“It is only by enlarging the scope of one’s tastes and one’s fantasies, by sacrificing everything to pleasure, that the unfortunate individual called … [Read more...] about The Hoe and The Rake
Raising the Dead: The Dark Side of Love
On pagan sexuality, getting laid in the seventies, the great god Pan, the Marquis de Sade and the mating habits of goats
Top: Statue of Pan, The Eagles Nest, Northport, Long Island Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced. Marquis de Sade I credit my … [Read more...] about On pagan sexuality, getting laid in the seventies, the great god Pan, the Marquis de Sade and the mating habits of goats
An Irish folk tale, Maid of Mullaghmore and memories of Muckross Head, county Donegal
I once spent about a week hanging out with Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, noted Donegal fiddler and historian, particularly on all things Donegal fiddle. He … [Read more...] about An Irish folk tale, Maid of Mullaghmore and memories of Muckross Head, county Donegal
Why do lovers leap? Native American myths and a lookout from Rock City, high above Chattanooga, Tennessee
Mark Twain wrote in the nineteenth century that there were fifty locations along the Mississippi River that claimed the title of lover's leap. In … [Read more...] about Why do lovers leap? Native American myths and a lookout from Rock City, high above Chattanooga, Tennessee
On the artist’s wife … Catherine and William Blake, both visionaries in their own way, and an undying love that conquers the grave
Nov 28, 2017 I’ve been walking around town after dark. It’s pretty quiet, a small town and not much going on. Down the street is a tree still in … [Read more...] about On the artist’s wife … Catherine and William Blake, both visionaries in their own way, and an undying love that conquers the grave
For the love of witches
MY FIRST MEMORY OF THE WORD WITCH happened when I was young, maybe five or six, though it's likely I’d heard of witches in fairy tales before … [Read more...] about For the love of witches
From the witch’s garden, Meadowsweet, a love potion as well as a balm for aching hearts
Top: Meadowsweet, right, growing along a path by the river Avon, Barton Country Farm, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. I have a soft spot for Meadowsweet. … [Read more...] about From the witch’s garden, Meadowsweet, a love potion as well as a balm for aching hearts
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
"The death... of a beautiful woman" is "unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world" Edgar Allan Poe Ligeia is a curious one in the Poe … [Read more...] about Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
Deadly Nightshade: From Witch’s flying potions, to the beauty of the women of Venice, to death from the sweet berries of Atropa Belladonna
Deadly Nightshade ... will you die for love? Will you die for beauty? Will you die for powers beyond your wildest imagination. That's the allure of … [Read more...] about Deadly Nightshade: From Witch’s flying potions, to the beauty of the women of Venice, to death from the sweet berries of Atropa Belladonna
Haunted Inns of New England, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn and the ghost of Jerusha Howe
One Autumn night, in Sudbury town, Across the meadows bare and brown, The windows of the wayside inn Gleamed red with fire-light through the … [Read more...] about Haunted Inns of New England, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn and the ghost of Jerusha Howe
