hey I don’t think I’ve ever talked here about corn wolves. here let me find a gas station real quick
okay so I’m in the middle of nowhere stopped for gas in a small town in Iowa rn and my Internet is REALLY spotty so I hope this posts but
as people who have followed this blog for longer might know, sometimes I go hang out with this corn genetics lab at school, as in we meet up on friday nights to talk about corn science and stuff. once the corn genetics subject of the week is covered sometimes we go off track and start talking about other stuff. as u may imagine from a corn genetics lab, most of the members grew up on farms here in the midwest, and one night we were talking and a couple of the people started discussing an urban legend that they were taught as kids to keep them from running into their family’s cornfields and getting lost. one of those people was from Nebraska, and the other from rural minnisoda- these were isolated incidents of this urban legend happening, and all of us were deeply engrossed in this. i cannot make this shit up, this is the story:
there are wolves that live inside the corn when it’s full grown. they’re huge, and are camouflaged to hide in the fields. their breathing sounds like the misting of the irrigation systems set up over the corn in these areas for water. if they see small children in the fields, they kill and eat them.
now I’ve lived my whole life in suburban Iowa, and I can vouch that we don’t have irrigation systems like that here; our group came to the conclusion that this must be the reason that from our 7 or 8 person sample size, the corn wolves did not exist in Iowa, the largest producer of corn. I’ve never seen the corn wolves mentioned anywhere else outside that one night with the genetics lab, and it really fascinates me because as a horror/creepypasta person myself, I think it’s a great example of those strange little urban legends that never get written down on paper. the fact that it’s never appeared anywhere else in my life kind of confounds me, because it’s a really cool story. i like to go driving around rural Iowa when I’m home from college, and i always end up thinking about the corn wolves.
neither of the people believed it as kids btw lol
This is a FANTASTIC piece of Americana and cryptic lore. I propose making them a thing immediately.
Fun geography time.
This isn’t an unprecedented or unusual piece of folklore, and I think
there’s a notable demographic reason that this lore shows-up in the
long-grass prairies of the northern Corn Belt of the U.S. This appears
to be a classic telling of “Roggenwolf” folklore, a variation on the
“feldgeister” concept.
Roggenwolf – or sometimes, Kornwolf – specifically refers to the German folk belief in a phantom wolf spirit which hides in tall corn fields and stalks children. Roggenwolf is one of the more popular and widely-known of the feldgeister spirits.
In German folk culture, Feldgeisters, as is probably obvious from the name, are malevolent spirits which dwell in crops and rural agricultural fields. Feldgeisters
are almost always specifically associated with children; that is, they
are said to target children for torment and death. They are not really
associated with naturally-occurring grasslands or woodlands, but instead
are distinctly related to domesticated crops. Sometimes, some rural
residents will make small ritualistic offerings during harvest season as
a gesture to appease the spirit. The spirit is said to be most active
when crops are at their tallest.
Other variations of the crop-dwelling feldgeister include an evil pig (Roggensau); a dog that tickles children to death (Kiddelhunde); a witch-like corn-woman who kidnaps children (Roggenmuhme); and a chicken that pecks-out children’s eyes (Getreidehahn).
I
would say that there are two (2!) very good reasons why feldgeister lore shows-up in some micro-regions of the Midwest, while being absent
in others. Specifically, both the ethnic heritage and the ecology of a
certain part of the Plains/Midwest create good conditions for
replicating this European lore in North America
People familiar with the cultural
geography of the American Midwest are probably well-aware of the strong
ethnic Norwegian presence among rural agricultural cultures in the
glaciated plains of the Red River Valley of western Minnesota, the
northern half of North Dakota, and northeastern Montana. Ecologically,
this landscape is glaciated prairies with pothole lakes, and often hosts
much more barley than corn. Meanwhile, the Heartland region of rural
Illinois and Indiana, though hosting quite a bit of heavy corn industry,
isn’t too much more ethnically German than other parts of America, and
much of the landscape is a mixture of Rust Belt industrial areas
in-between the cornfields (so it’s not exactly desolate and creepy).
However,
there is very strong ethnic German presence in the long-grass prairies
southern Minnesota, South Dakota, south-central North Dakota, parts of
western Wisconsin, and central Nebraska and Kansas away from the urban
areas of Omaha and Kansas City. In most of this land, over 50% of the
population has German ancestry. Aside from this cultural composition,
this region also lends itself better to creepy, eerie stories because it
is more empty and ecologically homogenous than the rest of the Great
Lakes and Heartlands; this is the region where crops run uninterrupted
for miles and rural dirt-roads run in empty grid networks in every
direction. Though the feldgeister concept has a closer association with
cornfields in Europe, the long-grass prairies (roughly centered neared
Sioux Falls) host 1) heavy German influence, and 2) the most expansive
crops in the country. Therefore, the region is probably ripe for a
replication of spooky German lore about haunted cornfields.
Source: Me Map 1 – Cultural Micro-Regions of the Heartland and Great Plains:
I think that this map might help to visualize where both cornfields and
rural lifestyle predominate, opening the door to rural folklore. The two
regions here where corn agriculture is predominant are the orange and
yellow regions. The orange region, the classic “Heartland”, hosts
Indiana Hoosier culture and the cornfields of Illinois and Ohio.
However, the region is marked by smaller farms and a higher population
density, and is not that rural compared to the plains further west; much
of this region also hosts larger cities and a lot of Rust Belt
industrial zones and dairy farms. The yellow region, however, is both
covered in corn and quite rural, where crops can span from horizon to
horizon. That’s where we would look for German folk culture.
Source: An anonymous hero cartographer who’s had their work stolen by Pinterest users Map 2 – German Ancestry in the U.S.
This might help to visualize the places where predominant corn agriculture overlaps with German ancestry. Note that in much of central Wisconsin and central North Dakota, over 50% of people have German ancestry. But this land isn’t really dominated by corn. However, the region roughly from Fargo (on the Minnesota-North Dakota border) to Kansas City is both heavily German and dominated by corn. —
Anyway, feldgeister lore is scary. I’d love to hear more American versions, since a lot of the scholarship on these spooky corn-wolves is based on folk culture in Germany itself, rather than the diaspora in the U.S.
Saw this post about feldgeister’s going around again, so thought I’d make a low-effort re-post for anyone interested in “Midwestern gothic” or how local ecology influences regional folklore.
this an awesome hot take thank you!!
and just in time for halloween and the corn harvest, too 👀
This article, by Naomi Fry, talks about the witch as an archetypal concept in the zeitgeist. But that’s only done as a way to intoduce the stunningly beautiful portrait series “Major Arcana: Witches in America,” by the photographer Frances F. Denny.
Her subjects are of diverse age, social class, and ethnicity, and practice a range of rituals, often drawing on “mysticism, engagement with the occult, politically oriented activism, polytheism, ritualized ‘spell-work’ and plant-based healing,” according to Denny’s exhibition notes.
“The medieval warrior, realizing the consequences of his impulsive act, immediately approached the owner of the drone and offered to pay for the damage.
The owner of the drone was so impressed by the brilliant attack that he suggested organizing a competition for bringing down “dragons” with short spears next year.
Drone owners have another year to develop a unique “dragon-like” design for their flying machines.” (x)
I am 100% cooler with this knowing that the spear-thrower realized “oops maybe I shouldn’t have done that” and tried to make it right, and that the guy who the drone belonged to was cool with it
just so everyone knows, this has already been memorialized in a runestone
Everything about this post blesses those involved with a +4 on their next Today is Good Day roll
HATCHLINGS, WHAT’S MAMA MAGPIE’S MANTRA!?
WITCHCRAFT REQUIRES NOTHING! NOTHING NOTHING EXCEPT YOU!
Turn off and clean your phone. Use the screen as an obsidian scrying mirror!
⬆⬆⬆
AAAAAND I have black pages (can be painted, mines are glued black paper) of my grimoire covered in contact paper (to make them shiny) and BOOM portable scrying mirror in your grimoire. I also plan on making a star map? To star scry in my mermaid grimoire too.
Be crafty folks, be crafty ❤👌
BAM! RESOURCEFULNESS, MOFOS!
Just water in a dark bowl, guys.
Or paint one side of a picture frame glass black, then when you turn it over the unpainted side is a black mirror.
Use a candle flame.
Or tea leaves in your cup. Can’t afford fancy loose tea? Cut open your cheap Lipton tea bag you swiped from a diner and just use that.
Scrying is one of the easiest forms of magic to DIY!
You definitely don’t need fancy, expensive scrying mirrors or crystals in order to scry! If you want them, that’s cool and you should spend your discretionary budget however you choose, but it’s not remotely necessary!
I’ve got a $60 obsidian sphere these days because it’s beautiful and I love it to bits, but my first dedicated scrying tool was a $0.99 picture frame from walmart with black paint on the back of the glass. Before I had THAT I used a candle flame. All the suggestions above work, plus you can use the reflection of your own pupils in your bathroom mirror, a shard of a broken beer bottle you found on the side of the road, a stone in a ring, nail polish on your thumb. You literally just need a point to focus your vision on while you drop into trance. Reflective surfaces seem to work best in general with a few exceptions like fire-scrying, and people frequently find that dark reflective surfaces are preferable to light ones, but the only actual requirements for scrying is “a point upon which to focus your physical vision” and “the ability to drop into a trance state”. Heck, stare at a spot on your ceiling if you want, it can work.
Honestly, my personal absolute favorite is… water in a dark bowl.
I got a black bowl at Family Dollar for a couple bucks. It is far and away my favorite scrying method.
I have a DIY black mirror that looks fancy (I inherited a nice turn-of-the-last-century frame). I have a little glass orb. But nah. I like water in my discount store black bowl.
It doesn’t have to be dark.
People scry by staring at walls and ceilings. By staring at trees.
Stare into a natural body of water under a New Moon if you wanna really get rekt.
Or gaze into your own eyes in the mirror for like 10+ minutes and tell me you don’t learn something about yourself.
This is shocking…. scrying is the least expensive form of divination I know!
You can scry in a bowl of water (free), smoke (free, potentially), fire (candle cost money, but can be super cheap), leaves (free and yes, leaf scrying is a thing), stars (free), and more. It’s literally just staring at patterns or reflective surfaces (ideally natural ones) and then going into a trance from that where you get the visions. Nature is free! Scrying is free!!
I personally use an obsidian sphere, but it only cost me $10… that’s not super expensive fam.
if you want the physical experience of glass + hand, turn your phone screen off and reflect some kind of single-pointed light in it
if you want something you can put in a frame (the painted glass method always bugged me because i could see the paint texture no matter what i did) go to Home Depot’s welding department, get a replacement welder’s mask glass for 5-10$. (as a bonus, if it’s a #14 or darker plate, it can be used to safely view eclipses)
i know wish.com isn’t exactly reliable but i did see crystal spheres on there for like $2, one of which was black. and even if it doesnt end up begin actual onyx or whatever its still perfectly good for scrying
Welcome! Chances are, if you’re reading this post, you’re (relatively) new to the witchblr community on tumblr, or you’re just looking for some tips on how to improve your experience on witchblr. Either way, welcome to the community.
First, let’s clarify some terms. By “witchblr,” I am referring to the tumblr community of blogs that focus on witchcraft. So, if you’re a witch and you have a tumblr that’s mostly or partially about witchcraft, you’re part of this community!
Joining the witchblr community can seem daunting and intimidating at first: sometimes it seems like everyone already knows each other, you might feel intimidated by more experienced witches, etc. Here are some tips to get more involved and have a more pleasant witchblr experience!
Read people’s about and informational pages!
If someone’s blog has an “about” page or any other pages that they suggest you read before following or interacting, please read them! This is especially important if you plan on buying a reading or other magical service from someone, as most people will put their rules and guidelines on these pages.
Be respectful
This should be a given, but sometimes people forget that there are other people behind the screen. When asking questions, say thank you after. If someone says free tarot readings are closed, don’t pressure people into giving you a reading anyway. Treat others the way you wish to be treated.
Avoid drama blogs.
Unfortunately, like any large online community, there are some members who thrive off of the occasional discourse that pops up. Avoid blogs that are dedicated to starting drama, as interacting with these blogs can sometimes drag you into the drama.
On that note, use the block button when you need to!
There’s no shame in blocking blogs that make you uncomfortable or that you simply dislike. You are in total control of your witchblr experience, so if you don’t want certain blogs to interact with yours, don’t be afraid to use the block button.
Google, then ask questions
When faced with a question, always turn to Google first before asking another witchblr member a question. Nowadays, information on witchcraft is readily available, and most “Witchcraft 101” questions will pop up first in search results.
If you aren’t satisfied with your Google results, then it’s a good time to reach out to other witchblrs for help. Taking initiative in your research is a good trait to have, and it stops people from having to answer the same questions over and over again. Plus, with Google, you’ll get an answer much faster.
Respect closed cultures.
If a marginalized group says a certain practice or tradition is closed, respect that. There are tons and tons of open practices for you to choose from. It’s perfectly fine to follow and interact with members of a closed path, but make sure to respect their boundaries.
Join a Witchy Discord group
With the way tumblr is structured, it’s sometimes difficult to feel a sense of community. For solitary witches, this can feel especially isolating. Joining a discord group is a great way to make similar-minded friends and feel more connected to the community. Or if you have a few witchy friends, you could even make your own server!
If you’re 18+ and looking an active discord group, feel free to join my server: The Nightshade Network!
Post original content
If you’re hoping to get a bit more traffic to your blog, create some original content! That may include personal posts about where you are in your craft, art that you create, spells that you’ve written and work well for you, and more! The more active you are in the community, the more noticeable you will be!
Be yourself!
Never, ever misrepresent yourself. Don’t lie about how many years of experience you have or claim other ideas as your own. If you get caught in a lie, your followers will likely lose trust in you. You are perfect just the way you are, and you will grow and improve with your craft the longer you practice. Lying won’t make you seem cool, but being yourself will!
Heatherwitch 