Or: "Me and my big mouth"...
Of all the stories concerning medieval magician Henry Cornelius AGRIPPA von Nettesheim (1486-1535), the most famous reads something like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" scene from Walt Disney's acclaimed cartoon, Fantasia... minus Mickey Mouse and the happy ending. The incident supposedly happened when Agrippa was living in Louvain, Belgium and renting out a room of his house to an overly curious young scholar; and it goes like this:
The enigmatic Agrippa being out of town for awhile, his young boarder couldn't resist the opportunity to snoop into the man's study. While there, he noticed a book of magic spells lying on a table and---without really thinking, apparently---began reading one of the spells aloud. It worked! A demon appeared, demanding to know why it had been summoned. And the terrified youth, who probably hadn't realized that he had been summoning a demon, could give no answer. So the demon grabbed him by the throat and strangled him.... End of Act I.
Act II: Agrippa arrives home to the bothersome sight of his boarder's corpse. And the even more bothersome awareness that he will undoubtedly be accused of the murder. What a pickle. He's not a man to panic, however. Summoning the demon, himself, he orders it to restore the corpse to life (or, at least, animation), and sends the magically mobilized body down to the marketplace to wander around a bit before collapsing in a seemingly natural death.
It was a slick try, but the strangulation marks on the young man's throat spoiled it. Agrippa was accused of murder anyway, and had to flee town. Fortunately, hasty departures were nothing new to him, so he made it safely away.
~*~*~*~
[Originally published in COYOTE - ©2002 by Mimi Riser]
All rights reserved.
2:12 PM
'Tis that glorious season again (the one that's both a noun and a verb), when Mama Earth rubs sleepy winter out of her eyes, yawns, stretches, and begins setting her stage for the rich, full-bloom spectacle of summer.
It is spring-into-action Springtime. THE universally acknowledged season of renewal, regeneration, and rebirth!
Not too many generations ago, it was also the season to sweep, scrub, dust, and shake out one's entire house from top to bottom. Few of us today have the time to engage in a good old-fashioned spring-cleaning, but we can, perhaps, spare a moment to do something that, in the long run, will be even more purifying....
Click HERE to read the complete essay.
(Originally published in COYOTE)
©2005 by Mimi Riser
All rights reserved.
~*~
8:13 PM
With Presidents Day this month, February seems like the perfect time for a rousing round of “Oval Office Trivia”—a game I just invented for the occasion. Aren’t you glad? Never mind, don’t answer that. If you want to play, just read on and see if you can answer the following questions. If you don’t want to play, read on anyway, because I’m going to give you the answers and maybe you’ll learn something. (smile)...
5:05 PM
Posted in honor of Valentine's Day...
How I Met My Husband - A True Romance Tale:
Many years ago in Philadelphia, I was a fulltime art-model. I posed at places like the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (where Thomas Eakins once scandalized the world by insisting his male models remove their jock-straps) and I posed privately for some of the best-known American Realists of this era. (It's an anonymous claim to fame -- there are paintings and sculptures of me scattered all over, but who the heck knows it's me?) All modesty aside (literally), I was ranked the best female figure and portrait model in the Philadelphia art community. This had nothing to do with looks, you understand. It just meant I was very, very good at holding still for long periods of time. Rob, on the other hand, was a music student who was posing part-time just for some extra cash. That placed him among the "amateur class" of models, whereas I was "pro." Whatever.
We met during a life-painting class at the Academy. These classes usually had two models set up in two different poses at opposite ends of the studio, and you did the same pose every day for two weeks. They had Rob standing, and me semi-reclining on crimson velvet draped over an antique chaise. He looked like Michelangelo's David in his pose, while I looked like something you'd see hanging over a bar in an 1890s saloon. And he spent every blasted day of that two-week pose STARING at me from across the studio! It REALLY got on my nerves. According to the rules of art-school modeling this was unprofessional and rude. I was very offended and barely civil to him. Also, I happened to be married at the time (but it wasn't pleasant, and that story I won't go into).
Anyway, my first husband and I left Philly shortly after that and I spent the next three years in Florida. Then I got smart, got divorced and returned to Philly and modeling. Everyone was happy to see me back -- especially Rob. He was still modeling part-time and we ran into each other again. He was interested. I was not. For weeks he followed me around like a puppy dog, badgering me for a date until I ran out of excuses and went out with him just to get him out of my hair. It didn't work. Nine months later we were married. The way he tells it, he fell in love with me during that first painting class we did, but knew I wasn't available and could do nothing but "admire from afar." Then I disappeared. He claims to have spent that three-year hiatus dreaming of me and sad because he figured he'd never see me again. Then suddenly I walked back into his life, and I was SINGLE. He says that at that point there was NO way I was getting away from him again.... He seems to have been right. We've been married for twenty years now, and I still can't get rid of him. (Grin)
[©2007 by Mimi Riser - All rights reserved.]
12:34 AM
Lately there has been much talk, both in and out of the holistic community, regarding the libido-strengthening properties of herbs. Perhaps you’ve been hearing some of the buzz and wondering if there’s any truth to it. Well, possibly there is.
Muira puama (traditionally known as “potency wood”), damiana, ginkgo, ginseng, maca, and yohimbe, to name several, have been used as aphrodisiacs for centuries in cultures around the world. And, while all the votes aren’t in yet, modern studies are beginning to indicate that some herbs may indeed be effective in boosting arousal or treating certain forms of sexual dysfunction. For instance, yohimbine (an extract from the bark of the West African yohimbe tree, which increases blood flow to the penis) was approved by the FDA as a prescription treatment for erection problems even before Viagra was.
You don't need a prescription, however, for most natural aphrodisiacs. You don't even need a trip to the health-food store. As a matter of fact, four of the most time honored "love herbs" are probably sitting in your kitchen spice rack right now...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
[Originally published in SUITE - ©2005 by Mimi Riser]
All rights reserved.
11:00 PM
"Heroic Medicine" was a medieval Frankish, kill-or-cure system of healing (and I use the term loosely) that was once frighteningly popular. Literally frightening.
As explained in Flowers in the Blood (by Dean Latimer and Jeff Goldberg): "Their [the physicians'] techniques were rooted in the notion that the way to exorcise one set of afflictions from a patient's body was to subject it to a considerably more violent set of afflictions. The heroics were entirely on the part of the patient: for even the mildest ailments, one could expect to be bled, leeched, cupped, blistered, amputated, sweated, trepanned, scourged, purged and flayed to a fare-thee-well... In most cases, it was useless, of course, and downright lethal in many, yet its tenets remained broadly accepted for nearly a millennium."
To give you an up-close-and-personal view of what came to be called "heroic medicine," here's a scintillating eyewitness account by a 12th century Arab doctor, who had been called in to consult with a European colleague....
[Originally published in NATURAL STUFF - ©2002 by Mimi Riser]
All rights reserved.
~*~
11:31 PM
In the year 1488 a very strange little girl was born in a cottage by the Dropping Well at Knaresborough, in Yorkshire. She had a long, hooked nose and a turned-up chin, and her eyes were like the eyes of a wise old woman.
She was sent to school only once, it's said, and then showed the schoolmistress that there was no need to teach her the alphabet, for she at once read off, with the greatest of ease, the most learned books that could be found in the parish. But she didn't show her most interesting talents until she was married to Toby Shipton. Then, one of her friends lost a new smock and petticoat, and came to her for help.
"Go to the market cross next market day at noon," said Mother Shipton, "and you will see what you will see."...
[Originally published in COYOTE - ©2005 by Mimi Riser]
All rights reserved.
11:26 PM
January, 2007
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