My Monster Powers journey continues. I started weaving a small tapestry in honor of the Gila Monster.

I've been participating in the forum on the website my brother introduced me to. I'm not only learning a lot but also coming to consider new ways of thinking about perfumes. Of course I'm already familiar with the idea of honoring certain powers and gods at certain times.

I've been honoring day of the week specific powers on their days using perfumes. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, part of my morning ritual is to stand at the main house altar and apply the appropriate perfumes from the Asatru collection of Cherry-Ka's Trunk: One-Eye, Thunderstrike, and Vanr Volva. On Saturday I might honor Loki with Silver Wordsmith, or one of the other gods, particularly Heimdall with The Hornsman or Hel with Hidden Goddess. Of course when I feel like it I put on Valkyrie, which was made especially as a gift for me.

I tried several Moon fragrances and decided on Moon Carnival by Vilhelm Parfumerie. It took me a little longer to find a Sun one but I decided on Melody of the Sun by Mancera. I do not yet have a Tyr fragrance for Tuesday. After searching for one based on the idea of justice or kingship for Tyr, and not finding one that felt right, I asked him if I could try a pine and sea one based on the spheres of his wife Zisa, and he agreed. So I have ordered some samples from Pineward and we shall see if any of them work for my new Tuesday perfume.

One thread on the forums was about one's "November tray." What a fascinating idea. To preselect perfumes appropriate for the time of year. Not for a god or ritual, just referencing nature and how one experiences the seasons. I made the following post on that thread:

"I am in sampling mode so of course I will continue to sample new things. But the last flowers are blooming now and soon they will be gone; perhaps next month I will select florals to keep their memory alive through the dark and the cold.

For this month, I shall select just one floral, a hand lotion:

Brightest Bloom Bath & Body Works

November is lovely in the Mojave Desert. I gave away pomegranates for Halloween, in a big bowl labeled Portals to Hades, next to the candy bowl. The leaves on my pomegranate tree are just starting to turn yellow. In honor of the yellowing of the leaves on the fruit trees, I select ambers:

The hand lotion:
Luminous Bath & Body Works

And perfumes:

Ambre Precieux Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier,
Cinnabar Estée Lauder,
Opium (1977) Yves Saint Laurent


It has turned chilly, although I still went for an afternoon swim today, after it stopped raining. To honor the rain, I select:

Wet Garden Demeter Fragrance

Before I became obsessed with perfume due to my new Gila Monster powers-- you know, the Gila Lizard Powers (GLP-1) derived from my local animal the beautiful Gila Monster, a medicine I started recently-- I used to start baking around this time of year. So I shall select gourmands, because I very much enjoy the smells of the things I used to eat, before I started living on perfume and sunshine.

Hand lotion:
Jolly Gingerbread Village Bath & Body Works

And perfumes:
Dark Akro,
Fève Gourmande Guerlain,
Coffee White Flowers Bohoboco

Oh, clearly I must expand my collection of gourmands. I shall be virtually baking throughout the winter, revisiting my old recipes in the form of perfume."

I took notes for my December tray and my notes came out as free verse:

My December

Oranges

Fire

Gourmands

Ice/ snow

Fading florals,

   keep them alive

Honor the sun

   and the dark.

This was the second time I spontaneously made a poem with no brain enchancing assistants since the "neurological event" in 2021. The first time was the poem I made for Storm the Kitten, which is on my Storm the Kitten post. Once I could write off as being overwhelmed with kitten love, twice is a pattern. An unexpected benefit of my Monster Powers: my brain is healing. (knock on wood.)

The morning after I finished the Storm the Kitten post, it was a Friday, day of Freya. As I usually do, I honored her as part of my morning routine by putting on the Vanr Volva perfume from Cherry-Ka's Trunk, which I keep on my main house altar. For that morning I had also preselected a sample vial of Lune Feline Extrait, which has gold flecks in it. Gold to honor Freya, and the feline reference in gratitude for my kitty Sweetheart getting back to his normal behavior, indicating he was happy with his home again. I dumped the entire 1ml sample over me, which was the only way to get the gold flecks out of a dabber vial. (My sample came from a decanting company, not an official sample.) I also communicated with Freya about the next day being Pagan Pride Day and about expecting that my body will change shape as part of my Gila Lizard Powers process, and how that relates to beauty and to the specific gifts with which she has endowed me.

This year's Pagan Pride Day was low energy and lightly attended. My presentation on runic orthography was early in the morning. It was chilly and only a few people came to hear it, but those who did come were very interested and asked good questions. I handed out the packets that went with my full rune seminar, even though I only did about a 10 or 15 minute presentation. I didn't bring any of my books, but I did hang out at the author table with another another and had an interesting conversation. I saw several of my friends, and my housemate set up her tarot table, but she decided to leave when I did instead of staying all day. 

We both felt low energy and in need of cleansing and recharge so we each did our different things that we do for those purposes. Just like when we had come home from the latest Sin City Witches event, after Pagan Pride Day we felt we had some bad energy and we took the necessary steps to get rid of it. Those are different organizations with different members but a lot of the same vendors, so I think we may each have picked up some bad energy at a vendor booth. We will try to be more cautious about which ones we enter from now on.

The next day I did more perfume sample testing. I had been seeking a perfume to honor the ice and snow for December and 2 samples of perfumes of which I had never heard arrived in my mailbox. I wrote this about them:

Artik Sea

fresh ocean breeze!

I smell the salt and the kelp. I hear the crying of the sea birds. I hear the crash of icebergs calving into the surf. Narwhals follow my boat. The wind never stops and turns my skin to ice. I become a creature of the dark north where the sun sits on the horizon at the lightest point of day, obscured by the the spray of the chop. If ever there was a scent that celebrates the ice and the cold it is this. 

When it dried, this perfume yields the most elusive of all cold air scents, the frozen carmel that hovers near an icy, salty death. 

Black Sea

citrus and herbs -- an old goatherd is gathering wild seasonings for his dinner-- the breeze is cool but the day is warm in the sun and the herbs release their vaporous delectable nature into the air, turning the entire hillside into an herbal rock spa. The rivers flow down to the sea year round here. A constant fresh repleneshment. The sea in turn nurtures life. Anise grows wild here, amid a rocky mineral note by the warm salt sea. 

I have seas of ice and fire on my wrists, death in my left hand and life in my right. 

I decided not to do Thanksgiving this year even though my housemate really likes Thanksgiving food. I will still give thanks, just not with food.

I emailed a friend who had sent me art of the goddess Freya as a woman of modern beauty, except of course with falcon wings and with leopard like spots on her legs as she partly turned into a cat. Here is what I wrote to her: