Posts for Tag: eccc

Projected Upon An Hot Plate Of Venus

I was re-potting strawberries the other day, moving them from where they'd been wintered over under a bed of straw into pots on the south side of our house.  A man was walking by with his dog and he stopped to admire a rosemary bush next to our front steps.  The dog ambled up the steps to greet me.  We chatted and I told him how I make essential oils and have made it from another rosemary variety in our yard but not this particular bush.  He looked up at me and said "You must be quite the alchemist."  I said that I actually was an alchemist.  He thought that was great, we exchanged names and shook hands and he was on his way.  Partly because of alchemy I don't think that was a coincidence.  And partly because his beautiful Labradoodle's name was Gaia. 

When I uncovered the berries from their winter hibernation the straw that had been heaped over the pots had a weathered layer on the outside, a drier layer underneath and then a really decayed, slimy layer down right over the pots.  On top of this layer were a LOT of happy, fat earthworms.  I carefully gathered up the straw and moved it to our compost pile so everyone living in the straw can keep right on doing what they are doing.  When I cleared away the straw from my fuchsia bush, there were no worms in the straw but the lowest layer that had been touching the dirt was thick with mycelium.  Another excellent garden sign!  This straw also got carried carefully to the compost pile.  Most likely when we get further into the project of the raised beds and moving that stuff around, the broken down straw and all the beneficial inclusions are going to get mulched into the new beds. 

The worms and mycelium got me thinking about various manifestations of elemental energies.  The worms were up above the actual dirt, almost living in the air, and yet buried inside a thick heap of straw.  That felt like Earth of Straw, if you were going to look at it like an alchemical purification.  And then over in the fairy garden, not one single worm in the straw and a thick paste of mycelium way down at the bottom.  Given the really delicate and serious transformative nature of mycelium, that felt like a manifestation of Spirit of Straw.  

The sign of the Work perfected will be this: If the Stone being projected upon an hot plate of Venus, doth melt like Wax, and not smoke, but penetrate and tinge, then is the Oriental King born, fitting in his Kingdom with greater power than all the Princes of the World.

from "THE TOMB OF SEMIRAMIS - Hermetically Sealed, Which if a Wise-man open (not the Ambitious Covetous Cyrus) he shall find the Treasures of Kings, inexhaustible Riches to his content."  H. V. D., 1674.

I had my last training/briefing before ECCC this past Sunday.  I had to go downtown to the Sheraton, which sits immediately adjacent the convention center.  Most of the area was utterly devoid of humans except for two types:  minions on their way to a last training or people doing the St Patrick's Day Dash.  Buses were re-routed, part of the freeway was closed, and it was raining like crazy.  The slightly soggy nerds were an excited and friendly bunch.  There are about a thousand of us, at least on paper at this time, set to help assist 75,000 at a sold-out event.  Ten percent will never make it to the con, for whatever reason.  Last year, 80% of the full-time Saturday volunteers never showed.  The event is working to really not have that happen again.  A distinct lack of parking contributed.  Various con methods were altered to get rid of lines and backup that also contributed.  It's going to be insane.

And every freaking day I think up another cosplay idea.  A pox on my brain.  Actually, if I can get the Blink wig braided, that's all that has to happen for that outfit to be done "enough."  But it's going to take a few tries, as I have never done herringbone hair braiding before.  I've got my bamboo strips ready to steam and shape, and went back and made way more screencaps of Lorelei's face cage in Agents of Shield.  There's a whole piece on the front I didn't notice at first, and it's not totally shown clearly.  But my brain goes "Huh...?  Looks like a spool or two and maybe some big gears..." when it tries to deconstruct it.

Over the weekend, K and I cut an entire 40 yard bolt of tulle into approximately 6" strips.  The 54" folded width was perfect as-is.  Once we had all those strips, we tied some elastic into loops to make waistbands, slapped in a movie and started knotting on strips.  Most of a movie later we had below-the-knee/tea-length, gothic/ratty, princess/fairy, black tulle skirts.  Materials-wise, that's about $15 per skirt and about three hours of crafting labor.  Stasi and Zella are gonna kill it at the PDX vampire ball. 

One really important pre-con detail did get crossed off my list this week.  I can now pronounced "yaoi" correctly and confidently aloud.  That was one of those things that just had to get handled. 


Of Putrefaction And Nigredo

For most of the last three years, I made a weekly blog entry on the Grey School forums.  I was involved as both a student and as a faculty member.  I am no longer involved with that organization, but it's been a nice habit and a way of marking many magickal events and activities in my life.  I going to explore what it's like to make periodic entries of that sort here.    I don't yet know if I will stick with the weekly schedule or not.  

"Reason grounds the universe not only on a necrophilic intimacy but also in conformity with an undead machine imbued with the chemistry of putrefaction and nigredo."  ~ Reza Negarestani from The Corpse Bride: Thinking with Nigredo

One thing I really enjoyed about blogging about my magick and alchemy was that finding a quote each week to use as a title not only identified all manner of nuances in my own experience (there are no coincidences in alchemy) but it also kept me slowly but surely working my way through all manner of obscure and archaic texts.  I intend to continue that habit here as well.

December is shaping up interestingly.  Personally, some of the putrefactio has been expressing itself via a headcold.  Not enough to feel genuinely sick, enough to feel curtailed and forced to refocus.  That's not entirely bad as it's had me catching up on a variety of projects.  

I have my PantheaCon airline tickets all arranged for February.  The weekend after that is FaerieCon West and today I emailed them and asked about programming.  I'd like to offer a free workshop on repairing, fixing and improving fairy wings, called "A Wing and a Prayer."

I started my saffron spagyric, using the spice I grew and harvested myself in October.  It's just a few ounces in a minion bottle.  The grain alcohol turned yellow as soon as I added the ground saffron, and by day's end was already a deep orange.  

I placed a teeny order for some samples of new incenses from Mermade Magickal Arts the other night and they arrived today.  One is sandalwood and ambergris (beach-harvested in NZ), one is a complex blend described as a wet, balsamic forest and the third is named "Majoun Encens" and is an homage to the psychoactive Moroccan fruit paste.  The free sample included was a spruce-frankincense pastille.  Yummy stuff all around!

I have cordials filtering in the kitchen as I write this.  I want to add some vanilla to the blackberry, so I have fresh beans infusing in about an ounce of grain alcohol.  It's slowly turning golden from clear.  The elderberry tastes like it needs more sweetness.  Last year I made it in brandy so it had a completely different character.

Tomorrow I have my first training session to be a "minion" (aka volunteer) for the Emerald City Comic Con in March.  It's downtown in the evening.  I'm going to meet Kalla after she gets off work in the afternoon, then the two of us are going to catch a showing of FROZEN, and then some dinner.  She'll head home at that point and I'll go get trained.  I should bundle up well, as Seattle is having quite the snap freeze his week.  The ol' weather app says it's 28F outside right now.  Brrrrr.....