The Pale Raven Official

Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them!    This Blog is a Repost of a piece I posted back in March of 2025 Ah, witches and their broomsticks. It’s one of those iconic images that’s as ingrained in pop culture as pumpkin spice lattes in autumn. But have you ever stopped to wonder why witches are so obsessed with brooms? I mean, of all the household items to choose from, why not a vacuum cleaner or a Swiffer? Let’s dive into the bizarre, slightly absurd, and surprisingly dark history of how witches and broomsticks became the ultimate power couple. The Hallucinogenic Origins: Brooms as Medieval Psychedelics First, let’s talk about the  real  magick behind the broomstick. No, it’s not just about sweeping up dust bunnies. Histori...

Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them!  Right now, a familiar blue and white bottle is sparking nervous conversations across the country. Tylenol, a household staple for generations, finds itself once again at the center of public discourse regarding trust and consumer safety. But for those of us with a keen eye on history, this isn't the first time an over-the-counter pain reliever has inadvertently landed in a national panic. The irony is poignant, for the last time Tylenol made headlines this terrifying, it fundamentally, and permanently, reshaped one of our most cherished American holidays: Halloween. This isn't a story about ghouls or ghosts, but about a very real, very human fear that gripped a nation on the cusp of its spookiest se...

Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them!  Before the plastic pumpkins, the endless bowls of fun-sized candy, or the blockbuster horror flicks, there was a single, profound spiritual concept that defined the entire season. This is the Ancient Heart of Halloween , and it is known simply as The Thinning Veil . It is the foundational belief that gives the entire holiday its unmistakable, atmospheric, and deliciously spooky thrill. The sense that for one night, the rules of reality might bend. Samhain: The Great Divide To understand the veil, we must travel back over 2,000 years to the ancient Celts, a sophisticated Iron Age people whose culture stretched across what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. For them, October 31st...

Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them!  The Victorian era, shadowed by high mortality rates and steeped in the formality of mourning, was an age deeply preoccupied with death. This widespread cultural anxiety, coupled with the fervent rise of Spiritualism , created a perfect storm for a remarkable and deeply controversial artistic genre to emerge: spirit photography . It’s crucial to understand that this historical phenomenon is distinct from modern paranormal investigation. Spirit photography refers specifically to the studio portraits produced during the 19th and early 20th centuries . It was a practice rooted not in unexplainable ghost captures, but in the performance of mediumistic fraud —a sophisticated form of deception that employe...

  Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them!  The history of horror cinema is a compelling narrative that parallels humanity's own evolving fears. From its earliest days, filmmaking immediately found its voice in the shadows, creating a genre defined by distinct eras that reflect the cultural anxieties and technological advancements of the time. The Foundations: The Silent Era (1896–1927) The progenitor of the horror genre was established in the Silent Era. The French filmmaker Georges Méliès introduced the supernatural to the screen with his 1896 short, Le Manoir du Diable ( The House of the Devil ). This three-minute "living picture" was a spectacular novelty, using trick photography to conjure bats, skeletons, and the Devil himself ...

  This article contains a blood ritual.    Each month, we are blessed with the return of a full moon. Each with its own properties, backstories, and value. While I like to utilize the moon's affects most months, typically for simple tasks like recharging items or for specific hexes or curses, the most important moon (for me) is the Blood Moon. And no, it isn’t because of its edgy and ominous name, although that does make it much more intriguing. I typically save my larger ritualistic spells, curses, or targeted harassments for this particular moon. And, not just the actual eve of the moon but the week surrounding it. With that being said, a blood moon is not a set and titled affair, like the named moons of each month. Instead, it is a phenomenon in which a total lunar eclipse occurs. And, through the marvels of the universe, during this event blue light is filtered out (thanks to the Earth’s atmosphere), creating a blood-red, sometimes orange-tinged, full moon. This occur...