Welcome everyone! We have some exciting plans for this newsletter and we hope you all stick around to see them. You can find a directory of local businesses/artists/craftsmen/etc by clicking on the three little lines in the top left of the main blog page. There seems to be an issue with the links working at the moment but I hope to have that sorted out as soon as possible. If you would like your business/contact/website info added to this directory, please send us an email (I will add it at the bottom of this post).  Near the end of the weekend, we hope to have our first full PDF issue posted with monthly issues to follow. In the meantime, please take a look at the blog for a sneak-peek of what you can expect.  I plan on making weekly posts available right here on the blog page so please make sure to hit that subscribe button at the top so you don't miss anything.  Everyone working on this project hopes for it to continue to be a community project. A pagan news

Here, in this modern day of technology, I find myself taking a look back. I’d like to share with you how long ago, before the age of modern medicine, others lived through devastating plagues and illnesses… I will be going over old remedies, recipes and herbs; sharing with you ways our ancestors combated illness and healed themselves in times like these. Nostradamus treated the plague in an enlightened manner for a man of such a dark age. He encouraged hygiene ( clean water), fresh air and sun light. He was also known for his invention of the “rose pill,” which was derived from roses (vitamin C) to provide protection from the plague.  Nostradamus wrote many books , in one is a recipe for one of his remedies; "take one ounce of the sawdust or shavings of cypress-wood, as green as you can find, six ounces of Florentine violet-root, three ounces of cloves, three drams of sweet calamus, and six drams of aloes-wood. Reduce the whole to powder before it spoils." Ne

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While I feel like I am far from the right person to be writing this, I also feel it would be wrong to move forward without saying a word or two about those who came before us. For the most part, The Spider existed before my time in the Local Pagan community. I have no stories of my own because I honestly didn't know it existed until a few years ago. However, I have heard your stories; I've heard The Spider spoken about with joy and reverence; I've listened to people speak of how it was the first sign of a community they didn't know was here, and I've seen the light that brightens eyes when it's mentioned. I've caught glimpses of it from time to time and often wondered what could be found in its pages. Around a month ago, I was handed two copies of The Spider printed 11 years apart. They were both Samhain issues and (given the circumstances that lead to them being placed in my hands) that seemed weirdly appropriate. I've picked them up from