death
Library
Poems and Prose
Sisyphus Tricks Death
Who is Sisyphus this man who struggles endlessly in Hades to push a rock to the top of a mountain, only to watch it roll down again. Who is this man who knows only labor and futility in death. This man who is denied rebirth by Persephone the merciful and denied rest by his very […]
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Library
Poems and Prose
Orpheus and Eurydike
Orpheus was a bard, a singer of great renown, son of the Muse Calliope and also the King of the Cicones, a tribe that lived in the Rhodope Mountains in Thrace (part of what is now Bulgaria). They say that he was the first to master the lyre that Hermes made upon the first day […]
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Rites of Passage
Where will you go when you die?
Discussing the recent one-year anniversary of my grandfather’s death, a friend of mine asked me where the old man was buried. As it happens, my grandfather has was not buried. His body was sent to a medical school anatomy lab to help a new generation of doctors learn how the human body works. When we […]
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Book of Shadows
Rites of Passage
A Burial Rite
The person who has passed may be cremated and presented for burial in a wooden or clay urn or the corpse may be wrapped in cloth for burial. This way, he or she will quickly decompose and nourish new life. It would be ideal for this person to be buried wrapped in a cloth, instead […]
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Book of Shadows
Rites of Passage
Departing Ceremony
For this ritual, there may be an open coffin, or the deceased may be laid out on a bed or settee for viewing. This should be in a somewhat out of the way place, rather than the centerpiece, as some guests will have no desire to view the corpse. Alternatively and additionally, pictures of the […]
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Food
Kitchen Witch Corner
Walnuts
The walnut is a majestic tree that provides food and shade to those who truly appreciate them and garden-killers that produce a giant mess of stinky fruit to those who don’t. Walnut trees can be grown from walnuts and squirrels plant them often when they fail to collect their entire winter stash. Walnuts are not […]
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