In this sixth episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 6 (Agrarian Weather Magik) of his pivotal book, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, discussing language and the rite of prayer to participate in the weather of Earth.

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Learn more about our other podcast: The Language of Irish Mythology Podcast.

Join the Unshod Substack (for free) and commune with us! 

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

The Cunning Farmer

A guide to restoring the ancient relationship between farming and magic

• Explores how to reconnect with nature and use practical, nature-based magic for gardening and farming, fertility, and abundance
• Examines Moon work, plant magic, forest deities, Earth energies, weather magic, the cosmology of ritual, and how to work with land spirits
• Discusses folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition, Western esotericism, alchemy, Kabbalah, and shamanism as well as Taoist principles and Reiki

Magic and farming, in the minds of ancient people, were not separate realms of life, but both were woven inextricably into the way people lived. Through libations, prayers, hymns, dances, sacrifices, and rituals, ancient farmers connected to the sacred forces, the gods, nature spirits, and ancestors to make the crops grow, keep the herds healthy, the weather favorable, and release energies of fertility. These rural farmer priests and priestesses of the ancient past are the spiritual ancestors of today’s cunning farmers.

This book explores folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition and the practices of witches and cunning folk for increased fertility. Todd draws on Western esotericism, Taoist principles, alchemy, Kabbalah, Reiki, and shamanism to show how to use practical, nature-based magic, just like our ancestors, for more abundant gardening and farming. He shows how to work with land spirits, including meeting the place spirit of your land—the genius loci. He also explores working with Earth and Moon energies, plant magic and forest deities, and ritual. Learn how to deepen your connection to elemental and celestial forces and explore the idea of rewilding the imagination to enhance your relationship with nature and the spirits that call it home.

In this fifth episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 5 (Moon Work) of his pivotal book, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, discussing Lunar magic, Moon phases and Mansions, the worldview necessary to hold this, and how to integrate the Lunar Calendar into your agricultural practices.

...

Learn more about our new podcast: The Language of Irish Mythology Podcast.

Join the Unshod Substack (for free) and commune with us! 

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

The Cunning Farmer

A guide to restoring the ancient relationship between farming and magic

• Explores how to reconnect with nature and use practical, nature-based magic for gardening and farming, fertility, and abundance
• Examines Moon work, plant magic, forest deities, Earth energies, weather magic, the cosmology of ritual, and how to work with land spirits
• Discusses folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition, Western esotericism, alchemy, Kabbalah, and shamanism as well as Taoist principles and Reiki

Magic and farming, in the minds of ancient people, were not separate realms of life, but both were woven inextricably into the way people lived. Through libations, prayers, hymns, dances, sacrifices, and rituals, ancient farmers connected to the sacred forces, the gods, nature spirits, and ancestors to make the crops grow, keep the herds healthy, the weather favorable, and release energies of fertility. These rural farmer priests and priestesses of the ancient past are the spiritual ancestors of today’s cunning farmers.

This book explores folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition and the practices of witches and cunning folk for increased fertility. Todd draws on Western esotericism, Taoist principles, alchemy, Kabbalah, Reiki, and shamanism to show how to use practical, nature-based magic, just like our ancestors, for more abundant gardening and farming. He shows how to work with land spirits, including meeting the place spirit of your land—the genius loci. He also explores working with Earth and Moon energies, plant magic and forest deities, and ritual. Learn how to deepen your connection to elemental and celestial forces and explore the idea of rewilding the imagination to enhance your relationship with nature and the spirits that call it home.

In this fourth episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 4 (The Moon, Mistress of Magic) of his pivotal book, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, discussing Lunar magic, Moon phases and Mansions, and how to integrate the Lunar Calendar into your agricultural practices.

Learn more about our new podcast: The Language of Irish Mythology Podcast.

Join the Unshod Substack (for free) and commune with us! 

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

Books Mentioned:

The Complete Picatrix

777 & Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley

Mansions of the Moon

On the Heavenly Spheres

Todd's Moon Signs Substack

A guide to restoring the ancient relationship between farming and magic

• Explores how to reconnect with nature and use practical, nature-based magic for gardening and farming, fertility, and abundance
• Examines Moon work, plant magic, forest deities, Earth energies, weather magic, the cosmology of ritual, and how to work with land spirits
• Discusses folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition, Western esotericism, alchemy, Kabbalah, and shamanism as well as Taoist principles and Reiki

Magic and farming, in the minds of ancient people, were not separate realms of life, but both were woven inextricably into the way people lived. Through libations, prayers, hymns, dances, sacrifices, and rituals, ancient farmers connected to the sacred forces, the gods, nature spirits, and ancestors to make the crops grow, keep the herds healthy, the weather favorable, and release energies of fertility. These rural farmer priests and priestesses of the ancient past are the spiritual ancestors of today’s cunning farmers.

This book explores folk magic traditions of North America and Western Europe, including the grimoire tradition and the practices of witches and cunning folk for increased fertility. Todd draws on Western esotericism, Taoist principles, alchemy, Kabbalah, Reiki, and shamanism to show how to use practical, nature-based magic, just like our ancestors, for more abundant gardening and farming. He shows how to work with land spirits, including meeting the place spirit of your land—the genius loci. He also explores working with Earth and Moon energies, plant magic and forest deities, and ritual. Learn how to deepen your connection to elemental and celestial forces and explore the idea of rewilding the imagination to enhance your relationship with nature and the spirits that call it home.

In this third episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 3 (First Principles of a Magical Worldview) of his pivotal book, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, diving first into the idea of a living layered cosmos and then progressing into the notions of Platonic and Hermetic systems of astrology as both a spiritual avenue and practical farming system. 

Pre-Order The Way of Salmon Moon HERE.

Join the Unshod Substack (for free) and commune with us! 

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

In this second episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 2 of his pivotal book and masterpiece, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, diving first into the idea of Sacred Geography and Sacred Spaces and then progressing into the concept of Cosmic Vitality and inter-world spirit-laces in both symbology and practice.

Join the Unshod Substack (for free) and commune with us! 

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

Episodes or Articles mentioned in the podcast

God Is Red with Taylor Keen Episode 1

The Great Animal Master article by Todd Elliott

In this first episode of The Cunning Farmer, Todd Elliott and I begin our walk-through of his pivotal book and masterpiece, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, diving first into the cross-pollination of myth and magik in view of the general human practice of agriculture. We also talk about ancient languages and how the study of language helps us understand the layers of colonialism and the truths hidden yet in our memory and marrow.

Purchase The Cunning Farmer HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

Note: in this episode, I say the name of the Biblical Eve is chara, but that is not true. It is chava and the version in the podcast is a simple mispeak. I apologize. Chara is the lenition of cara, the Irish word for friend.

In this episode of God Is Red, Taylor Keen (Omaha / Cherokee) and I discuss Ehanamani’s great masterpiece, Mitakuye Oyasin: We are All Related, diving into the pre-colonial / Indigenous worldview of relationship—from balance to harmony to language to the lace weaving us the stars (cosmology and astronomy). Join in!

Learn more about Taylor’s work HERE.

Learn more about Daniel’s work HERE.

Join in relationship with us and become a PAID subscriber HERE.

Trigger warning—this conversation has the potential to make you mad. It also has the potential to wake you up. It carries great medicine, if you let it. If you are uninterested in such an affair, move on. If you are open and your heart is willing to see the many-selves dancing about, take a gander.

In this episode of God Is Red, we walk through Taylor Keen's (Omaha / Cherokee) book, Rediscovering Turtle Island: Chapter 8, Indigenous Archeoastronomy!

Taylor's words show how sacred geometry and, at times, sacred algebra structure places like the Newark Earthworks and Serpent Mound with the Stars. This conversation also faces the reckoning: why interest in Indigenous wisdom often fades when it challenges modern agriculture, settler myths, or Jeffersonian nostalgia. We compare Old World sites like Avebury with Turtle Island’s sacred geography / mounds to dissolve the myth that life travels in only one direction. And we look ahead to Taylor’s next book on Picture Cave

If you’re up to rethink “civilization,” astronomy, and what it means to be related with land and sky, jump in! Then share your take, leave a review, and subscribe so more listeners can find these stories and the living science written in earth.

Listen to Chapter 1 of Rediscovering Turtle Island

Learn more about Taylor's work HERE.

Purchase Rediscovering Turtle Island HERE.

Learn more about Daniel's work HERE.

In this episode of God Is Red, we walk through Taylor Keen's (Omaha / Cherokee) book, Rediscovering Turtle Island: Chapter 7, Cohokia!

A thousand years ago, a star lit the sky and a city surged beside the Mississippi. In this conversation, Taylor and Daniel go deep into Cahokia’s rapid rise, its trading web from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and the ceremonies that surrounded the diverse languages and lineages into what can be described, perhaps, as an urban experiment. Taylor takes us through the story from Picture Cave’s ninth-century rock art to the Cohokia's rites, asking how cosmology, corn, and power shaped daily life at scale.

Learn more about Taylor's work HERE.

Purchase Rediscovering Turtle Island HERE.

Learn more about Daniel's work HERE.

In this second episode of Indie Publishing, Angie and Daniel discuss a world where algorithms pick what books are published and what books are not, how riding market trends determines more of what agents and publishers see as "good" than the quality of writing, the strength of the story, and even the purpose of story itself. 

It is stories that make us human, and the stories are many. Angie and Daniel open up about why they chose indie publishing, what they have learned from rejections and near-closes with agents, and how sales and marketing teams boisterously shape which books make it to shelves and which do not. From audiobook production shock to royalty splits that pale to pay authors what they deserve, Angie and Daniel also break down the real math of storytelling and the practical realities that every author faces.

If you’ve ever wondered whether Amazon's Kindle Unlimited helps or hurts, why preorders feel invisible, or how much a book's cover actually costs, you may enjoy this yarn! 

They also get candid about craft, discussing how hook-first culture, originated by Agents and queries, can warp a novel, forcing fireworks into page one while the middle goes slack, while the storyline tanks and even falls limp. Daniel argues for protecting slow openings, layered worlds, and voices that don’t mirror the algorithm’s taste. Then, Angie and Daniel discuss how fantasy as a genre, a genre originally constructed to explore the weird and off-shoot worlds and stories, has developed strangely into a linear story-ground: trend waves demand dragon rider and romantasy, but the new mythologies, gothic whispers, and odd structures that breathe weird breaths go missing.

Toward the end, Angie and Daniel discuss the role of Indie publishing in keeping the storytelling doors open. That intimacy and living stories turn commerce into conversation: signing paperbacks, tucking art prints into packages, and hearing what resonates directly with readers help keep the oral-storytelling human alive and healthy.

If this episode helps you on your journey, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more humans find us.

Daniel Firth Griffith is markâko and seanchaí, a participant citizen of Earth Mother, a father, horse-friend, sacred butcher, magikal storyteller, and award-winning indie author of six books on kincentric ecology, mythology, and horror. Learn more about Daniel's work and books HERE!

Angelina Kelly is an indie author and biologist who was born and raised in Alaska and has an inherent love for nature. She now lives in British Columbia where she works as a biologist and writes epic fantasy books that weave in her reverence for wilderness and the natural world. Learn more about Angie's work and books HERE!

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