Celebrate love this Valentine’s Day with a retelling of Apuleius’ “Cupid & Psyche” by Josephine Preston Peabody. When a princess rivals the goddess of beauty, Venus sends her son Cupid to punish her for her charms. But when Cupid’s arrow strikes himself, he falls in love and protects her from the wrath of his mother in a royal home where she is treated like a goddess herself although never seeing this prophesied “creature” who is now her husband. When her sisters visit, in their jealousy they poison her mind against Cupid and she looks upon him while he sleeps, breaking the peace they had together and leaving her alone. Heartbroken, Psyche tries to find him and is set trials by Venus to gain the goddess’ favor and her lost husband back again. How will a mortal maid fare against the goddess of love and beauty? If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify or our various social accounts! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
“A Christmas Ghost Story” by an unknown author is a tale much like the Dickens classic. A miserly old man heads to bed on Christmas Eve only to find himself face to face with a ghost who offers him all the gold he could wish for-which comes with a hard price to look back on his life’s mistakes. He cannot undo the past, but perhaps he can learn from the bitterness he sewed along the way. ***Content Warning*** While in the tradition of Victorian ghost stories for Christmastime, this tale does stray into some darker territory with suicide. This can be a hard time of year for all regardless of what you celebrate, so we wanted to share a friendly heartfelt reminder that if you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal ideations, help is available with someone you can talk to today at 800-273-8255. Be gentle with yourself, and remember to reach out if you need some support this dark winter season. If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify or our various social accounts! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
“October in the Chair” by Neil Gaiman is a dark and whimsical tale. What do the months of the year do to harken the change of their time? Why tell stories, of course! And with October in the chair, you know it’ll be something to give you a bit of a shiver. Special thanks to Neil Gaiman for his affirmative tweet giving our lowly little podcast permission to read one of his works. Neil Gaiman is the much beloved author of such great pieces as The Sandman, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and frankly too many amazing works for us to even begin to list off. This particular tale is from his collection of Short Fiction, Fragile Things. You can find him readily enough on Twitter (as you may have guessed) or find out more at www.neilgaiman.com. If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify or our various social accounts! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
“Madam Lucifer” by Richard Garnett is a bit of a divergence in our tales of fairy and nature, offering a peek into the whimsical fantasy realm from his classic, The Twilight of the Gods, written in 1903. Lucifer sits with Man, playing chess for his soul when, hearing his lament for his beloved, decides to keep her company. Smitten upon sight with Adeliza, he gets it into his head to marry, but to do so would have to leave Madam Lucifer and lose his dominion over Pandemonium...what’s a devil to do? If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
On this special episode for Salem Daughters of Darkness Festival, we have created a virtual wander through the woods to go along with our tale. To celebrate the dark and strange, we chose “She” by Allison Carr Waechter for our tale. Listen on to this queer and dark tale of a curious entity taking over the body of another. A tale that brings us the fey strangeness of changeling tales and the wild feral nature of Other. Join us on YouTube to enjoy the visualizer that accompanies this episode or stick around here for the audio. Allison Carr Waechter, is the author of Vessel of Starfire, the debut novel in the Outlaws of Interra trilogy. Follow her work and sign up for her newsletter at www.allisoncarrwaechter.com for news of upcoming tales. And for more information on The Way of Thorn & Key, please visit their Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewayofthornandkey We hope you take some time to check out Salem Daughters of Darkness’ virtual festival this weekend! Please visit www.salemdaughtersofdarkness.com to visit the vendor’s websites and the other great virtual programming! If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
A special diversion from the normal stories this week, we have a journey into the woods for you to read two brilliant poems by Tom Hirons. “Sometimes a Wild God” and “The Worship of Place” both speak to our relationship with nature both in a feral and wild sense as we have, many of us, become domesticated things and also to the awe of the sacred beauty of the world around us. It was an absolute delight to read and perform these poems, and a special thanks again to Tom for giving us permission to read his works! Tom Hirons was born and raised on the Suffolk-Norfolk border in East Anglia, but lived in Scotland for almost twenty years before gravitating to Dartmoor in the Southwest of England. Tom has been storytelling publicly for over 15 years and writing for much longer. He now teaches storytelling for Hedgespoken and has been known to mentor a writer or two. Tom hopes his work provokes you into a deeper relationship with this marvellous world, or sings a remembering song to you, or inspires some kind of cathartic fit that takes you home via the stars… There's much to lament and grieve, and much to be angry about and take action against, but to be alive is an incredible thing. We do not know when death or disaster will take us, so let us live fully while we may and nourish the web of life around us as much as we possibly can. To learn more about Tom you can visit his website at www.tomhirons.com or Hedgespoken Press to pick up some of his works at www.hedgespokenpress.com If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: www.oldgrowthalchemy.com www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: www.joesabourin.com
“Ecdysis” is retelling of Rapunzel from Christina Rosso’s She is a Beast. What if the damsels in distress you read of in fairy tales, those ladies in waiting of a prince to come, were a bit more beastly and self-reliant than you thought? After being locked in a tower and sold out to lusty suitors, Rapunzel decides to take matters into her own hands through blade and escape from the Enchantress that has locked her away for so many years. Content Warning: This episode mentions rape and sexual brutality. Christina Rosso-Schneider lives and writes in South Philadelphia with her rescue pup, Atticus Finch, and bearded husband, Alex. Together they run an independent bookstore and event space called A Novel Idea on Passyunk. She is a Beast is her first book and you can order your own copy from their website www.anovelideaphilly.com and visit Christina’s website for more information about her and her works at www.christina-rosso.com If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on...
“Little Wildrose” is a Romanian folktale that was collected by Andrew Lang in his Crimson Fairy Book but otherwise given no authorial identification. We love this tale for its little bits of absurdism that you find weaving their way in and out of folk stories, especially where the narrator has a little bit of cheek. Wildrose is a girl “born” of longing and a bitten apple who grows up in an eagle’s nest only to be spotted by a prince and longed for so badly, the emperor calls for a place at court for anyone who can bring her to him. An old woman through feigning ignorance of physics tricks her from the nest, showing us that if you want a perfect beautiful woman, just look to the tops of trees. If you’ve been enjoying our tales, give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify! To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: www.widdershinsstories.com Support us on Ko-Fi to help us keep the podcast running! www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on As...
You have returned home after a long day and take off your rain sodden boots, for now it's time to wind down in the study. Settle in with some books from your personal library stacks and while away the evening as the rain pours down over roof and windowpane. In the other room, you overhear the hushed sounds of your reclusive neighbor gently playing their guitar like a personal concert just for you. Brew a cup of tea, light your candles, and let the cloak of night richly settle upon your shoulders. This is the first in a series of Aural Narratives by Widdershins Stories. With audio performances by Ashley Nunez on quill, parchment, and books and Joe Sabourin on guitar and sound engineering. To learn more about Widdershins, please visit: https://www.widdershinsstories.com To help us keep the podcast running and to craft more aural narratives, support us on Ko-Fi: https://www.ko-fi.com/widdershinsstories For more information on Ashley, please visit: https://www.oldgrowthalchemy.com https://www.patreon.com/oldgrowthalchemy For more information on Joe, please visit: https://www.joesabourin.com
“The Maiden-Tree” by Catherynne M. Valente is a dark look at the classic Sleeping Beauty. What attraction does a spinning wheel have to a sixteen year old girl? What comes from a hundred years kept preserved after the first blood soaked stab of the needle? The prince is not really coming, at least not for what you think he wants. And really, who is to say what happens when the briars take over the castle and are hungry for more? Take care that the roses don’t take you too. CW: this episode contains descriptions of body horror Catherynne M. Valente is the New York Times bestselling author of forty works of speculative fiction and poetry, including Space Opera, The Refrigerator Monologues, Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, Deathless, Radiance, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making (and the four books that followed it). She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with a small but growing menagerie of beasts, some of whi...