Top: Evening Primrose flowers growing in the fairy section of a witch’s garden Thinking of you while out for a ramble Down by a cold frosty stream Set down on a bed of hemlocks and primroses And gently I fell into a dream I dreamed I saw a pretty fair maiden Such beauty I’d never […]
Journal
Pagan holidays: Litha … On summer solstice celebrations, and the dangerous similarities between modern paganism and evangelical Christianity
On the wheel of the year listing pagan holidays, Litha is perhaps the most problematic. This hit home to me when I read a blog post recently, from someone who was going to Stonehenge on Midsummer’s morning, to celebrate Litha in the manner of their celtic ancestors. Bloggers aren’t known for accuracy, but what really stuck […]
Lakey’s Ghost: On folklore and folk horror from the prairie, and how the legend of the headless horseman galloped westward across an ocean and a continent
On Lakey’s Ghost from John W. Allen; Legends & Lore of Southern Illinois … Until recent years it was a common custom to go calling on neighbors in the evening and “set until bedtime.” There were no telephones, television sets, or radios for entertainment. There were no automobiles nor were there any roads for them to travel. […]
My Death
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning that the lesson today is how to die. Bob Geldof Dying is something we all face, whether we think about it or not. For most of my life, if I thought about it, it was to find ways to avoid it. I turned 58 years old […]
The Secret of the Raven: At the end of Poe’s life, one finds the unexpected … hope
Poe and The Raven’s lost Lenore? One of the last photos of Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, about the same time. I spent much of the past eighteen months living with Edgar Allan Poe. I can’t say I knew the man when I first started. I had some travel experiences with him, […]
Haunted Plymouth: The macabre history of Plymouth, Mass., where Pilgrim and native American spirits haunt side by side
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
Monkshood is one of the more deadly plants in the witch’s garden. It was also one of the plants closely associated with the witch’s flying ointment. A look at this diabolical botanical, and how it differs from its cousin, the legendary wolfsbane.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
