The Daily: 14 August 2024

Things to look forward to... a full moon I did my graduate work amid people who studied bits of foreign places like comets, exploded planets, asteroids, and moons. I have held pieces of our satellite moon in my hand and looked at the structure of its minerals through powerful lenses. My own work was focused… Continue reading The Daily: 14 August 2024

The Daily: 22 July 2024

The Old Farmer's Almanac says that it's time to start paying attention to the potatoes. In my garden you can hardly not pay attention to them. The potatoes are reaching out and grabbing attention. Passers-by are rubber-necking the veg. The potatoes are so prolific this year, I'm afraid there might be accidents. It's starting to… Continue reading The Daily: 22 July 2024

The Daily: 16 July 2024

It's the age old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Or maybe, why do bad things happen at all? Though we would like for more of the people we consider bad to suffer the bad things... schadenfreude is a bitch... Most of the world's religions are attempts to grapple with the apparent… Continue reading The Daily: 16 July 2024

The Daily: 23 June 2024

Tonight is the night that Shakespeare had faeries running amok in the woods around Athens. This is Midsummer's Night, tomorrow being Midsummer's Day. Folklore has it that this is the best time to go find the Good Folk, though lore also makes it pretty clear that you may be in for trouble if you do.… Continue reading The Daily: 23 June 2024

The Daily: 22 June 2024

June 22nd is the feast day of St Alban, one of the first British martyrs to the Christian faith, a sort of protomartyr, in fact. It is said that Alban was beheaded by Roman authorities on this date, though the year this happened may be any time between 209 and 304. Stained-glass portrait of St… Continue reading The Daily: 22 June 2024

The Daily: 18 June 2024

I am reading Gods-Speaking by Judith O’Grady, a slim but thorough treatise — or perhaps rather long essay — on the phenomena of talking to beings that are not human and may not be completely of this world. It has set me investigating all sorts of rabbit holes, not least of which are the multitude… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2024

The Daily: 27 February 2024

After yesterday's diatribe, I feel rather talked out... but there are a few points that did not get made... somehow... In all the discussion of capitalism and its discontents, there is one thing that is often brushed away, like an annoying gnat. Capitalism is horrible. We acknowledge that. We know that it is destructive. It… Continue reading The Daily: 27 February 2024

The Daily: 23 January 2024

We live in a culture of self-harm, a culture that is antithetical to life, that is anti-life. Those of us who live in daily contact with human-built environments are immersed in toxins, in unnumbered mechanical hazards, and in an ocean of damaging electromagnetic radiation. We subject our fragile bodies to impacts and collisions ranging from… Continue reading The Daily: 23 January 2024

The Daily: 24 December 2023

Have you noticed that, though post-agricultural cultures are mostly patriarchic and often grossly misogynistic, much if not most of ritual, imagery, and myth is centered on women? This is because the major pagan celebrations, those that form the bones of our ritual calendar, largely honor female deities, or, if they are male, then they're only… Continue reading The Daily: 24 December 2023

The Daily: 4 December 2023

The weather continues to be challenging here. With Monday's wet snow, I had half a lilac bush break apart and fall onto my composter. That was a fun clean-up project. Power has been intermittent all week. Trees that were weakened by Monday's storm gave up when the weather turned colder and windier, and so they… Continue reading The Daily: 4 December 2023