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Still in his first game of hide and seek.

@a-balding-bigfoot

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Risu just sent me this and I am SO DELIGHTED

Ahhhhhhh!!! Go read it! Go read it!! The cording was plied by Neanderthals!!! The article talks about how we can’t keep thinking about them as being stupid it’s so delightful! In these trying times, let’s read about some joyful anthropological and archaeological discoveries!!!

Read it!  The fact that it’s plied is so exciting!  For plied cord, you first spin your fibers in one direction (they did it clockwise) and then take that collection of singles and twist them in the opposite direction (in this case counterclockwise).  So it’s a process that requires planning and experience.  You spin your first bit, you set it aside, you spin your second and third, you ply them.  You can’t do it all in one go.   And unless this piece happens to be the work of the very first person to spin fibers, and that person was a super genius who not only invented the idea of spinning but the technique for plying, it shows that the Neanderthals were communicating technological skills amongst each other.  Which I mean isn’t news in and of itself, but this is just one more piece of evidence.

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FERAL FROTHING IN FIBER ARTS THIS SHIT IS SO COOL

Holy shit this is incredible! The puts textile technology at 40,000 - 50,000 years old; the earliest previous evidence we had was 20,000 - 25,000 years.

And also, like the poster above said, this is evidence of *planning*. I was going into the article thinking “hmmm, extremely cool but probably thigh-spun two ply which is a single stage process…?” but no! This is three ply cord! I guess it might be possible to do thigh-spun three ply (be bloody tricky though which would be evidence of skill in itself), but more likely this was a highly skilled multi-stage process.

Holy shit.

“Given the ongoing revelations of Neanderthal art and technology, it is difficult to see how we can regard Neanderthals as anything other than the cognitive equals of modern humans.”
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god i love reading about stupid drama in ancient greece. like there was an athlete named theagenes who was so good at every kind of athletic contest that when he died, one of his opponents would go to beat the shit out of a statue of him out of spite, but then one day the statue fell on the guy and killed him so the greeks took the statue to court for murder, convicted it, and threw it into the sea

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actually i left out the best part of this story which is that a plague then struck and when people consulted the oracle at delphi she was like "well you've pissed of theagenes" so they had to go dig the statue back up out of the fucking water

This is also why the Hanshin Tigers had an 18 year losing streak in Japanese Baseball

"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.”

We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

This is not an exhaustive list of ways to get jump started but these are a few of my favorites! Enjoy c:

*insert gif that says ‘bet you thought you’d seen the last of me*

welp…I’m back at it again. The og post got some notes recently and I was inspired to make a part two so here’s that. I’m tempted to make a part three so keep an eye out.

Part 3! Five more ways to combat writers block. Hope these are helpful. Part 4 is coming soon:)

Fourth and (probably, maybe, possibly) final installment to the Writers Block Hacks! I hope y’all are seeing these and enjoying them. I’d love to hear if you are.

Every artist who sees this post should do the following:

- Watch the video.

- Follow the instructions

- Reblog

I can’t stress you enough about how important these exercises are for your drawing hand. You don’t wanna get CTS of Tendonitis and similar stuff that will prevent you from making art or even hold  a pencil.

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Okay, this guy is my HERO. I just did these exercises as I watched the video, and already my arms and hands feel better. I have a degenerative tendon disease that prevents my muscles, tendons and ligaments from retaining their elasticity, and so anything that maintains the health of my bendy parts is important.

I URGE YOU. Even if you don’t draw, do these several times a day. Even just sitting at a computer can do serious damage. My dad, who was a rugby player, a carpenter, and now a handyman, suffered from severe carpal tunnel syndrome, simply as a result of sitting at the computer at the end of the day to play a little solitaire. Don’t let it happen to you!

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ask-xion

((Guys, I will reblog this like, 5 times a day just so you all will see this. This is REALLY helpful, and it’s quick and easy.))

Wow, these are REALLY helpful. And yes, this is not just good but IMPORTANT for more than artists — if you type a lot, play a lot of video games, do anything that requires lots of repetitive movements of your hands, wrists, and arms (gardening, sewing, factory work), these can help. Even if you don’t yet get pain these are a great preventative measure, because the damage builds up over time. Youth is no protection.

And like he says, you should feel a stretch, but don’t push it too far!

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squigglydigg

Signal boosting.  Guys, I just did this and holy cow do I feel incredibly light and limber in my arms.  Again, even if you don’t have any sort of disease, do this as a preventative measure.

“oh we can’t hold the Queen accountable for the actions of her ancestors!!!” 

her ancestors? you mean her dad? 

y’all realize she was crowned in 1953 right? Nearly 70 years of imperialism with her face stamped on it. She’s the longest-lived, and longest reigning British monarch. 

Y’all look at her and see a kindly withered old gramma with memeability, but completely ignore the amount of damage that she and her family have done to so many countries. 

“oh well, what did you want her to do, just walk away from it?”

yes. 

Yes, I do expect people to look at the harm that systems they uphold do to the world at large and then actively refuse to continue their participation in them. I do not believe that is too much to ask of anyone, let alone one of the most powerful women in the entire fucking world. 

Sorry that I’m not particularly impressed with her #girlboss legacy when the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and Australia are still feeling the monarchy’s effects on their homes and families. 

70 years and she never once thought, “Hm, maybe imperialism is a bad idea?” 

I hope the old woman kicks the bucket, and I hope that her family continues to disintegrate until the entire thing comes crumbling down. May independence finally come to the people England has been crushing under its boots for centuries. 

Also, it’s not even her dad, the Mau Mau Rebellion and the “Malayan Emergency” both ended in like 1960. The British Empire, that she was the head of at the time, used concentration camps to deal with both.

And while this isn’t is bad as crimes against humanity, she has also been directly interfering in the drafting of our laws for years we recently found out and then were expected to forget.

What about Northern Ireland, where British soldiers were killing children and civilians in her name?

Yeah, so many horrible things done in her name, under her watch, I forget them all ffs

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borinquenaqueer

All of this! Ireland, Scotland, India, Canada, Australia, and so so many others have suffered under the British Empire.

Bruh this bitch was the queen when Nigeria and a bunch of other countries decolonized. Jamaica JUST decided to get her face off they money.

during the time queen elizabeth has ruled (1953 onwards), she directly colonized the following countries:

  • Sudan (finished fighting for independence in 1956)
  • Ghana (finished fighting for independence in 1957)
  • Malaysia (finished fighting for independence in 1957)
  • Singapore (finished fighting for independence in 1959)
  • Cyprus (finished fighting for independence in 1960)
  • Nigeria (finished fighting for independence in 1960)
  • Somaliland (finished fighting for independence in 1960)
  • Tanzania (finished fighting for independence in 1961)
  • Cameroon (finished fighting for independence in 1961)
  • Kuwait (finished fighting for independence in 1961)
  • Sierra Leone (finished fighting for independence in 1961)
  • Jamaica (finished fighting for independence in 1962)
  • Trinidad and Tobago (finished fighting for independence in 1962)
  • Uganda (finished fighting for independence in 1962)
  • Kenya (finished fighting for independence in 1963)
  • Malawi (finished fighting for independence in 1964)
  • Malta (finished fighting for independence in 1964)
  • Zambia (finished fighting for independence in 1964)
  • Gambia (finished fighting for independence in 1965)
  • Maldives (finished fighting for independence in 1965)
  • Barbados (finished fighting for independence in 1966)
  • Botswana (finished fighting for independence in 1966)
  • Guyana (finished fighting for independence in 1966)
  • Lesotho (finished fighting for independence in 1966)
  • Yemen (finished fighting for independence in 1967)
  • Eswatini (finished fighting for independence in 1968)
  • Mauritius (finished fighting for independence in 1968)
  • Nauru (finished fighting for independence in 1968)
  • Fiji (finished fighting for independence in 1970)
  • Tonga (finished fighting for independence in 1970)
  • Bahrain (finished fighting for independence in 1971)
  • Qatar (finished fighting for independence in 1971)
  • United Arab Emirates (finished fighting for independence in 1971)
  • the Bahamas (finished fighting for independence in 1973)
  • Grenada (finished fighting for independence in 1974)
  • Seichelle (finished fighting for independence in 1976)
  • Brunica (finished fighting for independence in 1978)
  • Solomon Islands (finished fighting for independence in 1978)
  • Tuvalu (finished fighting for independence in 1978)
  • Kiribati (finished fighting for independence in 1979)
  • Saint Vincent and the Bernardines (finished fighting for independence in 1979)
  • Saint Lucia (finished fighting for independence in 1979)
  • Vanuatu (finished fighting for independence in 1980)
  • Zimbabwe (finished fighting for independence in 1980)
  • Antigua and Barbuda (finished fighting for independence in 1981)
  • British Barbudas (finished fighting for independence in 1981)
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis (finished fighting for independence in 1983)
  • Brunei (finished fighting for independence in 1984)
  • Hong Kong (“given” to China in 1997)
  • Anguilla (still a colony)
  • Bermuda (still a colony)
  • British Antarctic Territory (still a colony)
  • British Indian Ocean Territory (still a colony)
  • British Virgin Islands (still a colony)
  • Cayman Islands (still a colony)
  • Falkland Islands (still a colony)
  • Gibraltar (still a colony)
  • Montserrat (still a colony)
  • Pitcain, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno islands (still a colony)
  • Saint Helena (still a colony)
  • Ascension Island (still a colony)
  • Tristan da Cunha (still a colony)
  • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (still a colony)
  • Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (still a colony)
  • Turks and Caicos Islands (still a colony)

as well, of course, as Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which are still a part of the British kingdom, although i am unsure whether the people in them consider their countries to be colonies

so, yeah. “ancestors” my ass

and that’s not mentioning that none of these countries ever got reparations and all of them (as well as pretty much any other third world country) are still victims of british imperialism

Colonization and the first birth pangs of capitalism and the supremacy of ‘private property’ really gained mass institutional legitimacy with ‘enclosure’ or seizing of common land and privatizing it. The queen is the owner of and continues to profit from most of the lands and resources that were expropriated from the people by Inclosure Acts.

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anarcblr

Who’s got the Connolly quote?

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I don’t have that one, but I’ve always got Gerrard Winstanley on deck.

“The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land.“

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septimuscrime

“We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.” -James Connolly, Visit of King George V (1910)

[ID: a screenshot from the Crown Estate Wikipedia page that says: The Crown Estate is one of the largest property managers in the United Kingdom, administering property worth £14.1 billion, with urban properties valued at £9.1 billion representing the majority of the estate by value. These include many properties in central London, but the estate also controls 7,920 km2 of agricultural land and forest and more than half of the UK’s foreshore, and retains various other traditional holdings and rights, including Ascot Racecourse and Windsor Great Park. While Windsor Home Park is also part of the Crown Estate, occupied royal palaces, such as Windsor Castle itself, are not part of the Crown Estate, but are managed through the Royal Household. Naturally occurring gold and silver in the UK, collectively known as “Mines Royal”, are managed by the Crown Estate and leased to mining operators. End ID]

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That list leaves out a bunch of countries that are still colonies, like Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Their Indigenous peoples were systematically torn down and now get told to just accept that they “lost the war” and they should just accept that and let us white folks do whatever we want with their countries now. In Australia, the Aboriginal People weren’t even legally considered PEOPLE until the 1970s. In Canada and New Zealand the First Nations and Maori were also having their children stolen and fostered or adopted into “good”, white, Christian families in an INCREDIBLY successful attempt at wiping out their cultures and breaking their spirits, a tactic the English have been using for centuries. The last Residential School in Canada (those ones you were hearing about before the news cycle got bored with it that they keep finding hundreds of children buried under) closed down in the mid-1990s. The youngest victims of these schools aren’t even 30 yet. In New Zealand, as late as the 1990s, I was being taught, in public school sitting next to Maori students, that the British colonizers did the “cannibalistic Maori Savages” a FAVOUR by bringing them CIVILIZATION because their shitty shitty environment didn’t provide them with easy access to metal ores so they “never got out of the stone age”. Don’t let the most successful British Colonial campaigns be forgotten here. She still rules over them too, and forgetting them is exactly what she would like you to do.

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Also don’t forget the Queen still has the most staggeringly, openly racist hiring policy for her personal servants of any known institution in the industrialized world. Want to work at Buckingham Palace? Better have white skin. Like. Of course it’s not official policy because they know how gross it would sound. But there was records leaked about this in the year of our lord 2020 to show the royal preference is still firmly against having people of color on staff.

And also, a favorite tidbit of mine, as a matter of non-constitutional law (because Britain never bothered to draw up a constitution to grow out of the dark ages by the standard Westphalian nation model, did you know), Elizabeth personally owns something like 1/3 of the land of this planet.

But on the other hand she used secret gemstone sign language to signal her  disapproval to president Trump like two whole times and go fuck yourself your grace.

When evaluating whether Lizzie Windsor ought to be the queen, and whether there should be a monarch at all, it’s sometimes helpful to imagine that there isn’t one, and someone has proposed the creation of it. Say the British Empire never existed and someone is suggesting that all of this power, land, money and property be immediately seized from the people and handed to you, a single person; say they want to put your face on the stamps and the coins and the banknotes and give you every power and privilege attendant to the role, up to and including the ability to dismiss the democratically elected heads of state of Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Say they want to do all this, and ask yourself if there is any moral possibility of your accepting these gifts of injustice. When you refuse; when you realise that the only moral use of such a power is in dismantling itself so thoroughly that it would be extremely difficult to ever build it again, I would like you to remember that this is the choice that Mrs. Windsor is faced with every morning over breakfast. She personally could end this injustice with the stroke of a pen, but chooses constantly instead to maintain it.

Also, regarding the Connolly quote mentioned by @anarcblr & given by @septimuscrime, the full text is as follows: Fellow-Workers,

As you are aware from reading the daily and weekly newspapers, we are about to be blessed with a visit from King George V.

Knowing from previous experience of Royal Visits, as well as from the Coronation orgies of the past few weeks, that the occasion will be utilised to make propaganda on behalf of royalty and aristocracy against the oncoming forces of democracy and National freedom, we desire to place before you some few reasons why you should unanimously refuse to countenance this visit, or to recognise it by your presence at its attendant processions or demonstrations. We appeal to you as workers, speaking to workers, whether your work be that of the brain or of the hand – manual or mental toil – it is of you and your children we are thinking; it is your cause we wish to safeguard and foster.

The future of the working class requires that all political and social positions should be open to all men and women; that all privileges of birth or wealth be abolished, and that every man or woman born into this land should have an equal opportunity to attain to the proudest position in the land. The Socialist demands that the only birthright necessary to qualify for public office should be the birthright of our common humanity.

Believing as we do that there is nothing on earth more sacred than humanity, we deny all allegiance to this institution of royalty, and hence we can only regard the visit of the King as adding fresh fuel to the fire of hatred with which we regard the plundering institutions of which he is the representative. Let the capitalist and landlord class flock to exalt him; he is theirs; in him they see embodied the idea of caste and class; they glorify him and exalt his importance that they might familiarise the public mind with the conception of political inequality, knowing well that a people mentally poisoned by the adulation of royalty can never attain to that spirit of self-reliant democracy necessary for the attainment of social freedom. The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings – capitalist kings of the workshop, the mill, the railway, the ships and the docks. Thus coronation and king’s visits are by our astute neversleeping masters made into huge Imperialist propagandist campaigns in favour of political and social schemes against democracy. But if our masters and rulers are sleepless in their schemes against us, so we, rebels against their rule, must never sleep in our appeal to our fellows to maintain as publicly our belief in the dignity of our class – in the ultimate sovereignty of those who labour.

What is monarchy? From whence does it derive its sanction? What has been its gift to humanity? Monarchy is a survival of the tyranny imposed by the hand of greed and treachery upon the human race in the darkest and most ignorant days of our history. It derives its only sanction from the sword of the marauder, and the helplessness of the producer, and its gifts to humanity are unknown, save as they can be measured in the pernicious examples of triumphant and shameless iniquities.

Every class in society save royalty, and especially British royalty, has through some of its members contributed something to the elevation of the race. But neither in science, nor in art, nor in literature, nor in exploration, nor in mechanical invention, nor in humanising of laws, nor in any sphere of human activity has a representative of British royalty helped forward the moral, intellectual or material improvement of mankind. But that royal family has opposed every forward move, fought every reform, persecuted every patriot, and intrigued against every good cause. Slandering every friend of the people, it has befriended every oppressor. Eulogised today by misguided clerics, it has been notorious in history for the revolting nature of its crimes. Murder, treachery, adultery, incest, theft, perjury – every crime known to man has been committed by some one or other of the race of monarchs from whom King George is proud to trace his descent.

“His blood Has crept through scoundrels since the flood.”

We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.

Fellow-workers, stand by the dignity of your class. All these parading royalties, all this insolent aristocracy, all these grovelling, dirt-eating capitalist traitors, all these are but signs of disease in any social state – diseases which a royal visit brings to a head and spews in all its nastiness before our horrified eyes. But as the recognition of the disease is the first stage towards its cure, so that we may rid our social state of its political and social diseases, we must recognise the elements of corruption. Hence, in bringing them all together and exposing their unity, even a royal visit may help us to understand and understanding, help us to know how to destroy the royal, aristocratic and capitalistic classes who live upon our labour. Their workshops, their lands, their mills, their factories, their ships, their railways must be voted into our hands who alone use them, public ownership must take the place of capitalist ownership, social democracy replace political and social inequality, the sovereignty of labour must supersede and destroy the sovereignty of birth and the monarchy of capitalism.

Ours be the task to enlighten the ignorant among our class, to dissipate and destroy the political and social superstitions of the enslaved masses and to hasten the coming day when, in the words of Joseph Brenan, the fearless patriot of ’48, all the world will maintain

“The Right Divine of Labour To be first of earthly things; That the Thinker and the Worker Are Manhood’s only Kings.”

Mama Bree's Magical Powders

Finally, all my powder recipes in one place! Go nuts, witchlings.

For those of you who may not be able to find herbs locally, here are some online suppliers who consistently have affordable and high-quality products.

  • Ruth Roy’s Wellcat Herbs - A highly reputable seller with quality herbs, teas, incense, and botanicals. Also runs a booth every year at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. (*HIGHLY RECOMMEND*)
  • Starwest Botanicals - Bulk herbs, spices, oils, and teas. Good amount of organic and Fair Trade products, as well as supplies for holistic medicine and tea-making.
  • Mountain Rose Herbs - Bulk herbs, spices, and sundries. Also carries organic products and essential oils, and has link to schools that offer courses in herbalism and herbology.
  • The Magickal Cat - Online shop with just about everything you could want for your craft, from herbs to books to cauldrons, and everything in between. Reliable shipping and excellent customer service.
  • Bulk Apothecary - Bulk herbs, spices, and oils, in addition to materials for the home production of soap, candles, wine, and beer.

For more online resources and information on herb magic and spells, check out my website here.

The website is now defunct, but you can find all of my other recipes in  Pestlework: A Book of Magical Powders & Oils. Available on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊

for the ficlets thingy, I don’t remember any of your fic titles, but I’d like to request something trans please. no other preferences

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So I started this when you sent this in back in January, but I mentioned then that it’d taken on a life of its own. It kind of ... failed at being a ficlet.

I finally finished it this month, and got it betaed by @lokibus. It wound up being about 13,400, which is why it’s taken longer than I intended. My original thought was to write a timestamp for The First Choice, but it rapidly became its own thing.

The quick blurb for this is

In which Jaskier and Geralt make a convenient arrangement to make the Path more pleasant, where absolutely no feelings are involved. Also contains: trans man Geralt, porn with feelings, mutual pining; rated E.

Fascinated to find out if I can actually post nearly 13.5k in response to an ask, but let's find out together. You can also read this fic on AO3.

🗡

Something That I’m Not

Geralt knows that his body is not what people expect when he undresses. Even if he were human, he would probably take few lovers. Since he’s a witcher, there are so few who would consider him a worthy partner for that alone that he doesn’t bother to seek anyone out. In the winters when he returns to Kaer Morhen, he and his brothers take their comfort from each other when need arises. When he’s on the Path, and the itch rises beneath his skin, when he feels like he needs a soft touch or he will go mad, he seeks out professional company. Any quean open-minded enough to entertain a witcher likely won’t be unkind about the contents of his breeches. Occasionally even that proves false, and he takes his leave, poorer and unsatisfied.

for the ficlets thingy, I don’t remember any of your fic titles, but I’d like to request something trans please. no other preferences

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So I started this when you sent this in back in January, but I mentioned then that it’d taken on a life of its own. It kind of ... failed at being a ficlet.

I finally finished it this month, and got it betaed by @lokibus. It wound up being about 13,400, which is why it’s taken longer than I intended. My original thought was to write a timestamp for The First Choice, but it rapidly became its own thing.

The quick blurb for this is

In which Jaskier and Geralt make a convenient arrangement to make the Path more pleasant, where absolutely no feelings are involved. Also contains: trans man Geralt, porn with feelings, mutual pining; rated E.

Fascinated to find out if I can actually post nearly 13.5k in response to an ask, but let's find out together. You can also read this fic on AO3.

🗡

Something That I’m Not

Geralt knows that his body is not what people expect when he undresses. Even if he were human, he would probably take few lovers. Since he’s a witcher, there are so few who would consider him a worthy partner for that alone that he doesn’t bother to seek anyone out. In the winters when he returns to Kaer Morhen, he and his brothers take their comfort from each other when need arises. When he’s on the Path, and the itch rises beneath his skin, when he feels like he needs a soft touch or he will go mad, he seeks out professional company. Any quean open-minded enough to entertain a witcher likely won’t be unkind about the contents of his breeches. Occasionally even that proves false, and he takes his leave, poorer and unsatisfied.

Hey since I haven’t been active in forever, who wants to hear a story about how I became a local cryptid in my town?

Alright lets do this.

So I live in a small neighborhood kinda thing. Its honestly shaped like someone connected two bongs with a straw that leads out to the street, so very tiny and not a lot of people drive through cause its a dead end, and surrounded by woods Anyways, so it’s Saturday morning, like 3 am and my sister has taken her behemoth of a dog outside. 

Little background, this dog is a saint bernard, lab mix, so he big. Hes also amazingly stupid. He’s only three and we got him a year ago so he still does stupid shit all the time. Anyways hes got a long lead line on him, probably 30 ft, so hes off doing whatever and my sister is kinda dazed, still sleepy. 

Homeboy fucking TAKES OFF and runs into the woods behind my house, taking that lead with him and a good chunk of my sisters palm skin. Whatever he’s chasing has speed, and hes keeping up with it. So I run outside cause shes screaming his name and start to take off after him. I thought that mother fucker would get caught on a tree due to the lead but nope was I wrong. Now the woods probably go a mile back before they hit road, and then stretch around 5 miles horizontally. 

I’m worried this dumb dog is gonna run into the street and get hit, so I run the mile to the street (with my very out of shape body. I honestly thought I was going to die). After like 15 minutes of tripping and trying to make my way through this damn jungle, I get to the street. At this point I still look a human so nothing happens, I dont see him anywhere, and I run back to the house cause I’ve realized I’m in a tank top and boxer shorts with no shoes and its tick season. So I change into a big ass sweatshirt and sweat pants and boots even though its almost 90 degrees out because I do not want to have to deal with ticks. 

After chugging some water I take back off, this time going horizontally. I caught sight of something running so I took off, yelling my brains out, managing to sprain my ankle and rip half my hair outta my ponytail in the process. Around a mile down I lose sight of it so I turn and hike the mile back to the street just to make sure it didn’t go that way. 

After that I go back to my house, and then return to the spot where i last saw him and continue walking till I’m like 2 ½ miles away.

So my trip so far has been 

1 mile to street > 1 mile home > 1 mile horizontally > 1 mile to street > 2 miles home > 2 ½ miles horizontally

So I’m about ready to die. I’m covering in blood from smashing my arm, one of my eyes has turned red cause a stick poked it, I’ve got a limp, I’m breathing like a dragon with asthma, and I’m covering in leaves and sticks. 

I start yelling his name again and hear a bark in the distance so I take off and after like 5 minutes I spot him. He is now howling like a banshee in distress. I book it towards his dumb ass and practically tackle him, which ended up with me covered in a random assortment of shit. Cool, whatever. His leash is tied around two trees so I unravel it and he pounces on me in relief. He’s salivating like crazy so I take him to a stream near by to let him drink.

Mother fucker pulls me in. I’m too tired to be pissed. At this point now that I’m calming down I realize my boots are now soaking wet with both blood and water. I’ve got several scars on my thigh and they all got ripped open. So I’m gushing blood like no tomorrow. I soak my jacket in water and put it on this stupid dog so he wont get burnt on the way back and itll be a bit cooler. So now he looks even bigger then usual. I take my shoes off and toss them over my neck and we’re about to start the trek back when he takes off AGAIN. This time I’m holding the leash and I do not let go. He ends up slipping on a mud bank and taking me with him. With are now covered head to toe in mud, shit, dirt, blood, and whatever the hell else is in those woods.

Some how he has ended up with no major wounds, but now I have a rock lodged in my forehead and blood in my eyes. And my shoes are gone. Whatever, I just want to get home. I pick a direction and walk until I end up in the back yard of someone who lives down the street. 

Lucky for me, this person has barbed wire in their back yard on the ground for some reason, which I trip on. Now I have barbed wire practically wrapped around me like some crazy fashion statement. I wanted to get home so bad I didn’t even bother to rip it off. I’d do that later and return it to the guy or whatever. 

So now its like 6am, so its dark, but you can still see, and its dead quiet. I pull my sisters dog along with me, holding his collar so he can’t take off again. So heres me, covered in blood, mud, and barbed wire, limping down the street, no shoes on, with a large dog wearing a jacket, which, from a distance, you cant tell. Now I smell like whatever was in those woods, and it is a strong smell, so as I walk by any house with a dog outside, that dog starts barking. Eventually the quiet is replaced with dogs howling, barking, snarling at me.  I eventually make it back to my house, but not before passing a dude getting his newspaper or whatever. He’s a good distance away from me and he hesitantly calls out asking if I’m okay. I respond with “yeah” but I’ve been yelling for like 3 hours straight so it comes out as ungodly rasp. He goes right the fuck back in his house. 

I get home, get cleaned up, get the dog cleaned up, and everythings fine. UNTIL a couple nights later my mom goes to a neighborhood meeting thing and hears an interesting story. 

Turns out, there had been a black bear in the woods near my house, which people had been keeping an eye out for, but instead they saw (what they thought) was a “humanoid figure covered in spikes dragging a bear covered in blood around by its neck”

For the next few weeks people were talking about how they heard the “horrific screeching” and how there was blood all down the streets and on the trees. The dude who asked if I was okay was telling everybody that the “thing” growled at him and he could see it had blood red eyes. 

So now theres a rumor about a demon with razor sharp tendrils who feeds on wild animals by slashing them open and drinking their blood. Rumor states that you’ll hear it before you see it, and the sound it makes sounds like a howl and a scream. People later found my boots covered in blood and said it was a “victim” of the demon. A week later a house that was being built caught fire and that was blamed on me, as well as an accident where someone swerved to avoid something and crashed through a house. The stream turned blood red after some heavy rainfall, which was due to the mud, but also blamed on me and some more screeching was heard for a couple nights (coyotes most likely). Due to people “spotting” the demon (which was either their imagination or the actual bear) the rumor grew and grew so now its famous in my neighborhood. 

So yeah thats how I became a “bear killing demon” in my neighborhood. I never corrected anyone because I was too embarrassed. 

@gallusrostromegalus this story is honestly on par with some of yours

THIS IS FANTASTIC. I’M SO PROUD OF YOU.

Alright, since my post got more than 50 notes, I guess I'll lay down my list of ideas for content on my future Cryptozoology YouTube Channel.

(Note that, the last thing I would describe myself as is an expert on the subject, simply someone with an enthusiastic interest and a keen ear for nonsense)

  • Firstly, I would like to make videos discussing my opinions on certain Cryptids and their viability. I have a lot of theories on Cryptids, such as the Loch Ness Monster or Jersey Devil, in regards to whether or not they could exist and what sorts of events would have had to unfold to allow for them to be what we see in reports.
  • I also would like to do analysis on different videos and help others to discern hoaxery and what you should and shouldn't expect from potentially authentic recordings of Cryptids.
  • Additionally, as a sort of way to fill gaps between more research heavy videos, I would like to do readings of stories (fictitious or otherwise) just as some simple fun.

Beyond that, I'm open to ideas for what other sorts of content you would like to see should I decide to go through with this.

I will have to warn you, I am very limited in terms of recording equipment. And by limited, I mean I have a phone...

That's it.

Just a audio recording app. No video because I certainly don't have a remotely presentable location to record from. That might be changing in the future though and I plan to open a Patreon once I'm actually making content. I doubt anyone would be donating before then and I wouldn't feel right about taking anyone's money anyway if they haven't gotten anything for it, ya'know?

Anyway, I'm getting to the point of rambling, so I'll simply say Thank You to everyone who has decided to follow this blog or like my previous posts. You're very much appreciated.

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please it is not much to ask yet here we still are

the big people are as tall as the trees, that’s why they think those are giants

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tbh if that was their reasoning, I’d have expected them to have highlighted the tree instead of the child, the edit the conspiracists made is quite the direct juxtaposition between small child (”human”) and regular adult (”giant”). But the minds of conspiracy theorists are a wild place lmao.

As a bonus bit of knowledge, Sumerian art conventions, like the Egyptian ones, weren’t overly concerned with perfect relative height of everything that was portrayed. You can see this convention in e.g. Egyptian reliefs when wives are portrayed as much smaller than their husbands, sometimes even smaller than children. This is called aspective (which is not a complete lack of perspective, but a different method of portraying the world that is nonetheless realistic), and has both to do with symbolism (e.g. more important figures are portrayed as larger) as well as constraints of the medium (e.g. small register space).

But! it’s also actually quite possible for date palms to actually be that size, depending on their age:

A man in a bright orange polo with blue sleeves standing next to a date palm. His head reaches about halfway the palm’s crown of fronds.

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I want more villains who care about their henchmen. I wanna see the bad guy fly into a rage because the hero hurt their very favorite bungling goon and it was nearly his birthday.

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"how dare you fail me you miserable oafs!!" should be retired. "How DARE they bully my adorable oafs!!!" should be industry standard.

Underlings having to hold back their dark lord like an overprotective parent because they don't really want a famous hero to get outright murdered just on their behalf.

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I had to draw something

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@dovewithscales You with some of your followers and/or mutuals

From now on you’re all minions instead of followers.

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Ma'am you still have not tricked me into falling into your traps, I belong to myself and only myself thank you very much :P

I will however accept being a pet.

You sure? The minions are unionized.

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Minion implies I have to do work. Pet means I get pampered.

Soooo....

Pets can do work

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"can" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence

but pets also often get embarrassing things done to them for their owner's entertainment

That's true...

Does it come with healthcare and a 401k? Dental? I have a lot of teeth.... and eyes. Going to need a vision plan....

I firmly believe all my minions (and everyone else) should have free access to quality healthcare.

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Emphasis on "should," oh friendly fae derg?

No emphasis on "should" at all because I don't want to draw attention to that word choice.

In this drawing tutorial you’ll learn how to draw faces.

I’ll show you 3 methods without drawing circles, how to draw symmetrically, how to quickly find proportions and draw different faces each time.

You’ll learn timesaving shortcuts to draw faces and will be able to draw men, women and all human races. 

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Alp

The alp is a Germanic incubus or nightmare that presses the chest of the sleeper. Originally it was a kind of elf and perhaps was not always seen so malignantly. The alp usually afflicts women, entering them via their breath like a snake or tendril of mist so that it may ‘feed on their dreams.’ Some alps like to bring sexual dreams and others nightmares, or mixtures of both. It is significant to note that children may become an alp if a mother needs to use a horse collar to ease the pain during a long childbirth. Also, a child born with a caul or hair on the palms may become an alp. If a woman who is pregnant is frightened by an animal, the child may be born an alp. Stillborn infants are also suspected to return from the grave as alps and torment their family. It was therefore believed that an alp could be the Double of a human being.

Awenyddion

Gerald of Wales provides us with the only record of the Awenyddion :

Among the Welsh there are certain individuals called Awenyddion who behave as if they are possessed... When you consult them about some problem, they immediately go into a trance and lose control of their senses... They do not answer the question put to them in a logical way. Words stream from their mouths, incoherently and apparently meaningless and lacking any sense at all, but all the same well expressed: and if you listen carefully to what they say you will receive the solution to your problem. When it is all over, they will recover from their trance, as if they were ordinary people waking from a heavy sleep, but you have to give them a good shake before they regain control of themselves... and when they do return to their senses they can remember nothing of what they have said in the interval... They seem to receive this gift of divination through visions which they see in their dreams. Some of them have the impression that honey or sugary milk is being smeared on their mouths; others say that a sheet of paper with words written on it is pressed against their lips. As soon as they are roused from their trance and have come round from their prophesying, that is what they say has happened...

Although this account was gathering in the Middle Ages this notion of an ecstatic shamanistic practice linked with poetry and inspiration (what the Welsh called the Awen) continues up until this seventeenth century account that has much in common with the material here termed ‘witchcraft.’ Like the Awenyddion the poet in question has Awen enter him through the mouth, but this time via a fetch-beast sent to him by a male familiar spirit. This account of the descent of Awen in the form of a hawk is given in a letter to the 17th century antiquary, John Aubrey, from the Welsh poet, Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), who writes:

As to the later Bards, who were no such men, but had a society and some rules and orders among themselves, and several sorts of measures and a kind of lyric poetry, which are all set down exactly in the learned John David Rhees, or Rhesus his Welsh or British grammar, you shall have there, in the later end of his book, a most curious account of them. This vein of poetry they call Awen, which in their language signifies as much as Raptus, or a poetic furore; and in truth as many of them as I have conversed with are, as I may say, gifted or inspired with it. I was told by a very sober and knowing person (now dead) that in his time there was a young lad fatherless and motherless, and so very poor that he was forced to beg; but at last was taken up by a rich man that kept a great stock of sheep upon the mountains not far off from the place where I now dwell, who clothed him and sent him into the mountains to keep his sheep. There in summer time, following the sheep and looking to their lambs, he fell into a deep sleep, in which he dreamed that he saw a beautiful young man with a garland of green leaves upon his head and a hawk upon his fist, with a quiver full of arrows at his back, coming towards him (whistling several measures or tunes all the way) and at last let the hawk fly at him, which he dreamed got into his mouth and inward parts, and suddenly awaked in a great fear and consternation, but possessed with such a vein, or gift of poetry, that he left the sheep and went about the Country, making songs upon all occasions, and came to be the most famous Bard in all the Country in his time.

Beansidhe and Cyhiraeth

A beansidhe is a female spirit of Irish origin primarily known for wailing as an omen of death. The word essentially means: ‘woman from the mound’ and points toward the Underworldly origin of these creatures. A cyhiraeth is a very closely related Welsh spirit that does the same thing. Both spirits are known to appear as hags at times, or as ‘washer at the ford’ figures, washing the shroud of the one who is about to die. These spirits were probably originally a female ancestor or member of the venerated dead, because they tend to be attached to families and only appear when it is time for a member of that family to go over to the Otherness.

Benandanti or ‘Good Walker’

Benandanti are a type of ecstatic human who lead a double life as a spirit, in this double existence they fought enemy witches for the benefit of their community and its harvest. They involuntarily left their bodies on the Ember Days (very close to the four fire festivals often practiced in witchcraft today) or on Thursdays. Their flights usually began at the age of eighteen and persisted until they were forty. The term and phenomenon is Italian but the prevalence elsewhere of ‘white witches’ and cunning men who specialised in countermagic or protection from witches in many other parts of Europe, Great Britain and the Appalachian Mountains of America, suggests that such a notion might have been more wide-spread initially.

Changeling

A changeling is a faerie that has been exchanged for a mortal child. We need to understand this in the same way we understood the ‘change’ of the werewolf. Whilst today we would see the same baby lying in the cot and say that only its behaviour had changed, in the past a switch was seen to have occurred. Often these children would go on to have something very wrong with them or even die. Some were considered simple, some were never satiated by human food, others grew up to be relatively normal, but this was usually the exception rather than the rule. Exactly why faeries were in the habit of exchanging their children for human children is not clear, but it points to an interpenetration and process of exchange with the Otherworld than we commonly no longer perceive today.

Donas de Fuera

A name for faeries in Sicily and also for the women who associated with them. No actual distinction was drawn in their language between the women of faerie and the ostensibly human individuals who joined them in their company. It was believed that through joining them on their rides and for their feasting that good luck and abundance would henceforth rain down on your community, as though they acted as a kind of diplomatic envoy from the human village. The faerie people insisted on there being no mentions of Christ or the Virgin Mary and provided sexual partners to humans.

Faerie/Fae

These Siths or Fairies they call Sleagh Maith or the Good People...are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure .

The word ‘faerie’ like ‘witch’ has become such a general blanket term that one must make clear what one means by it. A great scope of beings are known as ‘faerie’ with hell hounds even being described as ‘faerie dogs’. But when we use it in relation to witches and sorcery it more often relates to the Shining Court. I do this for disambiguation, because other more ‘infernal’ types of faeries came to be known in later times simply as ‘devils’ or ‘demons’ or by more specific names like ‘goblin.’ Most ‘faerie- seers’ or ‘faerie-doctors’ or ‘magicians’ behave in a way that is usually benevolent to mankind. I say ‘usually’ with great emphasis as we are here dealing with a greatly unpredictable entity. And one should also not fall to believing the Christian notion that anything that appears ‘dark’ or comes from below the earth is necessarily not benevolent, for that matter. Instead one should limit one’s assumptions when it comes to encountering Otherworldly beings!

For practical dealing with them it should be noted that the realm of Faerie seems to thrive on contradiction and ambiguity. They love twilight and between times. Stale bread is considered a defence against them and yet bread is often an offering to them. Faeries prefer reciprocation or remembrance of a good deed rather than ‘thanks.’ They may take offence to being thanked. They also do not like to be given money as a gift or payment for their benevolent behaviour. Iron is a kind of poison to them and most Faeries enjoy milk.

Faerie Seer or Doctor

A faerie-seer or doctor was an individual who interacted with the realm of faerie and ‘doctored’ or healed with their assistance. Bessie Dunlop essentially acted as one, though she was tried as a witch. But generally speaking the phenomena was best known in Ireland and Sicily. In Ireland up until the nineteenth century there were still ‘faerie- doctors’. Sicily also boasts an entire set of trials known as the ‘Sicilian Fairy Trials’ that centred around the prosecution of individuals who interacted with faerie. Notable, faerie-based crimes were also on the list of heresies Joan of Arc was charged with. In many cases the ‘faerie-doctor ’ or ‘faerie- magician’ was actually believed to be faerie themselves, either through having been a changeling or in some other unspecified manner, or simply was ‘marked by the faeries.’ This is one of the many examples here were the line is blurred between humans and Otherworldly beings.

Lady Wilde described a faerie-seer one who lived in Innis Sark:—

He never touched beer, spirits, or meat in all his life, but has lived entirely on bread, fruit and vegetables. A man who knew him thus describes him—Winter and summer his dress is the same—merely a flannel shirt and coat. He will pay his share at a feast, but neither eats nor drinks of the food and drink set before him. He speaks no English, and never could be made to learn the English tongue, though he says it might be used with great effect to curse one’s enemy. He holds a burial-ground sacred, and would not carry away so much as a leaf of ivy from a grave. And he maintains that the people are right to keep to their ancient usages, such as never to dig a grave on a Monday, and to carry the coffin three times round the grave, following the course of the sun, for then the dead rest in peace.

Furious Horde

Otherwise known as the Wild Hunt this procession of the dead is usually led by a ‘Lord of the Dead’ figure. In Wales it was Gwyn ap Nudd, sometimes described as ‘king of the goblins’, or in Germanic areas Odin. Some regions maintained the archaic remnant of a female led infernal procession. Others had both a male and a female leader of the Hunt. The female led hunts were something which many women tried as ‘witches’ admitted to having participated in. This is another example where mythic entities, the dead, and the Doubles of human witches rubbed shoulders in a way that suggested no fundamental barrier between the dead, Otherworldly beings and living witches.

Ganconagh or ‘love talker ’

These male faerie creatures were known for seducing young women, and are probably a survival of older lore about a woman’s fetch-mate. They were usually first perceived by the girl through a hole in a wall or a hole in a holy stone (an established way of viewing the faerie realm). It is said that he showed the young woman a world of such beauty and wonder that when he left she would simply pine away. Though some Scottish matrons have it that not all such young girls are affected in this way, some go out and ‘make something of their life’ on account of it. This sounds very much like a form of passage of inspiration, though it is not as clear because women historically didn’t have the same opportunities to express inspiration as men. This may make the Ganconagh the masculine equivalent of the Leannan Sidhe , both are dangerous but potentially give rewards. The Ganconagh is associated with smoking a pipe while leaning on a wall or, like the poet’s Awengiving spirit, with making a tuneful whistling as he comes.

Ghost Seers

The women who were sometimes considered ‘female benandanti’ were able to see the dead. Their role seems to have lain in prediction of death and interceding with the dead on behalf of the living. Sometimes they also attended feasts with the dead or instructed others in how to offer to the dead. The ghost seer ’s presence in the village ensured that the dead were kept happy and appeased and therefore that things would go right in the community.

A woman named Anna La Rossa is a good example of such seers of the dead. She made a living through plying her ability to talk with those that had passed over, but this skill involved ecstasy like other forms of witchcraft. It came up in her trial that:

this woman used to be called by her husband many times at night… and even though he elbowed her vigorously, it as if she was dead, because she would say that the spirit had set out on a journey and thus the body was as though dead.’ When Anna was out on such sojourns she said that she learned secrets from the dead that she dare not repeat on threat of being beaten with sorghum by them. A female leader who appeared as a nocturnal goddess usually led the processions of the dead that these ghost seers took part in during ecstasy.

Incubus and Succubus

The incubus and succubus were understood as male and female sexually predatory demons. But it seems likely that a great deal of different entities could have easily had their lore find its way under this heading. As with the title ‘witch’ any entity that engaged in sex with a mortal witch could easily be termed an ‘incubus or succubus.’ The incubi or succubae were believed to drain their victim’s vitality through sexual intercourse and the stealing of the breath. There is far too much lore on the topic to suggest that the element of predation was only invented by the church, it seems clear that this vampiric practice would at times occur. All powers associated with the world of the dead are depicted as being hungry for the vital-force of the living even if only at certain times of the year, and if it is not given as an offering some powers have been known to take it by force and leave blight behind. This being said, the fetch-mate of a witch, a spirit that chooses to unite sexually with them for mutual benefit can often perform a power exchange of types with the human in question. An example of this can be seen under ‘Leannan Sidhe.’

Leannan Sidhe

Leannan Sidhe lore is a valuable source of information about reciprocal power exchange between a human and a spirit lover. Whilst the Leannan Sidhe is, like the succubus, guilty of draining off the life-force of her human lover, she (or perhaps also at times he) gives in return the fire of inspiration. Whilst this may at times shorten a poet or artist’s life span it is inarguably a kind of exchange rather than a straightforward predation. Some of the spirits that we tend to call the blanket term ‘fetch-mates’ in modern Traditional Witchcraft may belong to this category. Please see the chapter on the fetch-mate for more information.

Lidérc

The Lidérc was a creature of Hungarian origin that came in a few different forms. One of them was like an imp, hatched out of the egg of a black hen. But the other more anthropomorphic form bears similarities with the succubus or incubus. It appeared to a woman as a man with horse’s hooves and sometimes wings. This form of the Lidérc flies at night, appearing as a fiery light, a will o’ the wisp, or even as a bird of fire. It was also believed that sometimes the Lidérc could be the Double of a human practitioner travelling in animal form or part animal form.

Malandanti

‘Malandanti ’ is an Italian word that essentially covers what we think of when we say ‘black witch’ or a practitioner of maleficium. Had Isobel Gowdie been born in Italy there is a good chance she’d have been known as a ‘malandanti’ rather than just ‘witch.’ Like the benandanti the malandanti were compelled to be as they were, though less information seems to have been collected about how they were marked out and in what manner they were compelled. Whilst the benandanti fought with fennel, they fought with or rode on sorghum, something that has a traditional association with the dead, as we can see from Anna La Rossa’s account above. Like the post-witchcraft-trials image of the witch in general, malandant i blighted crops, fouled the wine in its kegs, caused infertility and soured milk. In other words they were envoys of a world ‘in reverse’, of the back-to-front world of the dead.

Mara

The original ‘night mare’ a very widespread concept with variants such as: Mara/Mare/Mahr/Mora/rina/Zmora/Zmora/ Morava, in different countries throughout Europe. Even as far as Wales there is a ‘spirit of death’ figure attested to in folklore known as ‘Margan’ who may be related to the Mara-complex. These terms all most likely derive from the Indo-European root word * Moros (death). This feminine entity arguable had more impact on the development of the image of the ‘witch’ than any other creature. A ‘mara’ may be either a spirit or may be incarnated as a living human. As Eva Pocs puts it: ‘All the peoples of Europe are acquainted with mora creatures that appear exclusively as dead souls – as returning souls – but generally it is clear that the dead moras are the dead variants of those who were mora creatures during their lifetimes.’

The features of the Mora creature vary from place to place, but all are able to send their Double into other people’s dwellings, sometimes as an animal or simply as mist. In Slavic countries they are also known as Nocnica or ‘night women’ or a ‘striges’. They sit on the chest and oppress the sleeper, perhaps draining his vital force or ‘riding’ the sleeper. She was somewhat like a female alp and like the alp a human woman could easily be accused of being a ‘mare’. The figure of the ‘night woman’ or ‘mare’ is of course where we derive the term ‘nightmare’.

Eva Pocs believes that this spirit known for ‘riding’ the sleeper was the original of the malevolent witch figure and we can see several other features that mora creatures have in common with the later ‘witch’, for instance, an injury to the animal form or Double will injure the mora. Additionally it was believed that mora-creatures could float on water and not sink. It is this earlier belief that led to the practice of ‘swimming’ witches to see if they were sink and thus prove themselves innocent.

Mazzeri

The mazzeri is a Corsican phenomenon. Like the benandanti and malandanti the mazzeri was also experienced spiritual compulsion. They would turn into a kind of beast, usually something like a black dog and would hunt out those fated to die. If they killed the Double of someone in the Otherworld the person’s physical body would soon die here on earth. There is some suggestion that something like the mazzeri may have originally been more widely spread. In Wales where the ‘ cwn annwn ’ or hellhounds were a very important part of folklore the pack of hounds seems to be responsible for rounding up the dead. But there is a different type of hound in Welsh mythology that travels alone. This large black beast, unlike the pack animals, actually stalks and pursues those who are doomed to die, there is even suggestion that like the mazzeri this solitary hell-hound might have played an active rather than just a predictive role in delivering the message of Fate. As Marie Trevelyan explains in her Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales:

Sometimes they [solitary spirit dogs] were known to go in pursuit of people who were doomed to die with twelve months from one of the processional nights. Then they went quietly, stealthily… They were seen but not heard as they ran quickly from room to room… in pursuit of their victim. It was stated that on certain occasions the spirits [Doubles] of those pursued people were seen running out into the night followed by the hideous hound.

The main difference between this Welsh spirit dog and the mazzeri, is that the mazzeri was explicitly known to also live in the form of a human male or female who had a second skin in the form of a dog.

The mazzeri tended to believe that they were carrying out a fateful edict rather than simply killing people. In their communities they were considered useful because they were often able to warn people of impending death. Their very existence hints at the way human ‘witches’ have been called upon to aid in Otherworldly processes and how we human witches often form necessary ‘points of interaction’ between this world and the next. Through us certain tensions are discharged, through us certain hungers are appeased, through us certain Fate messages are passed along. In it all the human witch, whether faerie-doctor or mazzeri or even malandanti is simply ‘marked’ and has little choice but to perform this function on behalf of greater powers. There is evidence, however, that the experienced ecstatic could come to influence how and upon whom they performed their function, which we will come to later.

Revenant

To understand the revenant one must already understand what we have said about the corporeal nature of the soul. Lecouteux’s work on revenants in The Return of the Dead has done a great deal to correct our understanding of the potential of ghosts. A ‘revenant’ is usually a kind of ghost that has failed to complete a crucial life transition, and thus still has a great deal of vital force untapped. This vital force allows the second skin to continue to live on after death. It may even prevent the physical body from decaying for a while, as it uses it as its base from which to conduct its new life. Revenants are able to be seen and to affect their environment in certain ways. The only way to get rid of one is via the body, it must either be dismembered in some way or moved too far away that it is unable to travel back to its home because revenants find it difficult or impossible to stray too far from their body.

Snake Man

A Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian phenomenon the zmajevit covek , snake-men or snake-magicians, were born with cauls that looked like snakeskins over their faces or even literal snakeskin over them. Many were said in addition to their reptilian characteristics to have secret wings, usually of an eagle. These allowed them to participate in supernatural flight. When a storm with hail in it was approaching they fell into trances and fought fiery battles using lightning against darker, watery serpents that brought destructive storms.[16] There is some evidence that this phenomenon might have once been wider spread, as Welsh folklore contains a lot of information about snake-people and also about sightings of winged serpents.

Táltos

The Hungarian táltos could be either male or female, but were more often than not, men. They were born with more bones than the unusual, like six fingers (altogether 11 or 12 fingers) or already-grown-in teeth or a long head of hair. Táltos were believed to be ‘born knowing’ having been tutored in their future role in the pre-natal phase by spirits or gods. They did not need to learn how to perform their role. At some point they would meet the ‘táltos horse’ that only they would be able to ride, and thus they would learn to fly through the skies in the Otherworld.

Erzsébet Balázsi, a táltos , was accused of being a witch. The court asked her to explain the role of táltos . She said: the táltos cures, sees buried treasures with the naked eye, and ‘the táltos are fighting for Hungary in heaven’. So it is clear to see from this that the benevolent role of the táltos makes it similar to the benandanti , though the táltos was marked by precociousness and more extreme physical differences. When the táltos did battle with enemy practitioners they would usually turn into a stallion, a bull or a ball of flame.

Were Beasts

Folklore provides us with examples of other ‘were’ people that were known for transforming into animals other than wolves, and where this tendency was even believed to be in the family. In Wales there were believed to be a ‘fox clan’ whose members had red-hair who would turn their Skin to their fox form at the Midsummer Solstice and the Midwinter one.

There were also people who were known for turning into snakes. These traditions must hark back to the days when families would share the same animalform or pass it on to their children. The ‘purpose’ of these transformations seems to have been to allow the individual to partake of the powers of that animal, such as the cunning of the fox, but whether there was more to their function, as with the werewolf, this is for the time being unknown.

Werewolves

Werewolves underwent a great transformation at the hands of the witch-hunter. The information coming to us directly from men who claimed to be werewolves depicts their role entirely differently than the diabolical image we have been led to believe. The famous werewolf Thiess, insisted at some length in his trial that werewolves are not evil, they did in fact go down into Hell to steal back the grains and other needfuls that the people of the Underworld (with the help of witches) had stolen from the world above. But Thiess is not the only example of the ‘benevolent’ werewolf.

In the mid-sixteenth century an anecdote about a young man of Riga was recorded. He had suddenly fallen prostrate during a banquet and one of the onlookers had been able to immediately tell that he was a werewolf. The next day the youth related that he had fought a ‘witch’ who had been flying around as a red-hot butterfly. Werewolves apparently boasted that they kept bad witches away.

This being said, whilst the werewolf believed they were the ‘hounds of god’ who defended the community they did so by going outside of it. They shed their human clothes and identity and went out past the barriers of things. They became the animal that was most feared by the community inside the hedge for it’s ability to predate on humans. Even the term ‘wolf ’ in Saxon times referred to an outlaw, one who had been cast out and had lost the sanctified status of those things within the defined walled or hedged area of the communities allotment. As such the figure of the werewolf was one of ultimate ambiguity, one of a man forced to come very close to the raw and wild forces of the Outside and to face the challenge of reigning them to utilise for the good.

It is noted by Eva Pocs that the dates that were traditional for werewolf transformation were also times traditional for the return of the dead. She notes: ‘They also have close relationships with the returning dead and where thought to become active during the periods of the festivals of the dead. Dead, demonic werewolves can also be seen as guardians that attack or protect their tribes.’ In this way the werewolf is much like a male version of the moracreature, in that is seems to start its career as a human who transforms into a wolf and to return later as a dead spirit as well, and thus gain an association with the dead. Like all of the dead this returning wolf may be either helpful or baneful depending on how it has been treated and appeased.

Witch

As we have stated above ‘witch’ is an infinitely complex word. It is, essentially a blanket term that was thrown over all manner of ecstatic and magical practitioners. And yet by blanketing in this manner a new reality was created. It is noteworthy that some benandanti actually refused to name the ‘witches’ or malandanti that they fought against. Although they were enemies the concept of Fate allows us to see both their actions as necessary parts of a whole. Those like Isobel Gowdie who dealt death have been shown to behave, as Emma Wilby has shown, like ‘a Fate.’ Whilst the word ‘witch’ was usually used by some of the types of ecstatics we’ve mentioned here to denote an enemy, we have seen from the entry on werewolves how subjective the positioning of ‘outside the hedge’ can be. Regardless of whether one means harm or help the very fact of crossing the hedge makes the ecstatic an outsider in some way.

Some societies were flexible enough to have institutions in place to either embrace or tolerate such aberrance. But regardless of what a benandanti might like to think about himself or a werewolf might claim about his actions today’s society, as with the Christian world of the past, does not have such a place in its bosom for those born to experience ecstatic episodes and bring back Otherworldly materials. For this reason the word ‘witch’ with all its connotations of the outside, the back to front and even the sinister, can still be meaningful to a wide range of modern ecstatic practitioners.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie refers to female spirits of Norse origin, the word means ‘chooser of the slain’. Unlike the Irish beansidhe or the Welsh cyhiraeth the valkyrie actually chooses who is to die in battle. In this way the valkyrie performs a function between the worlds that is more like the mazzeri , in that they actually deliver the blow of the Fate. Like the valkyrie the mazzeri was sometimes also a ‘chooser of the slain’, being able to occasionally direct the blow of Fate away from a loved one and onto some other unfortunate. The interesting difference here is that the valkyrie was explicitly an Otherworldly woman, whereas the mazzeri was also a mortal woman or man.

This being said the valkyrie did interact with this world in more ways than carrying off the slain, as they were sometimes known to be the lovers of mortal men. They are also listed among ‘harmful female spirits’ in prayers of protection, where they find their way in beside ‘haegtessa’ or ‘hedge-riders’ another term for witch. Here we see further evidence of the hazy space between the spirit-doings of the human participant and those of non- human Others.

Vampire

The original idea behind ‘vampire’ was a particular kind of witch possessing ‘two hearts’ a human one and that of a ‘demonic’ intelligence. In some places werewolves were also considered to be ‘two hearted’ in this manner. Both creatures could be identified by extra sets of teeth. During life this person might fly in spirit and feed on the vital force of others and cause milk to sour and crops to fail like the typical ‘black witch’ or malandanti . But after death, like an alp or mara, if such a person was not properly disposed of they may create a revenant and become a blood- seeking member of the living dead. In other areas they were believed to strictly be undead creatures. A vast number of entities of all types could be considered ‘vampiric’, including the succubus and incubus.”

A Deed Without a Name:

Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft

Chapter 6: ‘The Bestiary
by Lee Morgan