Spirits within, when the stars are right...Decemberween most unexpected

Hello. I know it's been awhile. I owe you an update. Well since we are experiencing a snow storm during this Halloween / Fall season early, it seemed a good time as any to sit down and get to business. I am recovering from an illness so I am fairly weak but gaining strength ... and feeling a bit restless. As a magic practitioner and artist I am a little disappointed my illness has made it impossible to clean, participate, work and create during this wonderful cosmic season. 

I recently went to Sleepy Hollow (like I do every year) and apple picking with friends. This time it felt very different. Very solemn and awe inspiring like a pilgrimage. After the site seeing we sat for a picnic near the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Creek with our haul. We paid our respects and took some water from the Creek and bid the site farewell.

This is called a woolly bear. It's a tiger moth larva. You can tell it's going to be a tough winter this year by the color bands. It's amazing my friend Katelan had a sweater the same color when she found it!

I wonder if it's because the veils are thinning, just the season for this kind of thing, my mind playing tricks, or me being sick but strange things have been happening this month. Maybe just more open to it or aware. Dreams are coming in every other day. They feel very shamanic in quality. I've never worked with or dreamt with native american spirits. Maybe it's because of where or who I am hanging with and I'm picking up on it? I dreamt recently that I was a man on a quest. All I had was a sack and staff. I was told by an elder to go North. That if I followed the Northern Lights, others will be waiting for me at the end. I get images. Some feel like dreams. Others feel like memories possibly.

Benedict Family's mausoleum. 

The door is beautiful and the energy coming from it was unbelievable.

A few nights ago when a relative on Jason's side came to visit, I had a vision. Maybe for them? I was in an cave or mountainside dwelling. I spoke to a fire creature. Its body was made of wax and could move independently. It had a throne. It glistened. Where a wax head should have been was instead fire on a wick. A candle man? There was no genitals. It was an "IT". It spoke about wishes and desires. It spoke about keys and using them to open doors. How to use them and not to loose them. Spoke in pops, hisses and whispers.

Today I woke to a woman stroking my arm up and down as to soothe or calm me. I of course got up angry and told her go away in a not so nice manner. She giggled and put a finger to her mouth and left my bed room slamming the door. My bedroom is always off limits. So this surprised me. They know to communicate with me, they must come through gently through dreams for me to take them seriously. Like humans, spirits lie but it's harder for them to if you have your protections up.

Us at the Sleepy Hollow creek and bridge site.

I've been thinking a lot about magic. I hadn't done it in years since I felt content, was busy, fell out of grace, etc. so it was the farthest from my mind. It took a friend to get the magical dialogue going again and now I've been thinking of incorporating it into my art more instead of just "observing" it. During all this, my friend Ken who's a mortician will be visiting me while on a business trip in the city. I haven't seen him in years (since he lives far away) so it kinda apropos he's here on Samhain while doing "a job".

Photo reference of Justin as Lovecraft reading a book for a painting I'm doing.

My friend Kat is crazy about W. S. Burroughs. His life ... his afterlife, his artistic life, his magic life, etc. Me and a group of friends in the past knew about him, the drug usages and his writing work. We were more interested in Burroughs the magician. So chaos magic was what we focused on. I start comparing. It's this childish thing I do. Who do I love or admire in that way? I used to love certain writers and artists but then I stopped enjoying them at some point and started hating them or ignoring them. They felt too mainstream. Everyone adored them whether for right or wrong reasons and it didn't feel personal anymore. I couldn't connect.

My tastes had changed. I wanted something more ... mature? Evolved? Darker? Dangerous? I'm not sure. I keep thinking about Lovecraft and the dreamer's key stories. I have 3 paintings I need to finish. The remainder of the year I'm going to just be cranking out work and attending friends events and shows. I also need to sit down and sort out a plan of some sort. I did many years ago and then felt it just dissolve in the glare of the Wall Street sun god. So plans weren't for me. I've been going with the flow so I don't stress. I feel I need a focus of some sort. I need my North Star.