Friends List Quiz Updates

The Masonic Quaker reports that he is a Hoosier, not by birthright, but by conviction.
The hauntress of Philadelphia has changed her icon, alas.
The two bearded Westchester gents remain unidentified.
So do the two Byzanrtines from opposite coasts.

I will be posting some links later on.

Hallowe'en is in the Air

And the little world of LiveJournal is all aflutter. What must we do to keep the holiday aright, so that we don't wake up on All Hallows day with the aching disappointment that those Good Kids are prone to feel on December 26?

For one thing we can keep our decorations up, at least indoors, through the full moon of Scorpio on November 9 up to the new moon on the 23rd. (Yes, I know, the full moon is not in Scorpio, but opposite the sun, which is in Scorpio, or at least where Scorpio used to be a couple of thousand years ago. Gimme a break.)

But how do we handle the religious objectors, I mean the Pagans? You know, the ones who talk about "Samhain" and pronounce it sahween or even sahm. The ones the badass dudes call fuzzybunnies. The ones I identify with -- every other day of the year. Now give me a break from sweetness and light.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Dark Side. And now is the time to embrace it. Without losing the rest of us. If you can't see your shadow you're not walking in the light. If you do not put on for a time the mask of the shadow you will never know what you are -- or control what you do.

I saw two thousand lives destroyed by men blinded by the light, who could not acknowledge their shadow side, who projected it outward on to us. I walked home on September 11 resolved to keep November Eve.

And if you don't have a yard to turn into a haunt, or your mate doesn't like to dress up, well, after all, it's the spirit that counts. Read some M. R. James or J. S. LeFanu. Even Bram Stoker will do in a pinch. Walk around Halowe'en Adventure on Third Avenue and think of all the stuff that you would buy if you had a use for it. Buy it anyway. (Just kidding. Buy one thing, maybe a set of teeth to wear to the university. Especially if you are the Chancellor.)

What will I be doing at the end of the month? I have the annual occult night at Greater New York Mensa on Thursday, and a party at the home of an LJ friend on Saturday, and to the latter my spouse is committed as well. Friday is still free. Shall I do the parade for the first time since I moved into town in (can it really be) 1970?

What shall I wear? Straightening up the apartment I found one of those pumpkin suits with the big old grins. I thought that might do nicely with a revolting enough mask. (I also have the black sheet I bought from the sale bin at Century Twentyone.) And I saw a rather nice over the head gas mask which I ordered because every New Yorker needs one anyway. (Two years ago my doctor bought a gas mask on the street for two hundred dollars in cash, but sounded rather sheepish about it. I guess he doesn't do Hallowe'en. And it looked rather pedestrian.)

Stay spooky, people. And to all the professional and semiprofessional haunters on the list, be a little extra spooky for me!

La Festa dell’ Ombra

weret_hekau has posted something quite lovely here on the deeper meaning of the season, and I am pleased to call it to your attention. Her tradition represents something more central and substantial than the more oh so gentle strands of Wicca and the more depressingly grim sides of Asatru, and I am glad to be reminded of it. I am especially pleased to note a fellow Philadelphian (not a Quaker), the late Charles Godfrey Leland, as revealing it to the modern world.