Radical Elphame

There's a common phrase in Occult circles that often precedes a cautionary tale: "blowing your life up with magic." The story goes something like this: a burgeoning magician, fresh off the armchair, skips a few steps or bites off more than they can chew. Sometimes this neophyte is drawn to a dark current that they aren't prepared for, or catfished by a parasitic entity. What tends to unfold is the practitioner's life unraveling, and often poorly applied magical remedies just dig them deeper into a hole. It's a common enough story that I find it fascinating, and would be lying if I said I didn't have some experiences that might qualify. On the one hand, this trope is plucked straight from the ancient tale "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and can serve the common fairy-tale function of reinforcing the exoteric societal taboo that magic and the occult are not to be messed with. More interesting to me, though, is when blowing up your life with magic can be conceived of as an initiatory experience. When the spirits or the powers that be may be taking apart your life to build it back better. Is there a way to transition from a disenchanted world to one teeming with magic without undergoing a radical change? I'm so excited to explore this question today with the delightful Janie Roberts. Before that conversation, though, I just want to throw out a quick plug for the Radical Elphame Patreon page. There you will find extended interviews, exclusive essays, a private Discord server, and an entirely Patreon-exclusive podcast that I do with my friend Chaise Levy called The Imbas Transmissions. I've also got a free Substack that I'm particularly proud of, called The Foliate Head, where I have the opportunity to expand on the subjects we explore on this show through a different medium. Over on Substack, I've just released the sixth part of my ongoing essay series on the various theories surrounding the nature of faeries, which explores the relationship between faeries, time travel, and Pulp Fiction. If you like this show, I know you'll love this series. Without further ado, here's my chat with Janie Roberts. SHOW NOTES: Janie's Substack: Wild Horse Circle Janie's IG: @wherearethebigpeople Janie's Links: https://linktr.ee/wildhorsecircle

Three years ago, Douglas Batchelor of the What Magic is This? podcast released a series that caught my attention. I had been a fan of his show for years and had come to expect his episodes to revolve around magical history, often with an emphasis on the ceremonial and evocatory variety. He called this series A Fistful o' Fairies, and over six episodes, he brought on an assortment of amazing guests to delve into different facets of the various interpretations of "who faeries actually are." As someone with a strange compulsion to explore this liminal realm and its denizens, this was a rare encounter with a podcast that didn't broach "fairies" as a one-off curio but rather gave the vast topic the searching consideration it demands. I loved this series, and after it ended, I asked myself, "What if that series spun off into an entire podcast?" Within a matter of months, Radical Elphame was born. In light of the monumental influence Douglas had on the inception of this show, it was a true honor to chat with him and explore what inspired him to go down the faerie rabbit hole in the first place, and where it has continued to lead him today. SHOW NOTES: What Magic is This? Podcast Douglas' Patreon Douglas' Website

The inner experience of magic – the knowledge and gnosis gleaned from somatic responses and inner-eye eruptions – is a feature, not a bug, of engaging with these practices. When magic can be experienced fully, without doubt, it tends to draw us in and lead us to seek even deeper. The mystical applications of magic are a large part of what drew me to it in the first place. The utility of practical magic is important, sometimes even vital, but once your roads are open, your luck is drawn, and your boundaries are set, then these tools can help us ask the bigger questions. Sometimes, this inner exploration can draw practitioners into the hermitage or wizard's tower, and even lead them to retreat from life. Once you've plowed the depths of your shadow or returned from your katabsis or grounded from your celestial ascent, what are you to do with the boons of this experience? Hopefully, lead a richer and more fulfilling life. Today's show is a little different than usual. Rather than an interview with a magical expert or a deep dive into a tradition or technique, today, I enjoy the chance to catch up with some friends and let them regale us with all the ways magic can be used to have fun, to seek out some adventure, and foster new friendships. CR and Robert tell us about their chance encounter in the UK, the magical shenanigans they got up to, and CR describes how those same magical currents and spiritual support systems can also guide us through the trials of loss and grief. I thought it would be fun to share this chat with you all. It's very casual, but also heartening, and at times truly poignant. SHOW NOTES: C.R.'s Website: https://lalanomicon.com/ Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction: HBO MAX IG: @misterxofer No Hand Path: Robert's Substack IG: @robertpeterservices

Folk magic has a powerful pull. It can express complex metaphysical ideas that, for most of us practicing today, had once felt like the purview of the "New Age." Magical ideas that once seemed fantastical, through the lens of folk magic, can suddenly feel earthy and vital. Techniques that once felt silly can begin to feel ancestral. The source texts go from channeled writings, to myths and folktales, and academic papers. There's an artistry and intelligence grouped in with modern-day practitioners of folk magic that give the disenchanted "Western" mind permission to think differently. Coupled with the aesthetic power and the engrossing scholarship inherent in the modern-day study of folk magic, can sometimes be a cold distance and a whiff of a larp. Can the practices of people alive during the Witch Trials, people who might scry entrails, or bleed their cattle on fairy hills to propiciate the Good Neighbors, ever truly be unlocked for a person in a contemporary world so removed from this archaic way of life? Even as someone with a podcast that focuses on folk magic, I often feel like there can be something missing in translation when I encounter many of these antiquated and esoteric beliefs and practices, especially when sifted through and untangled from primary sources. I am extremely lucky to have just returned from an intensive workshop with Corinne Boyer in Washington State. There are many great things I can say about studying under Corinne, but paramount for me is how alive she can make the folkloric practices and beliefs, which in less capable hands might feel like mere relics or curios. Rooted in her deep study of the folk beliefs surrounding plants, trees, the dead, and wider metaphysics, Corinne has that rare ability to re-enchant and unlock a worldview and way of life that otherwise may have vanished completely. Corinne's almost playful willingness to test drive and experiment with the folkways of our ancestors felt like it summoned them to the room and made them feel at home and welcomed in our world. SHOW NOTES: Sign up for Classes with Corinne: Maple Mist Wood Corinne's Bibliography: Books IG: @maplemistwood

What is it that draws occultists to horror films, when by in large, the history of horror cinema is essentially anti-occult propaganda? Despite what can seem like a counterintuitive interest on the part of practitioners, the fact remains that the horror genre is the last bastion of regular engagement with the spirit world left in contemporary media, and therefore a natural draw for people who see the spiritual as fundamental to everyday life. Another consideration is the cathartic embrace of the shadow on display in horror, and often staring death right in the face. Both things our culture in the West tries to aggressively sterilize out of how we do life, but that practitioners know we can't escape. In the spirit of the spooky season, I wanted to take a closer look at the horror film, and in particular, our relationship to it as people who make magic and dabble in the occult. And what is scarier than a horror film? A cursed horror film! To navigate the complex metaphysics that might be lurking behind the legends of these supposedly cursed films, and to try to understand what makes a curse in the first place, I knew I had to have on B. Key and Sfinga from the essential The Frightful Howls You May Hear podcast and With Cunning & Command blog. Sfinga and Key bring to the show a wide-ranging perspective on why horror films matter so much to the magical folks of the world, and how the nature of curses that can take hold in any part of life can easily find a home in the media we produce. Join the Patreon for an even deeper dive into the nature of cursed media, and some tips for how one might go about making a cursed film … if they so desired. SHOW NOTES: Sfinga and Key's website: With Cunning and Command Website Sfinga and Key's Podcast: The Frightful Howls You May Hear Sfinga's IG: Dragoncunning B. Key's IG: Barnowl.key

When we think about the Otherworld, we tend to do so from the perspective of this world. What is this hidden world that seems to operate so differently from our own? Who are the beings who dwell there, and what do they want with us? In J. M. Hamade's fascinating book, Procession of the Night Theater, they explore the "night side" of astrology, offering a poetic vision of the Lunar Stations, not to be defined or calculated so much as dreamed with. It's this study of the nocturnal side of things, the hidden side of things, that not only eloquently elucidates the ancient art of working with the Lunar Mansions but also weaves expertly into the tapestry of J's many other occult and appropriately "otherworldly" interests. The lunar stations – and working with them to divine or make talismans (or even just pair with horror movies) – opens the practitioner up to considering how understanding both "daytime" and "nighttime" approaches to magic and astrology can teach us about the visible and hidden (the exoteric and esoteric) aspects of ourselves, the world, and what is beyond. As J points out in our conversation, the Muslim name for those who dwell in the Otherworld is Jinn, which translates to being hidden, and also in something of a state of change or flux. Furthermore, J mentions a fascinating hot take from the 13th century Sufi Mystic Ibn Arabi, who interpreted humans and Djinn as exoteric and esoteric counterparts to one another. When we take a cross cultural view of being like the Jinn – the Aos-Sidhe of the Gaels, the Elves of the Norse, the Víla of the Balkans, the Lamiak of the Basque (just to name a few) – it's fascinating to notice how as these cultures transition to more structured monotheistic cosmologies, their perspective on these "esoteric" beings becomes increasingly antagonistic. I would be remiss to try to whitewash or philosophically domesticate these beings of the Otherworld. I could hardly imagine a less morally delineated dimesion, similar to how nothing about ourselves is ever really "black or white." But if doing this show has taught me anything, it's that understanding this realm, if not working with it directly, is still a meaningful pursuit. When you examine groups on the fringes of these monotheistic religions and cultures, that exist within this larger cosmology but navigate it differently, you often encounter spiritual relics from the dinstant past. Sects and like the Zār of North East Africa, the Šojmanka of Eastern Serbia, and religions such as Quimbanda in Brazil, all incorporate trance possession by beings that would be considered Jinn in the wider Middle East. What are we to make of this vastly different view both of these beings, and why and how one might engage with them? J's books and insights have had a deep impact on how I consider big questions like these, and helped to shape many of my own ideas about what we can really know about the Otherworld and its role in this world. SHOW NOTES: J's Patreon: astarnightdwell J's Podcast: A Starnight Dwell J's Book on the Lunar Stations: Procession of the Night Theatre

When it comes to exploring animism and the magic of and with place, I like to borrow a term from the world of wine: terroir. Terroir is generally understood in the wine world as the sense of place – soil, geography, seasonality, and even culture – that can be expressed in a glass of wine. When it comes to "magical terroir," we are referring to how all of those same factors develop into unique and co-creative spiritual practices. There are many unique features to the land I'm living on that converge to form a magical sense of place. A crow's fly away from Mount Shasta, I live in the middle of a rain shadow that divides the region into dense mountainous forests and desolate prairielands. Although abused and unforgivably wounded, the native tribes of the region are deeply present with strength and resilience. The Shasta, Karuk, Wintu, and Modoc are very much alive, telling stories and carrying traditions that were co-created with this place over millennia. Although Mount Shasta is more often thought of as a UFO hotspot, it was also arguably the birthplace of Neo-Paganism in the United States on May Day in 1915, when the self-proclaimed Druid, Ella Young, brought the notion of the "wheel of the year" along with other Celtic Revival reconstructions with her from her native Ireland to her newly founded Fellowship of Shasta. An hour to the North and fifteen years later, in Ashland, OR, Victor Anderson (who co-founded the uniquely American Traditional Witchcraft Tradition called Feri) was initiated into a secretive group called the Harpy Coven, which would profoundly influence the foundation of his own order. Zooming in on my personal home, backyard, and the bioregion it is situated in, reveals the distinct influence of an alpine terroir. We live in a valley on the edge of a forest of cedar, fir, pine, and maple. Jutting 5,000 feet above us are the Marble Mountains, which are some of the last to give off snowmelt each year that flow into – sometimes rugged and sometimes bucolic – creeks and streams that eventually feed the Klammath River Basin. In the darkest months of winter, the snow lingers in our valley sometimes weeks longer than in the neighboring valley just twenty minutes away. The summer begins with morels and wild dogwoods in bloom, and gives way to a foraging season of Elder flowers and Elder berries, feverfew, mugwort, blackberries, and rum cherries. All this is to say that my magic is deeply influenced by this alpine land and the spirits that inhabit it. One of my favorite magical rabbit holes is looking into the folk magic practices of other Alpine cultures to find ideas and inspiration that I can fold into the mystical soup of these California Alps. Christian Brunner has made it a personal project to translate and collate the magical terroir of the European Alps and share it with the rest of the world. In his new book, Alpine Witchery, Christian dives deep into the witch trial records of the Alps – which he translated himself – to mine for the lore, ritual, and spirituality that paints a fascinating picture of the folk magic of its day, and possibly exposes elements of the survival of an even older and deeper Alpine magical terroir to explore. SHOW NOTES: Get the book: Alpine Witchery Christian's Website: Services and Author Page Christian's IG: @christianfbrunner_author

Why start a podcast about magic? Prior to the internet, in real life, these topics were typically at best niche and eccentric, and at worst, dangerous. As a millennial, for most of my adult life, magic was the subject of fiction, and anyone who couldn't understand that seemed mostly harmless, but not exactly the company you keep. When the imaginary boundaries between philosophy, spirituality, and magic were finally revealed to me for what they really were – imaginary – my compulsion to explore magic became insatiable. What, then, is one to do when the topic of real magic is verboten in the "enlightened" polite society of their day? Where to congregate? Where to converse? How to find others who share this passion, who don't need a conceptual disclaimer recitation at the top of any conversation? If there is one good thing I can say about the internet, it's that it has become this place. A shortcut to magical community in the modern era. I started a podcast about magic to have the kind of conversations that I can't, for the most part, in my normal life. And to meet people who wanted to join in, inform, and stress-test my own ideas. Today, I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation with two friends I've made along the way. Darragh Mason is the writer of the excellent book Song of the Dark Man, and the host of the Spirit Box Podcast, whose influence and approach to exploring and normalizing a wide breadth of magical and mystical topics was fundamental to the creation of this show. C.R. Sanders is the producer of the Discovery show Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction, and a passionate traveler and magical seeker. He was also one of the first online magical connections that I had the opportunity to hang out with in real life. I love that this show can serve as a platform for me to interview writers and practitioners about their work and practices. I think that way we can all learn more together, and deepen the web of communication in the way we hunger to. I also love that I get to have the opportunity to have folks on to catch up with, shoot the shit, and share the rabbit holes we might otherwise be going down alone. SHOW NOTES: Darragh's Website: https://www.darraghmason.com/index The Song of the Dark Man: https://www.innertraditions.com/author/darragh-mason Spirit Box Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spirit-box/id1504757824 The Sigil Engine: https://www.sigilengine.com C.R.'s Website: https://lalanomicon.com/ Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction: HBO MAX