When I was eight years old, I discovered my grandpa’s decades-long collection of National Geographic magazines in his basement. I still remember sitting crosslegged on the macrame rug on the floor, surrounded by the smell of must and lawnmower fuel, carefully paging through magazine after magazine. There was something magic about the yellow spines, I thought then, and still feel now.
When I was twelve years old, I wrote a bucket list in the softest little blue and brown faux-leather journal I got for Christmas. In addition to more obvious things like having my first kiss and marrying the love of my life (it was an ambitious, long-term list), I scrawled “get published in National Geographic” in my unruly middle-school handwriting. It’s still in the top drawer of my childhood Pottery Barn desk at my parents’ house.
Now I can’t believe that I’m sending out this newsletter to share that my first article for National Geographic was published a few weeks ago! It feels even more special, and if I’m being a bit woo-woo about the whole thing– fated, because it’s about my grandma’s Pennsylvania Dutch culture. She was proud of our family heritage and made sure we knew that we were Pennsylvania Dutch too, even if we’d never lived in the state.
This article is about the folk magic practice of Braucherei prominent among Pennsylvania Dutch folks. I’d never heard of it until I started doing some research into the culture for a fiction project I’m working on (see? working across multiple genres is cross-pollinating!) and it doesn’t seem like our ancestors were practicioners. But they would have certainly heard of the practice, and perhaps someone way back in my family tree was healed by a Braucher.
So I’d love to share this article with you, about a folk magic practice that does not shun modern medicine, but rather lives beside it. (It looks like there’s a paywall but you just need to add your email and then should be able to read for free.) And maybe someday, you’ll hear about a fiction project from me that touches on some of these same themes 🙂
