Tree brides

 

A pattern of marrying trees has been happening. In Mexico back in 2018, women who were dressed in traditional white wedding gowns married trees. This was part of an anti-logging campaign in an event called Marry A Tree as a protest against deforestation. Their love and devotion towards trees was strengthened by the symbol of marrying them. The idea inspired other women elsewhere to do the same. The notion itself, like a tree that takes root and branches out, flowering and growing. A woman in Merseyside, England, married an elder tree and her surname was changed to Elder. It was her love of trees that encouraged her to take part in Marry A Tree campaign in protest against building over woodlands. 

While this has been a movement to help trees, there has always been an old Hindu tradition of marrying trees in India. It's a ritual going way back since ancient Vedic times. It's believed that marrying a tree was a rare event done by those with a curse or "Manglik dosh", meaning people born under the influence of planet Mars and/or Saturn were believed to have uncomfortable futures. So to lift the curse, marrying a tree would help a person become freed from the dark astronomical influences. Actress and former Miss World named Aishwarya Rai (Ash) was born a Manglik, and she married a banana tree to lift the curse and be with the man she loved properly afterwards. 

Marrying trees for a number of reasons, from ancient spiritual beliefs to protesting has seen a global increase of tree brides this century. Does it help? It surely helps those who marry trees for whatever they believe in. 

She Wolf Night  

Saint Christopher a werewolf?

For this topic, I could not resist mentioning the curious figure of Saint Christopher. He's a well loved saint often found in art and in lockets, pictured as a bearded man depicted carrying a child across a river. Unknown to him, the child was really Jesus Christ. However, Saint Christopher is shown as always having the head of a dog in eastern Orthodox churches. Why is this? Was he really a sort of Dogman or a werewolf? The term for a dog headed looking human is Cynocephali. This is how many early Medieval art forms have made him out to be. It must be said that he was a warrior and a Canaanite, regarded as giant in stature, belonging to a race of humanoids with dog heads. Many early church art, show people of these dog headed features. 

More on Saint Christopher at Medievalist  

Posted by She Wolf Night 

Scientific view of werewolves

There are diseases that sparked off the legendary werewolf stories, according to medical science. The main cause of the amount of mass werewolf sightings in centuries past might be caused by a number of terrible diseases and pandemics. 

One of them is rabies. The legend of the werewolf causing a human being to become a werewolf through an attack or a bite, a telltale sign similar to how a rabies infection is passed from animal to human. Rabies is a lyssavirus (named after Lyssa, a spirit of rage in Greek mythology). The earliest  symptoms of rabies is anxiety, hallucinations, fever and vomiting. After a few days, the infected will become aggressive, paralyzed, foaming saliva, hydrophobia and hallucinating. Rabies is a fatal disease although it's treatable at the beginning stage. 

Another disease responsible for werewolf activity (and this also includes vampires too) is porphyria. The blood disorder that makes the person with porphyria to have really sensitive skin to sunlight. It has an effect on the nervous system, causing pain, nausea, weakness, paranoia, discoloured urine, high blood pressure and seizures.

Other known diseases that triggered off werewolf mania include psychosis, a mental illness that is properly termed as clinical lycanthropy. There is also congenital hypertrichosis lanuginosa, a genetic disorder that causes someone to grow a lot of hair. There are some poisons that cause hallucinations too. Ergotism might've been responsible for mass werewolf sightings in Europe during the Middle Ages. Ergot poisoning happens after eating infected grains and cereals in bread and porridge, that was mainly consumed by the peasantry. Such ergot poisoning played a part during the witchcraft events at Salem. Deadly nightshade was used a lot in ancient times, during rituals as a herb to assist with astral travel, and it caused a lot of hallucinations and visions. 

She Wolf Night team 

Legacy of the Kraken

Probably the most largest cryptid (an unknown creature in cryptozoology), is the Kraken. There is a rich amount of info of the Kraken so I will try and make this post short. 

Mythology

The Kraken has a massive place in Norse myths and legends. A sea monster, that looks like a giant octopus, which is supposed to live around Norway and Greenland. The Icelandic Örvar-Odds saga of the 13th century describes two massive creatures called Hafgufa ("Sea Mist") and Lyngbakr ("Heather Back"). The one called Hafgufa is a kraken that devours everything including whales, sharks, and men in ships. Some speculate this is a story by Vikings who encountered giant squids, although actual big squids remain in the deepest depths of the ocean. The work Konunga ("King's Mirror") is writing from about 1250, mentioned the characteristics of the kraken monsters.

Cryptozoology

The Kraken is considered a cryptid. It's believed there is evidence of this creature that is about a mile long. Since the 12th Century, the kraken has been responsible for causing hysteria and stories based on many disasters at sea. It could also be argued that there is a misunderstanding, because the krakens were regarded as whale-like and not octopus like. People think that the ongoing fear generated by krakens is because of undersea volcanoes making things appear as if a monster is rising up above the waves.

Legacy

The Kraken has been a part of fiction for a long time. From science fiction to fantasy novels to comics and films. It also appeared in the film "Clash of the Titans" based on Greek mythology although the Kraken is founded in Norse mythology, a cross-over. Also remember Cthulhu, a colossal godlike entity that looks like a Kraken, and is found in writings of H.P. Lovecraft. 

Everyday life

The Kraken is the name of a spiced rum from the Caribbean. It's also the name of a team in Ice Hockey from Seattle. Many groups, companies and brands based on the giant sea monster. 

Posted by She Wolf Night   

Dragonby dragon rock

There was a dragon that was turned to stone by a wizard, according to folklore. It's a rocky outcrop in the shape of a large dragon, found in North Lincolnshire not far from a village called Dragonby, named because of the dragon looking skeleton formation. While this has been thought to be a natural limestone rock that was revered by ancient pagans, some also think it's a ruined Dark Age church that was destroyed with people still inside and sunk into the ground. Local villagers have said they sometimes hear the eerie sounds of ghostly bells ringing at night that comes from the stone dragon. While the church story is very horrific, not everyone believes it ever happened. Many stick to the idea of the rock being a natural formation. School children prefer the legend of a wizard turning a dragon into stone and I like that story too.  

More on the Dragonby rock dragon 

She Wolf Night team