Episode 102: Cemetery Symbolism with Tui Snider

“Graveyard Apples and Corpse Candles.” Watercolor by Barbara Fisher 2022.

Hello, my Paranormal Peeps!

I’m a big fan of cemeteries. I find them to be peaceful places filled with trees, plants, animals and of course, beautiful headstones, mausoleums, and sculptures.

Yes, there are dead people, but truly, dead folks don’t scare me. (I’m much more worried about living people because some of them, you never know what they’re up to, and sometimes, it’s no good.)

I grew up going to cemeteries because everyone in my family is fond of history, art, genealogy and the outdoors. So, wherever we went on vacation, or to visit relatives, you can bet we’d make a stop at the local cemetery—especially if it was historic in some way.

Enter Tui Snyder—she, too is fascinated by cemeteries and when she first started visiting them, she wondered about the symbols carved into the headstones and monuments. What did it all mean? She looked for a pocket sized handbook—like the ones that exist for birds, wildflowers or trees—but found nothing.

So, she wrote one. She researched it, wrote it and after it was published, she started hearing from readers who had found it useful to them, and she was delighted.

She’s visiting with me to share her knowledge of funerary art and we had a great time together. She has plenty of great stories and she shares them with a dash of humor and a bubbly personality.

You can find Tui online here. Her website has links to all her books, to her blog and a place where you can get a free guide to what all the hands you see in cemeteries mean!

Enjoy!