Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Our Numinous Nature
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARTEMIS: GODDESS OF THE HUNT + VISIONS FROM HER TEMPLES | Ancient Historian | Carla Ionescu | 12 Nov 2024 | 02:26:26 | |
Dr. Carla Ionescu, PhD is an ancient historian, author, traveling lecturer, Canadian university professor, founder of The Artemis Research Centre and host of The Goddess Project podcast. With hunting seasons upon us, we begin this odyssey into the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis, with the famous myth of the forlorn houndsman, Actaeon. Carla officially introduces Artemis/Diana & explains how Grecian hunters gave her offerings before the hunt, including sweets, animal sacrifices and large communal festivities. We hear of the goddess' symbols in art history & mythology: deer, dogs, bows & arrows, bee eggs, leopard pelts, bears, etc. What was life like 3,000-years-ago at her temples for the priestesses, pilgrims, and worshippers? From there we turn to the personal, as Carla describes some of the mountain & cave temples she's visited in Greece and tells a haunting, mystical story about visionary experiences she's had alone in an ancient cave temple on the island of Crete. We end on vocation, reincarnation, and slave boys saved by honey cakes. | |||
| SCOTTISH FOLK: SAMHAIN & THE CAILLEACH, CANNIBALS & POACHERS | Storyteller | Eileen Budd | 31 Oct 2024 | 01:42:14 | |
Eileen Budd is a professional storyteller, the host of the Scottish Folk podcast, and an artist & author in Angus, Scotland. After a Halloween reading about skull broth, Eileen describes where she lives in Scotland and the floods they experienced in last year's Storm Babet. Talk of weather and storms brings up the Gaelic mother goddess, the Cailleach. From these ancestral stories comes a conversation about the diaspora of Scottish people to America aboard "coffin ships" and the suppression of their culture. Turning to the macabre mood of Halloween, we hear of folkloric and historic cannibals, Sawney Bean & the 15th-century butcher, Christie Cleek. Eileen describes what Samhain is - the time-of-the-year when traditional folk commune with the spirits of their ancestors. When it comes to personal stories from a professional storyteller, Eileen tells three haunting supernatural tales, in the best of which, a spirit saves the life of her grandmother. We wrap it up on rural poacher-lore from catching rabbits in nets to a story about a famous folk hunter who passed up a shot on a stag enchanted by fairies.
Music Credits: | |||
| CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH & THE JAMESTOWN EXPEDITION | Living Historian | Willie Balderson | 09 May 2024 | 01:43:02 | |
William Balderson is the Director of Living History & Historic Trades at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] in Virginia. After readings from John Smith's accounts about Pocahontas, the local fauna & corn planting, our guest describes his singular life path as a career living historian. From there Willie illustrates the events leading up to the Jamestown expedition including the infamous Roanoke Lost Colony. On this deep dive, we learn of John Smith's life as a mercenary & slave prior to Jamestown; the Pocahontas legend; John White the 16th-century watercolorist of indigenous life in the Carolinas; Powhatan's eagerness for the technological advantages of trading with the English; and other tidbits from Smith's journals such as raccoon capes, birchbark canoes and a native deer hunting technique. We end this history lesson on a reflective note, as Willie describes the feeling of interpreting the past on the actual site where it took place. | |||
| DIGGING UP JAMESTOWN; FROM REDISCOVERY TO THE STARVING TIME | Archaeologist | David Givens | 25 Apr 2024 | 02:10:14 | |
David Givens is the Director of Archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] on the James River in the Tidewater region of Virginia. After a nightmarish reading of the trials of the early Jamestown colonists, we start at the beginning of an archaeological quest to find the lost 1607 fort; the first permanent English settlement in America, where the worlds of the English Empire & Powhatan Confederacy clashed, and the legends of John Smith & Pocahontas were born. After describing the rediscovery project, we head over land and water to Chief Powhatan's village, Werowocomoco, to hear of the indigenous preservation efforts underway. Then it's on to artifacts dug up over the decades: English pipes inspired by Native American design; foodways like iguanas and corn cobs found in middens & wells; glassworks; distilling & herbalism. For his story, David tells of his involvement in the disturbing discovery of colonial cannibalism dating back to a harrowing period called The Starving Time [1609-1610]. We end this epic episode on the first English-American wagon road and musings about reincarnation, the wheel of fortune, and Terrence Malick's film "The New World." | |||
| MUSIC OF THE SUMMER MOUNTAIN FARM: BUKKEHORNS, MILKMAIDS & HULDRE-FOLK | Musician | Sissel M. Gullord | 21 Mar 2024 | 01:38:28 | |
Sissel Morken Gullord is a Scandinavian musician and singer living on a farm in Biri, Norway. We begin this enchanting musical episode by heading up to the saeter - the summer mountain farm - to hear the instruments, songs, and herding calls of the bygone milkmaids and shepherds, starting with the bukkehorn [goat horn]. Sissel describes how they're made and how livestock reacts to both the horn and a whimsical style of calling called kulning [or hujing in Norwegian]. We hear the blasting of a lur, a long wooden horn and followed by her commission by Disney. Opening up the more magical and sublime side of nature, Sissel tells a story about performing for hunters and foresters in which she spoke to them about the folkloric forest nymph known as Hulder and the accompanying huldra-folk [elves]. We wrap up this slice of Norwegian culture on folk song motifs, the nation's famous brown cheese, and bunad [the traditional rural clothing from the 1700-1800's]. "Bukkehorn & Hujing"
| |||
| DROOP MOUNTAIN ARTIFACTS, GHOSTS & FOSSILS + A TURTLE PARTY | Park Superintendent | Mike Smith | 07 Mar 2024 | 02:15:36 | |
Mike Smith is the former superintendent of Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, as well as an artifact & fossil enthusiast and traditional bow hunter, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We begin with his time at Droop Mountain, metal detecting under old oak trees and recounting the regional Civil War history. He tells of park visitors' many ghost experiences and significant archeological finds, such as three boys stumbling upon a Confederate rifle in the steep woods. We turn the pages of time back to arrowheads of the Shawnee and earlier native peoples; then even further back to 300-million-year-old fossils. Half way we switch to Mike's life, starting with his stories of an annual snapping turtle party, followed by his earliest boyhood memories of being a primitive hunter armed with only rocks. We close on hellbender tongues, making buckskins and a proud father-son moment. | |||
| OLD TIME BEE HUNTERS, COON HUNTERS & A WORK HEARSE | Beekeeper | Kevin Malcomb | 19 Feb 2024 | 01:56:12 | |
Kevin Malcomb is a beekeeper, former coon-hunter, welder, and mechanic in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. After a reading about the old frontier profession of the bee hunter, Kevin describes both his own & old time methods of Appalachian beekeeping: traditional "bee gum" hives; keeping ants out; catching feral swarms with a shotgun; how to hunt for wild bee trees from water sources; bee trapping; hive threats such as warm winters, mites, hornets, insecticides, & wax moths. We move on to his unconventional mechanic business run from a used-hearse which opens up musings and intuitions on potential past lives. For the last quarter we hear about coon-hunting in his youth along with an illustrative story about a formidable coon taking on an entire horde of hounds. We end on eating raccoon & less popular wild game; eccentric bird houses; and a sliver of local folk medicine. | |||
| POE PART II: THE BLACK CAT & OTHER TALES OF MYSTERY & THE MACABRE | Curator | Chris Semtner | 01 Feb 2024 | 01:40:48 | |
Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. In Part II of our Edgar Allan Poe podcast, we begin with an archival recording of "The Black Cat." Then we pick back up where we left off, with "the imp of the perverse” and exploring the psychology of the criminal mind through his villainous characters. After describing a prophetic scene about shipwreck & cannibalism from Poe's only novel, Chris explains the literary genres beyond horror that Poe founded or advanced: the detective story, science-fiction, and perhaps the southern gothic. We then turn back to the biographical, with Poe's death and his mysterious last few days on the streets of Baltimore. From African-American hoodoo to spiritualist mediums, we hear what the paranormal was like in his time, and end on modern sightings of his ghost. | |||
| POE PART I: VIRGINIA'S RAGGED MOUNTAINS & EDGAR ALLAN'S UPBRINGING | Curator | Chris Semtner | 18 Jan 2024 | 01:40:22 | |
Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. After a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tale of The Ragged Mountains," we hear part I of Chris' interview on Poe's life, opening on the most poetic topic in the world, the death of a beautiful woman. From there, we get biographical with Poe's upbringing: The Great Dismal Swamp; boyhood on the James River; Charlottesville's Ragged Mountains; the museum's courtyard garden; his wealthy foster family in Richmond; and southern dueling culture. Chris describes Poe's aspirations as a poet & the tension this caused with his foster father, followed by his brief stints at university & West Point. We end this to-be-continued episode on Poe's idea of "The Imp of the Perverse!" Stayed tuned for Part II... | |||
| AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS FEAST: PLUM PUDDING, HOLLY & THE GREEN KNIGHT | 22 Dec 2023 | 00:56:01 | |
For this holiday special we begin with a traditional English Christmas feast as described by a family friend, highlighting a strange historical black dessert called a plum pudding or simply a Christmas pudding. Being topped with a holly sprig, we then learn the origins of some ancient plant-lore. But the meat of this sumptuous episode is a reading from a deeply mysterious and haunting, 14th-century Arthurian legend that takes place at a Christmas feast; one rudely interrupted by an axe-wielding Green Knight who demands a volunteer to join him in a deadly game. Merry Christmas! Main reading from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage. | |||
| BJÖRNJÄGARE; A SWEDISH BEAR HUNTER | Professional Hunter | Rasmus Boström | 08 Dec 2023 | 01:47:36 | |
Rasmus Boström is a professional hunter & outdoor gear ambassador in Älvdalen, Sweden. After readings about Scandinavian bear hunting folklore & shape-shifting in the Old Norse sagas, we learn about a regional language & the area's hunting culture. From there it's hunting history with wolf-posse laws & bear spears. Rasmus then describes the Swedish brown bear & taking part in scat-gathering studies. After some background information about the modern bear hunt with hounds, he tells a harrowing story about tracking a wounded bear. For the last third we switch to a handful of other outdoorsman topics: bird hunting from skis; Ullr the Norse hunting god; marten trapping with deadfalls; a first time hunt custom, and invasive mink hunting on small islands in the name of sea bird conservation. | |||
| VIKING METALWORK: DWARVES, BOG IRON & THOR'S HAMMER | Blacksmith | Philip Lufolk | 27 Nov 2023 | 01:29:06 | |
Philip Lufolk is a blacksmith in Storvik, Sweden inspired by the archeology & mythology of Scandinavia. We begin on the role of the Viking blacksmith & how bog iron was processed. Philip describes objects & jewelry that he forges based on historical artifacts: the seeress' völva staff; a charm known as a Thor's hammer; a landowner's Viking key; and oath rings inscribed with law. We switch to mythology with the tale of Mjölnir [Thor's hammer] & the rest of the gods' treasures, fashioned by the industrious & highly-skilled dwarves. Then there's the vengeful blacksmith, Völund. We discuss burial mounds & rock art: picture stones, rune stones & a petroglyph just outside of Oslo's city center. Approaching the end Philip tells an archaic divination technique called Årsgång or "The Year Walk." | |||
| SIGNS, CURES & WITCHERY; GERMAN FOLK MAGIC & MUSIC OF WEST VIRGINIA | Folklorist | Gerald Milnes | 26 Sep 2024 | 02:36:16 | |
Gerald Milnes is a folklorist, fiddler, author, documentary filmmaker, ethnomusicologist, amateur anthropologist and the former Folk Arts Coordinator at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV. He is the book author & documentary filmmaker of Signs, Cures & Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore. After an intro about milk witchery, Gerald talks about his passion-driven life as a self-taught folklorist. From there he lays out the history of the 18th-century migration of German settlers from the Old World to Pennsylvania and finally into the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. Living in the region, Gerald befriended & interviewed many of the old timers who revealed to him a mysterious world of folk magic, superstition & occultism still alive on the mountain farmsteads. We hear of witch wars, witch doctoring, hunting magic, animal sacrifice, planting by the signs, selling one's soul to the devil, and the interplay between Christianity & the occult. For the last section, Gerald plays regional songs on his fiddle while telling a story about music's effect on the soul. In closing, he shares some music-lore about rattlesnake tails & a bewitched fiddle. | |||
| ICELANDIC FOLKLORE, SORCERERS & A SACRIFICIAL STONE | Museum Manager | Anna Björg | 09 Nov 2023 | 01:45:12 | |
Anna Björg Þórarinsdóttir is the manager of The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft in The Westfjords region of Iceland. We begin on the country's origins as a Viking settlement, followed by life in the traditional turf houses. From there we learn that belief in elves is still relevant today and how spirits in the land have shaped not only Icelandic legends, but the ethos. We hear of a nearby farm built over a heathen temple where an ominous Viking-era stone was discovered. In story form, Anna tells the rich history of the island's 16th-to-17th-century sorcerers: the religious temperament of the time, their persecution, and her own ancestral involvement. This opens up further synchronicities around her position at the museum & growing up in a New Age household. For the remaining time, it's an all out deluge of folklore and magic: spirit guides called Fylgja, hunting & farming folk magic, The Helm of Awe, the Yule Lads, a pair of human skin pants, and finally, a grotesque milk-stealing wool-worm known as the Tilberi! | |||
| THE VEILED MIRROR: VICTORIAN MOURNING, SECRET SOCIETIES & ABANDONED BUILDINGS | Antiquarians | Kath & Olivia | 31 Aug 2023 | 01:58:32 | |
Kathryn Parker & Olivia Lloyd are owners of The Veiled Mirror, an online store of antique jewelry & curiosities with a penchant for the romantic, dark and macabre based out of Richmond, Virginia. To start this tour of Victorian culture [1837-1901], we begin with a crafting fad, ornate floral wreaths made of human hair. From there we touch on mourning etiquette; the comical paraphernalia of secret society initiations; The Aesthetic Movement; showing off with a pineapple; & the accessories of women's fashion as eccentric as live insects. Switching to the personal, the ladies share a handful of haunting anecdotes; one about researching a man's calling card found in a bin of 1920's clothing; another about unwittingly removing a "witch bottle" from an abandoned farm house. We end on further memories of urban exploration. "War Song of the Normans" | |||
| THE BESTIARY: A MEDIEVAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMALS REAL & FANTASTIC | Curator of Manuscripts | Beth Morrison | 17 Aug 2023 | 01:44:24 | |
Elizabeth "Beth" Morrison is a specialist in secular manuscript illumination & a senior curator of manuscripts at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. On this long distance episode we begin with how medieval people made & illuminated manuscripts from the animal hides to the bone black ink. From there we focus in on a medieval genre of book called a Bestiary, an encyclopedia of animals real and fantastic. We discuss their strange, sometimes shocking, often moralistic Christian ideas about the likes of beavers & elephants, lions & crocodiles, unicorns & dragons, including tidbits on how to hunt a unicorn or the origin of the phrase, "having a monkey on one's back." From there, Beth describes the behind-the-scenes of museum art transportation as well as a past exhibition on the medieval life of women. We end on Beth's personal story about an extremely uncanny synchronicity.
"Douce Dame Jolie"
Support Our Numinous Nature on Patreon. | |||
| THE LOST ART OF THE DOG COLLAR + THE ST. BERNARD BARREL | Museum Curator | Claudia Pfeiffer | 03 Aug 2023 | 01:41:06 | |
Claudia Pfeiffer is the Deputy Director & Head Curator of the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia. We begin on their recent exhibition about the art of the dog collar: a haunting cast from the eruption of Vesuvius; an ancient "Beware of Dog" mosaic; spiked collars & regal collars. Claudia describes some of the most striking paintings from the exhibition: a theatrical Amsterdam dog market; a mastiff baying a poacher; a lion hunt; & an allegory about the father of cynicism. From there we switch from dogs to horses and hear about their anatomy & movement as captured by art, including Muybridge's famous horse photographs. To wrap up this dog-lover & art history-lover episode, Claudia tells the lore of Barry the St. Bernard and his iconic barrel flask.
Support&a | |||
| REST IN PIECES; MACABRE ADVENTURES OF A CURIOSITIES COLLECTOR | Oddity Shopkeeper | Justin Torone | 20 Jul 2023 | 01:50:59 | |
Justin Torone is a curiosities collector & the co-owner of Rest In Pieces oddity shop in Richmond, Virginia. After a reading about the historical significance of cabinets of curiosity, Justin begins with lore from the cemetery across the street for his shop. Then we get deep into methods for preserving animal bones: dermestid beetles; articulation; degreasing, maceration, boiling, & later, wet specimens. We find out who the shop's audience is and how they acquire their vintage taxidermy & specimens. From there we leave the animal kingdom & turn to the human as Justin describes the most audacious highlights from his collection: folk art mourning mummies; an "overmodelled" skull; & a medically bisected fetus. All of which begs the question of legality, further illustrated by a university's illegal skeleton auction & a much more nefarious oddities black market. To bring this macabre feast to an end, Justin tells the story of how be become acquainted with a paranormal con-woman who asked him to jeopardize his morals. Music provided by Windhand | |||
| PAST LIFE REGRESSION & CONVERSATIONS WITH A HUNGRY GHOST | Medium | Carole Louie | 06 Jul 2023 | 02:22:34 | |
Carole Louie is a medium, past life regressionist, hypnotist, author, & director of THE CENTER-RVA in Richmond, Virginia. To ground this nearly psychedelic, often dark, most definitely mystical episode, we begin with the past-life research undertaken at the University of Virginia. From there Carole describes her own disturbing past-life memories which surfaced organically as flashbacks and became more fully realized through regression therapy. We muse on themes like earth school; inter-life visions; how we choose our life; soul groups; movies as past-life triggers; and even...incarnation as off-world entities. For her story Carole tells of her profound initiation into mediumship, starting with her granny collecting sassafras & culminating in the healing of her Buddhist father's ghost. We come to an end on a few last examples of how spirits appear to a medium & the messages they want to deliver. Check out Carole's THE CENTER-RVA & the 2023 Reincarnation Symposium. | |||
| SHARP'S COUNTRY STORE: PIONEERS, BEE GUMS, & THE ORPHAN AT CLOVER LICK | Antique Dealer | Tom Shipley | 16 Jun 2023 | 01:36:20 | |
Tom Shipley is an antique dealer operating out of his family's 19th-century Sharp's Country Store in Slatyfork, West Virginia. Descending from one of the county's earliest pioneer families, we hear of the lives of Tom's ancestors & their many rich folkways: a Presbyterian boy orphaned by an Indian raid; beekeeping in "bee gums;" a bear trap; furs & ginseng; maple syrup camp; and making apple butter. Then Tom gets into the origin of the 1884 store, describing the wares of its day. A plethora of stories are evoked from the eccentric taxidermy still hanging from the walls including one about a visit from the American Museum of Natural History. Towards the end, for his formal story, we get into the realm of the southern gothic, with tales about an orphan of the flu pandemic followed by visions surrounding the dead & near-dead. This episode, like the country store itself, is a true time capsule of Appalachian life. Support Our Numinous Nature on Patreon. | |||
| COLONIAL-ERA WOOL PRODUCTION + BUCKSKINS & HOG SLAUGHTERS | Museum Educator | Mary Kate Claytor | 01 Jun 2023 | 01:34:52 | |
Mary Kate Claytor is the Associate Director of Interpretation at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. After a bit of background about this unique living history museum, Mary Kate describes in detail wool production for a yeoman farmer in the 1600-1800's: starting with sheep shearing, wool washing, stale urine and lanolin, through to carding & combing, drop spindles & spinning wheels, historical & natural dyes, and finally ending on a fabric called linsey-woolsey. From there we move on to another category of historical clothing, buckskins. Mary Kate recounts learning how to hide tan while working at Natural Bridge's Monacan village. Then we switch from clothing to foodways by reflecting on both profound & disturbing experiences while taking part in hog slaughters & fowl processing. We end on hearing of how Mary Kate's historical hobbies connect her to her great-grandmother. | |||
| WEST VIRGINIA MINE WARS: COAL CAMPS, BLOODSHED & THE REDNECK ARMY | Museum Director | Mackenzie New-Walker | 18 May 2023 | 01:45:57 | |
Mackenzie New-Walker is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, West Virginia. Having descended from a long line of miners, Mackenzie describes what life was like for the men, women & children in the oppressive coal company towns of the early 1900's: from how they recruiting their immigrant labor force to paying miners in substitute money called scrip; the private company guards aka "gun thugs" known as the Baldwin-Felts agents; to child labor and laundry day. From there we hear of 1921's Battle of Blair Mountain [the largest labor uprising in US history] where the fed up striking miners transformed into the "Redneck Army." Mackenzie then recounts the story of The Matewan Massacre, an earlier train station skirmish that has left bullets lodged in a brick wall across from the museum. After reflecting on how this all relates to the present & a sense of coal miner pride, we wrap it up with highlights from the museum's collection, including one about "a canary in a coal mine."
| |||
| LIFE OF AN APPALACHIAN COAL MINER + SANG, MOONSHINE & THE BIBLE | Miner | Matt Frame | 27 Apr 2023 | 01:46:06 | |
Matt Frame is a coal miner, avid outdoorsman, & son of a Baptist preacher in Nicholas County, West Virginia. After a folkloric intro about mine-rats, we get into what life is like for both miners today & in Matt's grandfather's time: the machines; depression from the darkness; dogs hauling coal; the quiet killers "black damp" & "black lung;" losing three fingers & narrowly missing a ceiling collapse; the job-site latrine; finding fossils as large as trees; & a miner's soul. For the last third of the conversation, we surface from the coal pit to the light of day guided by folkways & The Bible. First Matt tells of heartbreak while digging ginseng; fox trapping, his grandma's rabbits, a pie crust signature, & making medicine from river yellow root. Then we get into his faith with his salvation, preaching revival, & lessons learned about the sin of pride. We end this slice-of-West-Virginia-life on a story about a haunted moonshine still & pig worms. | |||
| FERAL PEOPLE OF APPALACHIA + BLACK MOUNTAIN HAUNTINGS | Paranormal Investigator | Brian Jeffrey | 11 Sep 2024 | 01:50:24 | |
Brian Jeffrey is a paranormal investigator in Farragut, Tennessee, who's served in the US Army and as a former Park Ranger. After historical readings about wild men & feral children, we open on Knoxville's urban sprawl. From there we get to the topic at hand, feral people of Appalachia, more specifically, within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: from Brian's adventures searching them out & finding tracks; to rumors of cannibalism; strange tunnels; accounts from an attacked ginseng digger & a homesteader who claims she shot one. Interwoven is the mysterious local story of a boy named Dennis Martin who vanished in 1969 while on a family camping trip. Beyond the feral, Brian shares his own frightening paranormal stories that took place on Black Mountain where we hear of portals; a witch's burned down cabin; and a nightmarish murderer. We close on Brian's ruminations on both the intoxicating & yet taxing effects of supernatural research with examples from a shocking photograph & dark memories from the US border. | |||
| UNDER THE WITCHING TREE + SPIRITS OF PLACE + ILL-OMNED LIGHTNING | Folk Herbalist | Corinne Boyer | 13 Apr 2023 | 01:53:16 | |
Corinne Boyer of Washington is a folk herbalist, teacher, and author of five books on traditional plant-lore & folk magic. While modern herbalism focuses on the healing & benevolent properties of plants, in this episode we explore the darker, more mysterious aspects that Corinne has found through tales of old. We begin on feeling & discerning spirits of place: in the woods, water, & rock quarries; their potentially malevolent nature; offerings to appease them; and trusting intuition & an enchanted worldview. Then we move on to spirits of the human dead: communicating with ancestors, synchronicities, and a formative childhood experience with her great-grandfather's ghost. For her first story, Corinne recounts an ill-omened lightning strike during an unprecedented storm; for her second, she tells of a sleepless night spent in a haunted Swedish inn. We conclude on oak folklore, herbs to keep ghosts at bay, and plants associated with The Devil.
| |||
| TRAPPING TODAY: MAINE MUSTELIDS & ALASKAN SILENCE | Trapper | Jeremiah Wood | 30 Mar 2023 | 02:13:14 | |
Jeremiah Wood of Northern Maine is a state fisheries biologist, cattle farmer, trapper, author, & host of the Trapping Today podcast. We open on Jeremiah describing where he lives: the North Maine Woods; his desire to work the land & raise cattle; changes in the region's economy; and thoughts on growing up in such a rural area. From there we begin a focused conversation on the often vilified topic of trapping where we explore what it's all about & why to some, it's their lifestyle; from ethics & misconceptions, regulations & populations, to fur, history, & nostalgia for the past. While laying out the many furbearing species, Jeremiah describes the behavior & habitat of his favorite, the "pine" marten, followed by what it's like to run a backcountry mustelid trapline. For his story, Jeremiah speaks to his dream of living in Alaska & a recent trip where he caught something contemplatively deeper than a lynx or wolverine. We end on some of Jeremiah's books & podcast guests including the cast of Discovery Channel's "The Last Alaskans." | |||
| THE CELTS: TALES OF GODS, DRUIDS & THE OTHERWORLD | Author of Ancient Studies | Philip Freeman | 09 Mar 2023 | 01:38:20 | |
Philip Freeman is a Professor of Humanities at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. With a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Classical Philology and Celtic Languages & Literatures, he has authored over a dozen New York Times reviewed books on ancient & medieval studies. For this episode we stick to the Celtic world, starting at ancient Gaul [Celtic western Europe 2,000+ years-ago]: farming, warriors, head trophies, druids, sacred oak groves, human sacrifice, belief in reincarnation & what little is known about the old gods. From there we travel to Ireland & Wales, where Celtic language & mythology survived the passage of conquests & time. Freeman describes a lewd horse sacrifice coronation ritual, curse tablets found in a lake, & the medieval gods known as the Tuatha Dé Danann & their mysterious Otherworld. Finally we come to the present with Freeman's visit to the spring of St. Brigid, followed by what connects his love of mythology with his Catholic faith. To end this epic episode, Freeman recounts the first Halloween [aka Samhain] story, The Adventure of Nera.
For more of Freeman's work visit: philipfreemanbooks.com
| |||
| NORSE WOLF & VIKING PITS + MAINE MUSHING & ICE TALES | Musher | Bear Siragusa | 23 Feb 2023 | 02:28:58 | |
Barry "Bear" Siragusa is a former musher, a vet-tech & the host of The Hunting Hound podcast residing with his Norwegian wife, kids, & dogs in the snowy mountains of eastern Norway. On this long-distance correspondence we hear descriptions of the land, archeology & mythology of Norway: the Sámi people; moose, bears & wolves; Fenrir & the berserkers; a troll-like feeling in the woods; stave churches; & hunting over ancient Viking moose pits. Then we switch topics & head back to Bear's childhood in rural Maine where he stumbled into a lifelong passion of mushing & working dogs. From Alaskan trappers to the Iditarod, Bear tells some brief mushing history followed by two of his potent sled dog stories, first a beautiful vision & then an icy brush with death! Before our episode times out, we muse a bit about true dog-people & the significance of hunting with dogs. Performed by Vitali Drimbar Courtesy of Vitali Drimbar "Pair of Conch Shells in F Sharp" Written by Vitali Drimbar Performed by Vitali Drimbar Courtesy of Vitali Drimbar "The Wayfaring Stranger" Traditional Folk Song Performed by Bear Siragus on Kerry Optima Low D Whistle" Courtesy of Bear Siragus Support Our Numinous Nature on Patreon. Follow Our Numinous Nature & my naturalist illustrations on Instagram Check out my shop of shirts, prints, and books featuring my art Contact: herbaceoushuman@gmail.com | |||
| THE ILLEGAL TURTLE TRADE + HELLBENDERS & SALAMANDER LORE | Herpetologist | JD Kleopfer | 09 Feb 2023 | 01:48:44 | |
JD Kleopfer is the state herpetologist at Virginia's Department of Wildlife Resources. We begin this herpetological extravaganza on the illegal turtle trade between the US & China, then move on to reptile & amphibian natural history: turtle eggs & their predators, hibernation [properly called brumation], Appalachia's legendary hellbenders, salamander folklore, poisonous newts, vernal pools, & how-to make good herp habitat in your yard. For his stories, JD tells of finding a state-endangered tiger salamander site & another about his formative years as a young herper. We close on today's conservationist youths, The Great Dismal Swamp & canebrake rattlesnakes. | |||
| RUSSIAN WOODS: WWII, THE MANSI, TIGERS & ABORIGINAL DOGS | Biologist | Vladimir Beregovoy | 26 Jan 2023 | 01:57:17 | |
Vladimir Beregovoy is a retired wildlife biologist, author, & breeder of aboriginal Laika hunting dogs, currently living in Buchanan, Virginia. We begin at the beginning, his childhood memories of WWII in the Russian countryside & his early love of the natural world which destined his career as a biologist, both in communist Russia & eventually, after emigrating, here in the United States. From there Vladimir gives an in-depth description about the time he spent with a family of native Mansi hunters in Western Siberia: their dogs; sable furs; their woodsman etiquette; how they hunt moose & bear; dog mittens; reindeer skins; housekeeping; & a beaver biologist left for dead. We wrap it up on a bit about the Amur tigers of the Far East & Vladimir's herbalist grandmother.
| |||
| MY HEART'S IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS: STAGS, BOGS, & CROFTING | Deer Stalker | Megan Rowland | 12 Jan 2023 | 01:48:48 | |
Megan Rowland of Wayfaring Hind is a deer stalker, land manager, & crofter in the legendary Scottish Highlands. On this long-distance correspondence, we get a taste of Highland tradition, history, flora & fauna, such as: crofting, salt panning, the Picts, black pudding & haggis, peat bogs, working for an estate, red & roe deer, the last wolves & foraging. For her story, Megan describes how a Highland hunt would play out, a first-timer blood ritual, & her own experience from life-long vegetarian to deer stalker. We end on hunting as meditation, tweed, ferreting, & preserving culture. | |||
| 19TH-CENTURY MEDICAL ODDITIES, GRAVE ROBBERS & A CHARRED VENUS | Curator | Dr. Jamie Day | 30 Dec 2022 | 02:03:42 | |
Dr. Jamie Day is a physics professor & the curator of the Monroe Moosnick Medical & Science Museum [a collection of 19th-century medical oddities & science equipment] at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. This morbid tour through the old cabinets leads us into trepanning, electrified corpses, syphilis, phrenology, grave robbing students, a mummified child, country doctors, folk medicine hairballs & much, much more. For his personal story, Jamie describes an unnerving find in the university's storage, that of a charred, 200-year-old wax model known as an Anatomical Venus. In closing, we hear of some of the collection's wildest oddities we nearly forgot about: a figurine of a parasitic twin & a comically grotesque tobacco pipe! | |||
| FROM THE DEEP DARK HILLS: MURDER BALLADS, WITCHES, HAINTS & DEVIL DOGS | Folk Artist | Mike Ousley | 15 Dec 2022 | 02:05:40 | |
Mike Ousley is an Appalachian folk artist & a natural storyteller from the deep, dark hills of Eastern Kentucky. We begin on country music, murder ballads, southern gothic literature & folk art. From there Ousley rattles off wild local lore: an exorcism, a resurrected witch, sitting up with the dead, the haint under Ol' Man Chester's house, "Burn 'em out" [a neighborly-feud phrase], coal towns, & black walnut necromancy. For story time Ousley recounts his own experiences with devil dogs & a mysterious high-beamed light, way back in the mountains. We end this folklore bonanza on regional folkways, folk magic, and mountain eccentrics. | |||
| CAVE RESCUE & JOURNEYS INTO THE UNDERWORLD | Caver | Earl Suitor | 01 Dec 2022 | 02:14:32 | |
Earl Suitor, formerly a firefighter & EMT, is an avid caver & the current Eastern Region National Cave Rescue Commission Deputy Resource Section Chief in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. We begin with why Appalachia's geology makes for good caving, then ruminate on the inherent mystery of caves, hear about the historical mining of bat guano, learn about fossils & ancient cat scratches, & the reasons behind secrecy in the caving community. In story form, Earl describes how a cave rescue plays out with examples from finding a lost couple in West Virginia to a shocking tragedy in Utah & the famous cave flood in Thailand. Earl then shares harrowing lessons learned from his firefighting & EMT days, opening profound conversations about "burn out," dying, & his interest in world religions. | |||
| THE BELL WITCH OF TENNESSEE, BLACK DOGS & SPIRITUAL WARFARE | Pastor | Tyler Estep | 27 Aug 2024 | 02:04:18 | |
Tyler Estep is a local historian, former tobacco farmer & Baptist pastor at the oldest church west of Appalachia, in Adams, Tennessee; home of the infamous Bell Witch! After a reading from a 1904 newspaper that summarizes the Bell Witch mystery, we open on the region's tobacco farming culture. Then we turn to the topic at hand, the Bell Witch. We explore various explanations for the 19th-century hauntings: John Bell & an eccentric neighbor, Kate Batts; The Great Awakening & the demonic; ventriloquism & murder; an Indian curse & land-based hauntings; and lastly, a slave overseer's ghost. Throughout, Tyler openly shares his own strange encounters and spiritual battles with both mental health & the supernatural. For the official story, we hear of town folks' mysterious black dog sightings that harken back to the original accounts by the Bell family slave, Dean. We end on the area's cave systems and a potent warning not to take anything from them! | |||
| HORSES & HOUNDS + ST.HUBERT & ROYAL HUNTS | Master of Foxhounds | Dr. Rita Mae Brown | 03 Nov 2022 | 02:00:56 | |
Rita Mae Brown is a prolific New York Times bestselling author, and a master of foxhounds & huntsman with the Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club in Afton, Virginia. We open on St. Hubert [patron saint of hunters & hounds], the old world occupation of royal huntsman, & get into modern - no kill - equestrian fox hunting. We hear examples of the fox's witty participation, learn some hound history, get insight into the formal wardrobe etiquette, and paint a picture of a day in the field. In the last section, Rita Mae explains her deep animal friendships starting from her orphaned childhood. She shares two short stories, one about a mounted specter & another about animal sentience & love. We end on a couple of Rita Mae's heroins, the huntress queens of old Europe.
| |||
| YOUR LORE: SPOOKED HUNTERS & HAUNTED HOUSES | Tales From The Listeners | 30 Oct 2022 | 00:59:10 | |
On this Halloween bonus episode, we are trying something new! Instead of a guest, I read eerie stories submitted by podcast listeners. Your all's folklore! We've got a dozen tales from the likes of outdoorsmen, hunters, herbalists, and homesteaders on three dark & mysterious themes: supernatural events, ghosts & spirits, and haunted houses. You'll hear about unexplainable roars in the George Washington National Forest, whispers in Hell's Hollow, & an accidental suicide that not only haunts a family's home, but their dreams... | |||
| ABANDONED LUNATIC ASYLUMS + A MIDWIFE'S APPARITION | Paranormal Investigator | Marty Seibel | 20 Oct 2022 | 02:06:02 | |
Mike Seibel is a Shenandoah Valley ghost-tour guide, history buff & founder of Black Raven Paranormal in Staunton, Virginia. This Halloween special begins on abandoned lunatic asylums from the 1800-1900's: what they were like in their time, dark ideas of American eugenics, the local DeJarnette Sanitarium, and a story about Marty's paranormal investigation of the notoriously haunted Pennhurst Asylum. Then we get into more of his traveling investigations: a grisly axe-murder house, the apparition of a Gettysburg midwife, a cursed doll named Robert, and a demonic country bar. We end on paranormal etiquette, his overall grounded approach, & insight from working with mediums. | |||
| STRANGE ENCOUNTERS IN THE MOUNTAIN STATE + THE WITCH'S GRAVE | Cryptid Correspondent | Les O'Dell | 06 Oct 2022 | 02:24:41 | |
Les O'Dell of Marion County, West Virginia is a paranormal investigator, cryptid enthusiast, & collector of strange stories from across his home state. For his second appearance on the podcast, we start lightheartedly on the the annual Mothman Festival then get into the famous regional cryptids & mysterious happenings we missed last time: The Flatwoods Monster, the awful Vegetable Man, Missing 411, calling to Big Foot in Pocahontas County, Dolly Sods UFO sightings, & even feral people. For his stories, Les shares one about a ghost girl & another about his paranormal research of a witch's grave in a back holler. No doubt, this one will get you in touch with the Halloween spirits... | |||
| GINSENG SEASON + HARD DRUGS IN SMALL TOWNS | Forest Farmer | Ed Daniels | 22 Sep 2022 | 02:05:18 | |
Ed Daniels of Shady Grove Botanicals is a ginseng forest farmer, root buyer, and herbal medicine maker in Randolph County, West Virginia. Ed gives us a glimpse into the intriguing international ginseng industry: the WV digging license, old timer ethics, meth-addict poachers, what the Asian market is looking for, farmed ginseng vs wild simulated. We hear of its cultural & medicinal value through anecdotes about a Korean preacher & locals who struggle with pharmaceutical opioid addiction, followed by Ed treating his own cancer diagnosis with wild mushrooms. From there we touch on the Appalachian Outlaws TV show, how to find ginseng in the mountains & tips for farming it. In the last few minutes, Ed shares a heartbreaking story about a local boy from a broken home & speaks to his Plant A Seed project, giving Appalachian kids hope through growing food. | |||
| RURAL MAN-TRACKING + THE 45 & THE HOLY GHOST | Tactical Tracking Instructor | Mike Hull | 08 Sep 2022 | 01:58:06 | |
Mike Hull is a retired game warden, outdoorsman, special deputy, & the founder of Hull's Tracking School where he teaches man-tracking to law enforcement, search & rescue, & military organizations from his home in Nelson County, Virginia. Mike illustrates how to man-track by describing a handful of cases: the armed robbery of a rural post office; a questionable camper in The Shenandoah National Park; a serial burglar; followed by an encounter from his game warden days with backwoods moonshiners. For his story, we hear about a profound period of soul searching while Mike worked at a maximum security prison, culminating in a full-body religious experience. We wrap it up on the bear gallbladder black market, survivalist herbalism, water witching, & his famous remote-viewing neighbor. | |||
| FULL OF THE DEVIL: HATFIELDS & MCCOYS + A PENTECOSTAL EXORCISM | Museum Director | Jack Hatfield | 25 Aug 2022 | 01:54:46 | |
Jack Hatfield is the great-great-great-grandson of "Devil Anse" of the legendary Hatfield & McCoy feud, as well as the president & director of the Hatfield McCoy Foundation & Museum in Sarah Ann, West Virginia. We start in old Europe then hear of the feud's Civil War origins, The Logan Wildcats, the Hatfield timber company & mansion, an Appalachian Romeo & Juliette story, & of course, the notable murders through to the final slaughter. Then Jack talks about his calling to start the family museum followed by a story from his Pentecostal upbringing, spirits in the house & presences helping the fledgling museum. "Love thy neighbor as thyself," commands the Bible...easier said than done in the old dark woods of Appalachia. | |||
| HELL OR HIGH WATER IN EASTERN KENTUCKY: FLOOD, FOLKLORE & GOD | Outdoorsman | Stevie Holbrook | 11 Aug 2022 | 02:10:30 | |
Stevie Holbrook is an outdoorsman, backyard homesteader, painter, & deep-rooted Appalachian living amongst the aftermath of recent devastating floods in Letcher County, Kentucky. We begin with Stevie describing what the flood has been like for him & around his community, then expand into the plight of Appalachia as a whole. From there we transition into God, folkways, & folklore: superstitions around the dog days of summer & faith healing; haints & boogers; turtle buggin' & frog giggin'. Stevie then tells a paranormal story of a whistling creature in the woods, followed by his great-grandparents' encounter while coon hunting. We end on a lil' local history, archeology, & paleontology. "Clinch Mountain Backstep" Support Our Numinous Nature on Patreon. | |||
| REINCARNATION: A PAST LIFE WITCH BURNING + A COMA LIFE REVIEW | Herbalist | Lorri Bura | 01 Aug 2022 | 01:50:08 | |
Lorri Bura of Herb Mamma is an herbalist, organic medicinal herb farmer, nature whisperer & dare I say, something of a mystic tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. We begin with how to raise one's vibrations, homeopathy, usnea, USDA organic poison ivy & St.John's wort in a sock. Then things starkly turn to the numinous with Lorri detailing her harrowing meditations on past-lives from an owl incarnation to a witch burning to WWII Poland. We then hear about her mystic insights on the Lord of the Forest, the 5th dimension, & the earth's purpose. For her second story, she tells of her childhood coma in which she chose to come back to earthly life. Ending on weather manipulation, this wildly metaphysical episode leaves a whole lot to wonder about! | |||
| OLD MAGIC + A MYSTICAL ABBESS + INTERDIMENSIONAL TRAVELERS | Occult Author | Rebecca Beyer | 14 Jul 2022 | 01:42:44 | |
Rebecca Beyer, aka "Blood & Spicebush," is a tattoo artist, hedgecraft practitioner, & occult author on witchcraft & folk magic, currently wild tending in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina. In this fun, sample platter episode we hear about broadleaf plantain folkways; ancestral roots; the ancient Gauls & the Celtic cult of the head; long hair; water witching; John Dee; witchcraft's beginnings; sympathy for the devil; and the life of a 12th-century German mystic & abbess named St. Hildegard von Bingen. For her story, Rebecca shares a deeply unnerving paranormal encounter with what she was told were interdimensional travelers... We end on sassafras folk magic & history, reminding us that every glass of saloop tea is filled with a whole universe of story! "O Viridissima Virga" | |||
| CORMAC MCCARTHY'S KNOXVILLE & THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC | English Professor | Bill Hardwig | 12 Aug 2024 | 02:17:38 | |
Bill Hardwig is a Cormacian scholar & associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. This episode is devoted to the early Appalachian Tennessee novels of the late, great, literary master, Cormac McCarthy [best known for No Country for Old Men, All The Pretty Horses, & The Road]. We begin by defining and discussing the literary genre: the southern gothic. From there we lay out the synopsis & inspiration behind three of Cormac's outstanding southern gothic novels: Child of God about a depraved serial killer roaming the Tennessee hills; Outer Dark about an incestuous brother & sister & their baby that's left for dead; and Suttree, Cormac's first acclaimed masterpiece about a shiftless fisherman living amongst the river & street life of 1950's Knoxville where he befriends the likes of petty-criminals, drunks, vagrants and prostitutes. Throughout we will hear of Cormac's upbringing in Knoxville with tidbits on trapping, taxonomy, hellhounds, regional flora & fauna, a folder of local stories, and city landmarks one can visit from Suttree. Bill reads us two passages to illustrate Cormac's ability to capture the region's voice, and finally, we end on highlighting the importance of ambiguity in great works of fiction. | |||
| IN THE LAND OF THE CHEROKEE + THE WARRIOR DANCE | Cultural Ambassador | Sonny Ledford | 30 Jun 2022 | 02:24:52 | |
Sonny Ledford is a bird-clan Cherokee, cultural ambassador, artisan, & Warrior of AniKituhwah hailing from the Qualla Boundary surrounding Cherokee, North Carolina. Instantly engrossing, Sonny describes his ancestral land, The Trail of Tears, guerrilla warfare & war paint. For his first story, we hear of a numinous performance of The Warrior Dance at Colonial Williamsburg. From there it's an immersion into the old ways: Sequoyah [inventor of the Cherokee syllabary]; fish & bear traps; blowguns; hunting with wolves; ear gauges; pipes; clan mothers; a strict amorous taboo; & praying to The Creator. For Sonny's second story, he tells of a community encounter with The Deer Woman. We close this epic episode on a bigfoot landmark, boarding schools, & traditional masks. | |||
| THE BLACK POTTER + AN UGLY JUG NAMED SLAVE | Outsider Artist | Jim McDowell | 16 Jun 2022 | 01:55:10 | |
Jim McDowell, aka "The Black Potter," is a gallery-level, outsider artist in Weaverville, North Carolina working in the ceramic tradition of face jugs inspired by his enslaved African ancestors. In this passionate & electric episode we learn about what pottery was like in colonial & slave times: the spiritual side of African & voodoo pottery; utilitarian vessels on the plantation; digging clay & building kilns; face jugs [aka ugly jugs]; & a renowned, literate slave potter named David Drake. Jim then tells a horripilating story about the making of an emotionally torturous jug he titled, "Slave." This opens powerful conversations about getting one's demons out & the artist's role, channeling ancestors & building generational wealth. | |||
| METAPHYSICAL COUNTRY STORE + THE HORNED GOD, PAN | Folk Herbalist | Anh Stanley | 02 Jun 2022 | 02:26:32 | |
Anh Stanley is a folk herbalist, magick practitioner, & owner of PYRAMID: Appalachian Magick + Remedies in Waynesboro, Virginia. This spiritual smorgasbord of an episode begins with an exploration of the Greek god, Pan. Then it's off to the occult races as Anh speaks about the simplicity of rural folk magic, a brush with suicide, Buddhist wisdom, Jungian psychology, the tarot, the fae, prophetic dreams, & the horned god, Pan. Story time goes paranormal, as Anh shares strange encounters with a deer-deity & the regional man in black. For the final segment we tour the shelves of the metaphysical country store, learning about bone dyeing, mugwort, ethics around the crystal trade, and smudging. | |||
| OLD TIME SUGAR HOUSE & THE SHERIFF OF HIGHLAND COUNTY | Maple Syrup Producer | Tim Duff | 19 May 2022 | 01:55:52 | |
Tim Duff is a maple syrup producer, farmer, flintlock gunsmith, powder horn-maker, & former sheriff in Highland County, Virginia [the southernmost commercial syrup producing region in America]. At his charming Fair Lawn Farms, Tim does everything the old way! In this episode he describes tapping trees & boiling syrup like it's the mid-1800's: wooden spiles, fire, cast iron kettles; a highlight being how the Native Americans produced their maple sugar. For story time, Tim tells a ghost story about refurbishing their 1887 farm house followed by his reflections on being the sheriff of a very rural & very traditional community. In closing, we hear about historical craftsmanship from 18th-century gunsmithing to the fascinating, long forgotten occupation of the horner. | |||