Literati

María Sabina Magdalena García. Known as the “priestess of mushrooms,” she was probably the most famous Mexican healer to have ever lived. Her history and reputation led her to serve as a bridge between the mystical and ritual worlds of her people, and the mystical exploration of the Western world. Born into the Mazatec ethnic group in 1894, she came from a small town called Huautla de Jiménez, in the Sierra de Oaxaca, located in southern Mexico. Her father’s family had already included several shamans. From a very young age, contact with them brought her closer to the region’s traditional ceremonies, which included the intake of hallucinogenic mushrooms (know as “holy children”) as a method of contact with divinity. She first tried the mushrooms at the age of eight. It’s said that she intuitively developed a knowledge of the rituals and their healing power which, in her culture, was attributed to these mushrooms. Among the Mazatec people, the most common healing method since prior to the colonial period, was the ritual intake of fungi of a species called Mexican Psilocybe and which grow only in a particular mountain range. When visited by someone with some physical or spiritual condition, Sabina served as a guide on the patient’s journey to, and return from, spiritual realms (along with a cure for the illness). To Sabina, mushrooms were an instrument for connecting dimensions and realities that happen in parallel. Because of their peculiarity, intensity, and various reports of effectiveness, Sabina’s healing sessions became very popular in the Mexico of the early 1950s. Sabina’s total dedication to the healing practice began around the middle of her life during that same decade. Her healing ceremonies with fungi included Mazatec chants, tobacco smoke, mezcal consumption, and ointments extracted from medicinal plants. Such rituals were made at night, for it was at this hour that healer was accompanied and guided by the stars to the kingdoms of the afterlife. Over time, the story of Maria Sabina, her fame, and her mystery, caught the attention of media and personalities from many parts of the world and from other disciplines. One of the first was an American, Robert Gordon Wasson, an economist by profession, best known for his studies in ethnobotany (the interaction between humans and plants). These he made with his wife, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken. Among their various interests was the use of hallucinogenic plants in the rituals of ethnic groups from different parts of the world. Their interest led the couple to visit the Mazatec Sierra on several occasions, and here they heard of the famous healer from Huautla. In 1955, Wasson and his wife convinced Sabina to receive them. Guided by her, they conducted several “veladas” (vigils) with the fungi, and they documented the entire experience in photos and recordings. They also obtained research samples of the fungi used in the sessions. Two years later, in 1957, an article written by Wasson was published in Life magazine. The text, accompanied by the images, described the research and chronicled the couple’s experiences with Sabina. After its publication, visits by people from all over the world to the healer only multiplied. She was famous. Domestic and foreign visits increased still further. Many of these visitors were interested purely in psychedelic recreational pursuits. They obviated the history of the ancient practices, and lost respect for the culture and religion of the Mazatec people. This displeased members of Sabina’s community who argued that she was profiting from their tradition. Huautla de Jiménez was now constantly receiving national and foreign media figures, tourists, artists, intellectuals, anthropologists, researchers, and celebrities. Among them, one might find Aldous Huxley, Alejandro Jodorowski, Carlos Castaneda, Albert Hofmann, John Lennon and Walt Disney. Still, her popularity gave her some economic stability although her sessions, even until her final days, were paid for with voluntary donations. When she died in 1985, she left behind a controversial legacy. On the one hand, she’d left a compendium of wisdom and medicinal practices by sharing the customs of the Mazatec people with the rest of the world. At the same time, her story contains a lesson in reminding us of the ease with which the modern world consumes ancestral traditions, not always with due respect, but based on fashion, as if they were but one more product. Among the peoples native to Mesoamerica, the healer or sorcerer is a character whose community function is essential. She communicates this world and that of the gods. As a result, she cures diseases (physical or spiritual), and predicts the future, and even endless possibilities. The figure of Maria Sabina, specifically, was not only a bridge of wisdom and mysticism within her community and between the world of divinity and that of humankind.

Join Walt Whitman in this Literati Short, for a journey down the ancestral Family Tree springing from the heart of humanity as we rediscover who & what we really are. Featuring vivid & compelling visuals.... designed to epitomize the journey within. Walt Whitman was an American poet whose verse collection 'Leaves of Grass' is a landmark in the history of American literature. Considered one of America's most influential poets, Walt Whitman aimed to transcend traditional epics and eschew normal aesthetic form to mirror the potential freedoms to be found in America. In 1855, he self-published the collection Leaves of Grass; the book is now a landmark in American literature, though at the time of its publication it was considered highly controversial. Whitman later worked as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, writing the collection Drum Taps (1865) in connection to the experiences of war-torn soldiers. Having continued to produce new editions of Leaves of Grass along with original works, Whitman died on March 26, 1892, in Camden, New Jersey. Background and Early Years Called the "Bard of Democracy" and considered one of America's most influential poets, Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, New York. The second of Louisa Van Velsor's and Walter Whitman's eight surviving children, he grew up in a family of modest means. While earlier Whitmans had owned a large parcel of farmland, much of it had been sold off by the time he was born. As a result, Whitman's father struggled through a series of attempts to recoup some of that earlier wealth as a farmer, carpenter and real estate speculator. Whitman's own love for America and its democracy can be at least partially attributed to his upbringing and his parents, who showed their own admiration for their country by naming Whitman's younger brothers after their favorite American heroes. The names included George Washington Whitman, Thomas Jefferson Whitman and Andrew Jackson Whitman. At the age of three, the young Whitman moved with his family to Brooklyn, where his father hoped to take advantage of the economic opportunities in New York City. But his bad investments prevented him from achieving the success he craved. At 11, Whitman was taken out of school by his father to help out with household income. He started to work as an office boy for a Brooklyn-based attorney team and eventually found employment in the printing business. His father's increasing dependence on alcohol and conspiracy-driven politics contrasted sharply with his son's preference for a more optimistic course more in line with his mother's disposition. "I stand for the sunny point of view," he'd eventually be quoted as saying. Opinionated Journalist When he was 17, Whitman turned to teaching, working as an educator for five years in various parts of Long Island. Whitman generally loathed the work, especially considering the rough circumstances he was forced to teach under, and by 1841, he set his sights on journalism. In 1838, he had started a weekly called the Long Islander that quickly folded (though the publication would eventually be reborn) and later returned to New York City, where he worked on fiction and continued his newspaper career. In 1846, he became editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a prominent newspaper, serving in that capacity for almost two years. Whitman proved to be a volatile journalist, with a sharp pen and a set of opinions that didn't always align with his bosses or his readers. He backed what some considered radical positions on women's property rights, immigration and labor issues. He lambasted the infatuation he saw among his fellow New Yorkers with certain European ways and wasn't afraid to go after the editors of other newspapers. Not surprisingly, his job tenure was often short and had a tarnished reputation with several different newspapers. In 1848, Whitman left New York for New Orleans, where he became editor of the Crescent. It was a relatively short stay for Whitman—just three months—but it was where he saw for the first time the wickedness of slavery. Whitman returned to Brooklyn in the autumn of 1848 and started a new "free soil" newspaper called the Brooklyn Freeman, which eventually became a daily despite initial challenges. Over the ensuing years, as the nation's temperature over the slavery question continued to rise, Whitman's own anger over the issue elevated as well. He often worried about the impact of slavery on the future of the country and its democracy. It was during this time that he turned to a simple 3.5 by 5.5 inch notebook, writing down his observations and shaping what would eventually be viewed as trailblazing poetic works. 'Leaves of Grass' In the spring of 1855, Whitman, finally finding the style and voice he'd been searching for, self-published a slim collection of 12 unnamed poems with a preface titled Leaves of Grass. Whitman could only afford to print 795 copies of the book.

English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the unfinished work, 'The Canterbury Tales.' It is considered one of the greatest poetic works in English. In 1357, Geoffrey Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime. The Canterbury Tales became his best known and most acclaimed work. He died October 25, 1400, in London, England, and was the first to be buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner. Early Life Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340, most likely at his parents’ house on Thames Street in London, England. Chaucer’s family was of the bourgeois class, descended from an affluent family who made their money in the London wine trade. According to some sources, Chaucer’s father, John, carried on the family wine business. Geoffrey Chaucer is believed to have attended the St. Paul’s Cathedral School, where he probably first became acquainted with the influential writing of Virgil and Ovid. In 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, the daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and the marriage conveniently helped further Chaucer’s career in the English court. Public Service By 1368, King Edward III had made Chaucer one of his esquires. When the queen died in 1369, it served to strengthen Philippa’s position and subsequently Chaucer’s as well. He went abroad again and fulfilled diplomatic missions in Florence and Genoa, helping establish an English port in Genoa. Chaucer engaged in yet more diplomatic missions, with the objectives of finding a French wife for Richard II and securing military aid in Italy. Busy with his duties, Chaucer had little time to devote to writing poetry, his true passion. When Philippa passed away in 1387, Chaucer stopped sharing in her royal annuities and suffered financial hardship. He needed to keep working in public service to earn a living and pay off his growing accumulation of debt. Major Works: The precise dates of many of Chaucer’s written works are difficult to pin down with certainty, but one thing is clear: His major works have retained their relevancy even in the college classroom of today. Chaucer’s body of best-known works includes the Parliament of Fouls, otherwise known as the Parlement of Foules, in the Middle English spelling. Some historians of Chaucer’s work assert that it was written in 1380, during marriage negotiations between Richard and Anne of Bohemia. It had been identified as peppered with Neo-Platonic ideas inspired by the likes of poets Cicero and Jean De Meun, among others. Troilus and Criseyde is broadly considered one of Chaucer’s greatest works, and has a reputation for being more complete and self-contained than most of Chaucer’s writing, his famed The Canterbury Tales being no exception. The period of time over which Chaucer penned The Legend of Good Women is uncertain, although most scholars do agree that Chaucer seems to have abandoned it before its completion. The queen mentioned in the work is believed to be Richard II’s wife, Anne of Bohemia. Chaucer’s mention of the real-life royal palaces Eltham and Sheen serve to support this theory. The Canterbury Tales is by far Chaucer’s best known and most acclaimed work. Initially Chaucer had planned for each of his characters to tell four stories a piece. The first two stories would be set as the character was on his/her way to Canterbury, and the second two were to take place as the character was heading home. Apparently, Chaucer’s goal of writing 120 stories was an overly ambitious one. In actuality, The Canterbury Tales is made up of only 24 tales and rather abruptly ends before its characters even make it to Canterbury. A Treatise on the Astrolabe is one of Chaucer’s nonfiction works. It is an essay about the astrolabe, a tool used by astronomers and explorers to locate the positions of the sun, moon and planets. Chaucer planned to write the essay in five parts but ultimately only completed the first two. Today it is one of the oldest surviving works that explain how to use a complex scientific tool, and is thought to do so with admirable clarity. Later Life After Richard II had ascended to the throne, Chaucer held a draining and dangerous position as Clerk of the Works. He was robbed by highwaymen twice while on the job, which only served to further compound his financial worries. To make matters even worse, Chaucer had stopped receiving his pension. Chaucer eventually resigned the position for a lower but less stressful appointment as sub-forester, or gardener, at the King’s park in Somersetshire. Death The legendary 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died October 25, 1400 in London, England. He died of unknown causes and was 60 years old at the time. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey. His gravestone became the center of what was to be called Poet’s Corner, a spot where such famous British writers as Robert Browning and Charles Dickens were later honored and interred.

Wicca is a modern-day, nature-based pagan religion. Though rituals and practices vary among people who identify as Wiccan, most observations include the festival celebrations of solstices and equinoxes, the honoring of a male god and a female goddess, and the incorporation of herbalism and other natural objects into rituals. Wiccans practice their religion according to an ethical code, and many believe in reincarnation. WHAT IS WICCA? Wicca is considered a modern interpretation of pre-Christian traditions, though some involved claim a direct line to ancient practices. It may be practiced by individuals or members of groups (sometimes known as covens). Wicca also has some commonalities with Druidism in its environmental component, and is considered the inspiration of the goddess movement in spirituality. There is great diversity among individuals and groups that practice a Wiccan religion, but many are duotheistic, worshiping both a female goddess and a male god (sometimes referred to as a Mother Goddess and a Horned God). Other Wiccan practices are atheist, pantheist, polytheist or respectful of gods and goddesses as archetypal symbols rather than as actual or supernatural beings. Rituals in Wicca often include holidays centered around phases of the moon; solar equinoxes and solstices; elements such as fire, water, earth and air; and initiation ceremonies. MARGARET MURRAY The rituals of modern Wiccan practice can be traced to famed first-wave feminist, Egyptologist, anthropologist and folklorist Margaret Murray. She wrote several books on medieval religion centered around witch cults in medieval Europe that inspired British seekers to create their own covens and structure worship around her descriptions, starting with 1921’s The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. GERALD GARDNER Wicca was first given a name in Gerald Gardner’s 1954 book Witchcraft Today, in which he announced it as “wica,” the extra “c” being added in the 1960s. According to Gardner, the word was derived from Scots-English and meant “wise people.” Gardner, considered the founder of Wicca, was born in 1884, north of Liverpool in England. A world traveler with an interest in the occult, Gardner first heard the word “Wica” used in the 1930s when he became involved with a coven in Highcliffe, England. He was initiated into the group in 1939. In 1946 Gardner bought land in the village of Brickett Wood to establish a center for folkloric study, that would serve as headquarters for a coven of his own. Gardner died of a heart attack in 1964 while onboard a ship off the North African coast. He was buried in Tunis. Only the ship’s captain attended. In 1973, his extensive personal collection of artifacts was sold to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. ALEISTER CROWLEY Gardner met famed occultist Aleister Crowley in 1947. When Gardner formally wrote out his Wiccan rituals, he drew strongly from Crowley’s own, dating back to 1912. The two men had similar ideas. Crowley had, in 1914, proposed the idea of forming a new religion that would pull from old pagan traditions worshipping the earth, celebrating equinoxes and solstices and other hallmarks of nature-based worship. BOOK OF SHADOWS Gardner’s fantasy novel High Magic’s Aid, published in 1949, is considered one of the first standards of Wicca, but his Book of Shadows, a collection of spells and rituals, is central to Wiccan practice. Written in the 1940s and 1950s, initiates were required to make their own copy by hand. The origin of the title is unknown, but some believe he borrowed it from the work of Scottish children’s author Helen Douglas Adams. DOREEN VALIENTE Future Wiccan leader Doreen Valiente met Gardner in 1952 when she contacted him following an article in Illustrated magazine that presented to their readers the reality of covens and their practices in a context of normal, educated people. Under Gardner’s direction, Valiente would revise the Book of Shadows for more popular consumption, exorcising Crowley’s influence. In 1957, Valiente split from Gardner’s coven with other members and rivals to Gardner sprang up, each with a coven of their own. Valiente would become a prominent Wiccan advocate and scholar. Author Scott Cunningham created dozens of books on NeoWicca and modern Paganism, many of which have been repackaged and reprinted, expanding his catalog of work after his death. In high school, he discovered Wicca and was initiated into an eclectic Wiccan coven. His books are in fact about NeoWicca, rather than traditional Wicca, his works typically offer a lot of good advice for people who practice as solitaries. He frequently points out in his writings that religion is a deeply personal thing, and it's not up to other people to tell you if you're doing it right or wrong. He also argued that it was time for Wicca to stop being a secretive, mystery religion and that Wiccans should welcome interested newcomers with open arms.

Come to the edge of transcendentalism for this Literati Short featuring Thoreau's Life in the Woods Excerpts set to profoundly liberating visuals. Henry David Thoreau began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous two-year stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his masterwork, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience and was a dedicated abolitionist. Early Life One of America's most famous writers, Henry David Thoreau is remembered for his philosophical and naturalist writings. He was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, along with his older siblings John and Helen and younger sister Sophia. His father operated a local pencil factory, and his mother rented out parts of the family's home to boarders. A bright student, Thoreau eventually went to Harvard College (now Harvard University). There he studied Greek and Latin as well as German. According to some reports, Thoreau had to take a break from his schooling for a time because of illness. He graduated from college in 1837 and struggled with what do to next. At the time, an educated man like Thoreau might pursue a career in law or medicine or in the church. Other college graduates went into education, a path he briefly followed. With his brother John, he set up a school in 1838. The venture collapsed a few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to work for his father for a time. Emerson acted as a mentor to Thoreau and supported him in many ways. For a time, Thoreau lived with Emerson as a caretaker for his home. Emerson also used his influence to promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some of Thoreau's first works were published in The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. And Emerson gave Thoreau access to the lands that would inspire one of his greatest works. Walden In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson. He spent more than two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped the standard routine of the times. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. Sometimes Thoreau worked as a land surveyor or in the pencil factory. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote. His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The book drew from a boating trip he took with his brother John in 1839. Thoreau eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, and this interest provided the creative spark for a collection of essays. Published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods espoused living a life close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the book reached a larger audience. Over the years, Walden has inspired and informed the work of naturalists, environmentalists and writers. While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau also had an encounter with the law. He spent a night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civil Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt political views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong case for acting on one's individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right," he wrote. Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of protest movements around the world. This non-violent approach to political and social resistance has influenced American civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain, among many others. Later Years Thoreau also remained a devoted abolitionist until the end of his life. To support his cause, he wrote several works, including the 1854 essay "Slavery in Massachusetts." Thoreau also took a brave stand for Captain John Brown, a radical abolitionist who led an uprising against slavery in Virginia. He and his supporters raided a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to arm themselves in October 1859, but their plan was thwarted. An injured Brown was later convicted of treason and put to death for his crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea for Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all the country."