Castles & Cryptids

10 Episodes
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By: Alanna and Kelsey

Welcome to Castles & Cryptids,  a paranormal podcast hosted by a couple of Canadian chickies! Follow Alanna and Kelsey  down the rabbit hole as we explore lore and legends, murder and mysteries, the unsolved and the unexplained.  Where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic AF! 

176: The Mystical Occult
Last Friday at 6:02 AM

What is the occult? It's the supernatural, the spiritual and mystical beliefs and practices. So it can be so many things, really. Which we love! 

Kelsey covers an early tarot-researcher and occultist named Etteilla, from 18th-century France. He made significant strides in tarot card reading in his time. And then for something completely different! 

Scent, memory and the spiritual side of fragrance use like incense is the theme of Alanna's segment. Some people believed that incense helped guide the soul to its final repose after death, and we discuss what makes bad "scent branding" and ot...


175: Fighting to Survive
01/31/2025

This week we have two very different survival stories for you, featuring a lot of trigger warnings, so take care of yourselves as you listen. 

Kelsey shares the story of Jennifer Holiday and her cousin Ana Franklin, who are on a late night drive when a vehicle begins following them. What happens next is something anyone would struggle to keep their cool during. Alanna covers the Teka Adams case, filled with strange and bizarre actions, it feels straight out of a horror movie. 

Shout out to the I Survived tv show, check it out for mo...


174: Haunted AF: Haunted Places
01/24/2025

Hey cryptic crew, happy Friday and Happy New Episode!! to bookend our haunted spaces episode, let's head to some far-off spots with spooks and stuff!

Alanna has a short list  of haunted suspects, so let's explore some creepy places together!

From so-called Ghost Churches, to sunken burial lagoons, it's a whole new world for us in this episode! Just not a happy one....



173: The Island of No Return
01/17/2025

Welcome cryptic cuties, this week we take another dive into our haunted places series, this time with a very old and very creepy island. Poveglia Island, located in the Venice lagoon, dates back to the 5th century and has a troubling past that has earned it the title of the island of no return. 

With everything from sickness, quarantines, death and mass graves, to psychiatric hospitals and lobotomies, this place checks all the boxes and is definitely haunted AF.  The people who have managed to get to the island, report a lot of paranormal activity and a wh...


172: Crimes on the Water
01/10/2025

Where there's smoke, there's fire...even on the water. We do keep coming back to this well (pun very much intended), of watery cases, as so many strange cases happen when one loses their life on the water. Or around the water, or in a flaming boat like a little too-early of a Viking funeral. Woof, sorry, this one is very dark indeed, with 2 cold cases of murder offshore.

Kelsey takes us to Alaska, where the Coulthurst family was taking their annual fishing vacation. We still aren't sure why it ends in tragedy, with a family dead...


171: Cryptic Creatures of the New Age
01/03/2025

Welcome back cryptic crew, we are ringing in the New Year with some New Age Cryptids!

Some are classic-inspired cryptids, others more “fakelore”, as Kelsey will tell us where that term came from, and about some of the creepiest of the creepy-pasta creatures. Slenderman, also the AI-created cryptid, Momo, we rounded up the best Internet horror-shows in her segment!

To cap off the piles of creeps, Alanna retaliates with the Ouija board demon, the connection to an ancient Babylonian wind demon, and the Exorcist! Hope to heck this does not haunt any of us, we are...


170: Doppelgänger Origins & Stories
12/20/2024

Hey cryptic cuties, we have a much lighter ep this week! Revisiting something disscussed all the way back in our 1st ep about Death Omens, we have Doppelgängers. 

The idea of doublewalkers, evil twins, fetch, ka, or spirit doubles, has been around for centuries from all around the world. While some stories of their appearance seem to bring illness, bad luck or even death, others seem to be more benevolent. 

Kelsey shares some examples of historical figures who are said to have encountered their own doubles, while Alanna has some more recent stories off Red...


169: Egypt Crimes
12/13/2024

Hope this finds you well, and also before we begin:

 Massive Trigger Warning For Sexual Assault

So, this week's focus is true crime in Egypt. Kelsey talks us through the murders of a complicated predator, Karim Salim. which is rough enough.

Then, Alanna walks us through some hard truths about the safety of simply  being women protesters in Egypt. Just fighting for their rights puts many women in danger of sexual harassment and assault. Can we fight the crowds of predators and win? We hope so. 

Please listen with care and alw...


The Cryptic Archives: Secret Government Projects
12/06/2024

(Sorry the description didn't save the first go!) 

Happy Friday and Happy December Cryptic Crew! So happy you could join us for another adventure, we hope you love conspiracies as much as we do. This week we bring you an oldie but a goody as it’s Government Secret Projects! And sometimes they turn out to be truth that’s stranger than fiction. It’s an early Patreon bonus ep., so be patient if it sounds a little different, but it’s a really fun one so please enjoy.

Kelsey brings us the story of the US Ar...


168: Bulgarian Mystic Baba Vanga
11/29/2024

Hope you enjoyed the last episode, and now for something completely different! Sort of, since this psychic has been known to have some spot-on visions, never took to a stage like some brothers, ahem, and may have made some other, very outlandish predictions!

Meet seer, mystic, and healer Baba Vanga, the star of this story. Point-of-view, its the early 1900's, you lost your mother and went blind, but gained some other senses.. so what do you do? Help people of course! 

But also maybe you make some predictions about world wars, alien intelligence and human e...