Out of the Box: How Raven gave light to the world
Before I gave birth to the child, I lived alone with my father in a cold world of eternal night. Outside the door of our longhouse a thick blackness covered the earth. It was so dark that when I took…
Healing Water Goddesses
Water is crucial to all life on Earth, and from the earliest records of human history we have venerated its healing and regenerative powers. It is no surprise that many healing water deities are goddesses: the life-giving, wellness-nurturing properties of…
Suvannavanna Hamsa Jataka: The Golden Swan
Prologue Long, long ago, in the far distant past, the Bodhisatta was born as a swan.1 He grew up to become the leader of a great flock of swans. They were known as the Dhatarattha clan. Their feathers were the…
Sarabha-miga Jataka, The Noble Stag, Retold by Margo McLoughlin
A Deer Hunt. c.1775 from Kotah, Rajasthan, India. Pigments on paper Once the Bodhisatta was born as a deer. He grew up to be a magnificent stag—a Sambar, the largest of the many kinds of deer that roam the forests…
Ceremony, an Aztec myth, By Fray Juan de Torquemada and Translated by David Johnson
Tezcatlipoca from the Codex Borgia They say that after the birth of the Fifth Sun, when the Gods had sacrificed themselves to get the Sun moving in its daily course, that their disciples walked about sadly…
The Way of the Householder, Retold by Rama Devagupta
Photograph by Hans Eiskonen Anonymous Hindu Long, long ago in a holy forest, there lived a young ascetic named Kaushika. Because he had renounced the worldly…
Two Stories, by Mullah Nasr Eddin
Mullah Nasr Eddin Mullah Nasr Eddin, or Hodja Nasr Eddin, is a legendary Turkish teller of tales, a sort of wise fool, to whom all sorts…
The Christmas Angels, by Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski
By Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski It was a bitter cold, rainy December twilight in Manhattan several days before Christmas. I was waiting in the persistent drizzle for…
Suvannavanna Hamsa Jataka: The Golden Swan
Prologue Long, long ago, in the far distant past, the Bodhisatta was born as a swan.1 He grew up to become the leader of a great flock of swans. They…
Healing Water Goddesses
Water is crucial to all life on Earth, and from the earliest records of human history we have venerated its healing and regenerative powers. It is no surprise that many…
The Thanksgiving Prayer, Adapted from the Mohawk
Illustration by John Kahionhes Fadden THE THANKSGIVING PRAYER Adapted from the Mohawk by John Stokes and David Kanawahienton Benedict The People Today we have gathered and…
Ring of Wisdom, a Sufi Parable, Retold by Anne Twitty
Babur Receives a Courtier by Farrukh Beg c. 1580-85. There was a king whose kingdom stretched from east to west, from the sea below to the…
O My Country!, A Maghreb folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. King Salomon knew the language of all living creatures, and all obeyed him, especially the birds. One day this great…
How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race, by Anonymous (West African)
Again and Again Anansi Tried To Climb the Tree There once lived, in Fanti-land, a man named Father Anansi. He possessed all the wisdom in the…
Ceremony, an Aztec myth, By Fray Juan de Torquemada and Translated by David Johnson
Tezcatlipoca from the Codex Borgia They say that after the birth of the Fifth Sun, when the Gods had sacrificed themselves to get the Sun moving…
Out of the Box: How Raven gave light to the world
Before I gave birth to the child, I lived alone with my father in a cold world of eternal night. Outside the door of our longhouse a thick blackness covered…
Sarabha-miga Jataka, The Noble Stag, Retold by Margo McLoughlin
A Deer Hunt. c.1775 from Kotah, Rajasthan, India. Pigments on paper Once the Bodhisatta was born as a deer. He grew up to be a magnificent stag—a Sambar, the largest…
Ave Maria, by Jenny Koralek
Vincent Van Gogh, Pietà (after Eugène Delacroix). 1889. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam As the following passage begins, Jesus of Nazareth, here called Yeshua, is suffering on the…
The Verses of Ambapali, by Margo McLoughlin
A new translation and commentary by Margo McLoughlin Ambapali | Buddhist In Vesali, in ancient India, at the time of the Buddha, a baby girl was born spontaneously at the…