The Numinous Podcast

Today we're doubling down on our protective plant magic to bolster our spiritual safeness while the veil remains thin. We also look at 'wassail' as a noun, verb, and greeting which is especially appropriate on the 9th night of Yule which is associated with the 9th month of the year – the apple-iest month there is – September.

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In this episode, we're cleansing home and body with medicinal herbs by making vermouth, potpourri and incense in order to finish the year well.

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In this episode we explore myths related to the beauty of binaries, balance, and cycles of death and resurrection. Some of the myths can help us queer the holidays, others can help us put strained sibling relationships into new perspective. Learn why why ham is such a symbolic meal during this holiday time, and consider some simple rituals to help you bring more balance into your life.

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✨My favourite part of Yuletide!✨ Hearth spirits, house brownies, and protective supernatural allies for homes, barns, and livestock are all propitiated at this time. For me, this seems like a great way to steer children away from the more commercial aspects of this time of year and spark imagination, intuition, and an animist sensibility. A fun ritual for today would be to research what house spirits were called in your family's heritage ♥️

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Ancient traditions around the return of the light imply a revival of hope and healing. Pagans created art and apothecary items to reflect the beautiful and harmonious qualities of the cosmos, adorning their homes and bodies to revive the spirit in wintertime.

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Today we honour the children in our lives and the child within us. Plus, more winter witches! woop woop!

Note: The final 4 minutes of this episode is a guided meditation during which you should not be driving, riding a bike, operating machinery or engaged in any activity that requires your full attention.

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Ancestral veneration is a key function of winter rituals, a way to put our lineages in good order, encourage harmonious relations with the spirits of the ancient dead, and appease the restless dead who roam at night. On this night, we tell scary ghost stories that might include child-devouring crones, beer-stealing werewolves, dictator dogs and violent Santas. It's also a good day to honour the animal familiars who help convey gifts and goodness including flying goats, female deer, and horse skeletons.

There are also lighter aspects to the day including the reverence of Freya, hanging wreaths, and sacred spinning, weaving and fibre work.

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This is one of my favourite episodes because cultivating intimacy with the land I live on and the Spirits of Place is one of my favourite things to do. It also addresses, briefly yet deeply, how we can attend to the impacts of imperialism, colonialism and patriarchy in our spiritual work, especially4 at wintertime.

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It all begins with the Mother. Tonight on the longest night of the year, we honour our matrilineages and the spiritual lineages of prophesy, blessing, abundance and nurturance passed down through the ages through myths concerning Crones.

A Brief History of Christmas Tradition

Apple Tree Lore, druidry.org

A Visit from La Befana, JSTOR Daily

Bärbeletreiben

Biedermeier period

Berserks In History and Legend, M.Speidel

Between the “Thracian Substratum” and “Oriental Accretions”: Bulgarian Mumming and the National Heritage Canon, Ivo Strahilov

CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND THE GIFT-BRINGER, LESLIE D. JOHNSTON

Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux

Deutsches Weinachsmuseum, All About Christmas Glass

Doe A Deer A Female Deer, Danielle Prohom Olson

Feasts and Feasting in the Fourteenth Century, Jon Mackley

foodtimeline.org

Frau Holle in Legend

HiddenGlen.org, Michael Newton's courses are chock full of Gaelic lore and language. Highly recommended.

How Guy Lombardo Became Mr.New Year's Eve, Canadian Encyclopedia

Industrial Revolution, Chocolate Revolution

Lucy of Syracuse. Patron saint of eye disorders, Carlos Ortiz-Hidalgo

Marzipan Pigs Christmas Tradition

Notes on Italian Folk Customs, Stanley Gee

Otto Hofler, Wikipedia

Perchten and Krampusse: Living Mask Traditions in Austria and Bavaria, Molly Carter

Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead, Claude Lecouteux

Roast Beef, The New Poor Law, and the British Nation, 1834-63, N.Durbach

St. Lucia's Day: An Italian saint, a German child and a female demon all play a role in the story of 13 December, ScienceNorway.no

St.Lucy, Brittanica.com

Shedding Light on Saint Lucy, Aubrey Minshew

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Unknown author

Some Ancient and Modern Yuletide Customs (Dec.1939), L.Johnston

Sugar Past and Present

The Kissing Bough

The Ancient Jus Gentium of the Aryans (1899)

The Feast of Saint Barbara with Pagan Traditions

The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics, Gertraud Seiser and Matthäus Rest

The Lussekatter

The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year, L.Raedisch

The Pomander: A Brief History

The Problem of Mysteriousness of Baba Yaga Character in Religious Mythology, Evgenia V. Ivanova

The Rowan Tree and a Rowan Cross

The Scots Kitchen (1929), F.McNeill

The Silver Bough, Volume 3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals - Hallowe’en to Yule (1961), F.McNeill

The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux

The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, B.Walker

Unwrapping Yuletide: A Century of Icelandic Traditions, Gudrun Jonina Gunnlaugsdottir

We Don't Know The Origin Of The Candy Cane But They Almost Certainly Were Not Christian, Smithsonian Magazine

Witches, Werewolves and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages, Claude Lecouteux

Yule: The Pagan Holiday of Light, The TROTH | Education and Service for Inclusive Heathenry

Yuletide Monsters: Christmas Hauntings in Medieval Literature and Modern Popular Culture, Medieval Studies Blog Hosted by the University of Notre Dame's Medieval Institute

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Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year

Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)

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Antifascism for the holidays!

Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year

Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)

The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics by Gertraud Seiser and Matthäus Rest

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