Simon Whitehead is an English ferreter, professional rabbit manager, traveling game fair demonstrator and author, living & working out of his van in the United Kingdom. After readings about ferreting through the ages from Ancient Rome to Victorian England, we open with Simon painting a picture of a traditional British ferreting rabbit hunt with nets, spades, lurchers [rabbit coursing dogs] and a box of ferrets. We hear of the UK's highly invasive, non-native common rabbit; the modern culture's feelings on hunting & eating wild game; and the need to control the damage of farmers' fields and urban infrastructure. Turning to history we discuss the medieval ferreting of the peasants opening conversations about poaching and class. Getting back to this charming domesticated mustelid, we touch on: working ferrets vs pets, handling, and what happens when one gets stuck down in a warren. We end on stories of digging out ferrets with historical newspaper clippings about hunters found dead in rabbit holes...

Check out Simon's book, Pugs & Drummers: A Ferreter's Fable and follow him on Instagram and YouTube. 

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Terri Conroy is an Irish herbalist, homesteader, and YouTuber under the name Danu's Irish Herb Garden in Connemara, Ireland. After a reading from Irish mythology about reincarnation during the founding invasions of Ireland, we begin with Terri describing the dramatic landscape where she lives & how the likes of her family subsistence farmed along the windy coast; from cutting turf in the bogs for their winter's heating to the use of various herbal remedies. For her first numinous story, she tells of a mysterious night in her youth, when without the cottage window she heard enchanting fairy music. Of course fairies open up folk-mythic conversations about the Tuatha dé Danann, the gods and goddesses of Irish mythology: the salmon of knowledge, fairy trees, Dian Cécht the healing god, and family anecdotes about the fairies in the fields and the ragged ghosts along the roads, ghosts who hearken back to the devastating mid-19th-century potato famine. From there, we hear about the Celtic holidays of the year, highlighting the upcoming summer festival of harvest, sports and crafts, Lughnasadh. We end by ruminating on connecting to one's roots, plant journeys, and the Irish mother goddess, Danu. 

Check out Terri's YouTube channel, Danu's Irish Herb Garden and find out more at her website, Danusirishhergarden.com.

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Russ Williams is a Welsh blogger & the author of Where the Folk; A Welsh Folklore Road Trip from Caernarfon, Wales. After readings about the Cŵn Annwn [a mythological pack of otherworldly hunting hounds], we open our conversation on Welsh identity with the preservation of their Celtic language along with tidbits of history and local foods such as the lunch meal of the miners, the Welsh oggie. Jumping into Russ' book on the folkways and lore of Wales we hear about: the macabre horse skull costume known as the Mari Lwyd; a mermaid sex-slave; a tourist town banking on the legend of Gelert the Dog killed by his own master; and finally the epic Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh mythology. For his own uncanny story, Russ takes us out of his homeland to the streets of Bangkok where he was outwitted by a fortuneteller. We bring it back around on more canine folklore and a travel tip for Eryri National Park, formerly known as Snowdonia. 

Reading from the Mabinogion translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. 

Check out Russ' book Where the Folk; A Welsh Folklore Roadtrip. And learn more about him at RussWilliams.org

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Oliver Lavery is an English mythologist, folklorist, traveling professional storyteller, and host of The Story Crow YouTube channel from Wiltshire County, England, the home of Stonehenge. For this summer solstice special, our return guest describes our recent trip to Avebury, Britain's largest Neolithic complex with its stone circles, village-sized henge [ditch], passage graves and giant manmade mound. First we've got to know, who built these mysterious megaliths & ancient earthworks; and for what purpose? Oliver shares a psychedelic vision he had during the annual solstice festivities that correlates with recent metaphysical theories that the stone circles assist the spirits of the dead. With the many burial mounds scattered across the landscape, we hear of uncanny sights & senses while camping amongst them along the ancient Ridgeway Trail. We conclude the highlights of mysterious Avebury with the largest prehistoric artificial mound in Europe, Silbury Hill. From there we muse on crop circles; hallucinogenic goblins; the similarity between bards & shamans; and finally, a little local lore from Wiltshire.

Check out Oliver's Story Crow YouTube Channel and follow his van-life Instagram @The_Folk_Bus


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Dom Flemons, aka The American Songster, is a Grammy-award winning, founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, as well as a solo Piedmont blues, folk, and old-time musician and historian/scholar of American music residing in Chicago, Illinois. After a reading from the memoir of a 19th-century black cowboy, we begin by hearing how folk music, with a focus on the African American contribution, transformed as it migrated with the people from the rural south to the northern cities. From there we dissect three folk instruments: the rhythm bones, stone mason jugs, and washboards with musical examples of each. Dom's early interest in history and literature led the way to his pioneering Black Cowboys Smithsonian Folkways album. He describes his research into this forgotten chapter of American history and his collecting of folk stories & cowboy poems. We come to an end on this musical episode with a haunting story about playing a song at the graves of an influential African American family band. 

Reading from The Life and Adventures of Nat Love by Nat Love.

Check out Dom Flemon's website, follow him on Instagram @domflemons and check his upcoming tour dates. 

Music by Dom Flemons

"Old Chisholm Trail"
Written & Performed by Dom Flemons

"Rabbit Foot Rag"
Written & Performed by Dom Flemons

"John Henry y los vaqueros"
Written & Performed by Dom Flemons

"Ol' Proc"
Performed by Dom Flemons

"Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)"
Written & Performed by Carolina Chocolate Drops

"It's Cold Inside"
Written & Performed by Dom Flemons

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Laura Stotts is a North Carolina photographer, genealogist, and writer known as Diary of Abandonment, dedicated to the lost histories of abandoned houses. We begin with her recent preservation work, a field day chinking a cabin at the world's largest collection of log structures. Then we're in the deep end as Laura shares her moving life story, from her trials of addiction & hopelessness to finding a divine calling & a meaningful connection to God, a journey of healing paved with synchronicities that involved abandoned places, saving the life of an elderly veteran and the funeral of a Tuskegee Airman lost since WWII. From there we get into the rubble and hear about her adventures exploring abandoned houses: from booby-traps; to an unhinged & armed landowner; to an ominous basement; and a haunting story about finding a stack of WWII letters between sons at war and their mother & wives at home.  We come to an end of this subtly gothic episode, hearing of illuminating dreams in which Laura's grandparents delivered important encouragement about her role as the family historian, furthering her appreciation for the difficult lives of her ancestors.

Check out Laura's website Diary of Abandonment and follow her on Instagram and Facebook. 

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Donna La Pré is an esotericist and biodynamic farmer who under the name Tender Flower creates potent perfumes and natural skincare products in her home workshop in Rappahannock County, Virginia. On this highly esoteric exploration of unseen worlds through an Anthroposophic lens, Donna begins by introducing the 19th-century Austrian clairvoyant, Rudolf Steiner & his wisdom path known as Anthroposophy. We deep dive into topics such as: primitive clairvoyance; Christ as the living power of love; the physical, astral, and etheric bodies; reincarnation; and natural rhythms as an antidote to the negative effects of our hyper-technological world. Artificial Intelligence and the creepiness of transhumanism shifts the conversation to the deceptive, materialistic, coldly intellectual being Steiner called Ahriman whose aim is to harden our souls and halt human evolution. For the last third we get into the elementals, the entities or forces of the natural world. Donna ends with three enchanting tales of how she has tangibly experienced the elementals, from building a community-healing urban garden to the etheric medicine emanating from a holly tree. 

Check out Tender Flower and follow Donna on Instagram. 

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Phoenix Aurelius is a modern day alchemist & founder of the Phoenix Aurelius Research Center [specializing in spagyric medicine] tucked away in the mountains of Webster County, West Virginia. On this esoteric excursion into the mind of an alchemist, we open on the four dimensions of our multi-dimensional reality: the physical, the astral, the causal, and the spiritual. From there we delve into the history and teachings of Paracelsus, the 16th-century alchemist & physician, exploring topics such as: fire-water-air-earth; sulfur-mercury-salt as the soul-spirit-body of any material; life-death-rebirth and reaching immortality in the laboratory; the difference between herbalism & spagyria; and the historical alchemists' fixation on generating gold. Phoenix then describes in vivid detail the recipe for creating the legendary Philosopher's Stone, that if ingested, according to lore, brings everlasting life! Following is a wild story about a FBI phone call & the death of a fellow alchemist. After thoughts & impressions on past-lives, dwarves, and Carl Jung's alchemical psychology, Phoenix shares a potent story about his near-death experiences as a kid with lucid visions of ancestors & the lobby of heaven. Pop open your bubbling lab flask & take a huge swig of this mind-bending sonic elixir! 

Learn more about Phoenix, his spagyric products & research at PhoenixAurelius.org

Music by BAILE

"Follow"
Written & Performed by BAILE & Ellyn Woods

"Intro"
Written & Performed by BAILE

"Diner"
Written & Performed by BAILE

"Dent"
Written & Performed by BAILE

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Dan Wells Ph.D. is a scholar of American religious history, consulting faculty at Duke Divinity School, Methodist pastor, and hunter outdoorsman in Muskingum County, Ohio.  On this episode focused on the Christian God & wild snake handling churches of Appalachia, we begin with a haunting story about Dan's ancestors' old home-place. Back-&-forth we share experiences about our Christian upbringings, early skepticisms on the likes of hypocrisy and the problem of evil, followed by Dan's religious calling as an intellectual pursuit. From there we're into the serpents with Dan describing his first-hand experiences at a Kentucky snake church, diving into the history, beliefs, deaths and legal restrictions of these serpent handling practitioners opening conversations about martyrdom & sainthood, the Hopi snake dance, Biblical snake symbolism, and rattlesnake catch-&-release hunting. From there we bring together Christianity and reverence for nature through the teachings of the early desert fathers and mystics. We end on dreams and an allegorical hunting story about God's fatherly protection over his spiritual children.

Reading from Foxfire 7: "The People Who Take Up Serpents" by Elliot Wigginton

Learn more about Dan at DrDanWells.com

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William Hess-Martin of Venatic Opus is a writer, hunter, artist and Jungian in Southern Quebec, Canada. On this Jungian walkabout, we explore a handful of the ideas of Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, as they relate to hunting. After Jungian readings about hunting taboos & ritual in native cultures, we begin with musings on Canada, America, Europe, Catholicism and Protestantism all leading to St. Hubert [the patron saint of hunters] for a discussion about the symbology, history and legend of the saint's conversion before the divine stag. From Hubert's stag to William's buck, we hear the story of William's first whitetail hunt and what that meant for him opening conversations on instincts, the search, and the numinous. Through the symbol of the white deer, William dives into Carl Jung's study of alchemy as a metaphor for personal transformation, a combining of the material with the spiritual; including the Greek myth of the huntress Atalanta appearing in an alchemical text from the 1600's. Then we're on to the fantastical unicorn of medieval legend & lore with William beautifully describing the famous Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries with their Edenic forests, hounds, huntsmen, and the pure-hearted virgin. We end this Jungian trek on the most Jungian topic possible...the interpretation of dreams, and hunting dreams no less! 

Reading from Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales and Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz. 

Check out William's Instagram and Venatic Opus blog.

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Contact: [email protected]