Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I’m joined by folklorist and writer Icy Sedgwick to celebrate the release of her new book Bring Me Love — a deep dive into the strange, beautiful, and sometimes unsettling traditions of love magic.We begin by talking about why it might make the perfect gift for lovers of folklore and the esoteric. From there, our conversation wanders through centuries of romantic divination, courtship rituals, and charm magic, including dumb cakes, St Mark’s Eve rituals, wishing wells, and the curious payments once made to fairies.Icy explains how love charms were passed down orally, how mistakes became tradition, and why simple, material-free magic was often the most powerful. She explains everyday divination with cheese, eggs, and household objects, and looks into deep connections between plants, flowers, and courtship — from yarrow and hemp seed spells to the Victorian language of flowers and the dangerous allure of the mandrake.We also venture into darker territory, with stories of poppets, sympathetic magic, and unsettling historical love spells, alongside more playful customs like shoe-throwing for marriage, Valentine’s bird omens, and cowslip divination games.In the Plus show we continue with Poppets, cartomancy and magic to stop one's lover straying. We also get into Icy's other work on ghostlore from around the world. And Icy tells me about her upcoming projects exploring Northumberland’s rich mythic landscape.It’s a wide-ranging, thoughtful, and often humorous conversation about love, magic, and the human need to seek connection — whether through flowers, charms, spirits, or superstition.Show notes:Get the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bring-Me-Love-Finding-Divination/dp/1786789744/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0
Icy's Books: https://www.icysedgwick.com/books/
Fabulous Folklore Podcast: https://pod.co/fabulous-folklore-with-icy
Icy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick
Icy's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ladyicypopKeep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason

In this episode of Spirit Box, I’m joined by researcher and author Judith Dillon for a deep conversation about runes, alphabets, and the hidden patterns behind magical and divinatory traditions.We talk about Judith’s latest book 'Futhark Rune Mysteries, Origins of Magic and Divination in the Primal Alphabet' on the mysteries of the Germanic runes and trace their roots back to ancient Semitic alphabets and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Along the way, we explore how early writing systems, oracle traditions, and symbolic templates share remarkable similarities across cultures — from Celtic tree lore and tarot to nursery rhymes and sacred texts.Focusing on the first four runes, Judith unpacks their mythological, magical, and life-cycle symbolism, showing how they map stages of human development, healing, and spiritual transformation. She also shares fascinating insights into how ancient systems preserved meaning through precise positioning and pattern, even as languages evolved — including the remarkable history of the Hebrew Torah script.We move through mystery traditions, underworld myths, celestial cycles, and the enduring power of symbolic order in human culture, reflecting on why these ancient systems still matter today.This is a thoughtful and illuminating conversation for anyone interested in runes, esotericism, ancient knowledge systems, and the deep architecture of meaning behind our oldest symbols.Show notes:https://www.innertraditions.com/futhark-rune-mysteriesKeep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason

In this episode of Spirit Box, I sit down with Chad Andro, host of the podcast Radical Elphame, to talk about his journey into witchcraft, animism, and the search for right relation while living inside an imperial system. Chad reflects on an early entheogenic awakening and his eventual move away from chaos magic toward traditional witchcraft, fairy lore, and a more primal, land-rooted practice shaped by initiation rather than belief.

We explore animal encounters as genuine moments of spiritual threshold—bears appearing during ritual, deer as initiators, and the presence of wolves, foxes, and owls in magical work. Our conversation moves through symbolism, shamanic experience, and the difficulty of maintaining spiritual seriousness in a modern, distracted world. We also reflect on what it means to practise witchcraft beyond self-improvement, and how magic can force a reckoning with fear, responsibility, and moral consequence.

In the Plus episode, our conversation turns to Chad’s work as a winemaker and his experience of creating talismanic wine as offerings. Chad explains how wine, intention, labour, and land become inseparable in devotional magic, and shares the thinking behind a recent occult-focused wine release designed to be worked with rather than collected.

From there, we move into podcasting and writing as acts of discipline and devotion, Chad’s Substack work, and the writers currently shaping his thinking, including Lee Morgan’s A Deep Without Name. We end by talking frankly about empire, exhaustion, and the uneasy possibility that real transformation—personal and collective—may only come through collapse, and what it means to try to remain in right relation as that process unfolds.
Show notes:
Chad on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radicalelphame/
Chad's substack: https://thefoliatehead.substack.com
A deed without a name: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/deed-without-a-name-a-unearthing-the-legacy-of-traditional-witchcraft-book-lee-morgan-9781780995496?sku=GOR006392626
Radical Elphame podcast

Keep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason