Inspired by The Frog-King fairy tale from “Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales” by the Brothers Grimm

Short info:

Irk Bitig or Irq Bitig (Old Turkic: 𐰃𐰺𐰴 𐰋𐰃𐱅𐰃𐰏‎), known as the Book of Omens or Book of Divination in English, is a 9th-century manuscript book on divination that was discovered in the "Library Cave" of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, by Aurel Stein in 1907, and is now in the collection of the British Library in London, England. The book is written in Old Turkic using the Old Turkic script (also known as "Orkhon" or "Turkic runes"); it is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. It is also an important source for early Turkic mythology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irk\_Bitig

Turkic mythology and paganism

Here's Episode 4 of the Chinese Mythology Archive series!

In this episode, we explore Qiongqi (穷奇), one of the legendary Four Fiends in Chinese mythology. Often depicted as a fearsome, winged beast, Qiongqi is associated with deception and cruelty. It came to symbolize the dangers of abandoning morality, embracing rebellion, and siding with evil over justice.

Qiongqi is also believed to have inspired Chien-Pao from Pokémon.

Hope you enjoy Episode 4!

Waking up to a hand full of freshly fallen Parijat blossoms is one of my favorite morning rituals.

Do you guys know there is story which says Princess Parijaat fell in love with the Sun God, but couldn't bear his intense heat. When she perished, this tree grew from her ashes. Because she still can't face the sun, the blossoms open only at night and at the very first touch of dawn, before the sun can look at her, she sheds every single blossom like tears.

Because of her heartache, these fragile white blossoms with their vibrant orange stems are considered pure only after they have surrendered to the earth.

Softest scent in the world, born from a celestial heartbreak. 🧡🌸

Disclaimer! Just a oral story This version is folklore only but it is one of the most romantic stories associated with the flower.

Before the pharaohs raised their monuments, before the first king wore a crown, before a single city rose from the mud of Mesopotamia, something else already ruled. Not the mild, forgiving deities that came later. These were older, harsher, absolute. They weighed the fate of every soul, tore the sky away from the earth with their own hands, and shaped humanity out of need rather than tenderness. Their rule stretched across millennia before anyone had conceived of a human throne.

I put together the full lineage, starting from creation's first spark and following it through every god whose name still surfaces in later myth, the primal forces at the root, the seven who governed destiny itself, the god who rose to rule Babylon, and the countless figures who guided ordinary life for three thousand years.

The whole thing is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLnVGPz0qf4

Curious how this holds up against what people here already know about the Mesopotamian pantheon, especially anyone who's dug into the Enuma Elish or the Atrahasis directly.

According to my source (a book on folk medicine called "Tugga beck, slå blod, skåda i brännvin" by Erik Jonas Lindberg) the information was relayed by a woman who lived 1826-1918.

The idea here is to build a "deathbed" for the ailment to "die" on. You need:

- Two wooden trestles that a coffin has rested on

- A door that faces north

- A mattress that someone has died on

- A plate of dirt

You put the door on top of the trestles and put the mattress on the door. The plate with dirt goes on the floor/ground underneath the door (you can't really tell, but we have a wooden plate with dirt on the ground underneath the door in the photo). On a Friday night under a waning moon, the ill person lays down on the "deathbed". It's very important not to disturb them before they get up on their own. Then the ill person throws away the dirt from the plate over their right shoulder, towards the north.

North is important because it was believed that evil came from the north, so it can return there. It's important that someone has died on the mattress because then the mattress "holds the power of death". Same with the trestles that a coffin has rested on.

I've always been interested in folk medicine. This photo is me and my colleagues reenacting this cure back when I worked as a historical reenactor at an 18th century farmstead. We're not sure that this cure was used in 1785 (the year we reenacted), but we chose to do it anyway because it felt plausible enough.

I make characters and the roleplay, making characters and writing with them is just a simple hobby that brings me joy. The characters I normally make are some form of fantasy creature, whether or something I made, or from a show or movie that I took inspiration from, it’s just fun, making all these unique creatures.

I know there are more mythological and fantasy creatures out there than I know of. I’m also someone who’s a big fan of physical media, so I was gonna go looking for a book that has a bunch of mythological creatures in fantasy creatures that I could just easily flip through and find inspiration for, then once I found the inspiration I needed and whatever moment go on the Internet to research further so I don’t accidentally appropriate any culture or use creatures that I am not allowed to use for whatever reason.

The problem is a lot of the books I found that look helpful use generative AI and I don’t know how hopeful they can be. I’m willing to buy multiple books. I just want a good book with a lot of creatures to have as a baseline instead of having to dig through the Internet all of the time

Edit 1: not all libraries are comfortable welcoming spaces! Mine has a werid uncomfortable vibe. I also have a reading learning disability and it makes it really hard to process words off of the screen so e-books aren’t the best option.

Hello everyone,

In my previous post, I talked in detail about the Yılancık healers (Yılancık Ocağı) in Anatolia, the origins of this tradition, and the Yılancık stones that serve as its primary material. However, Anatolian folk medicine is far from being a rigid or monolithic concept. It is a rich and highly adaptable tradition, shaped by regional dynamics and the passed-down knowledge of each healer's lineage.

While Yılancık stones form the backbone of this tradition, they are by no means the only method used in practice. In some healer families, auxiliary and supportive rituals are used alongside the stones. In other regions, healers bypass the stones altogether and adopt these alternative methods as their primary form of treatment.

The Yılancık Sliding and Incision Method

In traditional folk belief, it is believed that erysipelas occurs when bad spirits taking the form of snakes or negative energies touch a person. The redness and swelling on the body are viewed as these "snake tracks." In this method, the ritualistic steps and the physical dimension of the application unfold as follows:

Setting Intentions: As in many healing traditions across Anatolia, the process begins with a spiritual foundation. Before starting the procedure, the healer sets their intention by invoking the name of God and begins the ritual with a prayer for healing.

Patient Positioning: Following the intention, the patient is made to lie flat on the floor, either face up or face down depending on the area where the discomfort and redness are concentrated.

Symbolic Incision and Contact: The healer takes a blunted iron knife, or uses the dull back edge of a knife. With this knife, the patient's body is symbolically divided into seven equal sections from head to toe using transverse lines.

Reciting Verses and Healing Breath: The process is applied sequentially from head to toe. The healer taps the first designated section with the dull side of the knife, applying light to moderate pressure before pulling it back. Immediately after, the healer recites specific verses selected from the Quran, which are believed to sever the negative energy of creatures like snakes, and blows their healing breath onto the area.

This process, which includes the physical contact, the recitation of verses, and the healing breath, is repeated individually for each of the seven designated points from the head down to the feet. It is not completed with a single reading. The ritual continues step by step until the entire body, structured along these seven lines, is fully scanned.

The Logic Behind the Name: Why "Sliding"?

The word "sliding" in the name of this method directly summarizes the traditional logic and belief behind the ritual.

According to folk belief, the illness occurs when bad spirits or negative energies in the form of a snake literally sit down and settle inside the patient's body. The main purpose of the healer's ritualistic movements from head to toe using the knife is to disturb this negative energy embedded in the body and dislodge it.

Through the contact of the knife, the recited verses, and the healing breath, this adverse force that has settled in the body is forced to slide downward from head to toe, compelling it to leave the body.

Therefore, the act of "sliding" is not merely a physical touch. It is a symbolic exorcism ritual aimed at dragging the disease-causing energy downward and discharging it from the body.

Healing the Female Form: Treatment with Dried Snake Materials

In Anatolian Turkish folk belief, erysipelas is categorized based on its severity and progression. Cases that cause intense, throbbing pain, severe aches that keep the patient awake at night, and have a strong tendency to spread are identified in Anatolian Turkish folk culture as the "female form" (dişi yılancık).

According to beliefs in Anatolian Turkish folk medicine, ailments classified as "female" are considered much more virulent, aggressive, and prone to taking root in the body. Consequently, the treatment methods for these cases involve much more specific and elaborate rituals compared to standard practices. In such severe instances, materials directly identified with the symbolic source of the illness itself come into play.

Preparing the Ritual: Processing the Material and Recitation

Setting Intentions: The healer begins the process, as always, by setting their intention and invoking the name of God. Depending on the severity of the illness and their own preference, the healer prepares a snake head, a snake shed (skin), or a snake body that was previously collected from nature and dried at home.

Grinding into Powder: These snake parts, which have been dried in advance, are crushed and ground in a container until they turn into a fine powder.

Reciting Verses and Healing Breath: While the grinding process continues, the healer keeps reciting prayers. Although specific Quranic verses associated with snakes, reptiles, or harmful creatures are usually preferred, the healer may also recite different healing verses based on their own lineage and knowledge.

​Transferring the Breath: Throughout the process, the healer blows their breath directly onto the mixture being crushed into powder. In this way, it is believed that the spiritual power of the recited verses is transferred directly into the prepared powder.

Binding and Application to the Area: This blessed powder mixture is placed inside a clean cheesecloth or piece of fabric and wrapped up. It is then bound directly onto the area where the patient feels pain or where the redness is most intense.

Overnight Healing: The ritual is completed by advising the patient to sleep like this overnight and strictly instructing them not to unwrap the bandage until morning.

Ritual Completers: The Continuity of Healing

In Anatolian Turkish folk medicine, even though the areas of expertise or primary methods used by healers may vary, there are common "ritual completers" applied by almost every healer, regardless of their specialization.

The primary purpose of these practices is to preserve the spiritual influence of the main ritual and to continue the healing process in the patient's home. Basic foodstuffs easily found in every household, such as salt, sugar, or flour, are generally preferred as completers.

The healer recites healing verses from the Quran over these ingredients and blows their breath onto them, transforming them into a spiritual shield.

After returning home, the patient takes this blessed material with them to ensure their well-being and to sustain the recovery process. Depending on the lineage of the specific healer family, the patient either stores this material in a safe and prosperous corner of their home or consumes it by adding it to their daily food and drinks so that the healing directly permeates their body.

Special and Local Ritual Completer: Ash and Bread

Alongside the standard ritual completers commonly utilized in folk medicine, field research also reveals special healer traditions that favor highly specific and local materials.

In one striking example of this, a healer family uses ash and bread as their ritual completer. However, this choice is by no means coincidental. It relies on a deeply rooted family memory regarding the origins of the ritual materials used by their lineage.

According to the healer's account, when her great-grandmother gave birth to a baby girl, two snakes suddenly appeared. One of these snakes headed toward the ash of the hearth in the house, while the other climbed up the tree where the bread sack was hanging. This event led to ash and bread becoming sacred ritual objects in the family tradition, serving as mediums of healing.

The ash preferred in the application is obtained from clean firewood burned in the hearth of the healer's own home. Just as with the recitations performed over other foodstuffs, the healer transfers their prayers and healing breath to these materials.

Then, only a fingertip of this clean ash is taken, rubbed onto the bread, and given to the patient to eat for healing. In this way, the spiritual healing of the hearth is directly transferred to the patient, fully permeating their body.

In the continuation of the field research, the impact of changing living conditions and architecture on this tradition becomes clearly evident. With urbanization and the transition to apartment living, traditional wood burning hearths have given way to modern home environments, making it difficult to obtain ash.

This situation has led to the transformation of ritual materials over time. In this hearth-centered tradition, ash has been replaced by materials that are practical and easily accessible in modern life, such as salt, water, or bread.

These are, for now, the folk medicine rituals applied against erysipelas that I have had the opportunity to observe firsthand and have gathered through my research.

Thank you so much for reading this far. I wish everyone a wonderful day.🫶🏻

The traditional folk healers of Anatolia, known locally as "Ocak", are a vast and fascinating topic. I briefly touched upon them before, but this time I want to dive a bit deeper. How did these healing lineages specialize over time, what kind of rituals did they develop, and which specific ailments do they treat?

When you look into field research or Turkish academic literature, you discover an incredible variety of folk healers. The tricky part is that finding resources on this topic in English is almost impossible. So, for anyone interested in digging deeper, perhaps by translating them, I will leave a few Turkish academic links at the end of the post.

In this series, I will start with the most well known ones. First up are the Yılancık healers (Yılancık Ocağı), as this is a tradition present in my own family, giving me the chance to observe it firsthand and conduct my own field research.

So what are these Yılancık healers?

Let us first look at what the word "yılancık" means and the logic behind it in Turkish.

In Turkish, "yılancık" literally means "little snake". It comes from the word "yılan", which means "snake". In folk belief, it is the name given to the medical condition known as erysipelas. People call it this because the redness and swelling on the skin move across the body just like a snake. But from a traditional view, there is also a spiritual side to it. People believe this illness happens when bad spirits taking the form of snakes touch or harm a person.

As you can see, in Turkish, the name of the illness (yılancık), its source (yılan [snake]), and the term for these healers (yılancık ocağı) all stem from the exact same root. The folk healers who treat this illness using their own special methods and rituals are called Yılancık healers.

The Core Material of Yılancık Healers: Yılancık Stones

The most essential and well known material used by Yılancık healers against this illness is Yılancık stones.

So, what exactly are these Yılancık stones?

Although people call them stones, from a scientific perspective they are not geological rocks at all.

Biologically, they are a structure produced by gastropods, a group of sea snails. They are found mainly in sea snails living around the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as well as heavily around the Ganges River. To protect themselves from outside threats, these mollusks form a hard, calcified trapdoor to close the opening of their shells.

Over time, after the snails die naturally, their soft body parts decay and disappear, leaving behind only this hard, calcified structure. Because the natural patterns on it resemble the coils of a snake, people started calling it the Yılancık stone. This exact material is what gets used in the healing rituals of Anatolian folk medicine.

Treatment and Ritual Process in Yılancık Healing

People who come to Yılancık healers are usually those who develop unexplained redness or swelling on their body, or those believed to carry the negative energy brought by this illness. When a patient arrives, the treatment process is shaped around these symptoms.

As in many traditional healer traditions in Anatolia, the ritual in Yılancık healers mostly begins with a religious foundation. Before starting the treatment, the healer usually sets their intention by saying a prayer to start with God's name.

After setting the intention, the healer continues the process by reciting specific verses and chapters from the Quran as needed.

For example, because this condition is believed to be linked to snake-like energies, the healer often chooses verses that mention creatures like snakes or scorpions. These specific passages are recited to symbolically neutralize the harm or negative force associated with such creatures.

The healer does not simply recite the prayers and walk away. At the end of each verse or chapter, they blow their breath directly onto the exact area of the patient's body where the pain or redness is located.

In Anatolian folk medicine, this practice is known as the "healing breath." Through this physical action, it is believed that the spiritual power and healing energy of the recited prayer are transferred directly onto the affected spot.

While this reciting and breathing process continues, the Yılancık stones come into play. The healer places the stones directly onto the area where the patient feels discomfort. At this stage, how the stones rest on the skin and react is considered an important sign about the condition of the illness.

If the stones stick to the skin on their own when placed, it confirms that the illness or a negative energy is indeed present in the person. While the stones remain attached to the skin, prayers and healing breath continue. After a while, the stones naturally detach and fall off on their own. Once they fall, it is interpreted that the diseased energy has been fully absorbed by the stones, meaning the patient will be healed.

If the stones fail to stick to the skin and drop off immediately, it is concluded that there is no negative energy or illness in the patient for the stones to absorb.

Resting the Stones and Energy Cleansing After the Ritual

Once the ritual is completed, the used Yılancık stones are placed one by one into a special mixture typically consisting of flour, sugar, and salt.

From a traditional and ritualistic perspective, the main reason for placing the stones in this mixture is to prevent the heavy, negative energy pulled from the patient's body from remaining on the stones. By transferring the bad energy they absorbed into the flour, sugar, and salt mixture, the stones discharge and neutralize themselves, becoming cleansed and ready for the next use.

Marketing Myths Surrounding Yılancık Stones

It is necessary to address certain myths and commercial fabrications surrounding these stones.

Among the public, claims circulate that these stones are alive, that they have male and female forms, and even that they feed and reproduce inside the mixture of flour, sugar, and salt where they are kept. Furthermore, taking advantage of how the healing rituals are framed within Islamic beliefs, some sellers attempt to sell these stones at exorbitant prices by claiming they were brought specifically from Mecca, describing them as sacred and extremely rare in nature.

Yet these are nothing more than marketing claims made up later on purely for financial gain. As mentioned earlier, these structures are not sacred geological stones, but simply the calcareous trapdoors of sea snails. Biologically speaking, it is impossible for these creatures to live in a desert climate anyway.

They generally thrive in warm waters and inhabit marine environments like the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. Sacralizing this material, which is ordinary biological waste in nature, or selling it under the guise of a living and breeding stone is a complete exploitation of people's emotions.

Variation in Practice and the Core Framework in Anatolian Healing Culture

An important point must be emphasized here. Healer families are often very hesitant to allow their rituals to be recorded or photographed. They believe that if the ritual is exposed to the outside world, the secret of the healing will be lost, the spiritual energy will scatter, and its power will be broken.

At the same time, we cannot claim that a Yılancık healer is limited to a single ritual or treats every situation with just one rigid method. Depending on the specific needs of their region, healers may develop various other practices and supportive techniques for different conditions.

However, when it comes specifically to treating erysipelas, the condition from which the healers take their name, the core framework of the ritual is exactly as I described. Although individual healers may make minor additions or variations, all practices targeting this disease ultimately revolve around this main structure.

In conclusion, this foundational ritual serves as the primary framework for understanding specialization within the tradition, seeing the main material used against the condition, and grasping the core logic developed to address it.

The Equivalent of Yılancık Stones in Different Cultures

Throughout history, the aesthetic appearance, round shape, and unique helical patterns of these biological structures have caught the attention not only in Anatolia but across various cultures around the world. What is particularly fascinating is that almost every culture has associated this structure either with an "eye" figure or a mysterious marine legend.

One of the most common legends told about these shiny, rounded stones washing ashore is that they belong to mermaids. In old maritime folklore and folk tales, these calcareous operculums are said to be coins used by mermaids or pieces of jewelry spilled onto the shore from their sunken treasures. This fairytale-like narrative has only enhanced the stone's sense of mystery in the human imagination.

Looking at their names and meanings in different geographies:

Eastern Cultures (Indian Ocean and Asia): In regions where Buddhism and Hinduism are widespread, these structures are named "Shiva's Eye" because they resemble the third eye of the deity Shiva. Believed to represent Shiva's infinite wisdom and transformative power, they are used for protection against negative energies and the evil eye.

Greek and Mediterranean Culture: In the Mediterranean basin and the Greek islands, these calcareous operculums are known as the Eye of Naxos, or, following the process of Christianization, as the Eye of Saint Lucy. In Greek mythology and Mediterranean maritime traditions, they are considered a protective amulet for the eyes. Sailors carry them on their person to guard against storms, the evil eye, and malicious glances.

Hawaii and the Pacific Islands: In the Pacific region, particularly in Hawaiian culture, this calcareous structure is referred to as the "Pacific Cat's Eye" due to its distinctive appearance. In Hawaiian traditions and across the Pacific islands, this cat's eye motif is believed to bring good luck, enhance intuition, and symbolize the abundance coming from the sea.

As can be seen, this structure, which is simply the protective trapdoor of a sea snail in nature, has taken a magnificent journey through humanity's shared imagination. It spans from the legend of mermaids' treasures to healing rituals in Anatolia, and from a sailor's amulet in Greece to a spiritual symbol of the eye in the East. Although the material remains the same, the meanings assigned to it by various cultures have transformed from one geography to another.

Thank you very much to everyone who has read this far.🫶🏻

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Hinduism is the oldest living religion on earth, not a single story told by a single author but a vast body of sacred knowledge built across more than six thousand years, the Vedas, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana. Each text preserves its own version of the divine family. Names shift across centuries. A creator in one tradition becomes a destroyer in another. There is no single family tree everyone agrees on.

So instead of picking one version, I tried to cross-reference the oldest and most authoritative sources to build the most consistent structure I could, starting from Hiranyagarbha, the golden cosmic egg that Hindu scripture describes emerging from total darkness before creation itself, through the full lineage that follows, over fifty deities, eight layers of divine hierarchy.

I put the whole thing together here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxCqpcEGwK8

Curious what people more familiar with specific traditions (Shaiva, Vaishnava, regional versions) think I might have gotten wrong or oversimplified, this is genuinely the hardest family tree I've tried to build so far.

Hello, just found this sub and was wondering if you guys could give a few good examples of monsters from folklore.

Im writing a story rn and wanna take some inspiration from some of the oldest monster ideas around. So if you guys know of any particularly intresting monsters id love to hear about them.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this