[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	excited	]

We have upgraded, so now as well as just reading various posts you can also participate as part of a wonderful community of friendly witches, goths and individuals - in our new independent Uncle Festers Social Networking site. 

Check it all out
 

[	Tags	|	collectables	]
[	Mood	|	cheerful	]

But we are very lucky in Australia to be able to offer the dolls direct, they came in store this week and are $110 the pair.

Also released this week were series 18 and the welcome return of some mini LDD -

see our full range of Living Dead Dolls here 
 

[	Tags	|	witchy	]
[	Mood	|	supportive	]

A group in the US is conducting an international survey of contemporary Pagans.

If you are a Pagan they would appreciate your taking the time to complete this survey.

This survey builds on an earlier one completed over twenty years ago, primarily in the United States, which was conducted by Helen A. Berger and Andras Arthen (of the EarthSpirit Community) entitled the Pagan Census.

A number of scholars have noted that it would be helpful to have a follow-up of that survey to see if and how the community has changed or remained the same. The survey that follows uses many, although not all of the same questions that were in the original survey to provide that comparison. There are also new questions, for instance about the Internet, something that was of little interest 20 years ago but is now, and some from other studies, that again permit a comparison. This has resulted in the survey being somewhat long - but they  appreciate your taking the time to complete it.

For more information contact Helen A. Berger directly at HBerger@wcupa.edu

Please inform other Pagans about this research project and feel free to pass it along via e-mail or to post a link on appropriate blogs or websites.

take the survey here
 

[	Tags	|	witchy	]
[	Mood	|	contemplative	]

There is an artifact in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford: a witch in a bottle. This small silvered glass bottle has a label on it warning people not to open it because there’s a witch inside. You could open the bottle (if you dared) but then the object would be far less interesting- it would just be a bottle because, presumably, the witch would escape:

[	Tags	|	gothic	]
[	Mood	|	supportive	]

Worn Wild
The Alternative Designers Market

Date: Saturday 5th September 2009
Time: 1pm-6pm
Cost: $5.00 earlybird entry / $10 after 3:30pm.
Fashion show at 4:30pm.

New Venue: The Colonial Hotel
240 King Street (cnr Lonsdale Street) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Camden Markets meets London Edge
Aussie style!

Worn Wild is a bi-annual event held in March after the long weekend & as part of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week in September.

Showcasing the best of Melbourne's underground & alternative designers with select interstate guests. Fashion, jewelry, hair artistry, accessories & body art for rockers, ravers, queers, punks, cyberpunks, goths, hippies, metalheads, emos, lolitas, clubbers, fans of corsetry & burlesque & general street-stylin'. . . . . . 


More information
 

Wow !  Talk about a fusion between witchy and gothic images

- described as "Pagan Poetry"  - I love it!

"paganism, mysticism, Joel-Peter Witkin, vampires, and witches." Using pagan symbols (e.g. nature, flowers, pentacles), feathers, rope, meat and candles as the models' main accessories (and eyeball earrings!), the result is a hauntingly beautiful collection of modern-day witches with big hair and spellbinding stare"

source

 

[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	Spooked	]

In today's news reports - from Mexico:

Shades of "The Twilight Zone"! There has been reports of children in Mexico awakened to find their dolls are possessed and coming alive at night. The Roman Catholic Church has intervened...

Anything can be an occult object of power, even the most innocent of objects. While it may seem absurd to our 21st Century material and humanistic sensabilities, things such as this have been and continue to be reported in developing countries. We of the developed West observe everything with a rationalistic world view, while most developing countries still look at the world with a spiritual world view. We see what we expect.

Maybe I have found the answer to the "Woodend Doll Mystery" I explained last night in the " Shop Chat"  section of my Magickal Moments Newsletter!

Tonight Hayden and I went "Doll Hunting". 

He mentioned that earlier in the day he had seen some odd looking dolls laid out in a cross by the side of a path.  Intrigued I asked him to show me.  As it was already dark we took the dog and a torch and set off to find them (of course he couldn't remember exactly where they were.)  We came across the first doll lying alone in a puddle - it was a rustic fabric shape with crosses for eyes .  I picked it up and we kept walking.  We found the others several blocks away and they were now arranged around a tree trunk.  There were two others like the first, and some other more childish toys such as a stuffed rabbit etc.  

I reunited the first one with the others and we left them all there - wondering what it was all about!

 

[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	contemplative	]

By Nina Robinson
BBC World Service, London


Manba involves devotees wearing dark tans, white make-up around their eyes and hair that is often a combination of neon colours.

British teenagers like 18-year-olds Eilish and Declan got caught up in manba after an interest in Japanese culture led them to start researching on the internet, where they came across the style.

Manba in Japan is also known as ganguro, gonguro, yamamba and mamba.

Yama-uba in Japanese is the name of a mountain hag in Japanese folklore whom the fashion is thought to resemble.

It has been around for nearly a decade and is an eye-catching statement against conformity.

When the practitioners began darkening their skin, widening their eyes and wearing blue contact lenses, they were making a rebellious statement against the traditions of fair-skinned beauty.

The rebellion has now, perhaps somewhat ironically, been taken up by Britain's naturally fair-skinned youth.

[	Tags	|	gothic	]
[	Mood	|	reading sookie now!	]

A long article on Vampire lovers and goths etc appeared in yesterdays New Zealand Herald;

At risk of stating the bleeding obvious, it's very hard to be a vampire devotee these days. They may be hot on screen and page, but it's not so easy to keep the faith when you have to hold down a 21st century day job and give a nod to modern-day necessities as well.

To picture the vampire is to imagine matters Gothic. But true devotion touches regions far deeper than first impressions of members of the black-clad, high hair, gloomy music movement might suggest.

It's not just the unending stares that you have to endure. Or the rejections of both the personal and career kind. It's not even the abuse and misunderstanding; that all goes with the territory.

The modern-day vampire lover's lot is much more tough. There are the pretenders who demean the status of the truly, deeply dedicated. It costs a lot. And there are health and safety implications to consider that could generate a whole new chapter in an OSH manual.

Consider the case of one Wellington vampire lover. . . . . . .

read the full story

 see the Uncle Festers Twilight Collection

[	Tags	|	witchy	]
[	Mood	|	sad	]

A great Pagan online resource is closing down in a weeks time, after four years of service.  The owner Edain sites financial (the site was funded by donations) and personal reasons (the amount of time it takes to upkeep) for the closure.  So before the pages disappear all together I suggest you spent an hour or two browsing sections that take your fancy. (The previous blog article was sourced on a readers' articles page).  My favourite bits however were always the news stories and indeed I took the inspiration from there to include such interesting news stories in our own Magickal Moments daily newsletters.


view Edain's site here
http://www.thepaganactivist.com/


then view our
magickal moments news archives
 

[	Tags	|	witchy	]
[	Mood	|	productive	]

Making Ritual Real


A lot of pagans and witches, especially those new to their path can become frustrated when they feel that the rituals they are preforming are  simply not "real" or have any deep meaning or feeling to them. We all want that special spiritual experience. But how can we set ourselves up for the mysteries?
 
Here's a few tips:
 
Decorate your altar, shrine and ritual space with items that relate (in your mind) to the ritual purpose. Use colors, scent, images, and tools to their best effect. If you are doing a very masculine working, do not put pink flowers on your altar. Put images and items that have a masculine feel and meaning to you. If you are doing a hearth and home related ritual, put a dollhouse in the room, cut out images of fireplaces from a magazine and tack them on the wall.

Do not bother with placing items that will not be used or useful during the ritual, only use what is going to be really helpful. If there is a print on the wall that does not relate to your ritual, take it down, or hang a piece of fabric over it. Cut out the distractions as much as possible.

Do not worry about the proper correspondences as written in a book; think about what gives you the right impressions, thoughts and feelings. It is all about your mind connecting your surroundings with the ritual purpose.
 
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by silly little things, like almost tripping, almost spilling, slipping up a few words, and the clock ticking in the next room. Do not worry about making a fool of yourself, if your makeup is getting smeared, if your
deodorant is holding up. These are all distractions. They do not matter.
 
Don’t rush! Slow down and take your time. Rushing through a ritual will not give it that deep meaning; you will gain nothing from it. If your rituals are too long, cut the fat. Trim it down to only what is really important, so that you can spend the proper amount of time focusing on
that.
 
Move! Dance, clap, stomp, sway, and wave your arms around. Just standing there shuffling your feet does not help to build energy, it also does not help you to feel the ritual. It may seem a tad silly, but if you are finding a lack of emotion, a lack of meaning in your ritual, try doing an interpretive dance, act out your ritual. Tap your foot in time to the words you are speaking.

Do your own personal sign language. If you are saying something about the moon, draw a circle or crescent in the air with your hand or ritual tool. If you are trying to connect with the feminine divine, touch your breasts (if you are a woman), draw the shape of a woman in the air, hold you arms as if stroking a pregnant belly or as if you are holding a baby. When contacting a god, touch your crouch (if you are a man), or draw a hammer, a phallus or horns or oak leaf in the air in front of you.

Stand up straight, lie down, sit up, lean to one side and then the other, hop on one foot, and use those hand signs and body postures found in Paganism 101 books.
 
Say it like you mean it. One of my best teachers was into drama and acting. She used to shout at us during ritual “Emote dammit! Say it like you mean it!” don’t just read off of some page in a monotone, say it with feeling, drama, and meaning.

When you are inviting entities into your ritual, speak with welcome in your voice, say it as if you were inviting a friend in to your home.  Do not rush through a prayer, chant or poem as quickly as possible. Take the time to carefully speak each line, with feeling. Repeat if necessary. Pretend you are an actor on a stage where your audience is hard of hearing and far away. Emote and project. Speak from the heart and use your belly voice, as acting and singing instructors would say.

Singing and chanting rather than speaking can also help you to inject emotion into your words. So try it, even if you do not have a great voice.
 
Use your imagination. That’s what visualizing is all about. Using your imagination will help you to connect with your creative side, the right side of your brain, the part of you that does not worry about logic, but that relies on feelings and intuition.
 
Practice, practice, practice. Do not give up if things just don’t feel like they are working the first time. Try it again; try everything at least three times before moving on to something else. The first couple of times you perform a new ritual, you will feel rather awkward, that’s perfectly natural. You cannot truly find that spiritual connection until you have become somewhat comfortable with what you are doing. Do not expect results right away, the very first time. This rarely happens for people.

Also it can be a good idea to practice at home, alone a couple of times before you go and join in a group ritual.
 
Feel it, really feel it. Don’t just go through the motions. If you feel that you are, stop! Take a few deep breaths and remind yourself what you are doing and why. Find your motivation. Say it out loud, think it, picture it in your mind, and really feel it. Draw it, paint it, and write poetry about it.

Do whatever you need to do before a ritual to make sure the purpose of the ritual is fresh in your mind and filling your heart. At each step along they way during a ritual, stop for a second and reaffirm what you are doing and why.

Keep the ritual purpose in the forefront of your mind and heart. A good ritual, a really truly good ritual should bring you to the brink of tears, happy or sad. People have often made fun of me for getting choked up or actually crying during ritual. They don’t get it, not at all.  If you really want results, you need to bring your heart fully into it. If you want a ritual to have meaning, you must give it meaning. You must really feel it, you must put that feeling into it.  

Laugh, cry, shout, sing, dance, smile, and do it like you mean it! If you do not mean it, you shouldn’t be doing it. If you do not mean it deep in your mind, heart and soul, you will never have that special spiritual experience you seek.
 
Good luck!
 
by  Juniper of Walking the Hedge 2009
(feel free to share, just add this disclaimer)


 

[	Tags	|	gothic	]
[	Mood	|	contemplative	]

Everyone mourns differently. Some will keep a loved one’s ashes in an urn. Some will use a loved one’s ashes to make a diamond. Some will even turn a loved one’s ashes into an artificial coral reef.

 Thanks to design student Anna Schwamborn, some will now have the option to wear a loved one’s ashes as jewelry.

Not your typical accessory, Schwamborn’s “Mourning Objects” allows a person to wear the hair and cremated ashes of the deceased in different forms of necklaces and bracelets, Deezen reports.

Schwaborn, who is currently studying at Central St. Martins in London and previously worked with Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, combines real human hair and cremated ashes mixed with black bone china to create wearable memorials.

“The objects are supposed to be worn close to the body of the mourner symbolizing a lasting physical connection between two individuals even after death,” Schwamborn told Deezen.

 While the prices of these unique trinkets have not yet been specified, Schwamborn has announced that her “Mourning Objects” come in several different designs, including a necklace, a watch chain tear catcher and a rosary.

source

 

[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	amused	]

10. You'll save $$ on their Halloween costumes.
9. You can always find them in the snow.
8. Holding a black cat is very slimming.
7. Black cats will match any decor.
6. A lint brush isn't required for a black-tie affair.
5. When you love a black cat, luck is on your side.
4. Black cats are like onyx, a beautiful gem.
3. Hey, they don't care what color you are!
2. Love knows no color.

And the number one reason to adopt a black cat...

1. They are the least likely to be adopted.

[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	excited	]

Sunday 21st June 3 - 9pm

Celebrate the return of the light from the darkest night at CERES Winter Solstice.

Brighten up your winter’s night and discover the beauty of darkness and light with shadow puppetry - a traditional Yule ritual - fire sculpture, poetry and a stellar musical line up.
Renowned shadow puppeteers “Stories from the Ground” have created a special solstice piece; The Longest Shadow.
The audience will create a spiral dance, at the precise moment of the solstice, mimicking the movement of the sun and the completion of the cycle of the seasons as part of the Yule (wheel) ritual.

“In many cultures fire is thought of as the little brother to the sun, and on the darkest night we honor fire and light.  Let your creative sparks fly and join in the celebration, whilst you warm up with delicious organic food, mulled wine and merriment at CERES Café.”
Deborah Hatton Event Producer

Yule Celebration Program:

· From 3pm – activities including wreath making for kids

· Solstice ritual and spiral dance – led by Seline (Celebrant & Ritualist)

· Lighting of Fires and fire sculpture behind the Café marquee

· Jayden Lillyist – Indigenous singer songwriter

· Stories from the Ground – “The Longest Shadow”

· Broni – acoustic pop artist

· Poetry by Jill Sutton – Melbourne writer

· Rosie Burgess Trio – "Burgess gave off more energy than an illegally sparked firecracker. Her band was awesome, the violin was go-faster red, and the polka she finished on was enough to make the artists preceding her eat humble pie" - Donne Restom, Drum Media, Sydney, June 2008.

· Mladen will play the Ud – a traditional Arabic lute

· DJ

$15 full $10 members /concession $ 5 kids
$20 passionate - $5 of ticket price is donated to CERES Environment Fund
Tickets at the gate - CERES Community Environment Park crn Roberts and Stewart Streets Brunswick East, Victoria 

Melways Reference: Map 30 B7

Look out for the Uncle Festers Stall and stop by to say hello to Margaret and Hayden!

[	Tags	|	general	]
[	Mood	|	sad	]

FAREWELL, AND BLESSED BE
A passing prayer


You waited for birth
and you were born
You found your springtime
and grew tall
You walked the summer of fulfillment
You neared the gateway in your fall
and now you are taken by the hand
through the gateway that is death
upon a further path
a further gathering
of the spirit's breath

Be easy on your journey
good is with you
Here is strength to help you on your journey
Feel love in your journey
my love is in you
I send my love with you through the gate
You are released from the fetters of this time
released and free, to make your journey
You have my happiness, in your release
Look forward, forward
and step out apon, your new bright path
I bless your every footstep
In an through the power of our Lady
who is life perpetual and who leads
hand in hand with the christian god you believed in
you onwards and way from us, our time

God and Goddess be with you
as will I

Fare Well

[	Tags	|	gothic	]
[	Mood	|	Jealous	]

How cool would this be? Sounds like the UK Whitby Goth weekends are getting bigger and better each time:

Hayden's brother is an ex mechanic and as Hayden and I are totally unmechanical we leave it to David to buy our cars for us (usually cheapies we run down and replace a few years later).  One time he came across an old caddy  hearse and asked Hayden was he interested, Hayden said no because he thought I would not want it.  They both couldn't believe I would love it, but by the time they worked that out, the car was sold.