Talking Animals and Medicine People: The Supernaturalism of the Upstate Iroquois One of the world’s most impressive storytelling traditions is that of the six New York Iroquois nations. The Longhouse folk who call themselves Hodenosaunee populated the hills, woods and creeks of the upstate with a virtual zoo of supernatural beings, and their imaginations thrilled to […]
In my last post I referred to the beautiful fable given us by the young bardic poet Dónall Ó Héalaà at the home of Andrea and Owen O Suilleabhain. It was about the Gaelic champion Conan and the villagers who were helping him haul his treasure-chest back to the High King at Tara. The villagers […]
I mentioned the wonderful little party I attended last week at the home of Owen O Suilleabhain. I was there just long enough to meet everyone and hear the young bardic poet Dónall Ó Héalaí give us a preview presentation before his foray west and his upcoming Tedtalk. Let’s all wish him deserved success! Donall’s […]
[Supernatural folklore and ancient monuments go hand in hand in Europe. In the Americas, the connection is not so well known.] When the first historic European cultures, the Celts, moved into northern and western Europe, they found the landscape marked by the monuments of an earlier people. Many of them were apparently simple constructions of […]
The Iroquois nations of upstate New York have as developed a tradition of Little People – “the Djogao,” the “Jungies,” the fairies – as any folk on earth. The wee folk still surface now and again, if reports are to be believed. The young guys hang out at a certain tobacco shop on the Tuscarora […]
[The idea that any person or family could be cursed by a single month is one thing. The chance that there could be any validity to it is another. From the Southern side of my family comes this apparent phenomenon they always called, “the January Curse.”] Astronomical portents and synchronistic curses are such legendary subjects […]
The title of this quick end-of-the-year article is inspired by Guy Lyon Playfair’s 1980 book on the shocking two-year episode of the Enfield poltergeist (North London, UK), which Playfair investigated with Maurice Grosse starting in 1977. Playfair is also known for some electrifying studies of the spiritism of Brazil. (See The Flying Cow, 1975.) He […]
(A Reflection from December 2012) 1 In many parts of the world it’s been believed that we share the earth with natural presences often envisioned as small, magically powerful, humanlike beings. In legend, these Fairies/Little People have a circumstantial connection to the human dead and a deep interest in human children. Protectors of the natural […]
It’s time to bid the earthly farewell to Dorothy Louise Clough (August 1, 1923-December 5, 2017). She was one of the grand dames of East Aurora and a matron spirit of Roycroft. Unforgettable is one word for Dorothy. Particularly in her last decade, she had a tendency to call things just the way she saw […]
The common term for a significant period of hysteria about some kind of typically paranormal subject is flap. I’ve seen flaps about upstate New York involving UFOs, Men-in-Black, cases of suspected possession, violent hauntings, paranormal zones, earthly vortexes, lake-lizards, religious miracles, active curses, and surely other things I’ve forgotten to mention. Flaps tend to start […]