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theasraidance.bsky.social
Rivka
@theasraidance.bsky.social
1.1K followers 690 following 310 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
‘All Souls’ Day’
by Witold Pruszkowski
Painting depicting the ghost of a girl in a graveyard, dressed in white. A small candle flickers beside her. She seems afraid as she looks straight at us, and a light mist swirls around her. Painted in 1888.
November 2, 2025 at 5:35 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
The Stroll
by Gertrude Abercrombie
#Caturday
Oil painting in the Surrealist style. A woman with long dark hair, wearing black clothes and a black hat, is walking along a path under a full moon. She has just passed by a single tree. She is accompanied by a black cat.
November 1, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Rivka
coffinboffin.bsky.social
HALLOWEEN FAIRIES - by yours truly
Fairies weren’t always cute – they used to drink human blood and kidnap children
theconversation.com/fairies-were...
Fairies weren’t always cute – they used to drink human blood and kidnap children
The ‘Disneyfication’ of fairies has helped us forget their darker origins.
theconversation.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:13 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
🍂November
by Theodore Robinson
Painting of a figure standing in a wood, near a brook. It's autumn, there is a carpet of fallen leaves on the ground. The figure is wearing a long light green cloak, under which the hem of a long dress or skirt is visible.
November 1, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Rivka
joncarling.bsky.social
The Reading Tree
October 31, 2025 at 5:38 AM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples'
~William Shakespeare

🎨'Ophelia' by Friedrich Heyser
#BookWormSat
Painting depicting the death of Ophelia, a character in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. She is floating on the water in a long white dress, among flowers and foliage.
November 1, 2025 at 1:11 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The Lady Ghost'
by Adelaide Claxton

#PhantomsFriday
Painting depicting a child in a long nightgown, approaching a melancholy lady ghost sitting on a chair. Another child watches from the bed.
October 31, 2025 at 6:52 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The Witch'
by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
Illustration from 'Fairyland'
Illustration to accompany the verse 'The Witch' by Annie R Rentoul. A witch on a broomstick is poised at the edge of a cliff, ready to fly. There are red toadstools at her feet, their colour matching her shoes and cloak. Bats circle in the sky, and in the background there are more cliffs and a glimpse of the sea.
October 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
An illustration by Hilda Boswell
for #Caturday
Illustration from 'The Witch's Cat', circa 1955, depicting a witch on a broomstick with her cat among the rooftops. In the background, there is another witch and some flying cats. From a window in one of the houses, someone is watching them.
October 25, 2025 at 6:20 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'I am but a shadow, come from the meadow
Where many lie, but no tree can stand.'

From Christina Rossetti's 'The Ghost's Petition'
Illustration by Florence Harrison
#BookWormSat
Illustration from 1910, depicting a Pre-Raphaelite styled woman with red hair. She is sitting on a chair in a wood panelled room. Standing before her is a ghostly figure.
October 25, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Rivka
hookland.bsky.social
Abundance is never a justification for greed. The witch looks around the corner of the now and harvests the hedge for tomorrow's ailments. She has no temptation to take the birds' share, nor the Faery's tithe. The witch's way refuses rapacity. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky
October 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Rivka
maggiemice.bsky.social
Leaf fall
October 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Rivka
signemaene.com
According to some Flemish folktales, the surest way to meet a werewolf was to walk the country roads after dark. More often than not, a robber wearing a wolf mask would appear from behind the trees and demand your possessions.

🎨Carmen Saldaña
#WyrdWednesday
Whimsical artwork of a wolf in snowy woods.
October 22, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Rivka
godysseypodcast.com
Daughter of Titan and Oceanid, Circe is the most prominent sorceress of Greek myth. She is able to transfigure men into pigs and women into monsters, and able to purify transgressions, such as Jason and her kin Medea's murder of Medea's brother #LegendaryWednesday

🖼️: Waterhouse
John Waterhouse's Circe Invidiosa, a gorgeous piece where Circe, standing on water, pours a poison potion into the water that transforms Scylla into a writhing monster, barely visible beneath the waves; the greens of this piece are contrasting and vivid.
October 22, 2025 at 2:31 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
Ceridwen
by Christopher Williams
#LegendaryWednesday
Painting of a woman with long dark hair, wearing a dark red dress. Her feet are bare. She sits with her chin resting against her hand and looks straight ahead, as though her eyes are fixed on us.
October 22, 2025 at 5:40 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'The Green Masque' by Oswald Birley
A portrait of his wife Rhoda in costume for the Venice Carnival, 1922.

#WyrdWednesday
'The Green Masque' is a 1922 painting by Oswald Birley depicting a young woman in fine, flamboyant Venetian carnival attire, standing against a dark background, holding a green mask in her right hand.
October 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
'Listen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.'
~Adelaide Crapsey

🎨Sulamith Wülfing
#BookwormSat
Delicate illustration of an ethereal, ghostly figure watching an autumn leaf fall. There are also three trees, two either side and one in the background.
October 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
🍂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.
October 8, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Rivka
hookland.bsky.social
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
October 8, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Rivka
pj-richards.bsky.social
🕯️🎃🕯️Pumpkin Lanterns - by Arthur Rackham
#FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday
October 7, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Rivka
curiousordinary.bsky.social
'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.
October 7, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by Rivka
maggiemice.bsky.social
Magical creatures
September 24, 2025 at 2:10 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
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.
October 8, 2025 at 3:32 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
"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.
October 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
theasraidance.bsky.social
🦋 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.
September 17, 2025 at 11:10 AM