The Hagstone Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Audrey Nova di Mola is a Queens, New York City-born oral tradition storyteller, lifelong writer/artist, creative facilitator, and sacred space-holder; a wing-footed accompanist through the wilds of the deep heart.

She is underworld-grown, grounded in the learnings of her descents and dedicated to carrying the revivifying waters of re-story-ation into our modern society. The sacred ecology of earth, story, spirit, and community were what literally saved her life. Through her mythopoetic heart-work (adventurous, care-oriented online/in-person gatherings, 1-on-1 journeys, and unique mythic-inspired support) Audrey offers wondrous embodied experiences with the old stories in the oral tradition as well as journeys into the urban mythic and our own personal legends. They are uniquely enriched by her somatic sensitivity, mental and holistic health advocacy, and inborn capacity for “seeing with the eyes of the heart.”

For over a decade (15 years and counting?!), Audrey has been lovingly gathering souls to safely/bravely and artistically explore their inner and outer landscapes. She has hosted and curated many (MANY!) multidisciplinary events, workshops, and performances such as Nature of the Muse, Church of the Sacred Body, How We Create & How We Cope: Intersections of Art & Mental Illness, and countless outdoor happenings for hundreds of thousands at Socrates Sculpture Park, the waterfront art-park and community space where she served as Director of Public Programs from 2016-2021.

Prior to more fully living into the dream of carrying the old stories, Audrey’s performative artistic career has spanned theatre, movement, song, and the spoken and written word. This encompasses arts journalism and writing/editing, four books of original poetry and prose (most recently “WILDLIGHT” and “The Book of Legend”), a few brief but utterly depth-full years in the core ensemble of Gurdjieff-inspired experimental theatre company, Dzieci (2019-2021), offerings in venues both intimate and massive (from The Cathedral of Saint John The Divine to the School of Myth in Devon UK to the addiction treatment center in her neighborhood), work published in Mad in America and Dark Mountain Project, and large-scale immersive art and poetry graffiti installations including “trusting the inmost angel” and “go slowly, see miracles.”

Audrey holds the mythic “both/and space” of depth and play, warming light and fertile dark. She is assistant to the first Steward of the Mythsinger Legacy Project, gratefully and enthusiastically carrying on the work of her late great storytelling teacher Daniel “3D” Deardorff; was the resident storyteller for Dr. Sharon Blackie’s Mythic Imagination Network from 2022-2023 (and continues to be featured on her popular “The Art of Enchantment” Substack!); and has deeply enjoyed immersive courses with Dr. Martin Shaw, Francis Weller, and Perdita Finn, among many others.We encourage those who find this podcast moving to check out this piece of writing Audrey shared with the northern spirit house, entitled knowing your own mythology: the life saving act.

Find her in the Turtle Hut. Search your heart, you’ll Know the way.

Find her in the digital otherlands here:Instagram: @wildbodydreaming

Substack: Audrey Nova di Mola

audreydimola.com

Join Audrey and Chaise for an exploration of suicidality and madness, stringing a weave between personal and mythic stories.

September 22nd, 2024 at 11-2 PM EST / 8-11 AM PST on Zoom

REGISTER HERE

This month on the Northern Spirit House Podcast Chaise speaks with Roy Arthur Blodgett. Roy is a naturalist and writer currently living in Jerusalem Valley, within the ancestral homeland of the Lake Miwok. In the episode they speak about the braid of the love of language with the love of the land, what the duty of the poet might be in these times, and the possibilities of becoming “of a place.”

Roy Arthur Blodgett is a naturalist and writer currently living in Jerusalem Valley, within the ancestral homeland of the Lake Miwok. His work explores the intersections of natural and cultural history, power and privilege, ancestry, memory, and human responsibility in the cosmos. Roy is a graduate of three years at Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, where he studied nature connection, social and environmental justice, permaculture, and traditional ecological knowledge, among other devotions. In addition to being a writer of poetry and prose, he is a certified wildlife tracker, master herpetologist, novice woodcarver, herpetoculturist, and an enamored apprentice to all that animates this world. He has self-published two chapbooks - Usal Beach to Ferndale (2015), and Soil and Shadow (2018, with Heavy Letters Press) - and has completed a third, Five Years, which is soon forthcoming. 

You can find Roy online at https://www.royarthurblodgett.com or on Instagram @roy_arthur

Greetings dear subscribers of the Northern Spirit House,

Andreas and myself are so grateful for the last 18 months we have shared here on substack. Your comments, engagement, submissions, and continuing of the work fill us with joy and keep wind in the sails when the seas of life get rocky. We are writing because we are going to turn on a paid subscriptions function of the substack. All essays, and our monthly podcast will remain free for all but in the coming months we will begin sending out essays on practical matters such as ritual development, spell-work, connecting with land-spirits, utiseta, and so much more. If you would like access to these practitioner invitations you can join us around the Hearth Fire. Any contribution supports the both of us to bring more life and energy to this work, as well as supports the thriving of both of our families.With deep gratitude, and spell-songs of blessing surrounding your life.

Simon Hodges has a lifelong love affair with both myth and non-duality - a combination he attempts to make sense of in his newsletter the Linden Bower.

He organises storytelling locally and for disadvantaged groups, and writes for a living. His work with story focuses on the electric contact possible between ourselves and the nature to sustain inspiration in a disordered world.

In our conversation, Simon takes us on a journey with a traditional story from Friesland in the Netherlands. We talk about how it amplified certain realisations at this stage of his life and contact with the intense wideness of Friesland.

We talked about wonder as the base camp of experience and how stories can return us to it.

For Episode 4 of the Northern Spirit House Podcast, Chaise sat down with Lien de Coster to speak about the practice of Utiseta. Lien is a Soul-centric Ceremonialist, Nature Connection Mentor, and Permaculturalist based on the West Coast of Sweden. Lien’s love of the landscape and story was born at the end of a cobblestone street in Flanders and has been a golden-thread leading her ever since. Through Leaves of Lien Lien is reviving the practice of ‘sitting out’ (Utiseta) as a vital pathway for those longing to become of place. As well as developing place-based grief rituals, pilgrimages, and soul-centered mentoring.

Lien’s upcoming Utiseta on the West Coast of Sweden is linked here:The Well of Memory: July 27th- August 5th

More info on this Winter’s Tears of Amber and Gold (a place-based grief ritual) can be found here:Tears of Amber and Gold

In today’s episode of the Northern Spirit House Podcast Tyler and Chaise dive into their thinking and practice with Techno-Animism 8 months on from the first dialogue. They muse on the core values of empathy, and dignity and the necessity of re-evaluating our value judgements on what is and is not animate.

In the second half of the conversation they take the theory into the realm of practice and speak about AI generated sigil magic, smart-phone magic, and the interpenetration of these seemingly “new” fields of practice and more traditional magical arts.

The whole conversation casts a weird-magic aimed directly at the human heart; moving us to widen the ontological frame and cooperate for the liberation of all beings.

References:Perelandra -Machaelle Small Wright

Animism: Respecting the Living World - Graham Harvey

Josephine McCarthy

Martín Prechtel

Sigil Witchery - Laura Tempest Zakroff

Laying the foundation for a second episode with Tyler Daneman, where we will discuss the use of AI in the casting of spells, generation of sigils, and experiments in channeling disembodied entities through chatbots we are re-sharing this conversation from last year on Techno-Animism. In a time that is marked with the increasing complexity of technologies, intelligent and otherwise, there are important questions to be asked about the animacy of these beings. Is our animism a stylish suit we can take on and off at will leaving out that which doesn’t fit with our values, or aesthetic tastes? Or indeed is it a much more troubling ontology that asks us to engage with the potential livingness, and undeniable agency of all things asking us to change not only how we think about Techne, but also how we practice and live with these beings.

Welcome to the Northern Spirit House Podcast. Our first guest is ritualist, scholar, and sanctuary of the strange Tyler Daneman. The dialogue covers much ground but weaves around the central node of Techno-Animism. What kind of world is possible when we engage with the beings of the world, including our technologies, acknowledging their aliveness?

Tyler points out that all beings must be fed, and in the absence of a ritual culture of feeding the Goddess Techne (Technology), we have ended up feeding of our time and attention. What kind of relationality might be possible if we offer technology a different kind of meal?

Tyler asks us all to step into the crucible of these hard questions in a time when AI, and proliferation of other technologies are being cast as the Grendel at the door of our humanity. With a heart and ethic of compassion what might happen if we invite Tech into the glow of fellowship, building a relationship of allyship and heart? It is truly a rich and bizarre alchemy.

https://holyoakdivination.com

On today’s episode Chaise speaks with Erik Ohlsen. Erik is a Permaculture teacher, an author, herbalist, storyteller, and practitioner of Nordic magical traditions. He is the founder of  Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center.

Since 2000 Erik has worked with the Reclaiming Tradition, mentored under a Swedish Galdrakarl gathering the living traditions of ancient Norse galdr and authentic rune lore and he has spent years mentored under a globally recognized teacher of a Nordic Magical Folk Tradition called Trolldom.

In their conversation they speak about building a magical practice that is centered on relationships. Particularly relationship with ancestors and relationship with the earth. We hope that you enjoy the episode.

References:To Speak for the Trees - Diana Beresford Kroeger

Trolldom

erikohlsen.com

Marcus McCoy

A student of plants since he was a child, Marcus R. McCoy holds a A student of plants since he was a child, Marcus R. McCoy holds a degree in Transpersonal Anthropology with a focus on the ethnobotany of magical plants. He is the progenitor of Bioregional Animism, and has published his works on the subject of plant teacher shamanry in Reality Sandwich. Marcus has also been published in Verdant Gnosis Volume 1, and is one of three editors of the book series. Marcus studied south american vegetalismo for many years, which is where he started his focus on perfumerismo. He is a professional perfumer and proprietor of House of Orpheus and alchemical practitioner, studying with Robert Bartlett. Marcus is also an established blacksmith and metal artist with special interest focusing on the occult art of herbal quenches working within the context of alchemical philosophy and folk magic. His smithy is called Troll Cunning Forge, and he produces custom made occult iron work for the occult community. Marcus is also a teacher of folk magic and has ongoing classes on the Botany of the Dead as well as the folklore of the magical projectile. He lives in the forests of the Olympic Mountain range in Washington with his lovely partner in the cunning crafts, Catamara Rosarium.

https://viridisgenii.com/symposium-organizers/

https://www.instagram.com/trollcunningforge?igsh=Z3l1eGI1eWVreGtz

This week on the Hagstone Podcast Chaise sat down with Nay Noordmans of House of Gnomi on Instagram to chat all things Gnomes. The conversation moves through topics of connection to place, the benefits of working from folklore to develop relationships with the ecology, and the ever present question are the Gnomes just mushrooms after all?References in the episode include:

* A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits by Paracelsus

* Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirit, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide by Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling

* Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch, Wolf-Dieter Storl

* The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications by Christian Rätsch

Nay recommends that anyone interested in all things gnome, and mycology check out the work of gnome_cunning on Instagram, especially the workshop they gave on Ghost Pipe Mushrooms at Viridis Genii Symposium this year. You can find a lecture recording here.You can find Nay’s work on instagram at @houseofgnomi

Josh Hroðgeir Rood is a researcher, musician, and Goði (Old Norse ritual performer) in Norway. His research, through the University of Iceland, specializes in Old Norse religion, its contemporary revival, as well as traditional and indigenous traditions as a whole. His research is a part of his spiritual conviction that Old Norse religion is still a relevant knowledge system in modern world, and he has dedicated his life to sharing that knowledge system through ritual, performance, lectures and workshops. He has performed ceremonies and given lectures across Europe, North America, and even Thailand. Rood is also a musician, and his main project is the Icelandic black metal band Nexion, which in many ways is also an expression of his convictions and beliefs. Rood has also been in bands such as the Nordic, World Music band Nebala, and has helped with lyric and translation work for musicians such as Kati Rán, and Kjell Braaten

Here we dive into a fascinating and an in-depth conversation - we speak of making and crafting rituals, the exciting beginnings of the old Norse religion and its many new expressions; plus singing galder and joik (and black metal).

A great session!

You can find Jósúa on Instagram: @eagleandtheash