An excerpt from issue 30 of Hag Stone Journal: In some versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Red’s encounter with the wolf is so transformative that she becomes a werewolf– a human that transforms into a wolf, or a human-wolf hybrid. In some stories, Little Red escapes the wolf, kills it, and trades in her […]
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Venus-Aphrodite
The month of April was dedicated to the goddess Venus in Ancient Rome, and their word for April, Aprilis, came from the verb aperire, “to open”. The Fasti Praenestini, the Roman calendar, described Aprilis as the time when “fruits and flowers and animals and seas and lands do open”. When I think of the goddess […]
Read More...Phases of the Moon
Tomorrow, April 5th, is the New Moon – a time for a fresh start, a new beginning. April 19th is the Full Moon, the Pink Moon, also known as Hare Moon, Egg Moon, and Paschal Moon.
Read More...Grow a witchy garden
Against a dark sky all flowers look like fireworks. There is something strange about them, at once vivid and secret, like flowers traced in fire in the phantasmal garden of a witch.” – G.K. Chesterton What flowers should you grow in your witch’s garden, amongst the herbs for your potions and your outdoor altar? Foxglove, […]
Read More...Searching through the forest for mushrooms and Baba Yaga.
Many depictions in art of the Russian folk witch Baba Yaga show her with mushrooms, especially the Fly Agaric (the red-capped, white-spotted mushroom also associated in children’s illustrations with fairies and gnomes). As Baba Yaga is Russia’s most famous witch, hunting mushrooms is Russia’s favorite pastime, and both Baba Yaga and mushrooms are found in […]
Read More...Kindred Spirits
“It has always seemed to me, ever since early childhood, amid all the commonplaces of life, I was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty. Between it and me hung only a thin veil. I could never draw it quite aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I caught a glimpse of the […]
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