Dragon sightings?

On the 23rd April is St. George's Day, the name of a famous dragon slayer of legend. It's celebrated in many countries and is the patron saint of England, Portugal, Catalonia, Venice and Ethiopia. Many people sought the protection of St George over the centuries during bad miserable times. 

During WWI, British soldiers saw a glowing apparition that they believed to be St George, along with an army of knights, descending on Earth to help them through the war. This event was called Angels of Mons. 

Did these soldiers of the trenches witness any dragons? That would make an interesting story. In England, St George is a dragon slayer and this day has also come to be known as a fantastic dragon day and a dragon memorial day among some. But there has been many dragon sightings over time, and after the two world wars. Here is a list of some well known historical dragon sightings:

https://www.blackdrago.com/history/sightings.htm

https://readerofdragons.home.blog/.

https://www.wimbornestgiles.dsat.org.uk/dragon-spotted-flying-over-salisbury-cathedral/

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The mysterious cat-fox

 

In many parts of the world are sightings of a strange cryptid known as the cat-fox. It's been reported in Corsica and in the forests of the island Borneo is a mysterious creature believed to be unknown, and resembles a cat and a fox. 

Described as a bit larger than a house cat, with a long tail, red fur, it's also a carnivore. It was compared to the fossa animal of Madagascar, that preys upon small mammals such as lemurs. The cat-fox of Borneo is less known, but has been seen and also caught on camera. While a number of new species of animals are still being discovered in the world, a number of sceptics believe the cat-fox is only a squirrel. These would be the flying squirrels, or Aeromys, or the red giant flying squirrel, Petaurista petaurista.  The squirrels are not carnivorous but the cat-fox is. The image of the strange creature is shown here:

The picture was captured by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), in the Kayan Mentarang national park. The same organisation plan to study this cat-fox more by trying to look for it, and once established as a new species, the cat-fox will be the next biggest carnivore in Borneo to be found since the Borneo ferret badger. 

Some members of the public have suggested the cat-fox is similar to another carnivore of the island, the Borneo Bay Cat. This Bay Cat is a rare sighting and very difficult to find. It might possibly be the same creature, although the island is filled with unknown species.  

Links on the subject:

The Cat-fox of Borneo at The Guardian science page. Cat-fox of Corsica at Live Science website. Fossa at Wikipedia. Red Giant Flying Squirrel also Wikipedia as well as the Borneo Bay Cat. 

She Wolf Night

5 dark fairy tales

Stories like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella" and "Alice in Wonderland" are well loved favourites but it's really much darker and scarier than many people know. A lot of famous traditional children's bedtime stories are actually creepy. I shall share some of the fairy tales and their earlier scary versions and also my take on it. There's a lot of symbolisms that I will mention in more detail with each of the stories listed here and others in a future post.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" featured a more evil queen. She wanted the huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her heart in a box as proof. Well she wanted the huntsman to return all of Snow White's internal organs to the queen, so that she could eat it! Later on in the story, the queen is brutally tortured at the wedding of Snow White and the prince. What is even more shocking too is that the original Brothers Grimm version, the evil queen is the biological mother of Snow White. (My view is that Snow White has "vampire disease" a blood disorder, with skin as pale as snow and lips red as blood, which sounds like porphyria). 

"Cinderella" has a twisted version too. The stepsisters mutilate their feet so they could try and wear the glass slipper. Their horribly bleeding butchered feet was too ghastly for the prince and he refused to let them try on the magical shoe. After Cinderella wears the glass slipper and reveals that she was the mysterious girl dancing with the prince at the royal ball, they plan their wedding. The stepsisters are invited along, only to have their eyes pecked out by birds, and these are friends of Cinderella. In the original version, there wasn't a fairy godmother but a tree where Cinderella would talk to the ghost of her deceased mother. (I always believed that the fairy godmother was the spirit of Cinderella's true mum).

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, is a much more tragic story. When the mermaid visits the sea witch and asks for human legs, she has to give up her voice by having her tongue cut out. By being given legs, she would need to lose her voice as payment. Also another price to pay, if the prince doesn't notice her, she would die. The mermaid did get human legs, and she could walk and dance but each step was painful. Her sisters give her a blade to kill the prince so that she doesn't have to die. As the prince married another woman, the heartbroken mermaid refused to kill him with the blade, instead she flung herself into the sea and died. (I always felt sad for the Little Mermaid until Disney gave her a happy fulfilling ending).

"Rapunzel" is very grown up and not for children either. When the prince climbs up Rapunzel's hair to visit her in the tower, they would do more than sweet nothings. She became pregnant, and soon banished from the tower by the witch after cutting off her long hair. The prince was tricked into climbing up Rapunzel's hair, only to see the witch, who sent him to his death. He landed in brambles, cushioning his fall, but the sharp spiky plants cut his eyes and made him go blind. He wandered the land searching as a blind man, until he was drawn to Rapunzel's voice. She had twin children with her, and seeing the prince made her weep tears of joy. Her tears fell in his eyes and restored his vision. (I always wondered how Rapunzel first ended up in the tower as a child, as this was never explained. I guess, the main door was bricked up later on)

"Alice in Wonderland" is by Lewis Caroll and the original is much more detailed than in later versions. The animated Disney film was going to be much more scary. The bottle she drinks that changed her size was a person, a cheerful and even manipulative character. The Mad Hatter owned a hat shop filled with dummies of his likeness wearing hats and with moving eyes. Also the Mad Hatter and the March Hare were originally large in size. The mad tea party is set on an eerie vast table, while Alice is being chased by the Mad Hatter and March Hare who threaten to cut her legs off. The earlier plans for the Disney animation was going to end with Alice being executed by the Queen of Hearts! (That would've been a mistake if they kept to this initial idea, it wasn't meant to be a horror!) 

Links:

10 facts about Disney's original Alice in Wonderland.. 

10 fairy tales that are way darker

She Wolf Night

Predatory plants

While Spring is a time of beautiful blossoms and wild flowers, there are also strange stories about blood thirsty plants, that drink blood and devour animals. Many of these evil man-eating plants are found in fictional horror stories, but also come from folklore. Some reported as cryptids. 

There is the Madagascar Tree, that was described by Karl Leche on his travels. He said that the Mkodo tribe in Madagascar performed human ritualistic sacrifices. What was also quite weird and very disturbing was a tree, with snakelike palp, wrapped around a human victim and strangled to death. There was also a book about the horrible tree by Chase Osborn, a former Governor of Michigan. Scientist Willy Otto Oscar Ley wrote that the tree and the Mkodo tribe don't exist at all. 

A Vampire plant was said to exist in the Mexican region of Chiapas, discovered by Byron de Prorok. He described the plant as enormous in size that was known to kill birds. Dr. Karl Shuker believed that it might be possible to have really happened as there were also sightings of another, the Mexican Snake-tree, a cryptid plant and appears in Aztec myth. Another horror is in South America, the Bird Eating Tree, believed to grow in Brazil. It produces sweet tasting juicy berries and catches small prey that goes to eat the fruits. 

Here is a page about Scary Plants and Botanical Horrors found on Atlas Obscura.

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Cryptid news April

Here are a few cryptid stories that interested me from the past month. It would only seem fair to provide links and sources. I shall be posting cryptid news at the start of the month and have been doing this for seven months. It's become a favourite and so I may keep posting monthly cryptid news tidbits permanently.    

Bigfoot is often associated with the Americas, or the mountains of Tibet and forests of Russia. However, there are many sightings of a Bigfoot type entity in other countries. There was one recent mention of this, when huge Bigfoot prints were found in Devon, England. This link goes to Devon Live News on that story HERE

Now the British Isles is the place well know for the creature Loch Ness Monster, but there are many similar types of cryptids found all over the world. One such place hit the headlines, with photographic evidence of a monster in the Hudson River, New York. Link to the article with photo at The Mirror found on this.  

It's believed that goblins have been terrorising a family in Zimbabwe. Three children living with their grandparents have been attacked by goblins, who keep taking their possessions, and then brutally assaulting them. They've been so scared of noises, lights turning themselves on and off, doors opening and closing by unseen hands, also much more that had to leave. This story found at Singular Fortean HERE.   

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Easter Bunny ghosts

 

While Easter is a not a spooky time, there have been many strange encounters with spirits and other paranormal events during the season. There's also been a number of people coming forward telling their stories about ghosts during Easter, especially a certain entity that is a rabbit shape. It's believed to be the actual Easter Bunny. Here are some of these stories I've found:

Elaina Maria of Michigan had such a weird experience with the Easter Bunny. She wasn't sure of the exact time but she was either 5 or 6 years old, and had woken up in the dark at 4 a.m., and saw a giant rabbit similar to the Easter Bunny. It was just there in the darkness and she was afraid so went into her mother's room. Later she went out to use the bathroom, and noticed the giant rabbit was gone. This story was from yourghoststories.com and it was followed up by other users saying they had similar experiences. Another poster called Spockie remembers being a child and seeing a shadow figure in the form of a rabbit disappearing in their living room wall. Others have posted online to say they too saw mysterious shadow rabbits. 

Many people on another site called Reddit have memories of seeing large rabbits appearing in their homes. These ghost rabbits look more like people in rabbit costumes than like actual little animals. These "rabbit people" are often silent and eerie, because they terrify the children and it happens at night when everyone else is sleeping. Source: Here.   

I've posted similar stories before on this blog about people who've seen ghosts of Santa, and more and more people are talking about this, as well as mentioning their ghostly Easter Bunny memories. This brings me to mention the Tulpa (from Tibetan "magical creation") which is a thoughtform, or manifestation from ones own beliefs. It could be a type of imaginary friend or a magical creature that shows itself. Tibetan Buddhists believe it's a person's intense thoughts bringing fantasy to life. Is this why so many people have seen Santa and the Easter Bunny?

She Wolf Night

Mary Toft

While Easter is around the corner, I found a curious story about rabbits. In 1726 lived a woman named Mary Toft who gave birth to litters of rabbits. This was witnessed by a multitude of people in authority and Mary was often shown in labour and bringing rabbits into the world. This sounds completely rubbish, although such an event happened and it was taken seriously. Let us go into it more.

The whole country was talking about her. Scientists, doctors and the king were all amazed! Not only did Mary deliver baby rabbits once or twice but 17 times! The woman was born Mary Denyer in Godalming, Surrey in 1703. When she was 17 years old, she married 18 year old Joshua Toft, who worked in textiles. While heavily pregnant Mary had to work in the fields and this was the norm for peasant women. It was here that her crazy nightmares began. She'd suffered a miscarriage, and a doctor arrived to help her. He described this as a "non human birth", and then made a few whopping descriptions about the foetus looking like an animal. This doctor was obstetrician John Howard and he would play a big part in Mary's story. 

He contacted many officials as Mary kept "giving birth to dead rabbits". This followed up with investigations by scientists and doctors, including a Swiss surgeon Nathaniel St. André who worked for the royals, and Samuel Molyneux, a secretary for the Prince of Wales. Mary had even left her home village to be close to the doctor in Guildford where she was often giving birth to rabbits. Its now believed that she was miscarrying and those babies were kept in pickled jars by the Doctor Howard for studying. One of those jars of Mary's dead babies was taken by an official and shown to George I the king of Great Britain and Ireland. 

But it's here that Mary became frightened, when she was sent to London and exposed to a multitude of officials and noblemen who wanted to see her giving birth to rabbits. There was suggestion that she should be cut open so they can find out about her internal organs. To avoid further misery, Mary confessed that it was a hoax, and the rabbits were dead animals that she carried with her. It seemed someone had been using her, and the finger pointed at her husband and other people. She was then arrested and put in prison for a while, as she became subject of public national ridicule. Even the doctors and many other top people involved were a laughing stock to believe this. After Mary was released from prison, she went on to live her life freely. Then after she died in 1763, the church wrote of her as "Impostress Rabbit". 

Source: Woman who gave birth to rabbits article at Atlas Obscura

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Bat Beast of kent

 In Maidstone, Kent, there are are many places rich in folklore and legends, but among the most bizarre case is the one about the Bat Beast. 

On a chilly night of 16th November 1963, a group of teenaged boys were returning home from a party. John Flaxton was 17 years old, and Mervyn Hutchinson was 18, and there were also two other boys with them. They were walking along Sandling Road, when something caught their attention. A glowing egg shaped object flew quietly across the sky above a field before landing in the nearby woods of Sandling Park. They described the eerie object as a few metres in diameter. 

Moments afterwards, the shrubbery was shaking and then a strange entity emerged. It waddled on two webbed feet and looked like a hairy creature with large batlike wings. It stood 5 foot tall and seemed to have no head. It approached the terrified boys and spread out its wings, then flapped. The boys fled at once and they ran away to the nearest police station where they told officers what happened. Although the police were sceptical, they could tell that something scared the boys. 

But it wasn't only the boys who experienced the Bat Beast or the strange flying object. Another eye witness, a man named Keith Croucher, came forward to say he witnessed the glowing light in the sky over the football pitch. Also on 23rd November 1963, John McGoldrick and a friend noticed a glowing light coming from the woods of the park, and later he discovered unusual footprints in the area where the boys saw the Bat Beast. While there was something weird going on at the time in that place, it all mysteriously stopped. 

She Wolf Night  

Phantom ghost towns

 

While there are many abandoned ghost towns known as tourists attractions, there's also actual phantom towns that are impossible to visit because they come and go. I plan to discuss just a few individual towns that are simply ghosts. I shall mention 3 of them here.

1. Ong's Hat = This is a weird place. It's located in Pemberton Township, Burlington County, on Magnolia Road, off from New Jersey's motorway, Route 72, that crosses with Route 70, with only shadows of what was a busy town. The town itself was where a farmer, Jacob Ong, used to journey there while travelling from Little Egg Harbour to Burlington. Ong's Hat was a town where he stopped while transporting goods. He spent his time in a hut that he made there so he could spend the night there. The town Ong's Hat appears on maps even one dating back to 1778. It consisted of a dancehall, houses and shops, but there's no trace of the population. What remains are some signposts and a few empty rotten old buildings. A married couple moved into Ong's Hat a long time ago but vanished without trace. An unidentified human skeleton was discovered in the bushes there. 

2. Urkhammer = There are many creepy stories about this town that behaves like an apparition. Described by many who claimed to remember it, Urkhammer was a bustling lively town that thrived but now it simply isn't there. Located in Iowa, along Route 41, the town of Urkhammer appeared on a census carried out on it in 1920 with a population of 300 people. In 1929, newspaper Clarion-Sun Telegraph, mentioned Urkhammer as a site of two strange events. The first being that a plane flew over Urkhammer and took aerial photos of it, showing the place empty and overgrown. The second was about a motorist who stopped at an Esso petrol station in Urkhammer, to find after leaving the town a couple of miles he ran out of fuel. He wanted to walk back into Urkhammer to get a refund from the petrol station, but he could never reach the town, even though he saw it. Another motorist helped him but the experience was unsettling. A mysterious woman named Miss Fatima Morgana wrote to the same newspaper weeks later, claiming to be a resident of Urkhammer and said it wasn't a ghost town. In 1932 a group of families camped near Urkhammer, while a couple of the men decided to enter the town to purchase food and drink. They reached the convenient store but found their feet passed through the steps. Frightened, they returned to their campsite and insisted that they leave. Iowa State Police wanted to clear the rumour up of Urkhammer, but once they reached the town's sheriff office, they found it was not really there. A farmer from the 1930's remembered the town of Urkhammer from his childhood,  who wanted to visit the place again, only to find nothing except fields, rotting wooden fences and a rusty bath tub. 

3. Langville = A town named Langville in Montana was a place that turned out to be a complete mystery. Many believe Langville was a true town, that lots of people claimed it was an actual place where visited or even lived. Google Maps had an entry for the town with Google Street View images revealing streets and houses of Langville. Then during the 2000's the town disappeared without trace. Some claim this was simply an urban legend and never existed at all. The pictures of the Langville streets on Google show a place that can't even be identified! Many sceptics argue it's all a marketing ploy and just an urban legend. Others bring up the Mandela Effect and it's explanation for the town disappearing. 

Links and sources:

Ranker's Vanishing Towns

She Wolf Night

Irish werewolves

 

This is March and almost St Patrick's Day, so I want to bring up the subject of the Irish werewolf legends that I briefly mentioned a couple of times in the past on She Wolf Night. Werewolves of Ossory, a folklore stemming from Medieval times, believes that these are descendants of a mythical king, who became shapeshifting warriors. They thrived until one day Saint Patrick arrived to spread Christianity, and the Ossory werewolves refused. Their punishment was to roam the woods as starving wolves, and fail to return in human form, after some time had lapsed. They hunted on human prey. There are different versions told about the Ossory werewolves HERE at Wikipedia.  

Faoladh and Conroicht are Irish words that basically mean werewolf. It's believed that these werewolves are benign guardian spirits who protect children, the wounded, and the lost.  

Tipperary werewolves, attached to this location in Ireland is the story from Coir Anmann, about a man called Laignach Faelad who could turn into a wolf. His descendants also were wolf shapeshifters who enjoyed the taste of human flesh. They were warriors who behaved like berserkers or Ulfhednar. They were prominent during the reign of Tigernmas, an era found in the mists of legend. More about this HERE at Medium.

It must be mentioned that in 1999 there was a reported sighting of a mysterious wolf seen at the road between Newpoint and Rearcross in Tipperary. The eyewitnesses said this creature had glowing red eyes and appeared to be where a man once stood. Also in 1913 in a quiet lane in Ballymacward, two boys heard growling coming from behind a wall, and they found a strange man with an animal's head. Wolves became extinct in Ireland during the 18th century.

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Cryptid news March

 

This subject has enabled me to post anything new that I come across about cryptids, so each month I will begin discussing as many stories as I can find that have been happening. 

It's believed that a mysterious large animal was filmed in Kerriemuir, Angus, in Scotland. The video clip was made by a woman who filmed an unknown beast prowling through the grass near her home. She described it later on as resembling a huge cat, "I felt it was bigger than any cat I have seen" she told the Daily Mirror. To watch the clip from the original article at The Daily Mirror site: HERE

Now another clip from Massachusetts, where the region is nicknamed "Monsterland". This is a very old nickname that stems from a legend of Bigfoot creatures living there and reportedly seen since the 19th century. A certain place called Leominster State Forest is featured in a video clip about Bigfoot investigating. To look at it, go to Mail Online article HERE.

In Oklahoma are strange stories of a "Thundercow" mysterious creature, often seen but never captured or tracked down. The sightings sparked the legend as many claimed to have seen a cow wandering around Lake Thunderbird, while many didn't believe it. This video clip shows a cow near the lake, while many believe it's just an ordinary cow, some like to think this is more mysterious as the cow is only active at night, and disappears. Here is a report made on Yahoo! Finance showing a short clip of the subject HERE.  

She Wolf Night

Mutant wolves

 

It's believed that there are mutant wolves at Chernobyl with special powers, meaning, they've developed an immunity towards cancer. This is going to help scientists find new ways to help fight against the disease.

Chernobyl is the site where a nuclear power plant accident happened in 1986, causing in thousands of people leaving the area after they were evacuated to avoid radiation. That region has become abandoned ever since, and is called CEZ, or Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is a 1,000 square-mile area around the site that poses a radioactive danger. While this zone is no longer lived in by humans, wildlife certainly thrives there. Animals such as elk, horses, boards, dogs and wolves. Human houses including towns like Pripyat, are now spooky and overgrown, silent and with no sound other than nature itself that has claimed the region. 

It's believed that mutated species are at CEZ, especially among canines. When people evacuated in 1986, they also left behind everything including their dogs. Decades later, a population of wild dogs living in the exclusion zone have been studied to learn about the dogs. Generations of dogs have been exposed to high levels of radiation and they're not as healthy as other dogs outside of the zone. Wolves there have been exposed to high levels of radiation for generations, but they've adapted to it. Their immune system has a certain immunity to cancer risk. It's something that Dr Cara Love hopes to research more about these wolves. Further studies on this have been paused due to the conflict upon the Ukraine by Russia. These mutant wolves might be the answer to help survive cancer. 

She Wolf Night

Heartbroken ghosts

While the season of February is full of positivity, there remains some very creepy hauntings by spirits of broken hearted people. These vary and most of them are residual energy, leaving behind sorrows and misery in the walls. 

A sinister and creepy ghost haunts Veremont House in London. There was an angry spirit described as having long dark hair and wearing a purple dress who frightens those who encountered her. It's believed that she is the spirit of a woman named Bertha Rungate, who lived in the 1900's and was angry because she felt spurned by a man who loved another woman. It's believed that she murdered him in rage, and he disappeared. The hauntings ceased when the remains of this man were found in the basement of the property and removed. 

In the early 20th century, a female figure dressed in black funeral garb haunted the railway track from London to Cardiff. It's believed she was the ghost of a woman who mourned the death of her fiancé who was killed in a horrific accident while taking a train journey ride with her. Their dream wedding was planned shortly in a few days but he died and this wedding never happened. 

A phantom white lady is often crying as she walks the grounds of Old Ranelagh in London and when she reaches Lower Richmond Road, she disappears. It's believed that she's sobbing for her lost lover who mysteriously vanished but it's not clear why. It's likely that her ghost uses that same pattern because it was where she was going to meet him. It's not even known what happened to her.

Two female ghosts have been seen fighting at Christ Church, Greyfriars. It's the ghosts of Queen Isabella and Lady Alice Hungerford who are jealous of one another and get into a cat fight. That location is full of other ghosts including a greyhound dog that runs around the gravestones, a monk that often appears late in the year, and a visionary psychic woman that was executed during the time of Henry VIII. She haunts the graveyard.

She Wolf Night            

Lambton Worm

This is folklore from the Dark Ages. One of the most well known monsters of North East England at the River Wear is the famous Lambton Worm. A young man named John Lambton went fishing at the River Wear. He caught a small eel, but John doesn't like it after noticing that it had legs. He threw it away down a well, according to some versions, because he decided it must be a demon. Later he joined the Crusades, while deep in the well, the creature he tossed away grew bigger and venomous. Soon livestock disappeared and some were found eaten. Local villagers were terrified one day to see this enormous serpent coiled around a hill. Some speculate that this hill was Penshaw Hill or another named Worm Hill. This monstrous creature killed animals and children, as well as poisoning milk from cattle. The creature uncoiled itself and slithered to Lambton Castle where John Lambton's aged father lived, who set out to meet it. A bargain was made, so that the lord Lambton would provide nine cows as food, or twenty gallons of their milk, to stop it preying on the villagers. While the beast was enjoying its food, many people tried to kill it but failed. It continued to grow and began uprooting trees. 

Years later, John Lambton returns from the Crusades. He finds the place abandoned with a large worm serpent. He confides in a witch from Durham, who tells him that to kill it, he must cover his armour in spearheads and fight it at the River Wear. She then told him that after he kills the giant worm, he must kill the first living thing he sees. If he doesn't do this, then his family will be cursed and not die in their beds. So later John covered his armour in spearheads and told his father that after killing the worm, he will sound his hunting horn three times, and that his father must release the hunting dogs to go to John. His plan was to kill a dog and prevent the curse. 

There is a battle at the River Wear, between John and the great worm, and it cuts itself on his armour. Pieces of the worm fall off and are washed away in the river before joining back again, so it dies. John blew on his hunting horn three times. Lord Lambton hears the sound of the hunting horn that his son is blowing, and he's filled with much excitement that the worm is dead. He forgets to release the dogs and runs out to meet his son. When John sees his father, he isn't able to kill him. When the hunting dogs are released and go towards John, he kills them but it doesn't matter, the curse has been done. The first living thing John saw after killing the monster was his father. And he didn't kill him. Nine generations of the Lambton family suffered the curse. 

She Wolf Night

Eros and Psyche

Art by Rowena Morrill

Valentine's Day is almost here and full of love stories. It's worth mentioning this beautiful tragic romance story from Greek mythology. As I touched on the subject in my previous post about Cherubs, I will explain more about the story of Cupid (Eros) and Psyche. 

There was a princess named Psyche, the youngest of three sisters, daughter of a king from ancient Greece. Psyche was loved by everyone and she had so many admirers. They even called her Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Then annoyed the goddess herself, who sent her son, Eros to give Psyche a magic potion to drink. This potion would make no one fall in love with Psyche or desire to marry her. Eros went to fulfil his mother's plan, but he accidently released one of his arrows and shot her, and in panic he shot another arrow at himself. His arrows are powerful and whoever is shot will fall in love. Psyche had already drunk the potion and found no men was interested in wanting her even though her sisters found lovers and settled down to marry. This made Psyche depressed, and her worried father sought help from the Oracle of Delphi. 

The god Apollo answered the king's worried question, and advised him on what to do. So Psyche was made to dress all in black, and spend her days on a mountain waiting for a husband. Zephyrus found Psyche on the mountain, and carried her off to the palace of her secret husband, who summoned her. There she was in a beautiful place, where she was treated very well, but on one condition: she must not look at her husband's face. This was only because she wasn't allowed to know who he was, and he was really Eros. So every night, Eros would go to Psyche and it would be dark, although blissful. 

While the nights were good, Psyche felt lonely during the daytime. At night when Eros went to her bed, Psyche asked him if her sisters could visit. He agreed, but that was a big mistake. When Psyche's sisters arrive seeing the beautiful palace and luxurious clothes, they felt jealous and became spiteful. They told Psyche that her husband was probably an ugly monster. Psyche was convinced this had to be true which is why he didn't want her looking at him. They advised her to bring a lamp at night, and also carry a knife just if the monstrous husband would turn violent. That night, she saw the truth, her husband was the god Eros. 

After that, Eros left her. An unhappy Psyche tries to kill herself by drowning in the river but nymphs rescue her. The goddess Aphrodite learns about all of this, knowing that her son failed to carry out her plan as she instructed. Psyche was summoned to meet the goddess Aphrodite, and was given terms to be spared punishment. The first was to sort through lentils, poppy seeds and chickpeas, and put them in their own piles. Psyche was helped by ants to complete the task. The second task was more dangerous, she had to skin the fleece of predatory carnivorous golden sheep, and a nymph suggested she try this while the sheep is sleeping, and to gather loose fleece on bushes and grass. After finishing the task, the third one was harder. Psyche was told to visit the Underworld and get a box of magic from goddess Persephone. But Psyche was warned she must never open it.   

However, what Aphrodite didn't tell Psyche was that the box contained an elixir for eternal sleep. After she successfully collects the box and returns to the earth, Psyche opens the box believing it would help her find Eros, and she quickly entered a deep sleep. Eros locates Psyche in her eternal deathlike sleep. Using his arrows, he brings Psyche back and she wakes up. Eros marries Psyche. Zeus makes Psyche a goddess of the immortal human soul.

She Wolf Night

Cherubs

 

This has been mentioned before on She Wolf Night blog, so often every year that it's been done to death, the subject of Valentine's Day. I bring a new twisted version now, broken in different posts, to make it tasty and more exciting. 

That time has come when Valentine's Day gifts are appearing in the shops and exchanged between parties of loved ones. It's a time famously symbolic of love hearts and cute cherubs carrying bows and arrows. Cherubs are variations of little angels that resemble winged babies, but these are actually an altered version of the Roman Pagan god Cupid, an archer who looked like a very handsome man. His Greek counterpart is Eros, son of Ares the god of war and beautiful war goddess Aphrodite. Cupid/Eros is the god of love. There is a tragic love story of Eros who fell in love with a mortal woman named Psyche. 

Renaissance era artists painted mythological scenes and included cute cherubs in them. It then started to create the tradition of cupid babies and love. Cupid and cherub came to mean the same thing today, but what are cherubs? 

While it's become popular to give children endearing names like "cherub" it's all because of the Valentine's Day image of them. However, in the Bible cherubs themselves have a sinister appearance originally. These are part of a religious celestial order of the Cherubim, who look diabolical. They are said to be violent and have the features of scary monsters. In Ezekiel 1:5_11 they're described as having four faces like that of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Each cherub has four wings and two furry legs with cloven hoofs. There isn't that many (if any) Valentines cards showing accurate looking cherubs.  

More: https://the-demonic-paradise.fandom.com/wiki/Cherubim

Article with many cherub pictures posted by Marta Savova HERE

She Wolf Night

Cryptid news February

 Here are some of the latest bits of cryptozoology that I found since posting about this subject a month ago. Every month I will deliver a few recent, and not so recent, news about strange mysterious creatures. 

In West Virginia, a cryptid enthusiast took a photograph of a footprint that he claims belongs to Bigfoot. It's size is 9 inches in width and has five toes. It was discovered in a muddy area in Ritchie County. He posted his picture on Facebook and a debate followed up. Many pointed out there was only one footprint and suggested Bigfoot was hopping around, and some claimed it belonged to another animal or was hoaxed. 

For photos on that story visit Sasquatch Chronicles HERE

While on the subject of Bigfoot, research has found that bears are actually responsible for many Bigfoot sightings. This was made in Pittsburgh by Floe Floxon of the Folk Zoology Society, and published in Journal of Zoology. For every 1,000 bears was a rise in Bigfoot sightings by 4%, and Floxon says: "As black bear populations increase, Sasquatch sightings are expected to increase." It's a case of, he believes, a mistake on the part of eye witnesses. 

Check these interesting articles on Cryptozoology at Gaia.com HERE

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The beliefs of aurora borealis

The aurora borealis is also called the Northern Lights, visible in the night sky in the far north. These Northern Lights are spectacular, colourful, pretty and full of magical stories. In the northern hemisphere, the Northern Lights are mainly seen above Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Canada, Finland and Scotland. It's rare for the Northern Lights to appear in the south of Europe, although it has done this in the past a few times. This would mean there was a tense level of solar activity and the aurora borealis showed as red coloured, giving it a more frightening appearance to the people back then who didn't understand what the Northern Lights really were. 

The name "aurora borealis" is Latin and means "sunrise wind". Aurora is a Roman goddess and she rode a chariot of many colourful lights to bring a new day. It was believed that Aurora is the sister of Sol the sun god and Luna the moon goddess. 

People that witnessed the Northern Lights in the past, associated it with omens. The aurora borealis appeared fiery red coloured lights over France and Italy, who were afraid that it meant coming plague and war, even famine. Red coloured Northern Lights showed in England and France at a time soon before the French Revolution. However, the Swedish found the aurora borealis a good omen, and celebrated it. These lights were considered a sign of a good harvest, decent weather and successful farming. 

In Scandinavia, it was believed it was bad luck for a pregnant woman to look at the Northern Lights. It was even more worse if a woman looked at these lights while giving birth, as it was said it will result in a child with bad eyesight or blindness. In Greenland it was believed that the aurora lights were the souls of babies who were stillborn and also who had died prematurely. The Sami believe the lights are created by whales of the ocean. The Finnish believe that the lights are a creation of magical fire fox creatures. In Norse mythology, the lights are the glowing colours of the beautiful Valkyrie, maidens who ride across the sky, and of Bifrost, the rainbow bridge that connects the realms.   

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Selkies

 

The storms of January battering the landscape originates from the sea, and beaches around British Isles and northern Europe are empty. They appear uninviting, cold and treacherous. It brings out many stories and folk legends of various monsters and mythical beings associated with the coastlines. Among them are the Selkies, a type of creature that is also a shapeshifter. These Selkies usually appear like beautiful women and handsome men wearing seal skins, because they're also seals other times. Selkies appear in legends of the Orkney Islands, Ireland, the Faroes, Shetlands, Scotland and Iceland. 

The Selkies would gather as seals, and then during moonlit nights on the beach, and transform into humans. They would transform either once a year, or every ninth night, or every seventh stream. They would become human and then dance on the beaches at night. They have sealskin, which gives them transformation. If the sealskin vanished, the Selkie would be trapped in human form and unable to return to the sea. There Selkie men would seduce human women. Orkney tradition have beliefs that a lonely woman may want to find a magical Selkie man, and she would need to go to the shore and cry seven teardrops into the sea. The Selkie man would answer her and swim to shore and be with her for the night. It's also believed that Selkie men would whisk human women away. 

There are many stories of Selkie women seducing human men and sometimes marrying them. If a Selkie woman's sealskin was stolen by a human man, she would be trapped by him and need to live with him as his wife. She would find her sealskin that way, or if not, she would be forever stuck on dry land. There's a sad story of a man who wouldn't return the sealskin to his Selkie wife, even when she begged and pleaded. She stayed with him and had his children. Years later her children found her sealskin and returned it to her, but she had to leave. The Selkie mother returned to the sea after kissing goodbye to her grown up children. They never saw their mother again.

More on the magical Selkies:

Read: "When humans encounter Selkies"  HERE.

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The legend of Sarah Jane

In certain parts of USA there are legends associated with rivers and bridges, but especially "Crybaby Bridges". These bridges are called Crybaby Bridges are given to small spooky looking bridges, haunted by the eerie sounds like babies crying. There are beliefs that these bridges are haunted. 

In Kentucky is Sleepy Hollow Road, there is a CryBaby Bridge where ghostly sounds of a crying baby is heard, and this has been legendary for many years since before the modern steel bridge was made. There was once before an old fashioned small bridge, where a number of babies were thrown into the river by desperate mothers who couldn't afford to look after them. 

In Texas there are several CryBaby Bridges with tragic stories connected to them. One involves a baby drowning, another about both a mother and child killed on the bridge during a car accident, and the traces of a ghost baby's handprints seen on a car window. But most famous of all is the legend of Sarah Jane.

In Port Neches, Texas, is a sad story of a baby called Sarah Jane. Both Sarah Jane and her mother were murdered by a dangerous man. It's said Sarah Jane was thrown into the river and her cries have been heard for many years afterwards. People who heard the baby's cries called out to Sarah Jane. 

I found many different versions of the Sarah Jane legend. Another version goes back to the time during the American Civil War, and a young mother named Sarah Jane was hiding her baby from enemy soldiers. She put her baby underneath a bridge so the passing soldiers wouldn't find either of them. The river changed later in the day and carried the baby off. The distraught mother went searching for her baby and wasn't able to. Distraught and filled with despair, the mother soon took her own life, hanging herself from a noose under the same bridge. Long afterwards, the cries of the baby was heard by the bridge.  

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The seaweed ghost

Here in the long winter month of January, the trees are skeletal and the grass is colourless. It gets frosty and foggy with storms. It's a very cold grim time that starts the new year. I shall continue posting about some true stories of the paranormal as told and written by people. This is another called "The Seaweed Ghost" that fits with the spookiness of winter beaches. 

In the early 20th century, two young women are in a car driving along Cape Cod, a coastal area in Massachusetts, United States. The women are sisters, and things take on a turn for the worst when their car breaks down during heavy rain. They found themselves quite lost and alone, with mud all around them and in bad weather. They saw a house further up a slope, which made them step out into the mud and wet, walking through damp foliage as they climbed up towards the house. They knocked on the door and waited a while but there was no answer, so they tried again. Soon they found the door was already unlocked and they opened it, calling out. As no one answered them, they both entered the house and were pleased to be indoors where it was nice and warm. 

They found that there was a room covered in dust and books on the shelves, which made them aware it must be an abandoned house. They decided to stay for the night because a storm picked up outside. The sisters prepared to get settled in, with blankets from the car. They lit a small fire in the fireplace, and went to sleep on the floor wrapped up cosy under the blankets. They were later woken up by a figure of a man who appeared to be standing in front of the fire. They noticed that he was wearing wet clothes and in the uniform of a sea captain. The sisters were very nervous and stayed quiet as they watched the man. After a while, one of the women said "who's there?" and the man only responded with a deep groan, and then he vanished into thin air.

The women were frightened. When morning arrived, daylight revealed a small puddle with seaweed where the man stood. The only footprints was their own. One of the women dipped her finger in the puddle on the floor and tasted it, which was salty. They packed and took the seaweed and rushed out of the house. Later made their way to the road, and hitched a ride into the nearest town. While in the car, they asked the driver about the house who told them that it had been empty for many years. The family who once lived there moved after their son was lost at sea. The seaweed had been tested, which confirmed it was a type that grows on corpses. 

The original tale is from "Full Fathom Five" by Alexander Woollcott, posted in The New Yorker in 1929.  

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The Grey Girl

 

As we move into the long dark period of January, everything looks colourless as the trees are bare. Floods, storms and snow threaten the landscape and most of us keep indoors. Some have to be outside and face the cold grim season. Here this month I want to mention a few eerie true stories of the paranormal sent by online users and these are apparently real. Let me start with one called "The Grey Girl" that fits in with the greyness of January. 

A young 22 year old woman called Leire89 posted that she had a frightening experience and wanted to share it. She was a teenager, when it all began in Bilbao in Spain. Leire89 was 15 years old when she started having horrible nightmares of the same theme and she continued dreaming of this for years. She said:

"In the nightmare, I found myself alone in an abandoned building. I am standing in a dimly lit hallway, when all of a sudden, I hear very distant sounds". 

She explains that there were constant violent thudding blows throughout the building. As she's standing alone in the corridor these bangs appear to get nearer and nearer to her. So scared, she turned away and ran down the other end of the corridor, taking her into a bathroom, where she closes the door behind her and listens to the banging. The sounds become thunderous and reaches the bathroom door, when she wakes up in cold sweat. Leire89 says: 

"Everyday after I have this nightmare, I can't shake the feeling that I'm being watched. It's as if someone or something is watching everything I do at every moment of the day."

She has many visions of a ghostly girl all in grey, who kept appearing and disappearing. She connects her nightmares to a brutal murder case where an entire family died, but one of the kids was missing, a teenaged girl. She found a photograph of the missing girl and believes it resembles the mysterious ghost girl in grey. Then one day she had the same recurring nightmare again only this time the bangs were revealed to be the strange girl in grey. Leire89 was vulnerable and the spectre was threatening, until she moved towards her and vanished into her body. 

Leire89 discovered that she was pregnant and stopped having those nightmares of the grey girl. However, she doesn't remember being with a man and can't explain how she got pregnant. During a visit to hospital for a scan, she found out that she was going to have a girl. She remains terrified of what will happen and believes that the baby might've been the grey girl. It was first posted 10 years ago on the website Scary For Kids and I don't have an update on how Leire89 is doing. If it was all a dream, this makes for an incredible scary one.

She Wolf Night

Cryptid news January

 Happy New Year and welcome to 2024 on She Wolf Night blog. I shall post some of the latest news about cryptids at the beginning of each month.

A mother and son were walking in the woods when they encountered a large Bigfoot type of creature described as being "built like Dwayne Johnson". It happened at the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. There's been a number of other sightings at that particular place. Article here at Country 94.

While Bigfoot cases are numerous in the Americas, some happen a lot elsewhere. In Wales, large Bigfoot prints were discovered on the ground. These are found in Caerphilly, Wales, and the prints are 16 inches in length, which is much bigger than the average man's footprint. It's believed they belonged to a woodwose entity. More UK Bigfoot sightings (called Woodwose and Wild Man) resulted in a sample being tested and found that it's DNA matched both a hominid and a Cercopithecidae.

Also in the UK people reported seeing a massive creature built like Arnold Schwarzenegger! Details of that in Daily Star HERE.

A photograph of Bigfoot was taken in the dark in Montana. To see that go HERE. 

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(Image above is a 15th century tapestry of woodwose by unknown artist).