Ep 68: Healing Magic - Zars and Ecstatic Dance

RJ and Elle explore the life and inventions of Wolfgang Von Kempelen. His speech making machine, the great great great great great great great grandfather of Hatsune Miku, and his wondrous "Mechanical Turk" A chess playing automaton that stunned the world by defeating Chess legends and world leaders.  RJ then reveals the Mechanical's turks secret and Elle discusses the implications. RJ does a brief overview of fortune telling arcade machines, such as Zoltar.RJ and Elle then venture to a nearby mall to consult a Zoltar machine for 2 readings.Support the show

Elle and RJ begin their coverage of Mechanomancy, divination by Machine. RJ discusses the life of John Murray Spear and his transition from the Unitarian faith into Spiritualism. RJ goes into detail about Spear's attempts to build a Mechanical Messiah that will usher in an age of New Motive Power. RJ an Elle recount their trip to San Francisco to the Musee Mecanique where RJ acquired a vintage Zoltar reading. Elle interprets the reading on the card. Support the show

RJ and Elle continue their coverage of bug magic. RJ discusses maggot therapy and its historical uses. RJ then discusses the demon known as Beelzebub aka The Lord of the Flies. After a quick diversion into the origins of Pokemon, RJ brings up the Kodoku spell and draws a comparison between the two. Elle and RJ then travel into the mountains and Elle turns over some rocks and logs to perform and Entomancy reading for Jana.Support the show

RJ and Elle recount their experiences with  spiders and RJ discusses the history of spiders in mythology. RJ recounts Ovid's story of Arachne and reads an anthropologists recorded Anansi story. RJ and Elle then discuss the arachnomancy readings that are currently popular in West Africa. RJ and Elle then find a black widow spider  and Elle divines a question for Christon using the web.Support the show

This is an episode written by Elle Alder and presented to RJ Walker. Elle leads the audience through a guided meditation or astro-travel ceremony of a Zar - a healing magic ceremony that comes from the geographical region of the horn of Africa. The surprise modern take of this ritual is Elle taking RJ for an afternoon of Ecstatic Dance. RJ is delighted by the number of willing interviewees and finds a wide range of reasons for people doing this Sunday Ritual of dance. Thank you to the Utah Arts Alliance and the Art's Castle.Elle and RJ give the thumbs up to Ecstatic Dance. Visit the Lady's Literary club in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sundays to visit, participate, or experience. Support the show

RJ and Elle continue their coverage of Geomancy, earth magic. RJ describes the Harmonic Convergence event that took place in 1987 around the world. RJ also describes the history of Sedona's magical "vortexes" that are rumored to amplify spiritual and psychic energies. Elle then re-performs the readings for Christopher Fox Graham's kids. The readings coincide with their ancient greek namesakes and Elle uses Astragalomancy to add clarification to the reading.  Support the show

RJ and Elle begin their coverage of Geomancy, divination using the Earth. RJ goes into the history of Ley Lines and how these debunked theories have continued to this day. RJ describes the Earth Mysteries movement and the beginnings of the New Age movement and teases the Harmonic Convergence event that helped put Sedona Arizona on the map. Elle and RJ describe their journey to a Sedona Vortex and RJ admits that he messed up the recording at the Vortex and Elle re-records the reading she performed for Lewis using Geomancy and adding an Astragalomancy reading for clarification.  Support the show

RJ and Elle continue their coverage of hexes. RJ discusses the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's supposed hexing of the Nazis during WW2. Elle weighs in on hexes as liberation. RJ discusses the recent history of Hexes for political action. RJ and Elle discuss the 1960's and 70's political group known as WITCH. They then discuss the recent hexing of Brett Kavenaugh. Elle then provides information on how to perform a hex on oneself to excise internalized hatred. Support the show

Mancy returns to kick off a new season! Hexes, magic intended to do harm. RJ dives into the Powow magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch and explains the disambiguation between their brand of hex magic what is commonly accepted as a hex or curse. Elle reads hexes from a grimoire and RJ attempts to use one of the hexes to cure hir chronic headaches. RJ discusses the history of the nithing curse, odinism, and the volkish movement. Elle weighs in on the magic battles practitioners can sometimes engage in. Elle hexes a person who left a racist message in an immersive art exhibit. Support the show

RJ and Elle continue their discussion of Seances live at the UAA Art Castle. RJ goes over the biography of Cora Scott, a medium and notable organizer in the spiritualist movement. He discusses fraud psychics, and the debunkers. RJ goes over the history of The Ghost Club and the Society for Psychical Research or SPR. The drama between spiritualists and skeptics. And also the drama between skeptics and other skeptics that continues to this day. Support the show