1 So I admit it. I let the food run low for Disko and Fortnight over the weekend. It looked like there was just enough Science Diet to make it till Monday, and I meant to visit the vets before noon on Saturday to stock up just in case. But I had to go to […]
[Through back-channels I heard the story of a Canadian boy who may have been studied in Toronto in the 1990s. He had some disability, possibly Downs Syndrome, and it was said that when he became agitated, some impressive psychic phenomena could get started. Everyone interpreted the flying objects and other unexplained physical effects as threatening […]
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 […]
[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 […]
(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 […]
[There’s the old tale about the man walking on the beach where countless starfish have been pitched up by a wave to dehydrate and die at low tide. He spends his day pitching them back one by one into the water. “You can never save them all,” someone said as he reared back for another […]
People can talk to you all they want about the old meanings – the spiritual significance – of Halloween/Samhain/the Celtic Day of the Dead. Intellectual understanding is a lot different from emotional significance. For those who understand and in some sense respond to it, the last night of October is a powerful point of the […]
Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite Call’d Robin Goodfellow… William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Halloween for most of us is just a seasonal event. Many people enjoy the chance to don costumes and prance about. We probably all enjoy the intriguing imagery of […]
Traditions about races of magical, more-or-less human beings – fairies, leprechauns, Little People – exist in the folklore of many parts of the world. If the average person has an impression of their cultural origins, he or she probably thinks most often of Ireland. The Irish certainly stand out for their reverence and even pride […]