Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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Cutting the Cord

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

At sundown on the eve of her coming-of-age, the grandmothers tied the girl to her mother with a red cord.

One end of the cord, nine ells long, they had bound, with much hilarity, around young Linden's waist; the other (not without a few tears) around her mother's.

And now the women were come, with the red-dyed eggs and the red-wrapped gifts, and so the rites began.

The secret rites of the Women's Side, by which a girl becomes a woman, may not be told; nor could I tell them, I who am of the Men's Side.

But this much I can tell, for it is known to all.

That during the rites, Linden received from her mother's hand the athame that she will use for the rest of her life.

And that with it, she herself, Linden, cut the red cord.

 

For ZBG

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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