Traditional Craft intersecting with Folk Tales

Buy a wart? Ode to silver water? Pop a penny under the mat? Rid yourself of a croaky throat? Divine your future with horse brasses? 

Poor old feet have their own superstitions: an itching foot = a journey to somewhere new; Flat feet = bad temper; do not enter a building left foot first, to avoid bad luck.

Itching eyes: if the right eye tickles, it's lucky, and vice versa. Theocritus has it, 'My right eye itches now and I shall see my love.' 

'Trust not the man whose eyebrows meet, for in his heart you'll find deceit.'  Hmm, perhaps I'll ignore the latter eh husband?

The list is goes on and on: First Footings; the first sneeze of a newborn breaks the spell o' the fey;

You only have to look and you'll find much of our past in the present, much is written in the folk hostory accounts of authors such as Christina Hole and Anne Ross (representing a long list of wonderfully informative researchers and authors). Music and TV sometimes bring forth our connections with the past and make us see the deep and abiding circular paths we all tread...what 'old wives tales' can you think of that form parts of your story and family-have you ever followed them back to see their origins?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e196Jsd-oQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2oFmOEC7I
Wood carving taken from Pip WIlson's "Witches of Warbois" site
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/witches_of_warbois.html

Oops we may have been a bit slack here!!!

Thanks to Caroline Tully for the following:

Dear Everyone,

Scoop!

As you are well aware, Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol in the UK who is known amongst Pagans for his writings on topics dear to our hearts such as the ritual year in Britain, ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and modern Pagan witchcraft. The book he is arguably most famous for, at least amongst modern witches, is The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (OUP, 1999). This book has been received positively by many leading Pagans, as well as Pagan Studies scholars, amongst whom Hutton is considered to be a trailblazer responsible for making the study of modern Paganism acceptable within academia, thus paving the way for younger scholars to investigate it via disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, religious studies, theology, history and archaeology. Other Pagans have not been so pleased with his work however, and in January of this year – over a decade after the publication of The Triumph of the Moon – a vitriolic war of words erupted on the internet as a result of discussion over a publication by New Zealand Wiccan, Ben Whitmore, called Trials of the Moon. 

I have had the good fortune to interview Professor Hutton on this topic and I urge you to check it out at my blog ‘Necropolis Now’ http://necropolisnow.blogspot.com/

I hope you find the interview as interesting as I do.

~Caroline Tully.

 

The Magical Art of Aaron Pocock

For many, many years I have been a fan of the fantasy artist Arthur Rackham, but recently I have discovered an artist who is wonderfully similar, but still has his own style. I have been privileged to get to know this artist this year, and on facebook he 'wows' his friends everyday by posting up his 'daily sketches' which is does as a morning 'warm-up' before getting to work on the illustrations for his commissioned work.

A few days ago, I asked Aaron Pocock to draw an image for the Mount Franklin Annual Pagan Gathering Blog - a Hawthorn spirit - the hawthorn representing the May, thus representing Beltane.
This is what he did for us.

A hawthorn green man! He kind of looks like a certain member of the Celtic Heritage Society!!

I am now in the process of purchasing this art piece for myself/us to use on our flyer if we choose to, or even on this blog as a logo or mascot perhaps.

To see Aaron's amazing art visit these following websites... or friend him on facebook...

http://aaronpocock.wordpress.com/

http://www.pocockart.com/

http://journeyintofaerie.blogspot.com/