Imaginal Fieldwalkers Podcast

Donna Shilling

The Imaginal Fieldwalkers Podcast invites listeners to step into the realms of imagination, dreams, and ancient wisdom. Hosted by Donna Shilling - your fellow wayfarer and cosmic stewardess - this series explores the mysterious landscapes of consciousness through storytelling, reflection, and playful curiosity. Each episode offers a journey to re-member our ancestral roots and engage in the subtle art of re-enchanting the modern world. This is a space for curious souls and open hearts to wonder, wander, and shapeshift through the Imaginal fields together. imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com

Episodes

  1. 08/16/2025

    Speaking Stones: From Flint to Silicon – Dreaming with Ancient Technologies in a Modern World

    This episode explores the evolution of human technologies through our relationship with stone — from the ancient arts of firestone flintknapping and megalithic monument building, to designing silicon chips and AI. If we can bypass our boggle thresholds, I wonder how we might tune into the frequency of stones, and listen for the messages they may be holding for receptive humans. Sharing stories of my embodied experience with flintknapping, and a series of dreams with these ancient technologies, we’ll reflect on how our intentionality, discernment, and consent can shape our relationships with technology in this digital age - and ask what it truly means to be human in a modern world. Show notes | References | Resources: Bareham, Tristan – Railway Land: Ancient Skills series https://www.railwaylandproject.org/adult-learning Hunter, Dr. Jack – Imaginal Ecologies lecture series https://jack-hunter.yourwebsitespace.com McCabe, Pat - The Science of Right Relations - Sacred Masculine, Sacred Feminine, & Divine Consent Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed. BBC Documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s5xm The Future World – A Conversation between Carissa Véliz and Àlex Gómez-Marín This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com

  2. 06/11/2025

    Following the Deer Path: Clay, Devotion and the Mother Goddess

    Welcome back to the second episode of the Imaginal Fieldwalkers podcast, where I introduce my deer ally and share fieldnotes from a time-travelling journey with her to meet an ancient female ancestor in the Neolithic. In this episode, we peek into the field of archaeomythology and the visionary work of Marija Gimbutas, whose life was devoted to understanding the Goddess cultures of Old Europe in prehistory. We’ll explore symbolic representations of the divine through goddess figurines, and the deep spirituality woven into everyday life in this pre-patriarchal time, when the regenerative feminine principle was revered. I’ll also share my personal journey into working with clay, and how connecting with the earth through our hands might lead us to remember something of the cosmology of the ancestors, through the wisdom of our bodies. We’ll reflect on how we might begin to return to a devotional practice and I’ll tell the story of meeting the Mother Goddess. Show notes | References | Resources: Campbell, Joseph – Foreword to Gimbutas, Marija (1989) The Language Of The Goddesses Gimbutas, Marija (1999) The Living Goddesses Gutierrez, Gabriela (2023) When Women Were The Shamans: In the Neolithic Settlements of Old Europe https://www.gabrielamairgutierrez.com/about-1-3 / https://gabrielamgutierrez.substack.com Taylor, Ruby - Native Hands Woodland Courses: Wild Pottery and Women’s Wild Pottery https://nativehands.co.uk/wild-pottery-courses This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com

  3. 04/13/2025

    What is Important to You?

    Join me in this first episode, as we explore where some of the ideas for the Imaginal Fieldwalkers podcast were first seeded at the beginning of the millennium. In the wake of September 11th, I took a long fieldwalk from Devon to London, asking everyone I met: What is important to You? Reflecting on that homeward bound pilgrimage and my research, half a lifetime ago, into walking as a creative practice and the art of navigating, I wonder into how we might orient ourselves in these present uncertain conditions. What is important to us now? What paths are we treading that other people might follow up? Accepting that information may only come in glimpses in the Imaginal field, what does it look like when we open up our perception to begin re-membering the stories of the land? Let’s journey together, sharing fieldnotes along the way, as we learn to attune ourselves, to listen and co-create with the more than human world. Show notes | References | Resources: https://imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com/podcast This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com

    What is Important to You?
  • 3 Episodes

About

The Imaginal Fieldwalkers Podcast invites listeners to step into the realms of imagination, dreams, and ancient wisdom. Hosted by Donna Shilling - your fellow wayfarer and cosmic stewardess - this series explores the mysterious landscapes of consciousness through storytelling, reflection, and playful curiosity. Each episode offers a journey to re-member our ancestral roots and engage in the subtle art of re-enchanting the modern world. This is a space for curious souls and open hearts to wonder, wander, and shapeshift through the Imaginal fields together. imaginalfieldwalkers.substack.com

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