Radio Free Golgotha - Radio Free Golgotha

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586f532229687f84110099ab/e02ce276-06d1-4858-8beb-f8e820990868/Episode+48.png?format=1000w] Merry Feast of Saint Anthony and indeed Happy Friday 13th, Golgothii! This, our forty-eighth episode, sees us celebrating – amongst other things – Saint Anthony’s incorruptible tongue, his veneration across the world, and his patronage of finding lost things, along with his many syncretisations across Worlds both Old and New with powers of doorways and the streets. Our Demon(ised) patron of this episode is Eshu/Exu, that deified crossroads power who finds expression as Legba, Eleggua, and as Exu of Quimbanda: the Owner of the Road, the divinely-restless and rebellious movement of vital virtue and axé, and demonized trickster-friend who accuses and upturns towards good character and ancestral harmony. Our Herb this time is Belladonna aka Deadly Nightshade, prompting discussion of toxicity, the coolness of sleep and death, witches’ flying ointments, and the both Venusian and Saturnine qualities of Atropos and her fatal scissors. Our Mineral is Yangi aka Laterite, a stone so intrinsically tied to Eshu veneration and practice, upon which we pour the palm oil of slickened communication and the lubrication of the frictions of the world. Our Magic is Idols, inspiring conversation about accusations of idolatry, and weighing both metaphysical representation and spiritual ontology; as well as some post-colonial considerations of fetishes and fetishism. Our Daysign is Tochtli (Rabbit), a day intimately tied into passages of the moon, service to things bigger than ourselves, and indeed with Mayahuel, goddess of both fertility and maguey. Our Beast is the Rooster, hot-blooded courageous crier of the barnyard, whose crowing call wards off ghosts and night-wanderers, and whose meat empowers broths and baths of choleric boldness and healing. Our Geomantic Figure is Airy Solary Fortuna Minor, the Lesser Fortune: a marker of choler, and swiftness, that loyal but distractable escapologist who turns bad fortunes into good and vice versa; comparing and contrasting the warnings and familial remediations of the Odu Irosun Meji of Ifa and Diloggun. Our Tarot of the day is the Two of Cups, by which we consider divinatory markers of love, fulfilling and unfulfilling relationships, caduceuses, and domestic as well as interpersonal bonds and boundaries. Our Dead Magician to play us out is Jubiabá, the infamous Candomble de Caboclo priest and macumbeiro who courted controversy with the religious purists and local authorities of his day, whose Chair was lost and restored, and who was fictionalized in the eponymous novel by Jorge Amado. We thank you for joining us in this two-headed exploration of both crowing and minding tongues, of meaningful relationships and the arguments you survive, and the ever-unfolding creativities of the crossroads. FOOTNOTES: Footnotes for this episode will soon be available for selected tiers of our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]. This episode is also available on YouTube [https://youtu.be/y-UDkYSerjU], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-golgotha-radio-free-golgotha/id1193023651], and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2YjY0YUnCCiO06QQk9u4N7]. You can support our work and deep dive into the episodes and RFG via our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]!

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586f532229687f84110099ab/d97c44e6-a286-4528-b5e0-42271e08ae2b/Episode+45-+Patrick.png?format=1000w] Welcome Golgothers to our forty-fifth episode, celebrating the Feast of St Patrick with a plethora of serpentine slitherings! Saint Patrick – apostle of Ireland, bane of serpents, shamrock evangelist, bearer of the hymnal breastplate, and reviver of the dead – affords us hagiographic discussion of shifting depictions of this saint and receptions of his impact, “All Snakes Day”, and what-even-is-Celtic. Our Demon is Apep, opening up conversation about when a cosmic force is “demonic”, as well as considerations of embodying darkness, depicting the cyclopean, eating souls, and how nothing burns like an effigy. Our Herb is Clover, prompting consideration of leaf-numerology, lucky anti-venoms, gardening for happy marriage and home-protection, and the myriad tiny fortunes of the fields. Our Mineral is Coral, the branching blood of Gorgons, whereby we consider teething-charms, magical lightning-insurance, the pater de sang, and valuable early modern lapidary medicine. Our Beast is the Basilisk, wending our heraldic way firmly into mythological zoology to survey stone-breaking noxious breath, the optics of the scorching gaze, and how to even study a monstrous animal who petrifies its observers. Our Daysign is, of course, Coatl (Snake), unwinding discussion of both the feathered serpent deity Quetzalcoatl and Chalchihuitlicue, goddess-force of running water and oceans, to consider the humility of how rivers change-without-changing and how to make the most of the fleeting without succumbing to short-term self-interest. Our Figure is Tristitia, Sorrow, through whose dim cloudy hollows we consider anxiety, fateful lots of disappointing events, and anti-melancholy regimens; counterparting these lessons with those of the Odu Okana Meji in corpuses of Traditional African and Afro-Diasporic wisdom. Our Tarot is the Ace of Swords, by which we analyse analytical faculties themselves, the mysticism of blades in ceremonial magic, and take in the grounded mysteries of this card in Spanish cartomancy. Our Dead Magician is none other than Faust himself; surveying both the historical evidence and legendary tales of this soul-bargaining conjuror, the character of Mephistopheles, and indeed the Germanic milieu and folk necromantic methodologies of the Faustian grimoires ascribed to his patronage. Whether shedding old skin or harkening to the hisses of old cunning ways, we hope you enjoy listening to this snaking episode as much as we did conjuring it into being by the forked tongues of our two-headed banter. FOOTNOTES: Footnotes for this episode will soon be available for selected tiers of our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]. This episode is also available on YouTube [https://youtu.be/mo4KI1A4vuA], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-golgotha-radio-free-golgotha/id1193023651], and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2YjY0YUnCCiO06QQk9u4N7]. You can support our work and deep dive into the episodes and RFG via our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]!

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586f532229687f84110099ab/251eb80a-8efd-44ce-91be-661622fda4d3/Episode+44-+Chair.png?format=1000w] Welcome dear gentle listener to our forty-fourth episode, in which we honour the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. This holyday – dedicated less to a saint than their relic – sees us talking about the seat of papal authority of Rome, the Petrine importance of Antioch, the matryoshka qualities of medieval-style reliquaries, the “throne of Theseus”, apostolic succession, and what it means to be the Rock upon which the Church is founded. Our patron Demon for today is Trimasael, alchemical and many-aliased devil of the Grimorium Verum, by which we talk powders of projection and transmutations of metals; as well as muse on their sometimes-counterparted Exu of Quimbanda, Seu Pimenta, pondering on what it means to be a spirit who is (like) a pepper… Our Herb of the hour, Storax, allows us to delve into some resinous mysteries of archaeo-botany and consider when plant-names are more descriptors than definitions, as well as how both recipes and titles are informed by ancient trade routes, and how planetary associations can shift. Our Mineral this time is Cinnabar, ancient and once more alchemical ore of mercury, and constituent of the pigments called vermillion; by whose red-tinted light we illuminate a bloody history of mining, mercury poisoning, and Renaissance tips on getting the best colours. Our emblematic Beast is the Wolf, the night-wanderer, the wild and ravenous one who infiltrates civilization, both guileful and blood-simple; considering animals fables, the birth of Rome, animalia materia, and choleric virtues and vices. Planetary Hours are the Style of Magic we tackle this episode, considering rules-of-thumb for natural kairotic (rather than quantative public) time, Chaldean zeitgeists, the peak magical moments of a day, and the cross-pollinations of astrological hours and days to tailor our sorcerous strategizing. Our Figure of the episode is the geomantic Laetitia and the Odu Obara, leading us to discuss both fieriness and the fiery-in-the-watery, along with the refreshing artisanship of joy and the revivification of inspiration. Our journey into the Minor Arcana of the Tarot continues with the Ace of Cups, exploring not only the mysticism of primal waters and phlegmatism but the hearth and wellspring of the family home, intersocial harmony, and the overflowing heart. Our explorations of Mesoamerican calendricals comes to Cuetzpalin, the Lizard: considering times of rapid transformation, turnarounds, and reversals of fortune under the patronages of tricksters and winter powers. Finally, our honoured Dead Magician this time is Arthur Gauntlet, the mid-seventeenth-century London cunning man who left one of the richest working-books of early modern folk magics: we consider not only what this spellbook offers us but also discuss working necromantically with Uncle Arthur’s bawdy ghost. We hope you enjoy this interweaving co-ramble of alchemical reddenings, chronomantic projections and proscriptions, and the chairs we leave out for the dead. As always, it is a ever-multiplying joy to sit down and record, and we at RFG HQ thank you for lending your kindly ears. FOOTNOTES: Footnotes for this episode will soon be available for selected tiers of our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]. This episode is also available on YouTube [https://youtu.be/SQrKTBDB0Q8], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-golgotha-radio-free-golgotha/id1193023651], and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2YjY0YUnCCiO06QQk9u4N7]. You can support our work and deep dive into the episodes and RFG via our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/radiofreegolgotha]!

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586f532229687f84110099ab/070108b0-e323-4a1b-a6a7-9eedcfe65e25/Episode+43-+Feast+of+the+Ass.png?format=1000w] Happy New Calendar Year, Golgothians one and all, and merry Feast of the Ass! We kick 2025 off with an episode celebrating the many forms of the Festum Asinorum: a holyday drawing on early traditions of the Feast of Fools as well as dramatised ecclesiastical processions of prophets, honouring the sacrality and popularity of the humble donkey in Scripture and indeed in churches. Our featured Demon is Bifrons, the Two-Faced One; affording both our usual discussion of grimoiric sourcetexts and spirit catalogues, as well as reflections on the semblances of monstrosity, epithets of Janus, the mysteries of Exu Dos Cabeças, and further two-headed co-ramble on both sides of the coin of duality. Our Herb of the hour is the Apple, by whose savour we consider its great mutational variety in orchards (and indeed wherever its pippins take root!), Greek myths of Kallisti and Atalanta, Edenic Temptations and Falls, Anglo-Saxon charms, early modern physick and Shakespearean wit, enchantments of love and lust, and the prankish theologies of Discordianism. Our hallowed Mineral is Sulphur, through whose stinking fumes we survey brimstone from its use and conjuration in – amongst other things – hellish exorcism and mephitic malediction, Saturnian incensings, and spirit-vexing. Our emblematic Beast is the Hare: phlegmatic and ever-watchful escapologist and weather-teller, folkloric witch-form, fecund hermaphrodite, and ancient and still popular triskelion of The Three Who Share Ears. Our Geomantic Figure for this episode is Caput Draconis, the Dragon’s Head; Earthy figure of the Benefics of Jupiter and Venus; signifier of slow seedling development, spiritual elevation and responsibility, benevolent forest magic, and the ways Nature can gently surprise us. Such discussion leads us to comparative contrast with the mysteries of its morphologically similar Odu to consider when the surprises of Nature do not seem so gentle… Our Daysign is Calli, The House, allowing us some rehearsal of Mesoamerican calendrical cycles of durational moments and momentums, as well as some honouring of Tepeyollotl, the Heart of the Mountain and Jaguar of the Night; by which we evaluate zeitgeists recommending time spent at home with loved ones and trusted friends. Our Style of Magic this time is Calendrical Divinations, for which we distinguish moments or singular days good for divination from durational auguries made across several days, concentrating on the foretellings of the year in January: discussing the year-walk of Årsgång, the delightful complexities of Latin American and Spanish la sistema de las Cabañuelas, and the Italian Giorni Della Merla. This episode marks the progression of our forays into the mysteries and meanings of Tarot beyond the Major Arcana into the elemental realms of the Aces, beginning here with the Ace of Coins, Disks, or Pentacles: by which we consider some traditions of reading and even deck-keeping found in Baraja Española, how Coins make sense as Fiery rather than Earthy, and what it means to plant a seed. Finally, our Dead Magician is one Samuel Lidell MacGregor Mathers, polyglot, translator, ceremonial magician, ritual attire enthusiast, public dramatist, psychic nemesis of Aleister Crowley, and curriculum-setter and otherwise instrumental contributor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, by whose lux we muse on the influence of the Victorian “Occult Revival” on modern magic, neo-paganism, and grimoire sorcery. By these seeds scattered, strong scents aired, and braying amens we bid you welcome to the new calendar year, and hope that January finds you watchful in both eyes of every double-faced turn, surprising first-leaves, and all the signs in sky and ground of the promises and choices of tomorrow. FOOTNOTES: To access the footnotes for this episode, follow this link [https://www.patreon.com/posts/footnotes-43rd-119993477?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link]. . This episode is also available on YouTube [https://youtu.be/SQrKTBDB0Q8], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-golgotha-radio-free-golgotha/id1193023651], and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2YjY0YUnCCiO06QQk9u4N7].

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586f532229687f84110099ab/4ada4324-d9cb-4239-8d63-9b6a2a6163c1/Episode+41-+Martinmas.png?format=1000w] Happy Feast of St Martin and, indeed, merry Martlemas, dear listeners! We welcome you to the forty-first episode of our folk necromantic co-ramble. On the tail end of the Hallowstide, we honour not only the hallowed hagiography of the historical St Martin of Tours – former soldier, bishop, and miraculous cloak philanthropist – but the many calendrical reasons for the season of the feastday itself: from the migration patterns of geese, the bonus ‘settling-day’ of pre-modern village-life, to the Anglo-Saxon ‘blood-month’, and various Irish and Scottish apotropaic rites of Martinmas. Our Demon of the month is the many-aliased goetic king, Purson, lion-faced granter of familiars, who gently guides us through survey of nigromantic spirit catalogues and the roles and significances of such devilish kings, as well as affording a little consideration of European bear mysteries. Our honoured Herb is White Ginseng, the aged and elusive King of Dreams who favours only the most eagle-eyed of root-hunters; under whose advocacy we discuss both the economics and the medicine of botany, as well as First Nations lore, Catskills terroir, and much more besides. Our lauded Mineral this time is Aquamarine, the watery beryl of phlegmatic healing and sensitivity, harmonious marriage, tolerant communication, and sanguine amity; considering not only Neptunian and Venusian image magic, but the links between sagacious clarity, the origins of reading-glasses, and some folkloric accounts of scrying. Introducing a brand new topic, we begin our sorcerous Sesame-Streeting of Beasts with celebration of the natural magic and folklore of Toads, discussing the watery and earthy banes and blessings of venom, traditional witch-familiar lore, and its heraldic emblematics of choler, moisture, weaponized melancholy, and storms. Further expanding our fields of episodic topics, we pay homage to the meanings and mysteries of the Daysign of Cipactli/Imix (aka Crocodile) in Mesoamerican calendrics, delving into the leviathanesque, the Toad With A Thousand Jaws who consumes the Sun, and the nature of beginnings, as well as providing some foundational orientation in how such day-signs inform us about underlying cosmo-visions, naming practices, and the heats of tripartite souls. Our Style of Magic this time naturally follows on the creeping heels and occult thermodynamics of toadbones to analyse the Horseman’s Word: affording us opportunity to discuss the rites of trade secrets, union initiations and hazings, the folklore of animal-handling, the uses of hippomane, the influence of Masonic oathing, and the prestige of horse-whispering in traditional witchcraft. Our brace of divinatory topics begins with the Geomancy of Acquisitio, the Fiery Jupiterian figure of Gain, expansion, increase, as well as the strictures and loopholes of formality, the risks of overcommitting and taking too much on, and both the wealth and pressures of tradition in ancestral relations, inheritances, and expectations. From figure to Arcana, our triumphant Tarot Trump this time is the Chariot: vehicle of Mystery itself, historical icon of military advancement and the victory parades of the polis, and indeed the qabalistic means of conveyance into the Supernal realms, by which we discuss the horses-that-become-sphinxes, the harmony of steed and driver, Ezekiel’s visions, and where the rider ends and the wheels begin. Finally, our featured Dead Magician is both the monstrous Black Annis and her likely point of inspiration, the “denigrated” remembrances of the anchorite Agnes Scott. Considering the shades of Reformation propaganda and pagan (re)articulations of Blue Hags, we explore folkloric practices – including precautionary children’s tales, the land legends of Leicestershire, and the dragging of anise’d cats – to celebrate the potent hag-ography of both nigromantic history and myth, the queerness of monstrosity, and both the historical trauma and reclaimed power that makes witches. We hope you get as much from listening to this broadcast of lore and legend, miracles and medicines, myths and histories, and the container-and-contained of rider and ridden – as we got from co-rambling it. May all your horses be kindly whispered, your resources carefully managed that they may be sustainably shared, your dreams ever more expansive vehicles to sensitive realisation, your venoms properly alchemized (or at least meticulously deployed), your devils delightful, and your hags potent. Merry Martinmas! We will of course continue to update the website and our facebook page when footnotes become available. This episode is also available on YouTube [https://youtu.be/Rts4tRlGPm8], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-golgotha-radio-free-golgotha/id1193023651], and Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2YjY0YUnCCiO06QQk9u4N7].