A New Mesolithic Mindset in place: When the rough beast returns

PLACE /

This article from John Billingsley[1] is intended as a reflection upon the influence of urbanised and planned landscapes upon human perceptions and the social and political attitudes that may derive from shifting psychogeographic viewsheds Broadly and simply summarised, the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, was characterised by a change in human relationships with the land. […]

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The City and the Country: Psychogeography – As we see it

PLACE /

NE has made frequent references to psychogeography, a hydra-like conceptualisation of people’s interaction with place. Often seen as an urban pastime with origins in a post-war Marxist milieu, John Billingsley here explores how it is also pertinent to rural and traditional cultures and communities, and bears a clear connection with earth mysteries and the wider

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The Corpse Watcher

PERCEPTION /

David Kaiser suggests that an Irish folktale may contain intimations of a native shamanic tradition In Patrick Kennedy’s 1866 seminal Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, he relates the story of ‘The Corpse Watchers’ [1]. This, he tells us, was the tale most often repeated to him while collecting these stories. In light of modern

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Medical Care, Magical Cure: Traditional strategies for healthy livestock

LORE /

‘Old Blighty’ has rarely lived up to its nickname as persistently as it has in the last few years. John Billingsley looks at some old techniques used by farmers to keep their animals sickness-free.   It’s been a grim spring all round for lovers of rural environments, and especially for British farmers. The spectre of

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What is the Pace-Egg Play?

LORE /

Mumming plays, like so much of British folklore, have been subject to questionable assumptions as to their age and meaning, but today research has shed a clearer light on their origins and functions, as Eddie Cass describes.   Easter! Once again, hundreds of people from miles around – and further – will come into Hebden

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