August Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed August 2026 posts:
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• Why the American Political Establishment Is Panicking
• “Like a Stream Running Into the Ocean”
• No Plausible Justification
• Jonny Rashid: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2026
• Kadeem En Pointe: Finding Freedom in Dance
• MPR’s Major (But Unsurprising) Failure
• Photo of the Day – August 13, 2026
• Rejecting “Cartoonish Conclusions” About Marxism and Dealing with the “Actual Architecture of Our Current Reality”
• Mapping Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Defection from the “Obama Hypnosis”
• Ashley Stevens: Quote of the Day – August 18, 2026
• Mysticism and Miracles
• “Woke 1.0” as Revisionist History
• A Mesmerizing Performance
• Choosing to Awaken
• “Rest in Peace, Dear Prophet Dolly”
• Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – August 26, 2026
• Four Political Commentaries Worth Viewing
• Spider-Man in Minneapolis
• Remembering the Dolly Parton and Dionne Warwick Duet . . . and Celebrating Dolly as a “Kind of American Folk Saint”
• Memes of the Times
• The Crowned Spirit of the Wild

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• August Vignettes (2025)
• August Vignettes (2024)
• August Vignettes (2023)
• The Summer of My Wildebeest-of-a-Bike
• A Summer Sunset Psalm
• The Dance of a Summer Day
• Summer Vignettes (2022)
• O Breath of Summer
• Summer Blooms
• Eternal Summer

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

The Crowned Spirit of the Wild

As summer weakens and the forest turns towards autumn, the stag becomes the crowned spirit of the wild. His antlers resemble bare branches holding the final light of the year, while their yearly shedding reflects the ancient rhythm of loss, renewal and returning strength.

In European folklore, the stag belonged to thresholds. He could lead hunters away from familiar paths, appear before encounters with the Otherworld and run through the darkness alongside the Wild Hunt. He represented sovereignty that could not be granted by human hands: instinctive, untamed and rooted in the land.

The stag does not mourn the fading sun. He carries it between his antlers, guiding its fire into the darker half of the year.

– Hex and Shadow Chronicles
via Facebook
August 18, 2026

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Beloved and Antlered
• Cernunnos
• Integrating Cernunnos, “Archetype of Sensuality and the Instinctual World”
• Cernunnos in Autumn Light
• Cernunnos and Pan: “Witch-Fathers of the Wild”
• The Devil We (Think We) Know
• Ed Simon on Why We Need a Pagan Theology
• Phillip Clark on the Magi as Archetypes of “Witchy Faith”
• A Day to Celebrate the Survival of the Old Ways
• At Hallowtide, Pagan Thoughts on Restoring Our World and Our Souls
• The Pagan Roots of All Saints Day
• "A Dark Timelessness and Stillness Surrounds Her Wild Abandonment”
• Awakening the Wild Soul
• Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance
• The Mysticism of Trees
• Mistwalking
• Holy Encounters Where Two Worlds Meet
• The Prayer Tree
• The “People Between”
• The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
• Late Summer Blooms (2025)
• Summer’s End (2024)
• Summer Vignettes (2022)
• Summer’s End (2021)
• Late Summer Blooms (2016)
• Summer’s Parting Gift
• Eternal Summer

Image 1: Artist unknown.
Image 2: Michael J. Bayly.

Memes of the Times

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

ISRAEL AND GAZA
“The Moral Issue of Our Generation”
Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Chris Hedges: “The Genocide in Gaza Is the Beginning. Welcome to the New World Order”
• The Architecture of Settler Colonialism
• Omid Safi: Quote of the Day – March 7, 2026
• Thomas Fazi on How Western Hegemony Has Entered a Phase of Irreversible Decline
• Kym Staton: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration


THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• Reich-Wing Watch: Quote of the Day – July 17, 2026
• Tommy J. Housman on Reactions to the “Defining Image” of Trump’s America
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”


THE EPSTEIN CLASS
• Something to Think About – February 28, 2026
• Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”


ICE
• Mark Greene on How ICE Is a Weapon of the Epstein Class
• “The World Is Watching”: Salazar Felicita on the Killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
• On July 4th, Two Very Different Marches
• The “Power, Peril and Importance” of What’s Happening in Minnesota
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers
• “It’s All Lies and Propaganda”
• Quote of the Day – February 23, 2026
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Renée Good and Alex Pretty: “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• Ashley Stevens: Quote of the Day – August 18, 2026
• Four Political Commentaries Worth Viewing
• “Woke 1.0” as Revisionist History
• Adam Bates: Quote of the Day – June 9, 2026
• When the “Blue Wave” Is a “Blue Crackdown”
• Carlos LeMar Dixon: Without Revolutionary Action, We’re Just “Entertaining the Kings”
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t


BEYOND THE DUOPOLY
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Jill Stein on What the Green Party Is All About
• Jill Stein on the Importance of the Green Party
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• Campaigning With the Green Party of Minnesota
• With the Green Party at Twin Cities Pride


DOLLY PARTON
• “Rest in Peace, Dear Prophet Dolly”
• Remembering the Dolly Parton and Dionne Warwick Duet . . . and Celebrating Dolly as a “Kind of American Folk Saint”


SIGNS OF HOPE
• Spider-Man in Minneapolis
• Choosing to Awaken
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• Chris Smalls: The Working-Class Revolution Is Coming
• “The Fascist Fist Is Tightening Because It Knows That It Is Losing Its Grasp on Us”
• “A Very Insightful and Constructive Discussion”
• Pope Leo XIV: Quote of the Day – June 11, 2026
• Aligning With the Divine
• Kadeem
• A Message in Dance That Challenges, Inspires and Liberates
• Kadeem En Pointe: Finding Freedom in Dance • A Mesmerizing Performance
• Awakenings


See also:
• Memes of the Times – June 25, 2026
• Memes of the Times – May 15, 2026
• Memes of the Times – February 11, 2026
• Memes of the Times – November 23, 2025
• Memes of the Times – September 21, 2025
• Memes of the Times – July 27, 2024
• Memes of the Times – May 21, 2020
• Signs of the Times – April 25, 2017
• At the Minnesota Capitol, Signs of the Times (May 16, 2011)