Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens On It

RAVEN GRAFFITI

From the Art of the State blog, "We're going on a Roa hunt"

Superstition of the Week - Kissing Kitties

Kissing Kitties

In the early 16th century, a visitor to an English home would always kiss the family cat to bring good luck.

For more fun kitty and puppy daily trivia, visit freekibble.com and help feed hungry animal shelter dogs and cats.

Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens on It

SWEET AND ZESTY TORTURED RAVENS











Tortured Orchard, A Spirited Rebellion of Flavors, Seasoning Sauces.

P.S. Perhaps something to make those left-over turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving not seem so torturous?

Superstition of the Week - Friday the 13th

TGIF!!! Oh no wait a minute, it is Friday the 13th. Well darn, now I am torn. Should I be elated the weekend is almost here, or paralyzed in infinite fear of the dark sinister forces lurking around every corner seeking out prey (perhaps me, okay, probably me) to wreck their devious havoc on? How does one of the most looked forward to days of the week turn to doomsday when if falls on that particular number?

It turns out that both Friday and the number 13 have gotten a bad wrap throughout history. Unfortunately for 13, it is partly due to the fact that we humans tend to tire after 12. In school they tend to stop at 12 in their multiplication tables, there are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus. Adding 1 to 12, please, scary stuff.

There is also a Norse myth attached to the superstition of the number 13. Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla, their heaven. The god of mischief, Loki, was excluded from the guest list, but came anyway, bringing the dinner party to a total of 13. Loki then proceeded to provoke Hoder, the blind god of winter, to shoot Balder, god of joy and gladness. Balder died instantly cloaking the earth in darkness. Don’t you hate it when that happens at your dinner parties? The Hindus also believed the gathering of 13 people in one place was unlucky and in ancient Rome it was said that witches gathered in groups of 12 with the devil. Then later in history the superstition associated itself with the Last Supper of Jesus and the 12 disciples.

Now interestingly, in ancient goddess-worshipping cultures 13 was considered a lucky number because it corresponded to the number of lunar cycles in a year. However, according to some historians, 13 got a bad rep among early Christian patriarchs because it represented femininity. Hmmm....

Friday also ended up on the wrong side of Christianity, mainly because it is believed that Jesus was crucified on that day. But some historians have dated the superstition back to yet again Norse mythology and the sacrifices made to the goddess Frigg, goddess of marriage and fertility, or Freya, goddess of sex and fertility. Their emblem was the fish, which was associated with worship of love that was offered by the Scandinavians to their goddess on the sixth day of the week, Friday. With Christianity this act was considered indecent and Freya was recast as a witch in folklore. During the Middle Ages, Friday was known as the Witches’ Sabbath.

Then it appeared that early Christians started attributing about everything bad to Friday such as Eve offering Adam the apple, Abel killing Cain, the stoning of St. Stephen and the Great Flood. Oh, another little interesting tidbit, it is said that in Britain Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and how many steps supposedly led up to the noose, yep, 13.

Thus when you put the two together, Friday the 13th, you can see why it is not exactly seen as your sunshiny day. The Knights of Templar found this out on Friday, October 13, 1307, when King Philip IV of France ordered their torture and execution.

But really, I am sure there is nothing to worry about today, it is just a superstition, right? Now did I just see something peaking around the corner...?

Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens On It

ANOTHER GRATEFULLY DEAD RAVEN

From dead.net, Back Album Art from Wake of the Flood

Superstition of the Week - Owls

OWLS

It is bad luck to see an owl in the sunlight.

We always new it was better to be a night owl.

**Illustration from The Curious Curse, one of the featured stories in the debut issue of the Edible Raven, coming soon

Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens On It

GRATEFULLY DEAD RAVEN

Grateful Dead 1973 Poster from dead.net

Happy Halloween

The Night of All Hallows Eve
as interpreted by I. H. Nitram

Twas the night of All Hallow’s Eve, when all through the cemetery
All the creatures were stirring, and all quite merry.
Shrunken heads were hung on tree branches with care,
In hopes that a great demon would soon be there.

The witches were starting to rise out of their beds,
While visions of spells and magic danced in their heads.
The mummy was nestled all snug in his wrap
As he began to awake from his eternal nap.

When out by the crypt there arose such a clatter,
They all hovered over to see what was the matter.
When, what to their demonic eyes should transpire,
But a flying black hearse and a very well dressed vampire.

With a skeleton driver, so lively and quick,
They knew in a moment it must be Vampire Nick.
More rapid than vultures his bats they came,
And he moaned, and wailed, and called them by name!

“Now Dagger! Now, Slasher! Now, Lasher and Scratchen.
On, Blade! On, Spade! On, on Slicer, and Gashen.
To the top of the tombstones! To the top of the cemetery walls!
Now hunt away! Hunt away! Hunt away all!”

Then like those bats that vampire did fly
Like a soaring eagle against a moonlit sky.
So up to the crypt-top he flew
With his undead driver and his bats too.

They landed on the crypt in a furious gale
And you could hear the screeching of each little nail.
As the shrunken heads screamed and turn around
Down the crypt Vampire Nick came with a bound.

He was dressed in black from his cape to his shoes
And on his spiked collar dripped liquid red ooze.
A bundle of oddities flung on his back,
And he looked like a wolf just about to attack

He reached is long fingers into the pocket of his suit
And his hand reappeared holding fresh eye of newt.
The witches were thrilled as they grabbed their brooms.
They chanted spells as they danced on the tombs.

The zombies started to arise from their graves
And the night dwellers emerged from their caves.
A banshee played harp and began her song
As a trio of bridge trolls sang along.

Then he presented the werewolf with a giant bone
And the mummy a purple velvet lined casket of his very own.
The cemetery was filled with eerie laughter and shrills
All the creatures of the night were getting their thrills.

They shrieked and danced and partied away,
The zombies all got new limbs for the ones lost from decay.
All the undead received brand new toys
And one was given a couple of obnoxious teenage boys.

Then Vampire Nick reached into his cape and without a word
Pulled out an extraordinary beautiful raven black bird.
You could hear it call as it flew into the moonlit sky out of sight
“Happy All Hallows Eve, and to all a very frightening night!”

Cool Stuff We Have Found With Ravens On It

FURNITURE

Night Stand from Saint Rooster Furniture Restoration

Superstition of the Week - Cats

Illustration from The Curious Curse, one of the featured stories in the debut issue of the Edible Raven, coming soon.

CATS

For thousands of years, cats have been regarded as mysterious creatures with supernatural powers and were associated with witches and death. In the Middle Ages, cats were held to be demonic. It was believed that witches could change into cats; in fact, they could make that change nine times.

Cats were said to help out sorcerers and midwives with their herbal magic, adding to their reputation as witches' helpers. Accused witches were usually single women – often widows – who probably kept the animals more for companionship than anything else. But village gossip made the relationship far more ominous. Witches changed their shapes, transforming themselves into cats. In a witch trial in Scotland, one supposed witch explained how the women managed this trick, saying that her coven assembled in human form to work their spells. As they gathered, the Devil appeared among them, shaking his hands above their heads and turning them into snarling four-legged beasts.

Across the Atlantic, the transformation theory was taken up during the Salem witch trials. As the local hysteria heated up, Sarah, the 7-year-old daughter of accused witch Martha Carrier, testified that "a cat, identifying herself as Martha Carrier, had carried her along to afflict people while her mother was in prison." Ultimately, Martha was convicted; along with four others, she was hanged on August 19, 1692.

The animal's habits and grace – prized today – didn't help her image either. Moving silently along, merging seamlessly into the gloom of night, the cat seemed to appear and disappear at will. While most people feared the darkness, the animal, with her natural nocturnal habits, seemed to seek it out. The cat's pupils – narrow slits in the daytime, but luminous globes at night linking them to the moon and emphasized their ability to see into the future. Her unearthly yowlings in the dark only added to her fearsome reputation. Some people believed that cats were the spirits of the dead.

If a black cat chanced to cross someone's path and through some trick of fate nothing happened to him, that, too, was a sure sign of the cat's complicity with the devil. That person was clearly protected by the King of Darkness.

Cool Stuff We Have Found With Ravens

LADY RAVEN

Gladiator Bird, Lady Raven from Anthropologie

Superstition of the Week - Apples Part II

APPLES AND TRUE LOVE

In a group of unmarried girls and boys, each should mark an apple and place it in a bucket or tub of water. Apples that are not marked should also be added into the group. Each person should try to bite an apple floating in the water without using their hands. The apple one is able to bite is the person who they are fated to marry. This is probably where the custom of bobbing for apples came from.

However, the American custom does not have the apples marked. And, whoever snags an apple first will be the first to marry.

Think of 5 or 6 names of boys or girls you might marry. As you twist the stem of an apple say the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you said when the stem fell off. The number of seeds inside an apple you cut in half is the number of children you will have.

Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens On It

A RAVEN WINE THAT'S A KEEPER

2007 Corvidae Wine Co. Cabernet Franc The Keeper