Spring has well and truly sprung, with plants popping up here in the British Isles and lambs gambolling around in the fields. If you’re a follower of Greek myth, then you know we have Persephone to thank for this renewal of spring! But how much do we really know about this dual deity, both goddess […]
Folklore
Jack-in-the-Green and the Green Man: One and the Same?
If you head to Hastings in East Sussex for the May Day celebrations, you may see a strange figure at the parade. Morris dancers ply their trade alongside a person wearing a huge decoration of leaves and branches. This person is known as the Jack-in-the-Green. But who or what is this unusual figure? Does he […]
What Do Eggs, Bunnies, and Bonnets have to do with Easter?
Say ‘Easter’ to most people, and they’ll think of eggs or rabbits. They may even think of Jesus, hot cross buns, or ancient pagan deities. The whole celebration has become something of a mishmash of all these things. There are sombre overtones for the religious, and fun treats for the secular. In a lot of […]
A Joker in the Pack: The Folklore of Playing Cards
You probably own at least one deck of playing cards. And if you’re anything like me, you literally only know how to play one card game. Solitaire. Have you ever considered using them to tell fortunes? Cartomancy doesn’t just rely on fancy decks of special cards. True, Madame Lenormand became famous for her divinatory cards […]
Fortune-Telling Made Easy: 4 Strange Forms of Divination
In dark and uncertain times such as these, it’s easy to wish you could see into the future. You might easily turn to fortune-telling practices to try and navigate the potentially choppy waters ahead. The idea of divination as a whole lies beyond the scope of this post. It’s not just fortune-telling, it’s more a […]
Meet Fortuna, Goddess of Luck, Abundance, and Fate
The English language features a lot of sayings about fortune or fate. Fortune favours the bold. May the odds be ever in your favour. They all boil down to the same thing – Fortuna may, or may not, give you a boost. She’s the woman to speak to if you want some luck sprinkled on […]
