#WyrdWednesday Found inside beds and pillows, "witch wreaths" or "feather crowns" appear in Appalachian and German folklore, as a witch-curse, omen of death or token of salvation, which I suspect is a later belief grafted onto a usually evil artifact. #witches www.roadsideamerica.com/story/15660

#WyrdWednesday "I weird ye be a Laidly Worm, & borrowed shall ye never be, Until Childe Wynd, the King's own son, Come to the Heugh & thrice kiss thee; Until the world comes to an end, Borrowed shall ye never be" With this spell cast 3x3 & with passes 9x9, the wicked witch of Bamburgh, spurred by

Brooms are not the only item a witch needs for flight. According to European superstition, witches create a "flying ointment" out of the body fat of dead infants, mixed with poisonous plants such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and belladonna. #WyrdWednesday

Romancing the Gothic: Online Talk Series - #Gothic, Horror, #Folklore & the Supernatural 🪄 Deadline for submissions: December 20, 2025 #amwriting #booksky #submissions call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/09/...

In 1880 a dairymaid stuck pins into a cow’s heart then roasted it in an oven to summon the witch who had bewitched her herd. A small creature appeared and started scratching frantically at the oven door. The dairymaid killed the creature thus lifting the spell. #WyrdWednesday

Circe, renowned for her knowledge of potions & herbs, transforms her enemies, (& those who offend her) into animals. 🐖 The best known example is from Homer's Odyssey when Odysseus visits her island on the way back from the Trojan War & she changes most of his crew into swine. 🪄 🐷 #FairytaleTuesday

The year withers. Dead paths across the ghost soil are revealed. Colder magics rise. Our boots are muddied, we begin to breath like dragons. Our witcheries turn with the season and our ancestors talk a little louder. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

Goodnight. 🖼️ Woggle of Witches, Adrienne Adams.

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161–180 CE, a record of his private notes on #Stoic philosophy, where he states, 'the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him'. #MythologyMonday #meditations #philosophy

Hello Wild walk writers A very shiny acorn on the floor, I'm surprised the squirrels haven't eaten it yet... Maybe this one will grow. #Oak Use the image/word to inspire your writing, then post using #WildWalkPrompt #prompt #writesky #blueskypoets #writingprompt #nature #5amwritersclub

The Hyldemoer (“Elder-mother”) is a wood-nymph or dryad who lives in #Elder trees. Her spirit is said to #haunt or torment people who cut down or build from elder wood without asking her permission first. 🌳 #Folklore #Fairytales #trees #Samhain #Halloween

Waiting for me when I got home!! Can’t wait to get stuck in!! #folklore

I recently went to the press event for the opening of the new #Dark #Secrets #exhibition. Check our our #Youtube channel for a sneak peek at the entrance. #esoteric #witchcraft #folklore #WitchSky #werewolf #spiritualism #vampire #CursedDolls #seance #Crowley #tarot youtube.com/@folklorelib...

"Open sesame" is the #magical phrase in the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (One Thousand and One Nights), which opens the mouth of a cave where the forty thieves hid the treasure. 🪄 #FolkloreSunday #fairytales #Folklore

Oh no! Losing Diane Keaton and Robert Redford in the same month is really sad. What a great career she had people.com/diane-keaton...

Luna in the moss, following me on one of our many wee walks in the autumn woods last year. Missing her comforting physical presence, but somehow still feel her spirit nearby. 🐾 #BlackCats #Caturday #furbaby

📣 New #feed announcing #Calls for Papers, Posters, Abstracts, and other contributions to #Academic Conferences, Journals, and #Scientific projects. If you're a researcher, this is definitely worth saving. 200+ announcements in the last week alone. bsky.app/profile/did:... #AcademicSky

📢Call for Papers📢 ‘Folklore on the Move’: The Folklore Society’s annual conference 2026 in collaboration with the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen. In person conference: 5-7 Jun 2026; online conference day: 10 Jun 2026. Proposal deadline 14 Dec www.folklore-society.com/event/call-f...

I teach a history of antifascism course @ruhistorydept.bsky.social and figured I'd start an ongoing thread this semester to share some insights from course readings and recommend some great works on antifascism. 🧵

I've usually seen it as a hedgerow plant but here's some low-growing Old Man's Beard at Compton Verney, Warwickshire #WildflowerHour #fluffy

The Hyldemoer (“Elder-mother”) is a wood-nymph or dryad who lives in #Elder trees. Her spirit is said to #haunt or torment people who cut down or build from elder wood without asking her permission first. 🌳 #Folklore #Fairytales #trees #Samhain #Halloween

The #folklore of the forest was used to provide protection 🧿 Recite this old Scots charm as you bind a rowan cross with seven inches of twine the colour of its deep red berries: “Rowan tree and red thread / make the witches tine* their speed” (*lose) #ForestFriday 📸 23 Sept, 2025 #Northumberland

In 1922, Swiss painter Ernst Kreidolf wrote and illustrated Alpenblumenmärchen (Alpine Flowers Tales), a storybook about two acorn children who are swept away to far-off lands by autumn winds. Their adventures involve flower fairies and other fantastical creatures. #FolkyFriday

Once upon a time, many stories, fables & fairy tales began with the words, 'once upon a time'. 🪄 #fairytales #folksky #amwriting Via the @parisreview.bsky.social www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05...

#Essay: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. I compare Lewis’ children’s classic with Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces: The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, The Crossing of the First Threshold, and Supernatural Aid. bit.ly/4nFyFSi #Narnia #CSLewis #Booksky

I always feel honoured by any animal who allows me to share even just a brief moment of time in their presence. 🦊 #wildlife #autumn #nature #fox

The woods smell amazing as the mist recedes: astringent, herbal, smoky. At the risk of sounding all wellness-woo, it feels as if I were inhaling pure mental health molecules.

Rå pulled men deeper and deeper into the woods until they lost all sense of time and place. She looked like a beautiful woman, but beneath her long hair, her back was just a tree trunk, just like all the other trees in the forest in which she lived. #FolkloreThursday #SwedishFolklore #Fairy #Rå

The Infamous Sorceress Morgan le Fay of Arthurian Legend "Morgan le Fay is the infamous sorceress in the Arthurian legends, but how did this strong and bewitching female character emerge?" www.thecollector.com/morgan-le-fa... Books by Thomas Malory at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

The witch knows the turn of year through the sweet tang of apple rot carpet. She knows it in the slow striptease of hawthorn, knows it the wrinkling skin of berries. She requires no calendar but nature. Each season is sacred. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have long been entwined with the supernatural in art + literature. @MikeJayNet on early reports of mushroom-induced trips and how one species became established as a stock motif of Victorian fairyland. publicdomainreview.org/essay/f...

Rebellion, Activism, Imagination: Why We Need Witches More Than Ever - Witches teach us how to push back - and raise hell - in the face of authoritarianism. #Witchsky reactormag.com/rebellion-ac...

Žemyna, the Lithuanian goddess of the Earth, embodies all living things that grow from her soil. Oaks, lindens, and spruces are sacred to her, and in their highest branches, it is said, the secret of life itself is hidden. #FolkloreThursday #trees #nature

Rather than reading Fahrenheit 451 for the nteenth time, why not branch out into some Critical #Folklore Studies? And just so you know I’m not just trolling for book sales, this one happens to be available to read for FREE tinyurl.com/33sdvvdz #BannedBooksWeek

Anton Seder’s The Animal in Decorative Art (1896) — an Art Nouveau reference book full of elaborate ornamentation: winged dragons, chiseled hieroglyphs, warring sea creatures, and more... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/das-thier-in-der-decorativen-kunst/

Sharing an inspirational lecture by Terri Windling: "The Power of Story: re-creating the world through fantasy":(Glasgow, Fantasy Symposium, May 2019) #fantasy #fairytale #amwriting ✍️ via: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTi0...

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN. #SubmissionCall #Submissions #Anthology #Anthologies #LiteraryMagazine #LitMag #GossamerWight #Writer #Writing #Writers #WritingCommunity #FlashFiction #ShortStory #ShortStories #Horror #Weird #Supernatural #Speculative #Dystopian #Fantasy #Eerie (turn on sound).

Our next online talk FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm £5 plus booking fee bit.ly/flaevents All profits support our charity. Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event

You need to be open and receptive to "The Note"! Our latest episode is on Hope Mirrlees' classic, unclassifiable LUD-IN-THE-MIST, and the sometimes-suppressed history of women's fantasy, with theatre & faerie scholar Marita Arvaniti. ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/a...

Today’s piece (1/3) reflects on Tolkien’s constructions of childhood, esp. the Elves as perfect children, and what happens when they re-experience childhood after reincarnation. dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/constructi... #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @tolkiensociety.org

'Harvest Fox Spirit' (messenger of Inari, kami of the crops) - Shoson Ohara, ca. 1910. #JapaneseArt #ukiyoe

Bronze statue of the Goddess Fortuna, c. 1st century CE, Pompeii

The labyrinth is a symbol of the soul’s journey through darkness to rebirth.

October is #BatAppreciationMonth! Here they are being fully appreciated in plate 67 from Ernst Haeckel’s dazzling Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature), published in 1904. More about the image, including details of the line-up, here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/e...

All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better. - Mary Oliver

We're looking forward to attending the talk by Professor Debbie Felton, 'Fairy Tales: Their Ancient Origins,' on Sunday 12 October 2025, 20:00-21:30 GMT, online (Zoom). details: www.gossamerwight.com/events/ #events #fairytales #folklore #esoteric #medusa #ethnography #ancientworld

Hello October 🍂 Autumn Fairy 🎨 Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, ca 1916 #fairytales #autumn #October

Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales - A fascinating lecture with Jack Zipes, from the exhibition "The Wonderful World Before #Disney". Via the Weisman Art Museum. #Mythsky #Fairytales www.youtube.com/watch?v=khX9...

To hear an owl hoot near one's house is one of the myriad of bad luck omens associated with Warwickshire's flora and fauna. I love owls so it's a shame they don't have a better rep in folklore. 📷 by me