~Account I – From: The Complete Newgate Calendar~
SAWNEY BEANEAn incredible Monster who, with his Wife, lived by Murder and Cannibalism in a Cave. Executed at Leith with his whole Family in the Reign of James I Continue reading
Author: ratandraven
Grimm’s The Raven
There once was a Queen who had a little baby daughter, and one day the child was naughty and would not be quiet. Now, there were some ravens flying round and round the castle, and when the Queen saw them she opened the window, and said impatiently,
“I wish you were a raven–I might have a little peace then.”
She had scarcely spoken the words when the child changed into a raven, and flew from her arms, out through the window. It flew away to a dark wood, where it Continue reading
Featured Book: Chirologia
Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand
by John Bulwer
~1644~
Held in Gallaudet University Library’s Deaf Collections and Archives, this tome contains the fruit of Dr. John Bulwer’s studies of human gesture. Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand, is the precursor to sign language and Continue reading
The Cheat (Fable 55)
~Aesop, 1480~
A poor man, being very ill and getting worse, promised the gods to sacrifice to them one hundred oxen if they saved him from death. Continue reading
Of Adam
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” Continue reading
A Cold Moon
~Full Moon Rite~
“Wondrous Lady of the Moon
You who greets the dark with silvered kisses
Mistress of the night and all magicks,
who rides the clouds in blackened skies and spills light upon cold Earth.
Oh Lunar Goddess, Crescent one,
Shadow maker and shadow breaker,
Revealer of mysteries past and present,
All-wise Lunar Mother
Puller of seas and ruler of women,
I greet your celestial jewel at the waxing of its powers with a rite in Your honor
I pray by the moon .“
~Anonymous
Sanzuwu: a Totem
~Han Dynasty, China~
In Chinese legend, the Sanzuwu, or three-legged crow, is not a trickster or bad omen. He and his brothers were responsible for drawing the sun across the sky each day.
Featured Book: The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs
~Excerpts from The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs by Richard Alan Miller~
In psychology, ritual is considered the celebration of a myth, which is achieved through a carefully constructed enactment of the myth. Because ritual is the externalization of something internal, myth has a more archetypal than logical structure to it. Rituals reveal values at their most fundamental level. Man expresses in ritual what moves him most. Therefore: The symbol always originates on the inside and is projected outward.
Ex Libris: The Art of Possession
Bookplate of Charles Grave Hudson. Died 1813.
Ex libris, or bookplates, are placards inscribed with the name of a tome’s owner and affixed to the inside of its cover. Ex libris establish some amount of provenance — a clue into the history of a book’s possession. The art decorating bookplates is often heraldic, fantastic, ornate, and gorgeous. This collection is comprised mostly of plates created in Europe during the 17th & 18th centuries.
Gallery of Bones
Foetal Skeleton with Bow and Arrow, 17th century.
E W Robinson (drawing) – The Malay Archipelago, 1869
Holbein d. J.; Danse Macabre. XXXVII. The Pedlar
Willem Van Swanenburg Death and an Arrow About to Strike the Man Down, 1609.
Philip H. Wolfrom (American. Skeleton of a Primate
The Skeleton Re-Animated, Title Page to the Grave, a Poem by Robert Blair.
Rat & Raven 