I’m going to lose what little srs Pagan/occulist cred I have but I don’t care. I love The Craft movie like a loving thing. In fact, though I was still Catholic when the movie came out, I’m pretty sure it’s why I’m Pagan now. Girl power, magic, an awesome soundtrack and gothic school girl fashion? It’s just everything I’ve always loved in life. It’s also why I don’t understand the young Pagan generation with their floral rompers, huge sunglasses from ICU Eyewear online and American Spirit cigarettes but I’m sure I’d have been equally incomprehensible to them with all the fishnet, plaid and clove cigarettes. But I digress.
On Monday, Jow and I were driving to Sonic with my bff April for completely Ill advised ice cream after rodizio. April and I have different tastes in music but there’s an overlap from our shared teen years. She was bored with my selection of indie pop and started flipping through the CDs I had in the car and popped in my old copy of the soundtrack from The Craft and just like that I was transported to every time she and I were driving somewhere with a boyfriend of mine in the back seat. Everything felt awesome and like magic was possible again. It helped that Jow had been into the soundtrack as a teen too.
We sat there, reminiscing and reflecting, telling our old ghost stories over spoons of soft serve, and I thought about all the conversation about Chaos magic and what works and why that’s gently floating through the blogosphere right now. It’s not that I think I can make Mannon exist and grant wishes because of a movie. It’s not even that I want to, though i think if enough people are deifying a fictional god figure that it can happen. It happened in India thanks to Bollywood.
It’s about what it’s always been about for me and how I connect to the divine – it’s about the music, the feeling that magic is present even at a florescent Sonic on a Monday night after slogging through another work day and always the fashion. I said, “this is something that’s still meaningful to us even though it was literally half our lives ago. It’s special. It’s important. I think we should use it in our next ritual.”. April agreed immediately. jow, king of rules and formality agreed too. And we decided to watch it again the next time we were all together. To remember what it feels like when we believed anything was possible.
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Her frequently updated catalogue of published work is available on Author Central.
She writes about Glamour Magic here at Charmed, I'm Sure. Her podcast appearances are available here.
Her craft shop, The Mermaid & The Crow specializes in old-world style workshop from 100% local, sustainable sources featuring tempting small batch ritual oils and hand-spun hand-dyed yarn in luxe fibers and more!
In a previous life, Deborah founded the first Neo-Victorian/Steampunk convention, SalonCon which received rave reviews from con-goers and interviews from the New York Times and MTV.
She resides in New Jersey with her husband, Jow and their cat, Max II. She has a terrible reality television habit she can't shake and likes St. Germain liquor, record players and typewriters.
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4 Responses
Amazon/Meliad
The last line of this post makes me feel like I should be giving you a pep talk. “But anything IS possible! Isn’t that what the whole Experiment is about??”
I didn’t watch The Craft until well past university – and after numerous people going “You haven’t??” at me, due to my own gothity goth, menstrual-blood-power, paganocity. But I think I get what you mean.
Music – whether classical singing and the kundalini-type energy-running that comes with it, or trancing out while sea-kelp-flailing to The Smiths/Type O Negative/Inkubus Sukubus/etc (hell, Lady Gaga and F+tM, these days) – has been hooked into magic and religion since My Religious Awakening.
The way a crowded dancefloor means drinking up all that poured out energy and cycling it through me and back into the room again on this glorious loop that’ll let me fly for hours; the way I can come part-way out of my body if I’ve got everything running correctly and just send my voice as far and as clear as I want it to be. That I can make of myself a door for Someone Else who I trust to come through.
Magic. Or possibly ecstasy. Or possibly both.
I miss it – the ecstasy (I am such a diurnal chick – even more now than I wan 10-15 years ago – that Going Out Dancing tends not to happen) of dancing. Why can’t these whippersnappers start their dance nights at 8pm? 😉
Amazon/Meliad recently posted..Victoria Day/Local Beltain and Some Thoughts on Container Gardening
Rose
I have a confession to make… I have always enjoyed “The Craft” as well as “Practical Magic”. I’ll watch both movies about once a year for fun and to kick start my imagination.
And I agree with Amazon/Meliad… Anything IS possible! I once believed that so strongly, then began to doubt it. But through your experiment, took on a project which proved, once again, that yes… Anything is possible. And I won’t take all the credit. I have to give you some of that credit because your experiment got me off my ass.
St. Jude and St. Michael assisted with various aspects.
Hecate deserves the most credit. She’s been assisting the whole time.
You mentioned Chaos magic; I agree with your thoughts. It’s not that I think I can make any kind of fictional character appear, or that I want to. It’s about the fun of imagination and using my imagination to think creatively within the frameworks already established to assist me with achieving my goals… personal and otherwise.
Movies and books are a gift in that regard.
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Andrew B. Watt
I suppose I should get around to watching The Craft one of these days. I’ve seen the scene where they change eye color, and change hair color… and I’ve seen the last scene where they… but I shouldn’t spoil it.
Anyway, I’ve looked on a couple of moments in the movie, and I suppose I should watch the whole thing eventually.
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Mama Fortuna
I own ‘The Craft’ on DVD. It is my go-to movie to put on while I clean the house, and I have stopped giving ANY fucks who knows.
I’m also horrified that people (who are not eight years old) are wearing floral rompers.
You know, sometimes you DO need a little nostalgia kick to inspire you. It seems contradictory, but it’s true.
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