#folk memory

[milkandheavysugar]

“Ancestors are the benevolent, guiding spirits that we are and can be constantly in touch with.”

The late Nobel laureate, Pulitzer-prize winning, literary giant and novelist Toni Morrison discussing folk memory and spirituality’s inclusion in her work (1988). “She grew up around storytellers and musicians and trained her ear to the twists and turns and language, and directed her focus on neglected communities and obscured histories in a language that was so elegant and alive that it felt participatory. “

[wyvernshollow]

[suevincent]

Ghosts #midnighthaiku * Half-remembered tales On the edge of memory Ancestors whisper *

[pagansquare]

Lighting Winter Solstice Sympathetic Magic

I live well out in the rural hinterlands of Ireland. Folk memory is long lived and some traditional farming practices tend to border on folk magic. One such custom that can still be found is to put an predator's carcass on display to warn off other of its species not to prey on herd animals - sheep and chickens. I have known pine martin to be nailed up on chicken coops as a warning. Walking our dogs down our lane I saw a road kill fox draped over the pasture's fence post.  It's a form of sympathetic magic. And it is deep, deep in our cellular memory. Sympathetic magic is imitative magic or correspondences according to anthropologists. You don't have to be identified as pagan to practice it.

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