Wilson's writings

The Axis of Medieval
Folklore and other topics

By Pip Wilson

PO Box 1246,
Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450
Australia 

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More in the Book of Days  Lunar phase info (pop-up)

Calendar customs, in date order*

Big Greg
How the West's Gregorian calendar prevailed

What is the Goddess Calendar?
It's a modern and arbitrary guide, albeit a useful one

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
Folklore and customs of the big night and day

Epiphany
Epiphany (Jan 6) is a big folklore day in the West

Australia Day
Why January 26 is a good national day for Oz

St Valentine's Day
Hit someone with a goatskin on February 14

March 1, New Year & Matronalia in ancient Rome
It was New Year's Day, and a women's festival to Juno

St Patrick's Day
Will ye be wearin' the green on March 17?

Folklore and origins of Pancake Day
Shrove Tuesday and its pancake customs

Mid-Lent and the origins of Mothers' Day
Mothers' Day began with ancient customs

Lady Day; strange Tichborne lore; the penitent thief
Folklore associated with March 25; Tichborne oddities

Good Friday
A day that is rich in Western folklore and traditions

Easter: more than chocolate eggs
The rich folklore of this pan-European holiday

Poland's Dyngus Day, and other Easter Monday customs
Hare scrambling; Splash Monday; pagan baptism, more

The Hocktide ransom
Two weeks after Easter, a fun custom from England

Watch out, April fool!
Ancient Rome, India – did they start April Fools' Day?

The Floralia
Rome's  games festival for goddess Flora (Apr 28-May 3)

Merrie, merrie month of May
About May Day and the whole merrie month

Whitsunday, or Whitsuntide, folklore and customs
The seventh Sunday after Easter, originally White Sunday

The month of June
Sacred to the goddess Juno

The Poson festival of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka celebrates every June at full moon time

The Dunmow Flitch (of bacon)
Each June, this ancient ceremony tests marital love

St John's Eve, and its magickal herb, St John's wort
June 23, Midsummer's Eve, and the magic of Hypericum

Night of the fairy goddesses
Midsummer's Eve, a hilltop touch of Celtic magick

The month of July
July is 'hay month'; what else?

The Dog Days of Summer
What is the background of this common expression?

Tynwald Day
The ancient annual (Jul 5) ceremony on the Isle of Man

Umbrella Days
St Swithin's (Jul 15); other days of rain prognostication

Saint James, folklore and the pilgrimage of Compostela
Fascinating folklore associated with July 25

Lughnasadh, or Lammas
History and folklore of the Aug 1 Celtic celebration

Tutbury Medieval Minstrels' Fair
Aug 15-16: Robin Hood, bull-baiting, folklore

St Bartholomew's Day: All the fun of the fair
Big day on medieval and early modern calendars (Aug 24)

The month of September
It's autumn for half the world; a look at folklore etc

Saint Giles and the hind
Another saint (September 1) with a connection to the deer

The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
An ancient early September rite from England

The Bird Man of Rapa Nui
A September ritual from ancient Easter Island

Eleusinian Mysteries, goddess Demeter's festival
Series starts at Sep 10 in the Book of Days

International Mourning Day
Our proposal for September 11

Folklore of Holy Rood Day
September 14 is a red-letter day full of ancient customs

Is September 15 the birthday of Jesus Christ?
Researchers have differing views on this subject

Feast of the Ingathering
England's traditional harvest festival (Sep 24)

Holyrood Eve and blackberry folklore
Last day to pick them before Satan poisons them (Sep 25)

Michaelmas, and St Michael the Archangel
Folklore associated with this end-of-summer day (Sep 29)

Feast of the Guardian Angels
Who are these angels and tutelary spirits? (Oct 2)

Halloween 
Its origins and practices, with a look at Australia

Halloween treats
Fun for families at the witching time (Oct 31)

Guy Fawkes Day: Gunpowder, treason and plot
Remember, remember, the 5th of November bonfires!

Martinmas and St Martin of Tours
Folklore abounds for the Feast of Martin (Nov 11)

Thanksgiving, USA, and how it began
America's Thanksgiving origins in a nutshell

Advent
The countdown to Christmas (Nov 30)

Epona, the Celtic goddess of horses
Adored by Celts and Romans alike ( Dec 18, Jun 13) 

And so this is Christmas
Yule (Dec 22-25) folklore, gods of the ancient world

Calendar convergence (by JC Paulson)
Is December 23, 2012 TimeWave Zero?

* Every day in the Book of Days has a lot of information about daily calendar customs. Some of the articles listed above are larger BoD items. See also Wheel of the Year, below.

Myth and folklore

Who is the Green Man?
Associated with Robin Hood, Pan and horned gods

Who was the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
Did he exist? What is known of the origins of his legend?

How are other ancient gods like Jesus? 
Ancient gods like Attis, Mithras, Krisha ... similarities

Blue Moon – Folklore or fakelore? 
Is a blue moon "two moons in a month"?

Romulus and Remus, and the foundation of Rome
History and mythology mix in this ancient tale

Atlantis – way down below the ocean
Since Plato, the lost continent has intrigued generations

Friday the 13th  folklore and origins
What are the origins of our unluckiest day?

The god Dionysus (Bacchus) and his drunken festivals
The Greek/Roman god and the Dionysia and Bacchanalia

Megalesia: Roman festival of the goddess Cybele
From Turkey to Rome, her rise was literally meteoric

Hathor: Egyptian goddess of sky – and terror
Nurturing goddess and sky, but so bloodthirsty

Odin and his Ordeal
Like Jesus, the Norse Ásatrú god, Odin, hung on a tree

The Horned God and Christianity
Pagan archetype of the divine; unicorn; stag; Cernunnos

Saint Brendan's amazing voyage
Some say this 6th-Century Irishman discovered America

Ursula, saint or bear-goddess
Who was this legendary saint, and is she a goddess?

Lady Godiva
Who was the naked lady on the horse?

Prester John: Legendary emperor of the East
Who was he, and where was his fantastic realm?

Virgin of Guadalupe, or Aztec goddess?
Did farmer Juan Diego see Mary, or goddess Tonantzin?

The Virgin Mary as Goddess
Exploring connections between Mary and ancient goddesses

St Petroc and the Tregeagle the monster
From Cornwall, UK, comes this ancient horror story

The Seven Sleepers
An ancient legend of the Rip Van Winkle variety

Sacred wells, springs and grottoes
Healing waters deities, sacred to Christian and heathen alike

Wayland the Smith and Saint Clement
Blacksmith god and blacksmith-related saint

Taking liberties
USA's Statue of Liberty represents a pagan goddess

The wise fools of Gotham
These idiots weren't as dumb as they looked

The Wandering Jew
A curious medieval legend of a man cursed by Jesus Christ

Celtic Tree Calendar Months

(Articles evolving in the Book of Days;
tree mythology, folklore, quotes etc)

Beth  Birch  Dec 24* - Jan 20
Luis  Rowan  Jan 21 - Feb 17
Nuin/Nion  Ash  Feb 18 - Mar 17
Fearn  Alder  Mar 18 - Apr 14
Saille  Willow  Apr 15 - May 12
Huath  Hawthorn  May 13 - Jun 9
Duir  Oak  Jun 10 - Jul 7
Tinne  Holly  Jul 8 - Aug 4
Coll  Hazel  Aug 5 - Sep 1
Muin  Vine  Sep 2 - 29
Gort  Ivy  Sep 30 - Oct 27
Ngetal  Reed  Oct 28 - Nov 24
Ruis  Elder  Nov 25 - Dec 22
Secret of the Unhewn Stone Dec 23

* The first date is the one with the article for the month

Politics and humour

The Dundee Code (sequel to The Da Vinci Code)
Exclusive: We publish excerpts from the manuscript

Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq
What CNN and Bush won't tell you!

Mentiras da Mídia Sobre o Iraque
Portuguese version of the previous article 'Myths'

Text of President Bush's leaflet being dropped over Iraq
A parody that might get me sent to Guantanamo hell-hole

America's imperial eagle
An essay in pictures: The US symbol says much about today

A world chronology of women's electoral rights
A fascinating table of women's historical struggle

President Bush announces his Global Peace Imaginatorium
Is it satire, is it prophetic, or is it just maybe a good idea?

Terror alerts!
From our Department of Homeland Fascism

Immutable, inscrutable Laws of the Universe
Can you mute or scrute these hypotheses?

The yarn of Fisher's Ghost
Aussie campfire yarn with Uncle Clarrie

Chicka Taylor's mystery flight
Another campfire yarn from Uncle Clarrie

The Alger Hiss espionage case
The received wisdom still seems to get it wrong

Kroakin Rosie & the King of Karaoke
Your almanackist gets publicly humiliated

The Real Reason for the Iraq War
WC has a different slant from the usual "it's all about oil"

Bush just sat there (9-11 video)
Weird: Bush's incongruous behaviour on September 11

How the WMD team was not expelled by Saddam in '98
Politicians and media say one thing. Is it the truth?

People and history

Virgil: the poet as magician
Ancient Roman revered by medieval people as a magus

Emperor Domitian's predicted assassination
Tradition says that an astrologer predicted his death

St Columba and the Loch Ness Monster
This Irish saint gave us the first written report of Nessie

St Boniface, saint or marauder of pagans?
We don't know, but we can have our suspicions

The Legend of St Kenelm
A strange tale of dreams and mystery

The Venerable Bede
An overview of the life of one of history's great scholars

Vikings!
The sacred isle of Lindisfarne, and a Viking treasure

Was England's King William II a pagan sacrifice?
Was his death a Celtic ritual for Lammas (Lughnasadh)?

William Tell and the apple
Ancient legend also found in Persia, Norway, Denmark ...

Celestial wonders and the fall of Constantinople, 1453
Did a Pacific volcano help change the course of Western history?

Mother Shipton, England's Nostradamus
Mother Shipton, born in 1488, had much to say about the future ...

Greed, gold and God Part 1: The Aztecs and Cortés
In 1519 the empire of Moctezuma fell to the conquistadors

Greed, gold and God Part 2: The Battle of Cajamarca
Was there ever a more remarkable battle in world history?

The Fairlop Oak Fair
One man's generosity led to a festival under a huge oak

When will the ghost-king Sebastian return?
Millions believed in a 16th-Century king's second coming

Pocahontas: UnDisney
Who was Pocahontas, and how are the movies wrong?

The true case of the ichthiobibliophage: the Book-Fish
In 1626, a fishmonger found something odd in a cod's belly

The Campden Wonder
The strange case of William Harrison: where did he go?

Two geniuses whose lives were touched by John Dee
Mercator and Lord Bacon have alchemist John Dee in common

The sad case of the 'Witches of Warbois'
In an English village, ignorance and malice got out of hand

Mumtaz and Jahan
The love affair that created the Taj Mahal

James Hind, gentleman highwayman
Stand and deliver! And done with such style!

Buccaneer of exquisite mind, and the real Robinson Crusoe
William Dampier, great navigator, and Alexander Selkirk

Count Cagliostro: Alchemist or fraud?
One of the most colourful 18th-Century characters

Isaac Newton: Scientist, alchemist and theologian
Lesser-known sides to the great man's life

Was the USA founded on Christianity?
Some say "Yes"; Wilson's Almanac says "No"

Lord Timothy Dexter, the Newburyport Nut
American eccentric and all-round lucky guy

The Sawney Beane family
The legend of the cannibals of Scotland

Thomas Chatterton: Boy genius and forger
His talent was prodigious, but he took his life at 17

The heart that would not burn
The life and death of Percy Bysshe Shelley, in brief

Kaspar Hauser, mystery wild boy of Nuremburg
Appearing in 1828, Kaspar Hauser remains an unsolved puzzle

Mill, poor fellow, is terribly cut up
The philosopher had terribly bad news for the historian

Assassination and a prophetic dream
A dream that told of the death of a British Prime Minister

Thomas Meagher and the Young Irelanders
A tale of USA, Ireland and Australia that should be better known

Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious visitor
Who is the man who leaves flowers on the poet's grave?

San Francisco's majestic Emperor Norton I
Emperor of the USA and Protector of Mexico

The bizarre case of Alferd Packer
Did he murder and eat his comrades?

Ned Kelly's Last Stand
Australia's most famous bushranger shoots it out with police

Annie Besant: Social visionary who lit a match
Theosophist, human rights activist, India-lover, more

Edwin Brady, Henry Lawson's loyal mate
Almost forgotten, important in Australian history & literature

Orpheus Myron McAdoo and tale of the 'Wimoweh' song
African-American singer's impact on Australia, S. Africa, world

Event over Tunguska
What exploded over Central Siberia in 1908?

The mystery of the Mad Monk's bishop
About those rumours concerning Rasputin's ... thing

The scholars of Borroloola
The hermits of Borroloola were very well read

Louisa and Henry Lawson – they drove each other crazy!
Australia's leading feminist and her son, its leading writer

Henry Lawson & his mates: What school didn't teach you
A life that has been relatively reinvented

The War Prayer
Mark Twain opposed war and imperialism

Mister Eternity
Night after night for 37 years he chalked just one word

Bee Miles, one of Sydney's favourite individualists
Bee Miles, famous taxi-hopping crazy lady who made sense

John Lennon – saint or sinner?
He is both lauded and hated; what is his legacy?

Lies, spies and the Sydney Hilton bombing
Three men died, three were falsely jailed for years

Scrimmies: human bone-carving cult
Beyond tattoos and piercing – bizarre report

Apocalypse when?
On failed prophecies and beliefs that don't work

Piltdown & Co.
Best hoaxes and frauds from the annals of history 

Nikita Khrushchev and his vanishing shoe
Did Mr K really bang his shoe on the table at the UN? 

The Lion sleeps: Ahmed Shah Massoud and 9-11
'The Lion of Panjshir', masterful guerrilla commander

Inspiration

Pip's Trip Tips
If you'd like to feel better and be happier, take a look!

Are you a late starter? 
It's never too late to get a life!

We are not powerless over our emotions!
Pip's easy-to-do tips for feeling good now!

Miscellaneous

Make a sundial on your ceiling
Throw away your clock!

World's best flag & national anthem
Pip's tongue firmly planted in cheek

Australian nemeton
A parable of love between a man and a woman

Letters
Selected letters to Pip, and his replies

The calendar and primitive almanacs
By Robert Chambers, 19th-Century British almanackist

The Declaration of Evolution
Timothy Leary's public domain document

The Abolition of Work
Bob Black's famed and inspiring essay

The Sawney Beane family
The legend of the cannibals of Scotland (reprint)

Wilson's Almanac tagcloud
100s of subject categories based on my blog posts

  Search whole Almanac

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

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