Mythology – Horse / Ass

General – Horse : royalty, divinity, otherworldly transport, water and storms, especially thunder,
peace and good harvest, indestructibility, purity and loyalty (one of Buddist's seven treasures)

Ass : matter, body, misfortune, rampant sexual desire, ridicule, lazy, stupid, poverty

Culturally Specific – royalty: Celtic kings and priests's chariots drawn by white horses, Irish kingship rite's symbolic copulation with a white mare, then bathing in her broth, divinity: Welsh Rhiannon, Celtic Epona, Old Grey Mare (aspect of the Celtic goddess in winter at Yule and New Year)

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 1(Research Deluge)

I have been doing a lot of research on dragons to discover what dragons are like in my fantasy world. I've been amazed at the wealth of fiction books written about dragons. Clearly, dragons captivate and spur the imagination of many. More than I ever realized.

Pope on Ecology - Latest Encyclical on Ecology Fits Within my Mission Statement

I try not to get too religious or political here, since this is an author's blog about nature and mythology, but this is too apropos to ignore. If you want to read Pope Francis Encyclical on Ecology yourself, I'll warn you, like all philosophical, theological, historical and scientific writing there is a bit of staging and wordiness to it. [I generally leave the seriously factual stuff to my husband and let my inner teenager yawn. But I am forcing myself to digest this because I really wanted to read first hand Pope Francis's view.]

Mother Nature – Mythic Persons #1

My Lady Yggdrasil

Until now I've been focusing on mythological species of humanoids or mythic peoples. This is my first mythic persons post. The myth or personification of Mother Nature has been on my mind lately as I continue to try to define this blog and my brand as an author. Also, depending on whether you look at nature goddesses/ personifications as separate entities or conflate them into different names for the same entity, they are so prevalent that they are practically a population of their own. 

Djinn and Demons part 3 - Controlling Djinn

In my last posts, I wrote about the Djinn, after first explaining the difference between medieval demons and ancient Greek and Middle Eastern demons.Now I'll write about the most useful folklore surrounding Djinn for a fantasy writer, the control of these powerful Mythological Humanoids.

Last post, I mentioned that when free, the Djinn live in Kaf, a mythical range of emerald mountains that encircles the Earth, but these physically variable creatures could be trapped and controlled by magic and called to the service of humans. This is where the folklore become highly applicable to authors and story ready.

Djinn and Demons part 2

There's still snow on the ground here and I'm still writing about the warm desert and the mythological species of humanoids that live there, the Djinn or Jinn (singular Jinni.) The popular terms for these humanoids is genie.

As I mentioned in the last post Djinn and Demons - Part 1 I am designing several humanoid races for my YA fantasy series similar to elves and other mythological humanoids. The Djinn folklore is intriguing to me.

Mythological Species of Humanoids # 36 – Djinn and # 37 – Demons – Part 1

During these snowy winter months in the northeastern U.S. my thoughts turn to the opposite climate - hot dry

deserts - and the mythological species of humanoids that live there, the Djinn or Jinn (singular Jinni.) The popular terms for these humanoids is genie.

Since I am designing several humanoid races for my YA fantasy series similar to elves, fairies, dwarves, goblins, trolls, werewolves, vampires and mermaids, I need to research as many mythological humanoids as I can. The Djinn, a favorite humanoid of Arabic and Muslim cultures, are a great source of ideas.

I find the overlap between the role the Djinn fill in Middle Eastern mythology intriguingly similar to the role filled by elves in Northern European mythology.

Mission Statement

This is the first anniversary of my first blog post. I want to share the mission statement I've been working on for myself as an author, teacher and blogger. This will get its own page a little later, but for now I want to make it accessible and easy to find.       

  K.C.Trae Becker

Self Proclaimed Ambassador for Trees and Forest Communities; Purveyor of Forest Related Myths

Mythological Species #29 – Ghosts

One of the most popular Halloween ghouls are ghosts. Ghost stories are so abundant around camp fires, at sleep overs, in the movies and on TV, that I expected to claim that they had a universal presence among the cultures of the world, to find an abundance of information about them and then move right on to the different presentations they made. [WRONG!]

My first go-to reference book, The Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (MacKillop, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-869157-2), stated that the word "ghost" is a foreign word to the Celtic language, borrowed from another

Change and Mythological Species of Humanoid # 23 – Werewolves

[Sorry for the delayed posting, my son's high school graduation party was this past weekend. I decorated the picnic tables with daisies from my garden, because daisies are a symbol of friendship. My best friend in high school gave me daisies seeds in a card to say we'll always be friends. I used the quote from the card for my son's party: He has power who gains wisdom from a flower. - author unknown. ]

Summer Solstice

This weekend is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. I find the solstices, equinoxes and
the midpoints in between fascinating. They are called quarter days and cross quarter days, in some cirles and they provide grounding for people. They help us align our biological, solar, lunar and circadian rhythms with the rhythms of nature, of which the planetary movements act as the macro-beat for the song of the earth.

Understanding the quarter and cross quarter days has been essential in designing an fantasy alternative Earth based dimension that I will be using in my SylF` Tree Sagas series.

Crowns – May is the month of the Crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, Theotokas; Mythological Species of Humans # 20 – Royalty; Book Review (Middle Grade) – The Hero's Guide to Saving your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

May Crowning

The Crowning of Mary as Queen of May probably started in the early 1700's in Italy.

 It varies a great deal but usually consists of adding activities to normal devotions such as singing hymns about Mary, reading scripture passages or devotional books about Mary, praying the Hail Mary, etc. May 31st devotionals usually end with crowning a statue or picture of Mary with May flowers. 

Stamps Commemorate Harry Potter and Fantasy Literature; Neo-myth; Mythological Species of Humanoids # 19 - Veelas

(I've been waiting to write about this for a while, but spring sensitive posts have taken precedent.)

I was impressed by the recent Postal Stamp Catalog.

 [We have a postal worker in the family and find ordering books of stamps more fun than getting them from standing in line at the post office or from a machine.] I find the art on some stamps truly beautiful. I was intrigued to see Harry Potter stamps being offered by the US Postal Service.

Mothers – Mother's Day, MSH # 17 and #18 – Ancestors and Saints, Picture Book Review – How Are You Peeling?

Sunday is Mother's Day, one of the deep days of the year. As mothers, we are celebrated and yet we

remember our own mothers and our mother's mothers and our mother's mother's mothers, back through countless ages. I find motherhood an amazing experience.

I tell my kids, motherhood is like the Marine's slogan : the toughest job you'll ever love. The image of a mother is not easily overlaid by the image of a Marine, but the truth is, mothers are the first line of defense against the chaos that each of us holds within ourselves. And fighting chaos is an endless, almost thankless job. But when mothers fail us it is a bitter setback, one that some never overcome.

Easter Vigil Mass and Happy Earth Day

Well, I wasn't planning on writing on this topic. I've already written about Easter, but the Easter Vigil mass this year moved me. And the topic of the homily was directly related to this blog, so I decided to post an extra entry.

Let me set the stage. It was a typical busy Holy Saturday, full of grocery shopping, Easter Egg dying, taxiing kids, defending Peter Jackson's

Easter and Mythological Humanoids # 13 - Flower Fairies

Easter is amazing!

The celebration of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead is perfectly placed this time of year as the new life of spring reinvigorates everything.

I'm not sure there is much I can add to this wonderful holiday.

Holy Week and Mythological Humanoid # 12 – Centaur

First a little poesy:
Spring, my Spring, where do you hide? North Wind don't cast her aside. We ache to stroke her gentle face, to hear her color, smell her grace. Ah! There you are at last...

This is the holiest week of the year for Christians.

Palm Sunday - Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of an ass, symbolizing the return of the conquering king, coming in humility and peace. The populous responds with elation. They lay palm fronds and

Mythological Species of Humanoids: An Introduction

Why are they important?

Mythological races or species of humanoids (humans-like creatures) are a universal story motif, every culture has some unique humanoids populating their stories and legends. This makes sense, since it is a very useful tool to have on your story telling utility belt. The purposes these humanoids serve are:

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Ash Wednesday is in five days and starts Lent. Have you ever noticed that many people observe Ash Wednesday and Lent who aren't even regularly practicing Catholics or Lutherans. I think this is an indication of how deeply meaningful these rituals are.

Things like Ascension Thursday, the Feast of the Assumption, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, though important, haven't reached into the average human psyche to touch us deeply. There are no sacramentals, they are not closely associated with a season, so it is only the obedient or the spiritually attuned who observe those Holy Days.