I did the above digital painting on Halloween night after a disappointing night with trick or treaters. We had a couple groups but it was mostly older kids and adults driving by in pickup trucks. Just really weird vibes the whole night.
Our whole street was off. A few years ago every house on the block was doing Halloween, this year maybe 3-4 houses total including ours. Not to mention the families have gotten older with not as many kids here. I don’t want to complain about what didn’t happen, just laying the scene for what I’m about to talk about next.
I’m a practicing witch and have been for several years. Halloween is my favorite day of the year, but as I get older I’m usually disappointed on that day after trying to make things happen. The fact is, part of my practice is talking to spirits and more importantly listening to what they have to say to me.
That happens year round. The veil doesn’t need to be thinned for me to hear them or vice versa. When we finished handing out Candy on Halloween night a couple nights ago, I came in and did this painting. I was both exhausted and frustrated, and I feel this art was channeled, a lot of my art is.
What I feel this was saying or trying to tell me is that life is both horrific and weirdly comical at the same time. Including my witchcraft practice. Lots of deep dark stuff at times communicating with things beyond our understanding and such. But its also rather absurd when you think about it and often we take ourselves way too seriously.
Also, I think it reveals to me I put way too much emphasis on one day. Going into the winter Holidays, things aren’t arent all candy canes and holly. Recently I was looking up some stuff about Christmas and winter in the past, and it was a pretty scary time.
Hundreds of years ago families didn’t even know if they would survive the winter, let alone celebrate it. Between extreme cold, disease and lack of food many would die before spring. It was truly a dark and scary time, which is where legends like Krampus began to pop up.
Winter nights are longer and even hear in Texas it gets colder and darker earlier. That’s just an example. In the spring and summer its brighter and hotter, but those things can bring about their own spookiness. The Vultures here that I love start to return and circle.
Maybe its hokey but I tend to find spiritual meaning in a lot of every day things and see them as signs of things to come or things I need to work on. But the simple fact is, Halloween is more of a mindset and internal way of life. I have some spooky decore in the form of dark art and taxidermy hanging up year around.
My own art is always dark and creepy, yet whimsical all year around. Even when I Christmas art, its usually dark and weird. I’m kind of rambling now, but just showing some examples. Halloween itself has become a highly comercialized holiday reliant on over consumption and nostalgia. I didn’t buy a single new Halloween decoration this year which I’m a little proud of myself for.
Even though we didn’t put them out, we found at least 3 tubs full of decor we never had a chance to go through. Facts is, most of us do not need that latest hot, new 12 food thing from Home Depot or Spirit Halloween.
Several years ago I got a 12 foot skeleton from Spirit Halloween right after they came out. The exercise in getting it was rather harrowing. They were highly underproduced that year, so in the online drop which had gotten messed up they initially sold out.
I managed to get one when I logged on at 3 am out of chance and it was a pre order. When I went to pick it up in September, even though I had already paid for it, they tried to tell me it was sold.
I remember getting really angry and insisted on talking to a manager, then the guy came back and said he found it in back. MInd you this is a 3 ft by 3ft box with my name on it. My theory is these things were selling for 3x the price on ebay, that the employee was going to buy it out from under me and try to sell it.
I was happy I was able to finally get it, but also didn’t feel good about all the anger and negative energy I had to expel to get a giant Halloween decoration. But that is what this consumerism does to us. It takes us away from the spiritual side of things, and makes us feel ugly emotions over giant pieces of plastic.
I’m trying to do better about things, and feel I’ve done much better over the years. We had the skeleton standing up for 2 or 3 years straight, until a big windstorm hit. His base snapped and down he went. We still have his bones in the back we use to decorate at times, but I never wanted to replace it.
Maybe with Halloween less really is more. Halloween being a spiritual night, its something you feel and experience, its not the sum of the decorations you put out. I guess its like the Christmas spirit, but the Halloween Spirit.
I’m writing this on November 2nd at about 3am after I couldn’t sleep. I usually wake up in the middle of the night and this is when I do my most effective writing. Once again, I don’t usually blog with a plan or outline. I just go and my subconcious or spirits or something works through me to get the words down.
I suppose that alone could be considered spooky. That’s another thing I forgot to mention. I’m so used to spooky things when I wear some of my darker shirts or mention these things out in the wild, normies are generally freaked out. This community is heavily catholic and scared of a lot of things scary. They call them demonic or Satanic. When I sold tarot cards at shows, people would completely freak out at my table at times with the mere site of a ouija board or some card imagery.
So, I try to be careful who I talk about this stuff with or how much I show in person. Though I’ve been told I dress like a 19th century occultist at times. But its usually dark clothing, a hat and a cane, not anything wildly overt. But it definitely has its own vibe.
That is the thing, find your spooky vibe and share it year round. It doesn’t need to be halloween for you to wear black or dark colors or a fascinating makeup look or strange hat. Just some of my musings this morning. The Spirits don’t go away on November 1st. They are always here and litening. The veil may thin on Halloween, but doesn’t turn into a wall the day after.
So, spooky season hasn’t ended, just the commercial part of it has. Find your spooky vibe and express it daily, year round and don’t let any calender or corporate institituions tell you when to be spooky or how to dress. They hate non-conformists and I’m not sure if there is much that is spookier to normies than that. I hope whatever you chose to express over the next few months, that it brings you much fullfillment and happiness!
Leave a Reply