# lovecraft ofdarkandmacabre cthulhu thegreatoldones mystery film gothicspring gothicbeauty superstitiology bookworms legendarywednesday bookchatweekly bookchatwekly ireland irish stpatricksday botd horror folklore art

Selkies were thought to be able to shapeshift into a human form every seven years.

The number seven frequently appears in Selkie mythology, as it was thought that their bodies housed condemned souls. Some believed them to be fallen angels.

🌊 A.M. Sartor

41 152
2023-04-01

The Japanese mermaid, the Ningyo, is much more fish-like than the European imagining, but with an extra caveat: its flesh gives those who eat it immortality. Yet this comes at an untold, often tragic price: will you pay it?

🖼️: P. Piereth

60 231
2023-03-31

"I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall" (Shakespeare)

Darklings!

Welcome to a salty, sea-serpentine

RTs between 10am-10pm CET

🎨 Hans Christiansen (1897)

14 62
2023-03-31

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn …

"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming".

The Call of Cthulhu
HP


2 11
2023-03-31

The Romans consulted the Sibylline Books during times of turmoil, for these Greek prophecies offered suggestions on how to navigate crises. In the 4th century the general Stilicho had them burned, for reasons unknown: the city of Rome soon fell.

7 15
2023-03-24

A rare book dealer is hired to find the last two copies of a text that holds the key to summoning the devil, and subsequently finds himself at the heart of paranormal events



The Ninth Gate, 1999
dir. Roman Polanski

11 85
2023-03-24

One of two drawings for a Savage's gondola, in the shape of a sea monster with gremlins on the front and back; undated, possibly late 19th century.

5 30
2023-03-18

Fate and prophecy are the dominion of the Morrigan, a warrior goddess associated with shapeshifting, crows, and death. She is her own singular goddess, yet also represents her and her sisters, a three-in-one yet one alone goddess.

🖼️: Mikadze

74 274
2023-03-18

"For when St. Patrick cast this serpent into the lake he bade him be chained to the rock till La-an-Luan (The Day of Judgment). But the serpent mistook the word, and thought the saint meant Luan, Monday" (Speranza Wilde)

🎨 Rackham

35 142
2023-03-17

The harp, symbol of is said to have been invented by the goddess of music, inspiration & dreams, Cana Cludhmor, after she realised the wind on a beach drifting through a whale’s skeleton created beautiful music.

225 857
2023-03-17

In Roman mythology it was said that the noble & white caladrius was a bird that lived in the king’s palace & could absorb & banish illness from a sick person ✨

12 106
2023-03-11


🖤🖤🖤

"... alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. "

James Joyce (1882-1941)

40 210
2023-03-10

You build a character, a shell, and if you build it right, something comes to live inside it.

~Elizabeth Hand, Illyria
art John William Waterhouse (1903)

28 127
2023-03-04

1863, author Arthur Machen; an influential figure in the development of fantasy and folk horror

described his tale The Great God Pan, as:

"Maybe the best [horror story] in the English language"


Stephen G. Rae

4 11
2023-03-04

"'The persistence of tradition never surprises me,' Ambrose went on after a pause. 'I could name many an English parish where such traditions as that girl had listened to in her childhood are still existent in occult but unabated vigour." (Arthur Machen)

22 91
2023-03-03

‘If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.’
—Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

🎨 John Tenniel

17 190
2023-02-25

On the Isle of Man, it was once tradition to leave water out at night for the fairies. Failure to do so would anger them, and they would drink the blood of those sleeping in the house instead.

Sometimes they would bake the blood into a cake.

23 118
2023-02-25


He is Obatala, an Orisa of the Yoruba (Nigeria, Benin, Togo). Drunk on palmwine, he created humans with disabilities and so is the patron of the disabled and people with genetic disorders or congenital defects. His devotees are forbidden palm-wine.
🎨: (?)

25 105
2023-02-25

The Carnival of Venice began in 1162 as a victory celebration. Over the centuries, it evolved into a Saturnalia style revelry where different classes of Venetian society could mix together behind the anonymity of masks.

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1759-1797)

17 58
2023-02-17

To sleep is to come close to death, a truth acknowledged as far back as the Greeks: Hypnos is the brother of Thanatos, making Sleep and Death twins. Both dwell in the Underworld in dark, lightless locales, though Hypnos also has an island up top.

🖼️: HanoOide

19 71
2023-02-11