Episode 45: The Feast of Saint Patrick

Welcome Golgothers to our forty-fifth episode, celebrating the Feast of St Patrick with a plethora of serpentine slitherings! Saint Patrick – apostle of Ireland, bane of serpents, shamrock evangelist, bearer of the hymnal breastplate, and reviver of the dead – affords us hagiographic discussion of shifting depictions of this saint and receptions of his impact, “All Snakes Day”, and what-even-is-Celtic. Our Demon is Apep, opening up conversation about when a cosmic force is “demonic”, as well as considerations of embodying darkness, depicting the cyclopean, eating souls, and how nothing burns like an effigy. Our Herb is Clover, prompting consideration of leaf-numerology, lucky anti-venoms, gardening for happy marriage and home-protection, and the myriad tiny fortunes of the fields. Our Mineral is Coral, the branching blood of Gorgons, whereby we consider teething-charms, magical lightning-insurance, the pater de sang, and valuable early modern lapidary medicine. Our Beast is the Basilisk, wending our heraldic way firmly into mythological zoology to survey stone-breaking noxious breath, the optics of the scorching gaze, and how to even study a monstrous animal who petrifies its observers. Our Daysign is, of course, Coatl (Snake), unwinding discussion of both the feathered serpent deity Quetzalcoatl and Chalchihuitlicue, goddess-force of running water and oceans, to consider the humility of how rivers change-without-changing and how to make the most of the fleeting without succumbing to short-term self-interest. Our Figure is Tristitia, Sorrow, through whose dim cloudy hollows we consider anxiety, fateful lots of disappointing events, and anti-melancholy regimens; counterparting these lessons with those of the Odu Okana Meji in corpuses of Traditional African and Afro-Diasporic wisdom. Our Tarot is the Ace of Swords, by which we analyse analytical faculties themselves, the mysticism of blades in ceremonial magic, and take in the grounded mysteries of this card in Spanish cartomancy. Our Dead Magician is none other than Faust himself; surveying both the historical evidence and legendary tales of this soul-bargaining conjuror, the character of Mephistopheles, and indeed the Germanic milieu and folk necromantic methodologies of the Faustian grimoires ascribed to his patronage. Whether shedding old skin or harkening to the hisses of old cunning ways, we hope you enjoy listening to this snaking episode as much as we did conjuring it into being by the forked tongues of our two-headed banter.