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June 10th Worldwide Love and Healing Ritual: Obsidian Mirror, very powerful. Mother , Maiden and Crone scrying bowl: whenevr I use this I always `leave` my body and return empowered. Salt in the petal shaped glass holder, left of the obsidian mirror.(Salt absorbs negative or sad energies, I used this so that any of your personal tears would go into it and remove fear from your hearts. The `Glastonbury` Chalice containing Holy Water from King Arthurs Holy Well. A white candle for Divine Love and purity. This was left, as all candles used for rituals, to burn out by themselves. mint for protection and health, lemonbalm for calmness and `inner soothing` assorted tea lights, one of my orange and multi coloured Wizards scarves which matches: Carolina Gonzalez` Scorpin necklace: (see around base of chalice). The necklace was worn especially for this ritual and will for future ones. Tibetan singing bowl, Tibeten Bell and Tibetan Bells which were used constantly throughout the ceremony and always used three times: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Mother, Father, Chid. Mother ,maiden and crone. The three Graces. Tibetan bells from Tom and Sarah Jaynes shop called Sarasvati, The Parade shopping centre, Shrewsbury.
Fresh flowers from my own garden.
Once I had bathed from top to toe I wore my scarf and the scorpion necklace after applying rose and lemongrass fragrance to my skin. The I applied Patchouli to my hands, lit the candles, the insence and began my prayers for you all.
I then write each individual name down and of what the request is in great detail.
Once this is done, I apply the Power of prayer and Give Thanks for `What you all are about to receive!"
My personal Wizardry writing is then smudged with Frankinsence and Myrr and then I write a very personal envelope, sprinkly it again with Holy Water and finally use the tibetan bells again. I then Cleanse myself with insence and drink the water, the wine and the lemonblam tea that was also boiled in Holy Water. I then Bless the entire Table giving thanks with my , what I call, Magick walking stick. It is of hazel and one day many years ago it `appeared` in my shed at a time when I was severly ill. I held this and what I feared I had wrong with me..left me within a week. Story behind this is that the elderly gentleman who lived where we do went everywhere with his walking stick and even died holding it. But the spooky story is thus: The people that cleared away all his things threw out the walking stick..it went on a garbage truck....but it returned to me, obviously to use for the good of mankind.
Then the final part: I get Fluff to do this: Using the white blessed candle, I ask him to go outside with nature and the`air` element and sets alight what I have written.
The smoke, like with incense travels upwards to meet the divine. Thats the reason we have insence: the smoke representing our prayers drifting upwards to meet our creator.
I hope all this has interested you as I had all of you in my mind. I left my phsysical body around three times, remained then in trance until I realized I had done all I could possibly do.
My Love to all of you at all times.
Blessings, Peace, Love and inner joy with mental and physical good health.
Your Wizard, Mystic Ed X
Walking around the wasteland of Phnom Penh dump I started to think about The Waste Land. The swallows flying low catching insects reminded me of Tiresias; then I found this doll.
ღ ♡ Madame Divine's Studio GATCHA by Page Creations™ ♡ ღ
Instructions - Product Info
All items are materials enabled. Lighting effects depending on the product. Some items are only props others have animations and other effects. See below for more info.
ღ ♡ Commons ♡ ღ
Antique Music Box - Touch/Toggle to play
Candle Cluster - A cluster of red candles with candlelight effects
Crumpets - Crumpets on a plate. Just a prop.
Crystal Votive Candle - Touch/toggle for candlelight reflections & glow
Fancy Vase - Red Sequined fancy vase. Materials enabled to give it the glam and glitz.
Mysterious Jar of Liquid - This jar contains a swirling liquid, what could it contain? It's a mystery.
Scrying Bowl w/Pitcher - Animated materials water in a bowl, used for scrying or just as a prop.
Spirit Board Prop - Just a prop of a spirit board.
Tarot Card Spread - Just a prop, can be used with the sequin paisley table or however you wish.
Tea Set - Steaming pot of tea, with sugar, cream, and tea cup on a tray. Just a prop.
ღ ♡ Uncommons ♡ ღ
Black/Red Satin Bed - Menu driven animations on sit
Candlelight Chandelier - Wrought iron chandelier, red candles with candlelight effects
Cast Iron Stove - Animated flames w/sound. Sit for hand warming animation
Crystal Ball - Will ask for debit permissions. Has the ability to pay the owner. Player asks yes or no type question to receive "fortune".
Customer Chair - Menu driven chair with animations for the soothsayer's customer.
Floor Candelabra - Wrought iron floor stand, red candles, with candlelight effects
Haunted Portrait - Animated texture eyes seem to follow you.
Old Bronze Lamp - Art Deco style lamp, figure of a woman holding a glowing orb. Touch/toggle to turn off and on.
Old Wooden Trunk - Touch lid to open and close. A place to store your trinkets & treasures.
Sequined Paisley Table - Materials enabled tablecloths over a round table. Can be used as a prop or to go along with the customer & soothsayer chair. Add the appropriate prop to the table.
Soothsayer's Chair - Menu driven chair with animations for the soothsayer.
ღ ♡ Rares ♡ ღ
Curio Cabinet - Working door, touch to open/close.
ღ ♡ UltraRares ♡ ღ
Black Lacquer Desk Set - Menu driven animations on sit
Haunted Spirit Board - Touch/toggle to turn on and off. Planchette moves around the board. What could it possibly be telling us?
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wyntercraft:
100 Witch Tips
Listening to your own intuition will always be useful. Learn to trust it.
Put almonds in your pockets for good luck.
Lemongrass essential oil kills fruit flies.
Use a charged crystal on top of your Wifi router, or anything that needs a boost.
Salt in a hula hoop for casting circles.
Evernote and Google docs are amazing for online Grimoires.
Snow-globes can be used in place of crystal balls.
Don’t leave any naturally coloured quartz (amethyst, rose) in the sun, it’ll fade. Unless you want it to fade.
You can use crayons in place of candles.
Meditation!
Be careful of setting stuff on fire, move all flammable objects before lighting something.
Clear quartz can absorb negativity.
Be specific when asking questions/doing spells.
You can turn songs into spells, it helps a lot when you’re just starting.
You can make cheap runes with a sharpie, clear nail polish, and rocks.
Thrift stores ARE YOUR FRIEND!
Rosemary can be used in place of any herb.
Clear Quartz can be used in place of any stone.
biddytarot.com is a good place to read in-depth Tarot meanings, really helps if you’re starting out.
Suck on a peppermint when you’re studying something you need to remember, then again when you need to remember the thing.
Incense ashes = black salt.
Cleanse by moon, charge by sun.
Wear colours that correspond to your intent for that day, subtle and effective.
Got a needle and thread? You got a pendulum.
Just about any cards can be used for divination. Playing cards, pokemon cards, etc.
You can find images of the Rider-Waite deck online and print them onto cardstock.
Craft stores usually have REALLY CHEAP jars.
Music is magical, use that to your advantage.
LOCKETS!
Just about any mirror/reflective surface can be used for scrying, don’t let Etsy fool you with those 50$ mirrors.
White candles can be used in place of any candle.
There are also candle apps!
Birthday candles!
CANDLES!
If you bake, draw sigils in the batter/dough before baking.
Stir liquids clockwise for a luck/health boost, and counter-clockwise for banishing and ridding of negativity.
If you need to subtly cleanse, sage and saltwater in a spray bottle. Be mindful of plants and pets.
Sage can smell like weed sometimes, keep that in mind.
Peach and Avocado pits ward off negativity.
If you don’t like working with blood, Halloween blood and pomegranate/cherry juices are great.
LIBRARIES!!!!!!
Keep a notebook with you constantly in case you need to write something down.
Write wishes on bay leaves, then burn them to make them come true.
Cleanse yourself in the wind.
To get candle wax out of a jar, pour some boiling water in it then leave it for a while, the wax should be floating on top. Be careful!
Selenite and Amethyst are good for dreams.
Pressing flowers really is useful.
You can make your own tea blends pretty easily, just be careful about knowing what is/isn’t edible.
Set a sigil as your phone background, then plug it in to charge it.
Write sigils with makeup while you’re doing it.
Warding will be your best friend.
Use common sense!
If you want to grow herbs out of cans be sure you poke holes in the bottom so excess water can run out.
If you can’t throw salt everywhere, make a salt water spray instead.
You can draw over sigils with glow in the dark paint to see charging effects.
Use plastic ziploc bags in place of jars; cheaper!
Coffee filters can be used as herb bags.
If a spell calls for an ingredient that happens to be in a tea you own, cut open your own tea bags.
You can make altar/shrine books.
Colour correspondences for sigils.
You can do virtual altars via pinterest, video games, etc.
You can glue envelopes into your BOS to hold things like sigils, recipes, etc.
Brick dust works the same as black salt.
Make a google doc/keep a notepad with you for ideas throughout your day.
Instead of burying jars in the ground, use non-bleached toilet paper tubes.
You can buy one big pot and plant many herbs in it.
Chew mint gum during money spells.
Write sigils on your nails using nail polsh pens
Rice water is used for prosperity and success spells.
If you have a computer, you can make your background your altar.
Have an altar by a window, so your items are always cleansed/charged.
Uncooked spaghetti makes lighting candles a lot easier.
Use oil diffusers if you can’t burn incense.
Wicca is NOT the only path!
Glass can be substituted for quartz.
Dedicate a stuffed animal to your deity to bond with them.
A good blood substitute = crushed iron tablets.
Attach crystals to the cork tops of your jars as an energy channel to charge jar spells.
You do NOT have to do magic everyday, it shouldn’t be a chore or something you dread doing.
Brackish water (salt and fresh water) is good for cursing.
Don’t eat things that aren’t edible, and don’t sniff things that aren’t sniffable.
When enchanting your car, draw sigils on the wheels so they charge when they turn.
Don’t make offerings that degrade the environment!
More jar alternatives: bowls of ice, unbleached paper, bell peppers.
Don’t bury jars, please.
Just don’t do it.
White sage is endangered in America, grow your own.
Breathe.
Compile a list of songs that have names corresponding to herbs and ingredients to put in a spell playlist.
Do not substitute fantasy for fact.
Don’t do spells on someone that goes against their free will.
Empath tip: Carry blue goldstone.
Salt cleanse yourself with any salty snack, crisps, pretzels, etc.
Frankincense is an insect repellent
Put mint in shoes for luck (and an air freshener!)
Garage sales are amazing.
Place a candle in the window to welcome sunlight.
Bells can be used for cleansing, too.
Witch Hazel is a natural toner, good for your skin, and is used for protection!
Rain washes away bad vibes, negativity, and cleanses.
Book 1 - Little latex Luna
Chapter 1 - Magical up bring
Chapter 2 - Shimmerah’s spy
Chapter 3 - Reeflaxio’s defenses
Chapter 4 - The magical mistress's
Chapter 5 - The war with Shellyana
Chapter 6 - The stone of seeing
Chapter 7 - Pink lust and worship
Chapter 8 - The latex goddess Shimmerah
Chapter 1 - Magical up bring
Mistress Luna, also known as Latex Luna, is a character originating from the city of Hexonu on the planet Dommalex. Her early life was immersed in magic, being the daughter of Starry, a powerful witch, and Cosmoe, a mage. Both her parents, along with Mistress Aurora, were her initial magic teachers. Luna displayed innate magical abilities from a young age, achieving the status of a Magical Mistress by the age of 15. She was a member of the Order of the Magical Mistresses, an organization led by the demon hunter Mistress Celeste, distinguished by their characteristic latex attire, which symbolized their heroic standing. Luna's magical capabilities include invisibility and shadow magic, enabling her shadow to act independently for espionage. She is characterized by her cunning, a strong preference for latex fashion, and a history of utilizing her abilities for personal gain, including theft.
Chapter 2 – Shimmerah’s spy
Luna's allegiance took a significant turn at 18 when she became a spy for Queen Shimmerah of Gonzzul, an "evil latex queen" who was 19 at the time. Luna developed a deep affection for Shimmerah, pledging her loyalty and offering to fulfill all of Shimmerah's desires. This established her role as Shimmerah's spy, all while maintaining the facade of working for Mistress Celeste. Luna secretly embraced her "bad girl" persona and her alignment with Shimmerah.
Chapter 3 - Reeflaxio’s defenses
Shimmerah's initial assignment for Luna involved gathering intelligence on Reeflaxio's defenses, including the temple's layout, guardians, and vulnerabilities, as Shimmerah sought the "mirror of knowing." Luna successfully acquired this information using her invisibility, which facilitated a war to seize the mirror. To prevent other Magical Mistresses from discovering her true intentions, Shimmerah allowed Luna to return to Hexonu, promising its eventual control. This demonstrates Shimmerah's manipulative tactics and Luna's complicity, highlighting Luna's complex loyalties as a double agent for both Celeste and Shimmerah, and her embrace of a darker path.
Chapter 4 - The magical mistress's
Over time, Luna assisted other Magical Mistresses while secretly relaying information about evil activities and Shimmerah to Celeste. Celeste, who specialized in dark magic and demon hunting, often wore skin-tight latex catsuits and corsets. Despite Celeste's awareness of Luna's usefulness as a spy, Luna suspected Celeste might have known about her clandestine activities. Luna had a good relationship with Mistress Virella, Shimmerah's former magic teacher, who described Shimmerah's stunning beauty as the root of her evil, driving her desire to be the fairest. Virella had left Shimmerah due to her selfish ambition for world domination. Luna, sharing Shimmerah's love for latex and admiring her perfect physique, developed a crush on Shimmerah and wished to be her slave, a secret she only shared with Shimmerah. To maintain her cover, Luna spread misinformation about Shimmerah, making it appear as though she was working with the others to save the 12 kingdoms and queendoms from Shimmerah's rule. Notably, Luna avoided King Eldrin of Hexonu, fearing his wisdom might expose her true intentions. She also spent considerable time with Mistress Aurora, who enjoyed wearing multiple layers of latex.
At 23, Luna used her magic to create latex sex toys for Shimmerah's enjoyment, testing them on herself and experiencing numerous orgasms nightly. She indulged in sexual excitement in her latex bed, using lustful magic for further pleasure. Luna was aware of stories about Queen Sliverleaf of Latxrubbero, also known as the queen of rubber and lust. Luna desired for Shimmerah to transform her into a "slutty lustful mess of sexual pleasure," to be used as a toy to test sex toys before Shimmerah herself enjoyed them. She studied the possibility of Shimmerah turning her into a lust demon if Shimmerah achieved world domination, embracing her identity as a "sly bad shiny latex girl." Luna acquired books on sex magic from other Magical Mistresses under the pretense of preventing them from falling into the wrong hands.
Chapter 5 - The war with Shellyana
During the war with Shellyana, Virella, having halted her aging with a time spell, was prompted to act by the escape of Eldrin, the uncrowned king of Hexonu, from Shimmerah's dark crystal palace dungeons in Wealthold City. Eldrin, sustained for 451 years by a spell, suggested Shimmerah might have intentionally allowed his escape due to her power and possession of the "mirror of knowing". Virella, recognizing magical artifacts on Staff Island, convened a meeting of mages and witches, summoning Mistress Celeste, Mistress Luna, and Mistress Aurora from Hexonu. Luna, at 28, suggested inviting Kelppie, a potion maker, and Black-root, a sage of darkness, from Tree-trunk City in Latxrubbero. Eldrin, after enhancing Virella's cyclone staff with a power crystal, had Celeste remove his magical memories and cast him to Smoothlex, preserving his memories in a magic jar to be returned upon Shimmerah's defeat. The assembled sorceresses, many in latex, discussed magical items. They had been spying on Shellyana, who ruled the lost lands as Latex Empress Shellyana and possessed powers like Object Transmutation, Telekinesis, and Meta magic, along with powerful artifacts. Shellyana's love for gold latex and gold raised concerns she might emulate Glodglossin, the goddess of greed.
Celeste proposed sending Shimmerah to the Cave of Greed, where one wish allows escape, but many wishes lead to eternal entrapment. Virella recalled Queen Sliverleaf's fate, trapped in the cave 13 years prior due to her greed. However, they decided against this, believing Shimmerah's wisdom and the "mirror of knowing" would lead her to make only one selfish wish. Their next plan was to unite with Shellyana in Terrubagron to stop Shimmerah. An army of sorceresses arrived at Shellyana's golden palace. Shellyana's knights and giants initially confronted them, but upon learning their purpose was to protect Shellyana from Shimmerah, they were allowed entry. Luna remained outside, and when powerful spells indicated Shimmerah's presence and victory, Luna rejoiced, desiring Shimmerah's success in her "evil lustful plan". Luna cast a back mage spell to weaken all spells intended to trap Shimmerah, then opened a portal and took Mistress Aurora back to Hexonu.
Chapter 6 - The stone of seeing
When Shimmerah was in the Cave of Greed, Luna was in a rubber room, covered in latex from head to toe, with vibrating dildos sliding in and out both her lower holes due to her magical power, while she sucked on a latex dildo. Her orgasms were high, and she experienced peak arousal, orgasming repeatedly while thinking about Shimmerah in her hottest red and black latex outfits on a throne. She knew she was a kinky girl, but now Shimmerah ruled the world, and all the other Magical Mistresses knew that Luna was ultimately working for Shimmerah and her evil plans. Luna knew none could stop her from her fetish and latex lust.
The Stone of Seeing was created by Latexshinex, the Goddess of Power, for Aeon, the God of Time. Its primary function was to allow its wielder to perceive events across different timelines and dimensions, offering a comprehensive view of past, present, and potential future occurrences. Aeon's ability to manage and manipulate time provided him with the necessary insight to understand the intricacies of causality. The Stone of Seeing is not merely a scrying tool; it is an extension of Aeon's divine capabilities, enabling him to observe the multiverse. Its creation by Latexshinex underscores her immense power as a creator and her collaborative relationship with other deities. Luna was not aware of the multiverse, only the universe.
Mistress Luna was summoned to Toweron within a significant spiritual magical site: the Tower of Starsun. All the monks had been turned to shiny gold, with Shimmerah there in a sexy pose. King Eldrin from Hexonu was also made of gold in a bowing, worshipping pose. Shimmerah asked Luna what she thought of her new "toys," to which Luna replied, "There soo shiny my Sexyness." The sky showed the cosmos. Luna bowed low in worship to show her loyalty. Shimmerah commanded Luna to "Get up slave," and Luna responded, "Yes, .. yes my beautiful shininess." Shimmerah then stated her desire for the power of the Stone of Seeing. Luna warned that the power was said to be too much for any being other than its creators, but Shimmerah asserted that nothing was too much for her. Luna, bowing low again, expressed her concern for Shimmerah's "perfectness"
Shimmerah held the stone, feeling its power flowing into her, but after some time, she had to stop. She opened a portal to her dark crystal palace in Wealthold City, where she took Luna. There, in her magical hall, she drank more Liquid Youth. She wore the Ring of the 4 Elements. She also took an invulnerability potion, knowing it would not last long as the more power she used, the faster the potion would wear off. Then she took hold of the stone again. A very strong wind was felt as a green mist of power came from the stone within her shiny latex-gloved hand. Luna ran to hide behind her throne. The windows of her hall smashed, and the cosmos was seen within the hall. Shimmerah evilly giggled as she could see all over her world without a seeing crystal ball. She could see into space and looked down onto her world. She could see stars from afar and, with her sight, zoom in to see their planets and look into the planet at the rulers and people who walked there. She zoomed out and looked at the galaxy she was in. Luna could also see the map of the cosmos as images of what she could see were being projected into the room. Shimmerah's eyes glowed with power until the stone turned to ash as all its power was now Shimmerah's. Luna came out from behind the throne, seeing Shimmerah's eyes, which glowed red to show her wickedness, and then her eyes returned to normal.
Chapter 7 - Pink lust and worship
Shimmerah and Luna discovered the return of Queen Shiny to Magicalu, to the Golden Sky-tower, which Shimmerah's power had transformed from ice crystals to gold. Queen Shiny then challenged Shimmerah, questioning why she hadn't conquered the Temple of Time. So Shimmerah went to the Fortress of Time. Luna stayed within Shimmerah's dark tower of latex and saw from afar to the north. At this moment, Aeon, the God of Time, intervened, as his hand cast a shadow over the world as time turned from day to night many times until Aeon was gone, and it was day again. Luna later found that Aeon had removed Shimmerah from the timeline and had a feeling that Shimmerah would one day return, but not knowing when. Luna then had a plan to send the last queens of latex into lust like herself and to make the world ready for Shimmerah's return.
Queen Shiny and Queen Glossy went to Wealthold City within the Capital of Gonzzul. Wealthold City had become a dark, ruined place, all shiny black latex with glowing red tall crystals which fed power into Shimmerah's dark palace. Under the palace was a jail where all the old kings and queens were trapped, but no power could open the cells. The men were bound in latex catsuits, gloved and hooded, and made to stand in whatever pose Shimmerah had last left them in. The queens were all in one jail hallway, some in latex Vac-beds, some as shiny rubberdolls, all covered in black latex in a BDSM way and bound with latex sex toys vibrating in their groins. Moans of sexual arousal filled the halls as they were kept horny but could not orgasm. Artwork of Shimmerah was held before them. Shiny and Glossy found that the only way to free them was if Shimmerah was there to do so. As Shiny and Glossy were also getting horny from the hot, sexy images of Shimmerah, they left. Luna was within the tower, playing with herself while watching Queen Shiny and Queen Glossy, giggling in lust. Luna had ramped up the lustfulness and the power of the toys as Pink Lust was forming.
More about Mistess Luna
Name: Luna
Her parents: Her mother, Starry, and her father Cosmoe
Her magic teachers: Her mother, Starry, and her father Cosmoe and Mistress Aurora
Birthplace: Enchantment city
Kingdom: Hexonu
Continent - The 12 kingdoms and queendoms - when Shimmerah took over it all she renamed it to Shimmerathia
Planet: Dommalex
Universe: 17Z9
Multiverse: 0018
Superverse: 002
Height : 5, 3
Agein image: 19
Hair colour: jet-black
Eye colour: Dark-blue
Favourite colours: Black
Sexually: bisexual
Libido: High
Personality: submissive, kinky, slutty, sly, naughty
How she see's herself, Cute, slutty, and a double agent
Favourite fashion: Sexy shiny latex clothing,
Favourite clothing, sexy latex outfits, short-skirts and dress's, skin-tight catsuits, corsets, and thigh high boots
Wish in life: To being wish Shimmerah and give her all and everything she wants no matter how bad it is, she wants to be shimmerah slave and worship her.
Obsessions: helping Shimmerah get world domination,
Book 2 - Latex Empress Shimmerah Full book
Chapter 1 - The barren lands
Chapter 2 - The shiny sisters
Chapter 3 - The ring of change
Chapter 4 - The cave of greed
Chapter 5 - The stone of seeing
Chapter 6 - The ring of Blindsight
Chapter 7 - The dungeons
Chapter 8 - The forgotten queen
Chapter 9 - A new world
Chapter 10 - The Lost fogotton queen of Neonlexia
Chapter 11 - Lust and dominance
Chapter 12 - Mass Manipulation
Chapter 13 - From light to darkness
Chapter 14 - The queens of Glossermul
Chapter 15 - The new ruler of hell
Chapter 16 - The evil latex goddess
Chapter 4 - The stone of seeing
Shimmer being the most powerful sorceress knew all about The Stone of Seeing and of its power. She knew it was created by Latexshinex, the Goddess of Power, for Aeon, the God of Time. Its primary function was to allow its wielder to perceive events across different timelines and dimensions, offering a comprehensive view of past, present, and potential future occurrences. Aeon's ability to manage and manipulate time, providing him with the necessary insight to understand the intricate of causality. The Stone of Seeing is not merely a scrying tool; it is an extension of Aeon's divine capabilities, enabling him to observe the multiverse. Its creation by Latexshinex underscores her immense power as a creator and her collaborative relationship with other deities. Shimmerah not knew about the multiverse only of the universe but not what of its size. She knew about Latexshinex, Aeon and the others deities which where worshipped within her world.
She not knew how to use the stone of seeing as there was no info within her books on its use, only of its history and power. She teleported to Toweron where she set her sights on a significant spiritual magical site: the tower of Starsun. Starsun was revered as the god of the cosmos and gateways. Before Shimmerah took over the land when she was 26, the towers of Toweron held powerful spirit stones that amplified Evocation magic. At that time 3 years ago she enslaved the monks worshipping there declaring that they should only worship her. This cemented her religious and spiritual control but also allowed her to confiscate all the spirit stones.
Present day: When she teleported to Toweron There were still monks in worship. The monks who meet her 3 years ago where still in worship to her beauty, but the ones who had not seen her where still in worship to Starsun. The skys like they had always been were still open to the view and power of the cosmos. The monks no longer had their spirit stones, but there was still high levels of magic around. Shimmerah psychically read the minds of all to see who knew about the stone of seeing. Only a small few know. She asked them of how to use it but they not knew, This made Shimmerah angry. When she was done asking she turned them into Shiny gold statue's. Many feared being turned to gold and also feared what power the stone of seeing would give her.
A being hooded in dark-purple and black came with a twisted black stuff and wand. He was the uncrowned king Eldrin of Hexonu who had escaped from Shimmerah's dark crystal palace dungeons in Wealthold City not long ago. Shimmerah knew of his escape and read his mind knowing where he had been and who he had meet. "Seems I'm far too sexy is why you’ve come back to me." Said Shimmerah grinning. Eldrin was in-love with her beauty like all who saw her was. "I have not come for you" said Eldrin trying with all his might to fight his over-flowing lust for her. "I've come for the stone as it should not even be in this world" said Eldrin on the floor with something growing within his pants. Shimmerah gigged knowing her sexyness had turned him on so much that he could not get up. She was about to cast him into a void when Eldrin slowed time and moved with speed, So Shimmerah used a time spells to turned back time and took his staff and wand. She turn Eldrin into gold while saying "Everythings better when its smooth and shiny."
She then Summoning Mistress Luna who was confuse to where she was but then looked up to Shimmerah. Mistress Luna had a crush on Shimmerah for many years and she knew about the stone of seeing. Luna had wanted Shimmerah to become the ruler of everything as Luna was also known as little-latex-Luna having a big latex fetish. Within she knew she was as lustful as the trapped queen Sliverleaf. Luna was one of the spy’s of Shimmerah and one of the Mistress’s of Hexonu. She was the youngest of the magical Mistress’s but she was sly and all deemed she was helping to try and stop Shimmerah. For this she knew that Shimmerah would like her. Luna bowed low in worship to show her loyalty. 'Get up slave' said Shimmerah to Luna, 'Yes, .. yes my beautiful shininess' said Luna. 'I want the power of the stone of seeing' said Shimmerah 'You just need to hold it and it will flow into her my prettiness, ... but the power is said to be too much for any being other then the ones who made it.' 'nothing is too much for me' said Shimmerah 'I just not want your perfectness to get hurt' said Luna bowing low again.
Shimmerah held the stone feeling it power flowing into her but after some time she had to stop. She opened a portal to her dark crystal palace in Wealthold City where she took Luna. There came into her magical hall, she drunk more Liquid youth. She had on the Ring of the 4 Elements. But she took a invulnerability potion which she knew would not last long as the more power you use the fast the potion ware’s off. Then she took hold the stone again. A very strong wind was felt as green mist of power came from the stone within her shiny latex gloved hand. Luna ran to hind behind her throne. The widows of her hall smashed and the cosmos was seen within the hall. Shimmerah evilly giggled as she could see all over her world without a seeing crystal ball. She could see into space and looked down onto her world, She could see a stars from afar and with her sight zoom in to see their planets, and look into the planet at the rulers and people who walked there. She zoomed out and looked at the galaxy she was in. Luna could also see the map of the cosmos as images of what she could see was being projected into the room. Shimmerah’s eyes where glowing with power. Till the stone turned to ash as all its power was now Shimmerah’s. Luna came out from behind the throne seeing Shimmerah’s eyes which glowed red to show her wickedness, and then her eyes want back to normal.
Powers and Abilities
Shimmerah possesses a vast array of magical abilities, which she has cultivated and amplified over time:
1) Telekinesis: The ability to manipulate objects with her mind.
2) Teleportation: Instantaneous travel from one location to another.
3) Telepathy: The power to read and transmit thoughts.
4) Elemental Manipulation: Control over natural elements, enhanced by the Ring of the 4 Elements.
5) Weather Manipulation: The ability to control weather patterns.
6) Outfit Manipulation: The power to change or create clothing.
7) Intangibility: The ability to pass through solid objects.
8) Umbrakinesis: Manipulation of shadows and darkness, granted by the Ring of Shadows, allowing for stealth and offensive use.
9) Evocation Magic: The summoning of entities or forces.
10) Absorbing Magic: A powerful ability, learned from the Book of Forbidden Knowledge, allowing her to absorb magical energy and power from sources like crystals and entire lands. This power was instrumental in her conquest of the twelve kingdoms and queendoms, where she absorbed the power from all magic crystals in the Queendom of Glossu and subsequently from all lands, making kings and queens her slaves.
11) Lustful Temptation: Her most potent form of seduction, amplified by the Liquid Youth, allowing her to entice others into submission through her beauty and voice.
12) Object Transmutation
13) Meta magic
14) power to bring back the dead
15) Omniscience
More about Shimmerah
Name: Shimmerah
Her parents: Queen Veloria and King Zorath
Her sister: Shellyana
Her magic teacher: Mistress Virella
Birthplace: Wealthold city - Capital of Gonzzul
Her queendom: Gonzzul
Continent - The 12 kingdoms and queendoms - when Shimmerah took over it all she renamed it to Shimmerathia
Planet: Dommalex
Height : 5, 11
Age: 29
Hair colour: black
Eye colour: light blue - but glow with power
Favourite colours: Black
Sexually: autosexual
Libido: Medium - High
Personality: narcissistic, vanity, self centered, selfish, greedy, avarice, mean, very dominant, power-hungry, gold digger,
How she see's herself, pretty, sexy, hot, perfect, attractive lustful, beautifully alluring, seductress, divine, powerful, dominant, villainous sexy girl, naughty, provocative.
Favourite fashion: Sexy shiny latex clothing, mostly black.
Favourite clothing, very dominant latex outfits, short-skirts, skin-tight catsuits, corsets, and thigh high boots
Wish in life: To rule all have all, to be all powerful, and all beautiful, perfectly stunning in everyway,
Obsessions: World domination, higher beauty, and all power.
True story: We arrived at the Mount Shasta City KOA (campground) exhausted from the long drive from Seattle through rain and fog. We rented their deluxe cabin which had a shower bath. At 11pm I got up to use the bathroom and was astonished to see in the furry brown floormat a precise image of a woman's face. She was wearing 1840s style womens' clothing--a bonnet and ruffled lace collar that came down in ribbons. Her face though looked a bit like a mummy's in that the skin was shrunken. I immediately wondered if she had come during the Gold Rush and died a sad death and was trying to get my attention. My brother-in-law had taken a shower earlier and I presume the indentations were where his wet feet had stepped. At 1 am I decided I should try to photograph the face. But then I saw nothing. I took photos anyway. They turned out in some cases mysteriously blurry. I have turned two of those into abstract art pieces through color and exposure options. The others I put forth so others may scry as I have done. I did see a face in one but it now looked masculine and not nearly so precise as the phantom Gold Rush woman.
See:
theoraclestar.com/2010/08/mt-shasta-history/
www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/shasta.html
www.uvm.edu/landscape/dating/clothing_and_hair/1870s_clot...
True story: We arrived at the Mount Shasta City KOA (campground) exhausted from the long drive from Seattle through rain and fog. We rented their deluxe cabin which had a shower bath. At 11pm I got up to use the bathroom and was astonished to see in the furry brown floormat a precise image of a woman's face. She was wearing 1840s style womens' clothing--a bonnet and ruffled lace collar that came down in ribbons. Her face though looked a bit like a mummy's in that the skin was shrunken. I immediately wondered if she had come during the Gold Rush and died a sad death and was trying to get my attention. My brother-in-law had taken a shower earlier and I presume the indentations were where his wet feet had stepped. At 1 am I decided I should try to photograph the face. But then I saw nothing. I took photos anyway. They turned out in some cases mysteriously blurry. I have turned two of those into abstract art pieces through color and exposure options. The others I put forth so others may scry as I have done. I did see a face in one but it now looked masculine and not nearly so precise as the phantom Gold Rush woman.
See:
theoraclestar.com/2010/08/mt-shasta-history/
www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/shasta.html
www.uvm.edu/landscape/dating/clothing_and_hair/1870s_clot...
After the success of the last mission, Drakk was given a permanent commission from Commander Trask. A chest of gold for every camp he found and destroyed--Drakk was pleased with his current situation. He had come to the mainland to hunt the mainlanders, and now he was getting paid for it! He hurried to his private camp in the cave and began a magical ritual to locate the nearest rebels. In his concentration, he failed to notice he was not alone...
"Very Dramatic!" said my Fluffy when he took this shot of me. The shirt came from an antique shop and is handmade. I believe it was made for an actor for a theatrical performance. Its very Liberace isnt it?!
It has an 'unfinished' fireplace there on the left that caused Harry to sit by the window and drift off becasue of the heat. And a scrying pool in the middle.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was sold to support the National Portrait Gallery, London. The card was printed in England.
Paul Benney's oil on canvas (143.9cm x 108.7cm) was Commended by the adjudicators.
Paul Benney
paulbenney.com provides the following information about the artist:
Paul Benney has worked as an artist and musician in both the U.S. and U.K. and is represented in public collections world wide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Collection, The Eli Broad Foundation, AIG Houston, and Standard Life.
Benney has twice won the public choice award in the BP Portrait Awards, and has been short listed on two occasions. In 2013 he was invited to be one of the judges for the Threadneedle prize at the Mall Galleries.
A member of the Neo-Expressionist group of the early 80’s in New York’s East Village, Benney became known for his depictions of stygian themes and dark nights of the soul. Also one of the country’s leading portrait artists, he has painted many prominent cultural and political figures.
Rachel Campbell Johnston
Rachel, chief art critic for ‘The Times’, writes the following in the Foreword of ‘Paul Benney: Night Paintings’:
Benney paints figures which, while their meanings can never quite be fixed, embody some sense of our spiritual quest. Here is his water carrier stalking a barren mountain landscape, balancing his twin flasks of purest crystal light. They sparkle like diamonds amid the deep enriched colours of a world set aglow by the fire of the sun as it sets. The simple is made precious in this alchemical vision.
Or the diviner, no longer carrying the split willow twigs of earlier paintings but a metal detector instead. He crawls like an insect across stark expanses, sweeping the emptiness in search of his treasure, plugged into some heartbeat that we cannot hear. Here are figures that float across empty canvases. Are they rising or falling, or simply suspended in space? Strange emanations appear to pour from them. Is it the mist of their breathing or a heavenly aura? And here too are portraits of friends – of modern day disciples – each touched and transformed by what would feel like a Pentecostal flame were it not for the fact that its fires, rather than descending from the heavens, seem to rise up from their foreheads as if it is their consciousness that has kindled and caught light.
The landscape is similarly transformed. Benney may be painting natural phenomena – the morning mist as it lingers above a dew pond, the fragile clouds of the seed heads which float over flowery meadows – but their delicate beauty keys in to our sense of an extra dimension. Anyone who has walked out in the early morning will recognise it. The mundane becomes mystic, and the normal feels numinous in this transubstantiated world. Benney looks – sometimes very directly – at the work of the Symbolists, at their belief that art should convey those absolute truths which can only be described indirectly.
On one level, the world Benney paints seems somehow far removed from us. We look as if through a window. We sense the dividing glass. The water carrier strides on his way unaware of us. The figures float oblivious. The chair by the pool is deserted. Not a step disturbs the thistledown. And yet, at the same time, they feel somehow familiar. We approach with a strange sense of déjà vu. We have walked these places before. They belong to the lands inside our heads.
Benney shows us our lives as they balance on that fragile boundary between the perfectly ordinary and the profoundly otherworldly. He seeks to capture that mystery which redeems us from the mundane.
Joseph Clarke
Joseph Clarke, owner of The Anima-Mundi Gallery, UK, writes the following:
A self portrait sits in the corner of Paul Benney’s studio. Its title is ‘Janus’. The two faced deity. Looking forwards and backwards. Observing two states. Rooted between.
For the past thirty years Paul Benney has worked both in the United States and the United Kingdom. His paintings are notably represented in a plethora of public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The National Gallery of Australia and The National Portrait Gallery in London, alongside many prominent private and corporate collections.
Benney’s career is an intriguing one. He is a multi-disciplined artist whose oeuvre moves beyond clear and definitive categorization, although his work could be seen to continue the strong tradition of ‘British Mysticism’ championed by the likes of Samuel Palmer and William Blake. Clearly, the primary mode of expression is paint, which he handles with profound technical dexterity, but to add to this he is also a goldsmith (skills learned from his father, the celebrated goldsmith Gerald Benney), a sculptor, a musician and also a perfumer, all of which he is able to carry out with notable esoteric ability and accomplishment. He is a polymath – a modern Renaissance Man. Marcus Aurelius once stated that:
“Nothing has such power to broaden
the mind as the ability to investigate
systematically and truly all that comes
under thy observation in life.”
But the tangibility of technique is only one face; the artist must also have a passion to use the senses to delve in to the unsolved.
Francis Bacon proclaimed that:
"The job of the artist is always
to deepen the mystery.”
Indeed Benney does not do all the work for you, the viewer. You stand in front of the often shimmering, surface of the work and observe. He makes paintings that you have to look at, marvel at and then contemplate. These paintings defy fixed meaning, concentrating more on a journey than a destination. As with the ‘Janus’ piece, one has more than one direction to follow and decipher.
A huge painting dominates the studio. ‘Dying Slave’. How should one interpret this? A nude figure rises from the whirling deluge of water beneath his feet, surrounded by flames and flowering embers pushing upwards – is this a hopeful image of life, immortality, defiance and/or transcendence? Or in fact the same figure pulled in to the dreadful abyss, sinking, un-escapable, the flickering flames about to be engulfed by the great flood. Extinguished. These two (and I'm sure other) potentials coalesce on one plain.
In the opposite corner of the room two ovals are hung. Shimmering black glass. Reflective. Seductive yet impenetrable. Benney shines a torch on them, and from the core I see a painted face from depths staring back at me. These ‘Scrying Mirrors’ are quite unlike anything I have seen before; perplexing and magical. These works mine the intersection of technological advancement, mysticism and phantasmagorical phenomena, creating an immersive experience reminding one of ecstatic revelation, stage magic, spirit photography, pseudoscience, telekinesis, and other manifestations of the paranormal.
I notice another detail in many of the works in the studio. The emanation of flickering light (almost flame like) rising from the head, signifying an animation of the spirit or soul. It is imagery that connects all creed and colour, echoing through many different religions from the sacred art of Ancient Greece, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. This flame feels eternal. Alchemical.
It is interesting to me that Benney’s studio works are often viewed and described as ‘otherworldly’ or ‘visionary’. If by that it is meant that they go beyond the prosaic of what we see everyday with our eyes in the limited space beyond our own noses; then I would agree. But these are not works that are placed somewhere else beyond our concern. Leonora Carrington once stated:
“The task of the right eye is to peer
into the telescope, while the left eye
peers into the microscope.”
For me these paintings reveal on multiple levels a diverse state of existence. One where life and death co-exist. The inner and the outer. Matter and spirit. The known and unknown. The past and the Future. And at the heart of them the illusion of the fixed in between state – The Present. Is that not a vivid representation of the rounded reality of the human condition?
Honor Clerk
Honor Clerk, 20th. Century Curator, National Portrait Gallery, UK, 1980-2001 has written the following:
The son of a celebrated goldsmith, Gerald Benney, Paul Benney is the grandson of the early 20th. century British impressionist, Sallis Benney. Benney credits both for his early training in the approach to the creative process and appreciation of the mystery of transforming raw materials into objects of beauty.
Benney has a holy horror of slick painting. In the work of his New York years, he developed a nihilistic image bank of alienation and desolation, a world drawing on the blasted landscape of Flanders, the vertiginous interiors of Piranesi, and the menace of Goya’s black paintings, and found the technique and materials to frustrate any glib facility.
His work was in constant demand, both in New York, and across the United States and Europe. A high point came with the purchase by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of two of Benney’s paintings, Heretic Healers and Depth Charges II in 1986.
In these early years of international acclaim, portraiture had played no part; but on returning to England, the successful commission of an official portrait of Anthony Quick, the headmaster of Bradfield College posed something of a dilemma. In New York contemporary Art World terms, the descent from gallery exhibitions to commissioned portraiture represented a sell-out; but while in Britain such distinctions may have been felt in general terms, the work of artists such as Lucian Freud still gave the genre a credibility and integrity to which Benney could respond.
The result was something of a split personality. In Britain his portrait practice grew rapidly by word of mouth, and two important early portraits of Lord Ashburton and Sir Martin Jacomb, bankers with extensive contacts both in business and art circles, led to a string of further sitters.
But it was not only in portraiture that Benney’s work progressed. In 1989 he was invited by the Berini Gallery to stage a solo exhibition in Barcelona. Whilst living there he came under the influence of Lorca, and was obsessed by the untranslatable Spanish quality of duende – grace, courage, skill and dignity.
His private mythology moved on from the melodrama of the early New York paintings to hermetically sealed landscapes lit by a supernatural light where people and things spontaneously combust, to a world in which Pan (The Pantheist, 1989), smoke wafting from his head, dances towards us, his legs silhouetted by an eerie blue light, his head turned to concentrate on the cat’s cradle he makes between his hands.
Adrian Dannat
Adrian Dannat, writer and curator, writes the following in
Descending Line : An excerpt from ‘Paul Benney: Night Paintings’
Paul Benney has built his distinctive aesthetic over the course of thirty years of work, an oeuvre whose atmosphere and resonance, whose presence, is entirely recognizable despite its wide variety of media, technique and format.
Benney has made drawings, prints, objects and sculptures, paintings, porcelain and music, all of them as strikingly original in their singular state as they are cohesive as a group, as gesamtkunstwerk even.
The range of Benney’s materials are as assorted as his manifold production, whether feathers and tar, handmade paper and found wood, metals and resin, oil and charcoal, slate and canvas, rope and bitumen, acetate or ink.
Benney’s status as the ‘total’ artist is made clear by that rare combination of technical ability, flawless skill, and a true sense of adventure and daring that continually pushes him further to explore his work. This is a highly unusual double-act, for often the technically gifted artist is too wary or precious ever to extend the horizons of their work, whilst the boldly experimental artist often lacks the commensurate skill.
Knowing that Benney spent his early life around silver, its properties and its processes, one cannot but ponder on the curious resemblance of much of his palette to the texture and tone of this metal when tarnished and left to darken. There is a very specific sort of smoky blackness, a clouded darkness not unlike the stain of soot and candle flame which silver claims and that seems to haunt Benney’s own work.
This is notably so through his more recent use of resin, some of whose effects really do suggest the same chemical and magical obscurity that slowly overtakes unpolished silver. In this sense Benney’s art is far from ‘polished,’ but instead suggests things of great material and aesthetic value left out to accept the transformations of time.
The sombre richness of Benney’s aesthetic is at its strongest throughout what he terms his ‘Night Paintings’, a perhaps deliberate reference to the ‘Night Piece’ prints by Rembrandt whose dark tonal burr likewise captures an intimate sense of nocturnal mystery and magic. Rembrandt is an obvious point of comparison to Benney, whether in their mutual skill and worldly success as portraitists or in their compensatory lure towards the shadow and the very dark itself.
It is curious that although the role of the artist is surely to widen our curiosity, to expand our sense of the possibilities and to dextrously avoid all categorisation, there is always a desire to reduce every artist to an easily referenced stereotype, to genre, style or school. Thus those ‘movements’ so beloved of art historians, critics and journalists and so loathed by their supposed participants give rise to books that define and group: ‘Women Artists’, ‘Scottish Watercolourists’ or ‘Postmodern Potters’.
Benney is an especially troublesome case for those who demand that every artist should have their perfect pigeonhole, their unchanging identity, rather than, as in his case, a plethora of personae or a stance of ‘silence, exile and cunning’.
“A Little Tale”…
Elisbeth had been a witch since birth. She was born into a family that consisted of a long line of powerful, highly regarded, and knowledgeable witches. So, it was only natural for her to be raised as what she was, a witch. And, fortunately for her, she was born at a time when witches, the occult, and the like was very popular...the Victorian Era,
Her childhood, during this era was magical; not only in what she was taught and could do, but by wonder, enchantment, and the contact she had with nature, the elements, elementals, and animals. Her days were spent, in great part, simply wandering in the woods and forests, playing with elementals, and studying the Heavens and the moon phases.
Her favorite moon phase was the full moon. For with the full moon came the rituals, but, best of all, the moon was huge and Elisbeth felt she could talk directly to the Goddess. She would bend her little head back as far as it would go, look up at the big round orb with eyes wide and mouth slightly opened in awe, and mentally send her messages to the Goddess. And, she knew for certain that the Goddess heard her and answered her. She heard the Goddess’ voice clearly in her head.
…During her full moon discussions with the Goddess, the Goddess empowered little Elisbeth with even greater knowledge, wisdom, and imparted long held secrets. The Goddess adored the child…. So, the Goddess enhanced Elisbeth’s abilities, powers, psychic vision, and gifts even more and…[she] grew and became one of the wisest, most knowledgeable, and powerful witches among all witches who ever lived.
Her communications with the Goddess, as well as the time period in which she was born made Elisbeth love the Victorian Era and never wanted to see it end. Sadly, though, one night, in her scrying bowl, she saw the future and did not like what she saw. All the hussle and bustle, the wars, the hate, the loss of manners and etiquette, lack of people caring for one another, and most of all, the disregard, which would be even greater than that in the Victorian Era, for animals and nature...
So, she put a spell on herself. She made it so that, to her, it would always be the Victorian Era. She saw no planes, iPods, TVs, cell phones and the like. She continued to wander in the woods and forests with no fear of being harmed and practiced her craft, helping others, nature, and animals. She dressed and conducted herself like a grand Victorian lady, following the traditions and customs she was taught during that time.
People saw her as eccentric or a bit batty, but she did not care. She was happy and content. She spent every full moon outside with her head bent way back, eyes wide, and her mouth slightly opened. She would talk to the Goddess and the Goddess would answer her.
She was happy. “Life”, she thought, “is what you make it. The power is in each of us to create the life we want and to choose to be happy or sad.”
~Marsha J. West~ Author and Owner of this original “A Little Tale” * Edited for Flickr.
“The Little Tale” is my original idea, story idea, and the story itself is written by me, Marsha J. West. It is my property and cannot be copied, reproduced, reprinted or used.
London Psychogeophysics Summit 2010
Dark Heart of Codeness .walk (pronounced as “dot-walk”)
Wilfried Houjebek wrote a geospatial algorithm in the “Brainfuck” programming language. After initialisation by a random coin toss the algorithm sends the user on a algorithmic tour. For historic reasons Wilfried chose the Royal Observatory as the starting point. From here our group was sent on a spiraling course towards Point Hill.
During the walk electromagnetic energies were recorded with an ELF receiver.
At Point Hill we planted undeveloped film sheets for thoughtographic experiments and hid measuring devices for logging high frequency energies. Also some intuitive drawings were made to record the atmosphere.
From there we went back to the center of London to interrogate the London Stone.
Sound recordings and map:
www.archive.org/details/Greenwich---Dark-Heart-Of-Codenes...
Thoughtography:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=934
Intuitive drawings:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=939
Psychogeophysics summit:
www.psychogeophysics.org/wiki/doku.php?id=summit:desc
Dark Heart of Codeness:
The hutch is filled with all kinds of curious, enchanted, and spooky (eek!) eye candy, such as: a skull wrapped in what seems to be ectoplasm; skeleton’s bones being cooked; fairy portals, which may indeed lead to the Fairy Rhelm; bottles of Wizard supplies; a crystal ball; a scrying ball; books; a metal plate with more possible “Wizard secret symbols”; and what looks like a funerary urn. Gosh, I wonder whose ashes are in there!
I make my hutches one at a time… from start to finish. There is no assembly line in my workshop. No elves either. For this reason, this is truly one-of a-kind. I keep no written “recipes” for the color or instructions for the items I create to put into/on my hutches. Pieces on this hutch are from nature or created at the time I was working on it from materials at hand at that time.
My old master trained me well - too well for his own good. The day he killed my sister was the day I wrote his obituary.
I've followed him for four days now, and we're across the border into the Elven Territories. He's beginning to slow - perhaps he thinks I've fallen behind.
I come upon him at the low cliff over the Scrying Pool. He stands gazing into its depths with the sussuration of the waterfall as a counterpoint to his contemplative gaze.
He looks up and sees me, astonishment flickering across his face to be replaced by an evil sneer.
"You think you can defeat me, boy?"
His eyes are grey as flint, and there is no remorse in them - only pride.
I approach the edge of the cliff at a run and let fly with my knife.
--
This is my first 'professional' MOC (look, it even has a border! :DDD) and my first one using viable waterfall (which I learned from Eggy Pop's tutorial) and water techniques. It's 17x17, counting the border. Oh, and it's my first entry into Saber-Scorpion's 'Mano a Mano' contest.
C&C greatly appreciated. Inspirations are tagged. :)
started this one today. Its based from a painting by Holst called 'card reader'. I changed it to fit the body of work im working on, its not done yet. I started using a flash, which renders the colors much better but shows brushstrokes and relects wet paint. Not sure what to do about it.
look for the finished version later. Its done, i just need to get the pic up.
Oil on Birch panel
24" x 30"
This is the basic design for a royal watch-tower on the southeastern border, near the Rhane Cliffs. His majesty King William II of blessed memory paid for the construction of sixteen such towers, and his son King William III paid for the addition of scrying platforms and magical communication devices to join them. Not all the towers are in working order, but the kings continue to assign them to favored and trusted allies as homes and bases to secure the border.
Update: I worked this particular photograph into an entry on historical design skills and visualization skills, which will publish on October 3, 2012 at this address: andrewbwatt.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/revisiting-the-watch...
I asked to see my future mate.
Lit a candle sat and wait.
Before my eyes a spectre received.
Handsome and bold.
Keanu Reeves?
The Thunder Priests make up the bulk of Sei Rai Ryu's (roughly "Holy Lightning Dragon") army, and prefer to attack from a distance using powerful lightning magic (red dice), though many specialize in producing magical barriers (blue dice) or sometimes scrying (yellow dice).
Okay, so there's a little bit of story here. Several weeks ago, I was lying in bed with a stomach virus, trying to think about anything other than what I felt sure was my pending death, when my brain settled into visualizing some improvements to my Tengu Frame. Fever dreams and problem solving interact in strange ways, and by the time I realized that I was actually going to survive I had a whole series of fantasy/dragon themed frames rolling around in my head. This is the first one that I'm satisfied with. You can probably tell, but it's basically a modified version of the 3Wt-R. I'll be honest: for me, this build is all about the hat. ^^
Made for Brickscalibur's Magical Minifigures category.
Magic is wonderful, powerful, freeing. Any world inhabited by those who can wield the Great Powers is one of countless miracles big and small. Unfortunately magic is also dangerous. I do not mean those who would shape reality to be petty poisoners, thieves, supernatural confidence men. Magic's fundamental nature is one that distorts and rewrites reality to the user's whim, it comes with unique costs and dangers, and many of them are unknown even to those who use it regularly.
Any crystal sphere worth its salt will, of course, study and regulate the use of magic within its bounds, or else it risks accumulating endless tiny scars of improperly devised readings and ill-conceived rituals until it collapses and becomes another dark star ruled by the Absurd God of the Unreal Plane.
Preventing this end was the foundation of The Library of Forbidden Words. Its scholars and warriors tirelessly pursue the High Magics and those who would abuse them.
The Ordo Ex Libris, the martial order of wizarding knights supplies the garrison and rangers of the Library. Middling sorcerers typically fall into their ranks, challenging the dangers of the world by disciplining their body as well as their mind.
Fig. 1 Shows a Summoner of the Unreal, probably a minor wizard corrupted by incorrect and unprotected use of magic who has been replaced by a nightmare from the Unreal Planes. It is accompanied by typical minions, a Void Parasite attached to an unlucky peasant, a Polyp, and a less common Dark Jester. The Summoner has penetrated the tomb of some forgotten magus in search of artefacts of power, but has been intercepted by a team of questing knights bent on its destruction.
The Custodial Order of the Hammer and Torch is a confraternity primarily staffed by mundanes- those who cannot use magic or make mana. These are hopeful but luckless students who fail to enroll in the Academy, but still find purpose in serving the Library.
Fig. 2 shows a working chamber of the Custodians in charge of processing the questing knight's latest haul. Heavy leaded armor and trunks protect them from the uncatalogued magics brought in from the field while the Veiled Lady (center) preforms and augury to determine if the item is safe to bring into the Library proper. Custodians stand at ready to destroy the figure with the iconic hammer and torch, while a phoenix trainer burns magical refuse unsuitable for further handling.
The Academy of Wizarding Sciences is the heart and purpose of the Library. These are high functioning wizards capable of channeling the mana required for advanced magics. They examine items brought in by the Ordo Ex Libris, conduct theoretical research into the magical arts, and produce the spells and weapons that arm the Library's expeditions. (And of course, they maintain the actual catalogue of books.)
Fig 3. shows a few scenes from around their campus. Left to right, a professor examines the corpse of a dark jester (fig.1) while a magical automaton (a "teacher's pet") takes notes. A understudy summons Ramiel, the Keeper of Secrets, from a higher plane to discuss the item with his master. The Archivist is out for a walk. A custodian manages an accident in a study hall.
The Sisterhood of the Sightless is the fourth and final group inhabiting the Library. Their sisterhood pre-dates the establishment of the Library proper, inhabiting a small abbey that would go on to be expanded and fortified to the current structure. The Sisterhood maintains a secretive vault containing artefacts, writings, and even prisoners too powerful or valuable to be destroyed after the Academy has finished its work. To this end, they swear an oath of sightlessness, and wear ceramic masques that block their vision so that they may never know what they have placed within the vault except for the number and location listed in a braille catalogue they maintain.
Fig. 4 shows the Abbess and a sister preparing to enter the vault with the item. The Abbess carries the key that will force the Gatekeeper to permit their entry, as well as a magical anti-lantern that obscures their movements to outside eyes and scrying magics. Also notable are the ornamented wrought iron golems that flank the halls in this area, who serve as both servants and guards to the sisters.
The Fireplace complete with Mantle Decor: Crystal Ball, Pendulum, Incense burner, Goddess Statue, Ouji/Spirit Board.
That's not a painting of koi, it's a window into the koi dimension, like a scrying mirror.
I find I want to make collages of the same sorts of things I draw - simple landscapes, rooms, nature scenes with roads or streams.
I had fun making this one, though I'm seriously wishing for a more elaborate palette of Japanese paper! I love this stuff.
I wish my house really had such nice wallpaper. Well, I also wish that it was sparkly green and silvery outside, but who doesn't??
On the subject of running shoes, is there an ME associated with the brand REEBOK?
Looking through Reddit, there appears to be a myriad of people claiming to remember variations on the spelling of REEBOK... Some remember REBOK, and appear to be genuinely surprised to discover the addition of an "E". Still others claim to remember, REEBOCK, some REEBOX, and improbably REEBOOK and REBOOK get mentioned too! Their numbers are smaller than conventional MEs, so it's easier for skeptics to dismiss these memories, but is there any weight to these claims?
Conducting some research, I was surprised at the amount of residue in the various streams. Each query calls up thousands of matches that start to paint a persistent image... is this all spelling errors? Perhaps in some cases, but many articles and adverts repeat words, so it's obvious something like REEBOCK is being used intentionally.
Allow me to indulge in some speculative scrying. Many wonder how many different timelines are interacting with our own. The more I research the phenomenon, the more soupy it feels. It's almost as though there are onion layers of "homily dimensions"; with spelling variations revolving around similar phonetics. I wonder if they get increasingly distorted the further they move away from the original source, like ripples in a pond.
Presenting just a handful of images I stumbled across in the newspaper archives, but for the curious of mind, it does provide some food for thought!
Mire Of Whispers
a scrying circle?
Visit this location at Mire of Whispers ~ Sponsored by Petrichor in Second Life
True story: We arrived at the Mount Shasta City KOA (campground) exhausted from the long drive from Seattle through rain and fog. We rented their deluxe cabin which had a shower bath. At 11pm I got up to use the bathroom and was astonished to see in the furry brown floormat a precise image of a woman's face. She was wearing 1840s style womens' clothing--a bonnet and ruffled lace collar that came down in ribbons. Her face though looked a bit like a mummy's in that the skin was shrunken. I immediately wondered if she had come during the Gold Rush and died a sad death and was trying to get my attention. My brother-in-law had taken a shower earlier and I presume the indentations were where his wet feet had stepped. At 1 am I decided I should try to photograph the face. But then I saw nothing. I took photos anyway. They turned out in some cases mysteriously blurry. I have turned two of those into abstract art pieces through color and exposure options. The others I put forth so others may scry as I have done. I did see a face in one but it now looked masculine and not nearly so precise as the phantom Gold Rush woman.
See:
theoraclestar.com/2010/08/mt-shasta-history/
www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/shasta.html
www.uvm.edu/landscape/dating/clothing_and_hair/1870s_clot...
Halloween,[a] also known as All Hallows' Eve,[9] or All Saints' Eve,[10] is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide,[11] the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[3][12][13][14] In popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural.[15]
One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.[16][17][18][19] Some theories go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallows' Day, along with its eve, by the Church.[20][1] Other academics say Halloween began independently as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallows' Day.[21][22][23][24] Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,[25][26] and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.[15][27]
Popular activities during Halloween include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling frightening stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.[28] Some Christians practice the observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead,[29][30][31] although it is a secular celebration for others.[32][33][34] Historically, some Christians abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.[35][36][37][38]
Etymology
Look up Halloween in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The word Halloween or Hallowe'en comes from the Lowland Scots form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day):[39] even is the Scots term for 'eve' or 'evening',[40] and is contracted to e'en or een;[41] so (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Halloween. A term equivalent to 'All Hallows Eve' as attested in Old English.[42] Thus, the name has an origin in Christianity,[43][44] and means 'Saints' eve(ning)'.[45]
History
Christian origins and historical customs
Halloween is influenced by Christian beliefs and practices.[46][22] The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November.[47] Since the time of the early Church,[48] major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows.[49][46] These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide, a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven.
After the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, "there were more martyrs than there were days in the year, and so one day was set apart in honor of them all, and called All Saints' Day."[50] Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.[51] In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on that date in 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs".[52] This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead, when it was believed that restless and vengeful souls wandered.[53] Some academics also suggest the ancient Roman festival of Parentalia (including Feralia) influenced All Saints' and All Souls' days.[54][55] Parentalia involved a commemorative meal at the graves of relatives, during which food and drink were offered to the dead. Christian Romans continued this custom, and extended it to the saints and martyrs.[56][57] Lighted lamps were also set on the graves.[58]
There is evidence that by 800, churches in Ireland[59] and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November.[60] In 835, the Frankish Empire officially adopted 1 November as the date of All Saints' Day.[60] This may have been promoted by Alcuin of Northumbria, who was a member of Charlemagne's court,[61] or by the Irish clerics and scholars who were also members of the Frankish court.[62] Some suggest the date was due to Celtic influence; others, that it was a Germanic idea,[60] although it is said that both Germanic- and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.[63] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of "dying" in nature.[60][63] It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.[64][46]
On All Hallows' Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones.[65] Top: Christians in Bangladesh lighting candles on the headstone of a relative. Bottom: Lutheran Christians praying and lighting candles in front of the central crucifix of a graveyard.
All Souls' Day, a feast commemorating all deceased Christians, became widespread in the 12th century.[66] Its date was fixed on 2 November, the day after All Saints' Day. By the end of the 12th century, they had become holy days of obligation requiring church attendance in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in Purgatory. It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls".[67]
The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls[68] has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.[69] The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century[70] and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.[71] Groups of poor people, often children, would go door to door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling".[70][72][73] Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat,[71] being laid on graves, or the "soulers" would act as their representatives.[74] As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as alms.[75] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).[76] While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of the dead;[77][78] later jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits.[79][80]
Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes".[81] In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.[82][83] Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.[84] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.[85] Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church decoration.[86] Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things".[87] The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties.[88][89][90][77]
In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated Purgatory as a "popish" doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in Purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallows' Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human beings".[91] For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined: "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits".[92] Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).[93] In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead;[47][94] but the Anglican Church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing.[95] Professor of medieval archaeology Mark Donnelly and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth".[96]
After 1605, Allhallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.[97] In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Allhallowtide customs. In 18th- and 19th-century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve and one person held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen'lay.[98] There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the lighting of "tindle" fires in Derbyshire.[99] Some suggested that these fires were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth".[100] In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed because they "were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and so curbing them would have been difficult.[25]
On All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,[101] Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called "soul lights",[102] that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes".[103] In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls' Day.[102]
In 19th century Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk,[71] or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls;[102] a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy.[104][102] In Salerno, until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives before leaving for church services.[104] In 19th century Bavaria, food was laid on graves to feed the souls of the dead.[102]
In 19th-century Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints" on All Hallows' Day, with "participants represented by realistic wax figures".[104] In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven.[104] In the same country, "parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night".[104]
In 19th-century Spain at Allhallowtide, there was a procession in the city of San Sebastián to the city cemetery, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollections of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy.[105] People in Spain continue to bake special pastries called "bones of the holy" (Spanish: huesos de santo) and set them on graves;[106] and at cemeteries in both Spain and France, as well as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all-night vigil.[107]
Gaelic folk influence
An early 20th-century Irish Halloween mask displayed at the Museum of Country Life in County Mayo, Ireland
Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have pagan roots.[108] Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".[109] The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain.[110]
Samhain is one of the "quarter days" in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November[111] in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.[112][113] A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany: a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.[114] Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century,[115] and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween.
Snap-Apple Night, or All-Hallow Eve, painted by Daniel Maclise in 1833, shows people feasting and playing divination games on Halloween in Ireland.[116]
Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.[117][118] It was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.[119][120] Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs".[121] They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings.[122][123] At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.[124][125][126] The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.[127] Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them.[128] The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures.[71] In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin".[129]
Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.[130] Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation, and others.[131] Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.[117] In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them.[115] It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter.[128][132][133] They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits.[79] In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes.[134] In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth".[135] Later, these bonfires "kept away the devil".[136]
A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Halloween turnip
A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Halloween turnip (swede, rutabaga) lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland[137]
From at least the 16th century,[138] the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.[139] This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to 'souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.[140] In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a láir bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune.[141] In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.[139] F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from the sacred bonfire.[138] In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.[139] In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed.[139]
Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers".[139] From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century.[139] Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces.[139] By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits,[139] or used to ward off evil spirits.[142][143] They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century,[139] as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns.[139]
Spread to North America
"Halloween Days", article from American newspaper, The Sunday Oregonian, 1916
Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All Hallows' Eve in their church calendars",[144][145] although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.[146] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.[25]
Decorated house in Weatherly, Pennsylvania
It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.[25] Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,[26][147] though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside".[148] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.[149] Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.[27][15][150]
Symbols
At Halloween, yards, public spaces, and some houses may be decorated with traditionally macabre symbols including skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs, headstones, and witches.
Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to frighten evil spirits.[78][151] There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern,[152] which in folklore is said to represent a "soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell":[153]
On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.[154]
In Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween,[155][156] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip.[155] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837[157] and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.[158]
"Halloween" (1785) by Scottish poet Robert Burns, recounts various legends of the holiday.
The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and Night of the Living Dead (1968).[159][160] Imagery of the skull, a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions;[161] skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.[162] Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.[163] One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween—"What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "bogles" (ghosts)[164]—influencing Robert Burns' "Halloween" (1785).[165] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.[166] Black cats, which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's traditional colors.[167]
Trick-or-treating and guising
Main article: Trick-or-treating
Trick-or-treaters in Sweden
Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy and other confections, or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "treat" is asking for a sweet treat while the word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.[69] The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling.[168] John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church."[169] These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.[170][171] Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,[172] involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence".[173]
Girl in a Halloween costume in 1928, Ontario, Canada, the same province where the Scottish Halloween custom of guising was first recorded in North America
In England, from the medieval period,[174] up until the 1930s,[175] people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,[94] going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends.[72] In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallows' Eve among children in rural areas.[28] People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.[28]
In Scotland and Ireland, guising—children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins—is a secular Halloween custom.[176] It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[156][177] In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the Halloween Party".[176] Author Nicholas Rogers cites an early example of guising in North America in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.[178]
American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US: The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America".[179] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".[180]
While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.[181] The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1917, in The Sault Daily Star, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.[182]
An automobile trunk at a trunk-or-treat event at St. John Lutheran Church and Early Learning Center in Darien, Illinois
The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating.[183] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934,[184] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.[185]
A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot.[106][186] In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme,[187] such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.[188] Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart".[189][190]
Costumes
Main article: Halloween costume
Halloween shop in Derry, Northern Ireland, selling masks
Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.[69] Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.
Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.[156] A Scottish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[177] In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as 'false faces',[43][191] a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween ... the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi' their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o' turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)".[43] Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s.[182][192]
Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori.[193][194]
The annual New York Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, is the world's largest Halloween parade, with millions of spectators annually.
"Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a fundraising program to support UNICEF,[69] a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.[195][196]
The yearly New York's Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.[197]
Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States.[198][199][200]
Pet costumes
According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumblebee in third place.[201]
Games and other activities
In this 1904 Halloween greeting card, divination is depicted: the young woman, looking into a mirror in a darkened room, hopes to catch a glimpse of her future husband.
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices.[202] In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain.[130] They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.[203] Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona.[69]
Children bobbing for apples at Hallowe'en
The following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland)[204] in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. Variants of dunking involve kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple, or embedding a coin in the apple which participants had to remove with their teeth. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. A similar game involved hanging an apple from a string with a coin embedded; the coin had to be removed without using hands. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round, and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth.[205]
Image from the Book of Hallowe'en (1919) showing several Halloween activities, such as nut roasting
Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.[206][207] Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match.[208][209] A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst.[210] Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror.[211] The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards[212] from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.[213][214][215][216] The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story "Clay" (1914).[217][218][219]
Barmbrack (showing ring found inside) at Halloween in 2020
In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.[220]
Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.[115] In Mexico, children create altars to invite the spirits of deceased children to return (angelitos).[221]
Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday.
Haunted attractions
Main article: Haunted attraction
Humorous tombstones in front of a house in California
Humorous display window in Historic 25th Street, Ogden, Utah
Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,[222] and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown.
The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered by steam.[223][224] The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection.
It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis.[225]
The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969.[226] Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm, which opened in 1973.[227] Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972.[228]
The first Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in 1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.[229] Other Jaycees followed suit with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March of Dimes copyrighted a "Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes" in 1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes haunted houses have persisted until today.[230]
On the evening of 11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight teenagers perished.[231] The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.[232][233] Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the stricter codes required of permanent attractions.[234][235][236]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks became a notable figure in the Halloween business. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott's Scary Farm experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America's obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.[237] The theme park haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.[238]
Food
Pumpkins for sale during Halloween
On All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.[239]
A candy apple
Candy corn
Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup or caramel, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.
At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.[240] While there is evidence of such incidents,[241] relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.[242]
One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking.[243] It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it.[243] It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. Halloween-themed foods are also produced by companies in the lead up to the night, for example Cadbury releasing Goo Heads (similar to Creme Eggs) in spooky wrapping.[244]
A Halloween cake decorated with ghosts, spider webs, skulls and long bones, and spiders. The cake is topped with a jack-o'-lantern.
Foods such as cakes will often be decorated with Halloween colors (typically black, orange, and purple) and motifs for parties and events. Popular themes include pumpkins, spiders, and body parts.[245][246][247]
List of foods associated with Halloween:
Barmbrack (Ireland)
Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)
Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)
Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)
Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)
Caramel apples
Caramel corn
Colcannon (Ireland; see below)
Sweets/candy/chocolate, often with novelty shapes like skulls, pumpkins, bats, etc.
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Roasted sweet corn
Soul cakes
Pumpkin pie
Christian observances
The Vigil of All Hallows is being celebrated at an Episcopal Christian church on Hallowe'en.
On Hallowe'en (All Hallows' Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve.[248] In Ireland, and among immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of abstinence, keeping All Hallows' Eve as a meat-free day and serving pancakes or colcannon instead.[249]
The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through a vigil. Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All Saints' Day with prayers and fasting.[250] This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;[251][252] an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom.[253][254] After the service, "suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as a visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Hallows' Day.[255][256] In England, Light Parties are organized by churches after worship services on Halloween with the focus on Jesus as the Light of the World.[257] In Finland, because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows' Eve to light votive candles there, they "are known as valomeri, or seas of light".[258]
Halloween Scripture Candy with gospel tract
Today, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions associated with All Hallows' Eve.[259][260] Some of these practices include praying, fasting and attending worship services.[1][4][5]
O LORD our God, increase, we pray thee, and multiply upon us the gifts of thy grace: that we, who do prevent the glorious festival of all thy Saints, may of thee be enabled joyfully to follow them in all virtuous and godly living. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. —Collect of the Vigil of All Saints, The Anglican Breviary[261]
Votive candles in the Halloween section of Walmart
Other Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows' Eve as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All Hallows' Eve or independently from it.[262] This is because Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows' Eve.[263] Often, "Harvest Festivals", "Hallelujah Night" or "Reformation Festivals" are held on All Hallows' Eve, in which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.[264] In addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe'en celebrations.[265] Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass out to children on this day.[266][267]
Belizean children dressed up as Biblical figures and Christian saints
Some Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs.[268] Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that."[269] The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on Halloween.[270] Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage.[271] Christian minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death".[272]
In the Catholic Church, Halloween's Christian connection is acknowledged, and Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools, such as in the United States,[273][274] while schools throughout Ireland also close for the Halloween break.[275][276] A few fundamentalist and evangelical churches use "Hell houses" and comic-style tracts in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.[277] Others consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead celebration.[278] Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians observe All Hallows' Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, the Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows' Eve, out of the pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.[279]
Analogous celebrations and perspectives
Judaism
Main article: Jews and Halloween
According to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism, Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in Gentile customs. Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense that prayers are said for both "martyrs and for one's own family".[280] Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from its Christian and Pagan origins.[281] Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said that "There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween", while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued against Jews' observing the holiday.[282] Purim has sometimes been compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes, especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.[283]
Islam
Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween, stating that "participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter, ... it is more sinful than congratulating the Christians for their prostration to the crucifix".[284] It has also been ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of its alleged pagan roots stating "Halloween is celebrated using a humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of death that influence humans".[285][286] Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an 'eid' and that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.[287]
Hinduism
Hindus remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony "to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest". It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.[288] The celebration of the Hindu festival Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.[289] Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have "begun to adversely affect our indigenous festivals".[290]
Neopaganism
There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,[291] some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween". Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating that it "trivializes Samhain",[292] and "avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters".[293] The Manitoban writes that "Wiccans don't officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31 Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan's day planner. Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain. Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don't try to historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a time to celebrate darkness and the dead – a possible reason why Samhain can be confused with Halloween celebrations."[291]
Did you ever wonder where wizards, witches, seers, and faeries took their crystal balls for repair?
Well, so did I.
I assumed there must be some wizards who had the ability and knowledge to fix them. So, I decided to create a cabinet owned by a wizard who repaired crystal and scrying balls should they lose their abilities, powers, energy, break, and etc.
One twelfth scale. Ideal for miniature dollhouses, dioramas, and room boxes.
Japanese artist Masumai Hirayama has made a "portable darkroom" that enables her to draw intuitively without direct visual feedback. In this way the atmosphere of a place can be recorded without interference from everyday consciousness.
=====
London Psychogeophysics Summit 2010
Dark Heart of Codeness .walk (pronounced as “dot-walk”)
Wilfried Houjebek wrote a geospatial algorithm in the “Brainfuck” programming language. After initialisation by a random coin toss the algorithm sends the user on a algorithmic tour. For historic reasons Wilfried chose the Royal Observatory as the starting point. From here our group was sent on a spiraling course towards Point Hill.
During the walk electromagnetic energies were recorded with an ELF receiver.
At Point Hill we planted undeveloped film sheets for thoughtographic experiments and hid measuring devices for logging high frequency energies. Also some intuitive drawings were made to record the atmosphere.
From there we went back to the center of London to interrogate the London Stone.
Sound recordings and map:
www.archive.org/details/Greenwich---Dark-Heart-Of-Codenes...
Thoughtography:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=934
Intuitive drawings:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=939
Psychogeophysics summit:
www.psychogeophysics.org/wiki/doku.php?id=summit:desc
Dark Heart of Codeness:
Japanese artist Masumai Hirayama has made a "portable darkroom" that enables her to draw intuitively without direct visual feedback. In this way the atmosphere of a place can be recorded without interference from everyday consciousness.
=====
London Psychogeophysics Summit 2010
Dark Heart of Codeness .walk (pronounced as “dot-walk”)
Wilfried Houjebek wrote a geospatial algorithm in the “Brainfuck” programming language. After initialisation by a random coin toss the algorithm sends the user on a algorithmic tour. For historic reasons Wilfried chose the Royal Observatory as the starting point. From here our group was sent on a spiraling course towards Point Hill.
During the walk electromagnetic energies were recorded with an ELF receiver.
At Point Hill we planted undeveloped film sheets for thoughtographic experiments and hid measuring devices for logging high frequency energies. Also some intuitive drawings were made to record the atmosphere.
From there we went back to the center of London to interrogate the London Stone.
Sound recordings and map:
www.archive.org/details/Greenwich---Dark-Heart-Of-Codenes...
Thoughtography:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=934
Intuitive drawings:
www.fotokatie.com/katier/?p=939
Psychogeophysics summit:
www.psychogeophysics.org/wiki/doku.php?id=summit:desc
Dark Heart of Codeness: