Happy Birthday, Cancer!

(June 20 – July 22)Cancer is the sign of the Summer Solstice, the beginning of the warmest season of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also the birth sign of the United States of America. Cancer is the first water sign of the Zodiac, (making it a cardinal sign), and forms its identity … Read more

Depart in Peace, Tasha Tudor

Tasha Tudor, Children’s Book Illustrator, Dies at 92 Excerpted from The New York TimesBy DOUGLAS MARTIN Published: June 20, 2008 Tasha Tudor, a children’s illustrator whose pastel watercolors and delicately penciled lines depicted an idyllic, old-fashioned vision of the 19th-century way of life she famously pursued — including weaving, spinning, gathering eggs and milking goats … Read more

Wishing You a Most Merry Midsummer Eve!

I must go seek some dewdrops hereAnd hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.Farewell, thou lob of spirits;I’ll be gone: Our queen and all our elves come here anon.— From A Midsummer Night’s Eve, by William Shakespeare Today is the last day of Spring. Today, go outside, taste the rich fruit that has come of … Read more

Blessings of the Full Moon in Sagittarius!

I want to hear the silent sands,Singing to the moonBefore the Sphinx-still face… — From Heritage, by Gwendolyn Bennett (1902-1981) This is the annual Sagittarius Full Moon, sometimes known as the Strawberry Moon, the Rose Moon, the Lotus Moon, Lover’s Moon or the Dyad Moon and it is sacred to Juno. It brings with it … Read more

On the Threshold of Solstice

No price is set on the lavish summer;June may be had by the poorest comer. — James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfall This week, we reach one of the major holidays of the year, when the Sun’s arcing path across our skies reaches its highest, or lowest point, depending on which hemisphere you … Read more

Happy Birthday, Starhawk!

Happy birthday today to Starhawk – gifted writer, earth-healer activist, and witch. Starhawk is one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality and a founding Mother of the Reclaiming tradition of Witchcraft. She is also well-known as a global justice activist and organizer, whose work and writings have been directed at awakening the … Read more

Happy Father’s Day

Through a little girl’s eyes, my father’s hands were so big. They folded over mine, swallowing them up as they taught me to tie my shoes. They patiently screwed together bicycles and swing sets, they wiped off chocolate mustaches. They wrapped around the handle of a hammer, hanging the same pictures over and over, each … Read more

Recipe for the Good Folk

Faerie Guardians © Howard David JohnsonWhen I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting,Chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating.Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder,Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you’ll be fairies all. — Emily Dickinson … Read more