Haunted Plymouth has been known as America’s hometown over more than four centuries, and its history stretches back even further than that. Ghosts and hauntings seem to attach themselves to locations over time … houses, buildings of all sorts, even woods and entire towns. Plymouth has seen its share of real life horror stories, and […]
Monkshood: A deadly poison and essential ingredient in witch’s flying ointments makes its first appearance in the witch’s garden
This was the first year I’ve had Monkshood in my witch’s garden. I had tried growing it from seed with no luck. I have little patience for slow germinating seeds. But I found a source for live plants and ordered a couple. Both survived and even bloomed, unusual for Monkshood in its first year. It […]
What is Halloween? On visitations by the dead, a bit of necromancy, sixties trick or treating in in drag, and a seismic switch in films that changed Halloween forever
What is Halloween? A look at Halloween traditions of the past What is Halloween and why the focus on the dead? It’s a boon to necromancers, the day when the dead are most inclined to rise up and join us in the world. Perhaps all it takes is a little pull from this side, and […]
Dame Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny, Ireland: A poisoner? Quite likely. A witch? Perhaps. A fighter? Absolutely.
DAME ALICE KYTELER was the culprit in the first successful witch trial in Ireland, if you can consider having an unfortunate woman burned at the stake successful. Alice however didn’t burn. She escaped the flames, leaving her maid servant Petronella de Meath to become the first Irish victim of the witch hunts. A wildcat of […]
Eating Poe: Poe in Baltimore, his last act on the mortal stage, living and dying in the shadow of the sea
And so we find Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore. Those who look to unravel the mystery of how Poe died here are chasing windmills or chasing a buck. There’s a good reason we’ll never know the truth about Poe in Baltimore on his fateful last visit. It’s none of our business. Dying is a private […]
Our summer magazine looks at Edgar Allan Poe’s life and finds some surprises
Living with Edgar, or how Poe crept into my head and taught me the truth about the raven The summer issue of our magazine takes a tour of Poe related sights and eateries in Charleston, New York City and Baltimore, with a side trip into Richmond where Poe grew up. Also included is Living With […]
Eating Poe: Part Three, Poe’s life New York City, where he found fame, tragedy and madness, and I search Il Buco for The Cask of Amontillado
It’s a tantalizing legend, that the building that now houses Il Buco in New York City was the macabre inspiration in Poe’s life for the setting of The Cask of Amontillado. The places Poe touched in Manhattan and the Bronx can still be found, though in most cases the surroundings are unrecognizable from his day. So […]
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
I first read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe in high school. I was lucky enough to attend a school which gave the option of studying the literature of Poe and Twain in more depth, and I jumped at the chance. My teacher, Gary Harrison loves both authors, but was particularly animated about Poe. […]
A return to Bardstown, Kentucky: Spending the night in a cell at the Jailer’s Inn, a haunted jail in a town known around the world for its ghosts
The only troubling sound I heard the night I spent in the Jailer’s Inn in Bardstown, Kentucky was the sound of a cell door closing. There are two reasons I found that disturbing. First, the jail was shut down late in the twentieth century, so there are no inmates, and it’s unlikely the staff was […]
Pondering why landscapes become sacred and the mysteries of the Uffington White Horse, Uffington Castle and White Horse Hill
A month ago I stood atop a long barrow on White Horse Hill, with the grass covered chalk walls of Uffington Castle behind me, the galloping Uffington White Horse below me, and pondered a question for which there is no answer. What makes a landscape sacred? Is sacred the right word? Mystic perhaps. What makes […]
The hammer of the gods still ring out at Wayland’s Smithy, a long barrow chamber tomb nestled in a secluded grove in Oxfordshire
The chambered tombs and long barrows of Britain have long tickled the imagination, and perhaps none more so than Wayland’s Smithy. Perhaps it’s the stand of beech trees enclosing it which makes it feel more intimate, more hushed. Unlike West Kennet Long Barrow near Avebury, sitting exposed to the wind and the rain, high on […]
Celebrating the Cowslip on May Day morning in the witch’s garden
Cowslip is staple of British folklore, herbalism and literature … And I serve the Fairy Queen To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be. In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours; In those freckles live their savours. I must go seek some dewdrops here, And […]
