Stirring the Cauldron

In this archive podcast, channeler Bonnie Vent, Astrologer Rev L. Newman and medium Tim show put out their thoughts about how things might be in the upcoming New Year. And if you remember back that far, you can see how close their predictions were to coming true. Some in the chat room last night felt they were pretty right on. See what you think!

In his latest incredible work, former Most Haunted presenter David Wells examines real life experiences to uncover the extraordinary truth behind psychic events. What really causes possessions and past lives, and why is visualisation and meditation important? Is it to allay our own fears, or to communicate with the ghosts of those long passed – or is it something more? From the young girl who learned how to communicate with her disabled son to a soul level, to the extraordinary power of past life regression, you'll discover the practical side of what really makes things "go bump in the night", including: Frankie Howerd's haunted house, How children can develop their abilities safely,The parents who found the answer to their son's sudden death through discovering their karmic link.

Scott joined me for a Christmas Eve show back in 2010. Hollywood has a dark side even during the the holiday season. No matter how famous they are, celebrities die on Christmas.. Charlie Chaplin and WC Fields both died on Christmas and Scott tells a little known tale about Charlie Chaplin's body being snatched after burial and held for ransom. There are lots of good stories told during this really fast hour. They may call Hollywood Tinseltown, but in many cases, that tinsel is a bit tarnished.

In this musical episode, we go far back to the 13th Century, to enjoy the music of the season that our ancestors listened to. Some are new version of old songs, and some are old song played with instruments used way back when. A little mood music and it's was a nice way to lead up to Christmas Day.

We all know the moon. We all have a relationship with it. The earliest people obeyed her orbit, timed their months and holidays and celebrations and agriculture to the moon; the echoes of that system are still visible today, though the connection to the moon is often forgotten. Sarah Faith Gottesdiener is the leader of a movement to remind us of that lineage, guiding our rhythms and our sleep, our energy and our emotions, reminding us of our humanity and our magic. In her self-published Many Moons Workbooks and Lunar Journals, as well as her sold-out classes, she has guided over 50,000 readers to a deeper relationship with the moon, and through it, with themselves. This evergreen book will be an informative and comprehensive guide to lunar living, incorporating radical, self-empowering, and magical tools and resources for the beginner and experienced lunar-follower alike. Depending on where we are in our lives, depending on what we are feeling or what is happening around us, the moon allows us a space to invite ritual into our daily lives. The Moon Book will provide a framework on how to utilize the entire lunar cycle holistically, while offering ways for the reader to develop a personal relationship with their own cycles―energetic, personal, and emotional―through the lens of the moon’s phases. The book is a guide to conscious living through the moon and her phases, incorporating wellness rituals, spellwork, and witchcraft for the modern seeker.

In this practical workbook, Fay Johnstone demonstrates how energy healers and Reiki practitioners can partner with plant spirit allies and the forces of nature for powerful healing for themselves, others, and our planet. She explains how to include plants and nature in your Reiki practice, both the spiritual/etheric components of plants and the physical plants themselves. She offers many practical exercises, techniques, and meditations as well as case studies and personal experiences to show how best to harness the power of plants on all levels, along with other energy flows, to support the healing process in much the same way that crystals are used as energetic healing aids. She explains how plants connect with the Reiki principles and explores plant spirit allies, chakra work, and healing with the elements of nature. She details how to enhance self-healing and Reiki treatments for others through “bringing the outside in,” creating a healing space, use of plant preparations, and other sacred forms of plant medicine. Fay also explores how to support the healing of plants and nature itself through your Reiki/healing practice. She provides guidance on how to raise the vibration of your home and community, how to impact nature positively with regard to climate change, and how to send distance healing to the Earth, nature beings, and endangered habitats across the world. She inspires you to reach out to the vital force that flows through the natural world and open your intuition to discover guidance and support from nature. By deepening our conscious cooperation and partnership with nature and the plant kingdom, in a sacred healing way, we come to recognize that in healing ourselves, we are also healing our Earth.

In the medieval period preparations with hallucinogenic herbs were part of the practice of veneficium, or poison magic. This collection of magical arts used poisons, herbs, and rituals to bewitch, heal, prophesy, infect, and murder. In the form of psyche-magical ointments, poison magic could trigger powerful hallucinations and surrealistic dreams that enabled direct experience of the Divine. Examining trial records and the pharmacopoeia of witches, alchemists, folk healers, and heretics of the 15th century, Thomas Hatsis details how a range of ideas from folk drugs to ecclesiastical fears over medicine women merged to form the classical “witch” stereotype and what history has called the “witches’ ointment.” He shares dozens of psychoactive formulas and recipes gleaned from rare manuscripts from university collections from all over the world as well as the practices and magical incantations necessary for their preparation. He explores the connections between witches’ ointments and spells for shape shifting, spirit travel, and bewitching magic. He examines the practices of some Renaissance magicians, who inhaled powerful drugs to communicate with spirits, and of Italian folk-witches, such as Matteuccia di Francisco, who used hallucinogenic drugs in her love potions and herbal preparations, and Finicella, who used drug ointments to imagine herself transformed into a cat.Exploring the untold history of the witches’ ointment and medieval hallucinogen use, Hatsis reveals how the Church transformed folk drug practices, specifically entheogenic ones, into satanic experiences.

Lawren Leo's collection offers nine crooked paths hidden in perpetual shadow. Each is dark, yet alluring. Which will you take? Which story have you lived? Which story will you live next? Modern-day Fifth Avenue becomes the scene of a murder stretching back in time to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. A diva confronts long lost love and stolen gold during her final performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. A jet-set crowd gathers for Halloween as witchcraft, love, and celebrities collide on Fire Island. In the manner of Edgar Allen Poe and The Grimm Brothers, these love stories are wonderfully alarming and seductively tragic. A galaxy of engaging stories about the ultimate price of love. Enter the world of Love's Shadow: Nine Crooked Paths.

Qabalah is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional The definition of Qabalah varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it, from its religious origin as an integral part of Judaism, to its later adaptations in Western esotericism (Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah). Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God–the mysterious Ein Sof, "The Infinite" and the mortal, finite universe (God's creation).It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. David explains, "The beauty of Qabalah is the way it unfolds and it does so in a very personal way. It never ceases to amaze me. We’re all the same and unique at the same time. Qabalah is a system, it has structure that if followed will help you grow here on earth, and in the spiritual worlds. We are all trees, our roots in the earth, our branches reaching for the sky."

The Pagan seasonal cycle is often called the Wheel of the Year. Almost all Pagans celebrate a cycle of Sabbarts, which are spaced every six or seven weeks through the year and divide the wheel into eight segments. Four of the Sabbats have Celtic origins and are known by their Celtic names, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. The other four are points in the solar calendar. These are Spring and Autumn Equinox (when the length of the day is exactly equal to the night), Summer and Winter Solstice (longest and shortest days of the year). Neolithic sites such as Stonehenge act as gigantic solar calendars which marked the solstices and equinoxes and show that solar festivals have been significant dates for hundreds of thousands of years. This podcast originally aired on New Year's Eve several years ago And since 2021 will be here before we know it, this just seemed like the perfect podcast to play and we start the holiday season.