Journals, articles, books & texts, on folklore, mythology, occult, and related -to- general anthropology, history, archaeology.
Some good and/or interesting (or hokey) ‘examples’ included for most resources. tryin to organize & share stuff that was floating around onenote.
Journals (open access) – Folklore, Occult, etc
Culutural Analysis - folklore, popular culture, anthropology – The Mythical Ghoul in Arabic Culture
Folklore - folklore, anthropology, archaeology – The Making of a Bewitchment Narrative, Grecian Riddle Jokes
Incantatio - journal on charms, charmers, and charming – Verbal Charms from a 17th Century Manuscript
Oral Tradition – Jewish Folk Literature, Noises of Battle in Old English Poetry
Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics – Nani Fairtyales about the Cruel Bride, Energy as the Mediator between Natural and Supernatural Realms
International Journal of Intangible Heritage
Studia Mythologica Slavica (many articles not English) – Dragon and Hero, Fertility Rites in the Raining Cave, The Grateful Wolf and Venetic Horses in Strabo’s Geography
Folklorica - Slavic & Eastern European folklore association – Ritual: The Role of Plant Characteristics in Slavic Folk Medicine, Animal Magic
Esoterica - The Journal of Esoteric Studies – The Curious Case of Hermetic Graffiti in Valladolid Cathedral
The Esoteric Quarterly
Mythological Studies Journal
Luvah - Journal of the Creative Imagination – A More Poetical Character Than Satan
Transpersonal Studies – Shamanic Cosmology as an Evolutionary Neurocognitive Epistemology, Dreamscapes
Beyond Borderlands – tumblr
Paranthropology
GOLEM - Journal of Religion and Monsters – The Religious Functions of Pokemon, Anti-Semitism and Vampires in British Popular Culture 1875-1914
Correspondences - Online Journal for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism – Kriegsmann’s Philological Quest for Ancient Wisdom
– History, Archaeology
Adoranten - pre-historic rock art
Chitrolekha - India art & design history – Gomira Dance Mask
Silk Road – Centaurs on the Silk Road: Hellenistic Textiles in Western China
Sino-Platonic - East Asian languages and civilizations – Discursive Weaving Women in Chinese and Greek Traditions
MELA Notes - Middle East Librarians Association
Didaskalia - Journal for Ancient Performance
Ancient Narrative - Greek, Roman, Jewish novelistic traditions – The Construction of the Real and the Ideal in the Ancient Novel
Akroterion - Greek, Roman – The Deer Hunter: A Portrait of Aeneas
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies – Erotic and Separation Spells, The Ancients’ One-Horned Ass
Roman Legal Tradition - medieval civil law – Between Slavery and Freedom
Phronimon - South African society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities – Special Issue vol. 13 #2, Greek philosophy in dialogue with African+ philosophy
The Heroic Age - Early medieval Northwestern Europe – Icelandic Sword in the Stone
Peregrinations - Medieval Art and Architecture – Special Issue vol. 4 #1, Mappings
Tiresas - Medieval and Classical – Sexuality in the Natural and Demonic Magic of the Middle Ages
Essays in Medieval Studies – The Female Spell-caster in Middle English Romances, The Sweet Song of Satan
Hortulus - Medieval studies – Courtliness & the Deployment of Sodomy in 12th-Century Histories of Britain, Monsters & Monstrosities issue, Magic & Witchcraft issue
Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU
Medieval Archaeology – Divided and Galleried Hall-Houses, The Hall of the Knights Templar at Temple Balsall
Medieval Feminist Forum – multiculturalism issue; Gender, Skin Color and the Power of Place … Romance of Moriaen, Writing Novels About Medieval Women for Modern Readers, Amazons & Guerilleres
Quidditas - medieval and renaissance
Medieval Warfare
The Viking Society - ridiculous amount of articles from 1895-2011
Journals (limited free/sub/institution access)
Al-Masaq - Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Piracy as Statecraft: The Policies of Taifa of Denia, free issue
Mythical Creatures of Europe - article + map
Folklore - limited free access – Volume 122 #3, On the Ambiguity of Elves
Digital Philology - a journal of medieval cultures – Saracens & Race in Roman de la Rose Iconography
Pomegranate - International Journal for Pagan Studies
Transcultural Psychiatry
European Journal of English Studies – Myths East of Venice issue, Esotericism issue
Books, Texts, Images etc. – Folklore, Occult etc.
Magical Gem Database - Greek/Egyptian gems & talismans [x] [x]
Biblioteca Aracana - (mostly) Greek pagan history, rituals, poetry etc. – Greater Tool Consecration, The Yew-Demon
Curse Tablets from Roman Britain - [x]
The Gnostic Society Library – The Corpus Hermeticum, Hymn of the Robe of Glory
Grimoar - vast occult text library – Grimoires, Greek & Roman Necromancy, Queer Theology, Ancient Christian Magic
Internet Sacred Text Archive - religion, occult, folklore, etc. ancient texts
Verse and Transmutation - A Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry
– History
The Internet Classics Archive - mainly Greco-Roman, some Persian & Chinese translated texts
Bodleian Oriental Manuscript Collection - [x] [x] [x]
Virtual Magic Bowl Archive - Jewish-Aramaic incantation bowl text and images [x] [x]
Vindolanda Tablets - images and translations of tablets from 1st & 2nd c. [x]
Corsair - online catalog of the Piedmont Morgan library (manuscripts) [x] [x]
Beinecke rare book & manuscripts – Wagstaff miscellany, al-Qur'ān–1813
LUNA - tonnes from Byzantine manuscripts to Arabic cartography
Maps on the web - Oxford Library [x] [x] [x]
Bodleian Library manuscripts - photographs of 11th-17th c. manuscripts – Treatises on Heraldry, The Worcester Fragments (polyphonic music), 12 c. misc medical and herbal texts
Early Manuscripts at Oxford U - very high quality photographs – (view through bottom left) Military texts by Athenaeus Mechanicus 16th c. [x] [x], MS Douce 195 Roman de la Rose [x] [x]
Trinity College digital manuscript library – Mathematica Medica, 15th c.
eTOME - primary sources about Celtic peoples
Websites, Blogs – Folklore, Occult etc.
Demonthings - Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project
Invocatio - (mostly) western esotericism
Heterodoxology - history, esotericism, science – Religion in the Age of Cyborgs
The Recipes Project - food, magic, science, medicine – The Medieval Invisible Man (invisibility recipes)
Morbid Anatomy - museum/library in Brooklyn
– History
Islamic Philosophy Online - tonnes of texts, articles, links, utilities, this belongs in every section; mostly English
Medicina Antiqua - Graeco-Roman medicine
History of the Ancient World - news and resources – The So-called Galatae, Gauls, Celts in Early Hellenistic Balkans; Maidens, Matrons Magicians: Women & Personal Ritual Power in Late Antique Egypt
Διοτίμα - Women & Gender in Antiquity
Bodleian Library Exhibitions Online – Khusraw & Shirin, Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-Place of Cultures
Medievalists – folk studies, witchcraft, mythology, science tags
Atlas Obscura – Bats and Vampiric Lore of Pére Lachaise Cemetery
I’m sure you get this question all the time, so I’m really sorry if this is repetitive, but how do you start screenwriting? I’ve been writing fiction pretty much forever, but I’ve recently had a few ideas that would work best as a TV show. How do you actually start? What do I need to know before my first attempt? Do you need any qualifications to become an actual screenwriter? Thank you so much!
Oh that's okay, I'd love to talk screenwriting! Seriously. Come drop in with screenwriting asks whenever you want to.
If the concept of screenwriting is completely new to you, I suggest you start reading screenplays to familiarize yourself with how to properly format and build one. You can find free screenplays to read here and here, or you can search on google for scripts of TV-shows and movies that you like. Watching movies and TV-shows is VITAL.
how many pages should my script be?
A quick guide to screenwriting
Switching from novels to screenwriting
What words in a script should be capitalized?
What is a beat?
The importance of mundane scenes (TV-shows)
Implying tone and using parentheticals
How do you write action lines?
Serialized or episodic TV? (TV-shows)
Tip for writing plot twists
Scripts I read
How to learn screenwriting at home (video format) (with a ghost)
A degree isn't necessary to become a screenwriter (but it's useful in terms of learning the industry and building connections). Most important thing is that you know your terminology, how to structure a script, and how to write a compelling story.
I don't know if I just haven't encountered it yet, but I haven't really seen anyone talking about or acknowledging something that's neither Unverified Personal Gnosis or Shared Personal Gnosis, but rather a third thing: Personal Group Gnosis.
PGG emerges from a small group of people having similar experiences to each other, which may or may not resemble anything that people outside of the group are experiencing.
This isn't inherently a bad thing. But among those who lack critical thinking skills, it can lead to some real trouble if they conclude that their similar experiences means that they're uncovering an actual objective truth, regardless of whether it's congruent with anything anyone outside of the group is experiencing.
One thing that many people fail to account for is the fact that they and their group generally share many of the same preconceptions and biases. For example, a group of younger Wiccans are very likely to believe in now-debunked ideas such as the great goddess hypothesis and the witch cult hypothesis. They'll believe in the existence of pagan gods, but they'll probably have a Christian-influenced understanding of divinity and morality, with little to no comprehension of the role that animism played in the development of pre-Christian traditions, nor with any real appreciation for how different values influenced the stories that people told about gods and other spirits.
They might even be exposed to similar media, which gives them all similar ideas about gods, spirits, and history. Even if they don't directly engage with the most popular media, it can still reach them through second or third hand exposure.
They're also likely reading the same spiritual, occult, and esoteric writers; or at least, reading people who have very similar ideas to one another.
And finally, since they're most likely friends and therefore trust each other, they are naturally biased toward accepting each other's experiences as valid, and working them into their own mental maps of the spiritual or metaphysical world.
In short, they're all primed to have very similar experiences to each other.
Without awareness that exposure to similar ideas can influence similar mystical experiences, it's very easy for a small group like this to generate a sort of shared map of reality that they feel justified in regarding as absolutely, objectively true.
It's at this point that people begin to feel confident telling you that if you just talked to your gods about what they're claiming, your gods would absolutely confirm them to be true. And if they don't, you were never really talking to those gods.
Having one's entire internal map of reality dictated by Personal Group Gnosis can be incredibly dangerous. It alienates you from the rest of the world by making you feel as if the only people you can trust are those who agree with your PGG. It can make you see outsiders as spiritually inferior, especially if they disagree with you outright. It can even encourage conspiracy thinking, because attributing what outsiders believe (or apparently believe) to the actions of a malicious conspiracy is a very common rationalization.
In other words, this is how you get a cult.
Now, a lot of people won't recognize it as a cult (and some will vehemently deny it's a cult) because it might not have a clear leader (though there's almost certainly a small number of people who have the most influence), and it probably doesn't have a financial goal. However, the destructive capacities of small groups of people living in their own reality cannot be denied. Members who don't go along with the group's accepted model of reality are often treated harshly, and are frequently targets for harassment. They may say that if you don't like it you can just leave, but let's be real, that's no simple matter if you believe that these are the only people with a real grip on reality, or if these people are basically your only friends, or even just your only friends who share your spiritual beliefs.
(If you're in this kind of situation? My advice is to start making more friends outside of this group. You don't have to cut yourself off from this group cold turkey; you can just start hanging out with other people more.)
Now, I'd like to emphasize that none of this is to say that PGG is inherently bad; I am only pointing out that it can be incredibly dangerous for people who lack knowledge, perspective, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, a group where there's a lot of this going on can be very dangerous for those who desperately just want to belong and get along, and push themselves to adopt their groups popular beliefs for fear of consequences.
Just like a single person's UPG doesn't dictate reality for everyone, neither does a single group's gnosis. PGG isn't inherently any better or more "correct" than UPG.
Mariana
Intro (optional but vibey):
Lights. Velvet. Blood on the boards.
The show begins with a whisper, a rabbit, and a secret too old for the spotlight.
Here’s the first look into Mariana, my original supernatural noir/fantasy series.
body : (TL;DR)
“Magic is misdirection. Glamour. Illusion.
But Mariana Agostinho doesn’t just wave a wand—she wields words that wound.”
In the shadow of stage lights and velvet curtains, Mariana Agostinho performs miracles for the price of applause. But what her audience doesn’t know is that every show is a spell, and every spell carries a cost.
Before the ghosts, the gods, and the grief, there was only her:
A girl with backwards spells on her tongue, and fire in her fingertips.
This is how it begins.
Welcome to the world of blood-soaked magic, cursed rabbit tricks, and backstage horror. The Mistress of All Magic takes the stage…
And someone always bleeds.
OUTRO
Read more in “Mariana” — an original occult-noir fantasy series.
Urban fantasy, supernatural mystery, and ✨problematic stage sorcery✨.
———————————☆———————————
Chapter 1: Prologue — "Meet Magician Stage, Who's Woman Speaking Backwards Spells"
It starts with velvet curtains and a lie.
A single spotlight slices through the dark like a magician’s blade through a volunteer’s torso. Dust dances in the beam, glittering like crushed diamonds. The crowd waits—silent, hungry, enchanted before the show even begins.
Then the music starts. A slow, jazzy swing with just a hint of menace. And from the fogged-up edge of the stage, she steps forward—heels clicking, hat tilted low, tux tailored to kill.
Mariana Agostinho.
Quarter Homo Magi. Stage illusionist. Occult hunter. Mistress of All Magic. Also, your host for the evening.
She smiles wide enough to hide secrets in.
“Welcome to the show,” she purrs into the mic, voice like red wine and sharp glass. “But first, a little trick. Repeat after me—"
She flips her wrist, conjuring a single tarot card between her fingers: The Magician.
“eromyna tsuj ton s’ti.”
The crowd laughs nervously. The lights flicker. Somewhere in the cheap seats, a man seizes up and falls from his chair, eyes rolled back white. The ushers drag him out before anyone screams. Mariana barely blinks.
This is the cost of her magic—backwards spells laced with real power. Every show, someone bleeds. Every night, something stirs.
This is the stage.
But when the curtain drops and the applause fades, Mariana steps out of the limelight and into something darker: alleyways with broken sigils, cursed motel rooms, and creatures that do not clap.
The audience never sees the real show. Not the demons. Not the cults. Not the twisted gods with vendettas older than America. But Mariana does. And she faces them down in thigh-high boots and a damn good choker.
Because when the show ends, the hunt begins.
And tonight?
There’s something in the front row that shouldn’t be breathing.
She tips her hat, and grins.
“Curtain up, darling.”