Jun 30 2023 91 mins
It's a genuine pleasure to welcome Darragh Mason to The Hollow Path in this episode. His podcast, Spirit Box, has become one of the most profound and thoughtful reflections on how our lives are intertwined with Spirit, and the Spirits, the Otherworld, that is out there. Darragh has a soft-spoken and wise manner mixed with an incisive and searching intelligence and curiosity, and he applies this to his in-depth interviews with experiencers and experts in the Realm of the Spirits in the broadest sense.
One of the most fascinating aspects of all of this is how he explores both the differences and commonalities between spirit-work and spirit-contact across and between cultures and epochs. Darragh tells here his origin story as a dashing photo-reporter, seeking out the strange and the wonderful in exotic locations : a journey to India brings a numinous and harrowing encounter with the Djinn, and the rest, as they say, is His Story. I honestly think that the tales of his adventures could make for excellent modern pulp adventure, sort of Indiana Jones with a camera, only make it even MORE Occult ...
Darragh and I discuss all of these things, how they led to the podcast, and how this became more than a pastime or an occupation, but a type of Vocation, and how this has evolved into researching and working with some of the more obscure and shadowy figures from Irish folklore, a Discovery of Witchcraft, and, most importantly, gardening. And I mean that last most seriously.
Darragh is currently preparing the release of a significant book on the Irish "Fear Dorcha", or Dark Man, which puts mythology, folklore, and historical accounts in conversation with narratives of contemporary experiencers and occultists who have encountered that same figure.
It's an absolute pleasure to present this episode in which, finally, I can get down to brass tacks with a fellow Irish scholar and gentleman ... Darragh's insights are fascinating, and his storytelling is outstanding. You'll be hooked!
For more of his own stories, and many many more, please do check out Spirit Box which now has dozens of episodes of archives to dig into if you haven't already binged them all. Every single one is worth your time and will inspire your wonder!
Find it (and indeed all of Darragh's work) here : https://linktr.ee/darraghmason
SPIRIT BOX : for when the Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak!
THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ...
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING.
RESISTANCE.