An Array of Utopian Flowers
-
Coming in Fall 2022 – The Fifth Fedora Anthology
Posted on May 15, 2022 | No Comments - Detroit Hives: Honey Bee Farms as Urban Revitalization
Posted on May 7, 2022 | No Comments - Indigenous Regeneration: Remembering the Past to Inspire the Future
Posted on May 1, 2022 | No Comments - Indigenous Peoples of Mexico Unite Against Corporate Mega-Projects
Posted on April 23, 2022 | No Comments - The Right to Repair Your Devices & the Corporate Stranglehold
Posted on April 19, 2022 | No Comments
-
WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal released ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ in June 2019, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
Rituals and Traditions Archive
Ch´ol Creation Story: The Origin of Life on Earth
Posted on February 4, 2021 | 3 CommentsHere we re-tell the creation myth of Ch'ujtiat from the Ch'ol People. Stories director Gabriela Badillo’s 68 Voices, 68 Hearts, a series of one-minute animations that preserve indigenous Mexican stories with narration provided by native speakers.Italian Folktale: How the Devil Married Three Sisters
Posted on July 29, 2020 | 1 CommentThe following story from 19th Century Venice, Italy, is similar to the "Bluebeard" folktales from France, regarding the dangers of female curiosity about forbidden chambers and how questioning patriarchal rules can open the door of truth. This mythic jaunt takes another route about when the Devil married three sisters and how the third sister managed to rescue the other two from the fires of Hell. Italo Calvino also published another variant of this story in 1956, called Silver Nose.Behold the Kraken, Destroyer from the Depths of the Sea
Posted on July 1, 2020 | 1 CommentThe Kraken, a mythological super-squid or legendary massive octopus from the depths of the ocean, known to destroy ships, also has some significant scientific basis for its existence. Here we share an encounter with this magical sea monster in an excerpt from Jules Verne's '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'.Miskitu Stories: ‘Crazy Sickness’ and the Duendes of the Wild
Posted on June 12, 2019 | 4 CommentsAs outbreaks of "crazy sickness" continue to afflict Nicaraguan Miskitu towns and villages, we revisit the story of the Duhindu of Kambla, or how the community overcame their first case of this "culture-bound syndrome," blamed on the dark supernatural forces out of the wild bush.Miskitu Legend: The Mangoes of the Dead
Posted on May 28, 2019 | 3 CommentsA story from the Nicaraguan Miskitu People about the mango trees planted to feed the dead in the cemetery, and the fear of stealing the ripe fruits.The Pagan Spring Fertility Origins of May Day
Posted on May 1, 2019 | 4 CommentsMay Day (May 1) marks the return of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, with origins in ancient agricultural rituals to ensure fertility, handed down from the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Later permutations included the Celtic festival of Beltane and Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from All Saints Day (November 1), and cross-quarter day with pagan overtones. Today, this ancient festival survives, including gathering wildflowers and decorating a May tree or Maypole, around which people dance, and some use it for political protest in association with International Workers Day.Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 2 CommentsIn Aztec cosmology, the soul's journey to the Underworld after death leaves them with four destinations: the Sacred Orchard of the Gods, the Place of Darkness, the Kingdom of the Sun, and a paradise called the Mansion of the Moon. The most common deaths end up on their way to Mictlán with its nine levels, crashing mountains and rushing rivers, and four years of struggle. This pantheon of gods and goddesses and the expanse of the 13 Heavens provides the cultural basis for the Day of the Dead customs and celebrations.The Underworld, Rebirth and Renewal with Ceres and Proserpina
Posted on June 29, 2018 | 1 CommentIn ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. The following myth tells how her daughter Proserpina was abducted by the ruler of the underworld, forced to become his wife, but with Ceres' help, she watches over the springtime growth of crops and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth or renewal.Christmas Trees, Solstice Rituals, and the Garden of Eden
Posted on January 8, 2018 | 3 CommentsAn anthropological and archaeological study of the origins of the Christmas Tree customs that grew out of the older European pagan Winter Solstice rituals by the Old European Culture Blog.Hopi Survival and the Supernaturals: Revenge of the Kachinas
Posted on November 26, 2017 | 3 CommentsHere is a retelling of the Hopi story, The Revenge of the Katcinas (Kachinas or Katsinam). To grow crops and survive in their mountainous desert, the Hopis understand the necessity for proper devotion to the supernatural powers, known as the Kachinas, who embody the spirits of living things and also of ancestors who have died and become a part of nature. When the people fall out of favor with the supernaturals, disaster results.Dancing Devils of Venezuela Challenge US Consumer Culture
Posted on November 8, 2017 | 1 CommentAn exhibition by artist Cristóbal Valecillos in Los Angeles invoked the Dancing Devils of Yare, a 400-year old Venezuelan tradition celebrating life, the triumph of good over evil, and renewal. His provocative interpretation of the diablo masks, hand-sculpted from repurposed waste materials, takes aim at culture and consumption in the US, a plea for overcoming.Hindu Epic ‘Mahabharata’ in Balinese Shadow Theatre and Dance
Posted on August 14, 2017 | 3 CommentsThe timeless brilliance of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, illuminated by the mysterious art of Balinese shadow theatre, enacted to the percussive metallophones of traditional gamelan ensembles.Forest Spirits ‘Induce Confusion’ in Native Vancouver Island
Posted on April 12, 2017 | 1 CommentFacing cultural genocide at the turn of the 1900s, the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) people's way of life in northern Vancouver Island were protected and preserved by the work of anthropologist Franz Boas and photographer Edward S. Curtis.Journey of Grandmother Rain – World Creation of the Wixáritari (Huicholes)
Posted on March 10, 2017 | 5 CommentsHere we re-tell the story of Takutzi Nakawe, Grandmother Rain, and how the world was created, according to the Wixaritari (Huicholes) of the Western Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico.Myth: The Crow Who Visited the Land of the Seven Cranes
Posted on January 30, 2017 | 1 CommentThe original lands of the Crow or Apsáalooke peoples were east of Yellowstone National Park in Montana/Wyoming, the Absarokas, across the Basin to the Big Horn Mountains, and southeast to the Wind Rivers. This story, recounted to anthropologist Robert Lowie at the turn of the 20th Century, reveals the esoteric visionary experience of a young Crow, and his interest to visit the Land of the Birds.Yaqui of Mexico: How the Sorcerer Cricket Saved the People
Posted on January 3, 2017 | 3 CommentsThe traditional Yaqui story of the Sorcerer Cricket, made into a video short by Gabriela Badillo, tells how he saved the people from a serpent monster, only to face the prophesied coming of the Spanish conquistadores.Labor Taskmaster: The Yule Cat Monster of Iceland
Posted on December 26, 2016 | 2 CommentsChristmas legends make the freezing nights pass faster and the children - and laborers - behave. Iceland's Jólakötturinn, or Yule Cat, warned lazy children would be eaten by a monster cat, which has roots hundreds of years back, and popularized by a poem by Johannes ur Kotlum.Krampus, Wild Nature Spirit, the Christmas Daemon
Posted on December 17, 2016 | 3 CommentsKrampus, a half-goat, half-daemon of centuries-old Bavarian-Alpine lore, appears prior to the celebration of the benevolent giver Saint Nicholas on December 6th, where Central European communities have a Krampuslauf, or Krampus Run, the night before.Shadow Trickster Trump Betrays Populism, Absconds With…
Posted on November 19, 2016 | 1 CommentShadow-Trickster Donald Trump, preaching revolutionary change and unending prosperity, emerged from the shadow of hatred and aggression, and now proceeds to install one of the most repressive, socially regressive, selfish, greedy, and racist US Presidential Administrations in generations. It must be resisted, but with a trickster spirit.Traditional Healing Among the Highland Maya
Posted on August 2, 2016 | 2 CommentsTraditional Mayan healers, bone-setters, herbal curanderos, and spiritual guides or shamans, provide good physical and mental health options for poor Indigenous Guatemalans.“Embrace of the Serpent” Film: Journey of Healing and Ethnobotany
Posted on April 11, 2016 | 4 CommentsEthnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, one of the most important plant explorers of the 20th century, served as a key inspiration in a recent film called "Embrace of the Serpent." In December 1941, Schultes entered the Amazon to study how indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. After nearly a decade of fieldwork, he made significant discoveries about the sacred hallucinogen ayahuasca. In total, Schultes would collect more than 24,000 species of plants including some 300 species new to Western science.Kogi People’s Lesson From the Heart of the Mountain
Posted on January 22, 2016 | 1 CommentThe Kogi People of Colombia, through two separate documentaries, delivered a message of a sustainable interconnection with nature and community as a way to avert climate and ecological destruction.Kuuchamaa: The Exalted High Place of the Kumeyaay
Posted on August 29, 2015 | 5 CommentsThe Kumeyaay of southern and Baja California have a rich history of coexistence on the border of California and Mexico in the mountainous region of San Diego County. Here we republish Florence Shipek's treatise on the preservation of their sacred mountain called Kuuchamaa, also known as Cuchuma, as well as several videos on their culture, history and stories.Spirit Talk: Stories of Traditional Healers of Central Australia
Posted on May 3, 2015 | 7 CommentsUsing sacred tools and treatment by touch, connection and cures through spirits in flight and ritual extraction of sickness, the traditional healers of central Australia explain their extraordinary skills and how they deal with contemporary issues and Western medicine.Fracking Boom Surrounds Sacred Chaco Canyon
Posted on February 19, 2015 | 1 CommentThe fracking boom threatens Puebloan and Hopi ancestral homelands around New Mexico's sacred Chaco Canyon and local Diné communities are fighting drilling, pipeline projects and just general industrialization of their region without bringing real economic development. See the videos from the Solstice Project.
