~From Danse des Morts, Todten-Tanz, 1744~
history
Sirius Rising: The Dog Days of Summer
Notes on the dog days of summer from ancient Greece.. Continue reading
The Judges’ Guide to Detention and Torture of Witches
~From the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) of 1487~
This is an excerpt from the text Malleus Maleficarum, which is considered to be the “handbook” for the persecution of witches used by male perpetrators of the misogynistic and bloodthirsty attempted extirpation that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. Continue reading
Grimm’s The Raven
There once was a Queen who had a little baby daughter, and one day the child was naughty and would not be quiet. Now, there were some ravens flying round and round the castle, and when the Queen saw them she opened the window, and said impatiently,
“I wish you were a raven–I might have a little peace then.”
She had scarcely spoken the words when the child changed into a raven, and flew from her arms, out through the window. It flew away to a dark wood, where it Continue reading
Featured Book: Chirologia
Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand
by John Bulwer
~1644~
Held in Gallaudet University Library’s Deaf Collections and Archives, this tome contains the fruit of Dr. John Bulwer’s studies of human gesture. Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand, is the precursor to sign language and Continue reading
The Cheat (Fable 55)
~Aesop, 1480~
A poor man, being very ill and getting worse, promised the gods to sacrifice to them one hundred oxen if they saved him from death. Continue reading
Of Adam
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” Continue reading
A Cold Moon
~Full Moon Rite~
“Wondrous Lady of the Moon
You who greets the dark with silvered kisses
Mistress of the night and all magicks,
who rides the clouds in blackened skies and spills light upon cold Earth.
Oh Lunar Goddess, Crescent one,
Shadow maker and shadow breaker,
Revealer of mysteries past and present,
All-wise Lunar Mother
Puller of seas and ruler of women,
I greet your celestial jewel at the waxing of its powers with a rite in Your honor
I pray by the moon .“
~Anonymous
Featured Book: The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs
~Excerpts from The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs by Richard Alan Miller~
In psychology, ritual is considered the celebration of a myth, which is achieved through a carefully constructed enactment of the myth. Because ritual is the externalization of something internal, myth has a more archetypal than logical structure to it. Rituals reveal values at their most fundamental level. Man expresses in ritual what moves him most. Therefore: The symbol always originates on the inside and is projected outward.
A Heinous Book: The Sorrows of Young Werther
This inconspicuous looking text was the impetus behind a rash of suicides in the late 18th century. Written by Goethe, this epistolary novel followed the sorrows of a young man whose true love is betrothed to another. The book accounts the man’s decent into depression and ultimately suicide.
Rat & Raven 