Category: symbolism
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The Earth’s Entrances to the Underworld
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There’s a plain just east of Naples, Italy that smolders away. I’ve been to a place like that before, on the island of St. Lucia, a large, collapsed volcanic crater called Sulphur Springs. It’s been dormant since the 1700s, but it doesn’t seem that way when you’re watching steam boil…
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Rosemary: cook, remember and ward off the Plague
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One of the things I love the most about December is its fragrances, of fresh evergreens in the house, bay or pine scented candles, good food on the stove and in the oven – and on the table. One of the things I love the least about winter as it…
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The Mysteries of the Magi
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When I was around five years old, my grandfather passed away, and I remember his funeral chiefly for the overwhelming amount of incense – so oppressive and acrid that it made me cry. (I was sensitive to smells at an early age.) One of the typical components of incense used…
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Gather ye rose-buds
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Image: blush pink rose at the Niagara Falls Botanic Garden – by E. Jurus, all rights reserved Roses are beautiful. But like all things with great beauty, over the millennia they’ve incited great passions. If you think of them only as an expensive flower to give at Valentine’s, or send…
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How do I write thee, let me count the ways
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If I was producing an alphabet book, and in a rather silly, Edward Lear kind of mood, I might put the image above in about the strange letter Q. Where did the alphabet come from, anyway? An alphabet is a set of letters used in a specific order to produce…
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How a humble subway map became an icon
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There’s a dragon approaching. You can feel its hot breath billowing out of the dark, sooty-looking tunnels. Soon it will emerge and devour you. That was my first impression of the subway system in London, England. At its deepest levels, it’s like a medieval labyrinth. As the trains get close…
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Codex Gigas, the Devil’s Bible
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Just in case you were thinking that old books are dusty things collected by boring people with their heads buried in parchment, let me introduce you to the Devil’s Bible. The Devil’s Bible – sounds like something Satanists would use, doesn’t it? Or maybe a tome written by the Prince…
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Primeval, beautiful, dangerous water lilies
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The Great Devourer, as she’s known by all, prowls towards me, leaving no tracks and casting no shadow. She stops in front of me and says, I am here for you, Nenuphar. Apep has given me until the end of the Seventh Hour to cross the sands. I can’t…