The Ghost Monk
@theghostmonk.bsky.social
Enthusiast of British (mainly) ghostlore, folklore and vintage ghost and weird fiction. Collector of old magazines. Also keen on prehistoric monuments, old churches and suchlike. Am decidedly Q. All scans/photos my own (unless stated). Runs #PhantomsFriday
The outlier of the Nine Stones in the #PeakDistrict. It stands between the main circle, on their shallow mound, and Robin Hood's Stride, an oddly shaped outcrop that may have inspired the building of the circle. (Scanned from a photo I took in 2002.)
#StandingStoneSunday #stonecircles #Derbyshire
#StandingStoneSunday #stonecircles #Derbyshire
January 4, 2026 at 12:08 PM
The outlier of the Nine Stones in the #PeakDistrict. It stands between the main circle, on their shallow mound, and Robin Hood's Stride, an oddly shaped outcrop that may have inspired the building of the circle. (Scanned from a photo I took in 2002.)
#StandingStoneSunday #stonecircles #Derbyshire
#StandingStoneSunday #stonecircles #Derbyshire
One of Virgil Finlay's very best illustrations in my opinion. It's for Robert E Howard's 'Skull Face'. The silhouette in the skull's eye socket is a masterpiece, as is - as always - his mastery of light and shade.
#VirgilFinlay #RobertEHoward #WeirdTales #weirdart #illustration #artsky
#VirgilFinlay #RobertEHoward #WeirdTales #weirdart #illustration #artsky
January 4, 2026 at 12:02 PM
One of Virgil Finlay's very best illustrations in my opinion. It's for Robert E Howard's 'Skull Face'. The silhouette in the skull's eye socket is a masterpiece, as is - as always - his mastery of light and shade.
#VirgilFinlay #RobertEHoward #WeirdTales #weirdart #illustration #artsky
#VirgilFinlay #RobertEHoward #WeirdTales #weirdart #illustration #artsky
A detail of 'Christ With a Child' In St Tysilio's Church, Bryneglwys, #Denbighshire. The glass was given in about 1896 to the memory of John Yale, by his parents. John died aged 31, but choosing to use a portrait of him as a child is really affecting, I think.
#StainedGlassSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
January 4, 2026 at 10:47 AM
A detail of 'Christ With a Child' In St Tysilio's Church, Bryneglwys, #Denbighshire. The glass was given in about 1896 to the memory of John Yale, by his parents. John died aged 31, but choosing to use a portrait of him as a child is really affecting, I think.
#StainedGlassSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
"How do you know but every bird
That cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight
Closed by your senses five?"
- William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
(Picture is the title page from the 1790 edition)
#BookWormSat #WilliamBlake
That cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight
Closed by your senses five?"
- William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
(Picture is the title page from the 1790 edition)
#BookWormSat #WilliamBlake
January 3, 2026 at 11:50 AM
"How do you know but every bird
That cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight
Closed by your senses five?"
- William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
(Picture is the title page from the 1790 edition)
#BookWormSat #WilliamBlake
That cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight
Closed by your senses five?"
- William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
(Picture is the title page from the 1790 edition)
#BookWormSat #WilliamBlake
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Welcome to new mutuals!
If it might interest anyone reading, I'm creating three feeds:
1) Goth
2) Halloween Fiends
3) Gothic Gardening
More later, including dark art, horror films & books, and gothic literature (among others).
Comment to be added! We need co-admins; feel free to sign up. 🖤🦇🎃🥀🌱
If it might interest anyone reading, I'm creating three feeds:
1) Goth
2) Halloween Fiends
3) Gothic Gardening
More later, including dark art, horror films & books, and gothic literature (among others).
Comment to be added! We need co-admins; feel free to sign up. 🖤🦇🎃🥀🌱
February 5, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Welcome to new mutuals!
If it might interest anyone reading, I'm creating three feeds:
1) Goth
2) Halloween Fiends
3) Gothic Gardening
More later, including dark art, horror films & books, and gothic literature (among others).
Comment to be added! We need co-admins; feel free to sign up. 🖤🦇🎃🥀🌱
If it might interest anyone reading, I'm creating three feeds:
1) Goth
2) Halloween Fiends
3) Gothic Gardening
More later, including dark art, horror films & books, and gothic literature (among others).
Comment to be added! We need co-admins; feel free to sign up. 🖤🦇🎃🥀🌱
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Let's check back in a year's time and see if any were ticked off.
Please feel free to add any more of your paranormal bingo suggestions...
Please feel free to add any more of your paranormal bingo suggestions...
December 31, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Let's check back in a year's time and see if any were ticked off.
Please feel free to add any more of your paranormal bingo suggestions...
Please feel free to add any more of your paranormal bingo suggestions...
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
17 Forbidden Medieval Superstitions and Practices www.medievalists.net/2025/01/17-f... #medieval
17 Forbidden Medieval Superstitions and Practices - Medievalists.net
Discover the strange and forbidden practices that medieval Church authorities fought to banish—but never fully eradicated.
www.medievalists.net
January 2, 2026 at 8:17 PM
17 Forbidden Medieval Superstitions and Practices www.medievalists.net/2025/01/17-f... #medieval
January 3, 2026 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
January 1, 2026 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Along alleys, wyndes and neglected cobbles, we find ghosts. Not grand names made spectre, not phantoms of infamous murderers, but ghosts none the less. The shades of ratcatchers, laundry workers, gin-soaked spirits on way home from the pub. Ghosts taking the shortcuts they knew in life. – #CJosiffe
January 2, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Along alleys, wyndes and neglected cobbles, we find ghosts. Not grand names made spectre, not phantoms of infamous murderers, but ghosts none the less. The shades of ratcatchers, laundry workers, gin-soaked spirits on way home from the pub. Ghosts taking the shortcuts they knew in life. – #CJosiffe
Rev Robert Kirk was a pioneering folklorist who studied #fairy beliefs around his home at Aberfoyle. #Sterling. In 1691 he wrote 'The Secret Commonwealth Of Fairies', an almost hallucinatory account which led some to believe he was able to actually visit fairyland to gain his info. [1/2
#BookWormSat
#BookWormSat
January 3, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Rev Robert Kirk was a pioneering folklorist who studied #fairy beliefs around his home at Aberfoyle. #Sterling. In 1691 he wrote 'The Secret Commonwealth Of Fairies', an almost hallucinatory account which led some to believe he was able to actually visit fairyland to gain his info. [1/2
#BookWormSat
#BookWormSat
Like the ghosts of Blandy Castle, #PhantomsFriday drifts elegantly away into the bright moonlit night. Many thanks to all the contributors to the feed: another rewarding day of fascinating, startling and varied posts. Nice to welcome a new contributor, too.
January 2, 2026 at 10:06 PM
Like the ghosts of Blandy Castle, #PhantomsFriday drifts elegantly away into the bright moonlit night. Many thanks to all the contributors to the feed: another rewarding day of fascinating, startling and varied posts. Nice to welcome a new contributor, too.
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
La Alfaguara Sanatorium
20 minutes by car from the city of Granada, this building was constructed as a hospital for tuberculosis patients. During the Civil War, the building was used as a field hospital, and many soldiers died in its rooms. 1/2
#PhantomsFriday #folklore #horror #ghosts
20 minutes by car from the city of Granada, this building was constructed as a hospital for tuberculosis patients. During the Civil War, the building was used as a field hospital, and many soldiers died in its rooms. 1/2
#PhantomsFriday #folklore #horror #ghosts
January 2, 2026 at 6:28 PM
La Alfaguara Sanatorium
20 minutes by car from the city of Granada, this building was constructed as a hospital for tuberculosis patients. During the Civil War, the building was used as a field hospital, and many soldiers died in its rooms. 1/2
#PhantomsFriday #folklore #horror #ghosts
20 minutes by car from the city of Granada, this building was constructed as a hospital for tuberculosis patients. During the Civil War, the building was used as a field hospital, and many soldiers died in its rooms. 1/2
#PhantomsFriday #folklore #horror #ghosts
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
“The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which I most eagerly sought;”
(Mary Shelley)
🎨 Angela Barrett “A story of Mary Shelley”
#PhantomsFriday
(Mary Shelley)
🎨 Angela Barrett “A story of Mary Shelley”
#PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 5:00 PM
“The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which I most eagerly sought;”
(Mary Shelley)
🎨 Angela Barrett “A story of Mary Shelley”
#PhantomsFriday
(Mary Shelley)
🎨 Angela Barrett “A story of Mary Shelley”
#PhantomsFriday
Stiles are often haunted in #folklore because they are liminal -neither one place nor another. Folklorist Marie Trevelyan recorded a weird example, the 'Big Man's Stile' in the Vale of #Glamorgan. Its #ghost was described as 'gigantic, swarthy, with coal-black hair and fiery eyes'.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Stiles are often haunted in #folklore because they are liminal -neither one place nor another. Folklorist Marie Trevelyan recorded a weird example, the 'Big Man's Stile' in the Vale of #Glamorgan. Its #ghost was described as 'gigantic, swarthy, with coal-black hair and fiery eyes'.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Boggart is Cumbrian dialect for ghost. In West Cumbria, Muncaster Castle’s boggart is a white lady apparition. She is said to be the ghost of murdered local, Mary Bragg, seeking revenge or recognition of her demise. #PhantomsFriday #ghosts #dialect #Cumbria
January 2, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Boggart is Cumbrian dialect for ghost. In West Cumbria, Muncaster Castle’s boggart is a white lady apparition. She is said to be the ghost of murdered local, Mary Bragg, seeking revenge or recognition of her demise. #PhantomsFriday #ghosts #dialect #Cumbria
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Japanese ghost stories often have elaborate meals where a hapless human returns home to a spouse whom they wronged, and are offered a feast. If anything, this is a bridge to the conceit: the wronged are long dead and want revenge, or a yōkai seeks to avenge them. #PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Japanese ghost stories often have elaborate meals where a hapless human returns home to a spouse whom they wronged, and are offered a feast. If anything, this is a bridge to the conceit: the wronged are long dead and want revenge, or a yōkai seeks to avenge them. #PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
1/2 Periwinkle has been known as 'sorcerer's violet', 'fairy paintbrush' or 'flower of death'. It is evergreen, so was associated with immortality and said to calm restless ghosts.
🎨John William Waterhouse
www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3360... #art #fineart #folklore #PhantomsFriday #giftidea
🎨John William Waterhouse
www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3360... #art #fineart #folklore #PhantomsFriday #giftidea
The Sorceress - John William Waterhouse by forgottenbeauty | Redbubble
The Sorceress - John William Waterhouse Painted between 1911 and 1915, this is Waterhouse's third depiction of Circe. The others are Circe Offering The Cup to Ulysses and Circe Indiviosa Please look ...
www.redbubble.com
January 2, 2026 at 2:10 PM
1/2 Periwinkle has been known as 'sorcerer's violet', 'fairy paintbrush' or 'flower of death'. It is evergreen, so was associated with immortality and said to calm restless ghosts.
🎨John William Waterhouse
www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3360... #art #fineart #folklore #PhantomsFriday #giftidea
🎨John William Waterhouse
www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3360... #art #fineart #folklore #PhantomsFriday #giftidea
In Pearson's Magazine in 1907, J A Middleton also wrote about Glamis Castle, #Angus, which surely must have more #ghost traditions attached to it than any other house in #Scotland. All the charming (and cruelly uncredited) illustrations follow, plus one from Harmondsworth's Magazine.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 1:38 PM
In Pearson's Magazine in 1907, J A Middleton also wrote about Glamis Castle, #Angus, which surely must have more #ghost traditions attached to it than any other house in #Scotland. All the charming (and cruelly uncredited) illustrations follow, plus one from Harmondsworth's Magazine.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Part of a letter we received in 1998. Glovers Farm, Sidley, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. #PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Part of a letter we received in 1998. Glovers Farm, Sidley, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. #PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Beadle’s Half‑Dime Library, #19, circa Oct 1877
The Phantom Spy;
or, The Pilot of the Prairie
"Far out upon the prairie and plainly visible in the moonlight, was what appeared to be a specter horse and rider... she seemed to urge her steed on by a mere exertion of her will." #PhantomsFriday
The Phantom Spy;
or, The Pilot of the Prairie
"Far out upon the prairie and plainly visible in the moonlight, was what appeared to be a specter horse and rider... she seemed to urge her steed on by a mere exertion of her will." #PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Beadle’s Half‑Dime Library, #19, circa Oct 1877
The Phantom Spy;
or, The Pilot of the Prairie
"Far out upon the prairie and plainly visible in the moonlight, was what appeared to be a specter horse and rider... she seemed to urge her steed on by a mere exertion of her will." #PhantomsFriday
The Phantom Spy;
or, The Pilot of the Prairie
"Far out upon the prairie and plainly visible in the moonlight, was what appeared to be a specter horse and rider... she seemed to urge her steed on by a mere exertion of her will." #PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
#PhantomsFriday 1906, Cambridge, MA: 3-year-old Walter Landry said that his mother appeared before him, spoke his name and held out her arms to him--just as she was being buried in a cemetery several miles away. The little boy didn't know she was dead; his father had wanted to (briefly) spare him.
January 2, 2026 at 12:01 PM
#PhantomsFriday 1906, Cambridge, MA: 3-year-old Walter Landry said that his mother appeared before him, spoke his name and held out her arms to him--just as she was being buried in a cemetery several miles away. The little boy didn't know she was dead; his father had wanted to (briefly) spare him.
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
An illustration of a spectre in a marsh by Irving Montagu (1893). Terrifying!😱 #PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 11:37 AM
An illustration of a spectre in a marsh by Irving Montagu (1893). Terrifying!😱 #PhantomsFriday
In J A Middleton's 'Grey Ghost Book' she tells of a ghost monk who clearly had none of my charm. It was variously described as 'awful', 'diabolical', 'malicious', 'the most evil thing I ever saw' and looking like 'a pig's face in a pillow case'. It resisted two exorcisms... [1/2
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
January 2, 2026 at 11:33 AM
In J A Middleton's 'Grey Ghost Book' she tells of a ghost monk who clearly had none of my charm. It was variously described as 'awful', 'diabolical', 'malicious', 'the most evil thing I ever saw' and looking like 'a pig's face in a pillow case'. It resisted two exorcisms... [1/2
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
Reposted by The Ghost Monk
Aberglasney House and Gardens
Llangathen, Carmarthanshire
One day in the 1630’s, a housekeeper saw five disembodied candles, floating around the house's newly plastered "blue room.
The next morning, five maidservants were found dead in their beds there.
1/2
#phantomsfriday
Llangathen, Carmarthanshire
One day in the 1630’s, a housekeeper saw five disembodied candles, floating around the house's newly plastered "blue room.
The next morning, five maidservants were found dead in their beds there.
1/2
#phantomsfriday
January 2, 2026 at 9:35 AM
Aberglasney House and Gardens
Llangathen, Carmarthanshire
One day in the 1630’s, a housekeeper saw five disembodied candles, floating around the house's newly plastered "blue room.
The next morning, five maidservants were found dead in their beds there.
1/2
#phantomsfriday
Llangathen, Carmarthanshire
One day in the 1630’s, a housekeeper saw five disembodied candles, floating around the house's newly plastered "blue room.
The next morning, five maidservants were found dead in their beds there.
1/2
#phantomsfriday