At the Field's Edge: A Pagan Podcast

At midsummer the world reaches as far as it can go — and in that very fullness, begins its turn toward the dark. This episode follows the landscape, the fires, and the old vigil tradition into the heart of that threshold, before a guided meditation drawn from the OBOD Alban Hefin ceremony. A note on sources and honesty Much of the midsummer folklore discussed here (the chain-lit hilltop fires, the...

June belongs to the oak. This episode begins with a single tree, the Marton Oak , standing in a Cheshire village for somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred years, and follows the threads it pulls on: the ecology of an ancient tree, the contested etymology of the word Druid , the Oak King and Holly King mythology, and the Gaulish word nemeton . It's an episode about continuity, and ab...

This episode is about inspiration — not the comfortable version, but the one the old stories actually describe: the kind that arrives without warning, scalds on contact, and changes everything it touches. At the centre of it is one of the foundational myths of the Welsh bardic tradition, and a question worth carrying: what are you tending, without quite knowing why? A note on sources and honesty T...

In this episode we explore one of Britain's most mythologised trees, the hawthorn , through its connections to Beltane, fairy lore, sacred boundaries, and the legend of the Glastonbury Holy Thorn. Part of what this show tries to do is be honest about where traditions come from. Not every piece of folklore is ancient, and not every "ancient" practice is quite what it seems. Where it m...

This episode began as a question about inspiration and became something harder to answer: what stands between us and the experiences we most need to receive? It moves through an old Irish story about a salmon and a still pool, a reflection on what ritual actually does, and an honest account of being asked a real question inside a ceremonial space. A note on sources and honesty The story of the Sal...

Somewhere underneath the noise of modern life, there is a frequency that has always been there. This episode is about learning to hear it. Through the practice of the ancient Bards, through the voice of the natural world, and through the simplest threshold most of us cross without noticing: the quiet of early morning before the day begins. Includes a guided meditation to the still pool. A note on...

In this episode I go looking for Beltane not in its ancient origins (which are thinner and more contested than we might wish) but in the folklore of the British Isles, where May Day left its deepest and most vivid impressions. Three stories, from three different parts of Britain: the 'Obby 'Oss of Padstow in Cornwall, the sacred fire-kindling traditions of Scotland, and the mock battle of...

This podcast is an offering for Beltane: the ancient Celtic festival that falls on the first of May in the northern hemisphere, marking the beginning of summer and the height of the year's creative power. It began as a personal piece of practice: a way of working with the Beltane ceremony of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids as an interior journey rather than an enacted ritual. But Beltane...

Rowan Lund introduces At the Field's Edge , a quiet space for seasonal reflection, contemplative practice, and guided meditation rooted in the turning year and the wisdom of the natural world. In this brief opening episode, Rowan shares what this podcast is, where it comes from, and what you might expect as the year unfolds. No particular beliefs required, only a willingness to pause and pay a...