• BOOK: Gods and Goddesses of Wales
  • BOOK: Your Faery Magic
  • Blue Hare Storytelling
    • Blue Hare Podcast
  • About Me
    • Workshops
    • My Projects
    • Faeosophy
  • My Patreon

Halo's Journal

~ Enchantment, Philosophy & Fairies – Magic and the mundane, kissing.

Halo's Journal

Tag Archives: beauty

Put on Your Dancing Shoes – or take them off, it’s less slippery!

19 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by Haloquin in Dancing, Following Delight, Reflections

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ATS, beauty, Belly dance, challenge, Commitment, Dancing, Dancing in Wales, Devotion, FatChanceBellyDance, gratitude, Journey, Living Life, Strangeness of Life, Tribal Unity

I’d like to share something I’m very excited about right now and the story of how I’ve found myself shimmying round my day-job-shop when customers aren’t looking!

I’ve always known that I wanted to dance, but could never find the right style.

As a child I tried tap dancing, in my teens I attempted a contemporary dance class – which I mostly remember as running from wall to wall, over and over, never quite got where that was going – throughout my life I’ve read Gabrielle Roth’s books over and over. I tried salsa, which I couldn’t get my feet round… In fact, the only thing that worked for me was whilst at uni when I would go out, step onto the dance floor as soon as the doors opened and only leave to down a pint of water before returning to the dance for as long as the music played.

Until now. Last spring I had five weeks of tribal belly dance classes in the Black Sheep style. The teacher, Lyza, became a friend of mine through connecting afterwards to share dancing. At that point I suspected it would be another phase. A subject I would be excited about for a month or two and then would fade into the background. A few core things have stuck with me long-term but many many other passions come and go. I was secretly certain this might be one of those…

But that excitement didn’t go away. I researched the histories of belly dance. I practised what little I’d learnt under my own steam. I kept hoping to return…

And then Wendy launched an ATS(r) class in March and I couldn’t go! It clashed with the teaching course I was on and the seminars I ran. I looked at it every week, waiting for the course to finish so I could join in. In June, finally, I walked through that door and into a new tribe, Tribal Unity Wales.

I dash to class each Tuesday with joy in my heart. No other hobby  has ever had me this excited. Just two months of dancing with Tribal Unity and I managed a fortnight camping and trekking round Amsterdam, bookended by two 16 hour coach journeys, without back pain. (It was our honeymoon, and yes, it was fab!)

And it has so many layers! There is crafting and aesthetics for costuming, researching history, learning new steps, the challenge of getting to grips with them, constant opportunities for improvement, performance, the endorphins of exercise, music, self-expression, the flow of energy, stories, community and friendship, shows to watch, events to explore, cultures to investigate… and there are many different styles to learn about (and perhaps learn one day).

With so much to play with it is no wonder I’ve found myself thinking about it almost constantly!

This Friday we performed at Lampeter’s World Dance festival. I made so many mistakes, almost fell over with soft shoes on a slippery floor, missed cues, got confused… and yet could not stop grinning. I loved it. Dancing with these lovely ladies, sharing something that has brought me so much delight and returned my strength, and challenging myself to improve all combined to fill me with delight. Tribal style belly dance has utterly enchanted me and I feel like I’ve come home.

Friday’s performance, my first time dancing in public:

The moral of this story? Keep looking, keep trying, keep putting that desire out there even when you don’t know exactly what it is you want. Eventually the Universe will bring you to precisely where you need to be. And even if you make mistakes and feel like it is all going wrong, it is still beautiful and the world doesn’t end! It is preparing you for what is to come next…

Map Making Step 4 – An Enchantress… brings Beauty

05 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Enchanted, Faery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beauty, creativity, Faery, Feyhearted path, Imperfection, inspirations, Journey, musings, process

An Enchantress is… One who enchants;
One who brings beauty, healing and delight to those around her.

One who works magic of the Fae.
One who brings beauty to the world.
One who causes change.

Last post I considered what working the magic of the Fae might mean, here we look at beauty.

Beauty is generally considered to be subjective. It is an aesthetic principle of what is pleasing to the senses. As such, when this is the goal of the Enchantress, She will strive to make the world more sensually pleasant to exist within. This doesn’t mean avoiding the unpleasant however, it means engaging with what needs to be done to create beauty in the long term.

One implication of enchantment for beauty is the use of illusion, of Glamourie. If we make the world more beautiful we could use illusion to do so. Here, then, is a question of ethics to be addressed here; how ethical is it to use illusion and can this help heal others? Aside from this, a fundamental position to take when working with the Fae is utter honesty in order to foster trust within yourself and with the spirits. We could use Glamourie to create the illusion that something is worth more than it is, as in the fairy tales of leaves enchanted to look like gold, and thus trick others into getting the rough end of the deal. This doesn’t help in the long term however as one’s relationships are what helps one through life and if you screw over your neighbour today they won’t help you tomorrow!

So how can illusion and honesty go hand in hand?

A glamour can be used to present oneself in a positive light – just as when you wear a suit for a job interview which you could fulfil, this doesn’t show who you are but it does allow you to get the position from which you can do the job well.

Illusions can be used to guide folk to realisations, to illuminate the truth and reflect back their realities. Just as when a painting inspires it’s audience to re-evaluate their world, an illusion can help someone to rethink their perceptions. A good costume, for example, can act as an illusion and can, at the very least, make folk smile.

Ultimately, however, the Fae are considered to be illusions by many in our world. In dealing with them and their stories and imageries we are creating what would be considered to be an illusion in order to illuminate the greater truth; that all is connected, the world is alive and magic is real.

Resolutions and Technical Difficulties…

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Reflections

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beauty, Commitment, delight, Living Life, Pixie Kisses, technical difficulties

Hola Lovelies!
My internet has been down since Xmas eve and I don’t know when it’ll be back up so I’ll be doing my best to read any comments and keep up with things on here in the meantime.
Hope you all had a beautiful holiday-time and are staying cozy as the new year unfolds.

Heres something I wrote for New Years, a resolution if you like, for which an idea has begun percolating as to how to make it true:

I call myself enchantress-in-training. I am a Devotee of Delight.

I believe in the power of beauty, wonder and joy to heal the world.

I believe that feeding ourselves with delight fills our own cup to overflowing so we can give back to others, so we can heal the world.

I believe in the power of Love – as cliched as it sounds.

I have spent a few years musing on the idea, wandering round it, writing about it. This is why I wrote my Feyhearted books, especially Pixie Kisses.

This year I will find a way to act on this belief in ways that feel concrete.

This is the year that I move from belief to creating change.

Faith is no good without manifestation.

I resolve to manifest enchantment, to manifest more delight in the world, to bring healing through beauty and wonder and magic to those whose lives I touch… wherever I can.

I do not know how this is so, only that it is.

May beauty kiss your life, may magic grace your heart, may delight fill your days, and may you and your world be healed through each moment of bliss that pixie-kisses you.

Feyhearted – Pixie Kiss #2 – Stories

09 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Faery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beauty, Commitment, Devotional, Faery, Feyhearted path, inspirations, Magic, process, Suggestions, Tools

This is the second of a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here. This post was originally posted here.

We started by making some space. Space for enchantment, space for the Fae.

Now we can continue this process, making more space in our lives and our minds, and charming ourselves with what we choose to attract.

Following the principle of magic that like attracts like, fill your life with the kinds of wonder and stories of the magic you choose to tap into.

Continue reading →

The FeyHearted Book

16 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Faery

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

beauty, book, challenge, Completion, creativity, Devotional, Faery, Feyhearted path, gratitude, Magic, project, writing

With absolute pleasure I can now share that my book is completely and utterly finished!

I’ve spent most of the past year working on it and now that it is done it feels like I am full of the softest clouds, all gently and unstoppably rising. I have had a copy printed for myself, and I am incredibly excited to see how it looks when it arrives!

Here is the cover:

Faery Heart Book Cover Image

Finding the Fey within and without, the
heart of our hearts, and the Beginning
of the FeyHearted Path.

Here is the description I’ve inscribed on the dust jacket  inside the front cover:

Fey Ones!
You of the wildest
hearts!
You of the sacred
glades!
You dancers,
enchanters,
lovers!
Fey ones!
May we dance through
the world together!

Are you Enchanted?
Have you been touched by the heart of the wild
and wonderous world?
Those that are feykissed feel it in their
bones… tell me, is your heart Fey?

The Faery Heart outlines the beginnings
of the path to knowing, accepting and expressing your Fey
heart, for those who are enchanted by the heart
of nature, by The Fey themselves, those who
are both Enchanted and
Enchanting.

And now it is time to let my book fly into the world… to take on a life of its own in other’s hands, and minds, and hearts. A book is a living thing, and a book on something as untamed as the Fey and our own deep hearts is liable to take on a life of its own. With that in mind, and in honour of the Faery Queen, who has guided my hands as I crafted this small fey creature, containing hopes and dreams, words from other worlds, the story of how the world became, glimpses of the Fey realms and the beginnings of a map to guide you into your own Fey-Heartedness, I will have printed 13 hardback copies which I will sign and number just for you.

13 special copies of this magical book… because I would like the people who give it a home to treasure it, and to treasure their own path.

13 special copies of this treasure trove.

If you would like a signed, numbered, very, very limited edition hardback copy of this Fey book, please contact me.

EDITED: Thank you for all your support. You can now buy paperback or PDF copies in my Etsy shop 🙂

 

The high cost of printing means that I will only have them printed once I have payment for all 13 copies, and I ask, please, for £25 per book, which includes shipping the book to you. £25 is close to cost price for these books, so if you would like to sponsor this project and you can afford to give more for your copy, then by all means, please do. Each person who buys one of these thirteen will get a special mention in any further editions (though there will be no more hardcovers) and every person that can offer a little more will have an extra gift with their book, as a thank you for your support.

If you would like to preorder a limited edition, signed and numbered hardback copy of The Faery Heart please email me at: Haloquin (at) googlemail (dot) com. Once I have payment for 13 copies I will contact all those who have preordered one and let you know how long your Fey-Book will take to find its way into your loving arms!

 

This is both the end of a long project, and the beginning of an adventure, thank you for being here with me!

Creation is like a sun shining from the heart…

17 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

beauty, Creation, delight, Joy, Love, summer, sunset, sunshine, warmth

Creation is a Sun

The sunlight soothes my skin, scent of a green, green land playing in the air.

A bee bumbles past as I lay lazily, brush in hand, stroking the paper into colours.

Words come, unbidden, as the image emerges and my pen pours ink onto the page, spelling out the words, the spell, to capture the feeling.

How words and images reflect each other, like twins, Dionysian movement, Apolline images, dancing together.

I am reminded of Blake, who I have often strived to follow, inspired by the seamless blend of pigment and print.

Walkers wander past, voices loud against the hush of the slow summer which sneaks into my valley. Traffic in the distance, not so far from here, but still worlds away, does not burst the bubble of my beauty-brushed-blessed-being-of-the-moment.

I am here, bathed in light, warming in the sun, warmed from the sun within which feeds on the fuel that is joy. Joy, like a sun in my heart, shining in the light of the sun in the sky, overflowing through my hands and onto the page.

How can I share this moment with you?

I breathe up, a prayer of delight, of gratitude, of beauty.

I talk of sun and warm and light, of joy overflowing and green green grass… and still I wonder, can you feel it?

Can you feel the heat, the flames like liquid gold, pouring out from my heart into beauty, being fed by beauty, a circle of love for the world?

My heart opens and love pours out.

Originally posted on blogspot.

Sometimes I do the daftest things…

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Reflections

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beauty, Domino Bunny, life, Random acts

… like rescue a rabbit 6 months earlier than the earliest I intended to.

She is beautiful though. Meet Domino:


3 and a half months old, English breed, friendly, inquisitive, a little nervous but settling quickly.

Oh, and she is both happy cuddling and fine travelling. Exactly the kind of rabbit I was thinking of. 🙂

Also on the plus side, all her bedding and stuff is compostable, she’ll eat mostly veg when older, and therefore she won’t make developing self-sufficiency as hard as, say, a cat would. And since her territory is her cage, she’ll relocate happier too. (Yes, all my pets are cat substitutes. No, that doesn’t mean I love them any less for not being kitty shaped. Yes, stupid bunny has stolen my heart in only 24 hours.)

Charcoal Sketching

29 Tuesday Dec 2009

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, beauty, Completion, gratitude, learning, musings, practice, process, reasons

I’ve had a brown papered sketchbook since the summer, and charcoal for about forever… and yet neither have been used.

I’ve been drawing from my imagination for ages… and often avoid faces because they just never look right.

Putting these two thoughts together and deciding to do something about it, I spent this evening doing these:

Wonder

Thoughtfulness

And they’re ok. Or rather, they’re pretty good, really. I’m just having trouble not seeing all the slightly wrong bits that make them not quite right. Its the old problem of seeing all the faults that most people really won’t notice at all. I’m quite proud of my efforts, especially when I remind myself that its an unfamiliar medium, and an unfamiliar kind of drawing… I just wish I was better already!

Gotta laugh at myself really.

In fact, that warm feeling of finally having tried both charcoal and faces… I might do another one! The longer its been since I did it, the less I feel like its something I’ve done, which is a feeling I get with other artworks too. I look at things I’ve made a month ago and its like someone else made them, which is great because it means I’m happier with them! Does anyone else get that, or is it just me?

Sketches drawn from photos found through Flickr’s interestingness, find them here and here.

Here Be Dragons…

04 Friday Sep 2009

Posted by Haloquin in Magic, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

beauty, challenge, Completion, Dragons, gratitude, Magic, process, reasons, Stories

Every day the sun rises.

Every day the sun sets.

This year the sun rose and set on the very first Sunrise Camp. A beautiful new venture in magic… a rising of dragons.

A camp which held itself together through sheer determination, and not a little magic. It took a dragon-hearted commitment from the organising team to pull the dragon out of the hat, but we did it. And I’m proud of this fledgling camp.

This was my first year teaching at a Witchcamp, and I’m so grateful Sunrise was my first time.

Let me tell you a story, a story of campers who chose to be dragons.

A story of magic and wonder and strength.

Once upon a time that was, is and shall be, two new campers came away from a Witchcamp in the heart of South West England so inspired that they plotted another camp, one a little different to the gorgeous and luxurious Camp which filled them with such magic.

The years passed and the inspiration became a dream, and the two campers grew a little older (though not much) and a little wiser (and a little more foolish, although who can truly say which is which?) Time danced circles with them, and new relationships grew like flowers in fertile soil.

And one day the dream was planted, like a seed, in the same soil that nurtured the friendships, and so an organising team came together.

Plans hatched and grew and died, and soon, one plan stood out from the rest as yeilding a harvest.

But now Time danced smaller circles, and the dates chosen were so close, with so much to do! But magic has a wondrous way of bringing everything together, and the organisers chose, like the dragons that they are, to make the Sun Rise.

And, of course, it had to.

Sunrise began and the campers came. A new place, a new adventure, new faces, and some that had been around since before the camp-dream was a twinkle of inspiration. Every individual brought something beautiful to the mix, themselves.

They made perfectly imperfect offerings to the Spirit of Dragon, nurturing that force within themselves. They wove a nest of starlight and wonder and love and community and everything that they had to offer. And the egg hatched, and the dragon took flight!

And on wings of magic, the dragon-hearts of the campers also spread their wings, they were challenged, and met the challenges, and received gifts.

They learnt to read the world around them for directions, and to see their own desires in their deepest of dragon hearts.

And each one made a choice, to be themselves, in a world which shies from shining-dragon-hearted people.

We all made a choice to step into the world under our own terms, to shine with our own colours, knowing a little more about ourselves, and claiming our power to shape the world a little to our own designs, so that dragons can fly free and wild again!

Serendipity Prompt

07 Sunday Jun 2009

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Magic

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, beauty, challenge, Devotional, Magic, maps, multimedia, oracle cards, project, prompt, stars

CollageDiva’s True North Arts has a new prompt… the Serendipity Compass!

And I’ve been playing along too…

I’m searching, searching, searching for which way to leap… The carnival of stars awaits…

Continue reading →

← Older posts

Meet Halo

Snow Pixie

Welcome to my world!

Contact Me

I'd love to hear from you! Email me at haloquin@gmail.com Or find me on Twitter!www.twitter.com/haloquin

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,197 other followers

Toss a Coin to your Witch

If you like my work, you can help with costs (and keep me fueled with tea & cake) with a tip via ko-fi, it all helps! Thank you!

If you like what I write then please do consider supporting me as a Patron here.

Thank you to my Patreon Patrons for your support!

Gods and Goddesses of Wales

IMG_20190627_161811_879

Pagan Portals: Gods and Goddesses of Wales – a practical introduction to the deities of Wales through their stories. Out Now!

A Faery Text


Recent Posts

  • Elemental Magic; Air
  • Faery Magic; What are Faeries?
  • A Poem; The Changeling Child
  • 2021: PLAYTIME
  • Treelore; Beech
  • Solstice Meditation
  • Treelore: Ash
  • The Elements of Magic
  • Treelore: Alder
  • Treelore: Willow

A World Enchanted

A World Enchanted

Birdsong

  • RT @Nicole_Lee_Sch: In my research I study how doctors in the 18th and 19th century focused on nosology to the detriment of care based prac… 19 hours ago
  • RT @HallowedCrow: IT'S. SO. CUTE. twitter.com/xXn3w_r0ckzXx/… 22 hours ago
  • 💖 A Lovely tale 💖 twitter.com/JohannesEvans/… 22 hours ago
  • RT @JohannesEvans: never understood the appeal of scavenger hunts wandering around fervently looking for everyday items secreted in unusua… 23 hours ago
  • RT @LilithDorsey: Magic and Ecology: WITCHBODIES – CRASSH ... I'm so excited to be part of this magickal online conference sponsored by the… 1 day ago
Follow @Haloquin

angel Art Craft and Beauty Bardic beauty Beginnings book challenge choice Commitment Completion Craft Creation creativity delight Determination Devotion Devotional Dreams Druidry Enchantress Faeries Faery Faery Queen fairies Fears Feyhearted path giveaway goal Goddess gratitude growing things Heart Honesty hope Imperfection inspirations Intent Iron Pentacle Journalling Journey learning learn witchcraft life Living Life Magic moment multimedia musings ogham oracle cards Pagan paganism Painting Pearl Pentacle Philosophy Play Poetry Priorities process project questions reasons Reclaiming Religion stars Stories story Strangeness of Life Suggestions Tarot Tools Treelore Witch witchcraft writing

NSFW – Twisted

And for the over 18s… My alter-ego, Ms Quin, writes erotica, kinky poetry, on sacred sexuality and the like. You can explore some of Her writings and poetry readings, and find her sexy book of poetry via links at Twisted Ms Quin.

Archives

Connections

You can...
Email me at craftyhalo@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter
Find me on Facebook

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy