In this months episode of The Hagstone, Chaise Levy sits down with Chad Andro of Radical Elphame to explore what Chad calls fairy apologetics, a reexamination of fairy lore that pushes back against fear-based, extractive, and overly dualistic approaches to the Otherworld. Drawing from folklore, Romantic poetry, animist philosophy, entheogenic experience, and personal practice, the conversation challenges the modern tendency to demonize or sentimentalize fairies, arguing instead for a relational and ecological understanding rooted in openness and transformation.

Together, they explore the collapse of strict boundaries between this world and the Otherworld, critique capitalist and colonial mindsets that seek to control spiritual experience, and trace how Romantic figures such as William Blake preserved a vision of fairy as a force of fullness that holds joy and terror, innocence and experience, creation and destruction in dynamic balance. The episode ultimately asks what it would mean culturally and spiritually to re-engage fairy not as danger or fantasy, but as a living mode of relationship with the animate world.

Connect with Chad Andro

Instagram: @radicalelphameSubstack: Chad Andro Podcast: Radical Elphame, available wherever you listen

New Theme Music: Taliesin written and performed on Tenor Guitar and Mandolin by Chaise Levy

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Happy Winter Solstice Northern Spirit House community.Today we are sharing a conversation between Chaise Levy, John Wolfstone, and Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen on From the Dragon Heart, which took place just before Yule in 2023.

We are so thankful for John hosting and sharing the original episode, and to Rune for his deep generosity of both knowledge and spirit.

As we deepen into this dark season we are reminded that in the Old Solstice traditions it was the beings of the darkness who brought the light. At this very apex of the ritual year the processions of both the beautiful and the monstrous move through the world to remind us of these time forces on the earth. This conversation revolves around the possibility of reinvigorating Yule traditions may it nourish all those who listen as we prepare for the Yuletide festivities between now and the first full moon of the second Yule month in January.Podcast image shows a Yule Goat being led through Skansen, Bollnässtugan from the Nordic MuseumMay all be blessed, Happy Solstice!

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This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise is joined again by Nay Noordmans of the House of Gnomi. This time we dive into the magical history of Datura, and it nexus of lore across this wild green earth.In the conversation we dive deep into the well of Datura’s spirit, and find there a clarion call to find reconciliation with the stories of extraction that continue to unfold. In that spirit we invite listeners to begin to ask the question of how they might create deeper relationships and offer resources to first peoples of the lands that they might inhabit.Here are some places to consider supporting in recognition of the debt of gratitude owed to the spirit of Datura and her keepers.https://northernchumash.org/land-back/

https://www.sychumashmuseum.org/get-involved/

Kuruvungna Village Springs - Gabrielino-Tongva Springs FoundationCHIRLA - The Coalition for Humane Immigrant RightsSome of the resources mentioned in the episode include:Nay on Radical Elphame with Chad Andro

Nay’s Lecture at Viridis Genii Symposium

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This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise and Andreas are joined by Carl Nordblom. Carl is the author of the wonderful book Historiola: the Power of Narrative Charms published in 2021 by Hadean Press. If you haven’t read this book we highly suggest finding yourself a copy.This is a deep conversation weaving threads of storytelling, charming, folk-magic and mantra into a tapestry that reflects the central theme: the power of story. We range wide taking a look at stories both old and new and how they function in our lives. From the personal to the vast political level the making of and employing of stories has massive implications for life, and learning to look critically at language not as an academic but from within is a deeply powerful tool in times such as these.

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This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise sits down with Rebecca Beyer of the Blood and Spicebush School of Old Craft. The conversation ranges through topics of land connectedness, connecting with ancestral traditions, and the particular power that the traditions of Appalachia have for showing a way of braiding cultures and lifeways. It is an amazing conversation, and we are so thankful to share it with you.

Rebecca Beyer is the founder of the Blood and Spicebush School of Old Craft. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Vermont and a Master’s degree in Appalachian Studies and Sustainability from the Appalachian State University. She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina where she manages a homestead and teaches traditional Witchcraft, foraging, and Appalachian folk medicine.

Rebecca’s newest book The Complete Folk Herbal will be published in October of this year by Simon & Schuster. It is packed to the brim with medicinal and magical plant knowledge and we highly recommend getting a copy.

You can find her on Instagram at bloodandspicebush or at her website www.bloodandspicebush.com

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This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise sits down to chat with Rose Aurora for a lively conversation on Fairy and Elf lore, magical storytelling, and the fundamental power of Truth. Rose is a sorceress, seer, and trollkvinna. Born into a lineage of Celtic fairy seership & witchcraft, Rose has been interacting with spirits and practicing magic since a very young age. She has also apprenticed under Johannes Gårdbäck to learn the art of Trolldom, a traditional system of Scandinavian folk magic & sorcery - of which she has been approved to do professional spiritual work for others as well as teach. She has also received training in other spiritual traditions, including hoodoo/conjure, as well as initiation into other lineages of traditional witchcraft.

As a professional sorceress, Rose specializes in helping others with fairy, elf, and troll-related troubles. She also conducts readings and spellwork, in addition to teaching the magical arts to students of many magical backgrounds & various levels of experience.

In the episode Rose mentions her class Starlight, Forge-fire, and Hearth Embers: The Elves, Trolls, & Dwarves in Scandinavian Folklore and Practice for the Northern Folk Traditions Conference at Ritualcravt. As of the publishing of this episode the conference is over but you may be able to get a recording.Rose will be giving a class at the Salem Witchfest titled Goodly, Shining, & Terrible: An Introduction to the Celtic Fairies with Rose Aurora you can find the link here.

You can find Rose on the web at roseauroras.com or on instagram @roseauroras

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The most powerful symbols we possess are our letters. For a name to exist, including yours, it must have a sound, or a graphic depiction. Our alphabet contains 26 phonetic-letter-glyphs, these glyphs have built our world: everything that you know and all knowledge leans on them. The great magician Alan Moore says: "Two dozen phonetic glyphs, they are th…

My recent trip to Sweden took me across the whole country, which is bigger than France, I drove about 2800km (1800 miles) and I often passed areas of deep endless forests. When I stopped for a break, the air was full of woody and flowery fragrances and humming trees. I love it when you hear the wings of the birds flying above you, that’s when you know that you have left the tyranny of the sound of the turbine engine which often drowns out everything else in our modern time.During this trip to my homeland, I was on a mission to speak to cultural personalities that I had wanted to interview for some time. I was very excited to drive West to the Norwegian border to meet Ulrika Jäger, a traditional “lövjerska”. She lives with her jet-black cat on the edge of the forest where she forages for herbs and conducts sauna rituals in her rural community.

What is a Lövjerska?

“Lövjeri” is the name of the healing art of our Northern European ancestors and the “lövjerska” is the female name of a traditional healing practitioner. The Lövjerskorna were "the wise ones", whom the population in the Finnforest of Western Sweden called out for when a person or animal became ill and part of their treatment was through medicinal herbs, and other parts was ritual and verbal magic.

The word “Lövjeri” comes from the Icelandic lyf, lif, which originally meant medicine and healing with herbs and flowers. Lövjeri is therefore nature's medicine and has a strong spiritual and feminine anchoring with deep roots in Northern Seidr. We can read in the Edda, in Fjölsvin's stanza, about Lyfjaberg, the Healing Mountain, where Goddess Freya and her nine female helpers, the Disir (female spirits) lived - forming the original image of the lövjerskans historical roots.

Plans are afoot to run a retreat with myself and Ulrika Jäger in the Finnforest of Western Sweden that borders Norway. It will be a time to be immersed in culture, to bathe in the lakes, have sauna ceremonies, and enjoy dusk and dawn with practices and meditations. We haven’t finalised the programme yet, but you will hear it here on the Substack when its done. We aim to have a group of people to make it a week to remember, it will be especially geared for those interested in the traditional healing arts, runes, storytelling, folkmagic and folklore.Enjoy the interview, I have more material that will feed into the Stack in the near future, but this gives you a rare glimpse of a Lövjerska, who is an endangered species in our day and age, especially in the European hemispheres and how wonderful it is that someone is carrying on the tradition and carefully gathering this knowledge, it is so important that their voices are heard. It is a work of re-weaving the wisdom of the past carefully with respect, one piece of the puzzle at a time.

Hail the Days, Andreas Kornevall

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This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise and Andreas sit down to chat with Johannes Gårdbäck to discuss trolldom and some of the amazing work he has brewing at Urhall.

Johannes B. Gårdbäck is the author of “Trolldom – Spells and Methods of the Norse Folkmagic Tradition”, (Y.I.P.P.I.E, 2014). He is an internationally recognized teacher with more than 30 years of experience as a professional folk healer and a folk magic practitioner. Today he runs Urhall, a physical and online school of Trolldom and Scandinavian Folk wisdom in his home village of Hedekas, Sweden where he lives with his wife, two daughters and a dog called Bob.

We are so thankful for this conversation, and the weaving of connection between what we are doing here at the Northern Spirit House with Urhall. Johannes is giving two teachings as a part of RitualCravt’s Northern Folk Traditions Conference taking place online June 2nd-8th. His sessions include Trolldom Herb, Tree, & Root Magic: All Good Things Are Three and Draugadrott: Necromancy, Spiritism and Relating to the Dead and the Ancestors in the Trolldom Tradition as a student of Johannes’s I can tell you they are not to be missed.Johannes also teaches an area of weekend, and year long courses throughout the year, and is debuting a Trolldom for the dark of the year immersion this year at his home in Hedekas, Sweden. More info can be found here.

We have just entered the second year of the Hagstone Podcast and we could not be more excited to share the work of more incredible guests in the coming year.

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This is part 2 into the deep dive of egregores and thoughtforms. Ben also explores the lesser known paths in Tibetan Buddhism and also his own personal experiences working with spirits. Well worth your while for a listen as Ben has dedicated much time to his practices and stands between many worlds.

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