Take a tour through the dark arts with Christine Schiefer and Em Schulz! Every week, these two friends summon accounts of mystical objects, perverse events, and people who had an appetite for the occult. Into the witch’s brew we go… Rituals is a Spotify Original from Parcast. New episodes Mondays!
Latest episodes
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2 min
Bass Reeves: No Master But Duty
A new four-part miniseries from Solved Murders: This is the story of a legendary figure of the Wild West… The man widely believed to have inspired the Lone Ranger… Who was born int…
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51 min
E50 • The Magical, Mystical HPB (NOT Haunted Peanut Butter)
What do invisible astral jellyfish and egg-laying lemurs with eyes in the back of their heads have in common? They each appear in “The Secret Doctrine,” the masterwork of a famed o…
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55 min
E49 • The Lord of Gravity
Sure, he was the genius who discovered the laws of motion and gravity, but his methods were highly criticized and far from traditional (he once stuck a needle in his eye socket to…
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54 min
E48 • Dion Fortune: Gatekeeper, Groundbreaker, Past-Life Priestess
Before the internet… Before podcasts… Violet Mary Firth brought magic to the masses by way of auras, chakras, and astral visions (oh my!). Born in Glastonbury in 1890, it was belie…
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50 min
E47 • The Countercultural Life of William S. Burroughs
You might know his work as a writer and poet during the Beat Movement. Less well-known is that his first published piece was at age 15 on mind control methods (whaaaaat?!). Come fo…
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49 min
E46 • Grimoires
You've heard about them on Charmed, Buffy, and in the Harry Potter series. Now get the history of Grimoires from Christine and Em as they rifle through these legendary books contai…
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46 min
E45 • The Magic of “Pellars” & The Life of Tamsin Blight
Let’s take a walk on the lighter (or… should we say Blighter?) side of witchcraft! Today, Christine and Em are pivoting from persecution stories to talk about the magic of pellars,…
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49 min
E44 • Mesopotamian Magic
Today Christine and Em are taking a hike — a history hike — into the dawn of civilization, sussing out the occult rituals of humanity’s OG innovators. Did they create agriculture?…
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35 min
E43 • Petronilla de Meath, the Wealthy Witch’s Scapegoat
Have you ever taken the fall for someone else, then watched from the afterlife as their name became more famous than yours? Brutal. Today Em and Christine recount the tale of an Ir…
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44 min
E42 • Witchcraft & The Origins of Wicca
We’re sweeping away bad vibes and funneling the world’s wisdom into our brains today. Em and Christine unpack the history of the early Wicca movement, including its associations wi…
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44 min
E41 • What’s the Deal with Crystals?
Vedic demons. Quartz dildos. And the Taliban? Nowadays we’re seeing crystals hit the market with real gusto — but there is so! much! more! to their story than meets the eye. Em and…
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39 min
E40 • Emma Hardinge Britten & The 7 Principles of Spiritualism
Once again, we are asking: HOW did we not know about this person?! She was a supernaturally inclined kid, a teenage clairvoyant, a powerful medium by her 30s… and one of the most i…
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50 min
E39 • Astral Projection
Who’s down to ditch these corporeal forms and bungee-jump to Neptune? This week, Christine and Em are taking a turn around the astral plane — that liminal realm where the rules of…
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33 min
E38 • Hermes Trismegistus, Father of Occult Wisdom
He was the all-knowing triple threat you absolutely wanted for your group project. Today Em and Christine unseal the archive on the Greek god responsible for Astrology, Alchemy, th…
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50 min
E37 • Drinking Blood (And Other Catholic Sacraments!)
The ceremonial robes are donned, the altar is prepared, and the sacrificial meal is distributed... Welcome to Mass! Today Christine and Em break out their Venn Diagrams as they dis…
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44 min
E36 • Chico Xavier and His Ghost Writers
Is this the world’s most believable medium?? He was beloved in Brazil up until his death in 2002, and known for authoring HUNDREDS of books — all with a little help from the beyond…
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44 min
E35 • The Vardø Witch Trials
What’s that in the water? A shape-shifting seal out to murder some sailors? Sure, let’s go with that. Today Christine and Em take us back to 16th-century Norway, and the three wave…
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54 min
E34 • The Occult Swindler
He was a famed schmoozer and a globetrotting womanizer in the 1700s who exploited the occult to gain entry into elite circles. And if you’ve ever wondered where the term “Casanova”…
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50 min
E33 • Sex Coffins & Moon Babies
It’s good to have passions, right? Today’s topic is a familiar name on this feed, but today, Christine and Em are following the FULL trajectory of this man’s life. He was an eccent…
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49 min
E32 • The Book of the Dead
What if you knew *almost* exactly what would happen to you in your afterlife — but standing in your way of eternal bliss were a handful of monsters, some geological terrors, and th…