Beyond the Outer Realm - Samhain- The Roots of Halloween with Luke Eastwood

Beyond The Outer Realm welcomes back Luke Eastwood from Ireland
Date: October 14th, 2025
EP: 627
TOPIC: Luke will be discussing his book " Samhain- The Roots of Halloween"

About The Book:
A full history of the festival of Halloween

‘An excellent and comprehensive exploration of this fascinating subject.’ - Philip Carr-Gomm, author Druid Mysteries

‘Samhain was the entry point into winter, a time of hardship, cold and hunger … It was also a time of introspection, of communing with the dead and the otherworld – themes that have somehow survived, albeit distorted, into the modern era.’

The modern celebration of Halloween is derived from the ancient festival of the dead known in Ireland as Samhain. It is from Ireland that we have inherited most of our Halloween traditions, mainly through the diaspora. Delving into the ancient past, this book uncovers the history of this festival in Britain, Ireland and Brittany, including the forgotten goddess Tlachtga and the sacred temple of the Druids in Co. Meath, where the first Halloween fires were lit.

Where to buy it:
https://a.co/d/bmgICF7

Contact for the show -
[email protected]

Michelle Desrochers and The Outer Realm :https://linktr.ee/michelledesrochers_

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About Luke:
I have been involved in the arts in some shape or form since I was a teenager. I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland but spent most of my childhood and all my teenage years in Kent and Surrey, England. At 19 I moved to London to study at university and this was the beginning of my development into a semi-professional or professional artist, designer, musician, photographer and writer.

In 1990, at university, I discovered the Apple MacIntosh computer which I immediately fell in love with, leading to my interest in digital art and Graphic Design (which became my career), following a stint in Mitre House Publishing for my degree industrial placement and writing for the university magazine Cityscape.

I began writing poetry at the age of 15, pretty badly I might add. Over time I developed my own style of both poetry and prose. My first article was published in 1991 but a year after leaving university I left journalism aside for other activities (mainly music) until the early 2000s when I began to write more frequently. For most of the 1990s I concentrated on my band Children Of Dub and released several albums and singles during that time. A multitude of my articles in magazines and websites have been appearing in recent years, which you can find on my articles page. In 2005 my first book, on spiritual wisdom, "The Journey" was published under the pseudonym Joseph Dawton. In 2006 I was editor of a collection of poetry entitled "Where The Hazel Falls", featuring some of my poems, as well as eight other authors in Ireland.

My first book to be published without the use of a pseudonym was "The Druid's Primer" in 2012, which is a non-fiction book on Druidry. A revised and expanded edition of "The Journey", was published in UK and USA by Moon Books, in late 2012. My first solo collection of poetry "Through The Cracks In The Concrete The Wilderness Grows" was published in 2016 through Killkenny Druidry College Press and "Kerry Folk Tales" (with Gary Branigan) was published in summer 2019 through The History Press. "How To Save The Planet" was published by Electric Publications in November 2019. "5th Element" by Children Of Dub was released on CD in March 2020, followed by a 2xCD best-of compilation "Evolution 1993-2020".

In April 2021 "The Druid Garden" was published by Moon Books, swiftly followed by "Samhain: The Roots of Halloween" from The History Press in September 2021. In April 2022 "Dingle Folk Tales" was pubished through Electric Publications, featuring stories entirely from the Dingle Peninsula, on the west coast of Ireland. I am currently working on several more books for 2023/24 and beyond and have returned to occasional photographic work after a long break from it.

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