Folklore and Cinema: The Trick Films of Georges Méliès
Visionary film director and stage magician Georges Méliès is perhaps the earliest filmmaker who saw the visual potential of folklore. Among others, mermaids, sirens, ghosts, devils, and sorcerers are ...
23 Touko 26min
The Folklore of Stringed Musical Instruments: The Viola, Irish Harp, Violin, and Guitar
Musical instruments appear scattered throughout various folktales. A drum lies at the centre of the Tedworth Drummer story. Pipers and drummers try to follow underground tunnels, only to mysteriously ...
16 Touko 21min
Theatre Superstitions: Whistling, the Ghost Light, and Macbeth
Going to the theatre can often feel like a magical experience. You sit in the dark, watching a story unfold in front of you, with your imagination filling in the gaps between the sets. It’s unsurpris...
9 Touko 48min
Cursed Artworks: Three Haunted Paintings and their Superstitions
Folklore and the arts are almost natural bedfellows. As we saw with the work of Newcastle-based painter Ralph Hedley, artists can capture local traditions for posterity. The Pre-Raphaelites created so...
2 Touko 20min
Divination Using Clouds, Flames, Ashes, and Dreams
Studying the shapes of things is a popular means of divination, relying on human pattern recognition abilities. Look at reading tea leaves and coffee grounds, or tasseography, which rely on spotting s...
25 Huhti 16min
Random Chance Divination: Casting Lots and Throwing Dice
Divination is a beautifully varied practice, with a plethora of tools and practices designed to give insight into situations. Practices like reading tea leaves or tarot cards already appear on this po...
18 Huhti 17min
Pendulum Dowsing: From the Sieve and Shears to Looking for Love
Last week, we looked at the use of dowsing to find treasure or criminals. Like water dowsing, this method requires the use of a rod that twitches in the hands when the target is close. But the other ...
11 Huhti 19min
The Scottish Fairy Courts with Morgan Daimler
Morgan Daimler is a witch who has been a polytheist since the early 1990s. Following a path inspired by the Irish Fairy Faith blended with neopagan witchcraft. Morgan teaches classes on Irish myth and...
10 Huhti 1h 26min
