Once you have started out on the Path, even if you stop partway, you will have triggered a psychic “chain reaction” of sorts that will continue even if you don’t want it to.
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The folk beast is an archaic terror, and that is at least a part of its continuing power and of its continuing appeal.
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The current Jack-in-the-Green is a modern iteration, but belongs to an older tradition of “green beings” that populate English folk custom. Jack-in-the-Green himself emerged as a tradition in the eighteenth century, becoming closely associated with chimney sweeps and their May Day celebrations.
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Folk stories and folklore contain the shared knowledge of a collective. They may have their regional differences and several versions, but they convey truths and lessons, often hard ones. Folk stories and folklore are not some passive thing but instead form an active part of our lives today
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It’s a beautiful place all year through but seems extra special in the autumn months. But it’s not just the beauty and the sense of spirit that draws me to the woods at this time of year, though I cannot deny that in itself is enough, anything else an added bonus. It’s mushroom season.
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Perhaps it is no wonder then that this time of year brings to mind cooking pots (as I write this I’m reminded I need a new slow cooker). The cauldron is one of those items perhaps most associated with witchcraft, magic and fire.
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I like to go to the woods not long after sunrise, when the air is still cool and carries the scent of the night, like faded cologne on a lover's neck. It mingles with the wood spice scent of the dry forest floor, and you catch just a hint of it in the gentle breeze or as your feet kick up dust as you make your way along familiar paths.
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We often think of folklore, myth, legend and stories as being in the past, a relic of history and indeed we can learn a lot about ourselves, where we came from and the land where we live by studying the stories that have been handed down to us. But they are more than that.
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For the most part, such stories gave parents a bogeyman they could use to scare their young away from the dangers of deep water, for like fire, there is something alluring about water. There’s also a part of me, perhaps a more cynical part, that sees these stories as something else; our loss of connection to these wild spaces.
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Folklore and stories can be interpreted in so many ways, the threads woven together in many wondrous and varied colours to form huge tapestries and tales of wonder and that is one part of their beauty and allure. Another is their call to action, for that is what they also are.
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With it’s backdrop of mist shrouded hills, lakes that reflect the sky, stretching further than the eye can see, stone circles and hidden waterfalls, it feels like you’ve stepped into the pages of some epic tale of magic and knights, monsters, dragons and witches.
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“This poem is a variation on the story of True Thomas or Thomas the Rhymer, a Scottish poet who was said to have been given the gift of prophecy after a tryst with the Queen of Elphame. In this updated version of the story, Thomas is not a medieval Scottish poet but a modern man, lying in bed unable to sleep as he broods about the past.”
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The River Mumma is a fierce protectress and mother, a beautiful woman but also something other, frightening, perhaps to some, even monstrous. We see these aspects of the female in other figures from legend and lore like Medusa, Babalon and more. Like I often say, folk stories always contain hints of truths at their core, like the single speck of grit at the centre of a pearl.
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Of course, when one thinks of seals, one can’t help but think about that folkloric creature, the Selkie. Folklore and stories about the Selkie can be found all over the British isles, particularly across Scotland, Ireland and the East coast.
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Exploring duppy stories has been something that encompasses both my need and want to learn about my family’s and my own culture as well as my love of folklore. And it’s interesting because as you begin to study folklore, you begin to notice the similarities and the differences between stories from different parts of the world.
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Stories have a power after all, especially the Anansi stories. They give us hope that we may yet overcome that which oppresses us, our troubles and strife, even when those ills seem insurmountable, too big and too powerful.
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The garden in spring, with the bright colours of the daffodil, crocus, snowdrop and violet bring to mind folklore, stories and myth sand I’m reminded once more how important these are to us.
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