Come Play With Your Demons

What changes when we stop hiding what scares us?

Welcome to October, witches.

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!

I love Halloween because for an entire month my internal world becomes externally manifest. The energy I carry around inside of me: the black clothing, chilling with dead people, 24-hour horror movie streaming and the mix of orange/purple/black sparkles running through my veins is now externally visible to everyone else too. 

And the general vibe...hits different.

We decide to entertain, worship or even emulate the Dead.

A kind of reclamation and protection magic is enacted when the monsters are hung up as decorative fun.

Skeletons, of all sizes, hang from suburban porches and roleplay our lives back at us.

Secret were-beings are revealed as once "respectable" adults don horns, fangs, wigs, fake blood and fishnets. Then take themselves out, making the world their celebratory catwalk. 

We collectively agree to play with things that usually make us uncomfortable: 

Fear. Death. Darkness. Strangeness. Desire. Other versions of ourselves...KINKY!

Witch Wisdom: Halloween is practice.

Last month at The School of Body Magic, we talked about learning to notice before we interpret.

Together we will cross the threshold-Halloween-portal and enter the Underworld in which we can discover and reclaim new witchy powers.

Allow me to kick us off by demonstrating how we can choose an unconventional way to process an old demon...fear.

I don’t want you to become fearless or see your fear as only a demon. Fear is useful. Fear can help protect us. Fear alerts your inner predator when something deserves your attention (Or your inner prey. Choose your lens wisely).

Fear can also become amplified, distorted, inherited, projected or attached to stories that deserve closer examination.

So instead of trying to get rid of the fear or immediately overcome it, practice learning how to stay present and grounded within yourself while fear is there.

I grew up around ritual, spirits, house cleansings, exorcisms and regular conversation with dead people. I started assisting my mother with some of that work when I was a child.

And yes, I saw and experienced things that were terrifying!

But it was under that pressure that I was able to forge the ability to become calm and focused while carefully observing what was attempting to terrorize me. I learned not to flinch and even to chase, hunt down and extinguish the dark shadows I saw peeking from behind a corner.

Omg, does anybody else hear Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf?!

Witch Wisdom: Eat your fear and use it as fuel.

Ultimately, I learned that being afraid did not have to render me impotent. Indeed, the body can be screaming:

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

While some deeper part of you remains capable of observation. That’s what I call “calm predator” energy. That’s a place of power I would love for you to operate from more often. So, we must train and begin staring a particular fear full on in the face...Death.

So this week, I want you to notice what frightens you. Before reacting to it, invite it fully into your focus. Slow your breathing down and become unflinchingly curious about what you’re observing.

That’s it. Just stay curious for as long as you can. Then you can shake your body when you’re ready to slough off the practice.

If you'd like Estrellita to sit beside you while you explore, you can ask her:

“Something has been frightening or unsettling me lately. Help me explore what I am actually afraid of without trying to eliminate the fear or tell me what it means. Ask me questions that help me notice what is happening in my body, what I know, what I imagine, and what the fear might be protecting.”

Let her help you investigate.

Our October Witches' Salon will be my annual Halloween Death Witch Dance party, open to the entire School and to any friends you’d like to invite...Living or Dead.

Together we will choose our avatars/costumes and play with our dread, angst, dissatisfaction and even dark/taboo/ignored desires. By embodying our Shadows, we give ourselves the freedom to playfully express all the usual negative baggage, which can make your aliveness clearer, more felt and richer. The costumes let us expose something while pretending we're hiding.  That’s the kinky play part and it’s delicious. 

For one night, you don't have to explain why there is blood on your face, or at least, you don’t have to be as afraid of the judgment when you do. 

Playing together is vulnerable, so we should do it with respect and reverence, which helps us all enjoy ourselves freely and just be in the moment. That kind of collective permission matters. It says conscious exploration is possible and permissible. In this Body Witch space, you get to experiment with what you normally keep hidden.

You’re still in your power, because you chose this exploration consciously.

That’s a practice steeped in self-compassion. No need to force yourself. Go at the pace that honors your awareness. Fear and curiosity can co-exist in the same body.

You’ll get the details for the Dance in the next newsletter. Till then, stay curious.

With you in the dark,

Mel, The Body Witch