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© 2026 Our Numinous Nature
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Our Numinous Nature is a traveling podcast in search of profound stories focused on regional flora & fauna, folklore & history with a penchant for the mysterious and the hunt. We’ll be hearing from folks with a deep connection to the land, from herbalists to hunters, folk artists, paranormal investigators, & living historians. The hope is to reach the soul of these people & places through tales of profundity & awe. Find a comfy log and join us at the sonic campfire.
109 Episodes
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The West Virginia Fur Auction is an annual fur, root, skull & antler consignment sale in Glenville, West Virginia. After a reading about the first fur-trade explorations over the Alleghenies into West Virginia in 1671-74, we head into the auction with in-the-field reporting on the modern fur, root, meat, gland and oddities markets, interviewing the likes of trappers, fur hangers, graders, buyers and members of the West Virginia Trappers Association. Many grew up trapping and we hear how m...
Steve McCue is a trapper, naturalist, all-around outdoorsman & Vice President of the West Virginia Trappers Association from Nicholas County, West Virginia. On this in-the-field episode we visit his wall-tent camp and head out for a morning on the bobcat trapline. After a 1929 reading about handling & relocating backcountry bobcats, Steve opens on the significance of the bygone American chestnut. We hear of his deep Appalachian roots & how his outdoorsman lifestyle is a spiritual ...
Nathan Griffin [like his younger brother] is a lifelong houndsman, bear hunter, and commercial turkey farmer in Pendleton County, West Virginia. On this 2nd part of our in-the-field, ride along with Appalachian bear hunting brothers we open with a riveting reading from the memoir of an early-1800's backwoodsman about a bear skin umbrella & hunting with a knife. As we drive the snowy mountain roads in search of a fresh track, Nathan describes various aspects of being a modern houndsman: fr...
Jacob Griffin is a lifelong houndsman, bear hunter and turkey farmer in Pendleton County, West Virginia. This is the first of a two-part podcast series recorded in the field with the Griffin brothers as we drove up rough mountain forest roads covered in snow and ice in pursuit of bear tracks. After a reading of Abraham Lincoln's 1846 poem, "The Bear Hunt," we jump right into it, hearing how the dogs work including Jacob's fearless mountain feist, Pete, who recently was nearly killed by a bear...
Doug Wood is a West Virginia living historian portraying the life of the eastern woodland American Indians. After a reading about bear hunting & raccoon trapping with Mohawks in 1755, Doug describes how a historical trail project mixed with his own Cherokee ancestry got him interested in representing the lives of the various woodland Indians of the 18th-century. We begin on captive-taking practices and West Virginia being abandoned by the time of European arrival, yet remaining as a hunti...
Harrison Idol is a sportsman, fly fisherman, Army Officer and budding antiquarian currently building up his collection of antique sporting books in Maryland. After a reading from The Compleat Angler written in 1653 about fly tying & trout, Harrison opens on growing up on his family's generational tobacco farm in North Carolina. While inspired by vintage sporting aesthetics, Harrison boldly embarked on a collector's shopping spree of antique fishing & hunting books dating back to the 1...
Simeon England is a blacksmith, traditional flintlock hunter, and living historian portraying the 18th-century frontiersmen, scouts and longhunters of Kentucky. We start this living history episode about the daily lives of the colonial longhunters [1760s-1770s] who set out from Virginia & North Carolina for deer skins & furs in the wilds of Kentucky, with readings of first-hand accounts about beavers and salt licks. From their hunting methods to their frontier camps we discuss topics ...
Fair Lawn Farm's 18th-Century Trades Fair is an annual living history trades encampment in bucolic Highland County, Virginia, featuring artisans affiliated with the likes of Colonial Williamsburg, The Frontier Culture Museum, The Smithsonian and Townsends. For this in-the-field episode, we will be touring the tents, hearing from a dozen craftsmen-&-women about their historical trades ranging from gunsmithing & engraving, to powder horn making & woodworking. Topics discussed: India...
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 cult...
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, s...
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 ...
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...
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 ther...
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 sync...
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 l...
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 t...
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 Da...
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 ...
Dr. Scott Yarbrough, PhD is a professor of English at Charleston Southern University, as well as the host of two literary podcasts, Reading McCarthy & Great American Novel out of Charleston, South Carolina. This episode is dedicated to the hunting novella "The Bear" by America's 20th-century literary master, William Faulkner. After a reading, we begin with Faulkner's biography as Scott describes the major themes within his writing: the southern gothic push back to the over-romanticization...
Oliver Lavery is an English mythologist, folklorist, traveling professional storyteller, and host of The Story Crow YouTube channel from Wiltshire County, England. For this Christmas special we focus in on one of the most mysterious Yuletide tales, the anonymous medieval poem of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight. After a reading about a royal deer hunt, Oliver opens on where he lives, amongst countryside & stone circles in south-western England. Giving us a summary of the The Green Knight...
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I just wanted to say I enjoy your podcasts, this particular podcast reminded me of a feed store that I went into one time in Pennsylvania. it was quite unusual in that it was full of antiques in various places and the place was really old. I can't remember much all I can remember is that had a violin of all things and the whole place had plenty of cobwebs. But it also got me to thinking of something else, I thought this would be right up your alley. I think that this was back in the 1970s so I doubt that you could find the man in interview him now I'm sure he's long been off the planet. it was a job that I would have loved and the little gaited horse he had I would have been happy to have owned. Appalachia created a number of really fine gaited saddle horses they had various landraces of horses that eventually became about four or five different registered breeds. Nothing like riding one of those horses it's like riding a magic carpet it's like gliding. These days they're not cheap bu