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The Black and the Orange, Autumn 2004

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12:20 / 01.10.04

"Are they up in the sky?" cried Timothy, his bright eyes flashing. Standing by the bed, he looked no more than his ten years. The wind blew outside; the House was dark and lit only by starlight.

"They're coming through the air and traveling along the ground, in many forms," said Cecy, asleep. She lay motionless and thought inward on herself to tell what she saw. "I see a wolflike thing crossing a dark river--at the shallows--just above a waterfall, the starlight burning his pelt. I see maple leaves blowing high. I see a small bat flying. I see many creature beasts, running under the forest tree and slipping through the highest branches; and they're all heading here!"

"Will they be here in time?" The spider on Timothy's lapel swung like a black pendulum, excitedly dancing. He leaned over his sister. "In time for the Homecoming?"

~R. Bradbury, From the Dust Returned

Good haunting, everybody. It's on.

Oh, I'm all a-twitter.

Last night was spent tampering with electoral politics (and the mediation thereof), so I didn't do a heckuvalotta preparation for tonight, but I expect I'll be able to whip up a nice Opening Ceremony. First Night will likely be all about re-connecting with the Pumpkin King directly (possibly with the Skull Mask invokation from last year).

I wonder if maybe anyone who's reading and wants to get in on the fun this year might want to step up and make themselves known? The more the wickeder, or something. Of course, lurkers are always welcome (by virtue of being lurkers).

posting from this forsaken jungle hell,

~Lepidopteran

12:48 / 01.10.04

I found a kernel of candy corn in my hall closet last night. I could swear I've never had candy corn in my house before.

We had our book club over, and one of the girls came in very excited, saying that everyone had to go out and look at the moon. "It's huge and it's orange! It looks just like a big old pumpkin!" So I went and I looked, and yes indeed, it looked just like a big old pumpkin... with a face on it...

I may have gotten in touch with Jack during my meditation, and I may have agreed to brew some mead for him... I'm a bit muddled still. It all made sense until I followed the kid in the skeleton costume through the tree into Halloween Land, and then things got jumpy, like my visualization was coming through a hand-held camera... I'll post more details if I can sort them out.

But the season is definitely ON.

18:38 / 01.10.04

It's Friday afternoon, the first of October, I have lost the will to work and refuse to continue the charade!

I think I will take pictures of a few local weird cemeteries this weekend (one is in a mall parking lot and one is in someone's front yard!) and hopefully post them soon.

Here's a website that I found while industriously surfing. Don't mind the nasty sounding name, it's really cool: www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html.

I can't even get into what it has--you name it. If it's spooky, it's in there. The site is a veritable field guide to the night side.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

madfigs #32, now with wasabi

06:31 / 02.10.04

Hey there Halloweenies! I've been following the old Black & Orange threads since last year, and October's arrival has finally inspired me to think about some seasonal workings. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, even though the California "seasons" are pretty hard to tell apart. I think it's mainly due to my lifelong candy addiction, and the fact that Halloween was the only time I could indulge it freely (I was very hyperactive as a child even without extra sugar). Plus, unlike all you crazy Geminis, my birthday is in October. Even now, I tend to have an extra-happy feeling this time of year.

Anyway, I just got back into town tonight, so I didn't have much time to prepare. I set up a simple altar with some things that remind me of Halloween: pumpkin spice and black licorice candles, a trick-or-treat glowstick, and a bowl of 31 mellowcreme pumpkins. This will definitely get expanded as I find more stuff that grabs me.

Since midnight was fast approaching, I lit the candles with a silly little invocation:

The Pumpkin King is comin' to town
Halloween's here when he's around!
We know the season's in good fun
So let's start with... October one!

So I'm not very good at improv.

I sent a short call out to our man Jack, just introducing myself and letting him know that I'll be doing some more workings as the month goes on.
I don't have any firm plans yet, but there are a lot of good ideas to go from. I'll just have to see what feels right and go with it. I'm in the Halloween mood already!

Happy Hauntings!

12:06 / 02.10.04

Ach, Halloween. As someone who is a former Pagan(you know, non-practicing Discordian and all) and still kindof floats in and out of the "Pagan Community"(it's scary when you realize that, without intention, 80% of your friends are Pagan and about 90% of the women you dated were Pagan), Halloween is a special time of year indeed. I noticed at the local haunt(a bookstore in NYC called Enchantments, good place if you have a chance to stop by, I had to go to snag some copal for grounding) that they already hung the Halloween lights and had decorated the place in true Modern Witchy Pagan style. The leaves are turning, it is a beautiful scene.

One thing I would recommend if you are in the northeastern area of the United States is a long drive down one of the many country roads that permeate the area. In order to fully get the ambiance read some good Lovecraft as most of his writing takes place is the areas you'll be driving in. If you are truly blessed, knowledgable or well connected, a long country drive ending in a distant cabin with a fireplace would be perfect. If you are like the rest of us, just make sure to plan the ride back well and try to be in the moment.

James

Skeleton Camera

05:59 / 03.10.04

Held an opening ritual, charged candycorn, passed it to everyone who would take some. Got in touch with Hermes (took out my bike tire TWICE) and made several offerings. Working with several local power spots - including two crossroads RIGHT outside my building (kicking myself for not doing so earlier), a covered bridge (very troll-like) in a local park, and a very strange, weedy, DEFINATELY haunted section of woods in the same park.
Note: I think Hermes took out the bike tires because a: I'm a slacker w/ offerings and b: I held an intricate, evocative "welcome October" ritual and FORGOT HIM. NOT a good thing to do. I had it coming!
Also spending a lot of time outdoors in the middle of the night, biking around dimly lit streets, sections of coast, foggy areas. Working on a drawing/map of Sleepy Hollow dream country. Made an October 2004 CD, lots of instrumental mood tracks as well as TSOL, The Ghastly Ones, and an Alan Moore prose piece.

(More as the haunting progresses...)

14:00 / 03.10.04

[this was s’posed to go up last night, but my computer ate it]

for madfigs:

“Jack’s the King of Orange and Black,
He’s sneaking up, so watch your back.
He’ll jump right out and holler, “BOO!”
So look out – it’s October Two!”

(Think we can keep this up for 29 more days?)

Hello and welcome to madfigs and Cassius23. Glad you could make it. And Seamus and Sekhmet, and all the lurkers, of course.

I wish I could say that I kicked the month off in grand style on Opening Night. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I was so tired Friday night that I passed out on the couch, fully clothed, and didn’t move ‘til after sunrise. The most I did was watch Night of the Living Dead earlier in the evening.

The second night of Halloween went somewhat better.

I started my day (after teaching in the morning) by playing violin for the Pine Hill Cemetery Community Day, something I do every Autumn. I got to play inside the old chapel (and wintertime corpse storage), which is always thrilling. (After the renovation is done, they’ll be opening it to chamber music concerts – in the middle of the cemetery!)

Even though I’m not (and have never been) Catholic, I’ve always really appreciated rosary-type repetitive prayer; there’s something about the way it flows and repeats that’s very powerful, in a cumulative sort of way. So, I had the idea tonight to put together a call to the Pumpkin King based loosely on the form of the “Hail Mary,” to use with my skull-bead bracelet (which looks something like this). (It wasn’t my intention to make a parody - I’m just borrowing what has always been, for me, a powerful rhythm and structure.)

”Hail Jack, the Pumpkin King, for you are with me.
Honored are you among the Autumn People,
Wondrous and Wicked, as in a dream.
Pumpkin Jack, screamer in the dark,
Bless each branch of the Halloween Tree,*
Now and in the dead of night.”

I’ll tell you about the rest of the night later, but I’m retyping this Sunday morning, and I’ve got to run to another lesson.

Good Haunting, everyone! Don’t any of you get caught!

everybody scream, everybody scream!

~L

*that would be, um, us.

madfigs #32, now with wasabi

22:50 / 03.10.04

Hah! This is a great way to get at least a little energy going every day! But I think we need to vary the format or it's going to get old...

Of the autumnal season we've heard
But when will the spirits be stirred?
Tricks & treats we will get,
but not just quite yet
for it's only October the third!

Anybody else, feel free to jump in :P

13:35 / 04.10.04

The autumn wind blows,
A chill vibrates your spine; it's
October the Fourth.

I like the idea of slowly building up an altar throughout the month... so far, mine includes nine fall leaves of various types, three black feathers (from grackles, the local equivalent of crows), a pumpkin-shaped party favor basket with a lid (containing one kernel of candy corn which inexplicably materialized in my house), and a large skull-shaped candleholder with a black candle in it. I've just been tossing stuff on at whim, rather than seeking specific objects.

I think sometime this week I'm going to re-watch Nightmare Before Christmas - luckily, I have it on tape. Hoping that will inspire more of the proper mood.

I plan to brew two small batches of mead this coming weekend, one traditional and one apple-spice, dedicated to Jack and the Haunting. (Of course, the mead won't be drinkable for a couple of months, but it can be aged till next October and allowed to charge up for a year...)

On the downside, my resident stray cat, Simon, has been missing for the past two days, and I'm very worried about him, so it's hard to concentrate on anything right now.

16:19 / 04.10.04

*starts awake*

Oh, that's right, Halloween. Now, where was I...

I think I was talking about my Firs- Second Night work. Anyway, after watching Werewolf vs Vampire Women (which is every bit as bad as it sounds), I walked out to the bridge, slipped under it, and set up a little altar in the dark. Try as I might, I couldn't get the candles to stay lit (on all but the stillest nights, the wind rushes along the waterway), but (heck) I set them up anyway. I gave the Pumpkin King a food offering of a Hostess Glow-Ball (in shocking Halloween Orange) and a handful of roasted pumpkin seeds, then went through the Halloween Rosary (see previous post). The recitation was quietly powerful, in a cumulative way -- and I grew increasingly convinced that someone was going to suddenly scream right behind me. Oh my, I was sure of it, neck prickles and all. I got through it, though, and helped myself to the second Glow-Ball while I had a good heart-to-heart with Jack. I talked to him about the changes in my spiritual life since the beginning of last Halloween season, and how much I attribute to going with the flow of the Halloween Current. And I talked about what I hope to get out of this year, and what I hope to put into it, and thanked him for what he has shared with me. It was beautiful, and relaxed, and there were strange shadows gathering, and occasional odd noises. Finally, I closed with a recitation of (the miraculously memorized) Silent Scream.

I made it home and wrote a big post to tell you all about it, but my computer ate it. La.

And since then? Well, last night I was once again too tired to function (going to bed early Sunday morning rather than late Saturday night has something to do with that - also, I have a hard time really getting into ritual when there's anyone else awake in the house, and my wife has had insomnia for several nights). Not tonight, though - I'm doing it up right, tonight. So says me. Woo.

[Now, if I could work in a nap this afternoon without my students noticing... maybe a tape that just says "keep your wrist straight, curve that fourth finger, now do we really have to take it that fast?" over and over? Unless I snore... Hmmm.]

Good Haunting, all! Don't get caught!

~L

18:09 / 04.10.04

I watched the Nightmare Before Christmas on Saturday, and am now launching into the Halloween viewing extravaganza, featuring as the centerpiece, about 10 different versions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I also got this spiderweb, made of black cord--it really reminds me of a dreamcatcher (maybe a nightmare catcher?) Anyway, it has a spider that clings to the web most realistically. I move the spider to a new position every day. If I had the time, I could probably use it as a divinatory tool.

I love the daily October greetings! And that rosary is great.

Lepidopteran (or anyone else): this is not really on-topic, but does anything strange happen if you try to do rituals when you're really, really tired? Whenever I do, the same thing happens. Whatever I'm visualizing becomes extremely crowded, with people everywhere, not paying attention to me, but basically making it difficult for me to concentrate. I try to work around them and sometimes I succeed and sometimes not. I can always tell immediately when it's going to happen--I'm just wondering if I should ditch the ritual and try talking to all those people instead. I really have no idea who they are.

Sekhmet, that spiced mead sounds really good. Is it pretty easy to make? Care to share a recipe? I really hope you see Simon alive and well soon.

18:42 / 04.10.04

gale: when I try to force my way through a ritual I'm too tired for, I tend to find myself slipping in and out of sleep, and I'm never quite sure what I've already done, what's left to do, what I might have dreamt, and how much danger I'm in of lighting myself on fire. The crowding effect sounds interesting, though. I shan't attempt to interpret it explicitly, but if it is really a consistent thing (?) there should be some way to explore it more fully (e.g. does it make a difference if you banish beforehand? are there any recognizable faces of people you know in life, or any common faces from incident to incident? does it make any difference what kind of ritual you're doing? etc. etc.).

It sounds like you people have some good ideas, and are getting off to a good start.

Not to get too professorial, but I'd like to suggest something for us all to try, in the spirit of haunting: do you have a place near you that you're frightened of? You know what I mean, not the alley where you got mugged, but the haunted place. Go there. Keep going there. Meet the fear and see what you can do with it. See if you can figure out the why or how of the haunting - without getting too categorical, is there an actual "malevolent presence" there, or something else? Of course, take whatever mundane and magical precautions are appropriate - I don't want anyone to get hurt! But I think we'll all have a much better appreciation of what it means to haunt if we have, ourselves, been haunted. (This would be a perfect time to quote the final lines of Clive Barker's "In the Flesh," but I haven't got it handy.)

Just a thought.

My own trip under the bridge doesn't count, 'cos I'm already comfortable there. I'll need to poke around a bit for someplace a little more unsettling.

Take care! Haunt well! And don't get caught!

~L

p.s. I hope you all realize that I'm not advising anyone to do anything that they feel to be dangerous - if you really feel that you're being threatened, leave. Be careful.

19:32 / 04.10.04

Haunt

haunted, haunting, haunts

v. tr.

1.) To inhabit, visit, or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being.
2.) To visit often; frequent: haunted the movie theaters.
3.) To come to mind continually; obsess: a riddle that haunted me all morning.
4.) To be continually present in; pervade: the melancholy that haunts the composer's music.

v. intr.

To recur or visit often, especially as a ghost.

n.

A place much frequented.

Does lurking come under haunting? I'm realy good at lurking. And standing.

Has anyone been to Woolworths lately (UK Lithers)? Lots of cheepo massproduced halloween shnizdit in there, which had the strange effect of getting one in the mood.

Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwl!

Skeleton Camera

00:43 / 05.10.04

...but does anything strange happen if you try to do rituals when you're really, really tired? Whenever I do, the same thing happens. Whatever I'm visualizing becomes extremely crowded, with people everywhere, not paying attention to me, but basically making it difficult for me to concentrate...

I have this happen a lot when I trance-meditate. One part memory from all those moments during the day you weren't paying attention to, and one part something else (often I have great conversations, astral-proj style, and meet people while here).

It would make sense that a ritual would trigger the same effects. Seems to come up most easily when you TRY to concentrate when you're tired.

07:09 / 05.10.04

Last year, I spent this thread bemoaning the lack of October (the kind I was used to) in the Bay Area. Now, this year, the wind is after me, and the smell of burning leaves and spun sugar is in the air, every night, unseasonably chill -- and perfectly what I need.

My magic is revving up at a natural pace -- manifestation is the name of the game. It's as if all my dress-up fantasies I've been harboring for the past year have found bodies in me and are come to life.

No more costumes. It's all a costume!

What else? I want to head out to Napa for some weekend to toast red wine -- the harvest, the dead harvest, the last harvest -- something about the grape that is my college-kid Big Kid version of Halloween libations, from too many nights drunking out of the bottle straight with gothlings and punks (oh, Lep). Then again, bonfires on the beach may be more apropos.

For my Jack altar -- which is as much an altar to the gods of stop-motion animation as my live-in love is hexing for a job in creature animation full time, and has shaken the hand of Mr. Henry Selik, and wants more of that -- we have a marvelously kitsch bleeding candle so far. I want plastic for it. Absolutely constructed. Fleshy gourds will make me homesick.

(And if there's any Bay Area folk here who want to gather with me for an evening on the 30th, to include a XXX monster-movie Italian horror fun house/play party, please write and I shall.)

12:32 / 05.10.04

Um, am I too late to still get in?

13:01 / 05.10.04

maledictus: that depends - is it November yet?

Of course it's not too late! Anyway, it's not as though there's a club you have to join to do Halloween-related magic - you do what you do, and you can post about it if you feel like sharing.

Anyway, it's not like I have much of a head start - I don't know what the heck's wrong with me, but I can't seem to keep my eyes open in the evening - I just pass out. My sleep schedule hasn't changed much, so either the quality of my sleep has dropped off, or there's another factor playing in. (Yeah, I know this is really peripheral to the main point of the thread, but it's interfering with my ability to get things done!)

I make no promises about doing anything special tonight. :| (There, that should do it.)

Well, you know what to do.

~L

"I'm the late night air, exhilarating
I'm with you in the darkness, snoring"

13:06 / 05.10.04

BOO!

Wake up, everyone! Nobody's scary when they're sleeping! (*reconsiders a moment*)... okay, most people aren't, at any rate...

What, no peom yet for today? Er... let's see...

Swirling, foggy forms a-creeping
Under your door whilst you are sleeping...
Monstrous amalgams of mist and myth
May menace you this October Fifth!

Ach, I'm crap at poetry, don't make me do this again. Some of you talented poetic gothy folks, jump to it!

Watched "Nightmare Before Christmas" last night, during a nice windy fall thunderstorm, in the house by myself with unknown things skittering in the attic and thumping on the roof. It was perfect. (*jitter*)

Added some knucklebones and a bird skull to my altar last night - the more I dig around, the more I realize how much creepy stuff I have, some of it specifically because it looks creepy. I found a small corked jar which appears to contain rose thorns and cat claws. I have no idea what I was planning to do with those. And I seem to have a far larger collection of random bones and animal skulls than the average urban housewife...

gale, I'd happily post mead recipes as soon as I decide which ones to use! I'm actually waiting on a friend to send me a couple - I used to help her brew mead, but she has since moved away to Portland, and this will be the first batch I've attampted on my own, so more than likely I'll want to use her method the first time out.

(Simon still hasn't reappeared, but I have an odd feeling that he's okay. Still miss him, though.)

13:50 / 05.10.04

[Sekhmet: happy memory, our first party in our house trailer, for my wife's birthday - early in the evening, the place is filling up with goths, who are filling up with wine, and the young neighbor kids inexplicably show up with a big cardboard box full of bones and cow skulls... to paraphrase a certain other 'lither, "oh...this is going to be that kind of party."

]

~L

14:52 / 05.10.04

Well, I'm a bit late to get in on the first of the month, but working with Halloween energy would be a good ramp-up for my November plans, so I'm going to give it a shot. Besides, the antibiotic medication I started taking on Sept 30 is orange-and-black, which initially struck me as some kind of a clue...

What's always resonated for me about the Nightmare Before Christmas was Jack's process of remembering his true face/purpose: as I'm feeling a bit adrift these days, that seems like a good element to focus in on.

I've also done some work in the past with Edmund Gorey as an ancestral spirit/loa (aesthetically ancestral, I mean) and I was surprised that no one's brought him up in the previous Halloween threads. Gorey's my favorite spirit for spooky, not-quite-right fun, so I'll probably be working him into the altar somewhere.

Yee-he-he-he....

15:41 / 05.10.04

Cool. Light your candles in honour of Jack, using your Nightmare Before Christmas JACK Head Lighter!

12:10 / 06.10.04

I feel better now.

Last night (after hitting the mugwort tincture a little) I put on the glowy skeleton gloves and got to work. I did a little (teensy) bit of grounding [note to self: more next time], recited Silent Scream to charge things up a little, raised haunted space with the Four Monsters, and went through the Halloween rosary. After the last "Hail Jack" I talked to him for a little while, expressing my concerns about my lack of energy and direction, then I took out the Goblin Bell of Autumn (see last year's thread) and gave them 13 rings to officially open the season for me (as I should have done days ago). Each ring amped up the energy in the room another notch, and I finished feeling quite ready to go.

I can hope that the push will keep me going through the new moon, at which point the waxing should help carry me along. I closed with the Four Monsters again and went to bed.

I make no promises for tonight, but the next thing for me to do is a little divination, with an eye toward direct action to follow.

betty woo: if you haven't already, now is the time to go out and get The Gorey End by The Tiger Lillies with the Kronos Quartet. It's quite mad, and the texts are adapted from unpublished writings Edward sent the band expressly for the purpose, shortly before his lamented death. And I would actually love to hear more about your work with Gorey himself, whether in this thread or elsewhere (I've thought quite seriously about working with Vincent Price, myself).

Does anyone else have any particular Halloween artifacts that you work with? And does anyone work with any Halloween-related spirits other than the Pumpkin King, or other people like Gorey, or Lugosi? Please tell, if you can.

as the cannibal said, "Ciao!"

the somnambulist,

~L

UKOMA PEFIGU NOSA LEHITU ROBA

12:19 / 06.10.04

Oh, and betty woo, your observation about the theme of self-rediscovery in NMBC is particularly appropriate, I think - especially for those of us who harbor romantic notions of being the Autumn People. It's easy to get caught up in all kinds of distractions and lose track of who we are, and for people of this particular bent, Halloween is a great time to dig down to your roots. It's also the season leading to the neo-Pagan New Year, the Day of the Dead, the Fete Ghede - all times of remembrance and reflection, which I think clearly ties in as a related theme.

I'm going to go work, now. :| It may not be "me," but it pays the bills. :P

Don't get caught! And have fun!

~L

15:04 / 06.10.04

mmm... i've got no plans yet; busy at work with a project that ends right before it all turns. I suspect this will give me a lovely unplanned day of haunting and marauding and generally enjoying myself. waste of a post, really, but I demand ideas....

17:19 / 06.10.04

I just remembered loving this cartoon short from several years ago. I did a web search and found it. I'm just copying the text:

El Kabong vs. El Bad Guy
Cartoon character ''Quick Draw McGraw'' becomes EL KABONG the HERO and fights EL BAD GUY with his steel guitar. El Kabong & Babalooie ride into a garishly colored small town in Mexico that is inhabited by Day of the Dead skeleton townfolk. El Bad Guy and his cohorts are generally out to get the townfolk. El Kabong saves them and heroine Linda Neigh from certain disaster at the end of the piece, and El Bad Guy gets his just desserts.Hand-painted characters and backgrounds were scanned into the MAC and animated in MAC After Affects. Music by the band CALEXICO.

Director: George Evelyn
Producer: Liz Gazzano
Production Company: Wild Brain, Inc.

It was shown on Cartoon Network alot around Halloween and was one of the stranger things I've seen. On the site I visited you can watch the streaming video--it's only about two minutes long (max), which isn't as long as it would take me to type in the address! Just search for El Bad Guy or El Kabong and you'll find it, if you're so inclined.

Regarding other Halloween types: Night gaunts are something I'd like to try to work with. They aren't cyclopean monstrosities, but rather small, winged, black, with long tails, horns, and (this is the part that gets me) no faces. And they like to tickle! Maybe I'll take a journey that begins by getting carried off by a bunch of night gaunts, and see where I end up.

I also think I found a good haunted place that's not too haunted or too dangerous or both.

17:42 / 06.10.04

gale, have you worked with Lovecraftian entities before? Working with nightgaunts should be fascinating, and I don't want to discourage you from doing so, but do consider who they work for and plan accordingly. (Meanwhile, my copy of Pseudonomicon is in the mail.

)

And faething: Woo!

~L

18:06 / 06.10.04

Is no one going to favor us with a verse for the sixth? I'm grumpy today and in need of Halloween cheer.

I've never even read any Lovecraft.

Maybe I'm not goth enough for this thread...

18:31 / 06.10.04

burning wicks.
snapping sticks.
cunning tricks.
deadbolt clicks.
switchblade flicks.
Fortunato's bricks.
the River Styx.
cloven hoof kicks.
countdown clicks:
October Six.

In a minimalist mode,

~Lepidopteran

19:05 / 06.10.04

Huzzah for Lep! I feel better already.

I was just browsing online, and discovered that they have ten pages' worth of NMBC stuff at Hot Topic. Who wants drawer pulls that look like Jack's head? Anyone? How about a Jack shower curtain and hooks? Or a complete bed set with a comforter? Night light? Chain wallet? Cologne?

I'm honestly uncertain whether to be appalled or delighted.

I'm also torn about my costume now. I was planning to go as Ragged Robin, but now I'm wondering if I couldn't throw some Sally into the mix. Most people would probably think Robin was Raggedy Ann or something anyway...

Does anyone else have costume plans as of yet? Share!

I am the shadow on the moon at night,
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright...

Mrowr!

20:47 / 06.10.04

Well, I usually mix a fair spot of mask-work into my choice of Halloween costume: past incarnations include Ragged Robin (V1 & V2), Mamam Bridgette (one of Baron Ghede's family), and Eris (yes, I was asking for it, and got in spades). I'm perhaps too goth for this thread, since I have to avoid Sally as a costume unless I want to be dressed like six of my friends.

This year? I've no idea, and precious little inspiration. Typically, I pick a costume that embodies some element that I'd like to manifest in my life over the next 12 months. On that bent, I was thinking about working in an Autumn People divination to get some hints on the matter.

12:08 / 07.10.04

There is no "too goth for this thread." The very nature of the thread should make that clear. :P (Nor, conversely, is there a "not goth enough.")

G'night! Don't get caught.

~L

15:07 / 07.10.04

For today, a limping and lame sonnet!

October night by night is still progressing
Unstoppable, the days move by, I mark;
And night by night I vigil hold, confessing
My fears and dreams, fantastic, to the dark.
And darkness answers low, and creeps on, whispering
Trails leaves and feathers black to mark its flight
The Autumn People gather, silent, listening
And watch with vision keen and sense alight
The clocks with solemn owlike faces, dour
As the tide rising inexorable up the shore,
Measuring out by chimes each dreadful hour
Like Edgar's raven, croaking "Nevermore!"
I ween there be no force in Hell or Heav'n
Can halt time's fearful march; October seven!

(*cackles evilly*)

And I'm supposed to be working right now, yeesh...

16:14 / 07.10.04

Sekhmet, you don't mess around, do you?

~L

16:19 / 07.10.04

Sekhmet: That was a great sonnet! In iambic pentameter, no less! I enjoyed that very much, and it was neither limping nor lame.

Lepidopteran: The night gaunts do not serve the Elder Gods or the Great Old Ones. They serve Nodens, who as far as I can gather is like a primordial Odin figure. That's why I feel somewhat safer with them than with Azatoth's crew.

I know Halloween is supposed to be the one night of the year to summon Cthulhu, but uh, I keep coming up with other things (ANY other things!) to do.

PS. Anybody care to guess what eau de Jack Skellington might include in its ingredient list? I'm definitely visiting the Hot Topic website!

16:42 / 07.10.04

I just realized I got the 31st reply on the thread. Do I get a prize?

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