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

One of my key takeaways from the conversation I had with Joanna Tarnawska, was the way she articulated her own definition of what makes a practice fundamentally “witchcraft” as opposed to other strains of magic, mysticism, and pagan spirituality. The key to witchcraft, she suggests, is heresy. 

I’ve heard similar distinctions elsewhere regarding witchcraft, but Joanna’s definition of heresy went further than I’ve encountered before, and articulated something for me that I think is essential. As Joanna describes it, the core heresy of witchcraft is not solely in relation to a specific form of religion, but rather an ideological and magical subversion of the taboos, doctrines, and preconceived ideas of any given society the witch finds herself in…or maybe just outside of. 

As a person living in the US in 2025, myself, the most potent taboos I sense are less about religious affiliation and more often tied to questioning capitalism. As the late Mark Fisher summarized eloquently, crystallizing the bizarre malaise of our hopeless compliance to the capitalism hoisted upon us, “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Opposing Capitalism is not heretical in and of itself. However, believing that the myth of Capitalism’s moral mandate as “the worst economic system, except for all the others” is fundamentally a propaganda tool used to exploit the working class is a heretical stance. This idea is heretical where I live, because it subverts the current widely agreed-upon economic system and its moral justifications, suggesting that, on an ethical level, what we think is right, may actually be wrong. 

Another taboo I sense far less in the magical community, but I do feel in my personal and professional life, is speaking out about the genocide happening right now in Gaza. For many who even feel strongly about the plight of Gaza internally, to do so openly, publicly, loudly can seem like a modern-day heresy. To support the innocent Palestinians being killed in Gaza is to support Hamas, so says the ideological opposition. To challenge the Zionist order that the Israeli military has assured us “the ends justify the means” in defending, is apparently to be outing yourself as an anti-semite – they would say. Interestingly, the term anti-semite has come to mean anti-Jewish, and there’s no word for being anti-Palestinian, even though they are also a Semitic people. To challenge the political movement of Zionism, which seeks to empower an oppressed people, by pointing out that it is, in turn, oppressing another people, is heretical to the widely held political beliefs of the US today.

When I asked Joanna Tarnawska at the end of this episode if there was anything she would like to plug, she said that in this moment, she only wants to say “Free Palestine.” To honor that sentiment, which is as vital right now as ever, I thought I would dedicate this intro to speaking up about the genocide taking place in Gaza at the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF, who are committing war crimes and unthinkable atrocities, and brazenly broadcasting them for all to see. The ideology behind Zionism seeks to right very real wrongs inflicted on Jewish people in the past. Still, the senseless murders of tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children have completely eroded any noble causes that Zionism may have once stood for. To say this is not to diminish the rights or safety of Jewish people, or to downplay the horrifying events of October 7th 2023, carried out by Hamas. 

To quote Ezra Klein on the deep political rut this genocide is driving between Jewish people of the diaspora here in the US, where I live, “For decades, American Judaism, built on the liberalism of the diaspora, has been interwoven with Zionism. What happens when the ideals of the one become incompatible with the reality of the other?”

The death and destruction Palestinian’s are experiencing in Gaza is unimaginable for me. It can feel insignificant, but I sincerely think speaking out is essential right now. Merely acknowledging that there is a genocide taking place before our eyes should not be controversial at this point, but it still is for many. If you are in the US,  your tax dollars are funding war crimes. Please contact your member of Congress and call for an arms embargo on Israel and humanitarian access for Gaza. No matter where you are, speak out. Hold corporations accountable for their role in violating the rights of Palestinians in Gaza. In the show notes, I’ve also included links to do so, as well as to donate and send aid to Palestinians who are literally being starved in Gaza right now. Included in the show notes is a link to the Palestine World Food Program seeking donations, as well as more information on how to divest from corporations that are complicit in facilitating this genocide.

Free Palestine.

SHOW NOTES:

Send Aid to Gaza: https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/palestine-emergency

Hold Corporations Accountable for IDF support: AFCS

Joanna's Youtube Channel: Polish Folk Witch

Joanna's IG: @polishfolkwitch

Pre-Order Joanna's Book: Polish Folk Magic

 

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

A truly turned-on spiritual or magical path should do more than get you stuff. It should do more than open up communication with spirits or the dead. If you inherited a “Western” cosmovision like me, a truly turned-on spiritual or magical path should make you rethink everything you thought you knew about reality. 

Joshua Cutchin writes my favorite kind of books. They are deep and playful, philosophical and fearless. They are head-first explorations of all the implications of living in a magical universe. The last time we had Josh on to talk about what felt like his magnum opus – Ecology of Souls – I imagined it would be a long time before he would take another stab at such vast hypothesizing about the nature of the phenomena. But here we are, and a year later, he brings us the delightful Fourth Wall Phantoms. 

In some ways, Josh is the perfect guest for this show, writing joyfully at the intersection of folklore, pop culture, theology, and the thought experiment. His most recent journey into the nature of the “fourth wall break” – in media, history, the imagination, and the paranormal – is the ultimate runway for the seeker ready to rethink everything they thought they knew about reality. 

SHOW NOTES:

Josh's Website: joshuacutchin.com

Get Josh's new book: Fourth Wall Phantoms

Josh's IG: w3eirdwayz

Sign Up for Esalen's Upcoming 'The Soul is a UFO: Understanding and Embracing Transcendence' this December: The Soul is a UFO

 

We are living in an era where the term “folk” has become the modifier of choice for many looking for a unique way to describe their own spirituality or magical practice. Folk Witchcraft, Folk Catholicism, Folk Magic. “Folk” seems to denote a certain level of idiosyncrasy, authenticity, or earthiness. It also eschews connotations with more popular or commercialized forms of these practices. Sometimes this use of the word “folk” can feel like the way we used “alternative” in the nineties, particularly to describe genres of music. By the mid-nineties “alternative” rock was far and away the most popular music genre, leading one to ask: what exactly was it an alternative to? Similarly in the world of spirituality, sometimes the modifier “folk” can seem vague. I believe it was Jesse Hathaway Diaz who I first heard pose the question in regards to folk spirituality: “Who are the folk?” 

In Scott Richardson-Read’s new book Milldust and Dreaming Bread – Exploring Scottish Folk Belief and Folk Magic, the “folk” in question are vivid and unmistakable. While the pastoral stories and customs of the past weave throughout the book, Scott also taps into the deep impressions a land and a people have made upon each other, setting the stage for the folk of today. The impression one gets reading Milldust and Dreaming Bread, is that the “folk” Scott is referring to has less to do with homespun or antiquated practices, and more to do with the Scottish culture’s deep and living sense of reciprocity and right relation in the face of the oppressive influence of Empire. This Scottish folkway imbues the myths of the Country, and is at the root of its magical expression. 

As someone first lit up magically by a form of Witchcraft often called folkloric, a large part of my practice has been forged by pulling on the threads of what can sometimes seem like a vague cosmology, back to where I can find its sense of place, rooted in a culture and landscape. Scott’s work throughout the years on his blog the Cailleachs Herbarium (and now in this book) has been my own personal roadmap to find out for myself who the “folk” in question are.

 

SHOW NOTES:

Buy Scott's Book: Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread

Scott's Blog: The Cailleachs Herbarium

IG: @cailleachsherbarium

Scottish Histories of Resistance: https://www.scottishhistoriesofresistance.co.uk/

Magic is weird. The more it becomes a part of your life, the constructs you once held dearly as fundamental pillars of reality begin to break down, and in their place, new constructs start to emerge. As someone with a practice founded in Witchcraft and Druidry, I’ve replaced many of my preconceived notions of reality with a somewhat animist, and ancestral, and even gnostic (at times) interface with the world. This is completely idiosyncratic, but it’s true for me, and it allows me to tap into a live wire of personal gnosis that reverberates through my spells and ceremonies in a way that would feel hollow in any other way.

I don’t personally identify with the Christian current – Catholic, protestant, or Orthodox, respectively. I was raised in what I like to call “suburban Christianity,” which was a shallow form of spirituality that was either a victim or beneficiary (depending on your take) of Reaganomics and the prosperity gospel. That said, for many guests I’ve had on this show over the past year, there is a very live wire of power to be tapped into within the Christian current, which cuts through the artifice and limitations of my own experience with this religion. 

Robert Peter is a perfect example of this. His “current shifting” and Chaos Magic approach to Christianity both subverts the preconceived notions of how the practice operates and opens paths to unlocking syncretism with a diverse arsenal of magic. 

I’m excited to welcome Robert back to the show, as we explore his unique perspective on incorporating a wide range of influences into his “plug and play” approach to Christian magic.

SHOW NOTES:

No Hand Path: Robert's Substack

IG: @robertpeterservices

Art: Christ in the Desert by Nicholas Roerich, 1933. 

To celebrate Beltane we're welcoming back to the show Morgan Daimler, who just released a new book about love and sex in Fairy belief called Paid with a Kiss. We explore notions of gender expression and subversion in the fairy realm, and whether or not the 80's hair metal scene was secretly fairy-pilled. We also chat about the complicated nature of spirit marriage, and trends in popular witchcraft that seem skeptical of spirits altogether. I'm always grateful for a chance to chat with Morgan, and I think y'all are in for a treat.   

SHOW NOTES: 

Morgan's Books: Author Page

Paid with a Kiss: Moon Books

Feed the Fairies Podcast: Spotify Link

Morgan's Patheos Blog: Patheos Pagan

Morgan's Classes: Irish Pagan School

Morgan's Instagram: @morgandaimler

MUSIC:

"Stormy Point / Back of Beyond / The Seamstress" off the album Fable & Fire by Andrew Marlin - https://www.andrewmarlin.com

Today on the show I'm thrilled to share a chat I recently had with Fio Gede Parma. Fio is a  writer, teacher, and witch whose voice and perspective I really vibe with. Fio has an exceptional knack for diving headfirst into the kind of dense and complicated philosophical territory we love on this show, and effortlessly encapsulating their ideas in an intuitive and accessible way. On the show we explore Fio's experiences as an initiate of the Feri Tradition, as well as diving deep into his recently re-released book: Ecstatic Witchcraft. Fio gracefully and confidently describes the complicated word "shaman," its relationship to Witchcraft, and by extension to ecstacy. We chat about some of the more novel approaches in Fio's book to some tried and true ritual techniques, and how Fio defines deep concepts like "deity" and "faerie" for themself. This is hopefully the first of many conversations we can bring you with Fio . . . enjoy!

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SHOW NOTES:

Fio's Site: Fiogedeparma.com

Ecstatic Witchcraft Book: Crossedcrowbooks.com

Fio's excellent Youtube Channel: @Fiogedeparma

IG: @Fiogedeparma

-MUSIC: "Stormy Point / Back of Beyond / The Seamstress" by Andrew Marlin off the ablum Fable & Fire. https://www.andrewmarlin.com/

For those of us drawn to the mysterious realm of Faerie, we're often led to folklore to dive deeper into the subject. While you know how Emma Wilby-pilled I am, there's something novel and exciting about stumbling upon an unpresented series of channeled texts ostensibly written by a faery woman named Fiona Macleod, through the faculties of a middle aged man (William Sharp). Steve Blamires has written extensively on this peculiar case, and in his most recent book: The Confessions of Fiona, he combs through the texts of Fiona Macleod for clues of an esoteric Faery Tradition of magic, as well as Gods and Goddesses particular to the Faerie realm. We also go into the mysterious figure of Dalua who inspired the opera The Immortal Hour, and his relationship to the Folkloric Devil, and explore Steve's writing on the Ogham script.   

SHOW NOTES: 

The Confessions of Fiona: Book

Celtic Tree Mysteries: Book

Steve's Site: Inchanted Journeys

MUSIC:

"Stormy Point / Back of Beyond / The Seamstress" off the album Fable & Fire by Andrew Marlin - https://www.andrewmarlin.com

I'm so excited to have Reverend Janglebones back on the show. He's one of the rare guests that makes me feel like hitting the record button without a list of questions or an outline for our conversation mapped out in advance. The result is a very fun and casual conversation about the Christ-like aspects of the Devil, and the Luciferian aspects of Jesus — amongst other things. We also talk about the importance of humor in spirituality, the bizarre experience of having a relationship with a spirit who also encapsulates some aspect of the fundamental fabric of our reality, and the reverse dualism that is somewhat prevalent in the Traditional/Folkloric Witchcraft community these days. I can't recommend checking out Reverend Janglebones' recent substack series (Hillock & Holler) on Jesus & Lucifer enough. 

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SHOW NOTES:

Hillock & Holler: The Rev's Substack

-The Good Reverend's Writing, services and materia: Hillock & Holler

-Soapbox Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soapbox/id1628906671

IG: @reverendjanglebones

-MUSIC: "Stormy Point / Back of Beyond / The Seamstress" by Andrew Marlin off the ablum Fable & Fire. https://www.andrewmarlin.com/