# ofdarkandmacabre 31daysofhaunting gothtober cumbria michaelmas bookwormsat wbyeats jwwaterhouse fullmoon superstitionsaturday

To meet the Devil here, one placed a frog, caught under a full moon, in an anthill. It was then necessary to go to a crossroads where five roads met and, during the midnight bell, to invoke him. The Devil was then said to appear on one of the five roads.

6 29
2022-10-29

Scotland is rich in ghostly lore. It is said that the ghost of Lady Blanche Drummond haunts the halls of Castle Fraser. She was murdered in its Green Room in 1874. Its secret staircases & trap doors befit her spectral presence. Clad in a long gown, she haunts 😱#SuperstitionSat

20 82
2022-10-23

“... go stand by the gate of heaven till the Judgment Day..." (Lady Wilde)

Cursed the girl her dead lover, haunting her thrice, regretted it immediately, prayed she might be reunited with him, died within the year and found him waiting there

17 86
2022-10-23

In the lore of Zakarpattia, the restless souls seek help from the living.

The words “Every living breath praises the Lord” can help identify whether they are malicious or not: an evil specter will disappear, but a good one will respond “and so do I!”.

30 112
2022-10-22

In the Norman Bessin, sorcerers are known to transform people into black dogs and send them to the city of Bayeux as Rongeur d'Os, bone gnawers.

Seeing one means certain death.

🎨 Kastelkreuz

34 89
2022-10-16

Invisibility spell: Take a dead bat to a stream where you can't hear the rooster crow. Remove bat's skeleton and cast the bones in the stream. The bone floating upstream is the magic one. Place it under your tongue for invisibility 🦇 ✨


🎨 Jessica Roux

27 91
2022-10-15

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in S Jersey. It's described as a wyvern-like creature with a horse- or goat-like head, bat-like wings, horns, and a forked tail. 

6 29
2022-10-15

King Herla was invited to the marriage feast of the King of the Fae; upon leaving, his host gave him horses and a fine bloodhound, which sat on the saddlehorn. The fae king warned Herla not to dismount before the dog leapt down, or he would turn to dust... 1/2

4 21
2022-10-15

The natives of Renwick, Cumbria were once known as “bats” due to the monstrous creature that is said to have flown around their ruined church at night 🦇


art: Matthew Starbuck

6 13
2022-10-15

🐾🔥🐾"Looming over him and blotting out the mouth of the barrow, framed by the dim stain of light from distant towns and the miserable slate of the storm clouds, was an immense Black Dog."

📖Deeper Older Darker.

18 71
2022-10-15

The toxic wolfsbane plant was mixed with bait and used to kill wolves in the past. This association with wolves carried on into the future. It was both ingested to treat lycanthropy (many people died) and planted to repel werewolves.

🎨Kiriska

21 65
2022-10-02

Tying the wolf’s mouth was a spell once used by Anatolian communities to protect their missing sheep from wolf attacks. The blade of a knife would be closed and tied, with prayers told over it. This was thought incapacitate the jaws of wolves in the area. (1/2)

14 44
2022-10-01

A branch from the elder tree will protect one from the charms of witches & wizards...

11 42
2022-10-01

As well as carrying the devil’s curse on all those who eat them after on 29th September, blackberries can protect your home against vampires. If planted nearby, a vampire gets distracted by counting the berries & forgets his harmful intentions.

129 593
2022-09-24

‘Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.’
Montaigne, The Complete Essays.
🖼️ Hebe, Carolus-Duran.

10 68
2022-09-18

‘There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near.’
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Haunted Baronet and Others: Ghost Stories 1861-70.

36 116
2022-09-18

It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

'The Song of Wandering Aengus'


🖼️'Boreas',1903

31 104
2022-09-18


The Ghost light is a common ritual in Shakespeare theatre it originated from the curse of the Macbeth play, the ghost light is kept on in empty theaters to appease the ghosts.

10 39
2022-09-17

According to old Irish superstition, fairy queens gathered the most powerful magical herbs by the light of a candle held by a dead man’s hand under the full moon.

🎨 Carus

31 122
2022-09-10

A loom is a mythical object. Calypso's loom weaves forgetfulness so that Odysseus stays on her island. Fairy tale weavers & spinners turn straw into gold & when the Lady of Shalott falls in love with Lancelot & leaves her loom she brings a curse upon herself

7 15
2022-08-27