Johannes Kepler's story "The Dream," about a daimon-propelled journey to the moon and the strange and often horrifying beings one might find there, ends as dreams do. "And then I woke up." "When I had reached this point in my dream, a wind arose with the rattle of rain, disturbing my sleep and … [Read more...]
The Daimon, the Witch, and the Moon-Journey – “The Dream” of Johannes Kepler (Part 2)
The story so far, of pioneer astronomer Johannes Kepler's pioneering science-fiction story "The Dream": The young hero Duracotus has gone with his witch-like mother to a crossroads, the kind of place where witches perform their rites. There she's conjured up a "daimon." Not a demon, exactly. A … [Read more...]
The Daimon, the Witch, and the Moon-Journey – “The Dream” of Johannes Kepler (Part 1)
A not-so-trivial trivia question: who was the astronomer whose mother was tried as a witch? And who blamed his own unpublished science-fiction story--regarded by some as the first science-fiction ever written--for getting her in trouble? Welcome to the wonderful world of the 16th and 17th … [Read more...]
The Mother of Wicca – A Story for Halloween
How appropriate it would be if it were on Halloween, 50 years ago today, that I came across Margaret Murray's The God of the Witches on a bookstore shelf and purchased it and read it through. And became completely hooked on it. Actually, it was 50 years ago this coming February. But at the … [Read more...]
