Burying His Toes in the Sand: A Strange Funeral A complicated tale of premonitions of death, amputation, uncanny prophecy–and a cure for corns.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
June 2, 2015
in Folklore , Fortean Mysteries , Grim and Grewsome , medical oddities , News , Occultism/Magic , Prophecies , Scientific Oddities , Victorian
and tagged amputation , banshee , Burying His Toes in the Sand: A Strange Funeral , corns , Island of Jersey , miniature coffin , paring corns , phantom limb , premonition , prophecy , prophetic dreams , St Brelade , St. Aubin's , toes
In 1893 a new religious leader arose in Kentucky: Mother Betty Taylor, who claimed to resurrect the dead.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
May 2, 2015
in Death , Fortean Mysteries , Grim and Grewsome , Interesting People , medical oddities , News , Occultism/Magic , religion , Social History , Spiritualism , Strange Lives , Victorian
and tagged Betty Taylor , Kentucky history , Mother Taylor , Power Society , raising the dead , religious cults , religious enthusiasm , Spiritualism , Voodoo
A Suffolk witch story from 1877, involving a spell meant to be cast on a man, but transfered to his wife, who suffered for years under the bewitchment. In a series of ill-spelt letters, the witch confesses and suggests a transfer of the spell to its rightful owner.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
March 24, 2015
in Ephemera , Folklore , Fortean Mysteries , medical oddities , News , Occultism/Magic , Poltergeists , Prophecies , Scientific Oddities , Social History , Strange Lives , Victorian , Witches
and tagged cunning woman , curses , fasting woman , folk magic , lay a spite , spells , Suffolk witchcraft , wise woman
The narrative of a clergyman of the Church of England who exorcised a man haunted by an unearthly creature; what he believed to be an “unclean spirit.”
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
March 21, 2015
in Fortean Mysteries , Grim and Grewsome , News , Occultism/Magic , religion , Social History , Strange Lives , Victorian
and tagged Church of England , demonic possession , exorcism , Oxford Movement , possession
Friday the 13th Celebrations with the Thirteen Club Mrs Daffodil explains about celebrating Friday the 13th with The Thirteen Club.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
February 13, 2015
in Death , Ephemera , Folklore , Grim and Grewsome , News , Occultism/Magic , Prophecies , Social History , Strange Deaths , Victorian
and tagged Friday the 13th , Friday the 13th Celebrations with the Thirteen Club , Happy Friday the 13th , superstition , The Thirteen Club
In this Valentine’s week, let us take the pulse of early 20th-century witchcraft and look at the power of the heart in enchantments. The hearts of lambs, moles, and humans–all had mystic powers.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
February 10, 2015
in Death , Folklore , Grim and Grewsome , medical oddities , News , Occultism/Magic , Strange Lives , vampires , Victorian , Witches , Wonders and Curiosities
and tagged bewitching , consumption , German witchcraft , hearts , hearts pierced with pins , Italian witchcraft , lamb's heart , mole's heart , New England vampires , tuberculosis cures , vampirism , white sickness , witchcraft
An account of an elaborate magic mirror apparatus by the Master of the Dime Novel–but was it just a figment of his fertile imagination?
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
January 15, 2015
in Crime , News , Occultism/Magic , Psychic Research , Spiritualism , Strange Lives , Victorian , Wonders and Curiosities
and tagged hoaxes , magic mirror , Ned Buntline , New York underworld , Spiritualism , spiritualist fraud
Occult Science and Oats: A Canadian Witch Trial In 1920 Canada, a young woman is sentenced to jail for being a practicing witch when she helped to solve a theft with the aid of the “spirits.”
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
November 25, 2014
in Ephemera , News , Occultism/Magic , Prophecies , Spiritualism , Witches
and tagged Canadian witchcraft , Maggie Pollock , Occult Science and Oats: A Canadian Witch Trial , witchcraft , witchcraft trials , witches , witches in Canada
A recent discovery of a “witch bottle,” reminded me of one of the most bewitching of witch artifacts: the “witch wreath” or the “crown of feathers.” Found inside beds and pillows, these circlets of feathers appear most often in Appalachian and German folklore, both as an omen of death or bewitchment and also as a token of salvation, something which I suspect is a later belief grafted onto an essentially malevolent sign.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
November 18, 2014
in Death , Folklore , Fortean Mysteries , News , Occultism/Magic , Scientific Oddities , Social History , Strange Deaths , Witches , Wonders and Curiosities
and tagged crowns of feathers , death tokens , feather crowns , feather wreaths , witch wreaths , witchcraft , wreaths of feathers
A German professor came up with an unusual theory about where the Devil got his face. The Stuarts are blamed once again.
Posted by
Chris Woodyard
on
September 13, 2014
in Fairies and Elemental Spirits , Folklore , News , Occultism/Magic , religion , Social History
and tagged Charles I , devil iconography , Emil Ludwig Schmidt , House of Stuart , mephistopheles , Satan , the devil