Working with the Summer Solstice and Litha The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. The sun rises early, lingers high, and seems to stretch the world open. The land is alive with heat, growth, insects, flowers, ripening gardens, long evenings, and that unmistakable feeling that summer has fully arrived. In many Pagan traditions, this point on the Wheel of the Year is known as Litha. Litha is a celebration of solar power, abundance, vitality, joy, protection, growth

When Gears Meet Shadows Steampunk is often full of brass, gears, goggles, airships, inventions, and Victorian imagination. It has a sense of motion to it — engines turning, clockwork ticking, steam rising, machines doing impossible things. Gothic style brings something different. It brings candlelight and shadow. Velvet and lace. Old houses with secrets in the walls. Iron gates, mourning jewelry, ravens, storm clouds, locked rooms, and the sense that beauty and danger are sta

The message came Thursday afternoon, a little after three. Keith was between meetings, half-listening to someone in accounting explain a delay that could easily have been an email, when his phone vibrated against the desk. He glanced down, saw her name, and felt his full attention sharpen before he had read a word. He waited until he was alone to open it. Be at my house Friday evening at seven. Be prepared to stay until Sunday afternoon. He read that once. Then again. A secon

Shadow work is often spoken about in broad terms, as if it is one single practice with one single purpose. In reality, shadow work can take many forms. Sometimes it is about uncovering old wounds. Sometimes it is about recognizing patterns. Sometimes it is about releasing resentment, confronting fear, or finally telling the truth to yourself about something you have avoided. Because the work itself shifts, it makes sense to approach it in different ways depending on the seaso