Maggie's Halloween Magick!

These are the Jack-O-Lanterns my man and I carved for Halloween. We didn't get to them until the night before--All Hallows' Eve, Eve, I guess you would call it, right? But we had a blast and it was fun. Mine is on the right. It's a face with flaming eyes and mouth. And the fact that I had to tell you what it is says a lot about my pumpkin carvin' abilities. His was, well here's a close-up.

Yep. It's Dozer. And it's perfect and gorgeous and I'll never get over how talented this man of mine is. What a pumpkin! It's a shame that it can't last. But never fear, I took about a hundred pictures of it.

Here are some shots of my collection of Universal Horror Classics Miniatures. They survived the fire, and this is the first time I've had them out on display since.



As you can imagine, these replicas, painstakingly copied from the sets used in those classic movies, are some of my most cherished possessions.


It was tough, cleaning the smoke residue and soot off of them, and several pieces took a few blows during the firefighting, then the cleanup, then the storage, then the renovation, then the retrieval. Ugh! And those delicate, intricate details took a lot of work!

Well worth it, though. I love those movies. They're what inspired me to do what I do. I grew up thinking the monster ought to get the girl. And now I make sure he does! Every single time. Right at the end of the book.









All of the pieces light up, so all the windows glow at night in a wonderfully creepy way! Especially the full moon over the Wolfman's abode.




Most have cords attached so you can plug them in. A few came without them, though, and run only on batteries, which I considered a bit of a rip-off, given what they charge for them. (It's one of those Time/Life deals where you sign up and get a new piece every month. They have a train set now, that would probably run you about a grand when you got all the pieces. I'm resisting it mightily. So far. Ahem.)

Ahh, but let me tell you some of the more interesting things that happened this Halloween at Serenity. Lance and I didn't do costumes this year. The bar where we went last year for the costume party has closed, and I'm missing it, but letting the Universe know we'd love to stumble upon another fun, not too crowded, mild-mannered, fully costumed event to make into our Halloween tradition. This year we stayed home, bought candy in case any trick-or-treaters showed up, and ate most of it ourselves when none did. We spent most of the evening by candlelight and lamplight, which was a cool way to spend All Hallows! When the power returned, we watched a bit of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) for kicks, and it was just as deliciously campy as I thought it was.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. That was later. The daylight hours were the most fascinating. Lance had things to do at his place, and I had things to do here, so we split for the day. But within a little while after he left, my power went out. So I couldn't post my pumpkins or other pics or even a Halloween blog! It stayed out all day long, from 11 a.m. until well after 8 p.m. Halloween night. So with nothing much I could do (besides realizing we are way too dependent upon electricity!) I cleaned my temple room, and spent the day in a solitairy Samhain ritual, giving thanks to the Universe for all the wonderful fruits I've harvested this year. And as I sat in silent meditation, a whole lot of information that seemed very deep, and very real, came flowing to me. So I wrote it all down. About 30 pages worth, in fact. And it felt good.

And then, just before sunset--this.....

A Halloween Rainbow appeared in the sky! If that's not a bit of Halloween magick, I don't know what is!



Here I captured the rainbow arcing right over my own favorite pot-o'-gold. The colors were really much more vivid than you can tell in the photos. It was utterly bright, and absolutely complete. The color of the sky within the arc was slightly different from that without, too, making the rainbow almost look like some alien planet floating nearby.


And I just had to run to the other side of the house and try to get it framing Serenity--I knew it was. And I was right. There were those shadow-rainbows beside this big, bright one, too. You know how you can sometimes see a faint rainbow twin, near the main one? This one had two of those twins. It was truly stunning!


As the rainbow finally began to fade, due to the sun going down, I turned in the opposite direction with my camera, to capture a little bit of the moody, Halloween sunset sky.


Doesn't this image just scream "Halloween?" to you? Or maybe moan or groan it, or whisper it mysteriously?

Halloween. Samhain. It's the time of the final harvest. Symbolically, it's when we take stock of the seeds we planted in the spring, and crops we grew over the summer, and the quality of the harvest we've brought in. This year it fell on the very day when the Fall Royalties are being mailed from my main publisher. Harvest. Paychecks count as part of that harvest!

The work is done. The time for reflecting and taking stock will soon be upon us, but first, comes the sheer bliss of looking at just what we've accomplished this year, at all the wonders the Universe has brought to us, at all the goals and desires we've managed to manifest in our lives. And more than just looking at them, we ought to let ourselves really relish and bask in them. That's true appreciation. Basking, as we give thanks.

Life is good. Life here is very, very good. I love the things that have grown for me this year. And I am looking forward to basking in them over the quiet, dark months of the winter, even while thinking about the seeds I want to plant in the spring.

Happy Halloween!
Blessed Samhain!
Now, go forth and bask!

Maggie