Rebecca Beyer, aka "Blood & Spicebush," is a tattoo artist, hedgecraft practitioner, & occult author on witchcraft & folk magic, currently wild tending in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina. In this fun, sample platter episode we hear about broadleaf plantain folkways; ancestral roots; the ancient Gauls & the Celtic cult of the head; long hair; water witching; John Dee; witchcraft's beginnings; sympathy for the devil; and the life of a 12th-century German mystic & abbess named St. Hildegard von Bingen. For her story, Rebecca shares a deeply unnerving paranormal encounter with what she was told were interdimensional travelers... We end on sassafras folk magic & history, reminding us that every glass of saloop tea is filled with a whole universe of story!

Check out Rebecca's Blood & Spicebush Instagram & website. And order a copy of her new book Wild Witchcraft: Folk Herbalism,  Garden Magic, and Foraging for Spells, Rituals, and Remedies

Music provided by Modern Medieval

"Karitas Habundat"
Written by St. Hildegard von Bingen
Performed by Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek & Modern Medieval
Courtesy of Modern Medieval

"O Viridissima Virga"
Written by St. Hildegard von Bingen
Performed by Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek
Courtesy of Modern Medieval


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Sonny Ledford is a bird-clan Cherokee, cultural ambassador, artisan, & Warrior of AniKituhwah hailing from the Qualla Boundary surrounding Cherokee, North Carolina. Instantly engrossing, Sonny describes his ancestral land, The Trail of Tears, guerrilla warfare & war paint. For his first story, we hear of a numinous performance of The Warrior Dance at Colonial Williamsburg. From there it's an immersion into the old ways: Sequoyah [inventor of the Cherokee syllabary]; fish & bear traps; blowguns; hunting with wolves; ear gauges; pipes; clan mothers; a strict amorous taboo; & praying to The Creator. For Sonny's second story, he tells of a community encounter with The Deer Woman. We close this epic episode on a bigfoot landmark, boarding schools, & traditional masks.

Plan a trip to Cherokee North Carolina , visit The Museum of the Cherokee Indian & check out Sonny's troop, The Warriors of Anikituhwah



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Jim McDowell, aka "The Black Potter," is a gallery-level, outsider artist in Weaverville, North Carolina working in the ceramic tradition of face jugs inspired by his enslaved African ancestors. In this passionate & electric episode we learn about what pottery was like in colonial & slave times: the spiritual side of African & voodoo pottery; utilitarian vessels on the plantation; digging clay & building kilns; face jugs [aka ugly jugs]; & a renowned, literate slave potter named David Drake. Jim then tells a horripilating story about the making of an emotionally torturous jug he titled, "Slave." This opens powerful conversations about getting one's demons out & the artist's role, channeling ancestors & building generational wealth. 

For a visual check out a gallery of Jim's powerful face jugs & watch him on History Detectives. For more information check out his website. 



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Anh Stanley is a folk herbalist, magick practitioner, & owner of PYRAMID: Appalachian Magick + Remedies in Waynesboro, Virginia. This spiritual smorgasbord of an episode begins with an exploration of the Greek god, Pan. Then it's off to the occult races as Anh speaks about the simplicity of rural folk magic, a brush with suicide, Buddhist wisdom, Jungian psychology, the tarot, the fae, prophetic dreams, & the horned god, Pan. Story time goes paranormal, as Anh shares strange encounters with a deer-deity & the regional man in black. For the final segment we tour the shelves of the metaphysical country store, learning about bone dyeing, mugwort, ethics around the crystal trade, and smudging. 

Follow Anh's PYRAMID on Instagram & Facebook. And check out PYRAMID's online store!



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Tim Duff is a maple syrup producer, farmer, flintlock gunsmith, powder horn-maker, & former sheriff in Highland County, Virginia [the southernmost commercial syrup producing region in America]. At his charming Fair Lawn Farms, Tim does everything the old way! In this episode he describes tapping trees & boiling syrup like it's the mid-1800's: wooden spiles, fire, cast iron kettles; a highlight being how the Native Americans produced their maple sugar. For story time, Tim tells a ghost story about refurbishing their 1887 farm house followed by his reflections on being the sheriff of a very rural & very traditional community. In closing, we hear about historical craftsmanship from 18th-century gunsmithing to the fascinating, long forgotten occupation of the horner.

Visit Tim's Fair Lawn Farms and follow along on Facebook. And mark your calendar for next year's Highland County Maple Festival. 



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Alexander ter Weele is a Dutch-American outdoorsman, author, poet, & uncle to me, your podcast host. Born in Holland & having traveled to over 100 countries, the theme of this episode seems to be communication between vastly differing cultures: from hunting snipe with an Ethiopian village to sharing a meal with a Greek shepherd, all culminating in a harrowing childhood encounter at a Nazi checkpoint. In the second half of the podcast Alex shares two stories about the natural world, one about leaving no trace in the Allagash wilderness; the second about inebriated critters around the farm. We culminate in reflections about life, death, humanity, optimism, & listening to the stories of our elders.

To purchase one of Alex's book, visit alexanderterweele.com.



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John Gibson is a world-traveled river outfitter on Virginia's bucolic Shenandoah River where thousands come to tube each summer. While her waters are shallow, her history runs deep. Between readings of the valley as a frontier, the great flood of 1870, & a legend of the river’s origin, John tells the Shenandoah’s journey through human habitation. He begins chronologically with a 10,000-year-old Paleo-indian site, followed by the commerce of rowdy 18th-century boatmen on unique flat bottomed "gondolas," through to the devastating industrial pollution of the mid-1900's. We then hear entertaining examples of things found today in its waters, some you'd never imagine... In the last third of the episode, John shares lessons learned while globetrotting, including one about honesty from a packed & smoky train-car in Pakistan.

Next time you're in the Shenandoah Valley, visit John's river outfitter, Down River Canoes for a day of canoeing, kayaking or lazy river tubing.



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Linda Cassada is a paranormal investigator with VAPI: Virginia Paranormal Investigations out of Hampton, VA on the Chesapeake Bay. With her grounded & unique Christian approach, we get straight to the brass tacks of residential paranormal investigation: fake ghost reality-TV; the equipment; folks reaching out for help; theories for what ghosts are; & how 90% of cases have natural & mundane explanations. It's the remaining 10% that enters the dark waters of infinite mystery, Linda describes cases with ghost communication, activity around mirrors, & most unnerving of all when the haunting is no traditional ghost, but a malevolent entity that wreaks havoc on people & their homes.  For story time, Linda shares a terrifying personal account of just such one investigation around a grisly crime & the parasitic nature of these demonic forces. On a lighter note, she tells her Halloweeny love story about how she got into the calling through a series of events that led straight to her partner & his mutual passion for the paranormal.  We end hearing about local hot spots & accounts of some disturbing, yet comical run-ins with people in deranged states.

Check out Virginia Paranormal Investigators and Linda or the VAPI team on Instagram.



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Les O'Dell is a West Virginia paranormal investigator & curator of all things strange with a focus on Mountain State cryptids: an animal or creature that is claimed to exist, but never proven. We get right into hearing both popular legends & locals' accounts from Les' interviews about the likes of: The Wampus Cat; Snarly Yow the devil dog; Mothman; Ogua the giant-snapping turtle; The Grafton Monster; a truck driver's experience with a pre-historic hyena; Not Deer; & a bloody dog-man. Of course, one can't talk cryptids without talking bigfoot, or as the ol' mountain folks call it, The Old Man in the Woods. We hear multiple reports from West Virginians including an anthropologist's beyond-belief encounter in the Dolly Sods Wilderness. The second half of the episode takes a truly nightmarish turn into what is the podcast's most haunting tale to date: Les’ story of what his father claims is a family curse. Prepare yourself for horripilation!

Get a copy of Les' booklet West Virginia Cryptids: A Visual Field Guide for Traversing the Mountain State & reach out on his Facebook group, West Virginia Cryptids & Strange Encounters.



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Jonathan Kruk is a Hudson River Valley author, folklorist & master storyteller best known for his solo performances of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the historic, 17th-century church that inspired Washington Irving's Halloween classic.  In his whimsical & hypnotic style, our guest bard recounts a slew of history & regional lore: a Native American Hudson River creation myth; a waterfall's tragic love story between a native maiden & her captive; a paranormal parable to prideful sailors as they pass Thunder Mountain; the Revolutionary War history behind Mother Hulda the witch & the mythic Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Jonathan then shares an uncanny personal experience tracking down the grave of The Wandering Leatherman, a mysterious cave-dwelling vagabond from the 1800's.  Towards the end I tell my own story about going into a broken open tomb in an abandoned cemetery, adding to the overall haunted mood of the valley & this exceptional episode.

Get tickets to Jonathan's annual "Irving's Legend" solo performance in Tarrytown NY and/or check out his books: Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley, and Legends and Lore of the Hudson Highlands.



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Contact: [email protected]