Fennel

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
fennel: Because of its supposed eye-strengthening effect, fennel occasionally signifies spiritual clear-sightedness. Since it also supposedly causes molting in snakes that eat it, it symbolizes periodic renewal or rejuvenation. In the Middle Ages it was considered to be an apotropaic* plant. Because of its fragrance and its valuable oil, it is sometimes associated with Mary. (Herder)


*intended to ward off evil

Author Soundtrack: Lauren Dane

My interview with Lauren Dane is now live over at the Writers & Soundtracks podcast. Check it out!

The Word-Hoard: obering, eargh, and sockdologer

This week's word-hoard feature: obering, eargh, and sockdologer.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Peach tree

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
peach tree: Primarily because of its early flowering, it is a Chinese symbol of spring and fertility. The wood of the peach tree, like that of the mulberry tree, was regarded in China as having effective powers against evil influences; similar effects were ascribed to its fruit. The tree, blossom, and fruit were also regarded as symbols of immortality. In Japan the peach blossom symbolizes virginity. (Herder)

Smoke

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Smoke It is a symbol of connection between heaven and earth, spirit and matter. The column of smoke is sometimes related symbolically to the world axis.

National Poetry Month

A friend reminded me that it's National Poetry Month, so I wanted to share one of my favorite poems, by Billy Collins. I love the inventiveness of his imagery and ideas in this, and his directness in general.

Metamorphosis

If Kafka could turn a man into an insect in one sentence
perhaps he could transform me into something new,
a slow willful river running through a forest,
or simply the German word for river, a handful of letters
hidden in the dark alphabetical order of a dictionary.

Not that I am so miserable, but i could use a change
of scenery and substance, plus the weather reminds me of him.
I imagine Kafka at his desk: the nib of his pen,
like the beak of a bird, disturbs the surface of a pool of ink,
and he writes a sentence at the top of a page

changing me into a goldfish or a lost mitten
or a cord of split wood or the New York Public Library.
Ah, to awaken one morning as the New York Public Library.
I would pass the days observing old men in raincoats
as they mounted the ponderous steps between the lions

carrying wild and scribbled notes inside their pockets.
I would feel the pages of books turning inside me like butterflies.
I would stare over Fifth Avenue with a perfectly straight face.

What are some of your favorite poems?

Myths, folklore, and symbolism



"This sign was carved into a rock wall in Inyo County, California. Its meaning is not known."

Learn more at symbols.com.

Team Cassiebug auctions

The Team Cassiebug auctions to benefit Cystic Fibrosis research are almost done! Make sure you stop by before they close tonight. There are some amazing hand crafted goods, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Writers & Soundtracks - interview with Heather Domin

The full interview with Heather Domin is now live on the Writers & Soundtracks blog. Check it out!

The Word-Hoard: plisky, facinorous, and pudendous

This week's word-hoard feature: plisky, facinorous, and pudendous.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Emerald

Myths, folklore & symbolism
emerald: It is a gemstone that generally shares the symbolism of the color green. The Indians of Central America associated it with blood (among the Indians, the colors green and red are expressions of vital energy), the rain, and the moon. Because of its green color, the emerald is associated in Europe with fertility and thus with moistness, the moon, and spring. In Rome, the emerald was an attribute of Venus.

According to the Book of Revelation, the emerald is among the stones of which the Heavenly Jerusalem is built. In the Middle ages the symbolic content of the emerald was manifold. It was regarded as a potentially effective talisman because it supposedly originally came from hell; it was especially useful against the infernal powers. It was simultaneously believed that placing an emerald on the tongue enabled one to summon evil spirits and to hold conversations with them. To the consecrated emerald (i.e., one freed of its evil powers) was ascribed the capacity to free those imprisoned. In Christian symbolism the emerald signifies purity, belief, and immortality. (Herder)

Auction for CF - Part Deux

The second part of the Team Cassiebug auctions to raise money to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis are now live at http://teamcassiebug.livejournal.com/.

There are a TON of fantastic things this time around - another knit Jayne (Firefly) hat, beautiful jewelry, and some amazing hand-crafted bath salts (I know the woman who created them and she has mad skills).

Myths, symbolism, and folklore



"Japanese heraldic sign found on a Samurai coat of arms in which two "seeds of the universe " rotate counterclockwise."

Learn more at symbols.com

Keys

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
keys: According to a character in Thomas Hardy's novel Far From the Madding Crowd, breaking a key was a bad sign: "I went to unlock the door and dropped the key, and it fell upon the stone floor and broke into two pieces. Breaking a key is a dreadful bodement." Keys were also used for divination, in conjunction wiht a Bible, and are still commonly recommended to stop a nosebleed (put the key down the sufferer's back). A report from Norfolk, in the 1890s, described how seamen's wives and girlfriends would gather on the quay, watching for the arrival or departure of a ship, each carrying in her hand a key - presumably their house doorkey - turning it in the direction of a departing or expected ship. (Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore)

New Writers & Soundtracks podcast posted

Hey everyone! The latest Writers & Soundtracks podcast is now live, featuring author Heather Domin!

http://writersoundtracks.blogspot.com

The Word-Hoard: gyrovagues, oblatrate, and hieromachy

This week's word-hoard feature: gyrovagues, oblatrate, and hieromachy.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Wiscon reading!

Our group, Las Habladoras, will present stories of the mythic and fantastic on Saturday, May 24, at Wiscon. Please join us - there might even be organic chocolate in it for you!

Sybil's Garage #5

On Friday, I took the day off, and it was amazing. I lounged in bed until 7:30 (when you usually get up at 4:30, this is a luxury), cleaned the house a bit, and spent the rest of the day reading.

I took a nice long bubble bath with LUSH flosty gritter (yayes!) and read the book I'm reviewing for June's Historical Novels Review. And then, after a lunch of popcorn (!!!) I grabbed Sybil's Garage #5 and headed off to the Guadalupe Gardens. In the middle of the day on a Friday no one was around, so I had the place to myself. I sat under a beautiful elm over near the historic orchard and settled in.

According to their site:

A spectrum of stories and poems from the past, present and elsewhen. It is intergalactic love ballads, evil supermarkets, the bad girls of myth, and nostalgia for things that never were. It is our largest issue yet, with ten stories of fiction and eight poems, and everything else you'd expect from the magazine that Behind the Wainscot calls, "a saturation tank of isolation and the sublime."

This is the first issue of Sybil's Garage that I've read, and I was impressed by the range of styles and subjects. I was most impressed by the haunting "The Girl Next Door" by Vylar Kaftan; the strange and lovely "Tattoos of the Sky, Tattoos of the Days" by Alex Dally MacFarlane; and the heartbreaking "Waiting for Spring" by Caspian Gray. Of course, I love most of A. J. Odasso's poetry, so it was fantastic to see "River Girl" in this issue.

If you can get your hands on the issue, it's definitely worth your time to take a read.


(x-posted to my LJ)

Jade

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
jade In China jade, like gold, is closely associated with the yang principle and thus symbolizes vital energy and cosmic forces. It is an image of perfection and a symbol of the union of the five heavenly virtues (i.e., purity, immutability, clarity, euphony, and kindness) as well as the union of moral qualities and beauty. Jade was used as a universal medicament, was valued as nutrition for immaterial beings, and was the medicine that granted immortality or long life and protected the bodies of the deceased from decay.

In Central America jade symbolized the soul, the spirit, the heart; because of its green, transparent color, it was also related to vegetation, water, rain, and blood (because of the occasional interchangeability of the symbolic meanings of green and red). (Herder)

Good Causes

First, the first set of Team Cassiebug auction items close in 14 hours (7 p.m. Pacific). Visit

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtappymlp

to bid on some fantastic stuff, and help raise money to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.


Second, my friend Crystal and I are doing the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, here in San Jose on May 17.

Crystal, and my other friend Michele, were both diagnosed with breast cancer within a few months of each other last year; they're in their late 30s/early 40s. After surgery, chemo, radiation, and medication, they're doing great - thank goodness for the American Cancer Society and their funding of research.

If you've got a few extra bucks lying around, please help support me in this important cause by making a donation.

Thanks!

Myths, symbolism, and folklore



"This sign is said to be one of the alchemists' signs for honey."

Learn more at symbols.com

Writers & Soundtracks - Darin Bradley

My full interview with Darin Bradley is now up at the Writers & Soundtracks podcast. Check it out!

The Word-Hoard: contumely, amaritude, and amyctic

This week's word-hoard feature: contumely, amaritude, and amyctic.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

The auction to raise money for Team Cassiebug for the Great Strides walk (to help find a cure for CF) are now live.

Please, bid early and often at:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtappymlp

There's some great stuff: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils, hand-crafted jewelry by, some fun Disneyana, an awesome Jayne Cobb knitted cap, and some gorgeous watercolors by Catrina Horsfield.

100% of the proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Spread the word!

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"A sign found in the US system of hobo signs, meaning say nothing, don't talk at all."

Get the full story at symbols.com.

Calamus

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Calamus: It is the sweet flag, a variety of arum growing next to water in Asia and Europe, from which is extracted oil for anointing and for medicines. In the Middle Ages it was sometimes associated with Mary. (Herder)

New Writers & Soundtracks podcast posted

Hooray! The next Writers & Soundtracks podcast is live. This time, I interview author Darin Bradley. Check it out!