A Circle of Gold and Blue: Medieval Ring May Have Been Worn for Healing and Spiritual Power
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A medieval gold ring set with a deep blue stone has been unearthed in Norway’s oldest town, revealing not only exquisite craftsmanship but long-held beliefs in sapphire’s power to heal illness, cool “inner heat,” and guard the soul.
Beyond “Was She Really a Witch?”: Revisiting Margaret Atwood’s “My Evil Mother”
“Contemporary reclamations of ‘witch’ as feminist identity tend toward celebration,” writes Beatrix Kondo, “which Atwood declines. What she offers instead is something harder and more useful: these practices functioned as survival apparatus for populations the official world refused to protect.”
A Witch’s Harrowing Sorrow: A Review of Hamnet
Lyonel Perabo reviews Chloe Zhao’s film, a moody, witchy exploration of grief and art that incorporates the medieval Nine Herbs Charm into its story of Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare.
Twilight of the Twentieth Century
The Norse myths are laced with a melancholic focus on the end of an age. Karl Seigfried notes that today it also feels as though a way of living is passing. But just as Ragnarök leads to a rebirth, so too might our own times – if we are willing to work for it.