Enchanting

"On November Eve the dead are abroad, and dance with the fairies" p 118 Fairy and Folktales of Ireland. 

To me, this sounds lovely... yet, as long as the fairies are good ones. It also reminds me of what my grandmother told my cousin when her kitten disappeared; she told her to not be sad, because her kitten must be across the Bay having tea... We were also told that if we were not good, the gypsies would take us away. Lighthearted scaring when we were misbehaving was a familiar thing in my childhood. This reminds me of this time of year, Halloween, my favorite time of year!

Why we celebrate this time of year goes back 2,000 years ago to Ireland (and the present-day  United Kingdom and Northern France) inhabited by the Celts.The Celts, who fought naked, impaled their enemies' heads on their swords as they road naked into battle (as told to me by my uncle, and confirmed by my Irish History Encyclopedia) sacked Rome in 387-86 BC (p. 63 Charles Doherty, How The Celts Influenced Ireland; The Encyclopedia of Ireland, 2000). Evidence of Celtic culture,  the La Tene, can be found in Ireland dating back to the 3rd Century BC.

Pagan culture existed before the Celts in Ireland, yet the Celts get all the credit! (they were pretty intense as you can tell by the aforementioned nakedness and head impaling).

Celtic culture began to settle in Ireland. As the bountiful summer crops were harvested, and the once green plants began to hibernate as the months grew cooler and dimmer, the people of Ireland felt an end to the year. Soon, they too would hibernate. As months of longer nights and shorter days approached vines withered and dried up, all the land began to look dead. This seemed symbolic of human death and it was believed that during this time, the boundary between the living world and the dead/spiritual world became breached. October 31 was believed to be the mark of the time when the souls of those who had died could come back to the human world. An extra place would be set at the dinner table for passed loved ones and candles would be lit along the roads to help guide the spirits back to the spirit world.

During this time, the priests of the Celts, Druids, could make predictions for the coming year. Huge bonfires were lit, costumes made of animal heads and skins were worn, and offerings were burnt to ensure blessings for the new year. This harvest/prayer time was known as Samhain (sow-en), Summer's End. After the bonfires, the indoor hearth fires were re-lit with remnants of the bonfire to ensure blessings during the cold, dark months of Winter.

You may think the Celts heathens, un-Christian, yet, Celtic culture and the culture of Christianity intermingled, (as inextricably as a Celtic knot, hahaha) but, seriously, you can see an example of this in the Celtic Cross- the circle for the symbol of the Sun and the Cross, for Jesus, or Christianity.

In 1000 AD the Catholic Church moved their observance day, originally May 13, of the martyrs and saints to November 2 and sanctioned it All Soul's Day,(i guess they it thought sounded "chuch-ier" than Samhain.) The new observance day was also called All-hallowmass; the night before this day, November 1, was called All Hallow's Eve and eventually Halloween.


ORIGINS OF TRADITIONS:

costuming:  during Halloween, as days grew cold and dark sooner, it was believed that ghosts, some very bad, roamed the Earth. To avoid being recognized as a human, while traveling over the moors and through the woods, people would wear scary masks.

 trick-or-treating ancient, pagan practice was to leave food and wine out for roaming spirits in the time of Samhain. Later, this practice was replaced by the Church. In England, during All Soul's Day's parades, impoverished people would go around and beg for something to eat. They would be given little cakes called "soul cakes" in return for a promise that they would pray for their giver's passed relatives.

jack-o-lanterns: no Irish history would be complete without some drinking!  There was once a man called Stingy Jack who invited the Devil to come drink with him (the Devil is never very far when whiskey spirits are raised). Of course, Jack didn't get his name by paying for his drinks, so he dared the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use for their drinks. Once he did so, he put the coin in hos pocket next to a silver cross, preventing the Devil from turning himself back.  He made the Devil promise him that he would not bother him if he turned him back, nor take his soul if he died. The Devil promised and so Jack turned him back. A year later, Jack tricked the Devil again into climbing a tree for a piece of fruit. Once up there, Jack carved the sign of the Cross in the tree so that the Devil could not come down. Once he got the Devil to promise that he would not bother Jack for another ten years, though it seems Jack is bothering the Devil!, he let the Devil come down.
When Jack died, the Devil would not take his soul, for all the annoying trickery,  nor would God allow him into Heaven. So God sent Jack out into the darkness giving him only a burning lump of coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a hollowed out turnip for a lantern and then became known as Jack of the Lantern, or as the Irish say, Jack o' Lantern. The people of Ireland, Scotland and England carved scary faces into potatoes and turnips and placed in their windows to keep away Jack and all his tricks. God forgive 'em.

 www.History.com

"Be Good in the Woods"

I skipped my therapy session and went to my local arts district for Third Friday events; I confessed to my therapist when he called and I answered my phone not knowing or expecting it to be him. I know I should not have skipped, and I felt bad, but I want to feel inspired, and creative- explore the grey areas; I wanted to see art and craftsman(and woman)ship. All week I feel stifled, even though part of my job entails creating floral arrangements, I am part of a mass-market industry that does not allow for unique artistry.
I am trying therapy because during my treatment for alcoholism I learned that my way managing life got me into a rehab facility because I made my life unmanageable, so I should try doing what people who have their life together tell me to do.  But I feel they are trying to make things black and white for me when I live and think in grey. I know they think the grey areas cause addicts to use and they are trying to teach us that we can control our lives by simplifying it, but I don't think anything in life is simple... I  am glad I skipped, but I won't do it again.

Wandering downtown in the arts district, I am enchanted even by the little wildflowers in whimsical pots or in the grasses greeting me at each little shop. During my visit this week, I met a man who creates dragons from trees and pine cones. While walking with his granddaughter in the woods, she picked up a pine cone and said that it looked like armor. He agreed and was inspired, thinking of dragon scales. He said that when walking through the woods, the trees all have their own spirit; I connected with this idea, for I am greatly inspired by the shapes of trees. I was amazed at his creations. He peels away each scale from the cone and fixes it to a frame made out of wood and corn husks. He carves the teeth from pistachio shells! He made a large head of our fabled Jersey Devil. These dragons, grotesque enough to scare a young child, are fragile bits of nature that are often forgotten, thrown away- shells, pines cones and corn husks- are reassembled to create a mighty image of mystic lore that warn children to "be good in the woods" or they will get you! If you look in the woods you will find that there are some trees, a type of pine I think, that looks strikingly similar to  dragon scales; it could be just a limb, or a neck, of some woodland creature waiting!
I want to write more, but my headache is becoming more bothersome and I feel like my skin is crawling; I have had about 5 or 6 cups of tea! I must now try some relaxation and rest my eyes... after all, it is nearing 2am.

Russian Roulette

i remember sitting in English 102 at my local community college in 2005. We read a story, i cannot recall just now the author, about a man who day-dreamed about the days of knights and chivalry and sat in bars drinking to escape the modern world. i spoke up and said that i am a lot like the character since i often romanticize about past times. my professor said, "yes, but you're not sitting in bars lamenting about it." he should have said, "You're not sitting in bars lamenting YET."

i finally went to get serious help for my alcoholism. i am three weeks sober. i never had a problem admitting that i was an alcoholic; in fact, i felt emotionally free being an imbalanced, manic, drunken writer, misunderstood by the world and sought solace in a whiskey bottle. i liked the manic feeling whiskey gave me... in my early days of drinking. i was quick with a witty retort and males seemed to be taken back by how fast this little 5'2'', 103 pound girl gulping whiskey could put them in their place. I felt strong; for the first time i was not a meek little thing awkward and searching for the ease of expressing the words trapped in her head. i thought i was another Edgar Allen Poe,James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway... but, they wrote books, i just dreamed of writing books, drank and wandered in graveyards talking aloud while sipping whiskey, waiting for an epiphany that would cause me to race home and finish my novel and change the world. i have always felt a presence of something around me; i do not know exactly what it is, but it is a benevolent spirit. i feel it now as i type. i know if i speak, it hears me.

Every time i drank it was like playing Russian Roulette. i never knew for sure which drink would set me "off"- if i would loose control and go on a manic journey, both mentally and physically. i began to feel like a ghost haunting my own house, mourning someone i had loved and lost.

i did not start out this way. i had planned on being a published writer by 19. I planned to be a sober writer because i wanted it to be a pure, natural mind that emoted. I wanted to be unique in being a sober, profound writer. I began my novel at 18. I am now 26, a recovering alcoholic and still working on finishing my novel.

during my three weeks, away from home, following a regimented schedule, being forced to socialize while sober, i found that i am intelligent, witty and will stand up for myself. i learned i can still be tragic and dark and deep and wander around talking to Nature. i felt a peaceful connection with Nature, the trees especially. creative imagery became more vivid and i became more articulate when i spoke to the groups. I realized that i had stopped living. whiskey was my abusive lover. i isolated with it. i miss it. i don't want it to be sad without me because i know how it feels to be sad, alone and misunderstood.

Environmentally Friendly Winter Washing Tips

While it's tends to get too cold to haul your laundry out to the line to use the solar dryer, we must use our electric dryers to dry our clothes. Last year I read some clever tips to help save some energy... and money: (of course be sure your lint trap is cleaned out before these tips)

Use COLD water; 90% of the energy associated with doing laundry comes from heating up the water (www.realsimple.com)

~Dry heavier clothes, jeans (be sure to pull inside of pockets out to dry), sweaters, towels... separate from lighter clothes, blouses, lingerie. Add in a couple clean, dry bath towels. This will help absorb dampness and cut drying time almost in half. I tried it, it works pretty well!

If you do venture out to hang clothes in winter and they freeze; carry them in FLAT, don't crumple or fold, it can cause the fibers to break (Household Hints and Handy Tip; Reader's Digest Association; 1988)

The common liquid Fabric softener and dryer sheets are horrible for the environment; try Eco-friendly ones that are ok'd by the EPA such as:

Seventh Generation Free and Clear Fabric sheets

DETERGENTS ok'd by the EPA:

METHOD laundry detergent free of perfume and dyes

METHOD laundry detergent with smartclean technology

PUREX with Natural Cleaners (Dial Corporation)

CLOROX free and clear, lavender and original scent

m.epa.gov/tips

~If you have an old umbrella, remove the material, turn upside down; the skeleton of it makes a brilliant indoor drying rack (Household Hints and Handy Tips; Reader's Digest Association; 1988)

~Hairspray can remove stains; spray on stain, blot until the stain disapears and then wash (Joey Green's Magic Brands; Rodale 2001)

~Baking Soda boosts your laundry detergent's cleaning power; add about 1/2 a cup of it with your usual amount of detergent (Joey Green's Magic Brands)

~To help reduce dampness in closets or other storage areas hang a bundle (about 12 pieces) of chalk (Household Hints and Handy Tips; Reader's Digest Association 1988)

Slutty Halloween: Why Can't Women Just Wear Normal Fancy Dress?

Posted: 31/10/11 10:09 GMT

Lauren Bravo

I found something disturbing in The 99p Store last week. It isn't a radical statement, being a place that you can buy industrial-sized jars of pickled eggs for pocket change, but this was on a new level of consumer bafflement. It was a pair of tights, in the kids' Halloween section, with "bitch" emblazoned down the leg. Bitch. The KIDS section.

But while demonising our infants is a new worry to add to the Halloween list (we've been sending them out to beg sweets from strangers for ages, after all), it foreshadows the phenomenon adult humans face every year. I like to call it Slutty Halloween.

I think we were all vaguely aware of it gathering speed over the last decade, but it wasn't until 2004'sMean Girls put it into words that Slutty Halloween truly became a 'thing'. "In Girl World," explained Cady, "Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it."

In other words, somewhere between the Thrillervideo and Kitty Brucknell humping that dartboard on X Factor at the weekend, Halloween became the get-out-of-slutty-free card - a chance for nice, normal girls with a tasteful line in Uniqlo cardigans to crank their assets up to their chin and embrace their slaggy alter egos for a night. And what's wrong with that, really? Fancy dress has always been a chance for escapism - be it as a teary five-year-old inkeeper, or a hobbit in live action roleplay in a wood somewhere in Norfolk. If your heart's desire is to spend the night as a lascivious incarnation of Little Bo Peep, then by all means go for it. But watch where you put that crook, you'll have someone's eye out.

The problem, you see, isn't so much that Halloween offers the chance to dress slutty, but that recently it seems to have become the only option. It started small enough, with sexy she-devils, minxy vampires and the 'underwear with arbitrary animal ears' get-up so well illustrated in Mean Girls. But then (probably as all the fancy dress shops started selling out of red PVC), it spread. And lo, we were forced to sluttify every costume we could, just to keep up. Nuns, literary characters, historical figures - all now have to come with a side of knee-socks and pouting.

Dressing as the Honey Monster? Ah, but how can you make it SEXY Honey Monster? Add a pair of hotpants to your furry mask, there's a good girl. That's it, get your sugar puffs out...etc.

These days it's a brave move to pick a frumpy costume. For let's remember, after the office party and New Year's Eve, Halloween is one of the key pulling occasions of the year. And who's more likely to get some - the gung-ho lass in the historically-accurate Joan of Arc outfit, or the one dressed as a wayward Minnie Mouse?

Having sported my fair share of 'generic busty wench' outfits myself, I can sympathise with that. I can. But while we're sticking sequins onto our nethers with eyelash glue, are the men backcombing their chest hair and winching themselves into 'Sexy Jeremy Paxman' outfits? No. They're wearing a giant sleepysuit and looking darned comfy with it.

It's a part of the much wider question, continually plaguing us womenfolk - why can't we just wear normal clothes? Proper, functioning clothes, that cover us adequately and don't garrotte us in intimate areas. For the modern woman, day-to-day life can sometimes feel like a feeble battle against the landslide of booty-bearing, quasi-stripper expectations gradually falling in on our heads. Halloween is the epicentre of this. In Railway Children terms, it's when we'd be ripping up our red flannel petticoats and waving them frantically in front of the train. The Ladyflesh Express. Final destination: Nakedsville.

Also, Slutty Halloween encourages laziness. A basque and a bowtie do not a costume maketh. Buying a pre-prepared 'raunchy traffic warden' outfit off the internet is a cop out. I like to see a fancy dress that blood, sweat and a few dedicated charity shop dashes have gone into, ta. If you've not cut up a bedsheet and permanently stained a few towels, you've frankly not tried hard enough. And aside from all its implications of feminist doom, there's a very practical reason for forgoing Slutty Halloween: it's cold.

Halloween, we must remember, is at the end of October. And all the body glitter in the world isn't going to keep the chill out when you're at Old Street bus stop at 3am in your scanties, now, is it ladies?

Follow Lauren Bravo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LaurenBravo

He is right- even though he is technically a Wall Street fat cat!

Dear Wall Street, this is why the people are angry

By Josh BrownMarketplace Money, Friday, October 14, 2011

Listen to this Story

Josh Brown may be in the same group as the bankers and brokers that the Occupy movements are protesting against, but he's just as angry as the protestors are at his own industry.

'Occupy Wall Street' demonstrators protesting near Wall Street in New York. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

TESS VIGELAND: Inequity is arguably the main rallying cry of the Occupy movement. And on that score, the primary bogeymen are the nation's bankers, brokers and traders -- the so-called "one-percenters" who control about a third of the country's wealth.

Commentator Josh Brown is one of those one-percenters. He's an investment adviser at Fusion Analytics in Manhattan. If you think you know what his take on all this is going to be, here's his open letter to the banks that don't seem to get why people are mad.

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JOSH BROWN: In 2008, the American people were told that if they didn't bail out the banks, there way of life would never be the same. In no uncertain terms, our leaders told us anything short of saving these insolvent banks would result in a depression to the American public. We had to do it!

At our darkest hour we gave these banks every single thing they asked for. We allowed investment banks to borrow money at zero percent interest rate, directly from the Fed. We gave them taxpayer cash right onto their balance sheets. We allowed them to suspend account rules and pretend that the toxic sludge they were carrying was worth 100 cents on the dollar. Anything to stave off insolvency. We left thousands of executives in place at these firms. Nobody went to jail, not a single perp walk. I can't even think of a single example of someone being fired. People resigned with full benefits and pensions, as though it were a job well done.

The American taxpayer kicked in over a trillion dollars to help make all of this happen. But the banks didn't hold up their end of the bargain. The banks didn't seize this opportunity, this second chance to re-enter society as a constructive agent of commerce. Instead, they went back to business as usual. With $20 billion in bonuses paid during 2009. Another $20 billion in bonuses paid in 2010. And they did this with the profits they earned from zero percent interest rates that actually acted as a tax on the rest of the economy.

Instead of coming back and working with this economy to get back on its feet, they hired lobbyists by the dozen to fight tooth and nail against any efforts whatsoever to bring common sense regulation to the financial industry. Instead of coming back and working with the people, they hired an army of robosigners to process millions of foreclosures. In many cases, without even having the proper paperwork to evict the homeowners. Instead, the banks announced layoffs in the tens of thousands, so that executives at the top of the pile could maintain their outrageous levels of compensation.

We bailed out Wall Street to avoid Depression, but three years later, millions of Americans are in a living hell. This is why they're enraged, this why they're assembling, this is why they hate you. Why for the first time in 50 years, the people are coming out in the streets and they're saying, "Enough."

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VIGELAND: Josh Brown. He wrote a scathing blog post along these same lines earlier this week. You can also follow him on Twitter @reformedbroker. While you're at it -- follow me @radiotess.

FAR OUT!!!!

I was so excited to find that I have had similar ideas:

I have discovered the secrets of the Universe!... Creation is like musical vibrations coming together in a symphony…Hints of the works of God are discovered by mathematicians, astronomers and musicians. It is the formula God made us from on Earth… Who knows what is in far off other places! If we study the elements of Nature, we will be enlightened. We will not be God-like, no never… we are merely an idea behind the All Seeing Eyes of God. Behind God’s Eyes is the Cosmic Garden we call the Universe. Overcoming the darkness of our minds will enable us to defeat all obstacles reversing human progress-hatred, prejudice, hunger, poverty sickness, WAR -Death’s advocate- bringing out all the demons of mankind.

The second reason I wanted to share was because I recently heard on NPR about something that made me think time travel is possible, but not like how they write about and show on TV. The development of a new telescope that can "capture images of what the universe looked like just 400 million years after the Big Bang, " said NPR during an interview with Peter Stockman, leading the development of this telescope in Baltimore. Named The James Webb Telescope, after the second founder of NASA, the light it will collect is very faint, from stars that are more than 13 billion light years away.

"And a light year is about six trillion miles, so if you do the math it's a long, long way away," he says....

The NPR website said that The James Webb telescope will see about half a billion light years farther than the Hubble!

IMAGINE

www.npr.org