An Array of Utopian Flowers
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The Literary Labyrinth of Stephen T. Vessels
Posted on November 27, 2022 | No Comments - Indigenous Voices from the Northeast: Past, Present and Future
Posted on November 26, 2022 | 1 Comment - Microplastics Are Everywhere: What’s The Risk?
Posted on November 22, 2022 | No Comments - Solving the Climate Crisis Through Global Soil Health with Didi Pershouse
Posted on November 20, 2022 | No Comments - Visionary Art of Lakota Sundance Chief Marvin Swallow
Posted on November 14, 2022 | 2 Comments
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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!
mythology Archive
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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. -
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. -
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. -
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 | 3 CommentsThe 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. -
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. -
Eye of God: Big Bear’s Sacred Site of Creation
Posted on September 21, 2015 | 2 CommentsBig Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains has year-round outdoor attractions, including skiing, hiking, boating, and fishing. Yet long before the resorts, the area was called Yuhaviat, or "Pine Place" by the original inhabitants, the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians, with their sacred site of snow quartz called the Eye of God. -
Kuuchamaa: The Exalted High Place of the Kumeyaay
Posted on August 29, 2015 | 6 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. -
Tibetan Skeleton Dance: Cemetery Protectors of Truth
Posted on October 25, 2014 | 8 CommentsIn the sacred Tibetan Skeleton dance two Dharmapalas (Protectors of Truth) appear, played by Monks, deities whose role is to protect the cemetery grounds. Their presence also reminds the audience of the ephemeral nature of this world and of their own mortality. The cult of ?the Se?cond Buddha?, Padmasambhava, initiated the practice through the rich mythological literature. -
Paul Gauguin: Nature and Primitivism as Mythical Notions
Posted on April 14, 2014 | 5 CommentsPaul Gauguin, the bourgeois-turned-bohemian artist who left France for Tahiti, reveals a darker, almost menacing mythological vision, in contrast to his exploitative picture-postcard fantasy-native Polynesian paintings for which he is known. The exhibition continues at MoMA in New York until June. -
Shoshone Myth: Wolf Challenges the Euro-American “Iron-Man”
Posted on March 13, 2014 | 2 CommentsNorthern Shoshone Myth on how the Wolf, father of the native people, defeated the white-man's father “Iron-Man,” documented by Robert Harry Lowie in 1909. -
Miskitu Legend: Journey for Love into the Afterlife
Posted on October 20, 2013 | 2 CommentsA story from the Miskitu People (Miskito) of Caribbean Nicaragua, about a man who follows his beloved wife into the afterlife. -
Mohegan Story: Healing of the Forest Little People
Posted on September 26, 2013 | 5 CommentsThis Mohegan story about the benevolent nature spirits, called the Makiawisug, illustrates the spiritual potency of the Native universe, and the healing necessary to face the invading Pilgrims and their fear of the Antichrist. -
Ashanti of Ghana: How Spider Obtained the Sky-God’s Stories
Posted on July 31, 2013 | 15 CommentsAnansi, the trickster from the folktales of the Ashanti of West Africa, takes the shape of a spider who goes to the sky god to buy his stories to share with the world. Anansi's stories would become popular through the African diaspora all over the Caribbean and southern US. Here is an animated retelling called "Anansi and the Stories of the Sky God." -
BaVenda of South Africa: How Animals Got Their Color
Posted on July 30, 2013 | 1 CommentThe BaVenda (also known as Venda), a Bantu tribe living in Southern Africa, tell a traditional myth about how the meerkat gave all the animals their special colors. -
La Loba: Wild Woman, Luminous Wolf
Posted on May 15, 2013 | 16 CommentsClarissa Pinkola Estés tells the story from the deserts and mountains of Northern Mexico about a wolf woman, a collector of bones, who resurrects the wild spirit of life from the depths of the Underworld. -
Spring Equinox, the Eostre Bunny, and Other Wiccan Mysteries
Posted on April 2, 2013 | 2 CommentsEostre - the Germanic goddess of dawn and fertility, whose name gives us the word Easter - must be pleased. Two millennia of Christianity, and she has yet to be displaced from our annual celebration of fecundity. Easter eggs, representing birth, nod to both pagan and Christian traditions. -
Matt Pallamary: Guaraní Shaman’s Quest for “Land Without Evil”
Posted on December 17, 2012 | 3 CommentsMatthew Pallamary's acclaimed novel "Land Without Evil," recently performed as an aerial acrobatic stage show, narrates the true story of a young shaman of the Guaraní people of South America facing European conquest and conversion to Catholicism in the 1700s. -
Popol Vuh: The Ancient Maya Dawn of Life and Overcoming the Forces of Awe
Posted on July 23, 2012 | 11 CommentsThe Popol Vuh (Maya K'iche' for "Council Book" or "Book of the Community") features a creation myth, the Dawn of Life under the spectre of a flooded world, followed by the epic mythological stories of two Hero Twins: Hunahpu (Blow-gun Hunter) and Xbalanque (Young Hidden/Jaguar-Sun) as they confront the Lords of Death and Disease in the underworld caves of the "Place of Awe." -
Mythology of the Crow: Love Trials of the Magic Buffalo Wife
Posted on May 23, 2012 | 5 CommentsAn Apsáalooke Crow man falls in love and has a child with the magical Buffalo Woman, which requires him to prove his love and devotion to her and her Buffalo Nation. -
Aboriginal Dreamtime: The Rainbow Serpent
Posted on April 12, 2012 | 9 CommentsThe Aboriginal Australian Rainbow Serpent meanders snake-like like a river across the landscape, sunlight reflecting the spectrum of colours. He inhabits permanent waterholes and controls precious oils and waters. -
Soyal Ceremony: Hopi Kachinas Dance at Winter Solstice
Posted on December 22, 2011 | 15 CommentsThe Soyal Ceremony begins on the shortest day of the year, and symbolizes the second phase of Creation at the Dawn of Life. Its prayers and rituals implement a plan of life for the coming year, ceremonially turning back the sun toward its summer path. -
Tonantzin Transforms into Our Lady of Guadalupe
Posted on December 17, 2011 | 1 CommentPart II of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, part of the Spanish colonial appropriation of the Aztec Earth Mother Tonantzin: The future St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin explained to the Bishop of Mexico City how the Virgin appeared to request a temple be built at Tepeyac in her honor.
