The Huldra is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. Her name comes from a root meaning "covered" or "secret". In Norwegian folklore, she is known as the skogsfru or skovfrue (meaning "Lady of the forest"). She is known as the skogsrå (forest spirit) or Tallemaja (pine tree Mary) in Swedish folklore, and Ulda in Sámi folklore. She is also considered the same being as the völva Huld and the German Holda. There are also male hulders, called huldu, or, in Norway, a huldrekarl. This being is closely related to other underground dwellers, usually called tusser. Like the female counterpart, the huldrekarl is a shapeshifter who often lures girls under a fair countenance.
     The female creature, however, is descrived as a stunningly beautiful naked woman with long hair, and has an animal's tail. In Norway, she has a cow's tail, and in Sweden she may have that of a cow or a fox. Further in the north of Sweden, the tail can be entirely omitted in favor of her hollow or bark-covered back. The huldra is one of several rå (keeper, warden), including the aquatic Sjörå (or havsfru), later identified with a mermaids, and the bergsrå in caves and mines who made life tough for the poor miners.    
     The huldras were held to be kind to charcoal burners, watching their charcoal kilns while they rested. Knowing that she would wake them if there were any problems, they were able to sleep, and in exchange they left provisions for her in a special place. A tale from Närke illustrates further how kind a huldra could be, especially if treated with respect (Hellström 1985:15). Read it below.

     "A boy in Tiveden went fishing, but he had no luck. Then he met a beautiful lady, and she was so stunning that he felt he had to catch his breath. But, then he realized who she was, because he could see a fox's tail sticking out below the skirt. As he knew that it was forbidden to comment on the tail to the lady of the forest, if it were not done in the most polite manner, he bowed deeply and said with his softest voice, "Milady, I see that your petticoat shows below your skirt". The lady thanked him gracefully and hid her tail under her skirt, telling the boy to fish on the other side of the lake. That day, the boy had great luck with his fishing and he caught a fish every time he threw out the line. This was the huldra's recognition of his politeness."

     In some traditions, the huldra lures men into the forest to have sexual intercourse with her, rewarding those who satisfy her and often killing those who do not. The Norwegian huldra is a lot less bloodthirsty and may simply kidnap a man or lure him into the underworld. She sometimes steals human infants and replaces them with her own ugly huldrebarn (changeling huldre children). In some cases, the intercourse resulted in a child, being presented to the unknowing father. In some cases, she forces him to marry her.
     Sometimes she marries a local farm boy, but when this happens, the glamour leaves her when the priest lays his hand on her, or when she enters the church. Some legends tell of husbands who subsequently treat her badly. Some fairy tales leave out this feature, and only relate how a marriage to a Christian man will cause her to lose her tail, but not her looks, and let the couple live happily ever after. However if she is treated badly, she will remind him that she is far from weak, often by straightening out a horseshoe with her bare hands, sometimes while it is still glowing hot from the forge or even lift up a tree trunk.
     If betrayed, the huldra can punish the man severely, as in one case from Sigdal, when she avenged her pride on a young braggart she had sworn to marry, on the promise that he would not tell anybody of her. The boy instead bragged about his bride for a year, and when they met again, she beat him around the ears with her cow's tail. He lost his hearing and his wits for the rest of his life.
    The hulder has long been associated with hunting; she might blow down the barrel of a huntsman's rifle, causing it never thereafter to miss a shot. Some men are not so lucky, or perhaps skilled, and escape her only after surrendering their sanity. The huldra myth has also been associated with Christianity in the past, and a tale recounts how a woman had washed only half of her children when God came to her cottage; ashamed of the dirty ones, she hid them. God decreed that those she had hidden from him would be hidden from mankind; they became the huldrer.

~Ally

      It's back to mythology and folklore today, folks! And I must say: I missed it a little!
     Today I want to tell you a bit about the Alp Luachra, also spelt Alp-luachra or Alpluachra, and also known as a Joint-eater or Just-halver. This is an evil and greedy fairy from Irish mythology that seems to be always lurking for food through humans.
    When a person falls asleep by the side of a spring or stream, the Alp-luachra appears in the form of a newt and crawls down the person's mouth, feeding off the food that they had eaten. According to Robert Kirk's "Secret Commonwealth of Fairies", this creature feeds not on the food itself, but on the "pith or quintessence" of the food. Another famous occurrence is in Douglas Hyde's "Beside the Fire", which tells of how a person got back at an Alp-luachra by eating large amounts of salted meat and sleeping near the stream. The Alp-luachra fed upon him, but jumped to the water in thirst.
     Next time you fall asleep next to a strem and wake up with a nasty or strange taste in your mouth, blame the Alp-luachra, not your lack of teeth brushing!

~Ally

     Ancient English royalty confuses and amazes me very much. One of my favorite stories is the one of Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days' Queen, although I didn't know her full story up until today.
     Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley, was an English noblewoman and de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553. She was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, and first cousin once removed of Edward VI. In May 1553, she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen on 19 July 1553. Jane was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared. Wyatt's rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary I's plans to marry Philip of Spain led to the execution of both Jane and her husband.
      It is said that she had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day. Jane preferred book studies to hunting parties and regarded her strict upbringing, which was well-meant and typical of the time, as harsh.A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr.
     The previous King died on 6 July 1553. On 9 July Jane was informed that she was now queen, and according to her own later claims, accepted the crown only with reluctance. The next day, she was officially proclaimed Queen of England after she had taken up secure residence in the Tower of London, where English monarchs customarily resided from the time of accession until coronation. Jane refused to name her husband Dudley as king by letters patent and deferred to Parliament. She offered to make him Duke of Clarence instead.
     Northumberland had to isolate and, ideally, capture Lady Mary to prevent her from gathering support. As soon as Mary was sure of King Edward's demise, though, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set out to East Anglia, where she began to rally her supporters. Northumberland set out from London with troops on 14 July; in his absence the Privy Council switched their allegiance from Jane to Mary, and proclaimed her queen in London on 19 July among great jubilation of the populace. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower's Gentleman Gaoler's apartments, her husband in the Beauchamp Tower. The new queen entered London in a triumphal procession on 3 August, and the Duke of Northumberland was executed on 22 August 1553. In September, Parliament declared Mary the rightful queen and denounced and revoked Jane's proclamation as that of a usurper.
     Jane and Lord Guildford Dudley were both charged with high treason, together with two of Dudley's brothers and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on 13 November 1553, at the Guildhall in the City of London. The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Other members included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. As was to be expected, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane was found guilty of having signed a number of documents as "Jane the Queen"; her sentence was to "be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases".
    The Protestant rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the Younger in January 1554 sealed Jane's fate, although she had nothing to do with it. Wyatt's rebellion was a revolt precipitated by Queen Mary's planned marriage to the future Philip II of Spain. Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, and his two brothers joined the rebellion, which caused the government to go through with the verdict against Jane and Guildford. Their execution was first scheduled for 9 February 1554, but was then postponed for three days so that Jane should get a chance to be converted to the Catholic faith. Mary sent her chaplain John Feckenham to Jane, who was initially not pleased about this. Though she would not give in to his efforts "to save her soul", she became friends with him and allowed him to accompany her to the scaffold.
     On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Guildford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband's corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: "Oh, Guildford, Guildford." She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded.
     According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:

     "Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day."

     She then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: "I pray you dispatch me quickly." Referring to her head, she asked, "Will you take it off before I lay me down?", and the axeman answered: "No, madam." She then blindfolded herself. Jane then failed to find the block with her hands, and cried, "What shall I do? Where is it?" Probably Sir Thomas Brydges, the Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, helped her find her way. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"
     Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. Jane's father, Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on 23 February 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes in March 1555. She was fully pardoned by Mary and allowed to live at Court with her two surviving daughters.

~Ally

     "'You do!' 'Do what?' 'Remind me of the Babe!'"
     Ok, Labyrinth movie jokes aside, today I decided to read a little about Hoodoo and to discover what are the differences between it and Voodoo, if there are any.
     Hoodoo has some spiritual principles and practices similar to spiritual folkways in Haitian, Cuban, Jamaican and New Orleans traditions, and it seems to have evolved in the Mississippi Delta where the concentration of slaves was dense. Then, the belief spread throughout the Southeast as well as North along the Mississippi as African Americans left the Delta beginning in the 1930s.
     There is still strong mainstream American prejudice against hoodoo, based on the myths that hoodoo is practiced primarily with selfish, hurtful intentions, or that it is related to worship of the Christian devil, Satan. Hoodoo is sometimes thought of as "folk magic" or "superstition". These terms tend to perpetuate the misperception that hoodoo is a childlike belief in tricks. The efficacy of hoodoo as a spiritual influence on outcomes in the physical and social world is comparable to that of mainstream religious rituals.
     Spiritual folkways like hoodoo are an ever-evolving process, continuously synthesizing from contact with other cultures, religions and folkways. What is striking about the hoodoo folk process is the use of biblical figures in its practices and in the lives of its practitioners. In fact, most practitioners of hoodoo integrate this folkway with their Christian religious faith. Icons of Christian saints are often found on hoodoo shrines or altars.
     Like voodoo, hoodoo shows evident links to the practices and beliefs of West African spiritual folkways. The ancient African folkway of Vodoun is a more standardized and widely dispersed spiritual practice than hoodoo. Vodoun's modern form is practiced across West Africa in the countries now known as Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso, among others. In Haiti, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands, the worship of the Vodoun gods (called lwa or loas) is practiced in a syncretic form that has been greatly modified by contact with Catholicism. The Voodoo of Haiti and Louisiana Voodoo are related more to Vodoun than to hoodoo; similar Vodoun practices among Spanish speakers in Cuba are called Santería. However, a more precise description of what Voodoo is and how it relates to both Vodun and to Hoodoo is needed.

~Ally

     Yesterday I wrote about the so-called "Voodoo Queen" Marie Laveau, and, then, I realized I didn't know much about this religion. So here's some information I found about it.
     Haitian Vodou, also written as Voodoo, Vodun, or Vodoun, is a syncretic religion practiced chiefly in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Practitioners are called "vodouists" or "servants of the spirits".
     Vodouists believe in a distant and unknowable creator god, Bondye. As Bondye does not intercede in human affairs, vodouists direct their worship toward spirits subservient to Bondye, called loa. Every loa is responsible for a particular aspect of life, with the dynamic and changing personalities of each loa reflecting the many possibilities inherent to the aspects of life over which they preside. In order to navigate daily life, vodouists cultivate personal relationships with the loa through the presentation of offerings, the creation of personal altars and devotional objects, and participation in elaborate ceremonies of music, dance, and spirit possession.
     Vodou originated in the French slave colony of Saint-Domingue in the 18th century, when African religious practice was actively suppressed, and enslaved Africans were forced to convert to Christianity. Religious practices of contemporary Vodou are descended from, and closely related to, West African Vodun as practiced by the Fon and Ewe. Vodou also incorporates elements and symbolism from other African peoples including the Yorùbá and Bakongo; as well as Taíno religious beliefs, and European spirituality including Roman Catholic Christianity, European mysticism, Freemasonry, and other influences.
     Vodou has often been associated in popular culture with Satanism, zombies and "voodoo dolls". Zombie creation has been referenced within rural Haitian culture, but is not a part of Vodou. Such manifestations fall under the auspices of the bokor or sorcerer, rather than the priest of the Loa. The practice of sticking pins in voodoo dolls has history in folk magic. "Voodoo dolls" are often associated with New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo as well the magical devices of the poppet and the nkisi or bocio of West and Central Africa.
     The general fear of Vodou in the US can be traced back to the End of the Haitian Revolution (1791). There is a legend that Haitians were able to beat the French during the Haitian Revolution because their Vodou deities made them invincible. The US, seeing the tremendous potential Vodou had for rallying its followers and inciting them to action, feared the events at Bois-Caiman could spill over onto American soil. Fearing an uprising in opposition to the US occupation of Haiti, political and religious elites, along with Hollywood and the film industry, sought to trivialize the practice of Vodou. After the Haitian Revolution many Haitians fled as refugees to New Orleans. Free and enslaved Haitians who moved to New Orleans brought their religious beliefs with them and reinvigorated the Voodoo practices that were already present in the city. Eventually, Voodoo in New Orleans became hidden and the magical components were left present in the public sphere. This created what is called hoodoo in the southern part of the United States. Because hoodoo is folk magic, Voodoo and Afro-diasporic religions in the U.S. became synonymous with fraud. This is one origin of the stereotype that Haitian Vodou, New Orleans Voodoo, and hoodoo are all tricks used to make money off of the gullible.
     The elites preferred to view it as folklore in an attempt to render it relatively harmless as a curiosity that might continue to inspire music and dance. Hollywood often depicts Vodou as evil and having ties to Satanic practices in movies such as "The Skeleton Key", "The Devil’s Advocate", "The Blair Witch Project", "The Serpent and the Rainbow", "Child's Play", "Live and Let Die", and in children’s movies like "The Princess and the Frog".
     In 2010, following the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti, negative attention to Vodou also followed. One of the more notable examples would be of televangelist Pat Robertson’s televised discourse on the subject. Robertson stated that the country had cursed itself after the events at Bois-Caiman because he claimed they had engaged in Satanic practices in the ceremony preceding the Haitian Revolution. He claimed that the Haitians asked the devil to get rid of the French for them, in exchange for their services. The devil agreed and helped them kick the French out of the country and the Haitians revolted and freed themselves, but ever since they have been cursed. What the hell, man, literally!

~Ally

     How awesome is it when one of your favorite tv shows is based on real life characters? The latest season of American Horror Story (Coven) was very cool - even though I didn't watch the two previous ones -, and the end was perfect, at least to me. But today's post is about one of the main characters of the series: the tough voodoo queen Marie Laveau.
     The real Marie was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo very renowned in New Orleans. She and her daughter had great influence over their multiracial following. Some say that, in 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II (the daughter) performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24).
     Historical records surmise that Marie Laveau was born free in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, about 1794. She was the natural daughter of two free persons of color, both biracial, one of which was Creole. On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or Santiago, in other records) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from Haiti. Their marriage certificate is preserved in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The wedding Mass was performed by Father Antonio de Sedella, the Capuchin priest known as Pere Antoine. Jacques Paris died in 1820 under unexplained circumstances.
     According to VoodooMuseum.com, "The only evidence that exist(s) of any sort of occupation she had was (as) a liquor importer (in 1832) on Dauphine Street in the Faubourg Marigny (in New Orleans). The warehouse still exits at the intersection of Dauphine and Kerlérec Streets". Folklore says at one time she also became a hairdresser, as it is also portrayed in the series. She took a lover, Christophe (Louis Christophe Dumesnil de Glapion), with whom she lived until his death in 1835. They were reported to have had 15 children including Marie Laveau II, born c. 1827, who sometimes used the surname "Paris" after her mother's first husband.
     Very little is known with any certainty about the life of Marie Laveau. Scholars believe that the mother was more powerful while the daughter arranged more elaborate public events. It is said that they received varying amounts of financial support. It is not known which (if not both) had done more to establish the voodoo queen reputation. Of Laveau's magical career there is little that can be substantiated. She was said to have had a snake she named Zombi after an African god. Oral traditions suggested that the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic beliefs, including saints, with African spirits and religious concepts. Some scholars believe that her feared magical powers of divination were actually based on her network of informants which she developed while working as a hairdresser in households of the prominent. As she visited her clients (mostly white) she listened closely to their gossip. Some assert that she ran her own brothel and cultivated informants in that way as well. She appeared to excel at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or "cured" of mysterious ailments.
     On June 16, 1881, the New Orleans newspapers, the Daily Picayune for one, according to "Voodoo in New Orleans" by Robert Tallant, announced that Marie Laveau had died peacefully in her home. This is noteworthy if only because people claimed to have seen her in town after her supposed demise. Again, some claimed that one of her daughters also named Marie (many of the daughters had Marie within their names due to Catholic naming practices) assumed her name and carried on her magical practice, taking over as the queen soon before or after the first Marie's death.
     Marie Laveau is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt, in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, but this has been disputed by researchers. Tourists continue to visit and some draw "X" marks in accordance with a decades-old rumor that if people wanted Laveau to grant them a wish, they had to draw an "X" on the tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, yell out their wish, and if it was granted, come back, circle their "X," and leave Laveau an offering.

~Ally

      This wasn't meant to be a personal blog, but today's post is a little bit closer to my heart than any other has been so far.
     For the past year, I've been strugling with myself trying to figure out the question: "what should I do with my life now I've graduated from college?" So far, the answer has taken many shapes, and several of them didn't appeal to me at all, so I'm still trying to figure out what it is I really want to do with my life, since I'm currently not happy being a Biologist. I believe this is a question many of us face in our mid-twenties, but not that many people bother to talk about it.
     You might be thinking "ok, too bad for you, but what does Alan Watts has to do with it?", and here is your answer: today I read a comic by ZEN PENCILS (a very inspiring comic site, which my friend Leo very gently recommended me) and the comic  number 98, published in january 8th, 2013, caught my eye. It was based in one of the many works of Alan Watts.
     Mr. Watts was an English philosopher and writer who played a large part in popularising Zen Buddhism in the Western part of the world. He gained a wide following after moving to the United States where he published numerous books on Zen and Eastern philosophy. During the 60s and 70s he toured extensively on the college lecture circuit and became a celebrity among the growing youth movement. He also has over 25 books published and more than 400 lectures recorded, many of which are available freely on YouTube.
     If you are facing the same troubles I am, I really recommend you read the comic. Even if you don't, it is a nice and inspiring way to brighten your day.

~Ally

     Also referred to as Afrit, Afreet, Ifreet, Yfrit and Efreet, this is an enormous winged demonic creature of fire from the Middle Eastern and African culture.
     Either male or female, it lives underground and frequents ruins. They are said to prey on people, especially children from Islamic belief. When a child of wealthy future and evil character is born, an Afrit spirit comes and takes the place of the child's soul. The Ifrits have a human form with goat’s legs and horns on their heads, much like the Devil in Christianity.
     They live in a society structured along ancient Arab tribal lines, complete with kings, tribes, and clans. They generally marry one another, but they can also marry humans. While ordinary weapons and forces have no power over them, they are susceptible to magic, which humans can use to kill them or to capture and enslave them.
     As with the jinn - and it is important to say that Afrits are one of the classes of Djinns -, an Ifrit may be either a believer or an unbeliever, good or evil, but he is most often depicted as a wicked and ruthless being.
     In early folklore it was believed that the Afrit spirit was created by the formation of the blood spilt by a murder victim. To prevent an Afrit from being created, then, it was advised to drive a special nail into the blood. In fact, when British soldiers arrived in Egypt during the Second World War, the locals warned them of the Afrits that lived nearby. They said that the Demons could appear in the form of an astray dog and that they had the power to turn humans into animals. Because, apparently, bombs and angry Nazi's aren't scary enough in a war!

~Ally

      I believe many of you are, as well as I am, very excited and anxious to know what will happen in Westeros on the sixth book from George R. R. Martin series. The problem is... Nobody knows yet when it will be published! And since my beloved Mr.Martin doens't take inquiries about his books very well (each time someone asks who will be the king/queen, he kills a Stark family member - and there aren't many left of them already!), we have to enjoy every little piece of information we get.
     Soooooo, I have a little surprise for my Brazilian and Portuguese friends - I know you're out there, don't be shy! If you click here you'll be able to read the first chapters of "The Winds of Winter", the next book of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Enjoy and remember: "In the Game of Thrones, you win or you die"!

~Ally

     Today's post is an inspirational video by Tanya Davis, teching us that being alone is okay. Not only okay, being alone can be awesome, if you know how to enjoy your time with yourself. Gives us somethings to think about, especially when we consider that society these days has been making a huge effort to keep us with company at all times. To be afraid of being by yourself for a long time makes no sense. Watch this video and maybe you'll understand why.

~Ally