Author Archives

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. (www.barbaraardinger.com), is a published author and freelance editor. Her newest book is Secret Lives, a novel about grandmothers who do magic. Her earlier nonfiction books include the daybook Pagan Every Day, Finding New Goddesses (a pun-filled parody of goddess encyclopedias), and Goddess Meditations. When she can get away from the computer, she goes to the theater as often as possible—she loves musical theater and movies in which people sing and dance. She is also an active CERT (Community Emergency Rescue Team) volunteer and a member (and occasional secretary pro-tem) of a neighborhood organization that focuses on code enforcement and safety for citizens. She has been an AIDS emotional support volunteer and a literacy volunteer. She is an active member of the neopagan community and is well known for the rituals she creates and leads.

• Toil and Trouble (Part 4) by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on June 3, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. When the Amazons land in the capital city, they find themselves standing on the wide lawn in front of the Golden Tower in which El Presidente lives and rules. And look—El Presidente… Read More ›

• Toil and Trouble (Part 3) by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on May 6, 2018 • ( 6 )

  

  Continued from Part 2 The magical school bus, carrying twenty-seven young women, drives across two or three states almost as quickly as the magic carpet flew a few days ago. The bus seems to fly, guided by Bunbury and Icarus… Read More ›

• Toil and Trouble (Part 2) by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on April 3, 2018 • ( 8 )

  

  Continued from Part 1. “Mirror, mirror, on the table, Show us all that you are able…” The witch and her ad hoc coven and the ravens are leaning forward to see and hear more clearly what the mirror is showing… Read More ›

• Toil and Trouble (Part 1) by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on March 4, 2018 • ( 6 )

  

  …and Ella can’t remember the last real meal she had. After supper with the refugees in the witch’s house, she and the witch put their heads together to begin making significant plans. She’s also been meeting all the refugees who… Read More ›

• A Rescue Remedy, Part 2 by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on February 4, 2018 • ( 13 )

  

  The handsome but uncharming prince having been magicked, the witch and her coconspirators know it’s time to focus on finding Ella. The witch looks around the table. “Mrs. Janedoe and Mrs. Worthington,” she says, “you are two of our most… Read More ›

• A Rescue Remedy, Part I by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on January 7, 2018 • ( 16 )

  

  A year, now. It has been a full year since the phony election that put El Presidente in the Golden Office. A year since people began leaving the capital and the nation’s other large cities. While some of the refugees… Read More ›

• Hooray! The Holiday Season Is At Hand! by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on December 3, 2017 • ( 4 )

  

  December seems to have more holidays than the rest of the year put together. Days to honor Ix Chel, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Lucy (aka Santa Lucia), the Declaration of Human Rights, and the publication of the Rider-Waite Tarot…. Read More ›

• Tonight Is Guy Fawkes Night by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on November 5, 2017 • ( 15 )

  

  Mark Twain is reported to have said that while history does not repeat itself, it often rhymes. Let’s see what rhymes we can find in Tudor and Jacobean England and Trumpean America. Here’s the history lesson. What has changed in… Read More ›

• Are These Three Novels Prophetic? Part 3: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on October 1, 2017 • ( 10 )

  

  Members of this community (and others) have been feeling that the world is out of balance since the 2016 election. There’s a feeling that people are becoming less kind and that some men (following the model that lives and tweets… Read More ›

• Are These Three Novels Prophetic? Part 2: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on September 3, 2017 • ( 10 )

  

  Members of this community (and others) have been feeling that the world is out of balance since the 2016 election. There’s a feeling that people are becoming less kind and that some men (following the model that lives and tweets… Read More ›

• Are These Three Novels Prophetic? Part 1: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on August 6, 2017 • ( 10 )

  

  Members of this community (and others) have been feeling that the world is out of balance since the 2016 election. There’s a feeling that people are becoming less kind and that some men (following the model that lives and tweets… Read More ›

• Wickeder and Wickeder by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on July 2, 2017 • ( 11 )

  

  The raven was standing on the little table in the wicked witch’s private room. Expecting a new kind of feast, he dipped his beak into a bowl of wiggly white worms. And spat them clear across the room. “Great Suffering… Read More ›

• A New Story for the Summer Solstice by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on June 4, 2017 • ( 7 )

  

  This year the summer solstice occurs on Tuesday, June 20 in the Northern Hemisphere. (In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the winter solstice and it occurs on June 21.) For us in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice is the longest… Read More ›

• Do We Need Wonder Woman Today? by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on May 7, 2017 • ( 25 )

  

  We all remember the protests—and the pink knitted caps with the pussy ears—that filled the streets of our major cities after the inauguration of the Troll-in-Chief. Some members of this FAR community went to those marches and wrote about their… Read More ›

• Finding Quantum Magic with the Wicked Witch by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on April 2, 2017 • ( 11 )

  

  When El Presidente decided his war against his people was insufficient, his toadies began throwing very, very tremendous bombs at the university. When one of those very, very tremendous bombs blew up the university library, pages from exploded books floated… Read More ›

• Springing Forward with the Wicked Witch by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on March 5, 2017 • ( 10 )

  

  El Presidente was enlarging his war against his citizens. This meant the roads were more crowded than before with refugees fleeing the capital city for safety among the farmers on the plains and up in the hills. Some of these… Read More ›

• A Light Story by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on February 5, 2017 • ( 7 )

  

  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— —first there was a dark eye at the window. Then a tap-tap-tapping. Then a long black beak came around… Read More ›

• Happy New Year by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on January 1, 2017 • ( 16 )

  

  Here we are, beginning a new year. Let’s hope it’s a good new year. I grew up in a working-class family in St. Louis. We were Calvinist and Republican. I’ve escaped from the last two, but I still claim my… Read More ›

• A Midwinter Ritual by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on December 4, 2016 • ( 16 )

  

  Midwinter, the winter solstice (December 21), is the shortest day and longest night of the year. I like to think of Yule, an old pagan name for the solstice season, as a time when we get to take a nice, long, peaceful… Read More ›

• A “Wicked Witch” Discovers Gratitude by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on November 6, 2016 • ( 16 )

  

  Once upon a time there lived a youngish woman and her husband on a tiny farm outside the capital city. Their life was satisfactory. But when el presidente declared war on another country, the husband was press-ganged into the army, leaving his… Read More ›

• The Emperor’s New Clothes by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on October 2, 2016 • ( 14 )

  

  On the day the Big Boss decided he wanted to be the Emperor of Everywhere, the first thing he did was pull on his red cap embroidered with the words Make Me Greater Again. He tied the strings under some… Read More ›

• Hey, Diddle, Diddle by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on September 4, 2016 • ( 8 )

  

  Hey, diddle, diddle The cat and the fiddle. The cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport And the dish ran away with the spoon! From her lips to our ears. What is this? Maybe… Read More ›

• Blessed Are They by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on August 7, 2016 • ( 8 )

  

  There has been so much hate on display in the world so far in the 21st century that it’s easy to fall into despair. Not only are there wars in the Middle East, beginning with the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq,… Read More ›

• Who’s In That Clock? by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on July 3, 2016 • ( 14 )

  

  Hickory, dickory, dock, The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one, And down he run, Hickory, dickory, dock. Someone’s been watching that mouse with the suction-cup feet. From her mouth to our ears. You all know my story,… Read More ›

• Humpty Had A Mother by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on June 5, 2016 • ( 9 )

  

  Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. From her mouth to our ears. You see that kid sitting over there on… Read More ›

• Practical Lessons in Kindness from the Grasshopper and the Ant by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on May 1, 2016 • ( 16 )

  

  (With apologies to Jean de La Fontaine for significant changes to his fable) “Curses on that grasshopper!” exclaimed the ever-busy Madame Fourmi. “All he ever does is play. He’ll be sorry when winter comes.” And so it went. Every day,… Read More ›

• Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on April 3, 2016 • ( 7 )

  

  Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockleshells And pretty maids all in a row. From her lips to our ears. Who wrote that poem? I’ve heard that some so-called scholars think it’s about… Read More ›

• How the Outdoors Got on Us by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on March 6, 2016 • ( 9 )

  

  I read some wonderful posts last spring and summer about the beauties of the outdoors. One that especially inspired me was by Molly Meade. If you missed Molly’s description of how she goes out to the “priestess rocks,” read it now…. Read More ›

• Mother Hubbard Speaks Her Mind by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on February 7, 2016 • ( 8 )

  

  Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard To get her poor dog a bone; But when she came there The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none. From her lips to our ears. Ya wanna know why… Read More ›

• No Man Can Spin Gold (Part 2) by Barbara Ardinger

  By Barbara Ardinger on December 6, 2015 • ( 9 )

  

  Perdita was in a panic. She looked this way and that, but all she saw was a towering pile of straw. She sat down to breathe deeply and think deeply. While she was breathing and thinking, the little man held… Read More ›