I’m Allyson Shaw, author of Ashes and Stones: a journey through Scotland in search of women hunted as witches. I live in Orkney with my partner and a pride of three cats. Any pronouns.
—A compromised Lammas dream harvest— What’s going down in this post: * Musings on Dream Harvests past and present * A micro-podcast version of this post * Harvests from the archives * An invitation to this Sunday’s Outlier Hour For the last few years, I have posted a poem at Lammas. I
--a july round-up-- In this missive: * Musing on Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt ’s Oblique Strategies * Reading Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa & Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison * Watching Conclave, Virgin Island and Murderbot * Planning a Lammas-adjacent Outlier Hour! This photo was taken on a recent
At the beginning of the month, the British newspaper The Observer ran a damning expose of author Raynor Winn. Her memoir The Salt Path is a ‘true story’ of a couple made homeless through property investments gone bad. The book recalls their survival walking hundreds of miles while her husband
—and why this matters— In this Missive: * Soul searching about the ecological & spiritual cost of Generative AI * 7 Ways to Minimise the Presence of Generative AI in Your Life * Links to other posts I have written about GenAI. This was a much longer post, but I lost several files
—and other beasts at the waxing moon 🌔— Spirit Pig Before moving to Scotland, I was learning what I now call hedgewitchery, riding of metaphysical hedges using trance-work commonly referred to as shamanic journeying. In one journey I was given a piglet to hold and care for. That piglet changed my
—Frankenstein in Orkney— 'I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and the moon was just rising from the sea...' Certain books follow us through our lives, reminding us of our past selves: an amalgam of lived experience, learned texts and memories retained in body
—a June Round Up 🐸— In this missive: Pondering: Why my garden is not a metaphor Reading: Uprooting by Marchell Farrell & reviews of revolting perfumes Watching: Jacques Demy's Donkeyskin from 1970. Celebrating: a win for all living things in Scotland, or the recent defeat of the obscenity that
--a full circle offering at the full moon-- This post was originally written twenty years ago for my Livejournal blog. The Hungerford Bridge is a liminal space over the 'longest archeological site in the UK'–the river Thames.* This is part of an ongoing series on ossuaries of
--& you're invited!-- Come to the Solstice Outlier Hour! Become a paid subscriber if you are not one already and join in this wee meeting of the minds. Come as you are--no need to have your video on if you're not up for it--just
—ossuaries I have known, an ongoing series— PART II of The Tomb of the Eagles This post continues my exploration of the Tomb of the Eagles in Orkney. Become a paid subscriber and read the first instalment here. “Satisfied [the skeleton] contemplated the Milky Way, the army of bones that
-a Round Up for May-- In this missive: * Reading: The Seaweed Collector's Handbook, Miek Zwamborn * Musing on: What the Surrealist vogue can tell us about storytelling * Listening To Icy Sedgewick's podcast, Fabulous Folklore * Planning: A Midnight Sun Outlier Hour for paid subscribers in June * Watching: Unrest,
MJT
--revisiting a Los Angeles enigma via a 24 year old webzine.-- In 2001, I was waxing lyrical about a mysterious shopfront museum in Los Angeles located at 9341 Venice Boulevard. Founded by film set designers David and Diana Wilson in 1988, The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an trickster-ode