Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The Day of the Dead In Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom, he says that a “man” does not fear death. “Fear of death is our animal nature,” he claims. I don’t know that any part of that is accurate. To be sure, we have a very unhealthy relationship to death. We tell ourselves stories of our… Continue reading The Daily: 2 November 2025
All Hallows: An Entanglement Today is All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, with all the sweet treats, riotous good fun, and spooky debauchery that entails. Tomorrow is All Saints Day, All Hallows, a reincarnation of the ancient Irish festival called Samhain, which means “end of summer”. Samhain is one of the few clear remnants from at least… Continue reading The Daily: 31 October 2025
The word pagan is not unlike the word witch. Both were pejorative labels for outsiders. Both would likely earn a body substantial abuse. And both have been reclaimed in late modern times, though it would be more accurate to say that these words have been redefined, almost completely. Witch means nothing of what it once… Continue reading The Daily: 29 October 2025
The Harvest Moon west dark yesterday at 8:25am my time. Today, begins the 13th and final moon in my annual round, the Hunter's Moon. Many folks seem to think this moon is named for the hunting season. This is neither temporally nor mythically correct. It is not yet hunting season, if by hunt you mean… Continue reading The Daily: 22 October 2025
Today is Indigenous Peoples's Day in my part of the world. It is actually a holiday in my office, so I'm in the kitchen rather than at my desk. For me, today is Apple Day... making apple-tomato chutney, applesauce, apple butter and probably some apple bread... because I went to Burtt's yesterday. But I'm not… Continue reading The Daily: 13 October 2025
The Harvest Moon is full today at 11:47pm my time. Moonrise is at 5:55 tonight, preceding fullness by less than six hours and sunset by about twenty minutes, eliminating the time of darkness between sunlight and moonlight. This is the Harvest Moon because it is closest to the autumn equinox, and geometry at this time… Continue reading The Daily: 6 October 2025
October 4th is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands with one palm out, feeding… Continue reading The Daily: 4 October 2024
Sunday’s ramble into dark corners of mythography was triggered by yet another authoritative assertion that the Harvest Lord used to be a bloody sacrifice. But it was also, more subconsciously, inspired by much of the reading I’ve been doing in the blogosphere lately where many people are wrestling with questions of who we are. What… Continue reading The Daily: 30 September 2025
The ancient world of the Mediterranean and Near East has a great number of interesting mythological beings. Some are related to old gods and tutelary spirits. Some are fairly accurate illustrations of the anxieties of humankind — or maybe mankind, since women didn't have much of a voice. Some are just ludicrous. One of my… Continue reading The Daily: 29 September 2025
I read quite a lot of folklore, mostly tied to the ritual year in temperate climates, mostly those regions where I understand the languages and cultures, mostly places I have lived or have personally known through family and friends. So, mostly those places influenced or reshaped (as in my own country) by EuroWestern colonial culture.… Continue reading The Daily: 28 September 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 