Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

Happy new year! Our first podcast of 2025 looks at Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne D'Arc, and La Pucelle (the Maid). We discuss Joan's short life, having been burned at the stake at the age of 19 after being victorious in pushing the English out of France in the Hundred Years' War, and installing Charles VII on the throne. We focus on three things: her visions of Michael the Archangel, St. Margaret of Antioch and St. Catherine of Alexandria; the heresy charges leveled against her for wearing male attire; and finally the question that plagued me as I recorded this--who exactly WAS Joan that she would be sought out for this mission?

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

The last podcast of 2024 focuses on the grandmotherly figure of La Befana, a witch who appears on Epiphany Eve to bring gifts (or coal) and to sweep the house. Children may not look at her without suffering consequences. The origins of La Befana may lie in an Etruscan/Sabine goddess, and the paradoxical nature and perception of this witch figure may tell us something about the uneasy relationship of a patriarchal world with Nature.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

This week we look at the Loireag, a "plaintative" tiny fairy associated with the traditional process of spinning and weaving cloth. The Loireag is considered to be a water spirit in the folklore of the Hebrides, as well as a spinster, making her full of apparent paradoxes when it comes to her associations as a feminine force. We look at the folklore that exists surrounding the Loireag, which also deals with singing, and the mythology of weaving and what it might represent. 

This week’s subject is Tlazolteotl, the Aztec goddess of filth, lust, and patroness of adulterers. Tlazolteotl is both the disease and the cure, being a goddess of debauchery, but also the one who can purify you from debauchery. We look at the idea of “Holy S**t”, how excrement was viewed as a divine and healing substance, and how this idea compares in other cultures. We also discuss how “filth” ends up being connected with the Feminine, and how this can affect our ideas abuot sex and sensual pleasure.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

In this week's episode we look at the seal women of fairy lore, the Selkies. Selkies are beautiful fairies who take off their sealskin to dance by the water. In the stories, a fisherman will see them and steal their sealskin so that they cannot return home. The Selkie is then compelled to be the wife of the fisherman, until she is able to find out where her sealskin is hidden, at which point she retrieves it and returns home again. This story is reflective of the traditional male relationship to the Anima, and how he can never truly possess her by conquering her.

Website: https://chthonia.net
 Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

Fans of the 2019 episodes--I am slowly, slowly working my way through re-editing these episodes. In this episode we look at the origins of Hecate from an academic standpoint, including Hesiod's lavish praise of her in the Theogony, and her role as keeper of the keys and a protective gatekeeper.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
ISFM: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

This week's episode looks at the folkloric storm hags of Ireland, Scotland, and Lake Erie in the United States. While hag and witch figures often represent forces of nature, the Storm Hag represents a unique danger that comes at the end of winter--the fragile state of birth and rebirth.

This week we look at Nure-onna, a Yokai who preys on men who try to help or rescue an apparent woman and child in need. We look beyond any social explanations of the story, to explore the realities of nature and natural forces.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org


This week we look at the "Quene of Elfame", the later popular spelling being "Queen of Elphame," or the queen of the land of fairies. But what is "Elphame"--is it a kind of pagan paradise between Heaven and Hell, an interdimensional space under the sidhe (mounds) of Ireland, or a beautiful illusion created by fairy beings--or something else? And what do we mean by the term "fairy"? We look at the appearance of the term Queen of Elphame in witch trial documents, in poetry, and its use by imaginative historians of paganism. We do take a little bit of a side turn into witchcraft history and the confusions created by Robert Graves, who is responsible for our common associations with the name.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

This week's episode is about Nicnevin, a Scottish witch queen whose is first named in a poetic flyting (comedic poetry battle) written by Alexander Montgomerie in 1585. She is described as a fairy queen, a witch queen, a terrifying hag,the Scottish Hecate, a goddess, and/or the name of a witch burned at the stake. We examine the stories of Nicnevin and her associations; is she an ancient witch queen, or a literary invention?