# wales cwnannwn akreon rooster spirits lucky witches fridaythethirteenth

In Greek mythology it was said that poisonous wolfsbane (aconite) fell from the saliva of the three-headed dog Cerberus. Its name reflects its original use as poisoned wolf bait. It was also used to poison people and was associated with witchcraft.

🎨William Blake

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2022-06-03


In the howls of - the Hounds of Hell -
may be heard in the distance, but the quieter they become the nearer they are - sent to collect the souls of the damned
(image:

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2022-05-28

In Finland the jackdaws who lived in the church towers were seen as the omens of death. If the bird landed on roof of the house, it meant that somebody living in the house would die.

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2022-05-28

"Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.'" St. Peter's betrayal of Jesus was foreshadowed by the crowing of a "Prophetic Animals"

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2022-05-27

A witch is spotted in the shape of a hare sucking her neighbor's cows dry 🐇
"The hare started off at a brisk pace, squirting up the milk she had sucked from her mouth and nostrils, and the dogs making after her rapidly."

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2022-05-27

In the Korean legend “Sageumgap” the crow appears as a divine harbinger delivering the message that the king is about to be killed, saving his life. After this, the king designated an Ogiil (Crow Commemoration Day), observed with a ritual offering sticky rice.

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2022-05-27

Dogs scratching holes in the earth was looked upon by country folk as grave digging, & t'was believed that a neighbourhood death would soon follow. So great was the belief in this omen, that many would follow a dog to fill up the holes it had made.

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2022-05-27

In Wales premonitions of death included the Deryn Corph or Corpse Bird which might hover around a house or tap on the window of the room where a sick person lay, it sometimes called out “dewch, dewch!" (Come, come!).

🖼️: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

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2022-05-27


Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance
–W B Yeats, The Cat and the Moon.

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2022-05-27

According to an old Danish belief, a valravn is a bewitched man who is forced to live in the form of a raven.

For him, the only way to beak the curse is to drink the blood of an infant.

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2022-05-27

In one version, the Wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood into eating and drinking part of her grandmother by preparing it like regular meat and wine in the kitchen. A talking cat warns the girl what she's truly eating, but Red Riding Hood ignores the warning.

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2022-05-27

Donating your body to science could be involuntary. In late-18thC & 19thC Britain, “resurrectionists” or body snatching grave robbers illegally stole cadavers from graves for “anatomists” in medical schools & hospitals for a fee -medicine was never dull 😱

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2022-05-21

Medicinal preparations using bats asserts that bat’s blood can call evil can allow people to see in the dark, can make one invisible, make you in card games & gives the power “to do anything.”

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2022-05-21

Sir Kenelm Digby’s 17thc remedy for rapier wounds: a mix of earthworms, pigs' brains, iron oxide & mummified corpses. Digby claimed this “Powder of Sympathy” would heal the wound by sympathetic magic if applied to the blade that caused the damage
🎨NC Wyeth

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2022-05-20

According to Tacunium Sanitatis, leeks stimulate urination and influence coitus 🤔

🎨 from Tacunium of Vienna,

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2022-05-20

Radical herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper believed medicine was a public asset rather than a commercial secret & "no man deserved to starve to pay an insulting, insolent physician". In his opinion, examining "as much piss as the Thames might hold" didn't help diagnosis

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2022-05-20

"Then she got scared and wanted to throw the red shoes away, but they stuck fast, and she flung off her stockings but the shoes had grown onto her feet. Dance she did and dance she must, over fields and meadows..." Possessed 👠👠

🗨️H.C. Andersen
🎨 Adrienne Segur

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2022-05-14

In 'Vasilisa the Wise', Baba Yaga's servants appear as disembodied hands flying in midair. Vasilisa wants to question the nature of those hands, but her doll advises against it. Knowing too much about the underworld is dangerous and can "make one old too soon."

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2022-05-13

'Man Proposes, God Disposes' by Edwin Landseer depicts the aftermath of the doomed Franklin Arctic expedition. It is covered by a Union Flag during exams at Royal Holloway, Uni. of London, as students believe they will fail the exam or go mad if they look at it.

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2022-05-13


Is cursed? It’s frozen many in their tracks for the duration w/some giving its origins to the date Eve bit the 🍎👀
Still, others embrace this day, ruled by Venus (known for love, beauty & grace) & as a portal to change in one’s life.

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2022-05-13