The Numinous Podcast

Latest Episodes:

TNP261 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 14: Tending to Hearth & Home (Dec 28) Dec 28, 2024

Show notes

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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TNP260 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 13: Balance & Harmony (Dec 27) Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

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

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TNP259 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 12: House Brownies & Tutelary Spirits (Dec 26) Dec 26, 2024

Show notes

✨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 ♥️

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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TNP258 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 11: Return of the Light (Dec 25) Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

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.

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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TNP257 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 10: Honouring the Child Within {with Bonus Meditation} (Dec 24) Dec 24, 2024

Show notes

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.

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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TNP256 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 9: The Wild Hunt & the Restless Ancient Dead (Dec 23) Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

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.

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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TNP255 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 8: Father's Night & Spirits of Place (Dec 22) Dec 22, 2024

Show notes

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.

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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TNP254 {The Spirit of Yuletide Miniseries} Part 7: Winter Solstice and the Old Woman of Winter (Dec 21) Dec 21, 2024

Show notes

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.

Source materials for this miniseries:

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