Ariadne

Searching For The Blue Flower

“This intense longing for things transcendent… make me a votary of the Blue Flower” – C.S. Lewis “I used to think I was a romantic, always looking for the Blue Flower” – John Le Carre ‘A Small Town In Germany’ “It’s one of Cole’s Blue Rose cases” – David Lynch ‘Fire Walk With Me’ A…

Bread & Salt

Now that the festival of Lammas is here, we can plan a Bread & Salt rite which you can integrate into any picnic or summer social gathering to celebrate the harvest with your friends and family. This is the traditional time to make and eat Lammas Loaves which represent the body of the earth Goddess…

Passion Potion

Witches have been famous for supplying aids to seduction throughout the ages. A lot of these included revolting or hard-to-find ingredients like mandrake, powdered cats eyes, or that tired old “aphrodisiac” Spanish Fly. Spanish Fly is an irritant, that’s all, and can sometimes produce an uncomfortable stiffening effect on the male. It doesn’t affect women…

Cool as a Cucumber with Sage Advice

After the recent and ongoing panic and upheaval in Europe, now is a good time to cool down and cleanse, for which we can use mainly cucumbers and sage. Anybody behind you in the supermarket queue will be impressed by your basketful of vegetables, herbs and yoghurts as you gather some of Mother Nature’s Little…

Chewy Chocolate Stonehenge

Creating an object of value or virtue to you in edible form and consuming it to form a meaningful connection has been practised as long as humans have possessed the ability to attribute mystical powers to people or objects. Along with the arts of magical picturing and effigy we can use food as an all-purpose…

A Midsummer Meal for Mithras

Midsummer celebrations vary a great deal. In the Sakha Republic, they tie a horse to a pole and dance around it, or bet on reindeer races. In Portugal, you can hit your neighbour on the head with a plastic hammer, which amusing habit I think should be much more widely practised generally. In Norway children…

Dream A Little Dream of Me

“Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?” – Edgar Allan Poe “I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” – Ernest Hemingway Hey there all you cool cats and kittens – let’s make a Love Dream! This is a spell to…

A Frigga Blót with Runes & Lagoons

Today is the day of Frigga’s Blot – much more than just the wife of the All-Father Odin, she is the goddess of prophecy & silence, wifehood & motherhood. She is a sky goddess, responsible for spinning and weaving the fates. To celebrate Frigga this Friday, a domestic setting is appropriate, as she is closely…

Rhubarb, or The Magic Stick

Rhubarb is a very ancient plant. When rhubarb began to grow, the Dead Sea was just getting sick. When rhubarb started out, history lessons were called “What is happening right now”. When rhubarb was discovered, rainbows were all in black and white. And so on… You get what I’m saying. Rhubarb has been used as…

Death in the Afternoon

At the Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris, there is a small booth built of black-stained wood. If you pass through its door, you can descend 130 steps down a narrow stone circular staircase, then follow low dank concrete tunnels until you arrive at your destination: The World’s Largest Grave. This is fantastically popular as a tourist…