HeyJaredAn old hag's snippets of folklore, myth and magic
I aim to post interesting things from old books to save you bothering to read them
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 19, 2026
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- Jul 23, 2026
Latest issues
Beauty in decay (opens the original)
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This year has spun by, despite the never-ending cold, wet January and the bake-us-all-alive summer - and here we are at the autumn equinox already. A brief point of balance in the year, when night and day are of equal length. It always makes me think of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets (even though I never really understood them) and a few lines of Burnt Norton that resonate:At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance
Know Your Onions (opens the original)
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These days, most of us think of onions simply as a useful ingredient to cook with. But we could be missing a trick. In the past, onions have been used for everything from magical cure-all charms to weather predictors. This post covers all the folk remedy and historical uses I could source for the humble onion, some of which might even work Let me know if you try any…<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!z0yH!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:
Chalice Hill (opens the original)
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You may heard of Chalice Well in Glastonbury, or visited it while in town. It's a popular tourist attraction set in beautiful gardens, where a spring, rich in iron oxide, flows out a reddish brown and colours the rock over time. Also known as the Red Spring, it's a place of pilgrimage, and the well is ‘dressed’ according to the time of year.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uh2f!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubsta
Tansy and its uses (opens the original)
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