#mythmagic

The mysterious magic of the corn doll

Corn dolls or sometimes “corn mothers” are miraculous forms of straw fashioned from the last sheaf of cereals after a summer harvest. Therefore, these straw dolls are a noteworthy & supernatural part of the harvest customs of pastoral Europe. Some pagan cultures called these mothers “vetulas” (the Latin for “Old Woman” is vetula) though, in the 7th century, Saint Eligius (born 588) instructed…

Maypoles, May Queens, May Day, and May the Month of Flowers and Magic

When I was a young kid, growing up in poor, post-war South London on the edges of the County of Surrey, each April we rehearsed MAY POLE DANCING. (If you wish, you can read all about my 1950s exploits in South London in the novel “The Sisterationship: A Charlatan’s Story” — a suburban folk-tale about a plain-clothes Nun… and I feature in it!) Maypole dancing was a mandatory activity (which I…