go forth and have no fear

Unlike Earth, where sunsets are red and orange due to the scattering of shorter blue wavelengths by our atmosphere, Mars has an extremely fine dust that scatters blue light more efficiently near the Sun.

So during sunset on Mars, the sky turns reddish-brown while the area around the Sun glows a soft blue. It’s the opposite of what we experience on Earth.

NASA’s rovers have captured this eerie sight

Though I live in Arkansas, and work intensely with the land, I am not a native and not a member of Ozark folk culture. Though my practice is rooted in my own ancestry, it’s also rooted in my bioregion—so it doesn’t hurt to look at the folklore of other residents. I talked about Randolph’s background in my first of this series of posts.

“Tobacco is used in other ways by the yarb doctors and granny-women. I have seen severe abdominal pain, later diagnosed as appendicitis and cured by surgery, apparently relieved at once with a poultice of tobacco leaves soaked in hot water. The tobacco poultice is very generally used for cuts, stings, bites, bruises, and even bullet wounds. A poultice of tobacco leaves in cold water is often applied to “draw the pizen” out of a boil or a risin’, Some people think such a poultice is more effective if fresh mullein leaves are bound in outside the poultice.”

[ ⚠️ While folklore historically championed tobacco poultices for pain relief, drawing out infections, or treating wounds, modern medical consensus strongly advises against this practice.]

“Mullein-flower tea is supposed to be good for colds, sore throat, flu, and even pneumonia.”

“Charley Cummins, old-time newspaper reporter of Springfield, Missouri, always claimed that he could make an “almost infallible pile cure” out of mullein leaves, but he would never give me any details of the treatment.”

“Many hill folk treat sprains by tying on rags soaked in hot vinegar to which salt has been added. Others put mullein leaves in the vinegar instead of the salt.”

“Some folk seem to think that a poultice of mullein leaves simmered in vinegar is helpful in almost any sort of painful condition. I have seen such a poultice applied to a wound made by a charge of bird shot; it not only eases pain, I was told, but “loosens up the shot” so that the doctor can easily extract the pellets."

"There are many ways of determining whether or not one’s sweetheart is faithful. If the fire which a man kindles burns brightly, he knows that his sweetheart is true to him, but if it smolders, she is likely to prove unfaithful. As a further test, he may go into a clearing and bend down a mullein stalk so that it points toward her cabin; if she loves him the stalk grows up again, but if she loves another it will die. Mrs. Addah Matthews, Monett, Missouri, says that “a girl used to name a mullein stalk, then bend the stalk toward her fellow’s house; if it grew bent in that direction he loved her.”

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Today, I changed the altar out from May to summer. The first cicada sounding on Semik during Rusalia/Green Week seemed like a nudge in that direction. Also, Sunday is Letnice (the Czech folk name for Pentecost)—the root of the word is the Czech name for summer.

I made an offering of first fruits and amaranth and sheep sorrel to the ancestors. Amaranth has a long tradition in the Americas as a spiritual offering and I have been developing a strong personal relationship with sheep sorrel.

I always put this cicada netsuke out the first day I hear a cicada.

The netsuke and berries are sitting on a tin of dandelion salve “the sun itself in the grass.”—Thoreau 🌞

Mimosa was put on the altar for pretty and birch for its long relationship with Rusalia and the rusalka.

This was the first time Morana was dressed in the linen that I dyed in the spring with redbud blossoms.

For the first time the Sun Goddess tapestry (left) that I stitched last year appeared on the summer altar. I stitched this piece in honor of the Northern European sun goddess who shows up under the names Sunna (Scandinavia), Saule (Baltic), and Solntse (Russian).

The painted rock was a lovely gift from my days as a children’s librarian. One of my tweens decorated it for me.