There are 66 posts tagged Halloween (this is page 1 of 11).
Dissia has a long, full, Witch dress. Like a ball gown for a Witch.
You can also download the hats. Witch hat patterns. Arcane Illussions – Witch Hat.
A bat dress, and garters, a bikini top and bottom which I haven’t linked to. It’s leaning more towards Halloween than Witch for me.
I do like the Moon Girl Swimsuit with the moon phases around the waist.
I had some creepy experiences, feeling I was watched, noticing something out of the corner of my eye, little things like that, when I was a child. I could have lived with that. Most people have those feelings now and then. More often when you watch something spooky on TV or read something creepy.
But, one afternoon, I very strongly felt something sinister. I’d use the word evil but that word has become so overused it can’t really be taken seriously any more. However, that day I didn’t see anything, it was all feelings, something I sensed. I was actually afraid and didn’t know what to do. I left the room but the sense of something awful and overwhelming didn’t go away. It didn’t follow me but it was there, strongly. I’ve never felt the same about the idea of devils, hell, and all of that since then. Although I don’t believe in hell and demons as being the opposing side of angels and god as the Christian view. I do believe there is an element I’d call demons for lack of a better word.
Does it have influence over people or do we make our own decisions? I still think we make our own decisions, we are responsible for our actions and our thoughts. Our thoughts being our own until we choose to (or not to) take action.
Anyway, the experience very much frightened me. This happened before I knew anything about Pagans, witches (other than the media and Halloween versions). I had read interesting newspaper clippings about the paranormal. Usually things that were interesting. I have never liked horror for the sake of horror, being afraid of some man-made monster. Real monsters are far scarier, and real enough.
My Grandmother talked about seeing ghosts and having creepy things happen. It wasn’t that I had asked her anything about it. She just talked about it one day while visiting over one or another family holiday. She saw her sister, who was recently deceased when they were young women. That didn’t scare her but other appearances and feelings did. At some point a psychic told her she had to tell them (ghosts/spirits) to leave her alone, and mean it. She had to say it out loud. After doing that she was not bothered any more.
Maybe it was her own determination not to be scared or maybe this did work to stop whatever influences were there. She did have a visit from my Grandfather, much later in her life, but that was the last and only time she had more encounters or creepy feelings.
So, I thought about it myself. I realized some of the spirits could be in need of help, lonely, whatever. But, others could be threatening, who knows why they are there or hanging around. My own worst experience wasn’t one I wanted to repeat. So I decided to do the same.
In my room, by myself, I said I did not want to see or have ghosts around me. I don’t remember the exact words I used or if I repeated it several times. I did only do it once, one evening. It worked. That was when I was about 10 years old. I’m 57 now and have not had any more creepy experiences. Not including times I watched or read something scary and creeped myself out.
Sometimes I watch the popular TV programs about ghosts, hauntings, and psychics. I take them with many grains of salt. I don’t believe in most of that, it is too easy to fake and too much of a marketing, money making scheme for many. Also, feelings are easy to spread. It just takes one person to say they felt a cold draft, feel something creepy, act afraid and everyone begins to feel something, or think they should be feeling something and then decide they are. Orbs of light, a whisper that might be a voice, a door moves or shuts… those are too easily explained by ordinary things or out right faked.
It’s very hard to prove ghosts, spirits and hauntings. I don’t disbelieve all of it, but I very much doubt most of it. However, having my own experience, which I did not turn into a TV show, I do know some of it is real.
I was looking online for nothing in particular, just taking a break from something else I should have been working on. I found a witch postcard for sale on eBay that was kind of funny, caught my curiousity. I found the artist and searched for her, Margaryta Yermolayeva. She has a lot of art, mainly in the folk art Halloween theme.
This is my favourite. I like the colours, the outdoors scene and the atmosphere. It looks like a misty spring morning to me. The grass is that light shade of green, like new grass before summer cooks it. She (Ryta) may have never been in Ontario (she was born in Russia, now lives in the US) but this scene could be in so many countries and places, including Ontario. A scene you could have covering a whole wall, like a mural and not get tired of looking at over the years. Simple, lovely, and calming. One of those ‘just right’ things.
She also has greeting cards for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and of course, Halloween. The US dollar and shipping cost made it too pricey for me. But, I did find a set of cards for Christmas that I almost bought. Quite unique, with a big smiling moon looking down on a Christmas scene. A flavour of witch/ Pagan yet traditional enough to send to anyone on your list.
I started typing in this post and then the Internet decided to die. Usually, the post would manage to be saved as a draft, this one didn’t make it. So, although it only matters to me, this post is being written a second time around. Kind of right when thinking of Cassandra Peterson, better known as her character, Elvira. She wasn’t finding huge success in movies and TV, until she became Elvira. A reinvention of herself from her career and personal life.
I had thought she was a Vegas showgirl who found a better career path, until I read more about her. She started liking the horror genre as a young person due to being burned and left scarred as a toddler. She was a showgirl, but also acted in movies, modelled, etc. At the time she started as Elvira she had been working in an office, typing, filing, all of that. Her story is inspiring for those who think they’re just going to become forgotten in some mediocre job.
Elvira comes back into media attention at Halloween, for the month of October issues of this and that. It’s too bad but, good for her marketing to have a schedule and maybe she can take some of the year off for planning and even sleeping. Cassandra Peterson is no slouch, good posture and clever merchandising. Whatever you think of the Elvira character and her cleavage, the woman has taken a small part as a horror movie host and turned it into her own empire. Instead of pay raises, she built up her ownership of Elvira and all things connected with it. Fan art may be ok, but she has 100% ownership of her image and all the goodies. There are a lot of goodies, take a look at her site and others to see Elvira on games, comic books, movies, dolls, mobile phones cases, clothing, food products, pretty much anything you can think of, Amanda Peterson’s Elvira has been there.
I found an Elvira Christmas ornament. It’s cute but odd to have no eyes, or blank eyes, however you look at it.
There are haunted house attractions around Halloween. There are old houses which people claim to be haunted and run tours in them. But, how do you find a real haunted house?
Start by just searching online for local ghost hunters, paranormal researchers, paranormal societies, and anyone offering tours of your city or town. You might find a local ghost walk or haunted tour, if your town or city is big enough to have some tourist businesses.
The local museum and library will also know about houses in your area which have a history of ghosts and hauntings.
Look for online networks with people who photograph old houses, haunted houses or historical places. You can find a haunted house by networking with other people who are exploring, looking for the same things you are. (Urban exploration is a good way to find abandoned and/ or real haunted houses).
First, decide if you really do want to do this. If you tend to easily freak yourself out, this probably isn’t a good idea for you. It’s too easy to convince yourself there is a ghost, either because you want there to be ghost or you just enjoy scaring yourself in some way.
Don’t go alone. For one thing, you will appreciate having a witness if you do find ghosts or something haunted. It’s also great to have a second opinion about everything you see. Not everything is a ghost just because you don’t know how to explain it.
Bring all the gear you need to navigate around. If you go at night, traditional but less sensible, bring a flash light.
Don’t forget to enjoy yourself.
You may get a spooky feeling, but isn’t that what you were looking for? Don’t forget the objective. If you’re frightened, calm down. Become more analytical than emotional. Think of yourself as a scientist.
Keep notes about what you see, feel and hear. Take along a digital camera.
Make plans for doing something afterwards. Get a coffee along the way home. Give yourself a time and place to wind down.
There are places you would expect to draw ghosts, or keep them. Places like hotels, hospitals and prisons, where tragedies, dramas and big, life changing events and crowds of people hustling and bustling through – those are the places you would think to find a few ghosts haunting the building and the grounds.
Yet, some common, every day and random places can be haunted, or have people who have seen something, felt something or reacted to something.
People leave an impact on a place, even long after they are gone and no one quite remembers what happened or who it happened to any more. That energy sticks to a place. Like walking into a room when people have been arguing, you can feel the charged atmosphere and the sudden drop when things go silent.
I think this is what haunts a place, the charge of energy and the sudden drop. It’s as if all that energies charged up, was never grounded or allowed to ease off and dissipate Instead it was frozen in place, as it waiting for something else to happen to let it release the charge.
Each place has it’s own story and it’s own mood. Just as no two people are the same, no two haunted places will be quite the same either. If you find a place you think is haunted find out what you can of the history of the place and it’s people. Don’t let what you discover bias you as you explore, however. You might only find just what you expect to find that way and completely miss something really unexpected and unusual.
