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Book Review – The Magic of Mushrooms: Fungi in Folklore, Superstition, and Traditional Medicine by Sandra Lawrence
Book Review The Magic of Mushrooms by Sandra Lawrence Publisher: Welbeck Publishing 208 Pages Release Date: August 9, 2022 The world of fungi is a bit of an odd area; even amongst botanists, mushrooms are often viewed and treated with skepticism and concern. Mushrooms can be difficult to identify properly, and there are many members of the fungus kingdom which are dangerous to ingest, to the point of death. In addition to this, many people simply don’t like mushrooms, or don’t like engaging with the damp, wet, weird conditions in which mushrooms flourish. Perhaps it is for these reasons that mycophiles are often seen as being…
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Bees in Folklore, Religion, and Superstition
This is an adapted extract of a video I did recently for Pagan Aid to help raise awareness of their campaign to raise money for Bees for Development, an organisation that helps some of the poorest communities in the world create livelihoods through beekeeping. You can view the original video here. There are over 250 species of bee in the UK and around 4,000 native species in the United States. Even humble bumblebees have at least 24 separate species, from orange and black red-tailed bumblebees to the classic white, yellow, and black tree bumblebees. However, it’s the honeybee that gets the most attention, generally, when it comes to…
