.

The Beauty Of A True Queen!
Ase, My Sister!
Queen Oshun


NubianGraphics.com


NubianGraphics.com

The Devil is a title given to the supernatural being, who, in mainstream Christianity, Islam, and other religions, is believed to be a powerful, evil entity and the tempter of humankind. The Devil is commonly associated with heretics, infidels, and other unbelievers. In mainstream Christianity, God and the Devil are usually portrayed as fighting over the souls of humans, with the Devil seeking to lure people away from God and into Sheol. The Devil commands a force of lesser evil spirits, commonly known as demons. The name "Devil" derives from the Greek word diabolos, which means "slanderer" or "accuser". The Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) does not assign this level of personification to a devil; there, the Adversary is a servant of God whose job it is to test humankind.



In the Western Christian tradition, the Devil has entered popular folklore, particularly in his role as a trickster figure. As such, he is found as a character in a wide number of traditional folktales and legends from Ireland, Newfoundland, Italy and the United Kingdom, where he often attempts to trick or outwit other characters. In some of these tales, the Devil is portrayed as more of a folk villain than as the personification of evil.Christian tradition has frequently identified pagan religions and witchcraft with the influence of Satan. In fact few neopagan traditions recognize Satan or the Devil per se. However, many neopagan groups worship some sort of Horned God, for example as a consort of the Great Goddess in Witchcraft.

A ghost is defined as the apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and usually encountered in places she or he frequented, or in association with the person's former belongings. The word "ghost" may also refer to the spirit or soul of a deceased person, or to any spirit or demon. Ghosts are often associated with hauntings, which is, according to the Parapsychological Association, "the more or less regular occurrence of paranormal phenomena associated with a particular locality (especially a building) and usually attributed to the activities of a discarnate entity; the phenomena may include apparitions, poltergeist disturbances, cold drafts, sounds of footsteps and voices, and various odours." The term ghost has been replaced by apparition in parapsychology, because the word ghost is deemed insufficiently precise. The belief in ghost as souls of the departed is closely tied to the ancient concept of animism, which attributed souls to everything in nature, including human beings, animals, plants, rocks, etc.



Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it was widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress. Although the evidence for ghosts is largely anecdotal, the belief in ghosts throughout history has remained widespread and persistent.



~Happy Haunting~

Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and viewing horror films. Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.
The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /,,sˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'.
On Halloween night in present-day, adults and children dress up as creatures from the underworld (e.g., ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches and goblins). Halloween was perceived as the night during which the division between the world of the living and the otherworld was blurred so spirits of the dead and inhabitants from the underworld were able to walk free on the earth. It was believed necessary to dress as a spirit or otherworldly creature when venturing outdoors to blend in, and this is where dressing in such a manner for Halloween comes from.
The houses are frequently adorned with pumpkins or turnips carved into scary faces; lights or candles are placed inside the carvings to provide an eerie effect.

Happy Halloween my Friend!

Witchcraft (from Old English wiccecræft "sorcery, necromancy"), in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers.
A witch (from Old English masculine wicca, feminine wicce, see Witch (etymology)) is a practitioner of witchcraft. The Online Etymology Dictionary states a "possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and Ger. weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents."Witchcraft still exists in a number of belief systems, and indeed there are many today who self-identify with the term "witch".



Witches are traditionally stereotyped as being female, however their male equivalents were also often referred to as witches .
Probably the most obvious characteristic of a witch was the ability to cast a spell, a "spell" being the word used to signify the means employed to accomplish a magical action. A spell could consist of a set of words, a formula or verse, or a ritual action, or any combination of these. Spells traditionally were cast by many methods, such as by the inscription of runes or sigils on an object to give it magical powers, by the immolation or binding of a wax or clay image (poppet) of a person to effect him or her magically, by the recitation of incantations, by the performance of physical rituals, by the employment of magical herbs as amulets or potions, by gazing at mirrors, swords or other specula (scrying) for purposes of divination, and by many others means.


Have a Bewitching Evening,~Wendy~

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest American fiction still read today.The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a priggish schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of eighteen-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head." ."The denouement of the fictional tale is set at the bridge in the real location of the Old Dutch Burying Ground in Sleepy Hollow. The characters of Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel may have been based on local residents known to the author. Sleepy Hollow (1999) is an historical horror film directed by Tim Burton, interpreting the legend of The Headless Horseman and based loosely around the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The film was written by Andrew Kevin Walker and retooled by Tom Stoppard. It starred Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, and was scored by Tim Burton stalwart, Danny Elfman.Portions of the film's opening (featuring a dialogue-free Martin Landau cameo) were actually shot in New York State, not far from the actual town of Sleepy Hollow.~H