Theitic - The Witches Almanac, Standard Edition: Issue 39, Spring 2020 to Spring 2021: Stones – The Foundation of Earth

CONTENTS

William Blakef

Glad tidings from the staff

Delving Deeply into the Greek Alphabet Oracle

Notes Toward a General Theory of Magic, Part IV

The Darning-Needle

Excerpt from: What We Knew in the Night

Amissio

Stone

Elder

Bean Fritters

Senbazuru: One Thousand Origami Cranes

William Harrison Ainsworth

Providence, San Francisco, Sydney, London

The Hawk

William Butler Yeats

Making offerings to the Ori of Yorubaland

An interview with Selena Fox

Unexpected and Spectacular Rock Formations in Ohio

The Blinking Eye of Medusa

Stephen HawkingLooking Through Millions of Tiny Black Holes at the Theory of Everything

Lightning Gods, Bolts from the Blue

The Heron

The White Well of Glastonbury

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the Sun:

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the travellers journey is done.

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:

Arise from their graves and aspire,

Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

Ah! Sun-flower, by William Blake
Ainsworth (1848)

by Timi Chasen

SPOTTED LEGIONS Meteorologists at the National Weather Service were briefly confounded by what appeared to be a massive raincloud formation, during what was meant to be an entirely clear day in Southern California. Seemingly out of nowhere, a sprawling cloud approximately ten miles wide appeared, and by the thickness of it on the doppler radar readouts, it looked much like a raincloud associated with a light to moderate precipitation. However, when they radioed to one of their spotters closer to the phenomena in question (Wrightwood, in San Bernadino County), they found not a cloud of moisture, but of ladybugs.

A ladybug bloom is not an unnatural occurrence, having been known to happen occasionally during certain seasons when the conditions are just right for a huge population increase (say, shortly after a similar bloom of one of their favorite foodsaphids).

The diminutive spotted beetles are naturally keen to migrate, but the size and cohesion of the swarm has some scientists worried that it may be indicative of other problems, such as a sudden loss of sustainable habitat due to shifting weather patterns. For now, it will be chalked up as a bit of an anomaly, but Southwestern scientists will be keeping a close eye for any other signs of swarms on the move.