The Moon in Carolina

Jaksot

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  Eps. 85: The Folklore of Swans 16.09.2026 21min

  The swan has carried more symbolic weight in European tradition than almost any other animal — beauty understood as divine since at least the Greeks, grace that the old stories treated as a kind of power in disguise. The Moon in Carolina host Shelby Bundy traces the folklore from Apollo's sacred bird to the Irish Children of Lir, through the belief that swans arrive from the Otherworld in the dark months of the year, and the quiet folk tradition that a person cannot die peacefully on a pillow...
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  Eps.84: The Bog Bodies 08.09.2026 22min

  The peat bogs of Northern Europe have been preserving human remains for thousands of years — but the people found in them weren't accident victims or the hastily buried. Tollund Man and the hundreds of others show evidence of deliberate, ritualized death: careful positioning, the triple death, and details that suggest these were offerings, not disposals. Join host Shelby Bundy as she digs into what the bodies tell us, and what they still don't. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.c...
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  Eps.83: Sacred Groves 31.08.2026 22min

  The sacred grove — a patch of forest set apart by custom and belief — appears in nearly every culture that has ever lived beside trees. Join host Shelby Bundy as she discusses what made a grove holy in Celtic, Indian, and Greco-Roman traditions, how those spaces functioned as sites of ritual and protection, and what happened to the reverence when the groves were cleared. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklist: The Moon in Carolina at BookShop.org ✨ Cours...
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  Eps. 82: Summer Storytime-The Fires 10.08.2026 15min

  In this between-episodes offering of The Moon in Carolina, host (and occasional storyteller) Shelby Bundy shares a short story she wrote in the depths of a past winter. The Fires is inspired by the old manor she lives in and the ghosts she lives with — written as part of her Literature and Creative Writing Master's program at Harvard, and shared here for the first time. Settle in for a little story about an old house in Appalachia. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 ...
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  Eps. 81: The Folklore of Fireflies 03.08.2026 23min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores what people across thousands of years and dozens of cultures have believed about fireflies — and finds the same belief arriving, independently, again and again: that small lights moving through the dark are the souls of the dead, keeping close. From the Japanese hotaru poems of the 8th-century Man'yoshu to the Cherokee tradition connecting fireflies to sacred fire and intentional guidance, and into the hollow coves of Appalac...
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  Eps. 80: Sacred Animals of the Divine Feminine 22.07.2026 25min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the sacred animals of the divine feminine — the serpent, the bear, and the cow — and what it means that the same three animals kept appearing alongside goddesses across cultures that had no contact with one another. From the Minoan snake goddess of Knossos to Wadjet and Asherah's serpent pillar; to Artemis and the bear-girls of Brauron, Shelby traces how these pairings encoded something true about feminine sacred power. She a...
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  Eps.79: The Devils Tramping Ground 15.07.2026 24min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the American tradition of devil-named places — over a thousand of them — and what it means that humans have always marked the land where the land pushes back. The episode centers on the Devil's Tramping Ground in Chatham County, North Carolina: a forty-foot bare circle in the longleaf pines where objects move overnight, dogs refuse to enter, and soil tests reveal elevated salt content with no natural explanation. From there, ...
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  Eps.78: Shapeshifters: Circe, Proteus & the Selkie 08.07.2026 21min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores three of mythology's great shapeshifters — Circe, Proteus, and the selkie — and the thread they share: the one who changes is the one who sees most clearly. Circe's transformations reveal what was already running beneath the surface of her visitors; Proteus releases the truth only when you hold him through every form he takes; the selkie's two natures are both completely real, and the tragedy is the world's inability to hold ...
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  Eps.77: The Night Hag 26.06.2026 27min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the night hag — the figure who sits on your chest while you sleep, pins you to the bed, and leaves you certain something was in the room. The experience is one of the most universally reported in human history, and the traditions built around it are remarkably consistent: the Germanic mara, the Newfoundland Old Hag documented by folklorist David Hufford, Queen Mab in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the Hmong dab tsog — a ...
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  Eps.76: Solar Deities 10.06.2026 23min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the mythology of the sun — the deities across world traditions who were understood to carry the light, fight for it, and in some cases withdraw it entirely. We look at Ra, the Egyptian sun god who sailed his barque through the underworld each night and battled the serpent Apophis before every dawn could come. At the Greek figures of Helios and Apollo, who represent two very different ideas about what the sun actually means. A...
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  Eps. 75: Women Blamed Pt. 2- Medusa, Lamia & Scylla 01.06.2026 22min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the origin stories of three of Greek mythology's most feared women — and what those origins reveal about how monsters get made. Circe, the sorceress who transforms men into pigs. Lamia, the child-devouring queen. Scylla, the creature in the strait who drags sailors to their deaths. Each of these figures has a story that predates the monster version, and in each case, the transformation follows a recognizable pattern: a ...
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  Eps. 74: The Women in the Walls 20.05.2026 23min

  In episode 74 of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy explores the world of anchoresses — medieval women who chose to be walled into a small stone cell attached to a church and spend the rest of their lives there. It was voluntary, sanctioned by the church, and for many of them, genuinely liberating. Inside the cell, they had something almost no woman of their era could access: solitude, time, authority, and a room of their own. This episode looks at why women chose the wall,...
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  Eps.73: The Bones of the Earth 29.04.2026 26min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, we explore the folklore of stones and soil—the materials beneath our feet that humans have worked with for thousands of years. Across myth and tradition, stones have marked sacred places, protected homes, chosen kings, and stood witness to the passage of generations. Soil, meanwhile, holds the memory of life itself, carrying the traces of forests, animals, and people who have returned to the earth. From Greek mythology and Irish legend to Appalac...
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  Eps. 72: Weather Witches 22.04.2026 25min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy explores the long history of people who believed they could speak to and influence the weather — from the Sámi noaidi who sold knotted wind-cords to sailors, to village rainmakers, to the cunning folk who turned storms away from grain fields. Shelby tells the story of Agnes Sampson, a Scottish midwife executed in 1591 whose trial shaped witchcraft law for a century, and traces how weather accusations became one of the most com...
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  Eps. 71: Women Blamed Pt. 1: Pandora, Eve & Lilith 01.04.2026 22min

  Across cultures, myths often explain the hardships of human life through the actions of a single woman. In this first episode of a new series, we explore three of the earliest examples: Pandora, Eve, and Lilith. Each story describes a moment when a woman crossed a boundary, sought knowledge, or refused submission, and the consequences were said to change the world forever. This episode examines the myths themselves and the long tradition of placing the blame for humanity’s struggles on the sh...
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  Eps.70: Ancestral Seeds & Stories We Inherit 25.03.2026 25min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, we explore the stories that move through families across generations. From inherited traditions to emotional patterns shaped by the past, this conversation looks at how the experiences of our ancestors continue to influence the present, and how awareness can help us shape a different path for the generations that follow. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklist: The Moon in Carolina at BookShop.org ✨ Courses: Learn My...
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  Eps.69: Egg Magic in Folklore & Spellcraft 18.03.2026 23min

  With Ostara approaching and the season shifting toward spring, eggs take center stage as symbols of renewal and new life. In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, we explore egg magick through myth, folklore, and seasonal tradition—from cosmic creation stories to folk practices involving healing, protection, and divination. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklist: The Moon in Carolina at BookShop.org ✨ Courses: Learn Myth, Astrology, Tarot, Shadow Wor...
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  Eps. 68: Mythic Brothers- Sleep & Death 04.03.2026 20min

  In Greek mythology, Sleep and Death were brothers. Hypnos, the god of sleep, visited each night through dreams, while Thanatos, the god of death, arrived only once to guide the soul beyond life. In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the myth of these twin figures and the ancient belief that sleep may be a small rehearsal for death, along with the ways different cultures have understood the mysterious connection between sleep, dreams, and the afterlife. 🖤 You ...
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  Eps. 67: The Missing Queen of Heaven 18.02.2026 24min

  In this episode of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy takes a deep dive into ancient religions, seeking the missing queen of Heaven. Historical record tells us of a time when God had a wife and the divine was a lived experience, close to home, and embodied. Listen in as we find her, remember her, and learn why she was erased from the official theological record. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklist: The Moon in Carolina at BookShop.org ✨ Courses: ...
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  Eps. 66: Q&A with Kate Belew 11.02.2026 39min

  In episode 66 of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy is joined one last time by her winter season co-host, Kate Belew. In this final episode of the winter series, Shelby and Kate answer listener-submitted questions, including past lives, favorite pop culture witches and movies, moon cycles, and what we plan to do in the upcoming year. Listen in as they talk about spells, rituals, and what the upcoming year holds. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklis...