Leigh Ann's Writings
Here's what you'll find here:
Prose - Nonfiction
- Lady of the Depths: Primal Goddess of Celtic
Shamanism
- An article originally published in Shaman's Drum, 1989. First
of a series I'd planned on European shamanism; the series never got published
because that issue (containing also some articles on Tibetan shamanism)
sold worse than any issue before that one, which, along with a few letters
to the editor explaining how "European shamanism" was an oxymoron
and only the Native Americans can do real shamanism (yeah, right, but don't
get me started on that one) convinced SD's editors that their readership
didn't want to hear about it. Buncha wannabe Indians (gripe, piss, moan).
Anyway, since John and Caitlin Matthews have successfully published a couple
of books on the subject of European (and specifically Celtic) shamanism,
I thought I'd put this item back into the light, along with its sequels...
- The Ordeal of Lleu as Shamanic Initiation
- An exegesis of the Fourth
Branch of the Mabinogi, explaining how Lleu's tribulations are a form
of shamanic initiation, overseen by his uncle Gwydion. This originally
appeared in Keltoi, the journal of the Celtic
League American Branch.
- European Shamanism - a Preliminary Reconstruction
- There's some repeat material in this from the Lleu paper; it constitutes
my first (and unfulfilled) effort at reconstructing a shamanic system based
in European myth and symbol, for the benefit of people who might (for whatever
reason) feel strange about doing Native American religion.
- De Missa Gnostica
- A rant/essay on the subject of the OTO
Gnostic Mass, what I think it means and is supposed to accomplish as
a magical working.
- Why I'm a Centre of Pestilence
- Because I discuss the Book
of the Law, that's why. So shun me, already! ;)
Prose - Fiction
- Blood Libel
- I think this may be my best story ever. Originally published in Vampires,
edited by Jane Yolen and Martin Greenberg, 1991.
Poetry
- An Enchantment
- From a version of the Rite
of Jupiter in which I performed.
- Scarlet Muse
- Lyrics to a song about Crowley's mistress, Leila Waddell.