Living

Earth Day 2016: When do words meet action?

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TWH — Tomorrow marks the 46th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day. This holiday is considered to be the largest secular celebration recognized throughout the world, with “more than a billion people” honoring the day every year. It is considered to be “a day of action [to] change human behavior and provoke policy changes.” While Earth Day has always had its detractors and critics, it is regularly acknowledged in many diverse ways, both small and big, around the globe. And, in that way alone, it could be considered an Earth Day.

Living

Autism: Spectrum of Beauty

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TWH – One average hot summer day, a 30-something woman and her 5-year-old boy entered a suburban public pool space. Brimming with youthful excitement, the child, who was unusually large for his age, awkwardly bounced around his mother’s legs in anticipation of a good swim. As the woman unloaded her bags, filled with toys, snacks, towels and other pool needs, onto an unoccupied reclining chair, the child approached a sunbathing adult and introduced himself. “Hi. My name is Matt.

Culture

Discovering occult painter and mystic Hilma af Klint

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LONDON — The Serpentine Gallery is currently exhibiting the work of Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint (1862 -1944). Over her career, af Klint painted nearly 1200 works, at least 200 of which were created during trance rituals and inspired by her esoteric beliefs. Af Klint’s paintings, which have only been exhibited a few times and in limited numbers since the 1980s, are regularly compared to other famous abstract painters of the era, including Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Robert Delaunay, and Piet Mondrian. Over the past decade, as af Klint’s work has become better known, art historians have been questioning whether it is af Klint, rather than Kandinsky, who is actually the true pioneer of abstract painting. As noted in BlouinArtInfo, “[af Klint] painted in near isolation from the European avant-garde, forging her own singular path motivated by her interest in nature, the spiritual realm, and the occult.”

Culture

Lydia Miller Ruyle 1935-2016

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Artist and scholar Lydia Miller Ruyle died March 26, a month after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Lydia was best known for her banners dedicated to the celebration of the divine feminine. She was an activist, teacher, sculptor, illustrator, author, a respected voice in the goddess spirituality movement, and a champion for women’s rights. Lydia was born in Denver, Colorado on Aug. 4 to Lydia Alles Miller and David J. Miller.

News

No Witchcraft books in Prague, according to historian

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PRAQUE – On March 16, a Norwegian-based online news site, Local NO, published an article titled, “Norwegian ‘witch’ books stolen by Nazis found.” This story was quickly picked up by international media and expounded upon. The Local NO was covering a March 16 conference hosted by a project called “Books Discovered Once Again.” The conference topic was, in fact, the recovery of these confiscated books. However, according to one of the program organizers “no occult books” have been found.