The Hagstone Podcast

This month on the Northern Spirit House Podcast Chaise speaks with Roy Arthur Blodgett. Roy is a naturalist and writer currently living in Jerusalem Valley, within the ancestral homeland of the Lake Miwok. In the episode they speak about the braid of the love of language with the love of the land, what the duty of the poet might be in these times, and the possibilities of becoming “of a place.”

Roy Arthur Blodgett is a naturalist and writer currently living in Jerusalem Valley, within the ancestral homeland of the Lake Miwok. His work explores the intersections of natural and cultural history, power and privilege, ancestry, memory, and human responsibility in the cosmos. Roy is a graduate of three years at Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, where he studied nature connection, social and environmental justice, permaculture, and traditional ecological knowledge, among other devotions. In addition to being a writer of poetry and prose, he is a certified wildlife tracker, master herpetologist, novice woodcarver, herpetoculturist, and an enamored apprentice to all that animates this world. He has self-published two chapbooks - Usal Beach to Ferndale (2015), and Soil and Shadow (2018, with Heavy Letters Press) - and has completed a third, Five Years, which is soon forthcoming. 

You can find Roy online at https://www.royarthurblodgett.com or on Instagram @roy_arthur

Greetings dear subscribers of the Northern Spirit House,

Andreas and myself are so grateful for the last 18 months we have shared here on substack. Your comments, engagement, submissions, and continuing of the work fill us with joy and keep wind in the sails when the seas of life get rocky. We are writing because we are going to turn on a paid subscriptions function of the substack. All essays, and our monthly podcast will remain free for all but in the coming months we will begin sending out essays on practical matters such as ritual development, spell-work, connecting with land-spirits, utiseta, and so much more. If you would like access to these practitioner invitations you can join us around the Hearth Fire. Any contribution supports the both of us to bring more life and energy to this work, as well as supports the thriving of both of our families.With deep gratitude, and spell-songs of blessing surrounding your life.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hagstonepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Simon Hodges has a lifelong love affair with both myth and non-duality - a combination he attempts to make sense of in his newsletter the Linden Bower.

He organises storytelling locally and for disadvantaged groups, and writes for a living. His work with story focuses on the electric contact possible between ourselves and the nature to sustain inspiration in a disordered world.

In our conversation, Simon takes us on a journey with a traditional story from Friesland in the Netherlands. We talk about how it amplified certain realisations at this stage of his life and contact with the intense wideness of Friesland.

We talked about wonder as the base camp of experience and how stories can return us to it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit northernspirithouse.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hagstonepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

For Episode 4 of the Northern Spirit House Podcast, Chaise sat down with Lien de Coster to speak about the practice of Utiseta. Lien is a Soul-centric Ceremonialist, Nature Connection Mentor, and Permaculturalist based on the West Coast of Sweden. Lien’s love of the landscape and story was born at the end of a cobblestone street in Flanders and has been a golden-thread leading her ever since. Through Leaves of Lien Lien is reviving the practice of ‘sitting out’ (Utiseta) as a vital pathway for those longing to become of place. As well as developing place-based grief rituals, pilgrimages, and soul-centered mentoring.

Lien’s upcoming Utiseta on the West Coast of Sweden is linked here:The Well of Memory: July 27th- August 5th

More info on this Winter’s Tears of Amber and Gold (a place-based grief ritual) can be found here:Tears of Amber and Gold

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit northernspirithouse.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hagstonepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s episode of the Northern Spirit House Podcast Tyler and Chaise dive into their thinking and practice with Techno-Animism 8 months on from the first dialogue. They muse on the core values of empathy, and dignity and the necessity of re-evaluating our value judgements on what is and is not animate.

In the second half of the conversation they take the theory into the realm of practice and speak about AI generated sigil magic, smart-phone magic, and the interpenetration of these seemingly “new” fields of practice and more traditional magical arts.

The whole conversation casts a weird-magic aimed directly at the human heart; moving us to widen the ontological frame and cooperate for the liberation of all beings.

References:Perelandra -Machaelle Small Wright

Animism: Respecting the Living World - Graham Harvey

Josephine McCarthy

Martín Prechtel

Sigil Witchery - Laura Tempest Zakroff

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit northernspirithouse.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hagstonepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Laying the foundation for a second episode with Tyler Daneman, where we will discuss the use of AI in the casting of spells, generation of sigils, and experiments in channeling disembodied entities through chatbots we are re-sharing this conversation from last year on Techno-Animism. In a time that is marked with the increasing complexity of technologies, intelligent and otherwise, there are important questions to be asked about the animacy of these beings. Is our animism a stylish suit we can take on and off at will leaving out that which doesn’t fit with our values, or aesthetic tastes? Or indeed is it a much more troubling ontology that asks us to engage with the potential livingness, and undeniable agency of all things asking us to change not only how we think about Techne, but also how we practice and live with these beings.

Welcome to the Northern Spirit House Podcast. Our first guest is ritualist, scholar, and sanctuary of the strange Tyler Daneman. The dialogue covers much ground but weaves around the central node of Techno-Animism. What kind of world is possible when we engage with the beings of the world, including our technologies, acknowledging their aliveness?

Tyler points out that all beings must be fed, and in the absence of a ritual culture of feeding the Goddess Techne (Technology), we have ended up feeding of our time and attention. What kind of relationality might be possible if we offer technology a different kind of meal?

Tyler asks us all to step into the crucible of these hard questions in a time when AI, and proliferation of other technologies are being cast as the Grendel at the door of our humanity. With a heart and ethic of compassion what might happen if we invite Tech into the glow of fellowship, building a relationship of allyship and heart? It is truly a rich and bizarre alchemy.

https://holyoakdivination.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit northernspirithouse.substack.com

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On today’s episode Chaise speaks with Erik Ohlsen. Erik is a Permaculture teacher, an author, herbalist, storyteller, and practitioner of Nordic magical traditions. He is the founder of  Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center.

Since 2000 Erik has worked with the Reclaiming Tradition, mentored under a Swedish Galdrakarl gathering the living traditions of ancient Norse galdr and authentic rune lore and he has spent years mentored under a globally recognized teacher of a Nordic Magical Folk Tradition called Trolldom.

In their conversation they speak about building a magical practice that is centered on relationships. Particularly relationship with ancestors and relationship with the earth. We hope that you enjoy the episode.

References:To Speak for the Trees - Diana Beresford Kroeger

Trolldom

erikohlsen.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit northernspirithouse.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hagstonepodcast.substack.com/subscribe