“To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape”
Death explains the human necessity of belief in fantasies in this scene from the television adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel The Hogfather.
The Reaper
Drawing the Death Card at Sky Meadow
Just returned from the Spring 2024 Metamodern Spirituality Lab gathering at Sky Meadow, a spiritual retreat center in Vermont’s beautiful Northeastern Kingdom. The Lab has been a wonderful immersion in Serious Play; restoring an abandoned medicine garden to its original form and purpose, designing and enacting an elaborate welcoming ceremony/pilgrimage for the weekend participants, another … Read moreDrawing the Death Card at Sky Meadow
“What if Death was a Person?”
The Tale Foundry examines various literary and pop-culture personifications of Death.
Thanksgiving/Day of the Dead in Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure, 1992)
The good people of Cicely, Alaska enjoy their eccentric, Day of the Dead-inflected version of Thanksgiving in this scene from Northern Exposure (1992). As explained by Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles), the indigenous people of Cicely do not regard the orthodox Thanksgiving as a day of celebration. In fact, they carry a lot of ancestral anger … Read moreThanksgiving/Day of the Dead in Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure, 1992)
Iva Morris’ Day of the Dead Series (2012)
Jubilee (2012) Southwest Gothic. Pas de Deux. More at the artist’s website.
“The Euthanasia Ritual Kept Secret From The Catholic Church in Italy”
A fascinating documentary on the folklore of the Accabadora (’Lady of Kind Death’) in Sardinia, Italy, where – according to rumor – there existed a tradition of compassionate euthanasia carried out by a special class of women.
“Look behind you!”
A close-up of the Ghost puppet from my late father’s Punch and Judy collection. Dad had been a Punch and Judy puppeteer (or “Professor”) as a young teen, touring around various New Zealand venues during the 1950s. He was popular enough that his high school principal was frequently contacted by prospective venues, so the principal … Read more“Look behind you!”