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 parents with instilling in me a love for pagan sexuality. Not intentionally – they didn’t advocate any kind of sex. It’s something that was only mentioned a couple times […]
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 wrote about the tune Maighdean Mhara Mhullach Mhoir, or The Maid or more precise, The Mermaid of Mullaghmore. I was driving up the coast of Donegal, on the way to the village of Teelin, […]
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 fact, they are spread out not only across this country, but others as well. Nobody knows where, or even if there was a place where this legend springs from, a single […]
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 full autumnal glory. The one next to it is completed denuded. I’m walking on leaves much of the time and there aren’t many sounds better than […]
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 that. _______ We were riding through the country at night, southwest Indiana, a very German part of the state, attending a German festival in St. Wendel. My grandfather […]
From the witch’s garden, Meadowsweet, a love potion as well as a balm for aching hearts
A look at Meadowsweet, a wildflower traditionally thought of as an omen of love. But with any love potion, it works best when love is already present from the start.
