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Crystal Ponti

@crystalponti.bsky.social

1.4K followers 710 following 2.4K posts

A freelance writer exploring the intersection of history and folklore. Bylines: The History Channel, The New York Times, BBC, etc. Also @HistoriumU (Historium Unearthia); Grieving mom of Adam. muckrack.com/crystal-ponti

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 6d

The Civil War didn’t just change the nation. It gave rise to embalming, and America’s funeral industry as we know it. Here's my latest for HISTORY. #history #funeral #Americanlife

👉 www.history.com/articles/civ...

How Civil War Deaths Advanced America’s Funeral Industry

Embalming advanced as a way to preserve and disinfect remains.

www.history.com

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 10h

Meditation, in myth, is rarely peaceful. It is descent into silence, shadow, and truth. The gods who sit in stillness are not escaping the world but holding it in their hands. #MythologyMonday

Art: Cheryl Kanuck

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 13h

Mystics across ages agreed that revelation is not shouted but whispered. Whether at the foot of a fig tree or inside a cave, the divine is found in listening, not noise. #MythologyMonday

Art: Shijun Munns

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 15h

The short story is a postcard from the subconscious. It says only what it must, leaves space for what it can’t, and signs off with the silence of an unfinished dream. #MythologyMonday

Art: Hendrikje Kühne und Beat Klein

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 17h

In Taoist myth, Laozi left the world on a water buffalo after writing the Tao Te Ching. His teaching: the stillest water reflects the most truth. Contemplation was the path back to harmony. #MythologyMonday

Art: Zhang Lu

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 19h

In Celtic legend, the salmon of wisdom swam in sacred waters. Fionn mac Cumhaill gained its knowledge not through conquest, but by waiting, cooking, and touching - a quiet revelation. #MythologyMonday

Art: Justin McCarthy

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 21h

The Buddha’s enlightenment began beneath the Bodhi tree, where he sat unmoving for seven weeks. His meditation was not escape but confrontation; the quiet battle against illusion. #MythologyMonday

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 23h

Greek philosophers practiced theoria, a kind of sacred contemplation. To observe the cosmos was to commune with it. Thought itself was a form of worship. #MythologyMonday

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

Every culture has its magician. The Egyptian priest reading stars. The Yoruba babalawo casting divination shells. The hedge-witch whispering charms to the moon. Each one a keeper of the world’s secret grammar. #FolkloreSunday

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

Folk magicians worked smaller wonders. The cunning man healed with herbs and charms, the wise woman found lost cattle or love. Theirs was kitchen magic - practical, sometimes dangerous, but deeply human. #FolkloreSunday

Art: Joe Gilronan

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

The Book of Abramelin taught the magician how to summon their guardian angel. It warned that demons would appear first, testing resolve. Those who faltered were lost to their own shadows. #FolkloreSunday

Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

Merlin straddles myth and history, part prophet, part madman. In Welsh tales, he speaks to beasts; in Arthurian legend, he vanishes into the forest with the Lady of the Lake. Wisdom always walks a lonely path. #FolkloreSunday

Art: Tony Quimbel

Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

John Dee, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, claimed to converse with angels through a crystal. His scryer, Edward Kelley, spoke in tongues. Some said they glimpsed heaven. Others said they unleashed something else. #FolkloreSunday

Art: Henry Gillard Glindoni

Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

In legend, Faust sold his soul for knowledge. The pact became Europe’s great warning... beware the hunger to know too much. Yet his story endures, because we all long to ask the same forbidden questions. #FolkloreSunday

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 1d

The word magic comes from the Persian maguš, meaning “wise man.” Once sacred, it became suspect - wisdom turned witchcraft as old gods fell and new faiths rose. #FolkloreSunday

Art: John William Waterhouse

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

In Iceland’s Snæfellsjökull Glacier, legends say a gateway to other worlds lies buried beneath the ice. Travelers claim to feel vibrations underfoot, like something ancient stirring below. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

In fairy tales, each short story is a ritual. The repetition of “once upon a time” and “they lived happily ever after” is a spell that teaches endings can exist. #BookWormSat

Art: Nancy Lee Moran

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

In Cornwall, Jamaica Inn still creaks with the memory of smugglers and shipwrecks. Guests wake to footsteps in empty halls and the sound of tankards clinking long after last call. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

Modern flash fiction carries the same DNA as ancient myth; brevity sharpened to blade. A story in 500 words can wound, heal, or haunt longer than a novel. #BookWormSat

Art: Natalie Schorr

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

In Venice, the Palazzo Dario is cursed. Every owner since the 15th century has met ruin, madness, or death. Locals call it la casa che uccide, the house that kills. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

Shirley Jackson mastered unease in small doses. “The Lottery” begins like a summer morning and ends with horror. Her brevity is what makes it believable. #BookWormSat

Art: William Hogarth

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

A ruined church in the Czech village of Luková holds life-sized ghosts made of gauze and plaster. Created by an artist, they sit in pews as if in eternal prayer. The living come to worship among the dead. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

In folklore, the short story was born around the fire. Parables, fairy tales, and legends - each one complete, self-contained, a spark meant to travel by word of mouth. #BookWormSat

Art: Joe Gilronan

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

The Ancient Ram Inn in Gloucestershire was built on a pagan burial ground. Visitors claim they’ve felt cold hands, seen shadow figures, and heard screams from nowhere. Its walls remember. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

Poe called the short story a tale meant to be read in one sitting. He filled it with gloom, logic, and dread - stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” that beat louder after the last line ends. #BookWormSat

Art: Harry Clarke

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 2d

The Stanley Hotel in Colorado inspired The Shining. Guests hear piano music when no one plays, see ghostly children in halls, and wake to whispers of unseen guests from another century. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

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