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History and Religion

2026-10-03T09:10:27-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Dead Man’s Hand: Appalachian Graveyard Magic

Last updated on: October 3, 2026 at 9:10 am By Heather Blankenship

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When the Mountains Go Dark: Appalachian Folklore for Spooky Season Installment 3 Healing charms, graveyard earth, and the uneasy belief that death did not put an end to power. An old mountain cemetery can make you lower your voice without anyone asking. You might arrive in full daylight, with the sun warming your shoulders and birds moving through the trees. Still, once you step among the stones, something changes. You begin reading names. You notice a child’s short life, a... Read more

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2026-09-28T22:53:13-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Angel Crowns: An Eerie Appalachian Death Tradition

Last updated on: September 28, 2026 at 10:53 pm By Heather Blankenship

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When the Mountains Go Dark: Appalachian Folklore for Spooky Season Angel Crowns: The Strange Appalachian Relics Found in the Pillows of the Dead When the Mountains Go Dark: Appalachian Folklore for Spooky Season After the funeral, someone had to strip the bed. Imagine an Appalachian home generations ago. For days, perhaps weeks, someone you loved had been lying in that bed, growing progressively weaker with each passing moment. Family members came and went. Neighbors brought food. People took turns sitting... Read more

Progressive Christian

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Appalachian angel crowns

2026-09-20T17:00:36-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Appalachian Tales of Meeting Satan in Disguise

Last updated on: September 20, 2026 at 5:00 pm By Heather Blankenship

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When the Mountains Go Dark: Appalachian Folklore for Spooky Season Installment 2 He was the handsomest man in the room. At least, that was how the story ought to begin. He appeared after the dancing had already started—a stranger no one remembered inviting. His clothes were finer than those of the local boys. His manners were polished. When he smiled at the young women, they smiled back. And when the fiddler struck up another tune, the stranger danced as though... Read more

Progressive Christian

2026-09-25T15:59:58-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Haint Blue: How a Color Protected Appalachian People

Last updated on: September 25, 2026 at 3:59 pm By Heather Blankenship

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Packing Up the Past: What Haint Blue and a Cobalt Bottle Taught Me About Spiritual Self-Defense I was kneeling on my living room floor, surrounded by half-taped cardboard boxes and that distinct layer of dust that only appears when you decide to move your entire life, when I found it. Tucked way in the back of a cabinet, wrapped in a forgotten dish towel, was a small, heavy cobalt glass bottle. Holding it up to the window, the way the... Read more

Pagan

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2026-09-17T19:30:06-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Something Followed Me Home: The Dead Who Wouldn’t Leave

Last updated on: September 17, 2026 at 7:30 pm By Heather Blankenship

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When the Mountains Go Dark: 13 Nights of Appalachian Folklore — Night One The footsteps stopped at the bedroom door. That was the part she remembered. Hearing footsteps in an old mountain house wasn’t particularly unusual. Houses made noise. Wood contracted in the cold. Wind found its way through cracks around windows. Mice scratched inside walls. But these footsteps were different. They crossed the porch. Slowly. The front door never opened. Still, the footsteps entered the house. They crossed the... Read more

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2026-09-16T09:18:56-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Witch in the Hollow

Last updated on: September 16, 2026 at 9:18 am By Heather Blankenship

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Something Is Wrong With the Cow It’s somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, perhaps around the turn of the twentieth century. The cow had been perfectly healthy. Now she isn’t giving milk. Or perhaps the milk is there—but no matter how long the woman churns, the butter will not come. Then something else happens. A horse comes back exhausted in the morning, its mane inexplicably tangled. A child becomes sick without an obvious cause. Someone remembers an argument with a neighbor.... Read more

Pagan

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Appalachian Folk Magic

2026-09-15T07:45:03-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When an Owl Calls Your Name: Appalachian Folklore

Last updated on: September 15, 2026 at 7:45 am By Heather Blankenship

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An Owl’s hoot means…There are sounds that belong to the mountains after dark. Wind moving through the trees. The steady chorus of insects. A creek somewhere below the house. A dog barking at something you cannot see. And then there is the owl. Imagine lying in bed in an Appalachian cabin generations ago, long after the lamps have been extinguished, when an owl begins calling from somewhere beyond the house. You know perfectly well what made the sound. But you... Read more

Pagan

2026-09-10T20:13:22-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Talking the Fire Out

Last updated on: September 10, 2026 at 8:13 pm By Heather Blankenship

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Someone go get the Fire Doctor! Imagine western North Carolina perhaps a century ago. Someone reaches across a woodstove and badly burns her hand. They yelp with pain, holding the burnt hand and grimacing. There may be no doctor nearby, but someone in the community knows exactly who to fetch. The healer doesn’t open a spellbook or grimoire. She doesn’t cast a circle. She bends over the injured hand and begins whispering. Maybe she blows gently across the burn.... Read more

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Appalachian

Appalachian Folk Magic

Christianity

Green witch

witchcraft

2026-09-06T13:18:08-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Going Home: Following My Ancestors Into Appalachia

Last updated on: September 6, 2026 at 1:18 pm By Heather Blankenship

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Soon, I am moving to the mountains of western North Carolina. On paper, it is just a change of address. There will be loads of boxes to unpack, utilities to arrange, unfamiliar roads to learn, and all the ordinary inconveniences that accompany moving from one place to another. But spiritually, it feels like something else entirely. It feels like I am going home. Not because I have lived there before. I haven’t. It feels like home because generations of my... Read more

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Ancestors

Appalachian Folk Magic

North Carolina

Paganism

Solitary Witch

2026-09-05T18:25:36-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Granny Women of Appalachia: Healers and Midwives

Last updated on: September 5, 2026 at 6:25 pm By Heather Blankenship

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Imagine going into labor in a cabin tucked deep into the mountains of western North Carolina. It is 1905. There is no hospital down the road. There is no ambulance. There may not even be a telephone. The nearest physician could be miles away, separated from you by mountains, creeks, mud and roads that bear little resemblance to the paved highways winding through Appalachia today. But somebody has already gone to fetch Granny. She arrives carrying no ultrasound machine,... Read more

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