Magick & Alchemy

In episode 182 of Magick & Alchemy, hosts Kate Belew and Kristin Lisenby welcome back Perdita Finn to the podcast. Perdita is an author, educator, and co-founder of the feral fellowship, The Way of the Rose. In this conversation, Perdita talks about channeling the old ones and working with our beloved dead in the spirit world. She contemplates romantic animism and asks, if your mother was an animal, what animal would she be? Perdita also introduces us to her new book, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors.
To connect with Perdita, visit her website, subscribe to her Substack, follow her on Instagram, and order her latest book, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors. 
Sources & Shoutouts:
Episode 104: The Mothers of Monsters and Magic
Episode 136: Asteroid Astrology with Empress of Atlantis
Episode 128: Spring Magick
“The Dead Need to Speak,” Perdita Finn
Goliath’s Curse, Luke Kemp
Ancient Mirrors of Motherhood, Merlin Stone
The Salt King, Natasha Pulley
The Other Side, Jennifer Higgie 
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 181 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew celebrate the end of their 6th season alongside Animal Oracles, the bat and the crocodile. Beginning with the bat, a creature that roosts in caves, on cliffsides, and within the hollows of trees, Kristin discusses the bat’s relationship to thresholds, mythical junctures, and initiatory landmarks. She highlights its connection to vampires and libraries, and how bats ‘see’ using echolocation. Next, Kate explores crocodile folklore and mythology. She contemplates crocodile deities like Sobek and Ammit, their influence on fertility and the heart, and the quiet ferocity of this primordial creature.
Sources & Shoutouts:
Episode 161: Hecate with Melissa Madera
Episode 162: Word Witch with Kate Belew
Episode 163: Something in the Woods Loves You with Jarod K. Anderson
Episode 172: Creative Magick with Shelby Bundy & Amanda Paulson
Dionysos: Exciter to Frenzy, Vicki Bramshaw
Energy Magick of the Vampire,  Don Webb
“Echolocation is nature’s built-in sonar. Here’s how it works,” Liz Langley - National Geographic
“These Portuguese Libraries Are Infested With Bats—and They Like It That Way,” Julie H. Case - Smithsonian Magazine
Taschen’s Book of Symbols
The Rise of Sobek in The Middle Kingdom by Maryan Ragheb from the American Research Center in Egypt
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Ammit - Egypt Museum
Back From the Brink - PBS
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 180 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kate Belew and Kristin Lisenby continue their series on animal oracles with the octopus and the dolphin. They begin with the eight-limbed octopus, a creature known as the sea alien. As a symbol of the strange, not only can the octopus alter the color and texture of its body on command, but it also uses tools, solves puzzles, and can escape from seemingly impossible spaces. Like the octopus, the dolphin is a liminal being, moving between shallow waters and deep, oceanic depths. Dolphins are considered our ‘brothers of the sea,’ delivering messengers of joy, friendship, and creation.
Sources & Shoutouts:
Tamed Wild Beltane Retreat 2027
“The Mind of an Octopus,” Scientific American
 “A Dictionary of Symbols,” J. E. Cirlot
“Octopus Legends and Urban Myths,” PBS 
“Breverton’s Phantasmagoria: A Compendium Of Monsters, Myths And Legends,” Terry Breverton
“Sea monsters and their inspiration: Serpents, mermaids, the kraken and more,” Natural History Museum
Dolphin Communication Project
Dolphins in Ancient Mythology, PBS
“The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images,” Taschen
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 179 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kate Belew and Kristin Lisenby track the footprints of animal oracles, beginning with the fox and the deer. Assigning meaning to animal sightings and chance interactions is called apantomancy, a form of divination with the wild. Through the lens of apantomancy, the fox might show up as a friend or foe, a fairy or a goddess. The fox is also a shapeshifter, much like its friend, the deer. Deer are ancient symbols of inspiration and creativity, and in folk stories and lullabies, they initiate humans into a realm of ancient magic.

Sources & Shoutouts:
Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi
Season 4, Episode 127: Trickster Tales
Bones & Honey: A Heathen Prayer Book, Danielle Dulsky
The illustrated database of Japanese folklore
Kitsune: Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance and Humor, Kiyosho Nozaki
The Age of Deer, Erica Howsare
National Geographic
Lady of the Beasts, Buffy Johnson
Bainne nam fiadh (Deer’s Milk)
We are Deer Kin - Missing Witches
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 178 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew conclude their series on Women in Art & the Occult by sharing the stories of Mary Wigman and Louise Bourgeois. As a dancer, Mary Wigman was an artist whose medium was not paint nor pen, but movement. She was the creator of the "Witch Dance," a performance that transformed her into a fluid, intuitive conduit of magic. Louise Bourgeois was a sculptor who considered her art a form of divination and a means of emotional restoration. She is most known for her spider sculptures, which she saw as symbols of resilience, feminine power, creativity, and independence. Bourgeois allowed her mind to wander while creating (a process she called ‘gathering wool’), letting "thought traces, fragments of dreams, idols, speculations, hunches, and intuitions" coalesce into art.
Sources & Shoutouts:
Tethered: An Anthology of Magic
“Re-reading Mary Wigman’s Hexentanz II (1926): the influence of the non-Western ‘Other’ on movement practice in early modern ‘German’ dance,” Lito Tsitsou and Lucy Weir 
Monte Verita
Witch Dance - YouTube
Stephando Mudo - La Biennale di Venezia
“Imagination is the Medium,” Literary Coven
“Breathing Back the History of German Modern Dance through the Horror Film Genre in Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria,” Wesley Lim
“The Language of Dance,” Mary Wigman
Louise Bourgeois - Gathering Wool
“Surrealist Threads in Louise Bourgeois’ Work,” Essie King
“Louise Bourgeois: The Woman Behind The Spider Sculptures,” Essie King
“The Damned, the Possessed and the Beloved: About Art, Architecture and Witchcraft”
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio