When it comes to subjects metaphysical I'm neither a hard-boiled skeptic nor a sweetness-and-light New Ager. I respect common sense and shy away from cults. At the same time, I'm leery not only of religious fundamentalism, but also of the scientific variety. There's a light in a living being's eyes that just can't be explained away as a mere electrochemical reaction.
And like a rapidly expanding proportion of intelligent readers (especially on the Web), I am a practicing Wiccan. I don't like to preach or proselytize in my journalism, or pad it with foamy psychobabble. But I do love to write about high-tech ghostbusters and UFO hunters; the feng shui of restaurants; the spirituality of Christmas-tree lights ... the sorts of occult phenomena you unexpectedly find right around the corner.
(Clips are listed in reverse chronological
order, with lead paragraphs. Follow links for full text.)
Wedding Guide: Alternative ceremonies
Mountain Xpress, Feb. 9, 2005
In an atomized,
secularized world, it's one of our few remaining communal rites
-- romance's last refuge from the brutal mundane. But despite
what the glossy bridal magazines imply, The Wedding Ceremony
doesn't have to be all organ swells, organdy veils and endlessly
organized seating details. It's your day -- why not play it your
way?
Here's looking at you, America
Peering closer at the eye in the pyramid, and other National
Treasure symbols
Mountain Xpress, Nov. 24 , 2004 (also published
on AlterNet)
A secret Masonic
cult of wealthy bankers called the Illuminati has been plotting
for centuries to take over the world. And they're keeping their
eye on you from the back of the dollar bill.
If any tale deserves the term "conspiracy
theory," it's this one. It's become such a popular part
of America's underground lore -- passed along in intensely delivered
monologue from self-published author to late-night bus passenger
to coffeehouse slacker to Internet blogger -- that a new Nicolas
Cage movie, National Treasure, plays on the conspiracy
theory and its elaborately embroidered sub-plots: hidden fortunes,
Knights Templar, Benjamin Franklin.
Going
with the flow
Businesses embrace ancient art of feng shui
Mountain Xpress, Aug. 18, 2004 (cover story)
Why is nature so soothing,
but city life jangles your nerves? Ask an expert on feng shui,
the ancient Oriental art of harmonizing human beings and their
surroundings, and you'll learn about rushing "chi,"
"poison arrows," and why the crooked is often healthier
than the straight.
Join two Asheville practitioners as one reveals
the feng shui secrets behind a well-known restaurant's recent
remodeling, and the other discusses some simple "cures"
for a typically chi-challenged home.
Light
through the long night
The Winter Solstice shares a key element with other holiday
traditions
Mountain Xpress, Dec. 17, 2003
Like every gift-greedy
kid, I used to slip out of bed and tiptoe through the cold, dark
hallways on December nights to the room where the Christmas tree
stood, eager to ogle the presents piled beneath it.
But sometimes, when I got there,
the blinking, twinkling, glittering galaxy of lights that adorned
the tree's branches -- like the stars that once shone through
them in the forest at night -- would captivate me, making me
forget all about the material riches I'd come for. If I stood
long enough in that shimmering light, it would draw me into a
half-awake, half-dreaming state. Ordinary time seemed to fall
away, and the particular moment I was in would flow into a vast
eternity.
SMART
BETS: Music
Mountain Xpress, Aug. 6, 2003
Ecstasy, dread,
defiance, betrayal, hope ... the Psalms, the sacred hymns of
the ancient Hebrews, overflow with deeply human feelings that
transcend any particular age, even any particular religion. But
their soul-searing metaphors can become muffled by the chapter-and-verse,
thee-and-thou format through which people today conventionally
experience them.
The
ghosts of Erwin High
Reports of paranormal phenomena linger at the old paupers'
graveyard
Mountain Xpress, July 3, 2002 (cover story)
A series of events
has afflicted Erwin High School -- from its football team's record-setting
string of defeats in the '90s to the controversy over its Indian
mascot to the ouster of its long-time principal last year.
Those events have gotten significant
public attention. But other, less public happenings have also
added to the school's ill-starred reputation. Teachers, students
and custodians say they have witnessed pictures jump off classroom
walls, doors slam when no one's there, televisions turn on unexpectedly
and trash cans move inexplicably around.
Could Erwin be haunted?
Sidebar (Web only): Apparitions
in the infrared
Here are extracts
from my interview and correspondence with Asheville, NC, paranormal
investigator Joshua Warren ...
It's a bird, it's
a plane, it's ...?
Local residents report UFO sightings
Mountain Xpress, Aug. 8, 2001 (cover story)
It was the typewritten
press release that caught my attention, conjuring up images of
a thick-spectacled sociopath in an ill-lit basement office --
walls covered with yellowing news clippings -- frantically pecking
out communiqués on an old Underwood while watching nervously
over his shoulder for aliens and government agents.
Happy
Yang Metal Dragon Year!
What real Chinese astrology says about relationships
Mountain Xpress, Feb. 9, 2000
Now that nearly
everybody knows their Western birth sign, more and more seekers
of soulmates have moved on to a new pickup line: "So, what's
your Chinese-zodiac animal?" You can sit in nearly any Chinese
restaurant and discover, via your placemat, that you were born
in, say, the Year of the Monkey -- and then listen to the Libra
Horse in the next booth wonder if she'll ever find lasting bliss
with her Aries Rat. Lots of new books purport to define the personality
traits of persons born in a particular animal year, listing at
the end of each chapter (and isn't that really why you
bought the book?) prescriptions for which pairs of animal signs
are likely to mate harmoniously -- and which will fight like
Cocks and Dogs from first date till final decree.
Sidebar tables: Finding
your Chinese Element & Animal
A
witch's Halloween picks
Mountain Xpress, Oct. 27, 1999
The Asheville region
and the ancient mountains that loom over us are a natural for
Halloween. Haints and boogermen roam the back hollows of our
mist-shrouded forests. We boast the only Transylvania County
on this side of the globe. And no one can spin a spookier tale
than our native storytellers, whose ancestral Cherokee and Scotch/Irish
muses hail from two cultures that share a bone-deep respect for
things otherworldly.