The Lantern is a place for exploring Appalachian folklore, folk traditions, spiritual practice, local history, and the unexplained. Based in Franklin, North Carolina, it brings together stories, research, practical resources, community gatherings, and investigations rooted in the landscape and traditions of Western North Carolina.
Folklore, folk magic, spiritual traditions, local history, strange occurrences, and the stories attached to particular places.
Community discussions, book clubs, workshops, investigations, and meetings of The Lantern Society.
Franklin, North Carolina
In the mountains of Western North Carolina
What Is The Lantern?
The Lantern grew from a desire to create a lasting home for the work that began through Cozy & Content: gathering people around folklore, old beliefs, spiritual practices, local history, and questions that do not always have simple answers.
It is not intended to present folklore as a collection of quaint stories separated from real life. Folklore lives in the ways people understand the land, protect their homes, interpret unusual experiences, care for the dead, pass down warnings, and decide what is sacred, dangerous, fortunate, or forbidden.
The Lantern examines those traditions with curiosity and respect while making room for discussion, personal experience, historical evidence, uncertainty, and differing interpretations.
What You’ll Find Here
By the Lantern
Essays, reflections, stories, guides, and research concerning folklore, spiritual practice, divination, history, and the unexplained.
The Lantern Almanac
A practical daily resource bringing together lunar conditions, planetary days and hours, seasonal observations, correspondences, weather lore, and traditional considerations.
The Lantern Society
A local gathering for people interested in folklore, folk traditions, spirits, divination, historical magic, unusual experiences, and the stories held by the places around us.
Gatherings & Investigations
Community discussions, walking investigations, workshops, book clubs, and other opportunities to explore these subjects together.
Local Folklore
Stories, legends, historical locations, community memories, and unexplained experiences connected to Macon County and the surrounding mountains.
Videos
Investigations, conversations, demonstrations, reflections, and visual explorations of the subjects examined through The Lantern.
The Lantern Society
The Lantern Society is the community-gathering branch of The Lantern. Its meetings are built around conversation rather than lectures. Each gathering begins with a subject, place, story, or set of questions and invites participants to examine it through folklore, history, tradition, and personal experience.
Some gatherings take place around a table. Others lead into historic streets, cemeteries, thresholds, crossroads, and other places where history and belief continue to overlap.
Meet Jenn
The Lantern was created by Jenn, a Western North Carolina native, lifelong reader, researcher, maker, and owner of Cozy & Content in Franklin.
Her work draws from Appalachian folklore, folk practice, local history, herbal traditions, divination, spiritual exploration, and the relationship between people and place. She approaches these subjects as living traditions worthy of careful research, practical examination, and honest conversation—not as fixed answers or performances of the past.
Gather Around the Lantern
Read the journal, consult the Almanac, explore local stories, watch an investigation, or join us for a gathering in Franklin. You do not need to arrive with particular beliefs or prior knowledge—only curiosity, respect, and a willingness to look more closely.