Chthonia

This month's conversation is with Dr. Kate Kingsbury (M.Phil and Ph.D., Oxford), where we talk about the Mexican Santa Muerte and the misconceptions and misinformation about her and her devotees. Kate also shares some of her firsthand experiences with Santa Muerte and the Santa Muerte shrine in Oaxaca. She has a book on Santa Muerte coming out in August, stay tuned to social media for details.

Kate has also started a gofundme for the Oaxaca victims of Hurricane Agatha; if you would like to donate, please visit the link here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/santa-muerte-grannys-hurricane-fund

This week's podcast looks at Mictecacíhuatl, the Aztec Queen of the Underworld. There are few direct myths about her; yet, we can learn a lot from the Aztec view of life, death, and the cosmos, and in particular the contrast between the soul's underworld journey in Aztec culture and European (plus some Near Eastern) cultures.

This week we look at the Aztec goddess Coatlicue, whose name refers to the skirt of rattlesnakes that she wears. She is the mother of the 400 gods of the southern stars, and the war god Huitzilopochtli via a virgin birth, an event that prompted some of her other enraged children to attack and kill (or try to kill) her. The podcast focuses on her various attributes, and the way in which the celestial and chthonic are viewed differently in Aztec mythology.

Dzunukwa is cannibalistic bigfoot-like ogress in Kwakwaka'wakw folklore, who is feared as a stealer of children, but who is also said to bring wealth. This week's podcast looks at some of the dark feminine associations of this ancestral spirit of the Pacific Northwest tribes.

Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea and the ruler of the underworld, Adlivun. Her stories vary, but all carry the theme of the goddess angering her creator father, who throws her over the edge of the boat, chopping off her fingers, which then become seals, whales, and walruses. She is considered vengeful, and fishermen must appease her if they want sea animals released for the hunt. We examine the different stories connected to Sedna, and the attributes of the Inuit mythological worldview connecting it to the dark Feminine.

This month's entry in the Conversations series is with Jake Stratton Kent, who is well known for his writings on ancient goetia, particularly their relationship to the grimoire traditions. Jake's work is an invaluable exploration into pre-Platonic beliefs and magical practices. In this episode Jake and I talk about the different "versions" of Hecate in ancient times, questioning the idea that she wasn't always a chthonic deity. This includes a discussion of goetia, Hecate's association with Apollo, the Athenian Hecate, and the challenge of the more current interpretations of the goddess.

This week we talk about the Greek and Roman daimon called Mania, or sometimes Maniae when treated as a group of spirits. Between the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Romans, Mania has a variety of associations with madness, rage, and frenzy; she is also associated with the dead and with the Furies. The connection between gods, daimons, and human psychology is especially interesting here.

Happy Spring Equinox! Our subject for this week is Nephthys, the Egyptian goddess who is the sister of Isis and the wife of Seth. The psychopomp Anubis is said to be her son from Osiris, and she is connected with lamentation, healing, and guiding the dead.

In this month's episode of Chthonia Conversations, I chat with Dan Hanley about the Gnostic Feminine, and 4 main figures--Barbelo, the "4 Sophias", Mary Magdalene, and Noraia. We also discuss misunderstandings about Gnostic currents in early Christianity, and the ways in which it is both anti-chthonic and chthonic.

This week we look at Medea, the niece of the witch Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god, known for being the actual "hero" in the Argonautica who enables Jason to fulfill the necessary tasks to acquire the golden fleece. Eventually he abandons her for another wife, and she takes her revenge by setting the wife on fire with a poisoned dress and murdering their children. Like many myths, the deeper meaning about the nature of the chthonic Feminine is more important than the social implications.