S2 #93 / Chad Andro on Animal Spirits & Wild Thresholds

In this episode of Spirit Box, I sit down with Chad Andro, host of the podcast Radical Elphame, to talk about his journey into witchcraft, animism, and the search for right relation while living inside an imperial system. Chad reflects on an early entheogenic awakening and his eventual move away from chaos magic toward traditional witchcraft, fairy lore, and a more primal, land-rooted practice shaped by initiation rather than belief.We explore animal encounters as genuine moments of spiritual threshold—bears appearing during ritual, deer as initiators, and the presence of wolves, foxes, and owls in magical work. Our conversation moves through symbolism, shamanic experience, and the difficulty of maintaining spiritual seriousness in a modern, distracted world. We also reflect on what it means to practise witchcraft beyond self-improvement, and how magic can force a reckoning with fear, responsibility, and moral consequence.In the Plus episode, our conversation turns to Chad’s work as a winemaker and his experience of creating talismanic wine as offerings. Chad explains how wine, intention, labour, and land become inseparable in devotional magic, and shares the thinking behind a recent occult-focused wine release designed to be worked with rather than collected.From there, we move into podcasting and writing as acts of discipline and devotion, Chad’s Substack work, and the writers currently shaping his thinking, including Lee Morgan’s A Deep Without Name. We end by talking frankly about empire, exhaustion, and the uneasy possibility that real transformation—personal and collective—may only come through collapse, and what it means to try to remain in right relation as that process unfolds.Show notes:Chad on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radicalelphame/Chad's substack: https://thefoliatehead.substack.comA deed without a name: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/deed-without-a-name-a-unearthing-the-legacy-of-traditional-witchcraft-book-lee-morgan-9781780995496?sku=GOR006392626Radical Elphame podcastKeep in touch?https://linktr.ee/darraghmason