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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in halloween

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Witches and other bad things

Halloween is this week.  The kids will be dressing up as ghouls and goblins, witches and monsters.  The world will be on a sugar high for the next week or so.  Mainstream America will be watching all the scary movies they can find and treating the paranormal as freakish. 

During a car ride with my mother, I was making conversation with her when she said she didn't like this time of year.  I said why not - thinking Fall is my favorite time of year and I adore the weather, the colors, the season.  She came out with "all the talk about witches and other bad things."  My immediate response in my head was - hey wait a minute.

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  • Eileen Troemel
    Eileen Troemel says #
    Hi Joanna: Oh the negotiations we do in our personal relationships. My husband is Christian per se. He is not a church goer but
  • Joanna
    Joanna says #
    Hi I had a very similar thing today with a work colleague moaning about Halloween being just an 'Americanism.' I didn't have the h
PaganNewsBeagle Airy Monday October 27

Happy Monday, Beagle fans! It's Airy Monday, celebrating the Element of Air and the realm of the mind. Today, we are concentrating on looking deeper at the "Halloween" witch, including Witch's hats; nude on a broom; reclaiming Halloween stereotypes; academic studies of witchcraft.

Where does the Witch's Hat come from? According to this essay at Salon, the high-peaked hat may have originally been a medieval attempt to identify Jews (who were then associated with devil-worshippers and witches.)

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Boo Bash

Ah, Halloween. The enchanted time when all the witches, ghosties, and creatures of the night are encouraged to come out and play. It has always been a magical time of year for me personally, ever since I was a tot. I can readily tell you what I dressed up for on this beloved holiday, since I was four. (4 years: Mickey Mouse.) Halloween has enjoyed quite the resurrection, and it is the perfect occasion to throw a theme party. Since I am the original theme party gal, I can happily throw some suggestions your way to make yours unique, and anything but run of the mill. 

 

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  • Colleen DuVall
    Colleen DuVall says #
    Sure thing! Hope they have a Happy Halloween Birthday.
  • "Kitty" Billie Simpson
    "Kitty" Billie Simpson says #
    I have a seven yr old having a birthday friday..thanks for the dry ice idea

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Yesterday, my friend Erick DuPree posted a very thoughtful piece on embracing the secular Halloween and avoiding the ancestor reverence that is so important to many pagans and witches this time of year.  In a very touching way, Erick discussed his troubled history with his father and his wish to separate himself from the misogyny and racism that permeates his family line.  That same misogyny and racism is likely to pollute the family line of every person of European descent, including myself, so that is a decision I can fully understand.

Yet, I feel like there are still reasons to do ancestor work.  Don’t get me wrong – I’ve never been very good at ancestor work.  I have an ancestor altar at which I pay my respects daily, but I don’t do nearly as much work contacting my family on the other side as many other witches do.  I’m just processing my own thoughts as a person who (I think) shares a similar family history and was touched by Erick’s comments.

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Entering the Cave of Bones: A Preview of "Doorways to the Underworld"

Through Doorways to the Underworld, the Minneapolis Collective of Pagan Artists' Samhain 2014 exhibit, we enter into the disquieting—sometimes disturbing—dreamscape that is both Samhain and the world of contemporary pagan art.

In Anne Marie Forrester's Bear Priestess, the viewer stands at the mouth of a cave literally packed with skulls and leg-bones. Between us and the cave sits the bear priestess herself, all breasts, belly, and thighs, dressed only in the head and skin of (apparently) a bear cub. She wields that classic shamanic tool, the frame drum, in her role of go-between for living and dead, past and present.

The painting disturbs on a number of levels. Content is one: corpulence, nudity, powerful female eroticism. Another is scale. The priestess' head is too small for her mountainous body, the bear's head that she wears too small for her own too-small head. One cannot help but be reminded of Paleolithic “Venus” figurines, whose heads and feet dwindle into unimportance compared with their massive bodies, the true center of their power. Small as it is, though, the priestess' head is still much larger than the skulls that frame her in the cave mouth. The viewer experiences a dizzying loss of sense of proportion.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
La Llorona

      I want to be La Llorona for Halloween, I told my grandmother after watching a Mexican movie.           

      Sacrilege, Abuela said, she is a murderess!

       At eight, I was used to my grandmother's threats when I misbehaved: La Llorona will take you away.

       The myth of La Llorona conjures up strange effects on Latinos.  Most children scream after hearing her name.  Many women cross themselves, saying "Ave Purisima," after mentioning her name.  And yet, some women—like my grandmother—smile after summoning La Llorona. The Weeping Woman did not scare me; instead, she fascinated me.  I suspected that La Llorona had a secret. Perhaps, if I dressed like her I could uncover her mystery.

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  • Lillian Comas
    Lillian Comas says #
    Thanks Jan, for reminding us of this lovely version of the Llorona's legend . Clarissa Pinkola Estes has beautifully reclaimed ma
  • Jan Johnson
    Jan Johnson says #
    In Clarissa Pinkola Estes' (Dr. E) book "Women Who Run With the Wolves", there is another version that is similar to the one will
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Ms. Comas, Thanks for sharing! Your post reminds of one of my favorite William Faulkner quotes: "The past is never dead. It's no
  • Lillian Comas
    Lillian Comas says #
    Hi Jamie: Thank you for your comment. Indeed, Faulkner was right: the past is not even past.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
#13daysofmagic

This year I thought it might be fun to gather some of my close friends and celebrate magic! Beginning October 19th join Jacki Smith from Coventry Creations, Author David Salisbury, Adam Sartwell and The Temple of Witchcraft, Storm Faerywolf from Blue Rose Faery, Black Rose Witchcraft, myself and others for our #13daysofmagic challenge! 

 

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  • Raven Song
    Raven Song says #
    I'm looking forward to this!!

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