As Kate Bush remarked in her song, ‘December will be magic(k) again.’ Sure enough, here most of us are acting out the same strange rituals we do every year at this time, but with few of us ever questioning the symbolic relevance of them, or their origins.

On hand to shed some light is Ryan Gable, occult scholar, author of the book ‘Occult Arcana,’ and host of the five-times-weekly ‘Secret Teachings’ radio show. Ryan guides us through the eclectic customs from past cultures that shape the traditions of Christmas that have survived into these times - the Winter Solstice, Roman Saturnalia, the Cult of Mithras, Northern European Yule, Odin and his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, Chronos/ Father Time/ The Grim Reaper, Dutch Sinter Klaas, Hanika and Kwanza.

We also touch on the internal alchemical process of the raising of the Chrism oil, and the ancients’ ingestion of red and white spotted mushrooms which may be one of the inspirations for the gift-giving Father Christmas.

No-one, however, can explain why it’s necessary to endure Wham!, Mariah Carey, Slade and Cliff Richard every time you walk into a shop in December.

The lyric video to the Beast 1333 song ‘A Christmas Story’ is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK-72kGca5E

The video to the Ras Kass song ‘Jack Frost 2 (White Christmas) is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebqPtz3FltQ

Last year’s show on the symbolic and spiritual relevance of Christmas with guest Charlie Freak is here:

https://www.spreaker.com/user/markdevlin/good-vibrations-podcast-vol-134-charlie-

Ryan’s The Secret Teachings radio show can be subscribed to here:

http://thesecretteachings.info

His new book, ‘The Technological Elixir’, is available here:

http://thesecretteachings.info/the-technological-elixir-2/