• Home
  • Published Writings
    • BOOK: Your Faery Magic
    • BOOK: Gods and Goddesses of Wales
  • Courses
    • Online Course – Elements of Magic
    • Online Course – Folkloric Faery Magic
  • Blue Hare Storytelling
    • Blue Hare Podcast
  • About Me
    • My Projects
    • Faeosophy
  • My Patreon

Halo's Journal

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

Halo's Journal

Tag Archives: Storytelling

NEW PODCAST!

31 Monday Aug 2020

Posted by Haloquin in Blue Hare Podcast, Following Delight, Stories, Storytelling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Art, BlueHarePodcast, Legend, Magic, myth, Pagan, Podcast, Stories, Storytelling, Welsh Magic

Hello my lovely people!

I’ve been a busy bunny gathering stories and crafting gifts for you all and I’ve just completed episode one of the new Blue Hare Podcast! This will be audio adventures in storytelling, magic, and life with myself and featuring guests such as the musicians and street performers, the Brilliant Resiliant Safely Distant Damsels, archaeologist and bard, Will Rathouse, and storyteller and wise woman Milly Jackdaw.

You can listen to episode one here! Where I, your host Halo Quin, introduce the whole endeavour and share the legendary Welsh tale; The Birth of Taliesin. 

Come, join the adventure! https://anchor.fm/haloquin/

You can also support me via Patreon and get access to material early…

(And you can find the episodes on Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts and more… go check out the link to see allllll the options!)

Here’s wishing you all happy thoughts and pixie dust,

~Halo

(Living happily by the sea on the coast of West Wales, and very grateful for the magic and love in my life.)

 

Run, Run! – or The Beltane Fire Festival

18 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Magic

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Devotion, Faery, Faery Queen, Journey, Living Life, Ritual, Scotland, Storytelling, Strangeness of Life

Go! Go!

The May Queen has passed!

We watched her, saw her, ascend, descend over the steps before us.

We watched, saw, the fire-lighters start the nied fire.

We watched, we saw, the path cut through the crowd, past us, past us, the procession moved past us.

We ran!

Run! Run!

Do not lose her! Never lose her!

We ran, ran, over the grassy hill, down a tunnel of bodies bemused by the sudden space where magic had passed us.

And found ourself stopped. In the cold. Behind the wall of blue-faced men who told us no.

Stopped. Lost. Cold.

No. We smiled. No. We can say no too.

We said no, said yes.

Our band of fey-folk flew apart, found our places. Mine and hers, my beltane-friend, our place was running!

We followed the Queen, she led our hunt!

We flew, cross the hill, round and about, past people bemused, over rocks and dips that lifted us gently over their treachorous forms (one fey-folk twisted her ankle, others sat with the stillness of the rocks holding their bones, we, somehow, flew unscathed, the earth herself letting us pass).

We flew! Flew! From space to space, always, just and perfectly, keeping pace.

For long stretches we flew beside her, so close as to almost touch her, but always striving to respect the boundary which kept her safe. (So grateful, I am, to the blue-faced folk that kept us all at bay. So grateful, while I longed to touch her. So grateful for that line, uncrossable, sacrosanct.)

Sometimes the crowd became too tight, too close, too confused, and we flew away, to the edges, still running.

Time and again we let the stillness touch us. I pointed the direction, she led the way. Together we flew, together, mapping out  a perfect path.

At every space the procession stopped we found a niche, once the fire-space came upon us unexpectedly and we watched, entranced, by the spinning flames and the red-people charging, the white-people keeping the line, the line that must be crossed. The pain of division.

We saw Him die and rise again, his dance frenzied in the strobe-light of camera-flashes.

Their kiss, love shining from them like a star.

The red and white, chaos and order, together, united, in love.

Each element, a gift in themselves.

The whole path winding round and round, the serpent of great Beltane found.

We watched, we flew, we laughed.

We were touched by madness, running in the wake of her winter-hunt, running like the joyous hounds of hell as the sun-fire rose and burned away the last of the winter’s dark.

We ran, flew, followed… and we rejoiced.

The fire festival, a ritual carving its own space through a crowd, deliberately confused.

This was no mere spectacle, but a marvelous sacrifice of life to life for life in life.

Life rises like the sun.

The May Queen blessed us all.

The fires of our hearts ignite as the sun kisses our skin, and they will never die.

The Cheshire Cat’s Smile

10 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by Haloquin in Reflections

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Dreams, Film, Otherworlds, Reality, Reflection, review, Storytelling, Strangeness of Life, Surrealism, Wonderland

~ A Review

I walk home after the sky has moved from blue to purple, and above the rooftops I see the thin sliver of a Cheshire cat smile.

Two nights before my sweetie, a friend and I went to watch the new Alice in Wonderland film by Tim Burton in 3D. Its a rare treat to visit a cinema from the Valleys of Wales, so we were most excited!

It was beautiful, and a strange blend of Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass and The Jabberwocky. When the 3D technology has developed even a little further it will be a fantastic addition to the visual experience and I look forward to seeing how it may perhaps add to the storytelling. For the moment, it was pretty (despite my personal difficulties focussing, and preference for brighter colours, which were washed out by the special glasses). We all giggled at the spectacle of ourselves in the huge frames over our modest daily glasses we wear to see the world.

But I left the theatre feeling that here had been a spectacle, and little else.

It being Burton, there were plenty of treats, and a familiar cast of actors who pulled off their roles wonderfully. There were characters, long loved and often missed, reappearing in new guises. There were amazing details and vast vistas of beauty.

And yet it lacked something…

And under that sliver of moon I began to realise what.

In the story that captured our hearts so long ago, it wasn’t a narrative that we fell in love with, but the surrealness, the moment by moment twisting and turning of a world which whispered with wonder.

Now the fantastical has become so commonplace it cannot invoke the same degree of dreaming on its own, and forcing a loose narrative on pieces of art which have little truck with beginning, middle and end takes a little more away.

The story of Alice is not a narrative, but a dream, and that is why we love it.

Alice shows us how reality flows between the two worlds of dreaming and waking, and watching her adventures lets us walk away with a little piece of her ability to walk between these worlds. It felt to me like the new film tried to make this more obvious, and perhaps missed the point.

But it was still gorgeous, I will still watch it again, and I do still adore the Cheshire Cat and his smile…

I walk home after the sky has moved from blue to purple, and above the rooftops I see

the thin sliver of a Cheshire cat smile.

Two nights before my sweetie, a friend and I went to watch the new Alice in Wonderland

film by Tim Burton in 3D. Its a rare treat to visit a cinema from the Valleys of

Wales, so we were most excited!

It was beautiful, and a strange blend of Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the

Looking Glass and The Jabberwocky. When the 3D technology has developed even a little

further it will be a fantastic addition to the visual experience and I look forward to

seeing how it may perhaps add to the storytelling. For the moment, it was pretty

(despite my personal difficulties focussing, and preference for brighter colours,

which were washed out by the special glasses). We all giggled at the spectacle of

ourselves in the huge frames over our modest daily glasses we wear to see the world.

But I left the theatre feeling that here had been a spectacle, and little else.

It being Burton, there were plenty of treats, and a familiar cast of actors who pulled

off their roles wonderfully. There were characters, long loved and often missed,

reappearing in new guises. There were amazing details and vast vistas of beauty.

And yet it lacked something…

And under that sliver of moon I began to realise what.

In the story that captured our hearts so long ago, it wasn’t a narrative that we fell

in love with, but the surrealness, the moment by moment twisting and turning of a

world which whispered with wonder.

Now the fantastical has become so commonplace it cannot invoke the same degree of

dreaming on its own, and forcing a loose narrative on pieces of art which have little

truck with beginning, middle and end takes a little more away.

The story of Alice is not a narrative, but a dream, and that is why we love it.

Alice shows us how reality flows between the two worlds of dreaming and waking, and

watching her adventures lets us walk away with a little piece of her ability to walk

between these worlds. It felt to me like the new film tried to make this more obvious,

and perhaps missed the point.

But it was still gorgeous, I will still watch it again, and I do still adore the

Cheshire Cat and his smile…

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

My Next Course!

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

Join 1,277 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

  • On Earth, and a Free Class
  • New Course: Elemental Magic!
  • Faery Magic; Why Work with the Fae?
  • Elemental Magic; Air
  • Faery Magic; What are Faeries?
  • A Poem; The Changeling Child
  • 2021: PLAYTIME
  • Treelore; Beech
  • Solstice Meditation
  • Treelore: Ash

A World Enchanted

A World Enchanted

Birdsong

  • RT @steve_asbell: Other Person: [tells me something important] Me: “Today I saw a neat cat!” 1 day ago
  • RT @Openly: If you’re a fan of books or films you might have heard of the “Bechdel Test” before. It’s a way to measure the representation o… 1 day ago
  • RT @seananmcguire: Real talk: a thing I learned when I was in high school and an active part of the furry community. Art is a luxury; you e… 1 day ago
  • RT @SpookEats: Cover reveal! Thank you to the amazingly talented @weirdgardener of @singularfortean for designing it for us. How horrifical… 1 day ago
  • RT @langston_120: I need non-fat people to read this and then read it again. https://t.co/a2DA6xLEWH 1 day ago
Follow @Haloquin

angel Art Craft and Beauty Bardic beauty Beginnings book challenge choice Commitment Completion Craft Creation creativity 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 Ritual 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

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

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