Episode 47: The Feast of Saint Collen
Merry month of May, dear Golgoths! Our exploration of the merriment and mysteries of the icumen Sum(m)er has us wending through woods and water this time for the Feast of St Collen, banisher of fairies, and slayer of at least one giantess.
Our Demoness for this episode is Sybilia, tracing the folk necromantic path of this fairy and her namesakes from ancient oracular priestesses to medieval enchantress to appearances in early modern rites of conjuration.
Our Herb this time is the cardiac medicament and toxin Foxglove, discussing the dead that shelter in buds and bells, the onomastics of foxes and the Fair Folk, and the duality of Venus and Saturn this plant presents.
The Mineral of the hour is Malachite, considering its soft mallow-green mysteries of protection both of children and from accidents, and how we may prosper by its virtues.
Our Magic is Holy Wells, those watering holes of old pagan land-ways re-dressed as saintly sites; whereby we talk mythic springs, Roman baths, and wisht-water protocols.
Our Beast is the Stag, and we pay homage to their crowns of branches, eerie grace, antipathies against serpents and poisons, and the lore of hunting and being-hunted.
Our Daysign just so happens to be Mazatl (Deer), by which we continue to consider how to stalk success, avoid becoming prey, and the tonalli of the rain-making deity Tlaloc.
Our Figure is Conjunctio, whereby we explore the geomancy of crossroads, cross-hairs, and both opened and closed roads ahead; counterparting its European geomantic lessons with those of the Odu Iwori Meji in both Diloggun’s shells and Ifa’s kola nuts.
Our Tarot is the Two of Pentacles, and indeed the Two of Coins in Spanish cartomancy, juggling lemniscates of both Earthy change and Fiery interactivity.
Our Dead Magician (or perhaps Undying Enchantress) is Morgan Le Fay: paying homage to a veritable fairy-host of shifting tales and traditions of re-tellings to chart this sorceress-goddess’s proposed roots in Celtic mythology, her changing role and characterization in Arthurian romances, the Italian mirages named after her, and her decidedly un-Christian patronages of demonology and nigromancy.
We hope you enjoy these sojourns into the quenched heats of the approaching Solstice for hunting-party-favours and fateful fancies!