To the Rain | Weeknotes 2/17
Heathenry, tiger milk, onion facts, MDMA legalization, sex magic, traditional Corsican music, and Ursula Le Guin.
Comrades—
We find ourselves waiting for Spring. There are early signs: the maple sugaring buckets are out in New England. But mostly the world seems to be holding its breath, suspended in a stiff cold wind, and deciding where, exactly, it’s going to land.
Amidst that, our pagan study program moved into its Norse unit, and the very grounded Heathen studies have been a nice antidote to all that airiness:
It’s foolish to worry to fret at night
and lie awake worrying.
to be weary when waking
finding all as bad as before.
Or in other words:
The old joke is that Heathenry is “the religion with homework,” and we’ve been diving into a wealth of lengthy PDFs, audiobooks, podcasts (enjoying Children of Ash and Elm - B), and great sidebars about raising pagan kids. That’s an admirable goal of Heathenry: that if we are re-awakening lifeways that work, we should want our kids to grow up knowing the land wights and what songs to sing to trees.
On beautiful lives, kids, and poetry, B drove out to Connecticut to visit his friend and poet Mark Gosztyla and his daughters for a hockey game. He really loved the chance to drive through farm country in winter: to see the apple orchards sleeping it off, and the piles of compost steaming in the early mornings.
Plus it was a chance to run into some Hudson Valley weird, like this actual gatehouse.
Also, J’s recent weeks were, for whatever reason, full of really good drinks. She participated in a local cacao ceremony with BFF Brenna; a group of friends went out to New Hampshire’s only kombucha bar1; and she discovered the magic of tiger milk. It’s enough to make one become a bubble tea every day person. How’s that for heathen values?
Until next time.
Jessie & Brian.
Earth
My son’s current obsession with understanding hot peppers led me down the trail of Dragon's Breath, a pepper so hot it may kill you, and the wonderful pain relief possible making your own pepper poultices. -B
The ever-brilliant Sophie Strand on rewilding myth:
The rise of empire has depended on the deracination of localized mythologies. Just as landscapes were stolen and terraformed, so were whole pantheons uprooted from their social and ecological contexts.
Read the whole thing – I’m obsessed with the bit about Arthur’s Round Table and pitcher plants. -J
Sea
Antidote to climate doomerism: subscribe to FutureCrunch. While other good news websites exist, my experience has been that they tend to be on the ‘fireman saves cat from tree’ level. FutureCrunch collects and shares the big stories. I also like having a non-US centric news source. This week: 60% decline in maternal mortality in India in 14 years, Australia legalizes psilocybin & MDMA as medicines, and the UK unveils plan to restore 500,000 hectares of wildlife habitat. -J
Please enjoy the perfection of this beaver chewing through a log. -B
I was absolutely bowled over by the sound of this traditional Corsican Stabat Mater in Mont San Michel. -B
Sky
Erotic magic, Black emancipation, gender fluidity & interplanetary spirit realms — the Public Domain Review published a lengthy and fascinating overview of the life and work of 19th century black occultist and writer Paschal Beverly Randolph. If you don’t know him, you should know him. -J
Indigenous land management in Oregon has helped a once-endangered wildflower and butterfly pair recover. -J
Dr. Justin Sledge did a great introduction to The Arbatel over on Esoterica. This remains one of my favorite magical books, centering on working good for the community and collaboration with spirits rather than either bullying or appeasing them. If you enjoy a gentler approach to planetary magic that also has some strong connections to New Thought, it’s worth a serious look. The Joseph Peterson edition is very good. -J
To The Rain
by Ursula Le Guin
Mother rain, manifold, measureless,
falling on fallow, on field and forest,
on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,
downwelling waters all-washing, wider
than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster
than countrysides, calming, recalling:
return to us, teaching our troubled
souls in your ceaseless descent
to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,
to sink in, to heal, to sweeten the sea.
This week’s Most New Hampshire Thing Ever award goes to their white pine & chaga kombucha.