The Gods Must Be Crazy: A Philippine Mythology Podcast
Fiction:Comedy Fiction
52: GREAT BALLS OF FIRE | Santelmo - Part 1: Flaming Orbs of Death?
Goodness, gracious! This week, we fire it up with a deep dive into the legend and lore behind the Santelmo, or St. Elmo’s Fire. Were these mystical balls of fire omens of death and destruction… or a sign pointing to hidden treasure?
Buckle up as we go into tangents you never expected: from old sailors tales, to physics concepts about plasma and electricity they didn’t teach us in high school, to the patron saint of abdominal pains.
Learn about the various sightings of the Santelmo in ‘rural legends’ of old and recent memory, the historical origins of the story and where the name comes from, and how the legend continues to live in popular imagination.
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The Gods Must Be Crazy is a podcast on Philippine Mythology hosted by friends Anama Dimapilis and Ice Lacsamana, avid mythology nerds and semi-professional gossips. Follow us over at @godsmustbecrazy.pod on Instagram and Facebook for more good stuff. We welcome any suggestions on future topics or episodes. You can also join us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thegodsmustbecrazypodcast.
You can also find us on Youtube – Gods Must Be Crazy Podcast channel, where we post some of our episodes and interviews. For other inquiries, please email us at godsmustbecrazy.pod@gmail.com
The intro and outro music is by Brian O’Reilly (@dendriform on Instagram).
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References/Further Reading:
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/santelmo-origin-trese-a00293-20210614-lfrm
https://www.aswangproject.com/santelmo/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_of_Formia
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2014/05/04/101292-holy-confessor-erasmus-bishop-of-formia-in-campania
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=182
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
https://trese.fandom.com/wiki/Santelmo
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/godsmustbecrazypod/message53: DOCTOR QUACK QUACK | Folk Medicine Part 1
51: PAST LIVES | The Eternal Love Story of Maruja
50: O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU | Indarapatra & Sulayman, a Maguindanao Epic
49: HE WILL ROCK YOU | Bernardo Carpio, the Lost Hero of the Tagalogs
48: CACAO ME MAYBE | Maria Cacao, the Golden Ship-bourne Goddess of Mount Lantoy
47: MARRY MY DEAD BODY | Ghost Marriage Practices Around the World
46: UNDER THE SEA | Magwayen, the Hiligaynon Goddess of the Underworld and of the Sea
45: MY EYES ARE UP HERE | Mebuyan, the Bagobo Goddess of Death & Chief of the Underworld
KOZY KWENTO EP 2: My Son-in-Law, The Devil | Philippine Folktale Retelling
44: NOT TODAY, SITAN | Sitan, The Tagalog God of Death in Philippine Folklore
43: KNOCK KNOCK | ANG KUMAKATOK, The Death Messengers of Philippine Folklore
[REBROADCAST] 13: MUMMY MIA, HERE WE GO AGAIN | Death, Burial & the Afterlife in Pre-Colonial Philippines (Part 2)
[REBROADCAST] 12: MUMMY MIA | Death, Burial & the Afterlife in Pre-Colonial Philippines (Part 1)
42: TRUE LIES | The Modern Myth of the Tasaday Tribe
41: SIZE DOESN’T MATTER | The Duwende & Nuno sa Punso - PART 2 (Philippine Dwarfs or Earth Goblins)
40: TALKING TO THE MOON | Mayari, Goddess of the Moon (Tagalog and Kapampangan)
39: SHORT KINGS | The Duwende & Nuno sa Punso (Philippine Dwarfs or Earth Goblins)
KOZY KWENTO EP 1: How the Crocodile Learned to Hunt | Philippine Folktale Retelling
38: TAAL TALES | The Legends and Stories of Taal, the World’s Smallest Active Volcano
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