It arrived without warning — a pressure, a dense shadow seeping into my head and my chest. Inspiration, thick and relentless. I tugged at the thread glimmering in the darkness, unraveled the spool. Words came, strand by strand.  I could think of nothing else, only the prose-poem woven in the darkness. I repeated the words…

I posted this on my Tumblr a few years ago, in a slightly different form, but I think it’s worth sharing here as well. It reflects my own process, albeit in a more organized approach, to digging into ancestor work. This method is specific and immersive, which allows for stronger connections that are crucial to…

Three women arrive in the night, seemingly from nowhere but the darkness itself. They appear human enough at first glance, but there’s something off – features that are too extreme, or too animal. A broad, flat foot like that of a waterfowl. Wolf-like fangs. A long, iron nose. They look frightening, but they have kindness…

“In days gone by there was a land where the nights were always dark, and the sky spread over it like a black cloth, for there the moon never rose, and no star shone in the obscurity.” So begins the Brothers Grimm “The Moon,” a cosmological story of how the moon came to be. Four…

(Note: I recommend first reading the story here if you haven’t before. It makes this post easier to follow.) Some stories resonate with a specific kind of magical practice.  For “The Goose Girl,” it’s protective magic. In a culture where magic and witchcraft is often sanitized, limited to candle lighting, meditation, and personal affirmations (all…

Old Frick is a complex, mysterious figure in Brandenburgian lore, sometimes fearsome, other times helpful. Alternately referred to as Frau Fricke, she is one of a number of feminine spirits given the respectful title Frau (meaning “lady”) across Germany (Hammer 62). I first came upon Frick while researching the Norse goddess Frigg. Wikipedia cites “Fricke” as the Low German…

  “Once upon a time there was a girl whose father and mother died when she was still a little child. Her godmother lived all alone at the end of the village in a little house, and earned her living with spinning, weaving, and sewing.” So begins the Grimm Brothers’ tale “The Spindle, the Shuttle,…

The boughs do shake And the bells do ring, So merrily comes our harvest in, Our harvest in, our harvest in, So merrily comes our harvest in. “Harvesting” Nursery Rhyme Bells, like drums, are very old instruments that have played important roles in many aspects of human life. For centuries, they have been part of…

One thing I’ve begun to notice as I look more closely at fairy tales is that there are many more “witches” in them than previously believed, and that many of the beloved characters that are portrayed as helpless damsels in distress actually employ quite a bit of agency. Quick note: I put the word “witches”…

Chickens are humble animals. They’re heavy, mostly earthbound birds, spending their days pecking at the ground, clucking or crowing (not exactly musical), bobbing their heads as they strut around the farmyard. In media, they’re often depicted as fussy and silly — think Foghorn Leghorn and Prissy in Looney Tunes cartoons, or Lady Cluck in Robin…