From the Hollow

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities—a collection of gothic history, strange traditions, haunted places, forgotten folklore, dark symbolism, and the stories hidden behind art and books.

Here you’ll find ancient festivals, eerie legends, Victorian oddities, supernatural inspiration, book reviews, collector features, and the beautifully strange details that shape my worlds. From haunted Pittsburgh to poisonous gardens, from ravens and roses to old rituals and whispered ghost stories, this is where mystery, history, and art meet.

If you love gothic atmosphere, dark fiction, and the allure of the unusual, you’re in the right place.

Zeus: Origins, Myths, Symbols & Ancient Greek Art

Few figures in world mythology have shaped literature, philosophy, religion, art, and popular culture as profoundly as Zeus. Instantly recognizable by his thunderbolt and eagle, Zeus stands at the summit of the Greek pantheon as ruler of the heavens, guardian of justice, and sovereign of both gods and mortals. Yet reducing him to the familiar image of a bearded deity hurling lightning obscures the remarkable complexity of his origins and evolution. Zeus is not merely a weathe

6 hours ago9 min read

The Paris Catacombs: History, Hauntings & Gothic Legends Beneath Paris

Paris is often called the City of Light. Images of elegant cafés, grand boulevards, world-famous museums, and the glittering Eiffel Tower come to mind. Yet beneath those bustling streets lies another Paris—one of silence, darkness, and millions of forgotten souls. Hidden beneath the city's beauty is a labyrinth of tunnels known as the Paris Catacombs, one of the world's most fascinating—and unsettling—historical sites. Whether viewed as a masterpiece of engineering, a cemeter

Jul 276 min read

Mirrors as Portals: Folklore, Horror, and the Symbolism of Reflections

Few objects have earned as much suspicion throughout history as the ordinary mirror. Every home has one. We use them without thinking, trusting that the reflection staring back belongs to us. Yet for thousands of years, cultures around the world have treated mirrors with caution. They have been covered after deaths, avoided during certain rituals, blamed for trapping spirits, and imagined as doorways between worlds. Perhaps that is because mirrors challenge something fundamen

Jul 246 min read

Jorōgumo: Japan's Beautiful Spider Demon

Beauty has always had a way of lowering our guard. Some of the world's oldest stories remind us that danger rarely announces itself with claws and fangs. Instead, it smiles. It charms. It invites us a little closer before revealing its true nature. Few legends embody that idea more perfectly than the Jorōgumo. Part beautiful woman, part monstrous spider, the Jorōgumo has woven her way through Japanese folklore for centuries. She is seductive without being romantic, terrifying

Jul 224 min read

Witch Bottles: The Strange History of Protective Magic & Hidden Charms

Long before security cameras, alarm systems, and motion sensors, people protected their homes with something far stranger. They buried bottles filled with nails, pins, hair, urine, herbs, and other mysterious ingredients beneath fireplaces, thresholds, and walls, believing these hidden charms could trap evil before it entered the home. These curious objects, known today as witch bottles, have puzzled archaeologists for decades and continue to fascinate historians, occult enth

Jul 205 min read

The Banshee: Ireland’s Messenger of Death

Few figures in folklore create such an immediate image as the banshee. A woman in white or gray, wandering beneath the moonlight. Long hair blowing in the wind. A haunting cry echoing across the countryside. A warning that death is near. For centuries, stories of the banshee have captured the imagination of storytellers, artists, and writers. She has appeared in ghost stories, horror films, fantasy novels, and popular culture as a terrifying supernatural being. But the origin

Jul 153 min read

Aokigahara Forest: Japan’s Sea of Trees, Spirits, and Shadows

At the northern base of Mount Fuji lies a forest unlike any other in Japan. Dense, silent, and almost unnaturally still, Aokigahara stretches across nearly 12 square miles of ancient volcanic terrain. Known as Jukai—“the Sea of Trees”—the forest appears endless, with towering evergreens, thick moss, and twisted roots spreading across the hardened lava fields left behind by Mount Fuji’s eruptions. Jukai (樹海), “Sea of Trees,” is almost a folklore phrase by itself. The image of

Jul 135 min read

The Witch’s Familiar: Myth, Magic, and Misunderstanding

Few figures in folklore are as quietly misunderstood as the witch’s familiar. Depending on the time period, the familiar has been described as a magical assistant, a demon in animal form, a supernatural spy, or simply an ordinary creature caught in extraordinary accusations. Like many elements of witchcraft folklore, the truth depends less on evidence and more on fear, interpretation, and the stories people chose to believe. And that is what makes the familiar so fascinating.

Jul 104 min read

Black Dog Folklore: Death Omen, Guardian, or Trickster?

There are few creatures in folklore that can silence a room quite like the black dog. Unlike werewolves, vampires, or witches, the black dog doesn't always arrive with violence. Sometimes it simply appears at the edge of a lonely road, standing motionless beneath the moonlight. Sometimes it's seen sitting quietly in an abandoned churchyard. Other times it's heard before it's ever seen—a heavy padding of paws behind a traveler who turns around to find...nothing. Is it coming t

Jun 294 min read

Modern Witchcraft vs Historical Fear: From Persecution to Personal Practice

Witchcraft has never been a single, fixed idea. Across history it has shifted dramatically—from a term used to justify fear, punishment, and social control, to a modern spiritual and cultural identity that many people now openly claim. The distance between those two versions of “witchcraft” is not just historical. It reflects a deeper change in how humans explain the unknown, assign blame, and define personal belief. Historical Fear: Witchcraft as a Crime Against Order In med

Jun 224 min read

Why Abandoned Places Feel Alive

There is a strange moment that happens when you step through the doorway of an abandoned building. The roof may be collapsing. Paint peels from the walls in curling strips. Dust blankets every surface. Nature has begun reclaiming what was once carefully constructed by human hands. And yet, despite the silence, the place doesn't feel empty. It feels alive. This sensation is one of the reasons abandoned places continue to fascinate explorers, photographers, historians, and stor

Jun 154 min read

Cryptids and Legends: Regional Monsters, Hidden Creatures, and the Truth Behind the Stories

Cryptids sit in a strange and fascinating space between folklore, fear, curiosity, and sometimes genuine scientific interest. They’re the creatures that “might” exist—at least according to stories, sightings, footprints in the mud, and blurry photographs that refuse to give us a clean answer. Whether it’s something lurking in deep forests, remote lakes, or forgotten corners of human history, cryptids tend to emerge wherever uncertainty and imagination overlap. At its core, th

Jun 124 min read

Inside a Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities

A Victorian cabinet of curiosities was not simply a display of objects. It was an attempt to contain the world inside a room. These cabinets, popular in the nineteenth century among educated elites, collectors, physicians, naturalists, and wealthy travelers, were deeply shaped by the Victorian desire to classify, understand, and simultaneously marvel at the complexity of existence. What they collected reveals as much about their worldview as it does about the objects themselv

Jun 103 min read

Victorian Gothic & Mourning Culture: Veils, Jewelry, and the Performance of Grief

Victorian mourning culture reshaped grief into something visible, regulated, and deeply embedded in social identity. In the nineteenth century, particularly during Queen Victoria’s long mourning after Prince Albert’s death, bereavement was not treated as a private emotional experience. Instead, it became a public condition that had to be expressed correctly, observed by others, and carefully staged through fashion and behavior. Within this system, Victorian Gothic aesthetics

Jun 84 min read

Strange Graveyard Traditions of the Victorian Era

The Victorian obsession with death emerged from a society constantly surrounded by it. Disease outbreaks, dangerous working conditions, and high infant mortality rates meant grief touched nearly every household. Rather than avoiding the subject, Victorians transformed mourning into an art form filled with symbolism, superstition, and ritual. Among the most intriguing remnants of this era are the strange graveyard traditions that flourished throughout the 19th century. Picnics

May 274 min read

The Dark History of Victorian Mourning Photography

The dead were never truly gone in the Victorian era. In an age obsessed with grief, memory, and the fragility of life, families often turned to photography to preserve one final image of their loved ones. What emerged was one of history’s most haunting traditions: Victorian mourning photography. At first glance, these photographs can feel unsettling to modern audiences. Pale children posed as if sleeping. Mothers clutching lifeless infants. Husbands propped upright in chairs,

May 254 min read

Horsemaning and the Haunted Lens

Before it was a social media joke, before it had a name, and long before anyone staged it for likes, the visual illusion behind horsemaning belonged to a much older tradition—one born in darkrooms, parlors, and Victorian curiosity cabinets. What we now recognize as a playful “headless body” photo is really a descendant of early photographic experiments with death, presence, and the unsettling ability of the camera to lie convincingly. The Camera Was Never Innocent When photog

May 194 min read

The Strange History of Mourning Jewelry

Mourning jewelry sits in a strange space between love, grief, and art. It is beautiful in a way that feels almost uncomfortable today—ornate lockets, rings, brooches, and bracelets created not to celebrate life, but to preserve absence. These pieces were once deeply personal expressions of loss, worn close to the body as both remembrance and ritual. And like many Victorian traditions, they reveal just as much about cultural attitudes toward death as they do about the people w

May 123 min read

Haunted Places in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has a way of folding history into itself. Known for its steel, river fog, abandoned structures, and legendary stories steeped in history…and mystery. It’s a city where folklore and architecture blur easily, and where certain places feel like they’re still holding onto echoes of what happened long after the people are gone. If you stopping by for a visit, here are some haunted places in Pittsburgh to add to your list of must-see locations. One of the most infamous i

May 114 min read

Why Victorians Covered Mirrors After Death

The practice of covering mirrors after a death is one of those haunting customs that feels pulled straight from gothic fiction. For the Victorians, it was rooted in very real beliefs about death, the soul, and the unseen world. To understand the tradition, you have to step into the mindset of the Victorian Era. Death wasn’t hidden away the way it often is today. It was intimate, ritualized, and deeply woven into daily life. People died at home, wakes were held in parlors, and

May 43 min read