Katie: All right, Jim. It's the first week in October and need to know, are you decorating for Halloween?
Jim: Oh my gosh, yes. Totally we will be. But here's the thing. I was shopping at Target this weekend for Halloween decor cuz I mean they have a really good Halloween section, don't they? And here was a really cool looking couple wearing their black and their tattoos were showing and their metaphysical jewelry.
Jim: And clocked each other in the Halloween section. And I said, Oh, I see. We're both shopping for every day decor our house. It's the season, isn't it? And they laughed and I laughed and then I looked over and the blonde haired lady with her kids shopping for Halloween candy was looking at us with horror.
Jim: And then I laughed even harder. Cause it's the season for us witches to like, are we shopping for Halloween or are we shopping for the regular living room? Yes. You never.
Jim: When the witches come out of the woodwork, my favorite time of the year. That's right. Yes.
Light From Lantern presents: Knit A Spell. I'm magical maker: Katie Rempe. And I'm the maker of magic: James Divine. Join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and 'The Craft'.
Jim: All right, so how do you decorate for Halloween then? I'm especially curious because as a witch, what are the inside tips and tricks I need to know about?
Jim: There is the game is that a Halloween decor? Like when we have our house decorated for Halloweens, by the way, go to the show notes and you'll see what I mean, because my husband and I, our house is two the nines decorated for Halloween.
Jim: It's Yes, nuts. It's packed. Beautiful. And we play the game like what's every day. And what's Halloween? And it's hard to tell sometimes.
Katie: It's a trap.
Katie: Because our house is a little bit eclectic all the time. And some of this stuff just naturally goes with the Halloween decor. But yeah, how does a witch decorate for Halloween? I think some people's houses don't need to be decorated at all.
Katie: Sure, yeah. Good point.
Katie: So yeah, we do . Really decorate it. We put up the cobweb and, put up a lot of pumpkins and bats and spiders and things like that. It is a lot of fun.
Katie: What do you do? Do you decorate for h.
Katie: Back when I lived with my folks, my mom loved to decorate for every season much like I said in a couple weeks ago. But personally, I just, I can hardly muster the desire to do it because where do I keep it when I'm not using it? And then who's gonna put it all away afterwards and then I don't get very motivated to do it.
Katie: So if I get a couple of items. I feel very festive.
Jim: I have to admit, it is my husband who really drives it. We have our black and orange bins that have the Halloween decor and we have our brown bin that has our Thanksgiving decor. We have our red and green bins that have the, solstice and holiday decor.
Jim: For sure we have it all organized and that's one of the ways to do it. And if it wasn't for him pushing it, I probably would be a lot more low key with my decor. So it's helpful to have a spouse and people who are super into it.
Jim: We have trick or treater's coming and we have a whole coven who entertain, so that makes it a lot more exciting to sit there and be like, Okay, where do we put this? And we have a grandkid that comes over and she likes to count the black cats. How many black cats can she find? I think it's 65 just in the living room.
Katie: Oh! Wow. All right. We know what game you'll be playing if anyone goes to visit Jim: count the cats!
Katie: Count the Black Cats at Halloween time. Yeah, it's fun.
Katie: So that's interesting because I wasn't sure when we decided to talk about this if Halloween and that decorated vibe comes traditionally to mind. I wasn't sure if that was gonna really be every witches thing, and not to say that it is, but I don't know if it was gonna be like, Oh, it's too commercialized.
Katie: Like we don't really do that kind of a thing. It doesn't take it seriously.
Katie: I think there are two different holidays happening. For people who are Wiccan ish or in that sort of like witchcraft type of vibe. There is the holiday of Samhain, which is the holiday that honors are beloved dead.
Katie: That sort of recognizes the blood harvest, the culling of the herds, the harvest of the hard squashes, the winter squashes, that sort of harvest time. And there is the secular holiday in the United States, very specifically North America. It doesn't really happen in other countries like it does here of Halloween.
Katie: When you go to, Europe or you go to other places and they celebrate Halloween, it's only because. It's a fun holiday that they do in the United States, it doesn't really happen, in other places. When people dress up in costume and have celebrations, that's something that happens at Mardi Gras or at other times of year or other holidays.
Katie: So that's a very uniquely American, or, US type of holiday.
Katie: Oh, forget about that actually. That's a good reminder.
Katie: I look at it personally as a separate holiday and they might happen on the same night, but we have our sacred celebration of Samhain, which might include a Silent Supper.
Katie: A symbolic meal celebrated in complete silence, honoring our beloved dead perhaps tears flow and deep emotions are experienced as we sit and remember the people we love who are no longer with us. And it's a very sacred time.
Katie: And then after doing that, we give out candy to trick or treaters and little kids dressed as, unicorns and faires and angels, and you know everything as they come to the door.
Jim: Even for me, it seems like there's two holidays happening, the fun holiday of Halloween about candy and costumes and spooky and scary and, pranks and joy and the reverent holiday.
Katie: It makes sense and maybe part of the reason I thought people who identify as witches may not really be into it, is because, if you think about a witch and you only have Halloween as your reference point, they are not always very flattering representations of the female magical species.
Jim: Yeah, we could talk about that. So the images, when we decorate for Halloween, there's a lot of images that come to mind. There's the black cat, there's the bat, there's the spider. And of course the black cat and those things are often associated with the witch. And I think about the silhouettes of those things.
Jim: But if we think about the image of the classic Halloween witch, what do we see in that image? We see green skin. What are some of the other things that we know from that image?
Katie: Oh, a big worty hook nose.
Jim: Yes. A big worty, hooked nose. We see maybe, Oh yeah, the chin pointy. A big, a long chin, pointy chin.
Jim: We see a funny hat that she's wearing. Perhaps we see some modeled green skin.
Jim: If you think about the witch trials, both the ones that were done in the middle Ages and the ones that were done in the early American history. We can think about who was a witch. A witch was someone who might have looked a lot like you, Katie.
Jim: A beautiful young woman who was accused of witchcraft for one reason or another. Perhaps her cow got sick, or perhaps a farmer couldn't get her to lie in bed with him, or perhaps another woman was jealous of her, or for whatever reason, she was accused of being a witch and with very little to no evidence she was then put on trial for being a witch.
Jim: She was then beaten and starved and tortured, and during that beating, her nose was broken and swelled up. Her chin was beaten and her chin swelled up and her skin was bruised, and through that torture, her skin obtained a green pallor because she was so nauseous and a victim of torture, and her eyes became sunken and bruised and closed. And her hair became stringy and hung out. And a dunce cap was put on her head. And she was made to wear a black garment of shame. And she was paraded through the town with this broken nose, broken chin, swollen features, greenish, bruised skin.
Jim: The image of a witch that we see at Halloween is the image of a torture victim. A person that would've otherwise looked just like you potentially. And when we think now the victims. That's right. So when we look at those images of witches, we could also see them as victims of torture and they have then become these mainstream images of what a witch looks like. When really a witch looks like you and me and all of us.
Jim: I know that suddenly became a very serious topic, but this is something to really consider. Yes. When we look at those images and think about where they might have come from and what it means during the time when people who were accused of witchcraft were persecuted under this idea of being in league with Satan.
Jim: And it's worth considering some of these images and what that means. So what do we do with these images at Halloween? These images are there. We see that Greenish witch, We see the images from the Wizard of Oz with the Green Witch. We see the costumes.
Jim: What was your favorite costume to dress in growing up?
Jim: It was a witch, although I have to say I never went for the green face. But I never even, of course, who would've told me growing up that's what was happening and nobody knows likely that you didn't know any.
Jim: Exactly. So I'm glad that we're talking about it because is it a serious topic? Yes, as it should be.
Jim: Yeah. In some ways we can reclaim this image and we can look at it as well as a crone. So a lot of witches look at that as an old woman and look at that witch as someone who is wheezing and wise and as taken on theron nature of that image and say, No, that's an old woman who knows the ways of the whys. And so that's one of the ways to reclaim it.
Jim: Another way is in our household, there's only one or two images of that classic green skin witch. I think we do have an effigy, I think we have a statue of a witch. It's cute and it's an old fashioned sort of image of a witch, but she's more of an old mother Hubbard or a Baba Yaga type of witch from the old country. So there's some ways to skirt that sort of idea.
Jim: And maybe it's something to reclaim and to say, how are we torturing ourselves or others with differing beliefs these days? Pay homage to the people who were wrongly accused.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. That was a perfect little history lesson, and so we're gonna take a quick break and we come back we'll talk about making decorations for Halloween.
Jim: See you in a minute.
Jim: Your hands are the map to achieving anything you want in life. But it's hard to read that map on your hands in just one reading.
Jim: What I started doing is offering coaching. My coaching packages allow me to work with you over time to build towards your goals, listening, advising, and cheering you on.
Jim: We bring in life coaching, executive coaching, leadership coaching we bring in tarot, palmistry, a little bit of astrology, all the mystical and the practical together, and these amazing coaching pathways that my clients are on already really help propel people towards their goals.
Jim: You can join me by sending me an email at [email protected] and schedule a free discovery call with me, or visit thedivinehand.com.
Katie: Hey Knit A Spell fans. Join our Patreon for just $13 a month to gain access to extended episode comments, episode outtakes behind the scenes and bonus content, magical making tips, monthly polls to influence future topics and guests and interact with your fellow patrons. Plus, you'll be supporting one of your favorite podcasts.
Katie: Join today to gain access to our entire post history. Visit patreon.com/lightfromlantern to learn more and sign up! Jim and I look forward to seeing you there.
Katie: Welcome back everybody. I'm curious, Jim, what types of Halloween decorations have you made?
Jim: Have I made?
Katie: I think we can all agree that likely we have all carved a pumpkin. That seems like a traditional decoration.
Jim: That's the one that immediately comes to mind is pumpkin carving.
Jim: We used to have a pumpkin carving party at the house almost every year. We called it the pumpkin kick. Don't kick the pumpkin . But it's the kickoff to the pumpkin season, so we'd have that probably earlier than we should have, cuz then your pumpkin kind of rots, but...
Jim: That could be probably aesthetic.
Jim: That was a lot of fun. We actually had a hilarious little prank that I did where I made a pumpkin protest where I had all the pumpkins holding signs protesting being carved. We'll post some of the photos up for you to see. If you wanna see all of them.
Jim: We'll post all of them in the Patreon, but we'll post one or two as teasers. Yes. For you to see. It was really hilarious.
Jim: So some of them were like, What inspired that ?
Jim: Oh, what inspired it was that summer we had gone pride and PETA was out, the people for the ethical treatment of animals.
Jim: And PETA always has the cutest stickers. Pigs are friends, not food, and you wouldn't hook a dog. Why hook a fish? So they were always have these really adorable very messaging with their stickers. That always makes you wanna be vegan or whatever.
Jim: As I'm eating my Turkey leg, I'm looking at the PETA stickers.
Jim: Anyway I don't always agree with PETA tactics, but there's stickers makes you think about, being more environmental and how animals are treated and things like that.
Jim: So I thought, oh my gosh, what if someone got really nuts and had that same sort of approach to like pumpkin meat or pumpkins? Yes. And I just thought it was hilarious. And so I thought, I'm gonna make the PETA style stickers or signs. But for pumpkins, I thought it was perfectly Halloween. Cuz it's weird and creepy.
Jim: A little macalb. Yeah.
Jim: And remember the movie Chicken Run from Way Back? Yes. Did you ever watch that movie? The Chickens were like, I don't Want to Be a Pie. Yep. And I thought, Oh my God, that'd be so funny for a pumpkin to say. So those were some of the signs that I made were PETA inspired.
Jim: So a decoration that I made was the pumpkin protest was really funny. And of course we were posting it on Facebook saying we didn't post any pictures at first.
Jim: We were like, There's a protest out front. Seattle Police says, Just ignore them.
Jim: And people went nuts. They were like, What? Who is it? And then, cause they generated all kinds of interest.
Jim: And then when we finally posted pictures, people died laughing. It was so great.
Katie: It was a fairly peaceful protest. And until they started throwing the ins of the pumpkins and then it got messy.
Katie: Yeah. Until that happened.
Katie: Yeah I like the last pictures of course all the pumpkins carved.
Katie: Ah, yeah. Yeah.
Katie: Of course we have some of the most precious decorations are the ones that our kids have made. Ah, yes. When, they cut out a, paper pumpkin and put it on foil, or Oh yeah.
Katie: Put two hands together and that's a bat.
Jim: Yeah. So those are really special, because they're made by your kids. So we have some of those keepsakes that we put out every year, and of course, even though she's almost 30 years old, she always looks to make sure that we put out her childhood decoration.
Jim: Do you do that with your parents? Like that one Christmas ornament or that one like, No.
Katie: No. If anything, I'm like, Why do you still have this? It's got three silver corns on it still, and it's all falling apart.
Jim: It means so much. Come on, Katie. Oh gosh, I get
Katie: it that it's meaningful to them.
Katie: Pancakes hasn't made anything like that for me, and I don't think her poops are that precious.
Jim: If it was a, bronzed poop. Yeah, you'd hang it on your tree.
Jim: A little interested. You're right. You're right.
Jim: So have you made any decorations for Halloween, or have you seen, like you've worked at a yarn shop, what have people made?
Jim: They've probably crocheted little pumpkins or
Katie: something. Oh yeah. Tons of crocheted pumpkins. Knitted pumpkins or felted all sorts of pumpkins. Any sort of Halloween themed gnome. Basically like cornucopias, like we talked about
Jim: before, Halloween gnomes, gnomes are such a thing. I forgot about gnomes.
Jim: Gnomes are good all year long. That's
Katie: right. Yep. Oh. A lot of skeletons. So like in shawls and things or in color work, it'll all be through there. Ghosty
Jim: type themes.
Jim: Yeah, I've seen those crochet skull granny squares. Yeah. Those are way cool. Yep.
Katie: If you do like a bunting of them, that's pretty fun too.
Katie: So you know, you can use that to incorporate all different colors. And of course if you were doing a little color magic, that's where you could pay a little extra attention to what kind of fiber you using and what kind of colors.
Jim: The symbols this time of year are also can be very magical because if you think about the skull is a great way to connect with ancestors with the dead.
Jim: With people on the other side, if you put up a bat, there's a lot of symbolism around the bat can be for prosperity at this time of harvest. The Chinese believe in that. A bat can also be about seeing in the dark, seeing what's unseen, being able to make your way and open up. The ways that are hidden because they have sonar in different ways to fly and to move about the night.
Jim: Cats of course, are super magical. So you can use all of these different symbols as you decorate and decorate in a magical way. So that's another way to incorporate magic into your mundane decorating as well.
Katie: I was just thinking. Maybe you're not making this necessarily, but I know a lot of people, not me who are watching scary movies, things, other people have made
Katie: Ooh, true.
Katie: Not my cup of tea. I have enough of an imagination on my own. Some people are gonna watch, the Purge 10 or the horrible new hocus pocus that they're making, for some reason.
Jim: I hear hocus pocus too is supposed to be good.
Katie: Is it? I'm glad to hear that. I just have been avoiding it.
Katie: Cause I'm like, Oh, how can it be good? Why?
Jim: You know what? Rewatch hocus pocus cuz that's good.
Jim: That's true. That's always a classic.
Jim: All the classics.
Jim: I wanna know what the classics are people are watching.
Jim: We used to drive down to Portland. We used to stay all weekend and watch Horror Fest, which was the worst food. We'd order pizza and donuts and awful food and drink too much. And smoke too much of all the wrong things and watch horror movies. And he would curate, would start with the Simpsons, Halloween like special and it would end with like the worst horror movies that would give me nightmares.
Jim: There are horror movies that are really awful. Like the ABCs of Horror. Don't watch that. Oh my God, it's awful. It's so scary. Or the Purge, or movies that are so scary. But in the morning it was fun movies , I could watch from the morning until around one or two o'clock in the afternoon.
Jim: That's my level. But it would get spicier and harder and more difficult as he went on. So he was really a great horror movie master. And he's a total buff on horror movies, so he watches every single one. So that was always a lot of fun to host a movie night. And of course the house was decorated to the nines with everything. So that would be very, We've a lot upset if it wasn't.
Katie: That's cool.
Jim: The last thing to decorate is your body. Yes. For ritual, we often will wear black and be in a sort of a mourning or a very ritualistic and thoughtful clothing when we're doing our magical work or our ritual work.
Jim: But of course, for Halloween, we're dressing up. Yes, and we're doing all kinds of things. So my favorite costume was always to be a vampire. So I had custom made fangs and white contact lenses and really awesome makeup and a really cool crush, velvet 18th century suit and everything.
Jim: And I was always very convincing as a vampire, which still is my favorite costume. I still have that costume. And you were dressed up as a witch?
Katie: Oh, yes. And then over time, making the costumes became my thing. So I went from doing the store, bought whatever, being a witch every year.
Katie: And then one day being like, Oh, I'm a fan of, Anime show or whatever, Sailor Moon probably there's no Sailor Moon costumes in the stores. I guess I have to make it so my mom helped make it the first one. And then from there I was like, All right you know about as much as I do, I'll take it from here.
Katie: And one thing led to another, and that's how I found myself in fashion design, was from making my own Halloween costumes.
Katie: Halloween is your gateway drug to fashion design.
Katie: That's right , it was always the time I felt like I could embrace my true, weird self and people would have the least to say about it.
Jim: That's so awesome. Making my own costume was a series of finds at Goodwill or at other stores. And then a little bit of sewing. I took a woman's blouse that had a lot of lace at the cuffs and at the collar and sewed them into the inside of the sleeve so that it was a fake out, blossy ruffle, extra roughy.
Jim: Yeah. Smart. So I, it was just easy kind of stuff like that. And then, ordering the white contact lenses and finding the, velvet tights and finding the shoes. So things like that. It was a combination of many different places. But finding it all, assembling it together, I think it's way better than a store bought costume that looks cheap or only lasts for one or two seasons.
Katie: Yeah.
Katie: I'm sure your teeth were much better than the plastic teeth that you to fall off your feet the whole and cut your gums all up.
Jim: Having dental quality Fang that are custom made for you, which you can find in most major cities are really amazing and pretty spooky.
Katie: Yeah, a friend of mine did that back in her cosplay days 15 years ago, and she was the first one that I saw get it professionally done like that. And I was like, Whoa, we really turned a corner.
Katie: They're very cool. They just snap right on and then you are, They're very legit. Yes. It's pretty cool.
Jim: They even died it off white to match my teeth. So it isn't like they're super white. Yeah.
Katie: Cause they're your teeth after all. That's really cool.
Katie: I would love to know from our listeners what their Halloween traditions are. What crafting do you do around this time? And if you have ever made your own Halloween costume or if you're like me and perhaps still making them.
Katie: What's your favorite Halloween costume story? I'd love to know those things. It's so much fun. We had a listener send in a video. That's a lot of fun to do. You can just record a quick little video on your phone and send it to us. We love to get stuff like that.
Katie: Check it out and send us things. If you really wanna join the fun conversation, join our Patreon. Of course, you don't have to. We love having you just listen. But for just 13 bucks a month on our Patreon, I am there commenting, Katie's there, and we have a lot of extra stuff and even more coming up pretty soon.
Katie: So thanks everyone for joining us, and we'll see you next week.
Katie: See you then everyone.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes and Spotify or following Knit A Spell on Instagram. You can also subscribe to the Light From Lantern YouTube channel to enjoy full episodes of Knit A Sepll and see our happy faces.
You can also learn more about readings, classes, and events going on with your favorite Maker of Magic James Divine by visiting thedivinehand.com and subscribing to his newsletter. Then follow Jim's fun and interactive Instagram account @DivineHandJim.
Keep up with Katie the Magical Maker by subscribing to her newsletter at lightfromlantern.com.
You'll receive a free knitting pattern as a thank you gift, then follow Katie on Instagram at light from lantern for even more magical making tips. See you next week. Next week.
