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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in beer

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
On the Sanctity of Drinking Bowls

When you pour out sacred drink, what do you pour it into?

If you're Wiccan, probably a chalice.

If you're heathen, probably a horn.

Now, I've got nothing against horns. (Some of my best friends wear them.) Nor, for that matter, chalices, although it's a matter of history that they derive their current stemmed shape from Christian liturgical necessity: not that there's anything wrong with that.

But when it comes to sacred drinking, as for me, I like to stick with ancestral precedent. Make mine a drinking bowl, please.

Drinking bowls tend to be smaller than bowls that you eat from, but that's the main difference, really. Whether richly carved or elegantly plain, drinking bowls read as “archaic,” ancestral, dating from a time when one single, undifferentiated vessel served all functions. It's interesting to note that while “bowl” is an indigenously Germanic word, “cup” was originally a Latin import.

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Beer, the Sacred Drink of the Hearth

Bonfires, drinking, music, raucous celebration: Walpurgisnacht is a wild night that celebrates the coming summer – longer days, sometimes brilliant heat, and bursting fruitfulness. Since the medieval period, the bonfires were believed to ward off witches, but it may have been witches themselves who first lit the fires on hill-tops and mountains. Last year, I discussed the broom lore associated with this holiday. This year, I’d like to take a look at another favorite aspect: the alcohol, or more specifically, beer.

Homecrafted and Wholesome

Beer is one of the most-consumed drinks in the world, and an entire subculture has built up around craft beers, ales, and ciders over the past decade. Where I live, there are at least four or five craft breweries in a 30-mile radius. I love it. Beer is sacred to me (as it has been to many peoples since time immemorial), and the smaller and more artisanal a brewery is, all the better in my opinion.

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I remember reading an article in either Natural History or Discover magazine about fruit beers in the Amazon. One of the local In
  • The Cunning Wīfe
    The Cunning Wīfe says #
    Thanks so much for sharing that info! Love the story about the Amazon beers. It''s no wonder that beer was/is so revered -- clean,

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Barleycorn's Revenge

You know the Grain God: him they call John Barleycorn.

You've heard the songs; you know the stories. It's pretty disgraceful, really, what they do to that poor guy.

They cut him with scythes. They tie him up. They stick him with pitchforks. They beat him with sticks. They crush him. They drown him.

As if that's not enough, they eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Not to worry: he's a god, after all. He always springs up again.

And in the end, he'll have his satisfaction.

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  • tehomet
    tehomet says #
    I came across this guy making beer using ancient Egyptian murals as a reference... https://pacificsun.com/beer-issue-barleycorns-r

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Today is “Beer Day” in Iceland.  On this day in 1989 - yes, 1989- beer became legal in Iceland after a long and arduous struggle with prohibition.  This is the story of beer’s long journey through the Land of Fire and Ice.

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  • Kenq
    Kenq says #
    How very strange. The early 20th Century did terrible things to people's minds!
Pagan News Beagle: Earthy Thursday, June 2

Geneticists and physicians consider the mutability of the gender binary. An ancient beer recipe is uncovered in China. And the writer of the hit sci-fi book The Martian talks about priorities for human space travel. It's Earthy Thursday, our weekly segment on science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
African Beer Goddesses

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham says #
    Yesterday right after I read your column I headed off for my monthly massage - my masseuse was randomly drinking a beer during my
  • Emily Mills
    Emily Mills says #
    So interesting! I love the connections that I'm finding as I blog here.
  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham says #
    Fun! Thanks for the info - whiskey next?
  • Emily Mills
    Emily Mills says #
    Um. If there is a whiskey goddess, sign me up! I picture a goddess of moonshine barefoot in Appalachia! Seriously, though, as a
The Goddess and Beer: I'll Drink to That

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  • Peter Dyr
    Peter Dyr says #
    Siduri not only represents a goddess of beer/fermentation, she was also the first recorded person to provide us with Carpe diem-li

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