Alchemy is the forebear of our chemistry, medecine, physics, and science. Also known as Hermeticism, it has roots many hundreds of years ago and sprouted in numerous cultures and places. As the result, it belongs to no individual heritage. In spite of its many truths, secrets, and benefits, a lot of history includes great efforts […]

I copied one ancient text out by hand for three years Introduction: Three years of mornings with Patanjali A few years ago, I wanted to break my habit of plowing through books one after another, and that nagging sense I was wasting my time reading aimlessly. So I copied the Sutras of Patanjali every day […]

Life Without Solitude You picked a hell of a time to abandon yourself You want to accomplish more, eat less, exercise more, be better at relationships or earning money. But you have trouble following through. You search for answers. You read more books, listen to more podcasts, attend more seminars. You can search for any […]

    Before I can explain what it was to leave Mendocino, I suppose I’ll need to describe what it was to live in Mendocino, as ephemeral as such an experience can be. I entered the weird world of Mendocino with an open heart, and it enchanted me for four years. Until it didn’t. You […]

If you find yourself wondering whether you have gone back in time, you are not alone! The evidence is everywhere. Do you ever wake up in the morning and wonder what century it is? Do the headlines, your lifestyle, the things you see on the street remind you of a simpler time when nobody went […]

by Susanna Solomon             It wasn’t my fault Lilly was blue. She was born that way. I’d heard about it over the Internet, this litter of blue puppies, and like most things I’d read online, I didn’t believe a word of it. But when I went over to Dr. Trent’s house two weeks later and […]

Avicennae As an apothecary during the first Middle Ages, I treated croupy children, aching joints, gout, leprosy, elephantitis, and plague. None of these had an actual cure. The best I could do was to pestle some herbs into a salve, and send them on their way. I watched helpless as people died of everything that […]

by Chance Penway When a hillside shed in their San Francisco neighborhood mysteriously burns, Fran and Alford, can’t resist taking a look. What they discover while poking around in the cinders reveals the unexplained death of an unforgettable woman. Their obsession with her fate puts them in the crosshairs of a killer. The Flophouse Murders […]

We had moved to Northern California from Chicago, where the crime had begun to feel overwhelming and the weather seemed almost punatively harsh. I didn’t mind these things so much for myself. I was, as any Midwesterner will tell you, ‘used to it”. But now we had little children, and a small town in a […]

by Jeri Kean The Shady Acres community pool was often described as Sparkling! by realtors, but as Full of hairballs! by anyone who swam laps in it, especially the teenagers on the Shady Acres Abalone Swim Team. This morning it was indeed sparkling, and surrounded by bright green grass, majestic palm trees, neat rows of […]

Helpful Advice From the Other Middle Ages The solstice is upon you! You have not yet been sucked away into the darkness that fell with the installation of the loathsome troll and his minions. Who could have predicted this reprieve? Only a month since, you were poised to see your republic voted into oblivion–and look […]

With the contemporary Dutch poet Saskia Stehouwer of Amsterdam, Joel Thomas Katz and Robert Perry are translating her book of poems Vrije uitloop (Uitgeverij Marmer 2016) into English. Vrije uitloop in English is “free range”. As Saskia shows in her book, it can mean just a bigger cage. Their translation will be accompanied by “Field Notes” — an […]

Cora Fiore was nursing a pain in her side. She estimated it was an eight on her personal pain scale. In therapy, she had learned meditation techniques to control her health anxiety, but that was for less acute symptoms, such as heart palpitations, rashes, and stomach upsets. Surely this pain needed attention, and although she […]

Shivasana is the story of a yoga school, where the teachings include a murderous quest for enlightenment. Excerpts: The dining hall was full of books, beat up antiques, and instruments hippies used to play. Yellowed chandeliers hung low over the tables. On the buffet were platters of fruit, pots of hot cereal, and tureens of […]

Once upon a time, Bo and his baby brother Arthur lived with their parents in a cabin high on the snowy snowy mountain. One winter day, Bo and Arthur were playing in their snowsuits on the porch. When they got hungry, Bo went inside to get them some food.   Arthur was alone on the […]

a group of children were fleeing a kindly man. though he was kind and was not dangerous, the children knew he would turn them over to people who would harm them. and so they ran. they were in a different dimension, a fever dream of bright colors and impossible architecture and church roofs that arched […]