Awen is inspiration, the gift of creativity given to bards and diviners who make beauty and speak truth to power. While today called an "energy", historical Welsh use is closer to instinct or genius, though occasionally divine in origin. #FolkloreSunday

Yōkai art is the art of creativity and learning to stand out. While many yōkai are genuine bits of folklore, many Japanese monsters originated in the minds of artists who wanted to stand out from their competitors in Edo period markets. #FolkloreSunday

Did you know lebensraum, the nazi idea of killing most of the people who lived east of them was directly inspired by the American concept of manifest destiny and westward expansion and 'indian removal' hitter even said the Volga will be our Mississippi www.thedailybeast.com/what-the-naz...

Toyota Hokkei Mt. Fuji Above the Clouds, copy after Hokkei's print from the set of Three Lucky Dreams

His final role at Melbourne's Princess Theater was that of Mephistopheles in Faust: finishing his finale, he descended into the floor and had a heart attack. Now Frederick Federici haunts the theater, returning to the stage, looking for applause. #PhantomsFriday

The nameless Völva of Völuspá is Norse myth's most famous ghost, summoned by Odin to give prophecy. She speaks of Ragnarok and all that leads to it, dooming Odin and the gods. Many suggest she is Angrboda, jotun mate of Loki and mother of monsters #PhantomsFriday 🖼: GAVade

The older I get, the more I understand why water has been so revered in so many cultures. Not because people worshipped the water itself, but because they recognized that without water, nothing else exists. Water is the thread that holds every living system together.

Wyrdlings! Your Mothers of the Wyrd famously have a big heart for folklore & so we give you: “Standing Stones, Sage and Solstices – Folklore and What your Granny Knew!” as this week’s #WyrdWednesday topic. Just because. So come, sit down & share your tales of lore from across the world with us.

Thor, Loki, and Odin are prone to wandering, sometimes together, going on road trips around the Nine Worlds and often in disguise. Many of Norse myths most famous episodes take place in such journeys. #FairytaleTuesday

In Celtic folklore, deer often have a supernatural connection to the Otherworld and its inhabitants. Beings like the Cailleach are said to herd deer along the Beara Peninsula of County Cork in Ireland, and Welsh Arawn keeps supernatural stags. #MythologyMonday 🖼️: D. Munroe

Mouse Deer is a favorite meal of many predators of Indonesia, but is also a clever trickster. When Tiger sought Mouse Deer, each time she tricked him into eating mud, drumming a wasp's nest, and wearing a cobra as a belt and so Mouse Deer lived to see another day #MythologyMonday

Don't mess with djinn, man. In Urfa peoole used to ask me why I wasn't afraid to live alone in our excavation house, not just from human intruders (a real possibility-I had to block our front door w/a wheelbarrow) but also from djinn, who are tricksters & malicious. But apparently cats chase them??

Beneath the waters, indeed any waters, are the Marid: Djinni who live in the shadows of water. They are like any Djinni, as numerous and varied as drops of rain, but fear of them is so great in some countries that people are not taught to swim. Tread carefully. #FolkloreSunday

Eight years ago today, a gunman killed five employees and injured two more at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. In the aftermath of the attack, their surviving colleagues continued reporting while carrying the unimaginable trauma, grief, and fear of that day.

The universal reality of having a cat and you aren’t moving it while it sleeps because you wouldn’t dare so you now have to cut off your limbs, clothes, etc to never unsettle the little beast. ✨

👮‍♂️🚔🐖🙅‍♀️

Rising from the depths of whalefall is the Bakekujira, a vengeful spirit of the Sea of Japan who acts as a harbinger of terrible events. Seen at night, they sit near the surface with an eerie light around them: and they bring with them plague and worse. #PhantomsFriday

Sarah Ellen Roberts became ther subject of a Peruvian panic in the 20th century, with the dead English woman at once accused of being a vampire swearing revenge and a vengeful spirit who sought to be reincarnated into the body of a Peruvian child. #PhantomsFriday

Here I am on the corner supporting the woman rally in Tehachapi 6=24-26. I am on the corner of the famers market every Thursday and I attend all the rallies I can. I just don't have the resources to travel far. However making a statement here in a small red town is at least something.

Cathy Veale

True. #BookSky

To ward off evil on the summer solstice, wear garlands of flowers to prevent evil spirits from overtaking you, and especially St. John's wort. Adapted to Christianity, this superstition supposedly has pagan origins. #WyrdWednesday 🖼: L. Garland

The Sphinx each year observes a rare event the Egyptians meticulously planned: on the summer solstice, the sun sits between the Great Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre exactly at midday, owing to their love of astrophenomena. #WyrdWednesday

Wyrdlings! With Midsummer, St John’s Eve and a heat wave across the Northern Hemisphere, we give you: “Midsummer Night Dreams: of Cleansing Fires, Floral Wreaths and Flowering Ferns!” as this week's #WyrdWednesday topic. Come, sit with us and tell tales of long hot days and short white nights.

A stag with golden antlers near Angelroda will reveal hidden treasures - but only to the worthy! #germany #folktale #folklore #deer https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Stag_in_the_Kammerl%C3%B6cher_Holes

This could be a good comic book creature.

I love this painting! This image was what I used as the basis for my description of the beast in the "Devil and Judas Iscariot (A Comedy)"! Chapter 17: In which Mary, Madonna, Martha, and Rachel meet a Behemoth.

Endorsed by Thor! Visit the new Midgard location.

Abdur Rahman Chughtai (Pakistani, 1894-1975). Untitled (watercolor on paper).

Cartoonist: Drew Sheneman

The woman was just sitting in her home.

June Sun Shower 6”x6” oil

Jörð is Mother Earth, goddess of the world itself. Her most well-known role in Norse myth is as mother of Thor: this connection to the Earth is where he derives his strength and his power over the denizens of Jotunheim. She may be a name for Frigga. #MythologyMonday 🖼: L. Hunt

Behemoth, Beast of the Land and King of Beasts, is massive, and can only be overcome by God. Born like Leviathan in the earlier Days of Creation, Behemoth lives East of Eden, its hunger massive. At summer solstice its strength is greatest. #MythologyMonday 🖼: W. Blake

Cruel and savage, the spider-bull called the Ushi Oni is native to Western Japan, a monster of considerable strength and destructive tendencies. They are often partners of more cunning spirits, who lure humans to the Ushi Oni for the kill. #MythologyMonday 🖼️: M. Meyer

Jumping over summer solstice bonfires is a good way to ensure good luck. From Britain and Ireland to Russia this practice continues, for summer is a time for the bold. #FolkloreSunday

Summer is the time of Bride, Scottish version of Brigid, who shares custody of the year with the Cailleach. Life blooms, new paths are tread, and people prepare for the coming of winter. In myth, some tales suggest they may be the same goddess. #FolkloreSunday

Among the Four Symbols of East Asia lore, the Vermillion Bird represents the South and its quadrant of stars, master of summer and red, with the planet Mars as its guide. Ancient roads are often named the Vermilion Bird in China, Korea, and Japan. #FolkloreSunday 🖼️: M. Meyer

The summer solstice is also National Aboriginal Day in Canada, celebrating First Peoples, Metis, and Inuit communities and contributions, both historical and modern. If this year is proof of anything, it is the need to provide justice and solidarity. #FolkloreSunday

Scotland is so beautiful! Isn't it?

Your Cherokee words for today. The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically. Dee-dah-yaw-hee-stee

How did peasants in previous centuries cope with living under cruel, oppressive elites who could make their lives hell on a whim? They developed stories that were elaborate revenge fantasies. Outsourced to the Devil, because telling tales where the peasants themselves rose up against their […]

There was a period of a few months when we were RV traveling in the Southwest (years ago) where I would walk into the desert at night and just stand there. Scored lots of great reference photos. Wouldn’t do it now. . Sagebrush Vigil 16”x20” oil on canvas . Available

Also owned by Armscor one of the old dodgy apartheid weapon manufacturers. Haunted in multiple ways I guess.