If you have ever been to Blackwater Hollow, you know that it is not the sort of place one visits by choice. It is the sort of place one stumbles upon when hopelessly lost or, worse, when seeking answers to questions best left unanswered. Leo and Margo were of the latter variety, which is to say, the sort of children who asked too many questions and rarely accepted “go to bed” as a satisfying conclusion. When their uncle disappeared under peculiar circumstances, peculiar in this case meaning h...

If you have ever been to Blackwater Hollow, you know that it is not the sort of place one visits by choice. It is the sort of place one stumbles upon when hopelessly lost or, worse, when seeking answers to questions best left unanswered. Leo and Margo were of the latter variety, which is to say, the sort of children who asked too many questions and rarely accepted “go to bed” as a satisfying conclusion. When their uncle disappeared under peculiar circumstances, peculiar in this case meaning h...

When you’re ten years old, you already know a lot about how things work. You know that cars run on gas, that schools run on rules, and that adults run on coffee. What you might not know is that the way we see the world, what we think it’s for, shapes everything we do in it. Take this story. There’s a kid named Eli. He’s into video games, sneakers, and pepperoni pizza. His life is like most kids’ lives, built around screens and schedules. One Saturday, Eli’s aunt takes him on a hike. It’s quie...

When you’re ten years old, you already know a lot about how things work. You know that cars run on gas, that schools run on rules, and that adults run on coffee. What you might not know is that the way we see the world, what we think it’s for, shapes everything we do in it. Take this story. There’s a kid named Eli. He’s into video games, sneakers, and pepperoni pizza. His life is like most kids’ lives, built around screens and schedules. One Saturday, Eli’s aunt takes him on a hike. It’s quie...

In the spring of 2008, a woman named Lena disappeared. Not physically. She still lived in the same Brooklyn apartment, taught the same high school English class. But something fundamental had shifted. Her friends noticed it first — the way she stopped performing her usual role: the fixer, the jokester, the one who held it all together. She had become quiet, slower. More deliberate. What they didn’t know was that Lena was dying — not biologically, but psychically. Psychologists might call it e...

In the spring of 2008, a woman named Lena disappeared. Not physically. She still lived in the same Brooklyn apartment, taught the same high school English class. But something fundamental had shifted. Her friends noticed it first — the way she stopped performing her usual role: the fixer, the jokester, the one who held it all together. She had become quiet, slower. More deliberate. What they didn’t know was that Lena was dying — not biologically, but psychically. Psychologists might call it e...

Inside each of us lives a village. Carl Jung called them archetypes: the Hero, the Shadow, the Child, the Sage, universal characters in our psyche, each with a voice, a need, a script. Hermetic philosophy echoes this: the self as a reflection of the divine whole, fragmented into roles we cycle through daily. Picture Clare, a composed school administrator. But when her teenage son yells one night, she erupts... not as Clare, but as someone else entirely. Later, she whispers, “That wasn’t me.” ...

Inside each of us lives a village. Carl Jung called them archetypes: the Hero, the Shadow, the Child, the Sage, universal characters in our psyche, each with a voice, a need, a script. Hermetic philosophy echoes this: the self as a reflection of the divine whole, fragmented into roles we cycle through daily. Picture Clare, a composed school administrator. But when her teenage son yells one night, she erupts... not as Clare, but as someone else entirely. Later, she whispers, “That wasn’t me.” ...