An All Hallows Party

An All Hallows Party

Monday, October 7, 2019

Hey-ho for Halloween! 

All the witches to be seen, 

Some in black, and some in green, 

Hey-ho for Halloween

The Hallows Folklore Herbal...

Apples

Most of the Halloween love charms in our folkloric collections like that of the Journal of American Folklore, Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, Green Collection, Frank C. Brown Collection, Duncan Emrich, Ruth E. Kelly, C. L Daniels Collection and B.A Botkin Collection reference apples as the core fortune-game of the season (the same being true for May's Eve, and to a lesser extent, Midsummer and New Years).  Apples were split, bobbed for, counted, hung from doors, skinned and sectioned all for the chance to see a future, see a spirit, see a lover...

Pumpkin

The great Hallows fruit of the new world, pumpkins are the customary symbol of America's Halloween and its primary function for the day is decoration (jack-o-lanterns), food (flesh and seeds) and storage (of nuts, apples, candies, and brews).  A tasty dish and a fun bit of decor; these can be used for several different divination games.

Turnip

Traditionally, jack-o-lanterns had been carved from turnips in Ireland, however, when the custom came to America, pumpkins would quickly replace turnips as a staple symbol of the season as they were far easier to carve, decorate with scary faces and illuminate. 

Cabbage

In the folklore of the South, especially in places like Missouri and Tennessee, there are Halloween charms pertaining to the obtaining of a cabbage, taken especially on Halloween from a nearby garden, in stealth and either blindfolded or walking backward or both.  The stock would determine, by its length and shape, the qualities of one's future mate. In other folklore of Western European origin, is the cooking of the cabbage which has charms hidden within for partiers to foretell their future-- this was also done with mashed potatoes.

Nuts

Nut charms accompany apple games at Hallows eve; inscribed nuts would be cast in the fire, and the first to pop would tell the future.  These nuts are referenced as hazelnuts and chestnuts most often.

Evening Hymnal...

There Was An Old Witch

*Traditional Halloween Folk  Song*

There was an old witch 

Believe it if you can

She tapped on the windows 

And she ran, ran, ran

She ran helter-skelter 

With her toes in the air,

Cornstalks were flying 

From the old witch's hair.

Swish goes the broomstick

Meow goes the cat,

Plop goes the hop-toad

Sitting on her hat.

"Whee!" chuckled I,

What fun, what fun!

Halloween night 

When the old witch runs.

Opener: Dumb Supper

Set the table with the materials all backward (forks and spoons and glassware on opposite sides, courses served in reverse, etc); let there be chairs and settings left for the spirits and black candles.  The supper doesn't have to be an entire meal, it can be a small portion of it or a single dish (we're only eating a slice of pie, eating the actual dinner food later). This year, our menu is apple pie (apples, an Old World fruit, being the traditional symbolic Halloween food along with pumpkins- the New World's Halloween contribution), pumpkin pie (featured above), cooked cabbage (stolen at midnight from the garden), mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes and peas are each utilized for divinations and fortunes at Allhallows) and cider.  

Blow out the black candles to end the Supper-- one is supposed to use this moment of darkness to divine the face of a spirit in the empty chairs at the table, or in the reflection of the plates on the table.  Turn on the lights and music!

First Game: Pumpkin-Water Divination

Gather round a bowl of water (traditionally a pure white one but I find a hollowed pumpkin more fun) and fill it with the letters of the Alphabet.  Each take a turn, blindfolded, pulling out the first letter of their future lover's name saying an old charm:

"Kind fortune tell me where he is,

who my future lord shall be;

from this bowl all that I claim

is to know my lover's name.”

Alternately, you could forego the water and carve the letters on the flesh of the pumpkin as detailed by Ruth Edna Kelly in The Book of Halloween published in the early 20th century.  A blind-folded participant would use a pin to locate the initial of her love-to-be in a sort of Pin the Tail on the Donkey style game. 

Second: Apple Fortune

Gather your party around the table set with apples at every seat (apples that have been bobbed for are best).  Spear the apples with silver forks or prongs and dip in caramel! The seeds collected during the slicing process can be used in counting-out charms.

"One, I Love; two, I love; three, I love, I say,

Four, I love with all my heart; five, I cast away.

Six, he loves; seven, she loves,

Eight, they both love.

Nine, he comes; ten, he tarries,

Eleven, he courts; twelve, he marries.

Thirteen, honor, fourteen, riches;

All the rest are little witches!"

Third Game: Twelve Candle Leap

Light twelve candles and place a safe distance apart on a hard floor (this is probably best done outside but with the right sized candle (tealight, votive) and proper holders (as well as no loose clothing) it can be done indoors on hardwood or cement flooring.  In the old days, this charm was used to foretell the wedding month of the participant depending on whether or not the candle blew out or remained lit. I've adapted the charm for my own purposes; each participant stands before a tealight candle on the floor and jumps over a candle asking a yes/no question; everyone jumps at the same time and whoever's candle blows out will indicate a no.

Closer: Mirrors in the Dark

Darken the room and perform any number of mirror charms; this must specifically be done at midnight and preferably during a full moon.  Friends can sit around and in silence, count out a rhyme (this used to be done with apple slices, or with comb-strokes through the hair) to the number nine, or, to when the clock strikes midnight and, just as in the Bloody Mary games of our childhood parties, a spirit is supposed to appear in the mirror-- only not an entity, but a portent of one's future lover.

Additional Traditional Activities: scary stories, seances, shadow puppetry, candy devouring, mischief of all kinds!

Party Packs: Candy, pumpkin seeds, apple seeds (for counting), nuts for fire fortune-games, orange, black, yellow and/or white candles, placed inside a small pumpkin, hollowed out and ready for decorating! Also, you could bake some small cakes with a single charm inside for partiers to fortune game with, or, bake little soul-cakes for family and friends who come to visit.

This year, our party packs are pumpkin seeds, rock candy sugar, and acorns for fire-fortunes in a take-home mini-pumpkin.

 Witchy Movie Playlist for Hallows Eve:

The VVitch
The Love Witch
Suspiria (2018)

You Won't Be Alone

The Craft

Gretel and Hansel

The Witches

Sleepy Hollow
Death Becomes Her

Hocus Pocus
Addams Family Values

Halloweentown

Kiki's Delivery Service

Music Playlist for Hallows Eve:

Season of the Witch- Donovan

Gingerbread Coffin- Rasputina
Black Magic Woman- Santana
Sick Child- Siouxsie and the Banshees
You're A Wolf- Seawolf
Under Your Spell- Timber Timbre

Terrible Thing- AG
Toes- Glass Animals
Get Ur Freak On- Missy Elliot

Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See- Busta Rhymes
Luv 2 Luv U- Timbaland & Magoo
Feed My Frankenstein- Alice Cooper
Devil Inside- INXS
I Put a Spell on You- Screamin' Jay Hawkins
The Monster Mash- Bobby Pickett

Fill one bowl with water, one with dirt and one with rings.  Blindfold your party guest and shuffle the bowls.  let them, choose their bowl.  A person who chooses water will marry a traveler, a person who picks dirt will be dirt-poor when wed (or be first in the marriage to their grave), and a person who picks the ring bowl will be rich when wed.

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Heart of Wax

Heart of Wax

Sunday, October 6, 2019

“Make a little wax figure, put some of his hair, paring of his nails and any small possession of his in the was and burn it.  This is a death charm.”- FCB, Green Collection, (5549)

"To cause the death of an enemy, mould a heart of wax and stick pins in it till it breaks. Another charm is to hold the waxen heart before a slow fire.  As it melts, the life of the enemy will depart."

- C.L Daniels, Encyclopædia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World

*gossip nails in last photo provided by Troll Cunning Forge!*

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Drink Lots of Whiskey

Drink Lots of Whiskey

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

whiskey, rock sugar, cherry bark

I feed my ancestors whiskey.  I come from a whiskey family. Yes, there's rampant intergenerational alcoholism but there's also a culture of appreciation among us all for the spirits you drink and the spirits you venerate, and as it turns out the spirit of choice to feed the spirits in our family is whiskey.  I think it originated as some nod or ode to our Southern roots; to our swamp ancestors who distilled themselves some crazy moonshine. Maybe my mom just knew her damn magic; where whiskey, rum, camphor, and cigarettes are common offerings. Whiskey is my libation of choice where the spirits are concerned and in the making of my favorite kinds of love potions and medicines.  Whiskey could defeat cannibals and cure ills, bring back lovers and warm your chills.

This is what you need to appreciate about whiskey medicine magic:

It is old folk medicine popular in the States and this medicine could be used inside and out for the oddest reasons. "Large quantities of whiskey are commonly "prescribed" for snakebite among both Mexican and Anglo Americans, often to be both drunk and applied to the wound." (Bourke, Curtin, Hand)-  Beatrice A. Roeder, Chicano folk medicine from Los Angeles, California

It was used in American folk medicine to treat these conditions;  the chills; "Cherry bark and poplar bark and whiskey are used to break chills.” (Illinois), childbirth (whiskey and cloves are said to ease the pain of childbirth in some oral accounts of African American folklore reported by Federal Writers Project. It was also reportedly used in the treatment of cramps; "Mixed with whiskey and rock candy, may-apple and hickory relieved cramps and colds."-Wilbur Watson, Black Folk Medicine: The Therapeutic Significance of Faith and Trust

Colds; "Whiskey camphre is a well-known medication considered beneficial, not only for a cold but also for other ailments.  It is prepared in the following way; "Buy camphre, crush it pour whiskey over it, keep the liquid in a bottle. It is... good to drink a little spoon of it for all sorts of ailments."-Wayland D. Hand, American Folk Medicine: A Symposium.

Snake bites and colic; "Take a half a gill of good rye whiskey, and a pipe full of tobacco; put the whiskey in a bottle, then smoke the tobacco and blow the smoke into the bottle, shake it up well and drink it."- J. G Hoffman, The Long lost Friend (1820) and to treat toothaches- something many of us were treated with on occasion as children and was once a medically prescribed mouthwash for toothaches.

It is used in American folk medicine today to treat these conditions: depression, happiness, sobriety, divorce, bad days, nagging spouses, longevity.

It is used as an offering to the spirits of your ancestors in hoodoo traditions: "Similarly, African slaves "fed" offerings of whiskey, camphor, and corn liquor to their charms in order to vitalize them."-Yvonne P. Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition.  Catherine Yronwode in Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic classified whiskey as a sacred substance meant to pay for debts to the spirits, extract herbal essences or 'capture' a lover. 

The Tennessee Folklore Society reports it was used in the production of medicinal liquors; "plant juice combined with rock candy and whiskey to make bitters or cordials"

         

Whiskey in the Frank C. Brown Collection

* Red Dogwood made into tea with whiskey to keep cold away- (FCB: 1117)

* Cherry bark soaked in whiskey makes a spring tonic. (FCB)
* For a tonic boil the bark of the cherry tree in water. Add a few nails and a little whiskey, strain the mixture and drink (FCB: 1073, p.146)

* For chills use rock candy, cherry bark and whiskey- (FCB: 1076, p. 147)

These having been reported from all over; New York, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, North and South Carolina and more.  A recurrent theme in the folklore collected from all over the country and from various collections that are the basis for Brown's work appears to be the treatment of whiskey for medicinal purposes when mixed with a particular set of herbs.  That is to say, nowhere do I see it recommended to mix whiskey with any old medicinal herb or tonic- rather whiskey has some chosen companions.

Whiskey, Cherry Bark and Rock Candy

It would appear that cherry bark and rock candy are the companions of whiskey medicine, and that whiskey mixed with herbal teas is a long-loved medicine of the common folk and is more steeped into our *collective intergenerational alcoholism*, and, folk medicine.  It's rather cure-all but in relation to rock candy and a healing plant matter, it appears to have been a vehicle for great healing. Having tried every recipe worth it's salt, I have to say, getting drunk on sugar whiskey cures any pain that ails except obesity and liver failure...

  

Snakebite? Drink Lots of Whiskey

"Drink all the whiskey you can, the more the better." FCB:NCFL

It can cure snakebites by killing you of alcohol poisoning before you can succumb to the venom. Am I to understand that my dear sweet ancestors thought that "drinking whiskey until you are drunk" is the cure for snake bites?  Drink all the whiskey I can hold?  Really Grandma? Good lord if the snake don't getcha the liver failure will...

Today

"Widely used in American folk medicine, whiskey also plays a role in contemporary American folk magic. A piece of agar (a type of seaweed) is put into a jar of whiskey and allowed to soak. This is done to attract "good spirits". Toadstools are also soaked in whiskey, and the stem is used to rub the bodies of those thought to be hexed."- Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen

Pouring some out for a fallen friend, knocking back a shot at the bar with your mates over a fond memory, covertly passing a flask for a swig at a family funeral,  raising your glass to the dead when they're mentioned at the dinner table... that is some wonderfully Western shit because it must have come from all over the world, and the world makes us, US.

I make some of my best potions with whiskey; its sweetness blends with so much, it packs a punch and warms the body.  It was once a standard part of medical supplies in the great wars and it represents one of many of the incredible gifts of our Scottish and Irish ancestors as it blended with Afro-American folk magical practice.  America has always been great, because whiskey.  This day I honor my ancestors who brought the whiskey arts to the new world; I tip my glass to you today, grandma.  Bottoms up.

"Thank you, Jack Daniels; Old Number Seven,

Tennessee whiskey got me drinking in heaven and oh,

angels start to look good to me,

they're gonna have to deport me to the fiery deep!"

-Devil Makes Three

Resources...

American Folk Medicine: A Symposium by Wayland D. Hand

Frank C. Brown Collection

Black Folk Medicine: The Therapeutic Significance of Faith and Trust by Wilbur Watson

Chicano folk medicine from Los Angeles, California by Beatrice A. Roeder

Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition by Yvonne P. Chireau

The Long Lost Friend by J.G Hoffman

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Nine North American Traditions of Initiation

Nine North American Traditions of Initiation

Friday, July 26, 2019

How Were American Witches Initiated?

A common question that is often discussed, but not from the perspective of American witch tradition. According to our older literary collections of folklore in North America, how did our ancestors believe witches could be made?  African and European folk traditions were so paralleled and complimentary that they wound up reinforcing one another when they met here in the new world. Coupled with the introduction of Indigenous folk medicine and religious practices (which Europeans quickly equated with their own notions of devilish witchery and sorcery most foul), the personification of the American witch tradition was born, a synthesis between three clashing cultures with shared- and in some cases nearly identical- traditions of folk-magic and witch-lore. The traditional figure of the American witch across the board was a person with the abilities to; hex, heal, divine, shape-shift, send their spirits, commune with familiars and perform great acts of good or evil. This was done by poppet and lodestone, knotted cord and incantation, by silver bullet and black-cat bone, by casting lots and conjuring spirits. The folkloric witch in our country is herbalist and doctor, trickster and ecstatic outsider. They can be cunning folk or they can be brujas, they can be basket-women or owl-women or grannies or conjurers. The traditional American witch 'fixes tricks' and 'winds charms', tells love 'fortunes' or sets 'projects' and they are initiated into these arts in the most curious of ways depending on where they live, where their people are from...

The history behind the different methods of initiation into witchcraft is vast and varied, dependent on the region and culture and country you’re looking at.  However, witch-lore shares many cross-cultural parallels and commonalities, chief among them, the curious methods by which one could become a witch.  Becoming a witch can be as simple as eating a bug, or, as complex as a seven week-long ritual involving corn kernels.  Becoming a witch could be as simple as an announcement to the spirits, or as gruesome as the sacrificial boiling of a black cat. Though many of the methods detailed in folklore are nonsensical and not necessary, others are much easier and more tasteful to implement in the modern era.  However one comes by their witchcraft; the calling, the pact, the acceptance, and the gift remains a constant foundation. 

 The Devil, who is the most commonly referenced entity in this scenario is not alone responsible for the initiation of witches in all of the stories- rather, spirits, fairies, ghosts and familiars of all kinds were similarly appealed to in the exact same manner as the Devil, further illustrating the diversity of magical arrangements which can be made between the seeker and an entity with the power to bestow magic.  The collections of Northeastern, Midwestern, Southeastern and Southern folklore often reference the Devil yes, but they also reference unknown spirits described as fairy-women or handsome men-in-all-black, or 'familiars' with animal or fantasy form, or simply spirits, ancestors, ghosts or other manner of being like merfolk and 'imps', who were likely equated with the Devil due to sheer ignorance of traditional European, African and Indigenous spiritual systems. That is to say, the Devil is not solely the master of witches nor the only being capable of working with witches, so those who may find some issue with working with the folk Devil/Man-in-Black/Man-At-The-Crossroads of American witchcraft (a rather cheerful trickster deity compared to the Father-of-Evil feared by Christians), will find that there are other familiars and spirits who can be appealed to instead if so desired.   

While my cohorts and I have been working on fleshing out our emerging tradition of folkloric North American witchcraft (more on that later, very exciting), we’ve also been pouring over ritual models within New World witchcraft that address the traditions of initiation. In our research I came across some initiation methods that gave me the chuckles and chills; I've been thinking a lot about them ever since.

Some of these methods are probably the product of overactive Puritanical imaginations conflating the rituals observed in European-descended folk healers, African American conjury and Indigenous spiritual systems while others may be pure witch hysteria on the parts of Christians, but others are also referenced throughout the folklore of the Americas as very serious business; rituals recognized as having deep meaning and power in the superstitious mind. They are part of our American witchlore heritage and intrinsic to how we the people have come to see the witch as a symbol, as a character, and as a mystery. Scouring my collections of literary resources, I came across nine methods of initiation into witchcraft that tickled my fancy and may tickle yours too.

Nine Methods of Initiation

1. The Witch Bone

By obtaining a black cat bone through the means of sacrifice, one can become an initiate into witchcraft.  One is to boil the cat, burn or drown it alive. The bones are either boiled in a pot or cast into a gentle rushing river.  The bone that remains or floats is an indication of the initiation process and keeping this bone safe would grant one the abilities of a witch.  There can be no white hairs on this cat, and all the better if the cat was caught in a graveyard. Obtaining a mole paw by smothering, or rabbit bone or foot may also make one a witch, as well as the skeleton of a toad obtained in the correct manner. Related to this is the method of becoming a witch by obtaining the hand or little finger of a recently deceased corpse; "To obtain the power and secrets of witchcraft, it is necessary to visit a churchyard at midnight, and cut off the hand of a recently buried corpse."- C.L Daniels. For more on witch-bones, HERE.

2. Silver Bullet

Shooting a silver bullet through a handkerchief, or, shooting a silver bullet at the moon while renouncing one’s former religion is said to initiate Southern witches into the arts."In eastern Kentucky, one who desires to become a witch goes before sunrise to the summit of an adjacent mountain.  As soon as the sun begins to appear above the distant horizon, and as soon as the aspirant as hurled a trine anathema at Jehova, and owned the Devil as a master, she holds up a white handkerchief in front of it, shoots through the 'kerchief with a silver bullet, and blood drops from it.  The operation is then complete."- Journal of American Folklore. This same silver can be used to kill a witch as well.

3. A Conjure or Witching Stone or Stick

Finding or being gifted a smooth black stone, conjure stone or a lodestone which is then fed camphor, perfumes, rum, iron filings, metal shavings, and nails.  In exchange, this stone will provide one with mystical gifts, cunning capabilities; "To maintain its potency, they fed it needles, steel particles, and water every Friday.  If this duty was neglected the owner pined away and died, or if the stone was misplaced or stolen, he lost his mind and dried up into a skeleton." -Marc Simmons.   Other lore of the Southeastern lore tells of one becoming a witch by finding a black stick (possibly blackthorn or even hazel) that can grant one the abilities of a witch.

4. Jay Stump Corn

Offering Indian corn to the blue-jays for seven weeks around the hollowed stump of a tree filled with water, especially done on Fridays,  will petition the man-at-the-crossroads to teach you witching. When he arrives, you may renounce old religions and make a deal. For more information on becoming a witch by way of blue jay, HERE.

5. Washing Away Grace

To wash one’s hands at a river while renouncing old religion, or  “scouring a tin or pewter plate in some secret place, and giving himself to the Devil by saying, ‘I will be as clean of Jesus Christ as this dish is of dirt.’”- Tom P Cross, Witchcraft in North Carolina.  Associated with this is going to a river or spring and washing your hands of grace seven or nine times while offering your soul to that which will guide you, or, using a witch-bone, one cleans their hands “as free of grace as these hands are free of grease”.

6. Hilltop Renouncement

Going to a hilltop or a mountainside at sunrise or sunset (the rise and fall of the morning star) and renouncing all former spiritual ties and then offering your service to the-spirit-who-calls nine times is said to initiate witches in some Midwestern and Southern lore.  Sometimes a simple renouncement will do, otherwise, one must also shoot a bullet at the moon or wash their hands seven or nine times while making the renouncement.  Renouncement didn't always have to take place at a hilltop or mountainside, one could easily go to any crossroads, wagon road, graveyard or riverside, or under any witching tree and renounce; "The common willow used to be held as under the especial protection of the devil, and it was said that if you cast a knot on a young willow and then sat under it and renounced your baptism, the devil would confer upon you super-natural powers."- C.L Daniels, Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World

7. ‘All Between These Hands’

It is said if you go to a crossroads or graveyard or some other sacred space like a hillside or mountaintop and ask to speak with the Devil, he will place one hand over your head and one on your foot and proclaim all between his hands to be his; "To become a witch, the candidate goes with the Devil to the top of the highest hill at sunrise nine successive days and curses God.  The Devil then places one hand on the candidate's head and one on his feet, and receives the promise that all between his hands shall be devoted to his services."- The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore.   Similarly, stand in a sacred place or under a witching tree, draw a circle in the ground with your finger and kneel with your hands to the ground on either side of you (or, stand between two witching trees with your hands on either trunk) and proclaim nine times that ‘All that lies between these hands belongs to (the devil or otherwise)’ , or, as per my current ,  ‘All that lies between these hands; serves the spirits and these lands'.  One could also go to a wagon road and call to the Devil to “take me, ring and all!”.

8. Congress with the Devil

According to much of the witchlore of the Americas and likely derived from English lore is the method of obtaining ones initiation by going to the graveyard, a crossroads or a hillside at sunrise, sunset or midnight, nearest the full moon stripping naked and offering one’s body to a witch of the opposite sex, or, to the spirits, or, the Devil. This sexual union will result in the seeker becoming initiated into witchcraft.  This folklore is extensive, from New England to the Ozarks; a woman or man who engages in sexual relations with an entity who has the powers of witching may gain that power through the act of copulation. Sometimes a “black book” or some kind of infernal legal document is mentioned in trial transcripts, namely the appearance of a handsome and charming man-in-black who pricks the finger of the seeker and has them sign a pact in their blood (while nude). It is far more common to see folklore relating to sexual relations with spirits in exchange for power rather than the use of a book (given that illiteracy was the norm for some time in this country’s early years). Boning a spirit for magical powers seems to be a recurring theme; a lot of Puritanical imaginations were running wild with misunderstandings of pagan fertility rites and just plain fear of the power of sexy-times. God bless 'em.

9. Grasshoppers and Crickets

"To become a witch, eat grasshoppers or crickets." (Durham County, NC) Journal of American Folklore Vol II.

Honorable Mention: “Natural” Witches

Those who by circumstances are born to become witches, according to folklore collections of North America such as the Frank C. Brown Collection, Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World and The Journal of American Folklore

Those born with red hair

Those born a twin

Those born with a caul over them

Those born with two long teeth

Seventh Daughters and Seventh Sons born on Christmas
Those who are born to age into old women

Remember: American witchcraft tradition states that it is best pursued on a Tuesday or Friday; at sunset or sunrise; at a hilltop, mountainside, graveyard, river, cellar, crossroads or roadside, nearest the full or new moon, nearest Hallow’s Eve, May’s Eve, Midwinter or Midsummer, in numbers three, seven and nine.

Consulted Sources:

The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore
The Green Collection of Folklore by Paul and Elizabeth Green
Witchcraft in the Southwest: Spanish and Indian Supernaturalism on the Rio Grande by Marc Simmons
Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World by Cora L. Daniels
The Journal of American Folklore
American Folk Tales and Songs by Richard Chase
Witchcraft in North Carolina by Tom P. Cross
Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro by Puckett

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Quiet Poppy, Bread and Roses

Quiet Poppy, Bread and Roses

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Everything has a rhythm to it.

We just want quiet. And music. And voices with nothing but happy messages, wise messages, thoughtful messages.  Just tired of the sad stories I guess, and everyone's got them.

I want to sleep all day if I want and bake all night if I like.

...Lay in the sun with the rabbits and watch the light behind my eyelids.

and drink whiskey and stare at out the mountain.

Preparing fragrant roses from the garden for a brown-sugar rose jam and filling for tarts.

I was sick with a severe flu the last couple of weeks.  Flu and regrets.  The flu was bad enough, but missing the VG Symposium, oh that one stung.  2020 is my year to go.  I just... didn't know how to handle the social anxiety of being around complete strangers sometimes. even in my 30's... but then I found out some friends were there and I regretted letting my phobia get the best of me this year.  I really wanted to meet Fawn and Rebecca in person. 2020 will be different, I can feel it.

No messages. No gossip.  No group-chats. No venting.  No complaining. 

Nothing is personal, nothing is without reason, all things find balance.

bread resting outside on the porch overlooking the goat farm.

Everyone eats, but the spirits eat first.

I want my bread to always rise and the crust to always shine.

I want the last of my poppies to bloom before it's too late.

Two lemon poppy-seed loaves and a rosemary garlic poppy loaf.

I'm going to drink this peppermint tea, and eat this lemon poppy-seed bread and bow to my shrine of the poppy mother and wish the best for everyone.  That's the magic I'm making in the bread I've been baking.  I wish well, quietly.  I grow my poppies, quietly.  I sleep beneath the shrine of the poppy mother, quietly. This is the ritual of peace.

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