Spell books, grimoires, family Bibles, charm books, and Books of Shadows all belong to the same old habit: writing down what people did when ordinary help ran out. In this episode, we open the drawer on the private working books people kept in kitchens, bedrooms, church pews, rootwork shops, and hidden boxes. We’ll look at family Bibles filled with names and funeral cards, old receipt books that mixed remedies with charms, printed works like The Long Lost Friend and The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, hoodoo formula books, grimoires, and the modern witch’s Book of Shadows.

Then we break down how these books actually work in folk logic—why a written charm could carry authority, why a Bible might become more than a Sunday book, why grimoires made people lower their voices, and why a real working book needs more than pretty pages. These books held prayers, cures, seals, names, candle records, remedies, warnings, and the hard-earned notes people made after a working succeeded, failed, or cost more than they expected.

We’ll also talk about the practical side of keeping a working book today: how to record your work honestly, how to protect private names, how to handle an inherited book, and why some pages should be marked, retired, copied, buried, or kept closed. If you’ve ever wondered why an old Bible, charm book, grimoire, or Book of Shadows can feel heavier than ordinary paper, this episode will make that feeling easier to understand. Because sometimes the most powerful thing in the house is the book nobody was supposed to open.

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Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
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This time, I’m sharing “The Raven Who Walked the Road,” a folktale about old warnings, strange signs, and the danger of ignoring what people before you already knew. In stories like this, trouble does not always announce itself in some dramatic way. Sometimes it starts with a bird behaving oddly, a path that feels wrong, or a house that seems a little too prepared for your arrival. It is the kind of tale that shows how folk belief was built from watching for small things that meant something bigger.

What makes this story stick is the way it brings together two old pieces of caution: do not follow what seems to be leading you, and do not eat in a place that was waiting for you before you meant to arrive.

Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folklorist, which is where you’ll find the deeper dives into history, folklore, magic, hauntings, and the stranger corners of human belief.

A new folktale appears between the regular podcast releases—just a short story to keep the world of folklore moving.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Papa Gee's personal website, Folkloreum, showcases his books, blog, podcast information, and more: https://folkloreum.com/

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In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we dig into one of the most persistent figures in supernatural folklore—the vampire. Long before the polished versions that show up in novels and movies, people across Europe were already telling stories about the restless dead who refused to stay buried. Villages blamed them for sickness, livestock dying, and families wasting away one member at a time. When fear took hold, graves were opened, bodies were examined, and sometimes a stake was driven into the corpse to make sure it stayed where it belonged.

This episode looks at where those beliefs came from and why they spread so widely. We’ll talk about the old burial practices meant to stop the dead from walking, the physical signs people believed proved someone had become a vampire, and the strange mix of religion, medicine, and folklore that shaped those traditions. Along the way, we’ll also look at how the idea of the vampire shifted over time—from a village nightmare blamed for disease to the dark figure that still haunts modern storytelling.

If you’ve ever wondered why stakes, garlic, and running water became part of the vampire tradition—or why so many cultures developed nearly identical ways of dealing with the restless dead—this episode follows the trail through the history, folklore, and practical magic that grew up around one of the most feared creatures in the old world.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Browse Papa Gee’s books, tarot readings, and more at:
https://folkloreum.com/

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This time, I’m sharing “The Jar That Caught a Demon,” an old folktale about trickery, containment, and the dangerous hope that evil can be shut up and sealed away for good. In stories like this, the jar is never just a jar. It becomes a boundary, a trap, and a test of who is clever enough to use it without being fooled themselves. The tale turns on an old fear found in a lot of folklore—that once something harmful is loose in the world, getting it contained is one thing, but keeping it contained is another.

What makes this story last is the idea that demons and trouble rarely leave quietly. They bargain, they lie, and they look for the smallest opening. Folktales like this remind us that people have long imagined evil not only as a force of destruction, but as something cunning—something that can be trapped for a moment, though never without risk.

Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folklorist, which is where you’ll find the deeper dives into history, folklore, magic, hauntings, and the stranger corners of human belief.

A new folktale appears between the regular podcast releases—just a short story to keep the world of folklore moving.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Papa Gee's personal website, Folkloreum, showcases his books, blog, podcast information, and more: https://folkloreum.com/

Support the show

Sin-eating is one of those borderland customs that sounds too strange to be real, which is probably why it lasted. In this episode, we dig into the old belief from the Welsh Marches and nearby border country that a dead person’s sins could be taken on by a living eater through bread, salt, and ale laid over the body. We’ll look at how this custom took shape in poor rural communities, why it clung so hard to ideas about unsettled death, and what it says about guilt, burial, and the fear that a soul might not leave clean.

Then we break down how this kind of rite actually works in folk logic—why the sin-eater had to stand between the dead and the living, why the meal mattered, and why these customs usually show up where official religion and household fear do not fully agree. We’ll also talk about the practical side of it: what people thought happened when sin was not properly carried off, and why so many old death customs are really about keeping the living from inheriting what should have been buried.

If you’ve ever wondered why some families treated the dead so carefully, or why a simple piece of bread could be asked to carry something as heavy as a soul’s last burden, this episode will make that old border custom feel a lot less distant. Because sometimes what gets buried is not the only thing people are afraid will stay behind.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Browse Papa Gee’s books, tarot readings, and more at:
https://folkloreum.com/

Support the show

This time, I’m sharing “The Story of the Night Mare,” an old piece of folklore about the strange weight that sometimes comes in the middle of the night. Long before people had medical names for sleep paralysis, many believed a spirit called a mare slipped into houses after dark and sat on the chest of the sleeper, pressing the breath out of them while they lay unable to move. It’s one of those stories that shows how people tried to explain the unsettling things that happen between sleep and waking—and why the word nightmare still carries that old belief inside it.

Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folklorist, which is where you’ll find the deeper dives into history, folklore, magic, hauntings, and the stranger corners of human belief.

A new folktale appears between the regular podcast releases—just a short story to keep the world of folklore moving.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Papa Gee's personal website, Folkloreum, showcases his books, blog, podcast information, and more: https://folkloreum.com/

Support the show

A knock at the back door in the middle of the night is bad enough. A second one is worse. By the time the third comes, it may already be too late.

In this first episode of Feral by Night, Papa Gee pulls you into a dark and uneasy tale of a house, a warning, and the kind of sound that changes the whole night around it. The Third Knock at the Back Door is a story meant for the late hours — eerie, intimate, and best heard with the lights low.

Feral by Night is a dark storytelling series of eerie, atmospheric tales — strange houses, hauntings, bad roads, footsteps in the dark, and all the things that go bump in the night. These are not regular podcast episodes with history and background like the Feral Folklorist podcast. This is spooky storytelling, plain and simple and it is premiering here on the Feral Folklorist podcast.

This first episode is being released free as a public taste of Feral by Night. Future episodes will appear exclusively on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/cw/papagee

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The Boo Hag is one of the most chilling spirit figures in Gullah folklore. In this episode, we dig into the old Lowcountry belief in a skinless night spirit that slips through cracks, rides the sleeping, and leaves people waking up weak, breathless, and afraid. We’ll trace the Boo Hag through Gullah Geechee tradition, look at the cultural roots that shaped her, and talk about why stories like this were never just told to scare people. They also carried real ideas about spiritual danger, vulnerability, and what can happen when a person is left open at night.

Then we break down how the Boo Hag functions in folk belief and magical thinking—why she comes at night, why skin matters so much in the story, and how ordinary household things like brooms, screens, and covered openings became forms of protection. You’ll also hear the practical side of the lore: the old ways people guarded the bed, confused harmful spirits, and protected the body while it slept.

If you’ve ever woken from a nightmare feeling heavy, pinned down, or not quite alone, this episode will make that old fear make a lot more sense. Because sometimes what people call superstition is really a memory of how a community learned to name the things that come creeping in after dark.

Want more from The Feral Folklorist?

Dive deeper into each episode, explore merch, and get all the latest updates at:
https://feralfolklorist.com

Become a patron to unlock Feral Footnotes (our exclusive after-show), get early sneak peeks, weekly folk magic articles, and downloadable spells featured in each episode:
https://patreon.com/papagee

Stock up on your magical supplies from our metaphysical shop that’s been serving the public for over 25 years:
https://aromags.com

Browse Papa Gee’s books, tarot readings, and more at:
https://folkloreum.com/

Support the show