I know a bank where the wild thyme grows

Midsummer reflections, Shakespeare and Elizabethan magical beliefs, audiobook giveaway for subscribers only, preorder and launch event details

Happy Midsummer, everyone!

Cultures across northern Europe celebrate the middle of summer at different times. The summer solstice this year is today, June 20, at 4:51 PM ET. Midsummer (Old English midsumor) is traditionally celebrated the night of June 23-24. This time of year, I always think about the spinning of the earth and sun and heavens, and how, although time seems to slow down with the heat and long days, nothing ever truly stands still.

We may find ourselves dazed by sunlight filtering down through a canopy of green, but there are always dust motes spinning in it like tiny angels, a whispering breeze, the subtle movement of leaves. Grass is growing, ever so slowly. Clouds are drifting. The Earth is turning at 1,037 miles per hour, and the universe is expanding at astonishing speed. Like the stars, we are aging, moving, changing.

I have always loved Carl Sagan’s claim that we are stardust, children of the stars. Thinking of myself that way makes the wonder I feel on solstice and equinox seem perfectly rational.

Shakespeare and Elizabethan magical beliefs

For many centuries, people in northern Europe believed that the world is thinnest at Midsummer, and Elizabethan England was no different. I wrote an article for this summer’s issue of Enchanted Living on Elizabethan flower magic and the magical roots of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and while researching it, I was reminded why Shakespeare chose to set the famous fairy play on this particular night.

The play celebrates the legend that the world is thinnest on Midsummer night, when the creatures who dwelt in the shadow realm came out to dance. Oberon famously claims to “know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine…” (Act 2, Scene 1). To the modern reader, his reference to a bank of thyme

might seem like a throwaway sylvan detail, but thyme, like bluebells, was associated with fairies. According to Richard Folkard’s Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics, a bank of thyme was a common location for fairy revels…. Emily Carding notes that period herbals and grimoires categorized most of the other flowers in Oberon’s speech—oxlips, violets, woodbine, and musk roses—as being ruled by the planet Venus, evoking the play’s focus on love.

— “Elizabethan Flower Magic: A look at the magical roots of Oberon’s trick in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Enchanted Living

In Elizabethan England, ancient mythology, astrology, and written magical tradition were not seen as separate. Physicians consulted astrological almanacs before prescribing treatment. Cunning women, alchemists, and aspiring magicians believed that the hidden properties of herbs and metals came from their corresponding stars and planets.

Shakespeare seems to have taken the character of Oberon at least in part from a spirit named Oberyon, who appears in magical manuscripts of the period. In the Book of magic, with instructions for invoking spirits, Oberyon is described as “kinge of the fayries” who “teacheth a man knowledge in phisicke and sheweth the nature of stones herbes and trees and of all mettall” (Folger MS Vb26, p. 80, 1583). He is illustrated with the sun and moon around him, the symbols for several planets beneath him.

I wanted the magic in A Rose by Any Other Name to reflect this belief in the connection between the world above and the world below. When Rose casts a spell, she notices the scents of flowers and planetary metals. Every spell in her mother’s grimoire is aligned with the phases of the moon, marked with an optimal time for casting. Here is a fortnight spell that must be cast while the moon is waxing—from the new moon (●) to the full moon (○):

Giveaway to Subscribers Only

To celebrate the solstice today and full strawberry moon tomorrow, as well as the coming release of A Rose by Any Other Name next month, I’m giving away three free Google Play audio codes to subscribers only. I’m listening to the audiobook now using one of them, and I have been blown away by the performance of the voice actress, Suzie Rai! Reply to this email or comment on Substack if you want one—I’ll select three winners at random! All I ask is that if you receive one, you please post an honest review on Goodreads or Amazon (or both) when you finish.

Preorders and Launch Event

Finally, if you haven’t preordered yet, please consider doing so! Preorders mean so much to the success of a book, dictating everything from how many copies are printed to how many bookstores choose to carry it. Here is the link to the preorder page at Charis Books, the independent feminist bookstore that is hosting my launch event in conjunction with Georgia Center for the Book on July 17 at 7pm!

And here is the page to sign up for preorder incentives!

As always, thank you so much for sharing this journey with me—and for your continued support!

Mary