Desert Oracle Radio

The reality of knowing the wild animals on your land is knowing that they generally live on an accelerated timeline. The new crop of Mojave cottontails and rock squirrels each spring will shrink to one or two lucky buddies by late summer, with the rest succumbing to reckless road crossings and red-tail hawks and rattlesnakes . . . the local ravens feasting on the remains, if there are any. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Hosted and written by Ken Layne. Broadcasting Friday nights on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the High Desert, from Amboy to Zyzxx. Thanks for supporting this show at Patreon.com/DesertOracleSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The maniac who blew himself up outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic is our latest High Desert dingbat to make the national news. Luckily, the four (or five?) injured in the Palm Springs terror attack have been treated and released from the hospital. But who bombs fertility clinics? Meet America's worst new subculture, the violent anti-natalists. With geographically relevant soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve run around the breathtaking Eastern Sierra, you know Crowley Lake, and Crowley Point, and maybe even the rare Crowley Lupine of the Sierra’s Eastern slope. All three are named in honor of Father John J. Crowley, the Padre of the Desert. His heroic life and tragic death are remembered on this very Catholic episode of Desert Oracle Radio, with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s how the Channel 12 news in Phoenix began the story, Thursday night on the 10 o’clock news: “God sent that dog to rescue my son.” Words spoken by the 2-year-old boy’s father, Corey Allen, outside the family’s home on the west side of rural Seligman, Arizona. Corey Allen says he was working on the roof, Sarah Allen was inside with their one-year-old. And two-year-old Bodin Allen went outside to play. But when Bodin Allen’s mom called for him, he didn’t answer. He wasn’t there. And after an hour of frantic searching, as the sky darkened, the Allens called the Yavapai Sheriff’s Department and before long there were dozens of search-of-rescue volunteers and deputies searching the area. Helicopters with spotlights scoured the plateau, the pilots reporting two mountain lions prowling the territory. The search went on all night, and by morning the news of the missing boy had been announced by the Sheriff’s Department and broadcast by the local news, spread around by neighbors and radio and the Internet — so that a rancher named Scotty Dunton, seven long miles away in the backcountry to the west, had already heard before he got in his pickup and headed to town about 7:30 a.m. And saw his big old ranch dog, Buford the Anatolian Pyrenees, coming up the dirt driveway with a blond-headed toddler by his side. A blond-headed toddler in dirty pajamas, eyes red from crying and with a few scratches from the high-desert brush on one arm and his face, but otherwise alive and well.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a cool & pleasant springtime in the Mojave High Desert. The hummingbirds are lingering on the branches of creosote and catclaw, looking around for the flowers. Where are the flowers? Well, that’s always the guessing game up here, isn’t it? Sometimes they’re evident by the end of March, sometimes it’s the beginning of May. Varies by terrain, by altitude, by a hundred little differences from spring to spring, in this forward motion of our lives. ALSO: Traveling Doc Holliday's West. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Ides of March, happy St. Patrick’s Day, and happy five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown — the beginning of it anyway: 15 days to slow the spread . . . not a great slogan, for what it cost, but that’s what we got. Much of the world is much the same as it was five years ago. Same iPhone, same president, same daylight savings time. Where did the lockdown time go? What did it do to us? Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free broadcast at Patreon.com/DesertOracle. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2024 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Night has fallen on the desert, the desert spring is here, and that means the bugs are coming back, and that means we’ll be seeing a lot more of our beloved desert friend, the wonderful wonderful Cactus Wren. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2025Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A winter storm cut loose from the mountains, the cold wind whipping around the creosote, rain dripping down through the swamp-cooler vent: 2025 came in like a Lion and it’s the Year of the Snake. We’ve got both out here, in the Mojave Wilderness. Mountain lions, or cougars. And snakes, too, although it’s still a bit early to see our reptile friends up here at 4,000 feet elevation. (Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne.) Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2025 Patreon.com/DesertOracle DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a cold, cold night in the wind-blasted desert, and we hear there's snow a-comin', can't come soon enough. Listen to the harrowing sounds of the 1961 Bel Air Fire, prepare for Mojo Nixon's anniversary (of death), and join us in remembering our favorite Intermountain West surrealist, the late great David Lynch. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Suitable for some families. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2025 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another wild and windy night in these first strange days and nights of our new year. We are monitoring the infernos & catastrophes, but also celebrating the creation of Chuckwalla National Monument in the vast weird desert east of Coachella, all the way to the Colorado River. Plus: A phone call from our High Desert pal Herbie Benham, and soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2025 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've heard some weird news about Saint Nicholas that turns out to be a few years old, but that's all right. Christmas itself is old news, after all. That’s why we love it, because it’s ancient and beautiful, the time for silent walks in the cold night, just the sound of your boots crunching through the snow, the half-moon glowing through the Joshua trees. Plus: Which phrases and words shall be banned in the new year? And: Seasonal soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show at Patreon.com/DesertOracle. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2024 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it Thanksgiving time already? Well let's pack up the car and head out to Joshua Tree, everybody's favorite Thanksgiving destination if they live exactly three hours away and don't have anywhere else to go. Plus: What are the ravens up to now? Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2024 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are releasing this Halloween 2023 Patreon-only episode from the vaults on this All Hallows Eve 2024: Nearly two hours of live campfire stories from the Mojave High Desert's neighborhood saloon, The Tiny Pony, told around the fire on a cold, cold October night. For more bonus episodes, a growing library of radio scripts, and general support for this advertising-free storytelling radio show from Joshua Tree, please join us at Patreon.com/DesertOracle.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Hallowtide, the three-day festival of the Dead and their various souls & spirits. Tonight we are riding down the nocturnal highway, listening to ghosts of times past crackling through the car-radio speakers. With new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this commercial-free show at http://patreon.com/desertoracle.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Be not a-feared of our yearly remembrance of the dead, of ghostly visits from our beloved and maybe not-so-beloved relations and ancestors. Know Death as an old friend who always eventually comes around, for you and everyone else. If your belief in the immortality of the soul is secure, do not shudder and sputter over the enjoyment of pumpkins and haystacks and comical gravestones made of scrap wood and whitewash. It's October, as long as you ignore the weather, and that means it's time for spooky tales on Desert Oracle Radio.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you heard what the "green energy" corporations are doing to the Great Basin Desert, with your government's approval, on your public lands? The plan is to cover the pristine basin-and-range interior of Nevada with industrial electricity factories over endless thousands of acres of desert woodland. And the people who should be out protesting this, chaining themselves to the desert trees marked for annihilation, etc., well they don't really care. Because they've been told  "environmentalism" now means destroying the last wild places in America, the last wild landscapes, so a fly-by-night solar corporation can get free land to scrape clean, free from the U.S. government. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forest ranger, park ranger, Navy sailor, lumberjack, and cowboy — those were some of the jobs Stanley Jones worked before accidentally becoming a movie actor and composer of classic western music. PLUS: Weird Annie had a bunch of weird raven children. Deus Pascit Corvus. New sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A summertime tour through "strange and weird places," where they held their annual rituals. This is Episode #228. It's on the level.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know the current (?) president's Quiet Quitting (via Twitter) on this Sunday in July was foretold by an astrologer on Twitter, two weeks prior? That's no lie, and you can check it for yourself. The same seer predicted, back in August 2020, that the current vice president would be the party's nominee in 2024, because it coincides with the VP's Second Saturn Return. Which is also hitting your Desert Oracle Radio host right about now. This is an Emergency Broadcast about Prophecy & Portents, with astrologically appropriate soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does one do, in these bunker days of summer? Too hot to work, too hot to think, too hot to sleep, and time is running away. When it's too hot to walk the dog at night, you know you've made a tactical error in life: You're in the Mojave, in July, in yet another historic heat wave.  Well, sit yourself down beneath the swamp cooler vent, and get yourself a cold beverage, and enjoy this mid-July episode with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this program on our Patreon.com/desertoracle page.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight we are celebrating the full moon and summer solstice, because it's a midsummer night's dream in the desert. Which means we're halfway to winter solstice, and only three months & change 'til Halloween. Maybe that's why we're talking about Puck of Pook Hill and homemade cranberry sauce. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, who has a Bandcamp site worth your attention! And thanks for supporting this radio program via Patreon.com/desertoracle . Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2022 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's hot as hell and we're throwing everything in the hobo stew tonight: Desert-animal antics, Wild West extravaganzas, history's mysteries, William Shatner shot up into space, etc., etc. The soundscapes are by RedBlueBlackSilver and the rest is by your host & underpaid mail-order professional, Ken Layne. This is Episode #224, Slumgullion Stew.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Public-land managers in the US Southwest seem determined to drive the pinyon jay to extinction. A half-century attack on pinyon & juniper high-desert woodland has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations just in the past 50 years. You can take action, and the Pinyon Juniper Alliance is a good place to start. The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest feeds and houses this crucial blue crow. Of the thousands of pinyon nuts the blue crow puts away for the winter, usually working with its mate and both returning to the spot throughout the year to store or collect, the few pine nuts left behind grow into new pinyons, expanding the reach of the woodland. More woodland means more wildlife, more carbon-breathing conifers, more precious Western water stored in the ground, more wildlife corridors that connect mule deer and desert bighorn and mountain lions along mountain and valley to vast zones of wilderness.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight we're talking ravens, fishes & loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire's State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel Mark are all involved, whether they like it or not. (And the "Bible Friends" podcast mentioned on this episode can be found here.) Thanks for listening to the show, and for supporting the show via our Patreon page or at our online store, DesertOracle.com.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work, challenges, or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans.  This adventure took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert plants along with several other botanists on the expedition — including C.C. Parry, namesake of Parry's Nolina. The work was so pleasing to Bigelow that he readily accepted similar appointments as field botanist in some of America's wildest lands. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2022 http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mariposa Grove was a sacred grove for millennia before it became part of the Yosemite Grant, lovingly tended by Yosemite Guardian Galen Clark for more than a quarter century. Sacred groves and forests are protected for their spiritual and ecological importance. Such groves are found today throughout India (home of more than a million holy forests), Japan (many thousands of chinju no mori surrounding Shinto temples), and Ethiopia (35,000 primal forests circling Ethiopian Orthodox churches).  Sacred groves protect many rare, threatened, and endemic species of plants and animals, and are often the last stand of ancient forest in a community. Biodiversity thrives within these sanctified nature preserves, while festivals dating back to antiquity provide people with a deep and lasting connection to their culture, religious practices, folklore and history. Learn more about Galen Clark from the National Park Service.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this Easter weekend, let's do our best to bring back the ghosts, the supernatural. Let us recognize and respect the mysterious entities that come not from some imagined, distant star system in the cold lifeless vacuum of space, but from right here where we experience them! Backroads, mountains, spooky desert trails at dusk. Jesus loved wilderness and often talked to ghosts, after all. And that's something people of any philosophy can enjoy.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pyramids of Guinness 12-packs at our High Desert grocery stores reminded us of St. Patrick's Day coming up, but the grey cloudy skies and green hillsides of the Mojave Desert this month are reminders that the old pagan tales are with us still, wherever the landscape is haunted and strange. And that supernatural entities always gather in their ancient homes: wild forests, dramatic outcropping of rock, and any lonesome place whipped by the winter winds.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The storms continue, the wildflowers begin to appear, and Chantel our PCT through-hiker probably made it to the Canadian border without any kind of Mountain Monster getting her, which is good. Also: What is the Voice of the Desert? New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written and hosted by Ken Layne.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nothing is sacred unless we set it aside as sacred. As Americans rapidly abandon organized religion — and the formerly sanctified church and temple sites go up for sale as designer homes — where are the places that are truly sacred? The places set aside for contemplation, meditation, festivals, the rituals of life?  There ain't much. Not nearly enough. But that can be fixed. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at Patreon.com/desertoracle.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where's the beautiful part, anyway? Well, start by walking about a mile past the last parking lot or dirt road or residential car-parts dump or informal halfway house or accidental pit-bull breeding farm, and keep going in the direction of the difficult terrain: the hills and the mountains and the boulders. Not the hills covered in radio relay towers, but the ones with nothing up there at all, nothing except more boulders, more spiky yucca trees that slash your arms, gnarled junipers and needle-armed Joshua trees, up to the craggy peak where the stately pinyons stand proud. Keep going that way. On the second half of the program, Patrick Donnelly — here's his Sand & Sage newsletter — from the Center for Biological Diversity returns to Desert Oracle Radio to talk about an international land grab dreamt up by a local commissioner in Lincoln County, Nevada, along with the nation of Denmark, which plans to destroy centuries-old forests of pinyon and juniper on your public lands to mush into "bio-fuel" for container ships. What?! New soundscapes from RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & produced by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well here's an episode that fits with the past couple of episodes, as your host Ken Layne dredges up some tales from too many decades as a writer & whatever else. We got our newspaper/podcaster pal Matt Welch on the line to talk about the turn-of-the-century sensation that got everybody very excited for a little while: Weblogs! It sort of became a long career for a lot of people, and many have never quite recovered. We'd like to think that we recovered just fine. (Back to the desert on our next episode, don't worry.)Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our old friend and mentor Mojo Nixon passed away this week, after playing a blistering set of rock 'n roll for his fans aboard a hillbilly cruise ship. Tonight, we remember the showman, songwriter and deejay who was a towering figure in American underground culture for a long, long time. RIP Mojo Nixon. With soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight we go back three decades, to the strange time when a California newspaper hired a New England psychic to find a little girl who vanished in North San Diego County. This is a a true tale by your host, Ken Layne, who was one of the newspaper reporters working on this mysterious case, along with crime-solving psychic Johny Monti. PLUS: An Assessment of the Situation, and what's coming next for Desert Oracle Radio.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hermit habit has persisted throughout the four-plus centuries of North American colonization and up to the present day, including such storied American names as Henry David Thoreau, Huckleberry Finn, Georgia O'Keefe, Marta Becket, and Ted Kazinsky ... and many lesser known characters, remembered today only in newspaper stories from the past century. Happy new year from Desert Oracle Radio. Do not listen to the Joshua Tree radio station tonight (Friday 12/29) hoping to hear this episode, as they decided to close early, at the last minute, and they don't have the new show. Listen on your podcast player, like people prefer to do these days.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Night has fallen on the desert, our first big winter storms soaking the mountains and the coastlines, and now we're getting it pretty good in the southwestern deserts. There may even be a dusting of snow on the Joshua trees and the Yuccas and the junipers at the higher elevations, here and there. But a wet winter is visiting most of the American High Desert this Week of the Winter Solstice ... which used to be the same day as Christmas and New Year's and the Birthday of Dionysus.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight's episode comes to you live from Los Angeles, where Desert Oracle Radio opened the show for "Seattle's Slowest," the legendary group EARTH on its 30th Anniversary Tour for the Sub-Pop album EARTH2, at Glendale's Alex Theater. Sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver, words by Ken Layne.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's better on a desert Thanksgiving weekend than 10 questions regarding the natural and human history of the Mojave High Desert? Get your pencil and notepaper, and enjoy Desert Trivia Night from Thanksgiving Eve at the Tiny Pony, with spooky November soundscapes from RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Looking down the barrel at 2024, from our perch in the High Desert. Mojave thunderstorms, the strange maxims of the ancient temples, Christmas-tree shopping ideas, and old+new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. This is our 9/11 episode: Season 9, Episode 11. Please consider supporting this show via our Patreon before we go belly up, it's hard out there.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the World War II years to 1965, the artist and humorist and hugely influential architect Harry Oliver published his Desert Rat Scrap Book from a hand-built adobe in the California desert. He called it "the only newspaper you can read in the wind," because the whole thing was printed on a single sheet of sturdy colored cardstock, folded down to mailing size. UFO & Fortean author and Radio Misterioso host Greg Bishop joins us tonight to talk about our shared fascination with .... not flying saucers, but Harry Oliver! New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & produced by Ken Layne. This is EPISODE #205: ODE TO HARRY OLIVER, KING OF THE DESERT RATS. Listen to the radio broadcast tonight at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & the Mojave High Desert. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast through our Patreon. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023  ~ http://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Night has fallen on the desert, and here comes the ancient festival of Halloween, as the world begins to die again ... as it does at the tail end of every year. The leaves fall and decay, the green things wither, the sun hides away. And we remember the Dead. Tonight: Samhain tales of changelings and fire, and the Holy Mountain along the Mexican-American borderland. New (& classic!) soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023 https://DesertOracle.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One thing people like to do when they're given some liberties — or when they take the liberty that's usually there for the taking, if anybody wants it bad enough — is to go on a long walk. Whether you call it a pilgrimage or walkabout or "through-hike" or country ramble, such excursions really take you out of the day-to-day, even as you occasionally rub elbows with other people doing the same thing. PLUS: Information regarding the October 20 show at Jacumba Hot Springs and the October 29 Campfire Stories at Yucca Valley's Tiny Pony Tavern. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free radio show & podcast via Patreon!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October is the time for ghost stories, in this season of growing darkness. Tonight we are visited by a mysterious geist, in an ancient old city that is notorious for such restless spirits. ALSO: Details regarding the October 20, 2023, show at Jacumba Hot Springs and the October 29, 2023, edition of Campfire Stories live at the Tiny Pony in Yucca Valley. Haunted new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written and produced by Ken Layne.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This autumn is getting off to a strange start, as here in the Mojave High Desert there are carpets of little yellow wildflowers thanks to the hurricane, old Hurricane Hilary which soaked us all pretty good a month ago. Never seen so many weeds in late September. Happy Equinox from Desert Oracle Radio, celebrating 200 episodes with tonight's show.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Early September, Jupiter tucked under the 2/3 moon at midnight, heaviest of La Luna's many forms and phases: low over the eastern horizon, like the Death Star under construction. The owls are hooting in three different octaves, a whole choir by relay, a choir of the night. The night air has turned cool again, the wind only whispering.This is Episode #199 of Desert Oracle Radio, broadcasting from Joshua Tree.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever seen a water witch at work? It's a beautiful thing to behold. We have ancient reserves of great power within us. This is Episode #198 of Desert Oracle Radio, after the hurricane.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you look at the big red danger zone in the middle of the Weather Service maps this evening, you will see that we are in it, right up at the north end of the highest predicted rainfall and flooding. Maybe that means we don't get it as bad or for as long as our friends from the border zone up through Coachella Valley to Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, maybe it means nothing of the sort. Prepare for a lot of rain, maybe a couple of years worth of rain. Prepare for a lot of water in a lot of place we don't often see it. And up here around Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley and 29 Palms, prepare to hang around for a while. You may not be able to get down the hill for a while.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real gods require no faith, they just are: expressed in the life force of the pronghorn herd racing across the High Desert, the mountain lion traveling hundreds of miles as master of its environment, the invigorating violence of a summer thunderstorm, the lightning strike of a rattler upon its prey, the mourning dove pair bringing up each of their dozen offspring with the same determination and patience and love, one after another, all summer long.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States military branches and intelligence agencies do not control what happens around the world all the time, much as they'd like to. The things we call UFOs occur in the backwoods and on backroads, over the lonely desert playas and mountain lakes, eternally floating around the sacred springs and sacred groves and sacred mountains of every culture and continent, for as long as human beings have existed. If you want to see something supernatural, go somewhere quiet, put down your camera-phone, and tune in.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want to cool off in this brutal desert summer, you need to get up someplace higher, around 7,000 feet — the high-desert plateau around Los Alamos is real nice, at an elevation of 7,320'. Lots of people have fallen in love with the climate and clean dry air up there, such as  J. Robert Oppenheimer & Gore Vidal & William S. Burroughs. Burroughs was supposed to be a War Captain, following orders, but it never quite worked out that way. Instead, he would go to war with Human Language . . . using the weapon of the oppressor. With new war-march soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast on our Patreon page!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight we are talking about witches. And interesting religions, new & old. And especially California's incredible occult countercultures—the esoteric stuff that Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn covers for her official newspaper beat: "Faith, Spirituality and Joy." Some of the interesting tales we will discuss tonight: The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self Psychics and astrologers are huge on Instagram. Now scammers are impersonating them This feminist witch introduced California to Goddess worship New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast via our Patreon page!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.