The journal · Culture, history and the fun ones
Culture and history
Where astrology came from, what it became, and why it keeps returning.
34 articles.
What is the kuntilanak? Indonesia's most feared ghost
The white-clad female spirit of a woman who died in pregnancy or childbirth, her banana tree, her frangipani scent, and the cry that fools you on distance.
9 min read
What is the pocong? The shroud ghost of Indonesia
The corpse still bound in its kain kafan. Why folklore says its soul stays trapped, and why the pocong is pictured hopping in search of release.
9 min read
What is the genderuwo? Java's hairy forest spirit
The big, ape-like male spirit of Javanese lore, dweller of old trees and ruins, more territorial and mischievous than truly evil.
5 min read
What is the sundel bolong? The ghost with a hole in her back
The long-haired ghost in white, told apart by the hole in her back, a woman who died in childbirth or was wronged, sometimes pictured carrying a baby.
5 min read
What is Wewe Gombel? The spirit who shelters neglected children
The old woman of Javanese lore who abducts mistreated children, then shelters them, and gives them back once the parents change. A moralising, protective figure.
5 min read
Who is Nyi Roro Kidul, the Queen of the Southern Sea?
The goddess-queen of the Indian Ocean off Java's south coast, bound to the Mataram kings, and to the colour no one wears on her beaches.
9 min read
CandomblĂ©, SanterĂa and Yoruba orishas: one faith, many names
How the same orishas travel from Yorubaland to Cuba and Brazil under different names, spellings and traditions, and why they were syncretised with Catholic saints.
9 min read
Unlucky numbers: why the West fears 13 and East Asia fears 4
Two very different fears, one rooted in Western history and one in the sound of a word, and the lucky number that is their mirror image. My building has no fourth floor.
5 min read
Common superstitions explained: where they really come from
Broken mirrors, spilt salt, black cats and knocking on wood, the surprisingly logical histories behind the habits we half-believe.
9 min read
Yakudoshi: the Japanese unlucky ages, explained
The traditional Japanese 'calamitous ages': which years they are, how they are counted, and why they are custom, not curse. I rather admire the custom.
5 min read
Karma means action, and almost nothing else the internet says
The most borrowed idea in Indian religion, usually borrowed with the difficult half left behind.
7 min read
Hypnotherapy is the one on this shelf with trials behind it
A guideline body recommends it for one condition and calls the evidence thin for most others. Both of those are true at once.
7 min read
The Hundred Schools of Thought: six answers to one bad situation
Ancient China's great philosophical argument was not a group of sages agreeing. It was a fight, during a war, over a job.
12 min read
Astrology apps: how the category grew up
From sun-sign horoscopes to computed charts and a notification with an attitude.
2 min read
The Barnum effect: why your horoscope always feels accurate
One classroom demonstration in 1948 explains most of why any of this feels true.
4 min read
Bomoh, dukun and santet: Southeast Asian magic, fairly
A serious, living belief across the Malay world, and its genuine dangers are human ones, not supernatural.
5 min read
The chakras: what they are, and the Western rewrite
The rainbow-coloured seven you have seen on a yoga poster are the most recent layer, not the ancient one.
9 min read
Why astrology booms during economic uncertainty
There is actual research on this, and the finding is more specific than 'people want comfort'.
4 min read
The evil eye: envy, protection, and a belief older than writing
One belief, found nearly everywhere, with one idea at its centre: being admired is dangerous.
10 min read
Astrology and fashion: runway zodiac moments
Stars, moons and constellations keep coming back to the runway because the symbols are unusually good ones, and I say that as someone who paints them onto cloth.
4 min read
Hellenistic astrology: what the ancient Greeks practised
Whole-sign houses, sect, dignities and lots, and almost none of it survived into the twentieth century.
2 min read
Hexes and curses: the belief, the fear, and who profits from both
Almost every culture has a word for this. The dangerous part is rarely the curse. It's the person who offers to lift it.
10 min read
Kabbalah and the Tree of Life: three traditions, one name
The diagram is the same. The Jewish tradition, the occult one and the celebrity one are not.
6 min read
Numerology Life Path numbers vs Sun signs
Two systems, one birth date, and one of them divides people more finely than the other.
4 min read
Astrology in the Renaissance court
A university subject, a court job, and the same men doing the astronomy.
2 min read
Shamans and shamanism: the world's oldest spiritual role
One borrowed word for one of humanity's oldest roles, and a modern weekend-workshop version that's not the same thing.
5 min read
Sun sign columns: the 1930s newspaper origin story
A royal birth, a Sunday paper, and the format that redefined astrology for everybody.
4 min read
Tarot cards matched to zodiac signs
A complete correspondence table, built in late-Victorian London rather than inherited.
2 min read
The third eye: the chakra, the gland, and the gap between them
Two real things (a meditation practice and a small gland) were welded together by a philosopher's guess and a lot of twentieth-century wishful thinking.
10 min read
Astrology in video games and fantasy worldbuilding
Fictional zodiacs are everywhere in games, and I'd put one in anything I designed. Here's why they work.
4 min read
Voodoo and voodoo dolls: the religion vs the caricature
A living faith of millions, and a Hollywood caricature that has almost nothing to do with it.
5 min read
How astrology is used in DC comics
DC skipped the zodiac and went straight for fate. I'd argue that's the smarter borrowing.
4 min read
Stones for astrology: the history behind zodiac gemstones
Two thousand years of lapidaries, one trade association, and a standard history written by a man employed to sell gemstones.
9 min read
Witchcraft: what it is, and the history that gets rewritten
Two claims travel with this subject constantly, and both are false: that it is an unbroken ancient religion, and that nine million women were burned.
9 min read