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European Winter Solstice costumes; a ritualistic expression of Shapeshifting and Protection
These images of ritual and ceremonies from old indigenous customs in Europe from around the winter solstice, show a time when we were...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Mistletoe', by John Bannister Tabb
'To the cradle-bough of a naked tree, Benumbed with ice and snow, A Christmas dream brought suddenly A birth of mistletoe. The shepherd...


Perspectives on Death and Dying
This months BIOPHILIA Mentorship focused on themes of death, funerals, grief composting and trauma amongst other earth element...


The Deer Mother: Earth's Nurturing Epicenter of Life and Death
The animal mother is one of the most ancient images of birth-giving goddess, spanning continents, millennia, and cultures. Marija...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Everyday sort of Magic', by Charles de Lint
"I do believe in an everyday sort of magic, the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and...


The unearthing of Ireland's ancient Sweathouses
The sweathouses of Ireland date back to the 9th century and earlier. Now known as Bronze Age sweathouses, these ritual spaces were...


Ritual Headdresses in Celtic Europe
Wearing deer antlers as part of ritual has ancient roots in Celtic Europe – this antler frontlet was made 11,000 years ago probably for...


The Edge You Carry With You
You know so very well the edge of darkness you have always carried with you. You know so very well, your childhood legacy: that...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Snow Song', by Frank Dempster Sherman
Over valley, over hill, Hark, the shepherd piping shrill! Driving all the white flocks forth From the far folds of the North. Blow, Wind,...


Labyrinths and Mazes
Labyrinths and mazes are well documented in Ireland and western Europe in general, also in the Mediterranean, but lesser known are the...


Find Your Biophonic Niche
You flicker from tree to tree, splaying your rump feathers, curling your toes around a maple branch, flushing green and flexible after...


On Being (T)here
In moments of transition and liminality, the movement from 'here' to 'there' can be washed away where only pure wonder remains. The...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'A Winter Scene' by Henry David Thoreau
The rabbit leaps, The mouse out-creeps, The flag out-peeps Beside the brook; The ferret weeps, The marmot sleeps, The owlet keeps In...


Mycelium & Myth
Some 416 million years ago plants made it onto dry land. But these plants were not the plants you and I know as sturdy trees and...


Winter Masks and Seasonal Rituals among the Iroquois
"False Faces, among the Iroquois, are personifications of mythical beings who live in wild and isolated regions, on the edge of the known...


Mothers Night: The Ancient Pagan Origins of Santa?
An ancient winter festival which stems from at least the Iron Age is Mothers Night or Modraniht. This celebration took place on what is...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Fairy and Child' by Eugene Field
Oh, listen, little Dear-My-Soul, To the Fairy voices calling, For the moon is high in the misty sky And the honey dew is falling; To...


Irish Folklore: 'The Wise Wife and the Mermaid'
"There was supposed to be a Mermaid living in Lough Key. Long ago she could be seen sitting on a rock on the shore, every day, combing...


The Stigma and Taboo of having the gift of 'Fairy Sight'
For this article I wanted to open the door on the social pressures and, indeed, stigma, regarding reporting fairy encounters. Related to...


Seasonal Poetry & Prose: Exerpt from 'The Night Abraham Called to the Stars: Poems' by Robert Bly
'The candle is not lit To give light, but to testify to the night.' ~ Robert Bly, The Night Abraham Called to the Stars: Poems
