Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rivka

@theasraidance.bsky.social

1.1K followers 680 following 300 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.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

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

5 24 120

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · 14h

🍂Autumn
by Stanislaus S. Longley

Watercolour depicting a woman dressed in classical style, flowing green robes, accompanied by two young deer. A single leaf flutters down from an autumnal tree, some leaves have already fallen to the ground. A blue sky, with clouds, fills much of the background.

2 14

Reposted by Rivka

hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 18h

The wood is a constant promise to the witch. It whispers of magics, wild harvest and omens to be found on its paths. It never breaks it oaths to her. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

1 31 190

Reposted by Rivka

P J Richards @pj-richards.bsky.social · 1d

🕯️🎃🕯️Pumpkin Lanterns - by Arthur Rackham
#FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday

18 76

Reposted by Rivka

curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 2d

'Hares and Autumn Full Moon' - Suzuki Harunobu, Japanese Edo period.
#FullMoon #tsukimi #JapaneseArt

Two hares, one brown and one white, sit beside a stream looking up at the moon.

41 100

Reposted by Rivka

Maggie Rudy @maggiemice.bsky.social · 14d

Magical creatures

2 41 220

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · 17h

Psyche and Cerberus
by Edmund Dulac
#WyrdWednesday

Illustration depicting Psyche encountering Cerberus, the guardian of the underworld, a three headed dog with fiery eyes and snakes on his back. Psyche is clutching the honey cakes that she has brought to throw to Cerberus as a distraction.

5 16

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · 4d

"There are no ordinary cats."
~Colette

🎨Auguste Danse
#BookWormSat
#Caturday

19th century etching/engraving depicting a woman with long dark hair, wearing a long, sleeveless dress. She is seated, and a black cat sits on her shoulder.

10 45

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · 21d

🦋 Queen Mab for #WyrdWednesday

'Her Chariot ready straight is made'
Illustration by Thomas Maybank (1906)
Frontispiece, 'Nymphidia, the Court of Faerie'
by Michael Drayton, first published in 1627.

Painting of a dark forest under a full moon. A fairy queen all in white approaches her carriage, accompanied by fairy creatures and insects.

20 96

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Sep 3

Illustrator Adelaide Claxton is best known for her artwork depicting ghosts and dreams, but she was also an inventor. During the 1890s, she registered several patents under her married name, Adelaide Sophia Turner, including the 'Armpit-Crutch for Bed-Rests and Chair-Backs'.
#WyrdWednesday

'The Lady Ghost' by Adelaide Claxton. Painting depicting a child in a long nightgown, approaching a melancholy lady ghost sitting on a chair. Another child watches from the bed.

8 27

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Sep 1

Allegory of the month of September
by Gaspar Camps

Art Nouveau artwork depicting a woman in a pink flowing gown, seated amid vines that appear to adorn her clothing and hair. She is smiling and holding a goblet. There is a border decorated with vine leaves, and 'Septiembre' is written at the top right in decorative letters.

1 13

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Aug 25

The Queen
by Gertrude Abercrombie
for #OwlishMonday

An example of the surreal, enigmatic, dreamlike art of Gertrude Abercrombie. 'The Queen' depicts a woman with long dark hair, wearing a blue gown with a long train, and a crown. She carries a sceptre/wand. She is standing in a bare room with a dark red floor, her gaze turned towards us. Perched on a ledge behind her is an owl, who holds up the end of the train in its beak.

1 5 45

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Aug 7

🌙'By thy pale beams I solitary rove,
To thee my tender grief confide;
Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove,
My friend, my goddess, and my guide.'
~Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

🎨 The Fairy of the Moon
by Hermann Kaulbach
#bookologythursday

Late 19th century painting depicting an elegant figure sitting on a crescent moon. She has long dark hair and wears a thin golden headdress with a single star-like sparkle at the front. She is draped in flowing, shimmering robes that trail sparkling stardust. Painted circa 1891.

11 41

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Aug 4

Fairy
Illustration by C.E.Brock
#OwlishMonday

Illustration depicting a winged fairy in a long gown, sitting on a ledge in what looks to be a mountainous landscape. An owl perches on a ledge just above her. The fairy seems to be calling out, with her hands cupping her mouth.

9 42

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Aug 3

Good to see you!

1 2

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Aug 1

Resting in the Woods (Girl under a Tree)
by John George Brown

Painting of a girl sitting under a tree with dappled sunlight filtering through its leaves. She is wearing a dark pink dress and a ribbon in her hair, and her straw hat is beside her on the ground. Painted in 1866.

1 3 19

Reposted by Rivka

Kerria @kerria.bsky.social · Jul 30

The world was hers for the reading.

~Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale

Pieter Janssens Elinga (1623–1682)
#WyrdWednesday #BookChatWeekly

11 57

Reposted by Rivka

The Godyssey Podcast @godysseypodcast.com · Jul 30

Lohengrin is the Knight of the Swan, an older medieval trope incorporated into the Arthurian cycle. The son of Percival, he rides a boat driven by swans and must never be asked his name by the maiden he rescues, or he can never return. #LegendaryWednesday

🖼️: W. Crane

Lohengrin on his boat pulled by a swan, the boat also swan-shaped, through reeds, in a painting by Walter Crane

8 34

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Jul 30

'Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott'
~Tennyson

🎨John William Waterhouse
#LegendaryWednesday

Painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style, depicting the lady of Shalott sitting in her boat, at the start of her journey to Camelot. Painted in 1888.

6 12

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Jul 30

"There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'."
~Philip K. Dick

🎨Gerrit A. Beneker
#WyrdWednesday

Half length portrait of a 1920s telephone operator, a serious, dark haired young woman in a light coloured dress, wearing a vintage headset and mouthpiece. Painted in 1921.

7 29

Reposted by Rivka

Jon Carling @joncarling.bsky.social · Jul 25

moon beam
#joncaing #art #travelingwitch

88 340

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Jul 28

🌿Girl and Daisies
by Winslow Homer

Watercolour painting of a girl sitting in a meadow looking at some daisies. She wears a long dark skirt and a light, dusky pink hooded tunic. There are trees in the background. Painted in 1878.

6 17

Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · Jul 17

'This forest looks the way
Nightingales sound.'
~Grace Hazard Conkling

🎨The Nightingale
by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
#bookologythursday

Illustration of a fairy, sitting beneath a tall tree by a pond with some lily pads, looking skywards. There are trees and foliage in the background, and a full moon in the sky.

9 35

Reposted by Rivka

VenetiaJane’s Garden @venetiajane.bsky.social · Jul 16

In West Yorkshire #folklore, hazel trees were watched over by Churn Milk Peg, a scary, pipe-smoking faery hag. Children were warned not to gather unripe nuts, or she would give them a sharp pinch, or carry them off altogether. Her wrath protected the #harvest. #LegendaryWednesday

Collage of three close-up photos showing unripe hazelnuts growing on hazel trees. The nuts are pale green and partly enclosed in leafy husks, with textured leaves surrounding them. Some leaves show early signs of browning.

3 13 70

Reposted by Rivka

curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · Jul 16

In #JapaneseFolklore there is a strong link between kitsune (foxes), agriculture and the worship of Inari. Inari is a kami (deity) of rice, farming, the harvest, and fertility, among other things. The worship of Inari became connected with foxes around...
#LegendaryWednesday
🎨Tatsuya Kosaka
1/3

A goddess dressed in white holding a rice plant. Two white foxes, one above and one below. Behind her rows of red torii.

2 24 120

Reposted by Rivka

hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · Jul 16

The witch walks for practicalities – field edge and hedge are pharmacy, a calendar telling the slow turn of the year in what may be seen and plucked. The witch walks for magic – treading paths as ritual conversation with the land. There are no dull navigations. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

4 39 250