The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/ritual)
Olive oil has nourished kitchens, temples, and rituals for thousands of years. A new archaeological study, however, presses long-held assumptions, suggesting that some residues once identified as olive oil may be a little slippery—and hide unexpected pitfalls in the ancient record.
Lyonel Perabo makes his pilgrimage to the 2025 Midgardsblot festival, partaking in a sweeping day filled with ritual, scholarship, and the heaviest metal to be found anywhere in Scandinavia.
“Nobody shushed the room. The lower house lights did not dim. There was no call to order. Energy simply shifted between us and within us, and the hush was total.” Meg Elison writes of her magical experience inside the Skyspace installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Each July, survivors in Galicia are carried in coffins to honor Santa Marta. Now, a local priest calls the tradition “witchcraft,” sparking protest and raising questions about faith, folklore, and the fight for cultural survival.
Researchers have recreated Egyptian blue, the world’s oldest synthetic pigment, revealing its ancient spiritual role and surprising modern applications—from art to forensics—while uncovering new insights into how it was originally made.