Did you know that Christianity’s stance on abortion has changed over time? Attitudes regarding sexuality and childbirth were markedly different in the past. Hagiographical texts even hold accounts saints performing abortions.

All the saints’ stories carry a similar theme: the abortions are carried out with the blessing of God and recorded as a miracle. If you find yourself shaking your head in incredulity, take a moment to consider that for most of human history abortion was a legal and acceptable way to end unwanted pregnancies.

The most sought-after abortifacient in antiquity was Silphium. It was used across the Mediterranean region and deemed so valuable that the City of Cyrene had its image stamped onto their coins. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depict the plant. Roman poetry declared the herb was worth its weight in gold. Silphium even makes an appearance in the Bible. Not only was abortion permissible in biblical times, but women could be forced to endure abortions against their will. In such cases, priests oversaw the abortions (Numbers 5:11-31) at the behest of the woman’s husband or parents. Thus, it is not surprising that a number of saints also performed abortions. Continue reading →

Ever since learning to walk upright, man has stared at the horizon, watching the sun rise and set.  Early attempts at tracking time often tried reconciling solar and lunar movements as each marched across the sky. Some attempts were more successfully than others, resulting in the formation of calendars.

Sun’s Position on Horizon

One of the best-known calendars attributed to the Celts is the Coligny calendar, whose name derives from the location where it was discovered—Coligny, France. The calendar is of Gaulish origin and dates to the 2^nd century. Despite being in fragments, the calendar has been reconstructed with confidence due to its regular composition, which lays out a five-year cycle of 62 months.

Each Celtic year contains twelve lunar months, divided into just two seasons, summer and winter. Each month is further divided into two fortnights, the first always containing 15 days, the second containing either 14 or 15 days depending on the length of the month.

The calendar is further adjusted with an intercalary month every 2.5 years, so the lunar cycle of the months also aligns with the solar year. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which resets in the winter, the Coligny calendar begins and ends in the spring. Continue reading →

Writers need all kinds of tools to craft believable stories. One of my favorite facets of research for my books was learning about period cooking. To that end, I even purchased a cookbook written by archeologists who reconstructed recipes based off the remnants of food found near cooking fires.

Everyone loves sweets and the ancient Gauls (Celts) were no exception. Deep in the middle of book 3, Klara makes sticky buns to celebrate Imbolg, a Celtic holyday. Both Imbolg and National Sticky Bun Day occur in February.

Coincidence? Probably.

However, in honor of National Sticky Bun Day, I’ve produced a recipe for sticky buns adapted from a stone age recipe in found in “A Culinary Journey Through Time.” The original recipe “Barley Balls with Wild Fruit and Berries” appears on page 95. Continue reading →

As early as the neolithic era, humans sought ways to mark the passage of time and predict celestial events. Their methods, no matter how carefully thought-out, were often thwarted by the very solar and lunar cycles they wished to track. When seasonal drift occurred and the months no longer aligned with the weather, people simply adjusted the calendar or adopted an entirely new one.

Seasonal Drift: a gradual misalignment of seasons and calendar dates, owing to the calendar not accurately capturing the length of the solar year.

An example of this occurred in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII instituted the new Gregorian calendar to correct an error in the Julian calendar that was causing Easter celebration to occur at the wrong time. As a result, 10 days were skipped so that Thursday, October 4^th was followed by Friday, October 15^th.

The world is filled with calendars: Chinese calendar, Hebrew calendar, Iranian calendar, and Buddhist calendar, to name a few. There’s an even longer list obsolete calendars, some of which include, Attic calendar, Old Icelandic calendar, and the Coligny calendar. When calendars no longer serve their purpose, they are abandoned. In its place, something new is adopted. The modern pagan movement is not immune to this pressure. Continue reading →