Category: The Otherworld
The Best Way To Honor Your Ancestors
I always seem to have big things happen in autumn. Job changes, new relationships, the passing of loved ones, windfalls, leases and losses. I used to think it was just random— but now I know that the constellation of your life simply becomes more malleable this time of the year. In part, because the most…
The Answers are in the Otherworld
There is another world that lays alongside this one, like the twin roots of a great oak. In this Otherworld live all the hidden things— our departed loved ones, the old deities, the spark of new ideas, the Earth’s soul, our creativity. Running directly parallel to this existence, the Otherworld, as it’s understood in…
Returning To Life
The bright copper of October has finally faded into the brown of November. There are more leaves on the ground then the trees now. When I walk my dog we kick them up in great fluffy piles. Like autumn butterflies, each leaf shows me what transformation can look like. Every season tells an invisible,…
Ten Ways To Celebrate Samhain
Samhain (pronounced sow-en) is the traditional Celtic holiday of death, endings, beginnings and visionary magic. Straddling the transition from fall into winter, Samhain marks the start of the Celtic calendar year. Considered to be a time when the boundaries between the worlds dissolve, during Samhain the unseen energies of the earth are more apparent…
What Happens When The Veil Thins?
Growing up, I always felt the power of fall. I loved Halloween and its lantern-lit festivities, the amber hue of the canopy and gold leaves falling from the trees. I adored the apple crisps and cozy blankets but the thing I loved most of all was the feeling of fall. It wasn’t until I was older…
Ancestral Herbalism
Once upon a time all of us were indigenous. At some point in the past we all had ancestors who came from a very particular place, a land where our stories lived, where we birthed our babies and buried our grannies, a place where we picked the herbs that healed the hurt and gave…
The Way Beyond Death
In autumn, we embrace the dying. As the leaves grow spotted, then yellow and aflame, we watch the world around us begin to wane. We’ve grown so accustomed to the idea of autumn, the disappearing of the green, that we forget how truly profound it is. For those of us in the deciduous belt…
The Ancestors’ Bonfire
Last month I traveled to Ireland to visit the old neolithic burial mounds and the seaside where my forebearers most likely made their home. I made a pilgrimage to the old sites— the hills shaped like breasts, springs tucked in a moss-covered hazelwood, the circles of stones. I went by myself Ireland, to put…
