International Dirt Sorcery

I was recently paid the considerable compliment of someone translating an essay of mine, written for the excellent Gods & Radicals. The essay in question is part of an ongoing series I have been writing on dirt sorcery: the folk magic of dusts, dirts, and the land, the potency of terroir, and an ecology of ritual practices. 

The first piece, Home, is an account of American immigration, from both historical and personal perspectives. In which is discussed Ellis Island, The Lady of Liberty, names, and journeys.  

The second piece, Penny Drops, is a meditation on the practice of "buying" dirts from locations, of offerings to the underworld, of burying images of kings. 

It is this second piece that has been translated into Portuguese by Iago Pereira of Rota32, for which I am both flattered and grateful. 

The third installment of the Dirt Sorcery series - concerning the dirt magics of Saturn and all things Saturnine - was published in the first installment of Gods & Radicals' print journal A Beautiful Resistance: Everything We Already Are.

Incidentally, a fourth installment of Dirt Sorcery is set to be published in an as-yet-unreleased volume. Details to follow.