Fear of premature burial reaches that primal part in all of us that Sigmund Freud surveyed in his 1919 essay, ‘The Uncanny’. Edgar Allan Poe explored the horrors of premature burial in his 1844 story, ‘The Premature Burial‘. Stephen King even skirted the edges of the fear with his short story, ‘Autopsy Room Four’. In it, […]
death
Moths in Folklore: Bringers of Death and Letters
Moths aren’t exactly popular insects. Within folklore, they’re typically viewed as either messengers from the dead or symbols of death. Some of the symbolism crosses over with that of the butterfly. It’s easy to see why they get muddled up. Both butterflies and moths belong to the Lepidoptera family. T. R. New points out that […]
Is Victorian death photography creepy or just sad?
The Victorians could certainly be a weird bunch. They invented the modern seance and picnicked in cemeteries. Talented taxidermists turned the craft into an art form, particularly involving anthropomorphised animals. They made jewellery out of the hair of their loved ones. It’s hardly surprising that they’d also invent death photography. As we’re in the build-up […]
Are Ouija boards really evil doorways to hell?
Ouija boards hold a particularly sinister reputation, even among people who might otherwise consider themselves rational or scientific. They’ll happily use an EMF meter, or bust out the cameras and voice recorders, on a ghost hunt. But show them a Ouija board and you can’t see them for dust. If you believe horror movies, the […]
Is spirit photography even possible or is it just fraud?
We live in an age in which we’re used to edited imagery and special effects. But such visual trickery predates Photoshop and other software by a good century and a half. The field of spirit photography relied on a mixture of belief, photographic gimmicks, and new technology to ‘capture’ the dead. Is it really all […]
Butterflies in Folklore: Love, Death and the Soul
Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere, even way up here in northern England. Birds sing and bees are starting to drift around on warmer days. It won’t be long until we start seeing butterflies too. Some species have even been sighted as long ago as late February in the UK. But what superstitions or […]
