Divination folklore, folk magic history, and the practice of reading omens, cards, and natural signs are at the heart of this conversation with Icy Sedgwick, author of Fate or Fortune: The Art and Folklore of Divination, folklorist, and host of the Fabulous Folklore Podcast. From ancient liver divination in Mesopotamia to love divination games played by young women in early modern England, this episode traces the deep folk roots of divinatory practice across centuries and cultures.

Icy Sedgwick is a writer, researcher, and diviner specializing in folklore, plant lore, and folk magic. Her book Fate or Fortune: The Art of Divination explores the history, folklore, and practice of divination from a folklore studies perspective. She is the creator and host of the Fabulous Folklore Podcast, based in Newcastle, England.

Divination is one of the oldest and most universal human impulses, and its fingerprints are all over witch trial history. In this episode, Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack sit down with Icy Sedgwick to explore what folk magic tradition tells us about the people who practiced divination, why they sought answers through omens and tools and rituals, and what those practices reveal about the communities that preserved them. The conversation is wide-ranging, deeply grounded in folklore scholarship, and endlessly surprising.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:

• What separates divination from fortune telling, and why has that distinction mattered throughout history?

• How did cunning women turn ordinary household objects into powerful folk magic tools?

• What do love divination rituals reveal about the real lives of women in early modern communities?

• Why did playing cards become so deeply entangled with the devil in folk tradition?

• What ancient civilizations left behind physical records of their divination practices, and what did those records reveal?

• How has dowsing been used for purposes far stranger than finding water?

• What does folklore say about omens you never asked for but receive anyway?

• Which forms of divination are experiencing a genuine resurgence right now, and which trend is Icy warning practitioners to avoid?

Pick up Icy Sedgwick's book Fate or Fortune: The Art and Folklore of Divination through our affiliate bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/endwitchhunts

icysedgwick.com

#divination #folklore #folkmagic #witchtrials #salemwitchtrials #fortunetelling #cunningfolk #omens #tarot #cartomancy #dowsing #folklorePodcast #witchhunts #occulthistory #historicalpodcast #folklorestudies #divinationhistory #witchcraft #palmistry #scapulamancy

Alice Young was the first person executed for witchcraft in the American colonies, in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1647, before the Salem witch trials. Award-winning author Beth Caruso and playwright Lauren Cavanaugh join Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack to explore her story and the new play Windsor's Daughter that is bringing her life back into the light.

This conversation moves between historical research and present-day resonance, asking what it means to memorialize people whose graves were never marked, whose names faded from community memory, and whose persecution mirrors patterns still unfolding today.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Why Alice Young's 1647 execution changed American history

• Why her name nearly vanished from history

• What made Windsor, Connecticut, a powder keg

• How a play brings her execution to the stage without showing it

• Why there is no grave to visit

• What the 2023 exoneration meant for her descendants

• How her story connects to persecution happening today

• Where to follow Windsor's Daughter as it finds its stage

Links

Author Beth Caruso at OneofWindsor.com https://www.oneofwindsor.com/

Playwright Lauren Cavanaugh https://hartford.culturalyst.com/CavanaughLMC

Connecticutwitchtrials.org https://connecticutwitchtrials.org/

Listen to more CT Witch Trials Podcast Episodes https://connecticutwitchtrials.org/witch-hunt-podcast/

Support the Podcast Buy a Witch Trial History Book! https://bookshop.org/lists/connecticut-witch-trials

Elizabeth Bathory is one of pop culture's favorite monsters. Accused of torturing and killing hundreds of young women, she's inspired everything from Snow White's evil stepmother to Lady Gaga. But the actual historical record shows almost none of it happened.

Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack sit down with Shelley Puhak, author of The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster, to trace the documented history behind one of history's most sensationalized witch trial-adjacent cases. From the fractured Kingdom of Hungary to a Lutheran minister's invisible demonic cat army, this episode connects the Bathory case to the broader European witch trials and the religious and political warfare driving them.

What You'll Learn

• What the preserved record actually shows

• The witchcraft and magic accusations woven into the case

• The political war that made Bathory a target

• What the Palatine of Hungary stood to gain from her downfall

• The one minister behind the witchcraft accusations

• Why no bodies were ever found

• What her own letters reveal about who she really was

• The role of ointments, alchemy, and antimony

• Why widowed noblewomen were especially vulnerable to accusation

• The tension between a pop culture monster and a real historical victim

• What justice could look like

About Shelley Puhak

Shelley Puhak is a poet, essayist, and historian from Maryland. Her previous nonfiction book, The Dark Queens (Bloomsbury, 2022), was a national bestseller and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

Links

Buy the book: Blood Countess by Shelley Puhak https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781639732159

Learn about the Author on ShelleyPuhak.com https://shelleypuhak.com/

End Witch Hunts endwitchhunts.org

About Witch Hunts aboutwitchhunts.com

Salem Witch Trials History YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aboutwitchhunts