Duende
Accept death, embrace life.
Light a candle. Watch the flame for a while. Feel its heat, then blow it out. Watch the smoke drift away. Look at the blackened wick. That is birth, life, death, and non-existence. If you re-light the candle, that’s a new life; the original flame exists only in memory. Now remember the smoke and consider … Read moreAccept death, embrace life.
Passing through the Veil at Nightfall (Green-Wood Cemetery, Fall 2025)
Participants at the recent Nightfall event – an annual, nocturnal celebration of art, music and performance at Brooklyn, NYC’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery – were afforded the opportunity to “rehearse” passing through the Veil between life and death. This imaginative and surprisingly meaningful mobile performance piece/installation/ritual was the brainchild of Greedy Peasant, a NYC-based pageant troupe.
Memoria 2025 (Part 1)
An unusually hot and dry Fall has delayed some of the usual seasonal cues, but now it is undeniable; Memoria has arrived once again. We actually began our observances very early by taking part in the annual Sacred Harvest event at Sky Meadow in Vermont. … and we’ve just returned from an anniversary vacation that … Read moreMemoria 2025 (Part 1)
“Renew! Renew!” The Cult of Carrousel in Logan’s Run (1976)
(Cross-posted from our sister site, Cultpunk.art) In the futuristic world of Logan’s Run (1976), humanity – or at least that portion of humanity that the movie is concerned with – is sequestered away from the unknown “world outside”, living and dying inside vast Xanadu-like pleasure domes. Their lives and deaths are supervised by an AI … Read more“Renew! Renew!” The Cult of Carrousel in Logan’s Run (1976)
Lucy’s death hallucination (“Apple Cider Vinegar”, 2025)
In this scene from the drama Apple Cider Vinegar, Lucy Guthrie, played by actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey, experiences a shamanic vision of her own death, dissolution and reintegration into Nature during an ayahuasca retreat.
“Hospitality at the End of Life”
Debby Waldman writes for the Washington Post on the emerging trend towards home-owners facilitating comfortable, homey venues for MAID patients traveling to states in which death with dignity is legal: In a pastoral Vermont valley, a former hospice chaplain named Suzanne runs a retreat center for artists, health-care workers and educators — and, since mid-2023, … Read more“Hospitality at the End of Life”