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Black & Orange Magic: 2006

 
  

Page: 12(3)

 
 
Haloquin
10:05 / 25.10.06
My Sally is now stuffed, I used gemstones mostly.
She has raggedy hair, but no features as yet, and is sat on my Halloween alter with Jack and Nero

I joined in a small ritual run by one of our pagan society members, streamlined high magic, as he put it. It was to lead the ancestors back for 24hrs to give any messages they wanted to share... the results were mixed... I got no messages, but could feel a type of prescence I'm not used to... like the feeling of the dead at the local cemetery, and I got strong impressions of my cat... who died last Christmas. Relatively interesting dreams though, that night I dreamt of someone telling me something very important (that I can't remember a word of) while I was driving the car we were in and we were being followed by a flood, then we went into a tunnel guarded by the head of a black* man that had been sacrificed.
The next night I dreamt of dancing as the Goddess... which was pretty... as an offering.
Then last night I dreamt of boys being mangled by trains because they played too close to the tracks and the person who noticed the danger didn't say anything early enough.
I was woken up a little later by malevolent little beings pulling on my arms as I tried to get my b/f's clothes back through a window. I tried everso hard to banish them ( this was all in the dream, obviously) and when I awoke the light on my laptop was flashing and flickering, which it doesn't normally do, and my room felt scary.

Plus I got round to making my Gravestone-tree, I designed it to hold a candle, then dropped it so half the branches broke off before it'd even dried. *shrugs*.

So I've been fairly productive (whenever I make something I do meditate on the point of the project while charging it), none of my usual daily practices though, which I feel a bit guilty about :P


*I am unsure of the appropriate term, but this is how I descrbed him as dream self.
 
 
Princess
10:43 / 25.10.06
Exciting week then?
You put me to shame, I've been far too lazy in my practice. But I've just done a spread and it looks like I've been going about this the wrong way. The suggestion is that I'm being a little too decadent\ooofy-floofy in my approach. The idea I had originally been working with is not, I'm informed, the way I'd get the most out of the season.
My original plan had been to make a selection of personal monsters into costumes. I'd seen Halloweed as a space for aknowledging those parts of ourselves that we normally hide\deny. I was going to give each one of them a mask and a costume then take them for a walk around Aberystwyth. However, I'm being told the best way I can approach this is more earthy and less arty. The suggestion is that I should be making some kind of recognition of the various spirits (dead or otherwise) that are around.
I'll keep the costume idea, but work it all into one super-hybrid monster costume. I still really like the idea of honouring and accepting the "monstrous" parts of me. I'd probably wear the costume to my various Halloween events.
I did worry about going out "monstered-up" as it where, but that's kinda the point of a costume party isn't it? I don't think it would be that different to what everyone else would be doing. Also, none of my "monsters" are particularly dangerous to others. So far we have "Bob, the failed Mime", "Faaabulous, the female impersonator", and "Wacky Jenny". I can't see them as doing much to the crowd. Although if any-one thinks I'm missing some obvious safety flaw please come collect me in your clue-copter.
I'll move my main-practice onto simple ancestor/spirit aknowledgement. I'll make them a cake maybe? Maybe throw a bit of a wake?
Today, I'm off to sprinkle Halloween powder around town. Just to, you know, spread the magic. The ingredients of the powder are:

Star Anise
Oak Leaves
Sugar (Yum)
Mugwort.
 
 
Ticker
13:23 / 25.10.06
Princess, iffin' it's cool I may steal your Halloween Powder recipe for use in our Halloween Parade?
 
 
Princess
15:24 / 25.10.06
Of course you may. I should warn you that some of those ingredients are annoyingly hard to powderize in a pestle and mortar. I had to resort to a herb-grinder.
 
 
Princess
17:27 / 25.10.06
Ok, so I'm walking around Aberystwyth throwing out liberal doses of my fairy-dust (I wish that was the first time I'd had to say that) and I start to notice something. At first I was just throwing it around randomly but then I started to notice that some places seem naturally more suitable for Halloween. As I sprinkle dust around these places I get brief flashes of what the halloween current might look like if set free in that place. It has been suprisingly divergent.

I've now got monsters in the pipes of the university and and monkey things in the scaffolding. The Ivy is a woman in a resplendent dress and the courtyard outside the union is a beautiful Masqued Ball. Everything is autumnal and secret.

I also noticed that there where some places that just wouldn't "hold" the glamouring. Inside seemed to not like it, and my overly steril block of flats seemed to ignore me completely. Other places not only accepted it but seemed to rework and take control of the magic. As if they had just been waiting for a chance to turn into monsters. I might save the powder for these "hungry" places.

I'm aware that these things are, in the most part, imaginary. All the stuff I'm seeing is very much in line with my own filters of what Halloween should be. But at the same time, it feels like I'm beggining to court something. It's like I'm moving into the right frame of mind and the the current is translating itself through my filters so I can begin to communicate). I was tempted to go out sprinkled in the powder to see what was about, but I might save that for the final Halloween Monster unveiling.

I'm not entirely happy with the experience so far because it harks back to my "crap majix" phase from a few years ago. When I can feel, so clearly, that something is of me, and not Other, it used to mean I was just being whimsical and escapist. Whilst the imaginings are beautiful, if they don't start to take on a life of their own then I ma abandon this practice in exchange for something a little less make-believe. It's a dillemna. I chose the practice because it was childlike and naieve, but now I'm starting to feel it's a bit silly and not "serious" enough. Pah.

I'm also tempted to buy some chalk and go out and "claim" places for Halloween. Maybe paste up some Halloween poems around the place. (Illegal and magical! What would my mother say?).

Anyway, I need to feed my little brother. He is but 16 and so unable to work the toaster.
 
 
Ticker
17:47 / 25.10.06
I've decided to add pumpkin seeds and graveyard dirt:

star anise
mugwort
oak leaves
sugar
pumpkin seeds (from a gutted Jack'o'lantern)
graveyard dirt


cat hair will be a part of any mix I make in my house. I'm debating what kind of sugar to use. Do I go with ye olde white or the hippy dried cane juice? Surprisingly I'm leaning toward white sugar as the 'wicked' element of the dust.

I'm going to package it into small bags to give out to my fellow Halloween Parade Committee members tomorow night and have them sprinkle it as well.
thanks for the heads up about the grinder!
 
 
Haloquin
17:49 / 25.10.06
I love this Princess! So beautiful. I tried *seeing* while I walked in Nottingham over the summer and had interesting patterns, the buildings went odd colours and looked rather distorted. But nothing particularly special or in depth.

I'm tempted to try the powder sprinkling myself... may I?

Me and my flatmates are definately going ghosting this weekend, we have to buy decorations for the union night-spot for the Gothic Fairytale Ball, which seems like a good time to get paper bags and nice sweeties to go with the Ghosts that are halfway made. I love it when things come together.
 
 
Haloquin
17:52 / 25.10.06
Oh, sorry for the double post...

Sehkmet? Did you actually go ghosting after you were got? It was you with the ghost wasn't it? Just wondering how it went
 
 
Princess
18:11 / 25.10.06
Thanks all for the praise. *basks*
I used white sugar in mine because it was a) all I had in the cupboard and b)seemed more cheep and cheerful and unhealthy. It does remain visibly white though so if you want to have some sort of uniform brown then cane sugar might be the way to go. Although I kinda like the white bits, there almost glittery.

I had wanted to add glitter to make it into *proper* kitsch fairy dust, but my budget didn't allow for it. The white sugar is not really the same, but it's had to do. Halo (everyone) should of course feel free to copy\adapt\whatever. We can swap notes.

Also, you've got to tell us about the ghosting. That sounds crazy fun.
 
 
Ticker
23:59 / 25.10.06
I went a little crazy making my halloween dust.
(SO MUCH FUN!!!)

ok...

mugwort
star anise
oak leaves (gathered from the street gutter)
sugar ( raw sugar which is brownish )
pumpkin seeds (from a to-be jack o'lantern)
graveyard dirt (respectful gathered from the big dirt pile)
pumpkin pie spice
wasabi powder
cocoa powder
leaf from an apple stem
crow's feather
spider web (unoccupied)
hair from a cat's tail (he didn't notice)
dust from a toy bat
witch hair from the witch-wife

The graveyard dirt was sort of damp and I had to sift rocks out of it while the pumpkin seeds toasted.
I mixed it all up and put 'Company of Wolves' in as the halloween movie vibe. Creepy yet cheeserific.
Used the beautiful wooden witch spoon to measure the mix out into squares of black garbage bag and then tied them off with a divine orange fuzzy string.

I have a pile of little sacks o'halloween sitting in fron of the TV in case we watch an Exorcist DVD tonight so they can soak up the scary.

I plan on giving them out tomorrow at a Halloween Parade fund raiser. Though with the dampness they are less like dust and more like, well, Halloween Dirt.

It was wonderful going to the graveyard with my plastic black cauldron to scoop up dirt at twilight. Most assuredly is helping me feel the 'Ween.

Thanks for the idea, Princess!
 
 
crimson
00:24 / 26.10.06
Princess, I really like your picture..where did you find it?
 
 
Princess
08:25 / 26.10.06
I used the Stumble Upon button in my browser.
xk, your dirt sounds impresive. Good luck with the parade.
 
 
Princess
13:17 / 28.10.06
The costume will be finished tonight. It scares me how easily I can see myself using it as casual wear. Pictures to come soon.
 
 
Princess
14:14 / 28.10.06
Sorry for the triple post. But I'm starting to realise some things about the costume. It's a little grotesque. I'll be wearing home-made feathery denim hot-pants over black fish-net stockings. I'm wearing a "wacky" old woman jumper from the 1970's and a face-mask as well. I'm going to look silly. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that. I wont look sexy, or powerful, or even that planned. Normally I live in my sexually suggestive pirate gear. Occasionally I change into various other manga costumes. But this time I'm just going to have people looking at me and thinking I look pants.
I suppose that the point of the evening is to get over that, but it's still vaguely unsettling. I think that means it's working.
 
 
Chiropteran
12:25 / 31.10.06
The big day is here, folks.

Sorry I've been so consistently absent - we've been celebrating the Month of Pestilence at Lepidopteran Manor. All my elaborate Halloween plans have thus come to naught. My wife and I will not even be in costume (though the little boo is going as a Mummy).

I'm happy to see that some of our new players have really gotten their Halloween groove on, and I hope we'll see everyone back for next season, too!

Halloween Team, the 13th hour is nigh - how goes it?
 
 
Ticker
13:18 / 31.10.06
been at the business of 'Ween all morning. In a few hours I'll start cooking for the Dead and getting meself properly attired. Have to make a stop at the halloween shoppe for gore.

The trick or treaters last night were heart warming. Tons of wee ones runing down the leaf strewn street yelling while jack'o'lanterns gleamed from porchs.Much candy deployed to ensure a sweet future.

I got a bit tipsy over dinner then went on halloween errands finally falling into a small bar to listen to heartbreakingly beautiful music. Yay for ginger cosmos! Many halloween plans were made, costumes discussed, parade details imparted.

Count down: nine hours to halloween parade!
 
 
Papess
14:58 / 31.10.06
Happy Hallowe'en, Everyone.
 
 
setsuna
19:14 / 31.10.06
Got here just in time to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I'll be taking the wee ones Trick or Treating after dinner. As for later, I literally stumbled on a pomegranate in my backyard this week and discovered I've had a small tree there the whole time. Given my obsession with Pluto this past year, I'm not sure I'll be able to resist working that in tonight somehow. But we'll see. I've been a lurker here for a while and love this place, so I'm wishing you all lots of great spookiness!
 
 
Feverfew
20:11 / 31.10.06
Just passing through to wish everyone a happy Halloween.

Had three lots of trick-or-treaters around, which was good.

Also, got the Halloween-Creative-Mojo going and finally got round to editing some opening credits for a project; an hour spent on forty-five seconds of credits. Eesh. Still.

I hope everyone's had or having a good one!
 
 
Haloquin
20:56 / 31.10.06
Two nights ago. Halloween dusting. Shiny.

Night before Last. Ghosting. Like a little pixie!

Last night. Gothic Fairytale Ball. Dancing. 3 and a half hours. With Princess.

This afternoon. Ritual with Pagan Society.

Tonight... Fright night in the flat.

May write more details when not knackered. Princess will do likewise.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

PS. Thanks to 'Lith for inspirational Halloween
 
 
Haloquin
11:47 / 01.11.06
I'm thinking about collecting some of my favourite ideas from the Black and Orange Threads, this year and from previous threads, into an electronic booklet (i.e. something in word that I can print off for a keepsake)... eventually. Would people be interested in a copy?

If so feel free to pm me and I'll email a copy. Also, if you have recommendations, again, pm me.
 
 
Princess
15:48 / 01.11.06
Hey all. Halloween ritual number one was a beautiful tapestry of humiliation and catharsis. I'll type it us as soon as I've written it up.
Thanks to Haloquin and spouse for a great couple of nights. Apologies for screaming.
 
  

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