Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast

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He's remembered as a warrior, a poet, a healer, and a craftsman all at once, and an entire Celtic harvest festival still carries his name three thousand years later. In our Lughnasadh season finale, we're meeting Lugh- the many-skilled god behind it all. We'll trace his rise from a prophecy to one of the most well-documented festivals in the ancient Celtic world.

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References

R.A. Stewart Macalister (trans.), Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland (Du...

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At the height of the Lughnasadh fair, families gathered from across the land to trade, to settle disputes, and, some say, for matchmaking. This episode traces what we actually know about marriage at the ancient festival, and the surprisingly practical unions recognized under Brehon law.

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Sources

- Eska, Charlene M. Cáin Lánamna: An Old Irish Tract on Marriage and Divorce Law. Leiden: Brill, 2010.

- MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Cel...

Every August 1st, people across the Celtic world gathered for Lughnasadh—one of the best-documented festivals of the ancient calendar. In this episode, we step onto the fairground itself: the games, the legal proceedings, the matchmaking, and the truce that made all of it possible. We'll also look at what modern archaeoastronomy has revealed about just how far this tradition traveled, and how a Celtic harvest festival ended up shaping a Roman political calendar.

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Sources:

D.A. Binchy, "The Fair of Tailtiu and the Fe...

Before the festival, there was Tailtiu. A defeated queen clearing a forest by hand so her people could eat, she gave everything to the effort. The festival we now call Lughnasadh was born from the grief and gratitude that followed. In this episode, we trace her story from the earliest surviving Irish texts to how her legacy continues to live on today.

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References

A. Stewart Macalister (ed. & trans.), Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland (Dublin: Irish Texts So...

From the sovereignty goddess tradition of the early Irish, through the May Day customs, this episode traces where the traditions of Beltane originated. Most of what people associate with the festival today was invented surprisingly recently, but underneath the layers, there's something older and more interesting worth finding.

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Further Reading:

Sanas Chormaic: Cormac's Glossary

Dúchas: The Schools' Collection

Táin Bó Cúailnge: Recension I

Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of Invasions)

Fora...

The Celtic festival of Beltane was never just about the fires. Behind the bonfires of May Eve lay something deeper — a three-thousand-year reverence for cattle, milk, and butter, and a persistent fear of the forces that might steal them away.

Further Reading

Sanas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary)

The Schools’ Collection, 1937–1939

“The Needfire Ritual”

Examples of the Survival in Scotland of Superstitions Relating to Fire”

“Four Millennia of Dairy Surplus and Deposition Revealed through Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of Irish Bog Butters”

Exploring the Food-Related I...

As the first of May approaches, the ancient Celtic festival of Beltane marks a turning point as a threshold between seasons.

In this episode, we explore how communities may have prepared for the coming summer with rituals that hint at something darker. From the preserved body of Lindow Man, to 18th century Beltane customs recorded by John Ramsay, to the later May Day figure of Jack in the Green, a pattern begins to emerge.

While separated by centuries, these traditions reflect a shared human response to uncertainty, and the question of what must be given...

What does it mean to hold power, and what does it take to claim it?

In this episode of Wild Kin, we step into the world of early Ireland through the story of Medb, a queen remembered for her ambition, her strategy, and the war she waged to secure her place as an equal ruler.

But beneath the drama of cattle raids and battlefield tactics lies something deeper. Medb’s story opens a window into a society where wealth, land, and authority were closely intertwined- and where power within marriage, leadership, and even the land it...

As the year draws to a close, there is a stretch of winter when time feels suspended. The space after holiday celebrations have ended, but before the light truly begins to return. In this episode of Wild Kin, we step into that liminal time, when spirits were once believed to roam freely, and the wild came knocking at the door.

Resources:

*National Museum Wales: Christmas Traditions: The Mari Lwyd

*English Heritage: Uffington White Horse

*Journal of the Royal Anthropoligical Institute: Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how...

In the heart of winter, when storms rage and resources grow thin, generosity has never been easy, or even optional.

In this episode of Wild Kin, we step into the deep history of midwinter to explore why hospitality, gift-giving, and communal care have carried such moral weight across time.

From Neolithic stone monuments aligned to the returning sun, to Celtic laws that mandated hosting as a sacred duty, to Christian stories that reframed generosity as divine obligation, we trace how winter has always demanded answers.

Resources

Winter Solstice at...

Holly is more than a Christmas decoration — it’s one of winter’s oldest guardians. In this episode of Wild Kin, we trace holly’s path from pagan threshold magic and medieval law to ogham lore, wandering spirits, and the evergreen symbol we still hang above our doors today.

Resources & Further Reading

Ilex aquifolium (Holly) — University College Cork

Auraicept na n-Éces — CELT Edition

Bríatharogam (Ogham Kennings) — Wikipedia

Celtic Tree Alphabets — Nigel Pennick

Trees in Early Ireland — Fergus Kelly (PDF)

To hear more, check...

The first frost isn’t just a shift in weather — it’s the moment the Cailleach rises. Mountain-shaper. Storm-bringer. Guardian of the wild herds. This week on Wild Kin, we travel into the heart of her mythology:how the winter crone shaped the landscape, why she appears at the turning of the season, and what her ancient stories reveal about aging, power, and the wisdom found in darkness.

Resources and References

Blackie, Sharon: If Women Rose Rooted. September Publishing, 2016.

Jones, Mary: Cailleach Bérri: The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare...

Long before Halloween, the ancient Celts gathered under darkening skies to mark Samhain, the festival that ended the harvest season and began the dark half of the year. From pumpkins, to costumes, and leaving a light in the window, many of these traditions trace back to ancient pagan customs.

From Neolithic monuments aligned to the autumn sun, to Iron Age bonfires, Stingy Jack, and trick-or-treating, this episode follows how Samhain evolved through the centuries into the Halloween we know today.

Resources & References

National Museum of Ireland – Rites of Passage at Tara

From feasts for the dead and sacred burial mounds to the shimmering Otherworld of Irish mythology, this story explores how Celtic spirituality saw death not as a departure, but a transformation- a continuation of relationship.

We follow how this worldview evolved through Christianization, the Victorian spiritualist revival, and into the modern fascination with ghosts and consciousness studies, showing how our oldest beliefs in the unseen still echo today.

Resources & References

Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico: Perseus Digital Library

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 5: University of Chicago Penelope Project<...

This episode explores the origins of Ireland’s werewolf legends — from Celtic wolf-warrior rituals and shapeshifting myths to the medieval Werewolves of Ossory and the extinction of real wolves in Irish history. Blending Celtic mythology, folklore, and history, it traces how these sacred symbols became stories of fear and fascination from ancient Ireland to the modern world.

Resources & References

Topographia Hibernica — Gerald of Wales (analysis via Praxis of Social Imaginaries)

The Werewolves of Ossory — Kilkenny Castle Archives

St Patrick and the Werewolves of Ossory — Medievalists.net

“The Wonders of I...

Before she became a ghostly omen in folklore, the banshee began as a woman whose voice bridged the living and the dead. Her cries were not curses, but calls of love and remembrance, echoing the ancient Celtic tradition of keening: ritual laments that helped souls cross to the Otherworld.

In this episode of Wild Kin, we trace the origins of the banshee from these ancient traditions of early Ireland and how this ancient act of mourning is being revived today as a powerful expression of grief and connection.

Resources & References:

BBC...

Thousands of years ago, Artio was revered as a goddess of wilderness, transformation, and abundance. Worshipped by the Helvetii tribe of Switzerland and later remembered in Roman-era inscriptions and statues, she embodies the wild strength of the European brown bear and the cycles of the natural world.

Resources & References:

The bronze statue of Artio from Bern, Switzerland

UNESCO: Białowieża Forest

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)

🌲 If you’d like to support bear conservation, consider looking into:

Yellows...

Your first sneak peek at Wild Kin, a seasonal podcast that reconnects us with Celtic myths and traditions. Join your host, Jess Neary, as she brings ancient legends to life and explores how these pagan stories still shape our modern world.

Each season, Wild Kin follows the Celtic calendar, with episodes dropping around Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. Every week during these festivals, you’ll hear an original immersive story followed by the history and modern meaning of the goddesses, gods, and traditions they honor.

Subscribe now so you don’t miss the first episode on O...