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Icelandic Folk Legends – Tales of Apparitions, Outlaws and Things Unseen
Reviewed by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir Icelandic Folk Legends – Tales of Apparitions, Outlaws and Things Unseen is a collection of Icelandic folktales translated by one of Iceland’s most widely read bloggers, Alda Sigmundsdóttir of the Iceland Weather Report, first published by Bjartur in 1997 and republished in 2007. The small and handy book includes the translation of 12 folk stories, both stories that practically every Icelander knows by heart, like The Deacon of Myrká Church and Thorgeir’s Bull, as well as lesser known stories like The Vanished Bride and The Hidden Man and the Girl. The collection includes a little bit of everything: ghosts, trolls, wizards and witches, outlaws, hidden people (elves), monsters and even Satan. As such the book provides a good overview of the different categories of Icelandic folk legends.

The Heretic's Feast, by Colin Spencer
Reviewed by Fionnchú My son asked if one could survive only on meat. Contrarily, I looked up this history of vegetarianism to find out. Orthodoxy and conformity long allied with the herding & consumption of animals. To those in control, those refusing to eat flesh posed a social and moral threat. Not eating meat equalled rebellion against the state, the faith, and the norm. Spencer starts with early hominids and ends with fast food. He roams necessarily widely, if focusing most modern attention to the British take on vegetarianism. Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India all earn ancient testimony for a long-lived counter-cultural tradition. While Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures appear to have come down harder on what become known as "Pythagorean" practices, the Hindus seem to have had a more balanced approach. A "dharma-sutra" ca. 600 BCE counselled: "In eating flesh, in drinking intoxicating liquors and in carnal intercourse there is no sin, for such enjoyments are natural, but absention from them produces great reward." (qtd. 76)

The Mystic in the Rye: JD Salinger’s Religious Fiction
By Louis A. Ruprecht While Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger died more than a month ago, on January 27, it is still difficult for me to talk about him in the past tense. I expect that his books have something to do with that—the way they play with time. Yet as the accolades multiplied in the days after his demise, one thing that struck me was the almost telephoto-focus on a single novel, his 1951 classic, The Catcher in the Rye. And the most important thing to observe about The Catcher in the Rye, is that it is the only non-explicitly religious book Salinger, a restless religious seeker, ever wrote. There is no question but that this book has become an almost inescapable part of the implicit New American canon; scarcely a ninth or tenth grader in the land hasn’t been forced to read it. I was assigned the book in the snowy winter months of my freshman year in high school and I had the supreme good fortune of being taught the book by a very serious, and highly imaginative, scholar of American literature. He did not let the class neglect the crucial detail, revealed near the book’s end, that our stalwart narrator has been confined to a sanitorium, and may not be quite the trustworthy reporter he would have us believe him to be.

Happy Pi Day
Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi) (in the mm/dd date notation: 3/14); since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of π. March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein and the two events are sometimes celebrated together. Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, because of Archimedes' popular approximation of π being 22/7. However, this may be considered misleading, as all cited dates are "approximation days" (as π is an irrational number) and 22/7 is actually a closer approximation of π than 3.14 is. Typically, March 14 is more popular for countries using the month/day format (22/7 being an impossible date in this format), and the 22nd of July is more popular for countries using the day/month format (since 3/14 and 31/4 are impossible dates in this format).

Runic Amulets & Magic Objects, by Mindy MacLeod & Bernard Mees
Reviewed by Henry This book is essential reading for anyone interested in runes or indeed European cultural history. Macleod and Mees decline to adopt the recent fashion in academic circles for dismissing the idea that the runes had any kind of magical significance in this book, just as they refuse to pretend that different regions were hermetically sealed from one another. They steer a balanced path between emphasising the many mundane applications of the runes and their magical function, and indeed the book focuses on the latter, as may be inferred from the title. The authors document and interpret scores of inscriptions from amulets, artefacts, monuments, and written texts, bringing incredible breadth and depth of learning to the task. Their vibrant enthusiasm for the subject matter is infectious, and consequently the book is anything but dry or boring. Indeed, there are even moments of high humour, such as a hilarious passage that recounts some of the more ribald love magic charms of the runic era!

Climate change linked to smaller birds
Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause. A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings. This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures. However, there is little evidence that the change is harmful to the birds. Details of the discovery are published in the journal Oikos.

Daughters of the Witching Hill: In Search of Historical Cunning Folk
By Mary Sharratt In 2002, I moved to East Lancashire in northern England—the rugged Pennine landscape that borders the West Yorkshire Dales. My study window looks out on Pendle Hill, famous throughout the world as the place where George Fox received the ecstatic vision that moved him to found the Quaker religion in 1652. But Pendle Hill is also steeped in its legends of the Lancashire Witches. Everywhere you go in the surrounding countryside, you see images of witches: on buses, pub signs, road signs, and bumper stickers. Visiting friends found this all quite unnerving. “Mary, why are there witches everywhere?” they’d ask me. In the beginning, I made the mistake of thinking that these witches belonged to the realm of fairy tale and folklore, but no. They were real people. The stark truth, when I took the time to learn it, would change me forever.

Brits Uncover Vikings' Mass Grave
Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say. Mystery has surrounded the identity of the group since they were discovered at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, in June. Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's. Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030.

‘Spring forward’ this weekend
By Aaron LeClair Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday. Love it or hate it, daylight saving time probably isn’t going away anytime soon. Standard times in time zones across the United States and Canada were instituted in 1883 and officially established in 1918, mainly so railroad companies could deliver goods more efficiently, according to U.S. Navy’s Astronomical Applications Department. When you go to bed tonight, don’t forget to set your clock forward one hour in observance of daylight saving time, which begins at 2 a.m. Sunday.“I always forget to set the clock,” she said Friday. “I’m always … either an hour late or an hour early. The last time, I was an hour early for work.”

Rarest Flower in the World Blooms in the U.K.
By Brian Merchant It's one of the (if not the) rarest flower in the world: the Middlemist's Red exists in only two known locations: a greenhouse in the UK, and a garden in New Zealand. Imported to Britain two hundred years ago from China, back when flowers where a luxury item, it has since been exterminated in its original homeland. And now the Middlemist is blooming again--nice looking flower, right? The flower is in bloom for the next couple of weeks, and will be the star attraction at the reopening of the Chiswick House, the BBC reports. The flower gets its name from the gardener John Middlemist, who first brought it back from China in 1804. That the Middlemist's Red survives today is conservation success story. "It's the importance of getting as many people as possible to ensure they stay with us on this Earth," Fiona Crumley, the head gardener at the Chiswick House told the BBC.

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Correspondences for Sunday
Light Yellow candles. Burn incense of Mastic, Palaginia, Pepper, Dragons Blood. Sunday is ruled by Sun, and is a good day to work with health, abundance, healing, confidence and hope, prosperity.
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Sun is in Pisces, Moon is in Pisces
Light Yellow candles. Burn incense of Mastic, Palaginia, Pepper, Dragons Blood. Sunday is ruled by Sun, and is a good day to work with health, abundance, healing, confidence and hope, prosperity.
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Article: Building Community Through Corporate Regalia

Pagan Views: Building Community Through Corporate Regalia by PaganNews.com Staff Writer
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Article: Someone to Catch my Drift

Pagan Family: Someone to Catch my Drift by Julie Cox
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Today's Herb: Woad
Description: Short lived perennial with a basal rosette of oval toothed leaves. Branched leaved stems grow up to 4 ft. Bears small yellow flowers in summer followed by black seeds. Uses: Leaves are used after repeatedly fermented and dried in a complicated sequence. Fermented leaves yield a ...
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Review: Witching Stones
Review of the book by M.A. Madigan a P.M. Richards in our "Divination" section
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Today we honor Sekhmet

Wife to Ptah ("The beloved of Ptah"), Sekhmet was also regarded as the one "Great of Magic" whose knowledge of sorcery gave her a place in the service of healing. Yet she also represents the Fiery destructive heat of the Sun. She worked with Bast to destroy the enemies of the Sun God, by whom Sekhmet had to be restrained for her desire for battle was so great should could easily have wiped out the human race.
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Consciousness: Interview with an Angel

Consciousness: Interview with an Angel by Silas Jackson
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Cosmic Sense: Understanding Mercury Retrograde from a Pagan Perspective

Cosmic Sense: Understanding Mercury Retrograde from a Pagan Perspective by Sharla Stone
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST

Applied Quantum: The Songs we Sing

Applied Quantum: The Songs we Sing by Vaughan Wynne-Jones
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:02:05 MST