Governing from today through 17 September, our thirty-fifth spirit is infernal grand marquis presents in the likeness of a she-wolf with the wings of a griffon and the tail of a serpent. A good ally to a conjurer and willing to aid in any fight, Marchosias formerly belonged to the angelic rank of Dominions with control of thirty legion and hopes in vain to be restored to Heaven and the Seventh Throne after twelve hundred years. Marchosias is opposed by the guardian angel Kaveqiah.
Monday 13 September 2021
Sunday 22 August 2021
♄ viii
Discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1671 and later dubbed after the titan Iapetus after the naming convention established by William Herschel—with the antiquated adjectival form of Japetian that points to the conflation of the deity with Japheth, brother of Moses—and explored more thoroughly during the 2007 mission named after its discoverer, the satellite of Saturn first loomed large in human imagination when on this day in 1981 the Voyager 2 probe relayed the featured image back to Earth. The prominent equatorial ridge, named the Voyager Mountains after the photograph are among the highest in the known Solar System, and ring the object almost perfectly, giving rise to the theory that the feature is a reabsorbed ring and the probable but yet unseen occurrence of sub-satellites.
catagories: ๐ซ๐ท, ๐ฎ๐น, ๐ญ, ๐ช, myth and monsters
Thursday 19 August 2021
saulฤ
The solar deity in the Lithuanian pantheon, the goddess’ name is also the common name for the sun and the celestial bodies, including the Earth (ลฝemฤ) are a familial constellation of the seven daughters of her consort the Moon, Mฤnulis.The other offspring reflect the planets known to Antiquity with Venus represented twice as the Morning Star, Auลกrinฤ, and Vakarinฤ—the Evening Star—that prepared her mother for bed. The asterism Ursa Major was as Grigo Ratai interpreted as a chariot for Saulฤ procession across the celestial sphere. The Houses of the Zodiac are regarded as liberators, having rescued the Sun from captivity in a high tower by an evil and powerful king seeking to subvert the land. The representative idol is near contemporary reproduction based off ancient totems.
catagories: ๐, ๐ญ, myth and monsters, ⓦ
Wednesday 18 August 2021
mozaika
It’s Nice That directs our attention to a fantastic archive curating the work of twenty-seven MidCentury Lithuanian illustrators who contributed to literary works aimed for sophisticated children in the form of Baltic fairy and folktales. The pictured work is from Albina Makลซnaitฤ (*1926 - †2001) and betrays something of the subject’s inner-monologue, rich in detail, and later represented Lithuania in the 1960s in the Venice Biennale with her modernist, progressive art. See a whole gallery of works at the link above with more about the artists and authors at the links above.
catagories: ๐, ๐จ, ๐, myth and monsters
your daily demon: forneus
Presenting as a dread sea monster and governing from today through 22 August, our thirtieth spirit is an infernal marquis whose office it is to endear individuals to friend and foe alike and impart skills in the rhetorical arts. Countered by the Shem HaMephorash guardian angel Omael, Forneus (from the Latin fornus for oven, crucible and can take many forms) rules over twenty-nine legion.
catagories: ๐, myth and monsters
Monday 2 August 2021
6x6
roll for perception: the official video for the 1987 Rick Astley hit (previously) surpasses one billion views
until proven safe: EURIDICE, the eponym from the mythological Eurydice who Orpheus failed to retrieve from the Underworld, is the acronym for European Underground Research Infrastructure for the Disposal of Nuclear Waste in a Clay Environmenta clokey production: a bot scours Gumbasia for random screen-grabs
pelagic waters: exploring the oceans’ midnight zone beyond the reach of the sun’s rays
portrait of a teenage alcoholic: a 1975 after school special starring The Exorcist’s Linda Blair and Star Wars’ Mark Hamill
an eternal golden braid: some crib-notes and a course on the 1987 classic Gรถdel, Escher, Bach
Friday 30 July 2021
tgif
Twin brother and complementary to the Norse goddess Freyja (‘Lady’ and name-giver to Friday) the fertility deity Freyr (‘Lord’) is the patron of virility, sacral rule—in other words theocratic kingship whereby the monarch is also priest and judge—as well as fair weather, a good harvest, peace and prosperity. Granted domain by the gods over รlfheimr, realm of the light elves as an infant as a teething gift, Freyr’s steed is a mechanical boar called Gullinbursti, a tribute from the dwarves and from the magic of Odin the fine ship Skรญรฐblaรฐnir that can be folded up and kept in a pouch when not in use plus arms including an enchanted sword that fights on its own. Having little truck with man, Freyr seems a mythological figure belonging to the other legendary races and perhaps signals the weekend for elven kind. In one of the better attested sagas, Freyr is besotted with a giantess named Gerรฐr (Old Norse for Fenced-In). His advances rebuffed, Freyr grows despondent and lovesick and recruits one of his footmen, Skรญnir, to go to Jรถtunheimr (the Realm of the Giants) to woo Gerรฐr on his behalf. Even though as a Vanr is gifted, cursed with foresight and knows bereft of his magic sword his fate is to be vanquished at Ragnarรถk, Freyr promises it to his surrogate as a reward.
catagories: ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐ณ๐ด, ๐ธ๐ช, myth and monsters
Thursday 29 July 2021
lotr
Preceded by The Hobbit and followed by The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the fantasy epic by J. R. R. Tolkien was first released on this day in 1954 in London by the publishing house of Allen & Unwin—familiar to most as a trilogy but originally intended to appear as a single volume and accompanying The Silmarillion. The highly influential and academically parsed for its mythology, philology and personal allegories experiences of World War I has enjoyed an enduring legacy and continued acclaim, inspiring many adaptions and derivative works. Mainly told from the narrative perspective of the above mentioned Hobbits, the book begins to the follow the quest to find and destroy the One Ring and keep it from Dark Lord Sauron.
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐, myth and monsters, Tolkien, ⓦ
olaf ii haraldsson
Posthumously proclaimed eternal king and rapidly acclaimed as patron for Fรธroyar (the Faroe Islands) and a popular saint for greater Scandinavia, Norwegian realms extending over most of the region, the Vestfold ruler is venerated on this day, the anniversary of his death on the battlefield of Stiklestad in 1030, elevating his younger, half-brother Harald Hardrada to the throne. Olaf’s sainthood, saga and symbolism (attributed with qualities of Thor and Freyr) encouraged the widespread adoption of Christianity in the territory—though in his lifetime, after his own baptism in Rouen, wintering there with Duke Richard II of Normandy (see previously), was given the epithet “the Lawbreaker” for the forceful and exploitative means he used to win converts amongst the population.
Friday 23 July 2021
neptunalia
The ancient Roman festival with games (ludi) honouring the god of the seas was held on this day as a propitious act in the middle of the hot summer and drought to coax back the waters and escape the oppressive heat of the city by repairing to the countryside and sheltering under umbrรฆ for a shaded repast. At first not enjoying the universal acclaim of his Greek counterpart Poseidon, Neptune was not broadly regarded as the patron and protector of maritime affairs but rather as a guarantor of personal agricultural success, though was later held in more esteem as Rome developed as a naval power and the holiday came to be marked with the flooding of the Pantheon to return and tame the waters.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ท, ๐, myth and monsters
Sunday 18 July 2021
your daily demon: naberus
This twenty-fourth infernal marquis or field-marshal who governs from this day through 22 July and commands nineteen legion. With the office to imbue cunningness in rhetoric and the natural sciences, Naberus presents as a three-headed hound with the body of a raven and according to most Goetic sources is synonymous with the Cerberus of Greek mythology which guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from escaping. Naberus is opposed by the guardian angel called Chahoah.
catagories: ⚰️, ๐, myth and monsters
Tuesday 13 July 2021
your daily demon: aim
Also known as Haborym, this twenty-third spirit and infernal duke governs from today until 17 July and exhibits pyromaniacal tendencies, presenting as a three-headed (one of a handsome man, one of a serpent and one of a calf) apparition riding a viper and bearing a firebrand and will upon request set things a-blaze. A secondary virtue is in imbuing wit to those who summon him. Twenty-six legions at his command, Aim is countered by the guardian angel Melahel.
catagories: ๐, myth and monsters
Sunday 11 July 2021
would you stay if she promised you heaven?
The eponymous tenth studio album from Fleetwood Mac released on this day in 1975—referred to as their White Album—includes such hit tracks as “Say You Love Me” and “Over My Head” and the below single who takes its title from a strong-minded Otherworld figure from the Welsh legendarium the Mabinogion. Reportedly live performances of Rhiannon took on the earnest theatricality of a possession and exorcism with Stevie Nicks more engrossed by the story of the character the more she learned about her.
catagories: ๐ถ, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ, 1975, myth and monsters
Thursday 8 July 2021
hic sunt dracones
Via the always interesting Languagehat not only do we learn that there is a cooperative effect to document and propagate a lexical database of marine life, said lexicon also covers chimera and mythical beings, revealing that merfolk also include the merbishop (unclear whether that is due to appearance or ecclesiastical hierarchy), an anthropomorphic fish described by Cornelius Aurelius in 1517 and revisited by renowned Swiss naturalist and regarded as the father of zoology Conrad Gessner in 1604—exemplars along with mermonks (moine de mer, Seemรถnch, pesce monaco) captured in the Baltic Sea. Much more to explore at the links above—including an impressively comprehensive, non-sea-life glossary of boat-building terminology.
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐ง♂️, ๐ข, myth and monsters
your daily demon: ipos
This twenty-second spirit governing from today through 12 July presents in the form of a chimera described as having the body of a lion with the head and talons of a vulture, the feet of a goose and the tail of a hare, a fearsome earl commanding thirty-six legion. Giving good counsel on things to come, he imbues wit and charisma, Ipos is sometimes conflated with the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed Anubis (originally Inpu), god of the dead, protector of tombs and ferryman conveying souls to the Underworld, and is countered by the guardian angel Yeyayel.
catagories: ⚰️, ๐ฆข, ๐, myth and monsters
Saturday 3 July 2021
ฮตฯฮผฮฑฯฯฯฮดฮนฯฮฟฯ
Though the term is outdated and can be confusing and offensive if applied to an intersex individual, it had never occurred to us question where the construction hermaphrodite came from. It is rooted in Greek mythology as illustrated uncharitably anachronistically in this 1460 woodblock tableau from Guillaume Vrelant of the encounter between the naiad Salmacis and the youth Hermaphroditus, the son of the Olympian gods Hermes and Aphrodite, a portmanteau of the parental names. Sexual predation and objectification of course abounds in the classical but Salmacis is uniquely the only female perpetrator—subject of course to double-standards, being roundly shamed for it, the cougar nymph encountering, a popular theme for early Renaissance paintings as well, the fifteen-year-old bathing in the pristine pond (sacred to her and where she was wont to gaze at her reflection like Narcissus) and lusting after him grabbed him tightly, praying to the heavens that they never be parted as Hermaphroditus struggled to get away. For reasons not explained—especially given the teen-ager’s high birth—Salmacis’ wish was granted and their bodies were fused into one. Further unaccounted for was Hermaphroditus’ request to his parents that anyone else bathing in the pool would also be transformed, unclear whether their son was capable of thinking just as himself any longer or whether he thought this new nature to be a curse or a blessing.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ท, ๐, myth and monsters
Friday 2 July 2021
your daily demon: morax
Governing from today through 7 July, this twenty-first spirit and infernal earl presents alternately like a bull-headed Minotaur or a mighty bull-like chimera with the face of a man. Giving wise counsel in astronomy and astrology, impairing the virtues of herbs and precious stones, Morax commands thirty legions and is opposed by the guardian angel Nelakael, and according to some sources is a syncretism with the Ancient Egyptian goddess of Truth and Justice Ma’at, as well as the patroness of writing and rhetoric.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐, ๐, myth and monsters
Sunday 27 June 2021
your daily demon: purson
Governing from today through the first of July, the twentieth spirit is an infernal king that commands twenty-two legions. Heralding his own appearance with a mighty blast of trumpets, Purson presents as a man with a lion’s head bearing a viper and astride a bear. Matched with Pahaliah, both with the angelic rank of the Order of Thrones, the demon can be persuaded to reveal the secrets of creation and foster good familiars.
catagories: ๐บ, ๐, myth and monsters
Wednesday 16 June 2021
your daily demon: bathin
Ruling from today through 21 June, this eighteenth spirit is an mighty infernal duke who presents as a mounted muscular man with a serpent’s tail and imparts knowledge on plants and stones and has the power to transport people across wide swaths of land or sea instantaneously through astral projection. Governing thirty legion, Bathin is sometimes conflated with the Egyptian goddess Nephthys, sister-wife of Set, associated with funerary rites and the preparation and preservation of mummies and by the process of syncretion, patroness of the mourning, magic, health, embalming and beer. Bathin is opposed by the angel Caliel.
catagories: ๐ป, ๐, myth and monsters
Monday 14 June 2021
the incredibly strange creatures who stopped living and became mixed-up zombies
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐บ, ๐ง, myth and monsters