spring during our contest. The legend of Bigfoot in Mormon country can be found lots of places, but this one makes a good starting point (and links to many of the others): MormonThink – Bigfoot
Come pull up a chair by the fireside with Daddy Splitfoot and listen to some devilish folklore submitted by listeners (and expanded upon by your sinister host).
The source for most of this episode is YOU! Our wonderful listeners, who supplied us with this lore back in the Spring during our contest. I also augment two of the pieces of lore with outside sources: 1) The story of Spring-Heeled Jack, adapted from Daniel Cohen’s Encyclopedia of Monsters, and 2) The Wendigo, told from Alvin Schwartz’s collection Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
Incidental music by So I’m an Islander (“Quiet Storm Surge”), Canton (“Ambient Gourd”), & Olssons (“Ambient1”). All tracks are used through Creative Commons license on SoundCloud.
The song between acts is “Me & the Devil Blues,” by Robert Johnson, and is available at archive.org.
Title & end music: “Grifos Muertos” by Jeffery Luck Lucas, from his album What We Whisper, on Magnatune.com Incidental music by Genomic Sequence (“Energy and Nothing”) and So I’m an Islander (“Quiet Storm Surge”, used through Creative Commons license on SoundCloud.
In this fun diversion from serious witchcraft, Laine and Cory discuss their favorite films in the supernatural and folk horror genres. We also kick off a “Halloween in July” storytelling series (albeit somewhat by accident).
You can also check out George A. Romero’s classic zombie film, Night of the Living Dead, for free at the internet Archive.
There is also a segment near the end which involves Ambrose Bierce’s “An Inhabitant of Carcosa,” which you can find in the book, The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult.
Upcoming Appearances
Cory will be at two upcoming events, and will likely be holding talks/discussions at both of them, which you might find interesting:
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune. Additional Music: “She Moved Through the Faire,” by Kellianna, from Traditions. Incidental music by Disparition.
New World Witchery - The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft 