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[gale: you posted while I was writing this in Word - I'll reply to you in a minute...]
“The Uses of Haunting”
As prompted by an earlier post in this thread, I’d like to meditate on (or “ramble about,” as you like it) the concept or the phenomenon or, no, the principle of Haunting in the context of Halloween magick.
This is something that teases around the edge of my mind, begging to be explored and understood more fully, then skittering out of my grasp - haunting, the way I’m using the word here, is not limited (and indeed does not refer to) to “the inhabitation or regular visitation of a place by the spirit of a deceased person.” Instead, there is a sense of haunting --Haunting-- as a thing-in-its-own-right, for its own sake. It is a feeling and a quality of a place – which may be either transitory or persistent – but it is also (I think, I know, but I don’t yet grasp) a virtue to be practiced and a discipline to be mastered.
And it’s far more involved than simply “the art and science of scaring people,” though that plays into it.
Do you get what I’m saying? Sort of?
“Haunted,” in this sense, is a little like “sacred.” In fact, it’s a lot like “sacred” – it’s a specific variety of sacredness. This is sacred space and hallowed ground --- and this is a haunted attic, or grove, or crossroads. Similarly, objects can be haunted –tools and relics of haunting— as can people. Haunted items can be used in the practice of haunting, or they may get to haunting all by themselves.
Let me say again that by “haunted” space I do not necessarily mean “the place where someone died and their spirit walks.” Yes, such a place is likely to be haunted, the way we’re using the word, but so is the dark area underneath the bridge near my house, and to my knowledge there is no particular “deceased human” in residence there. Also, many people who have had experiences with “ghosts” (of both the “deceased” and “spontaneous psychokinetic activity” variety) would report that there is nothing particularly “sacred” about what they have had to live with – far from it. Again, that’s not quite what I mean. A ghost may “haunt” (in our sense), or it may simply “inhabit.” It might “annoy” or even “terrorize” with or without haunting.
Does that make any sense? I told you I’d be rambling.
There are some places (and moving “zones” around certain people) where the boundaries between what normally appears as mundane “waking” reality and a more fluid “dream-world” (*sigh* and by that I don’t mean literal REM dreaming… this is getting vague) get thin and things start to bleed through. You know when… dangit, I’m just not getting a good handle on my words today.
By this point, if you have any instinctive or intuitive sense of what I’m talking about, you’re probably nodding and going “yeah, yeah…” It’s one of those things. [“It’s one of those Things” ???]
So, if we accept for the moment (as I’m forced to) that I can’t adequately articulate myself, can we continue? I shall certainly try.
How does one “haunt?” What does it mean to “haunt?” As I said above, there is more to this than simply scaring somebody – it’s more like the childlike thrill of being scared and loving it. Or of knowing that one should be scared, but that the experience is too compelling to turn from. The very real threat of muggers and rapists scares people, but that’s nothing to aspire to.
You know when you’re reading a scary book or just finishing a scary movie and when you look up you sudden realize that you are not in the same dark empty house you were in when you started? Something has changed, is just off? And if you turn on the lights, maybe things go back to normal – but the shadeless windows are still staring in at you. And, grown-up though you are, you feel fear. You might feel silly for being afraid, or you might tell yourself that you’re “never reading _____ when you’re home alone, ever again.” But you know you’ll do it anyway, to repeat the experience. That’s kind of like haunting, or being haunted.
The Autumn People can spin and weave that haunted feeling, those exhilarating waking dreams, and lay them like snares or cast them onto the winds to drift and fall as they will. And they seek out people who need that touch of wonder (read Bradbury, The Halloween Tree, or From the Dust Returned, you’ll know exactly what I mean) and give it to them. Not to be unkind or malevolent – quite the contrary (“That’s our job / but we’re not mean / In our town of Halloween”): it’s a gift. More importantly, it’s a duty: to create and maintain zones and times of Wonder in opposition to creeping demystification and commoditization of experience. Yes, it’s the Bradbury influence again. [I am unapologetic.] And if we are the Autumn People, how do we begin?
I’m waxing mythic, so maybe it would be a good time to wrap this up (long post, no?).
Just throwing this out to see what bounces back…
Good Haunting,
And Don’t Get Caught!
~L
”I’m the late night air, exhilarating
I’m with you in the darkness, waiting” |
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