Tag Archives: Music

More Musical Adventures

15 Saturday Jun 2024

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Happy post-gig Halo!

Tonight I sang an hour of original songs for the Festival of the Living Rooms, an online filk festival with a lovely community which I first performed at last December. I sang about cryptids, mermaids, the lost Welsh lands, hubris, curiosity, and community.

My heart is happy.

Ten year old Halo would be so proud of us. I’m so proud of me, especially after being bullied out of singing in m teens. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point, and I’m so very grateful that I have.

The filk community have a culture of sharing music to spread the love, so for those that were there and would like to sing the songs I shared, here’s the songbook:

Find the Lyrics here

Each song I write is intended as both an exploration of a story, myth, or theme, and an enchantment for healing and inspiring. With many of the songs I share in these spaces, my aim is to delight, because we need more of that in the world. So, in the spirit of play, let me know about your favourite cryptids! Write a verse or share a story and I’ll weave a verse for you…

Now Recruiting: Cryptozoologists
Halo smiling at the camera with three golden dots of clay on their forehead and tents in the background.

Magical Classes & Talks – with Halo

BABALON CIRCLE & BOOK CLUB

Live Babalon Circle – Visions of Babalon –Our monthly magical working to connect with Babalon – Monday 17th November, 8pm (UK) – online – replay included

October Book Club Topic: Babalon’s Lineage

Join the Babalon Circles & Book Club here.

Online Talk: Of Fair and Cunning Folk – Sunday 26th October, 8pm (UK) – for the “Magic & Musings” Tier on Patreon

Upcoming appearances include: Ancestral Pathways Conference (online, 31st Oct), Earth Sea & Sky Conference (Cardiff, 1st Nov), music at the Festival of the Living Rooms (online, Dec), Glastonbury Occult Conference (Glastonbury, 14th Feb)…

Enchantments – Live Classes Now on Patreon
Join my Mailing list for Magical Musings & Blogpost Roundups!

In the Cryptozoologists Living Room

11 Monday Dec 2023

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

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Yesterday I finally did something I’ve been working up to for years. Literally years.

I sang my first solo concert.

Not just a song as part of a show or a choir.

Not just one or two pieces round a fire.

Not snuck in apologetically alongside a story.

An entire, hour long concert of my own original songs.

And it was AMAZING!!!

I had so much fun.

The Filk community (folk-ish written by and about fandoms, such as Doctor Who, Star Trek, Firefly, D&D…) at the Festival of the Living Rooms – a quarterly online festival organised and hosted by Blind Lemming Chiffon – are such a supportive bunch!

You know when you find people willing to just be people together? Imperfections and all? This is such a gift. Giving space for technological hiccups and the foibles of humanity allows each of us to just turn up as we are, to give from the heart, and to receive in kind.

It let’s us be human together.

It is so easy to forget, when most of the music we hear is polished by professionals, that singing, like storytelling, is a natural human expression open to all of us.

My heart is warmed and softened by being allowed to just share, imperfectly, joyously, in community.

And I got to sing! So happy!!!

Songs of magic and myth and silliness and love and heartache and becoming, choosing, yourself.

Thank you, Filker-folk, thank you.

Some of your asked for the lyrics. I’m delighted to share them with you here:

In The Cryptozoologist’s Living Room – Songbook

And for those of you who didn’t make it, I recorded my dress rehearsal for my Patreon patrons… you’re welcome to join them here at any tier to watch it. I mostly talk about magic, share meditations and musings, and storytelling… but more and more music is creeping in 🙂

Join my Mailing list for Magical Musings & Blogpost Roundups!

My debut single: Red Goddess, Come

27 Tuesday Jun 2023

Posted by in Crimson Craft, Following Delight, Magic, Music

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I’m so thrilled to be able to announce my debut single!!! It’s been sent out to distributors, the release date is set, the art is made… all there is to do now is tell EVERYONE so that people can listen! This song was crafted in ritual, written with love, and based on the Crimson Craft invocation to the Divine Lovers, used to hold space for our work in the Crimson Coven with embodied magic, divine love, and sacred sexuality… (Discover more about Crimson Craft here.)

OUT 1ST AUGUST 2023!

My debut single, Red Goddess, Come, is a hypnotic invocation to the occult Goddess of passion and pain, Babalon, and the Goddesses of Love who share Her lineage, inviting you into the temple of your heart with bone-deep beats and sensual chanting. Calling you home to where Love and Desire become magic.

Sign up here to get your invite to the launch party tomorrow!

Launch Party and Blessing Ritual – 1st August 2023

A blessing ritual and launch party for a magical, musical, project, on the Full Moon! Come along, celebrate the launch of my debut single, and then I’ll lead us in a Crimson Craft blessing ritual for both the Blood & Roses album/show and your own life filled with pleasure, play, and love… starting in the hour of Venus!

If you’d like to participate in the ritual bring a drink you enjoy (red is good, but anything is fine), a red (or white) candle if you can, and something to offer to the Red Goddess – rose petals or incense are great, or have somewhere to pour some of your drink to share with Her.

In this party we will celebrate love, pleasure, and the Red Goddess, asking for Her blessings on this project, and on your lives too – if you so desire.

I hope you’ll come to celebrate with me on 1st August 2023!

Have you ever turned up your favourite song and felt its pulse in your bones, your heart? Felt that vibration that tells you “you are here, you are alive, you are part of this moment, this song”?

Felt that bass line anchoring you in your body, even as the melody lifts your spirit and your mood?

Drum beats have always carried us into the otherworld by speaking to the part of us that is manifest, physical, flesh. The ritual drum calls to the bones of you to dance… To let your spirit fly into possibility.

Today, we have sounds at our fingertips beyond the skin of the drum… And still they play the beat of magic.

Red Goddess, Come is my offering to you of beats to feel in the bones of your spirit, calling you into the temple of sensual magic. Calling you home to yourself.

And calling to the Goddesses of the Crimson Craft, the ones who hold the lineage of Inanna, Aphrodite, Freya… To bless the bodies that give you the gift of sensual pleasure. This pleasure which opens the door to the magic of the red witch.

Let this music enchant you back into your body, back into your self.

Let it reintroduce you to the wisdom of being present in your flesh, the intuition of your body.

Let it open your heart to the blessings of Babalon and the lineage she carries.

Listen now, and come home to love.

Launch party tomorrow: Red Goddess, Come

In other news, you can find the replay of the Summer Solstice ritual here for a taste of the work we do in the Crimson Coven, and the next workshop is magic with water, love, and selkies on Wednesday…

Find out more about upcoming workshops

Red Goddess, Come is the first in a series of songs inspired by a Thelemic Mass of Babalon, working with the magic of the Crimson Craft – embodied witchcraft rooted in Divine Love and sacred sensuality. Find out more about the project, Blood and Roses, here.

Banner: Re-enchant your life - Magic & Witchcraft - Learn real magic, explore Red Witchcraft, and dance with the old gods... Click here.

Cryptids and Listifying…

05 Sunday Mar 2023

Posted by in Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic, Music, Storytelling

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So this February I joined FAWM – an online challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. I decided I’d aim for 7 rough songs, to both make it less pressure and to get myself over sharing things that aren’t perfectly finished.

And partly because I approached it as play… I ended up with 16 songs.

All bar one with melodies. And quite a few with some backing beats to go with them. More than meeting that target, however, I got to practice sharing my creations while they were still raw, with others doing the same, and a community of musicians committed to lifting each other up, and it stretched my courage.

Last night at the local storytelling cycle, Fables, I shared one of them live.

Cryptozoologist.



I messed it up several times, but it was still much fun!

It was particularly healing because I’d spent the week before feeling more and more overwhelmed by all the little things that needed my attention. All the things that need sorting and fixing and doing and… Finally I remembered my tools. As an ADHDer I need to externalise the processes my brain struggles with, like prioritisation and short term memory, much more than someone might expect for a Dr. When I start to feel overwhelmed it’s often because I’ve been trying to keep it all in my head so… I sat down with a cuppa, told my FB friends what I was up to for accountability, and emptied my brain onto the page. (credit to Talis Kimberley for the wonderful term “listifying”!)

Then I sorted the things that needed doing into a list… And then filtered that into my diary pages so each thing has a time to be done. Suddenly I only needed to worry about the task for that afternoon: Fables.

Today, according to my new list, is a day of goblin wrangling with my lovely helper, the Folklore Faery, and a plotting session for something exciting I get to go do this summer! Tomorrow I might record a version if this song to share with you lot… We’ll see 😁

This week I also revamped my mailing list, so if you’d like a monthly magical musing with tips to support you in rooting deeper into magic, and updates on my magical offerings, then you can join me, and the Crimson Coven Collective here…

Imbolc Inspiration

02 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by in Creative Process, Crimson Craft, Following Delight, Magic, Reflections, Storytelling, Witchcraft 101

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Happy Imbolc folks!

It’s been a month of magic here, in the darkest coldest part of the winter I’ve been lucky to be conjuring love and light and warmth. Last night was my online book launch for “Crimson Craft – Sexual Magic for the solo witch” and it was an honour to share some magic with those that came (even with the tech trouble!)

Then this evening was spent hosting the local moot’s cocreated ritual, celebrating the growing light of love and inspiration. Brigid made an appearance, we sang together, and there was light, of course.

Imbolc is the festival where we mark the emergence of new life, from lambs to snowdrops to baby songs to tiny humans to the rising hope that we’ve made it through the winter, into the world.

This month is also FAWM – February Album Writing Month – a challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. I love that it starts on Brigid’s day, the festival of Santes Ffraid (in Welsh), saint/Goddess/midwife of creating, healing, and, importantly, inspiration.

I’ve been secretly writing songs and been mostly too shy to share for years, and now I’m ready to change that. This past year, I’ve been practicing making the songs… But haven’t felt ready to show them to many people. I finally realised that truth, which is so often the case: we rarely feel ready. There is always something else to tweak, to edit, to perfect. And so, in the supportive space of FAWM this month, I’m aiming for 7 sharable songs as the light blossoms brighter.

I asked for Brigid’s blessing on this Imbolc night to overcome the perfectionism that holds me back from sharing the joy that arises when I make music, however unpolished it is…

And as declarations have their own kind of magic, let me be clear on my intention: Over the next month I’ll be sharing a little about my musical journey, the lessons it’s teaching me on magic, and, of course, some of my music.

This month I’m hosting a free Full Moon/ Imbolc ritual online for members of the Crimson Coven Collective, on Sunday 5th February ’23, at 7pm GMT. Join the Crimson Coven here to get access!

And I’m offering a new workshop rooted in the magic of the Crimson Craft on “Courting Divine Love” on 15th February ’23. In this workshop you’ll be guided by the gods in connecting to Divine Love, uncovering both self-love and self-trust within yourself, and laying the foundation to manifest the magical life your heart desires.

Find out more here: Courting Divine Love.

A banner for Courting Divine Love, illustrated with roses and the points above. Click for the workshop page.

Facing Fears

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Following Delight

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Today I opened Pandora’s box and sang on stage.

Pandora's Box by JW Waterhouse

When we look in the dark corner of our minds we find spells woven by ourselves and the people around us - our friends are the ones who help us break the spells that hold us back and weave new webs of wonder. Open the box and face it with friends.

Not only did I sing on stage – I pushed for the chance to do so.

I was terrified.

And afterwards… people were supportive. No one laughed at me (though I think I made a few people giggle at my antics), the world didn’t end (though it might have crumbled a little round the edges) and I feel proud of myself.

The reason I could do this when my self-belief was shattered long ago by people I trusted? Dear friends who have helped me rebuild my confidence. And one particular person who faced her own, rather similar demon with me.

When we face demons together, we can conquer them.

When we spend time with people who put us down, the demons grow, even where there weren’t any before.

The people we spend time with are important.

Who in your life binds you with your fears? Who builds your demons up because of their own? And who stands by you, helping you to break the spells that hold you back?

Who in your life helps you to enchant your world for the better?

We enchant ourselves and each other with our words, its up to us to choose which enchantments we’ll accept in our lives, and which we will break.

I will be singing to an audience again… with gratitude to the people in recent years who have helped me break the chains that bound my wings.

Who stands by your side and helps you fly? They’re your true friends, know them well.