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Dark Spirit
Everyone feeling the holiday spirit? The winter season is not all hope and light, or wasn’t, and some cultures still preserve some of that lore to this very day. Do we get into the holiday spirit or does the holiday spirit get into us? Ultimately, it gets into us, especially if you use the Voodoo…
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In Season Of Death Is Spirit of Hope
In all cultures that have particularly harsh winters, there were spirits thought to be more active during these longer nights of the year. Krampus would be just one example. The Kitsune of Japan were another. This is where we get the term fox fire from. And well, as people tended to die much more commonly…
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Human Darkness
In Krampus celebrations, they do something that I think people should do more consciously. In the Krampus celebrations, some young men dress up as demons and wander the streets. They are Krampus for the purpose of the celebration, and they act out a bit so that people can watch them. They try to be scary…
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Extend Christmas Spirit To Your Inner Demons
Today’s language of things is taking us further and further away from the root words. Yes. Selling us watered down meaning. It isn’t a mystery why today’s teens seem so completely nihilistic, and they called my generation the Generation X. It’s called “bull shit”. I have a book written by a professor On Bullshit. He…
Category: Seasonal Lore
In the oldest African and Asian lore, the dark spirits, and those we consider more light based, were not warring factions. In Chinese lore, demons were often the administrators of justice. They were known as Oni, and although trouble makers when off duty, they could be and were moved by the mandate of heaven to act against unrighteous individuals.
The seasons of long night were the season of the dead. So winter being the season of death, it might seem natural to associate it with spooks and monsters. But as dark and depressing as the winter season is, that spirit of hope that visits us sometimes is very real. Wise in it’s way. And the spirit of hope doesn’t belong to any particular power or person. Even Krampus can bring you a gift, and it might be in some ways more valuable than the sweet sentimentality of Santa.
“It’s Christmas Day! said Scrooge to himself. “I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can.” Charles Dickens (English novelist, 1812-1870)