The Frightful Howls You May Hear

Sfinga leads the gang through the spiraling words and worlds of Near Eastern incantation bowls. Rife with the poetics of exorcism and courtly judgement, and populated with a cast of satans, liliths, "no-good-ones", and the gods, angels, and even rabbis who bind them, this episode considers the cunning of the Syriac and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic genres of bowl texts—and extrapolates on the sorcerou...

The gang follows up on Episode 6: Scrying the Spirits with a miscellany of tips and tricks for beginner and veteran readers alike, marking the second installment in the recurring series of practical insights to sorcery informed by their direct experiences. The Dragon, Wolf, and Owl chime in on the importance of not over-divining, thoughts on the limits of knowledge and communication, the role of s...

B. Key delights us with a tour into all things Schrat: an ambiguous and exquisitely folkloric category of spirits hailing from nature, the hearth and home, and from the devil's own collection of souls to imbue manmade creations with life alike. Traversing through German, Dutch, and Estonian folklore, Key navigates through the winding paths of the Schrat and their related keepers and allies to ask...

Witches love a forked stick and a holed stone! Sfinga and B. Key explore our favourite of companions, the eggs, eyes, and spines of serpents, the wounds and sighs of the stars, the vigour and descent of the gods: hagstones. Featuring lore from the British, Germanic, and Slavic sources, this episode considers some of the general folklore on these most potent of allies, and teases much to come in fu...

In a turn for the practical, Salt contextualizes the Renaissance worldview behind the sensory perception of spirits within the Western philosophical tradition, while B. Key gives us some hard-won insights into developing mediumship. The first in a (hopefully, extensive!) series on spirit perception across cultures (and scrying specifically in multiple grimoiric and folk contexts), this episode lay...

Sfinga and B. Key tackle this week's episode together to examine the Official Goodest Boy, St. Guinefort. Reflecting on their shared love of canine magic, the Dragon and Owl explore the origins of St. Guinefort's veneration, his predecessors in the field of folklore studies, and the litany of saints and sorceries coalescing around the heliacal rising of Sirius. Support us on patreon.com/TheFrightf...

Taking a brief intermission from our folkloric deep-dives, B. Key conjures a Pride month special on the wild and hilarious life of Tom Driberg: journalist, gossip columnist, poet, communist, Member of Parliament, possible spy, friend of Aleister Crowley, bacchanalian socialite, and gay icon. What would a necromancy of the Right Honourable Lord Bradwell, Chairman of the Labour Party look like—and w...

The first installment in a recurring theme across the podcast: shapeshifters and witchcraft! Sfinga starts us off with a survey of some of the folklore surrounding weretigers in India, China, and Southeast Asia. People who become tigers, tigers who become people, tigers as mercurial shamans and blood-sucking witches alike, an early pandemic Joe Exotic throwback, and much more. Support us on patreo...

Salt explores a sample of the historical roots of the connection between grimoiric conjuration and ritual exorcism. Focusing on antiquity in particular, he takes us through a journey of the relationships inherent in exorcism: hierarchies of divine beings, messenger spirits, and the coercion and supplication of spiritual powers by priests and magicians alike. The gang also shares a few personal acc...

Sfinga leads us through an exploration of toad witches and the toad bone rite, horse jading, East Anglian self-initiations into witchcraft, and the Society of the Horseman's Grip and Word. Key wrestles with his past Chumbley phase, Salt delights us with his accents, and Sfinga manages to bring it all back to dragons once again. Support us on  patreon.com/TheFrightfulHowls  and follow us...

Welcome to The Frightful Howls You May Hear! Join Sfinga, Salt, and B. Key of the "With Cunning and Command" blog on a journey through folklore, witchcraft, grimoires, and plenty of sorcerous experimentation. In this preview, our hosts introduce the show and give a taste of the kinds of topics to come. Support us on patreon.com/TheFrightfulHowls and follow us at twitter.com/FrightfulHowls .