Radio Free Golgotha - Radio Free Golgotha

Welcome Golgothites, we wish you an excellent Feast of Saint Elijah. In honour of this day and indeed this holy figure of the Abrahamic faiths, we bring you a bevvy of topics co-mingling fiery and watery mysteries. Our Saint (and Prophet and perhaps Angel) is San Elias, the prophet Elijah, who ascended to heaven in a whirlwind chariot, and extends his mantle and wisdom in his returns to earth. Our Demon (indeed Queen of Demons) is Lilith; affording us a deep-dive into ancient, medieval, and early modern demonology, midrash, the heresies and hallowings of witchcraft, and much more besides. Our Herb is Willow, the One-That-Weeps, Lunary tree of Lunary Waters; boughs that bend, weave, and root; balm and bane of the living and the dead. Our Mineral is Citrine, lighting our way to consider lapidary title-shuffles of Solary golden stones, the yellowing processes of alchemy, merchant’s stones, and more. Our Style of Magic is Card Magic, prompting discussion of divination, gambling, the manipulations of significators, and where the sortilege meets the sorcery. Our Beast is Sheep, placid phlegmatic wool-bearer; by which we compare and contrast the differing lores of rams and lambs from ewes. Our Daysign is Atl (Water), whose non-oppositional duality with fire which presents fascinating contrasts to some often-unexamined assumptions of Western occult philosophy. Our Figure is the geomantic Cauda Draconis, The Dragon’s Tail, explosively Fiery figure of Saturn and Mars, and its counterparting Odu of Ifa and Diloggun, Ogunda Meji, sparking talk of creative destruction, rational action in the heat of crisis, and mysteries of war. Our Tarot is the Two of Wands, allowing us contrast between the energetic Fiery Wands in Thelemic conceptions, and melancholic Earthy Bastos in Spanish cartomancy. And our Dead Magician/Sorceress/Witch Queen is none other than María Díaz de Padilla; tracing the afterlife of a king’s mistress crowned queen of earth in hell, whose legions champion the ambitions of women and the oppressed across terreiros of Quimbanda to this day as Pombagira Maria Padilha. We hope you enjoy this extended and animated discussion of these flaming topics, and we wish you all a very pleasant hot hag summer! 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/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].