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theasraidance.bsky.social
Rivka
@theasraidance.bsky.social
1.1K followers 720 following 340 posts
Arts and Magic. Folklore and Fairy Tales. Poetry and Prose. History and Nature. Music and Film. The cosy and the uncanny. The weird and the whimsical.
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theasraidance.bsky.social
Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Nov 8
'When the last colours of the day
Have from their burning ebbed away,
About that ruin, cold and lone,
The cricket shrills from stone to stone;
And scattering o'er its darkened green,
Bands of fairies may be seen.'
~Walter de la Mare

🎨John Anster Fitzgerald
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The Demon'
by Lionel Lindsay, 1925

#Caturday
Wood engraving. Two kittens encounter a magpie beside a large tub of plants.
January 17, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Rivka
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
Today is Old Wassail and Here's to thee, old apple tree...

Some places have very, very old wassailing customs, though, and we go to the West Country on Old Twelvey to witness such a one in our 11th #winterfolklore tale.

Read it below.

🎨 Arthur Rackham
January 17, 2026 at 6:01 AM
Reposted by Rivka
hookland.bsky.social
Every hour is the witching hour. We are as potent at dawn or noon as we are at the suggested 3am. We flourish during the solar alchemy of twilight. We are creatures of the threshold. The turning of time is a powerful engine of magics. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky
January 14, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Rivka
racheldeering.bsky.social
Bonus for #BookWormSat
Emily Dickinson by Edward Gorey for Howard Moss’ book Instant Lives.
Drawing of Emily Dickinson wrapped in a shawl looking from a window of a wooden slatted building with ivy and shutters. There is a glass on the sill beside her, she wears a little necktie and looks a little cross.
January 17, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Rivka
signemaene.com
'I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me;
But still it whispered lowly,
How dark the woods will be!'
-Emily Brontë

🎨Arthur Rackham
#BookWormSat
Illustration of a woman in the forest.
January 17, 2026 at 6:09 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'My childhood from my life is parted,
My footstep from the moss which drew
Its fairy circle round: anew
The garden is deserted.'
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

🎨Eugène Grasset
#BookWormSat
Painting. A garden at sunset. Flower bushes, trees, classical statues. A young woman with long, dark brown hair stands at the edge of a pond, gazing down at the water. She wears a long red/orange gown.
January 17, 2026 at 6:30 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'Frozen like a thing of stone
I sit in thy shadow – but not alone.'

🖋️‘A Silent Wood’
🎨'The Haunted Wood'
Art and poem by Elizabeth Siddal
#PhantomsFriday
Gouache on paper. A woman with long red hair wearing a blue dress. She is partly recoiling and partly reaching out to an apparition appearing beside her between the trees. This figure is thought to be a ghostly double of herself.
January 16, 2026 at 1:00 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.'

~William Shakespeare, 'The Tempest'

🎨Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
#bookologythursday
'Prospero and Ariel', an illustration for Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. A man with a white beard stands beside a tree. He is wearing a long cloak and holding a large book. He is looking at several fairy-like spirits above him. One of these spirits is larger than the others, and flies above them with arms outstretched.
January 15, 2026 at 1:35 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
Advice from a Caterpillar for #WyrdWednesday
Illustration by Tove Jansson
'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland', 1966.
Illustration depicting Alice standing beside the caterpillar, who sits on a mushroom smoking a hookah pipe. The mushroom is as tall as Alice, and is surrounded by grass and large red flowers.
January 14, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Rivka
signemaene.com
Winter Music, Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946).
Painting of a woman playing the violin in a snow-covered forest.
January 12, 2026 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Rivka
lbflyawayhome.bsky.social
‘At the edge of the mere’

Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
(What to Look for in Winter, 1959)
Under a leaden sky, ducks are huddled together on a partially frozen silvery lake surrounded by reeds and bull rushes
January 11, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Rivka
racheldeering.bsky.social
Goodnight. ❄️
'Many a winter's night she flies through the streets and peeps in at the windows, and then the ice freezes on the panes into wonderful patterns like flowers.' Illustration from The Snow Queen, Edmund Dulac. From Stories from Hans Andersen, 1911.
An illustration by Edmund Dulac for Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. It shows a nocturnal scene of a snow-covered town. The ethereal figure of the Snow Queen is shown drifting above the snow-laden rooftops, her form blending with the falling snow. The background features a large, imposing Gothic-style church. The rooftops of the houses below are heavily covered in snow, with warm light glowing from the windows.
January 13, 2026 at 11:18 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The First of the Fairies'
Illustration by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

#snowdrops
Illustration, also known as 'The English Snowdrop'. One of 30 black & white plates from the limited edition of "Elves and Fairies" (1916), depicting a rather forlorn looking snowdrop fairy on a snowy bank with wintry trees and snow topped bushes in the background.
January 13, 2026 at 1:50 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.'
~Joyce Kilmer

🎨G. M. de L'Aubiniere
#BookWormSat
Where the Forgotten Garden Lies Asleep' by Georgina M. de L'Aubinieres is a painting of an old house that is seemingly being taken over by its garden. Trees, long grasses, shrubs, flowers, and a sundial.
January 10, 2026 at 6:51 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
The Haunted Park
by Richard Doyle (1824-1883)

#PhantomsFriday
A painting of a park at night, with a large house visible in the background, to the right of the scene. Two people watch from behind a tree, as ghostly figures in 18th century clothing dance and socialise as though attending a ball.
January 9, 2026 at 2:45 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
Artist Jessie M. King (1875-1949), the magical 'Glasgow Girl' who met the fairies.

#WyrdWednesday
Black and White portrait photograph of the artist Jessie M.King as a young woman, 1890s. Art Nouveau artwork in the 'Glasgow Style' depicting a young woman talking to a little fairy in a blossoming tree. The tree is on a small hill or 'mound'. The young woman is kneeling, wearing a long dress with a floral design.
January 7, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Rivka
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

(Shelley)

🎨 Wiktor Kriżanowski

#wintersky
A richly textured, icy scene in pale blues and greys. A dense winter forest fills the image — evergreens, bare branches and snow-laden trunks — but their curves and shadows subtly combine into the outline of a huge, half-hidden human face, as if the spirit of winter lies sleeping in the landscape itself. Delicate white frost traces the branches in the foreground, while mist and snowfall soften the background trees. The composition feels both natural and enchanted, suggesting a world where the forest is alive with ancient, seasonal magic.
January 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'It was the Snow Queen'
Illustration by Honor C. Appleton
Illustration depicting the Snow Queen and Kai from Hans Christian Andersen's story of the same name. The Snow Queen is emerging from a flurry of snowflakes. Text, bottom right reads 'It was the Snow Queen'.
January 6, 2026 at 3:05 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
Allegory of the month January
by Gaspar Camps

✨Happy New Year✨
Allegorical depiction of January, c. 1901, in the Art Nouveau style. A woman in a long pink gown, with stars in her hair, sits amid tree branches with small birds, some of which she is holding in her hands. There is a full moon behind her. In the upper panels there is a depiction of the visit from the three Magi and in the bottom panel there are cats and smiling moons.
January 1, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Rivka
signemaene.com
Winter Queen's Flowers, Zofia Plewińska-Smidowiczowa (1888-1944).
Illustration of the winter queen painting flowers on a window.
December 31, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Rivka
kerria.bsky.social
In ancient Greece, many believed that shooting stars were souls of the dead soaring to the heavens. It was said that if you wished upon the star, the soul would grant your wish.

‘L'étoile filante’ by J.J. Grandville (1849)
#wyrdwednesday
December 31, 2025 at 4:59 AM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The moonlight fades from flower and tree,
And the stars dim one by one;
The tale is told, the song is sung,
And the Fairy feast is done.'
~Louisa May Alcott ('Fairy Song')

🎨 Dorothy Lathrop
#WyrdWednesday
Illustration called 'I heard the Fairies in a Ring' depicting a fairy dancing among mushrooms, while another plays pipes. From Walter de la Mare's 'Down-Adown-Derry A Book of Fairy Poems'.
December 31, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Rivka
lbflyawayhome.bsky.social
Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘Gusty Twilight’
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
A dramatic yet slightly stylised depiction of a barn owl in profile raising its wings to steady itself in a strong gust of wind as it perches on a bare winter tree
December 28, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Rivka
davidzinn.bsky.social
Nadine Looks into the Future while Holding on to the Past
sidewalk chalk drawing of a mouse in a blue dress standing atop a rock ledge looking through a spyglass while holding a large book under her arm
December 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Rivka
ninaantonia13.bsky.social
#Caturday A beautiful illustration from 'The Tomten & The Fox' by Swedish artist, Harald Wiberg (1908-1986)
December 27, 2025 at 4:52 PM