In Jamaica’s past, one would make a slit in the leaves of a Leaf of Life plant and place them above a door of their lover’s house. If the slits budded, it meant that their lover was faithful. The ones that didn’t bud indicated the number of times their lover cheated.
According to the Goetia, Stolas is a great prince of Hell, commander of 26 demonic legions. He can appear as an owl, raven, or man. Stolas teaches mortals astronomy, and is knowledgeable of the various virtues of precious stones, as well as herbs and other plants.
🎨 Louis Le Breton
Brigid is associated with blacksmiths, spring, and cattle, among other things, and stories like blinding herself to repel men's unwanted attention. The three-armed cross here represents both the triple goddess and the trinity. Lá Fhéile Bríde shona daoibh 🌸
Drawing of Brigid in greyscale, holding a three-armed cross, with a drawing of a flaming anvil over one shoulder and a drawing of horns and flowers over the other one.
From thunder gods to serpent slayers, scholars are reconstructing myths that vanished millennia ago. How much further can we go—and what might we find?
(. . .)
This is the core problem for seekers of ur-myths: they lack the names, formulas, and fossilized phrases that make Indo-European studies persuasive. People across continents might link rainbows with snakes, or see rabbits on the moon, or cast foxes, jackals, and coyotes as tricksters. But without recurring lines of verse, without epithets worn smooth by generations, the search for a universal key risks a Casaubonian fate: grand in vision, romantic in intent, and ultimately thwarted by the bounds of what can be known.
Epiphany is time for my #linocut of Perchta, also known as Frau Perchta or Berchta (or Bertha in English), a figure from Alpine folklore, who visits during the 12 days of Christmas. Her name may come from “the bright one” or the German word for the feast of the Epiphany and her history is linked to white robbed goddesses like Holda who oversaw spinning and weaving or the goddess Frigg and she emerged from Germanic and 🧵
My linocut card of Perchta in pale blue on white agains a background of birch trees. She is illustrated like a playing card with two versions: right side up young and beautiful, with crown, fur coat and holding a flame in her hand and upside down a terrifying crone in a hood with a knife. Text at the top reads “Happy Holidays” and at the bottom “Perchta.”
A photo of six portrait-format paintings placed on a wooden desk and surrounded by leaves, a paint brush, hag stones, and palo santo. The paintings feature, from left to right, top to bottom: A hazy green autumn forest with amulets hanging off the bare trees; a dark shadowy figure under an old bridge in a deep, bluish forest; a high cairn in an autumnal wetland, planks leading away from it across the water; the dark silhouette of a giant horned figure, visible above a misty mountain forest; a mossy bridge with dappled might on it in a dark conifer forest, a small stream leading towards the background; a huge, diamond-shaped hagstone on a nighttime grassy field, showing through its hole a sunset scene.
##BookologyThursday#Celtic: As #Midir kissed #Étain, memory flooded back to her, and she remembered her earlier life as Midir’s beloved. Together, they flew away through the skylight at Tara in the form of swans, joined by a golden chain.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
Midir an Etain by STEPHEN REID, 9 They rose up in the air, public domain
A new 2025 print for #artAdventCalendar with a winter solstice story. In the Gaelic mythology of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, the divine old woman, or hag, created the landscape itself and the storms and weather of winter. Known by many names, she is the Cailleach (literally the old woman or hag) or Cailleach Bhéarra in Ireland, she is Cailleach Bheurra, or The Hag of Beara or Beira, 🧵 #linocut#printmaking#folklore#folktale#Cailleach#winter#Beira#WinterSolstice#mastoArt
My Lino block print on 8” x 10” Japanese paper shows a blue-black frame with Celtic knot in each corner with the words “The Cailleach” at the top and “Beira Queen of Winter” at the bottom in lettering inspired by Gothic Celtic letters. Inside the frame is my illustration of the Old Hag, the Cailleach marching across the rocky, hilly landscape in a winter storm in two shades of blue. She wears a cloak and great plaid and has her staff in her right hand and her hammer in the left. She has blue skin and copper coloured teeth and grimaces in the wind indicated by swirling lines. There is snow falling and the land behind her is inspired by the Hag’s Head geologic feature named for her.
For #ArtAdventCalendar Day 21 our winter solstice: This is a linocut with collaged Japanese washi papers of a procession of Kolędnicy, or Kolęda carollers through the woods to honour the sun at Winter Solstice. The tradition, also known as Koliada or kolędowanie, dates to pre-Christian times but is now become associated with Christmas and usually celebrated Christmas Eve to Epiphany. 🧵
This is my linocut print with collaged Japanese washi papers of a procession of Kolędnicy, or Kolęda carollers through the woods to honour the sun at Winter Solstice. This print is inspired by Polish festivals but there are different versions of this across a wider region. Groups of carollers go singing from house to house with a homemade star on a pole held high and in several traditional costumes. This group in a boy in long coat holding a colourful star lantern on a pole, a devil, a turón, a bear and a crane. In Polish folklore, the Turoń, which is the black, horned and shaggy animal with a flopping jaw is common at folk events including Kolęda, in times of Carnival and before Lent begins. The name comes from the word tur, meaning aurochs, an extinct ancestor of modern cattle. Carolling with the star on a pole was called “gwiazdory." Each print is 9.25" by 12.5" on Japanese washi paper with collaged paper for colours.
Preparations for the New Year in Japan begin on December 13th, 'Shōgatsu-goto Hajime' (正月事始め).
Pine decorations are cut or bought ('matsu-mukae' 松迎え) and the house is cleaned from top to bottom ('susu-harai' すす払い).
One rather odd custom at Shōgatsu-goto Hajime fell to men with the same zodiac animal sign as that current year's. They were responsible for collecting pine branches for New Year decorations (松迎え) from mountains positioned in that year's determined lucky direction. #folklore
Today is #MonkeyDay so here’s my Sun Wukong the Monkey King, hero of Chinese folklore (and throughout Asia) as well as the 16th century novel by Wu Cheng’en, ‘Journey to the West’.
Before embarking on his humorous epic adventure (and ultimately helping to recover Buddhist sutras) this irrepressible character was born from a stone, becomes a King of monkeys, acquires immortality through 🧵
My linocut print of Sun Wukong or Monkey. In my print Monkey is helping himself to those Peaches of Immortality. The block is printed by hand in dark brown ink onto lovely 8”x 10” pearlescent paper in a golden cream colour, with collages washi (chine-collé) papers for his blue jacket, orange striped tiger skin pants, red striped phoenix feathers and peaches (pale orange fruit with green leaves).
📌 https://www.ciaraioch.com/artprints is now taking Christmas orders for prints, cards, and vouchers - each archival-quality print on heavy textured art paper is made in Ireland, ships internationally in eco-friendly packaging with discount tracked postage, has the option of including a hand-written gift note in old Irish style lettering, and comes with a FREE card and extra treats for every customer 🎁 Please support artists instead of billionaires this Christmas!
The selkie is a creature from Irish, Faroese and Scottish folklore who has the appearance of a seal in water, but sheds its skin to come ashore and reveal their human form. If someone finds the skin and hides it, the selkie cannot return to the sea. 🦭
A sketchbook page opened to a drawing of a raven's skull with the words "Quoth the raven" written underneath, the entire thing rendered in pencil. The sketchbook is being held resting on the artist's lap as she sits on a park bench, with a scattering of yellow orange autumn leaves visible on the ground, creating a frame around the sketchbook page.
Another #introduction, as our previous incarnation on EFDSS's trial folksocial.org migrated to BlueSky losing everything (OK, we'd only made a dozen posts). Our ancient annual #EastKent#folktradition of #hoodening involves visiting houses (mainly public houses, i.e. pubs!) the week before Christmas/Solstice with our #hoodenhorse, performing a short humorous play (written new each year) and a song or two (is #folkmusic right? it's often a parody of a recent pop song). Then we sing community carols and collect donations in our nosebag. For the last sixty years this has been for a local charity rather than ourselves. Everything you wanted to know about #hoodenhorses and #guising (and related #folkcustom or #folklore topics, e.g. #MariLwyd, #wassail) but never dared ask is - probably - contained in hoodening.org.uk, and the #OzaruBooks publications shown there. 🐴
A photo of our team of #hoodeners in around 1919: a molly (man dressed as a woman), musician in flowery costume, boy (who would ride the horse), wagoner, farm hand, and #hoodenhorse (wooden horse's head on a pole with a snapping jaw, operated by a stooped man hidden underneath by sackcloth).
Pic Of the day: Olympus trip 35 and Konica 100 film. First kids are starting to come by for St. Maarten (the Dutch trick or treat equivalent, where children go door to door with lanterns to sing a song and get candy). #BelieveInFilm#FilmPhotography#folklore#SintMaarten
A Japanese red and white paper lantern brightly lit a dark blue sky. Some snow covered te branches in the background.