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Changelog and corrections

A public record of what has been added to The Garden and what has been put right, so you can see how a page came to say what it says.

What the dates mean

Pages that carry notes and a list of sources show two dates near the top and at the foot.

Updated: The day the wording of the page last changed.
Last checked: The day the page was last read back against the works it cites. A page is only given a newer ‘last checked’ date after it has been re-read, so the date can be later than ‘updated’ but never earlier.
Checked, Standard account, Changed: The festival and path pages are built from text kept in the site’s database. Each now ends with a ‘Notes and checking’ list. Checked means a claim was compared with a source that was read for the check. Standard account means it is the usual dating in the reference works but was not re-read against the book. Changed means the wording was corrected. A page’s ‘last checked’ date covers only the lines marked Checked or Changed, and anything not listed has not been checked.

‘Checked’ has limits. It means that claims were compared with the sources named in the notes. It does not mean that every page number has been verified against a printed copy. Where a note says that a page or section number is unchecked, it is.

Pages that have not been through this process, such as the journal, carry no dates of this kind.

Corrections

A correction here means that something published on the site was wrong, overstated or unsupported, and has been changed. Wording that was improved before it was published is not listed. Newest first.

Update 64

Build your own practice. The page said the research suggests regular time in green places matters more than one long outing. The study it rests on found about two hours a week was linked to better reported wellbeing whether it came in one visit or several, so the claim has been replaced with what the study found. A line saying a sit spot gives ‘most of the benefit’ for people with limited mobility had no source and has been removed. The tick advice no longer says where in the world ticks occur, which the cited NHS page does not cover.

Update 43

Glossary, Tetrapharmakos. The entry said the name came from later Epicureans. It now says the four lines survive in a damaged papyrus and that scholars disagree about their status.
Glossary, Lughnasadh. The entry said Lammas was another spelling. Lammas is a separate English Christian feast that many Pagans treat as the same occasion, and the entry now says so.
Glossary, Samhain. The entry presented the festival of the dead as settled. It now says that this idea owes much to Frazer and is treated with caution by historians.
Glossary, Shinrin-yoku. The term was credited to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The sources credit the Forestry Agency, under Akiyama Tomohide.
Glossary, Coven and Folkish. ‘Often up to thirteen’ became ‘traditional number thirteen, but groups vary’, and ‘most Pagans reject it as racist’ became ‘many Pagan and Heathen organisations publicly reject it’, because the first was a rule of thumb and the second was a count nobody has made.

Update 42

Principal Doctrines (plain English). PD 4 had been worded more strongly than the Greek. It now says that long illnesses can allow more pleasure than pain, as Hicks’ translation does. PD 17, on the just and unjust person, had been filed under friendship and now sits with justice.
Epicureanism. The four-part remedy had been described as something ‘later Epicureans condensed’. It is preserved in a damaged Herculaneum papyrus, and scholars disagree about whether it was a standard slogan or the view of Philodemus’s opponents. The page now says so.
Epicureanism today. A sentence saying that the school ‘did not ask for belief without argument’ had no source and has been removed. ‘Around six centuries’ became ‘several centuries’.
Paganism. ‘Wicca dates from the 1950s’ now reads ‘emerged in England in the mid-twentieth century’, with the reason given.
Pagan ethics. The note on the ‘nine million’ figure now gives a named estimate and says how people were executed in England and Scotland. The warning about palo santo now says the evidence is thinner than for white sage.
Five senses. Two claims were softened because nothing supported them: that sound is the sense that ‘most quickly’ settles the mind, and that ‘many’ guided sessions open with the senses.
Through the seasons. The history of hanami is now marked as a commonly repeated account that has not been checked against a specialist source.

Update 44

Heathenry. The timeline listed the Icelandic conversion (999 or 1000) after a manuscript of about 1270; it is now in date order. ‘Organised groups appeared in the 1970s’ now says ‘in their present form’, and notes the earlier Germanic revival movements, some tied to nationalism. ‘Most Heathens reject’ ancestry-based Heathenry now reads ‘many Heathen organisations’, since no figure was available. ‘Do not follow the Wheel of the Year’ now reads ‘Many do not’.
Lughnasadh. The Croagh Patrick pilgrimage was said to continue an older hill-climbing tradition. It now says Máire MacNeill argued this and that the link is not proved.
Samhain. Turnip lanterns were said to predate pumpkins ‘long before’. The text now says they are recorded from the nineteenth century.
Mabon, Litha. Aidan Kelly’s dating is now given as his own account (1974), and Litha is named as one of the three names he supplied.
Druidry. The ‘full teacher’ grade is now ‘the final grade’, and nemeton reads ‘sanctuary or sacred grove’.
Hellenism, Kemetism, Rodnovery, Animism. The 2017 recognition now names the ministry that granted it. The closing of the temple at Philae and the conversion of Vladimir are marked as traditional dates. Kemetic Orthodoxy’s founder is named. Tylor is said to have popularised the word animism and treated it as an early mistake, which is more accurate than ‘introduced’ and ‘dismissive’.
What the checks could not settle. Many dates are marked ‘Standard account’ because I did not re-read the books for them. The founding of The Troth rests on web sources only. The early Rodnover movements of the 1930s and 1940s are taken from general histories and are approximate.

Updates 34 to 37

Links to a Greek-text site that proved unreliable were replaced with a plain description of where to read the text (34).
The Letter to Pythocles and the Letter to Herodotus were replaced with the Hicks (1925) translation as transcribed by Lexundria, with credit given. The earlier Pythocles copy had been unattributed (35, 37). Obvious typing slips in the Herodotus transcription were corrected, and that page says so.
The credit wording on the library pages was tidied (36).

What has been added

Updates are numbered. The earlier ones were not dated when they were made, so only the later ones carry a date. Newest first.

Update 72 · 11 November 2026: On the home page, the ground line is no longer hidden under the three standing stones. They are filled shapes and had been drawn on top of the line; the line is now drawn last.
Update 71 · 11 November 2026: On the sacred places of Greece map, the land and sea colours had come out reversed because of how the map file was drawn. The land is now the lighter shade and the sea the darker one, and in the dark theme the contrast between them is stronger. Other maps are unchanged.
Update 70 · 11 November 2026: A spot-check of the weakest dates and coordinates. On the pagan revival timeline, eight entries that were marked as standard dates I had not re-checked now each cite a second source: the Fraudulent Mediums Act itself for the repeal of the Witchcraft Act (22 June 1951, not just the year), a library catalogue record for Murray, the signed preface for Frazer, and reference articles for Grimm, Tylor, Gardner, Ásatrúarfélagið and the 1979 books. Several of those were read only as search extracts, and the notes say so. Four matching lines in the Wicca page’s checks changed from ‘standard’ to ‘checked’. On the sacred places map, Maeshowe’s point moved by about 60 metres to the coordinates in Wikipedia’s article and is now marked as a known site. Still unchecked: the Epicurean timeline, the other approximate places, and the town-level festival points.
Update 69 · 11 November 2026: The desire sorter on the Epicureanism page has a Reset button beside Sort it. It clears the text, both answers and the result without reloading the page.
Update 68 · 11 November 2026: Maps of festival customs of Britain and Ireland: ten customs that are often called pagan survivals, from the Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss and Up Helly Aa to Reek Sunday and Puck Fair, on two maps. They are sorted by the earliest firm record we found (before 1700, in the 1800s, or revived in the 1980s), and each entry says what the record does and does not show. The points can be downloaded as GeoJSON.
Update 67 · 11 November 2026: Maps of sacred places of Britain and Ireland: twelve ancient sites that modern Pagans visit, from Stonehenge and Newgrange to the Hill of Uisneach, on two maps (Britain and the middle of Ireland). Each entry has its sources, says how sure the position is, and is marked where the stories about it are medieval rather than ancient. The points can be downloaded as GeoJSON. The map pages now open the right map when you follow a link to a marker.
Update 66 · 11 November 2026: A page of printable practice cards: every practice on the site, including the Pagan path and festival ones, laid out as small cut-out cards, two across, with the steps and time. It can be limited to one tradition, and it works without JavaScript. The Practices section of each tradition page now links to its own cards. The practices themselves are unchanged.
Update 65 · 11 November 2026: The Glossary card on each tradition’s ‘Go deeper’ list now opens the glossary at that tradition’s own section (Epicureanism, Paganism or Shinrin-Yoku) instead of the top of the page.
Update 64 · 11 November 2026: Build your own practice and About now have notes, sources and dates like the other pages. The tick advice cites the NHS, the point about signs cites the Countryside Code, the two-hours-a-week figure cites its study, and the page now says plainly that the 90-minute session is this site’s own arrangement. Three unsupported or overstated lines were corrected (see Corrections).
Update 63 · 11 November 2026: Removed a note from the heritage maps page, and from the entry for update 59, about a map that does not exist. The page now describes only what is on it.
Update 62 · 11 November 2026: Both heritage maps now carry names and reference points. Every marker has its name beside it, with a thin line to the marker where the name could not sit next to it. The Athens map names the metro stations, the main streets (Iera Odos, Peiraios, Patision, Vasilissis Sofias and others where there was room), Lycabettus Hill, the National Garden and Filopappou Hill. The map of Greece names the modern towns Athens, Patras, Ioannina, Larissa, Volos and Kalamata, and Mount Olympus. Labels are placed so that none overlap, and the smaller ones are hidden on narrow screens. On the map of Greece, Samothrace is no longer cut off at the top edge. All reference names are modern and are for orientation only.
Update 61 · 11 November 2026: The Athens map now has a faint modern base: main roads, parks and metro stations from OpenStreetMap, drawn into the page as a picture so there are still no requests to a map service. They are for orientation only and are labelled as modern; the ancient streets and walls are not shown. The credit and licence are on the page.
Update 60 · 11 November 2026: Corrected the caption under the Athens map, which had the marker shapes the wrong way round: circles are philosophical schools and squares are civic and sacred landmarks.
Update 59 · 11 November 2026: Two interactive maps on one page, Athens and the sacred places of Greece: eight places in Classical and Hellenistic Athens (the Academy, the Lyceum, the Painted Stoa, the Agora, the Stoa of Attalos, the Acropolis, the Kerameikos and, with a dashed outline because its site is not known, the Garden of Epicurus) and nine Greek sanctuaries (Delphi, Dodona, Olympia, Delos, Eleusis, Samothrace, Epidaurus, Bassae and Sounion). Markers are numbered and have a different shape for each kind of place, can be filtered, and work with the keyboard. Each entry carries sources and a note on how accurate its position is. All positions are approximate and were entered by hand, not surveyed. The maps use no map service or tracking. The points are also available as two GeoJSON files.
Update 58 · 11 November 2026: The Vatican Sayings now carries the text itself: sixty-one sayings in Peter Saint-Andre’s public-domain translation, with the Greek beside each. It is a selection that leaves out sayings attributed to others and those repeated from the Principal Doctrines, so the numbers jump; the page says so and links to Bailey’s fuller edition. It replaces the shorter guide from update 57. Three stray Latin letters in the Greek were corrected, and one apparent typo in the English (‘as peace’ in saying 79) was left as supplied and noted.
Update 57 · 11 November 2026: Two library additions. Lucretius: selected passages gives seven short passages from Books I, II and V in Leonard’s 1916 verse translation (the hymn to Venus, the Greek who defied Religion, Iphigenia, the darkness of the mind, the view from the high ground, the swerve and the praise of Epicurus), each with a short guide. The text is from the Project Gutenberg transcription and was checked line by line against it, but not against a printed copy. The Vatican Sayings is a guide with plain-English glosses on a selection of sayings and links to a full text. The full Bailey translation is not reproduced, because it is still in copyright in the UK. The glossary entries for the swerve and the Vatican Sayings, the Epicurus page and the Lucretius person page now link to the new pages.
Update 56 · 11 November 2026: A people section: short, sourced pages on fourteen people, with a note on what is uncertain or only second-hand for each. Epicureanism: Epicurus, Lucretius, Philodemus, Diogenes of Oenoanda, Poggio Bracciolini and Pierre Gassendi. Paganism: Iolo Morganwg, Margaret Murray, Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and Ross Nichols. Shinrin-Yoku: Roger Ulrich, Qing Li and Yoshifumi Miyazaki. Names in the two timelines and in six glossary entries now link to them, and People is in the footer. Where I found no biography, the page gives no dates or career details and says so. Correction: the source note for Suzuki Kentarō’s article on chinju no mori had shown a raw code, \u014d, in place of the letter since update 53.
Update 55 · 11 November 2026: Two timelines, each entry with its own source: From Athens to Herculaneum (Epicurus and the Garden, Lucretius in Rome, Vesuvius, Oenoanda, Poggio, Gassendi, the Herculaneum scrolls to June 2026) and The pagan revival (Iolo Morganwg and the Gorsedd, Frazer and Murray, Gardner, the Wheel of the Year, Heathen, Kemetic and Hellenic groups, the 2010 Druid decision). Small labels mark dates that are approximate, second-hand, in someone’s own words or standard but not re-checked. Both pages say what they leave out: the Slavic and Eastern European movements, in particular, get one entry until I have read more of the scholarship. Linked once each from the Epicurus page and the history of the Wheel of the Year.
Update 54 · 11 November 2026: Glossary backlinks now appear for Paganism and Epicureanism terms as well as Shinrin-Yoku. In update 53 only the Shinrin-Yoku and a few Epicurean entries had them, because the Paganism pages did not yet link to any entry. First mentions of Wicca, animism, solstice, cross-quarter days, Principal Doctrines and ‘Epicurean’ now link to the glossary. Many entries still have no “Used on” line, because I link only where it helps.
Update 53 · 11 November 2026: The glossary now lists, under each entry, the pages that link to it, built from the pages themselves so the lists stay current. Six new Shinrin-Yoku entries: kami, chinju no mori, komorebi, satoyama, hanami and microseasons, each with a source where one was used. The kami entry says plainly that shinrin-yoku is a modern, secular practice and not a Shinto rite. A few first mentions on the Shinrin-Yoku pages now link to their entries.
Update 52 · 11 November 2026: Reading paths: for each of the three subjects, a first evening of about half an hour and a longer way in, with the steps in order, a rough time for each and a line on why it comes next. Each subject overview carries one link to its path.
Update 51 · 11 November 2026: The calendar feed is linked once, in the Wheel of the Year section of the Paganism page, beside the dates it carries.
Update 49 · 11 November 2026: The solstice and equinox table, and so the calendar feed, now run to 2100 instead of 2040. The new years were checked against a second calculation (Meeus), which agrees to within about a minute and a half. Three moments fall within minutes of UTC midnight and are flagged on the calendar page.
Update 48 · 11 November 2026: A calendar feed for the Wheel of the Year. Subscribe once and the eight festivals appear in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook, for either hemisphere, using the same date rules as the festival pages. The page explains how the dates are worked out and what the feed does not do.
Update 47 · 11 November 2026: The FAQ answer on ‘live unnoticed’ now gives the Greek, λάθε βιώσας, and the Latin title of Plutarch’s reply.
Update 46 · 11 November 2026: The FAQ questions now take the colour of their tradition (gold for Epicureanism, rust for Paganism, green for Shinrin-Yoku), with bold type and a thin rule above each. All three colours pass the 4.5:1 contrast check against the page background in both the light and dark themes.
Update 45 · 11 November 2026: A FAQ page: nineteen short answers across Epicureanism, Paganism and Shinrin-Yoku, each with notes and a link to the page that gives the evidence. It is linked from the footer and the About page.
Update 44 · 11 November 2026: Line-by-line checks for all eight festivals and all eight paths, each with a ‘Notes and checking’ list, a last-checked date and the works to read. Seventeen wording fixes (see the corrections above) and twenty-three works added to the source lists.
Update 43 · 11 November 2026: Sources for the glossary: 25 entries now carry a numbered note and the page has a list of sources. The festival and path pages gained a ‘where to read more’ list and an honest mark that their text has not yet been checked. Six more works were added to the source lists.
Update 42 · 11 November 2026: This page. A ‘last checked’ date on every page with notes. Notes and lists of sources added to twelve pages: the Epicureanism overview, death and the gods, Epicurean and Stoic, Epicureanism today, the Principal Doctrines (plain English), Paganism, where to begin, Pagan ethics, Shinrin-Yoku, the research summary, the seasons and the five senses guide. Seventeen works added to the source lists.
Update 41: Where the Wheel of the Year came from: which parts of the eight-festival wheel are old, which are modern, and who joined them.
Update 40: Oenoanda and Herculaneum, each with its own dark-style map.
Update 39: Epicurus and the Stoics, a long essay on where the two schools differed and where they met.
Update 38: Lucretius, Book III, with a reading guide and the full text in Leonard’s 1916 translation.
Updates 31 to 37: The library of full texts: the three letters of Epicurus and the Principal Doctrines in Hicks’ translation. See the corrections above for what was fixed along the way.
Update 30: A reading guide to Epicurus’ three letters.
Update 28: The glossary, with each term tied to a page, and site search. Search reads a copy of the page text and logs nothing.
Update 27: Notes, a list of sources, a contents list, reading time and a ‘cite this page’ line for long pages.

Report a mistake

If you find something wrong, unclear or out of date, please get in touch. The most useful report names the page, quotes the sentence and, if you can, says what source disagrees. Confirmed corrections are listed above with the update that made them.

See also About The Garden for how the pages are written.